Reply To: Background Music While Working

[Patte Rosebank]

For background & mood music, I love “light classics” and vintage “production music”.

These pieces are generally instrumental, with perhaps a bit of background vocals from a chorus of singers, and were specifically composed and arranged to convey a certain mood.  So, if you’re blue, there’s something to perk you up a little or a lot.  And, if you need to mellow out, there’s something for that, too.

With production music, you can also get the happy surprise of discovering a piece that was used in a movie, TV show, cartoon, or radio show that you remember.   For example, “Windsor Frolic – Short Ending” was used as the theme for “Professor Kitzel”, a very low-budget educational cartoon series, that used to air on CFTO, in the 1970s.  And “Hero v. the Villain” was used as the theme for “Captain Fantastic” on the pre-Python series “Do Not Adjust Your Set”.

Benny Hill used a lot of production music, and there’s a website that lists most of it, so you can go hunting for it, yourself.  (http://www.runstop.de/music08.html)  Last week, I heard a piece that Benny had used, being used to underscore one of the children’s in-studio segments on TVO.  To think that the same piece could be used to underscore smutty comedy on “Benny Hill”, and a sweet little educational segment for children!

I often visit the website of KPM Music Group, which has a massive collection of production music.  You can browse & search their catalogue, and listen to the pieces of music online.  It’s quite a treasure hunt, and you never know what you’ll find!  (https://www1.playproductionmusic.com/pages/category_search/browse.cfm?libraryId=6)

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