# Great train chase silent film



## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

I am trying to figure out the name of the musical piece that I associate with Silent Film "chase" scenes, but I keep being diverted to other interesting things... like this one!






Sure clobbers that house!




Unfortunately this is NOT the music I am seeking... I have done dozens of Google searches and followed hundreds of links. I have found many people asking the same question, but none of the answers come anywhere close to what I (and apparently many others) seek.


The music I want I can only describe as a 3 phrase song, that just repeats as necessary for the length of the chase scene, maybe bumping up or down an octave (or less) between repeats. It is a phrase of 4 notes that repeats once and then the 1st 3 notes repeat 3 time more with no pause between and then the 4th note ends it.


Dun-a-la dum,
Dun-a-la dum,
Dun-a-la, dun-a-la, dun-a-la dum.


Pretty much monotone to my ear... I can hear it in my head, but my musical abilities are nil. I suppose the 1st three notes might be in a rising sequence with the 4th note back to the original one, maybe one note lower.

It is NOT "Flight of the Bumble Bee".


----------



## CJGRR (Jan 2, 2008)

wow....one heck of a video. Back when actors were real actors.....


----------



## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

What I'm more interested in is where was that filmed! It looks like the San Dimas / Pomona area based on the foothills in the background. The loco says Union Pacific but the tracks and some of the track sides look so much like the Santa Fe's foothill division thru Azusa and San Dimas/Claremont. But I think this is whats now the Metrolink line thru San Dimas that parallels the SF line thru Claremont, dont know if it was ever a UP branch, the UP mainline went south of it thru downtown Pomona. So different looking today.


----------



## scottemcdonald (Jan 11, 2008)

Is it one of these? 



Scott


----------



## scottemcdonald (Jan 11, 2008)

A really good ragtime tune I can think of is "Maple Leaf Rag". It's a good piece for a chase scene in a movie. Of course, you can probably apply almost any ragtime piece to a chase scene. 

Hope you find it. 

Scott


----------



## Tom Leaton (Apr 26, 2008)

Is that piano music? What you wrote looks like the opening of Beethoven's 9th, but I doubt that's the chase music you intend.


----------



## Tom Leaton (Apr 26, 2008)

Scot-- neat link.


----------



## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By vsmith on 07 Aug 2012 09:00 AM 
What I'm more interested in is where was that filmed! It looks like the San Dimas / Pomona area based on the foothills in the background. The loco says Union Pacific but the tracks and some of the track sides look so much like the Santa Fe's foothill division thru Azusa and San Dimas/Claremont. But I think this is whats now the Metrolink line thru San Dimas that parallels the SF line thru Claremont, dont know if it was ever a UP branch, the UP mainline went south of it thru downtown Pomona. So different looking today. Vic,

I think I have to agree with you on the locations. Definitely looks like the San Gabriel's in the background.


----------



## aopagary (Jun 30, 2008)

Posted By Semper Vaporo on 06 Aug 2012 02:13 PM 



Unfortunately this is NOT the music I am seeking...


but if you're interested, that's the Jubilee Stomp.
here's a Duke Ellington version...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7atwjmPcxng

cheers...gary


----------



## aopagary (Jun 30, 2008)

Posted By scottemcdonald on 07 Aug 2012 09:54 AM 
Is it one of these? 

"Classical Music 101: Fast, Frenetic, Chase Scene Music" Scott 
wow, did this one ever bring back memories.
say what you will about them, but unlike the anime of today, classic cartoons had some classic music!


----------



## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Tom Leaton on 08 Aug 2012 12:12 PM 
Is that piano music? What you wrote looks like the opening of Beethoven's 9th, but I doubt that's the chase music you intend. 

yeah, the 1st 8 notes in text do look like Boethoven's Vth (5th), but the last phrase definitely does not fit. I have managed to cobble out the notes using an OLD OLD OLD copy of CoolEdit96 and have a sound file of the piece and will turn it into a YouTube video (sound only) just to get it someplace where people can actually hear something similar to what is rattling around in me punkin haid. I have spent no small amount of time on Google searching for the answer and have found many "question and answer" sites where others have been asking the same question and no one seems to have come up with the answer that anyone has agreed with. I will re-post when I get the YouTube Audio uploaded.


----------



## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By aopagary on 08 Aug 2012 12:47 PM 
Posted By Semper Vaporo on 06 Aug 2012 02:13 PM 



Unfortunately this is NOT the music I am seeking...


but if you're interested, that's the Jubilee Stomp.
here's a Duke Ellington version...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7atwjmPcxng

cheers...gary



Great for a comedy chase I guess, but I am thinking more along the lines of a serious cowboy and bank robbers chase on horses.

Prior to the singing cowboys like Gene Autry or Roy Rogers... More like: Tom Mix, William S. Hart, and Fred Thompson... I am talking real silent movies where the only audio was provided by a theater piano and a talented piano player who had to improvise the music to fit the movie scenes. I figure they knew various Classical or Opera pieces and just picked and chose from what the knew. This melody is simple and "exciting" and indicates a frantic and maybe galloping chase to save the damsel in distress.


----------



## Homo Habilis (Jul 29, 2011)

I assume that you are not describing the William Tell Overture, aka the Lone Ranger theme - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUpDG680uew. That would be way too easy! 

There's also Aram Khachaturian's Saber Dance - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqg3l3r_DRI, but maybe too classical.


----------



## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Nope, ain't the Lone Ranger theme! Nor Saber Dance. It is similar to "Alla Turca", by Mozart, but "not quite", but I guess I could be wrong about that. It is the one on the end of the video suggested by scottemcdonald (above). But here is the video of what I think it is like...



To create the above video I used an old XP PC that will run "CoolEdit96". 

I used that program's "Create Music" feature to drag "Note" icons to a musical "Staff" and GUESSED which length of note, and where to put them on the staff, and then clicked "Listen" and it would play back the notes using the MIDI feature of the sound card in the PC.

Unfortunately the PC has bad speakers so I had to use a set of headphones (ear buds) and the "buds" are TOO BIG for my ears so they would not stay in and were painful to keep in anyway.

Took HOURS of dragging notes to the staff, clicking Listen, shifting the notes up or down, or setting them as Sharp or Flat, and changing from 1/4 to 1/8 to 1/16 or 1/32 notes or "dotted notes", until I got what I thought was the 1st 4 notes! Then I repeated them to produce the 2nd phrase and again the 1st 3 notes 3 times and added the 4th note to produce the last phrase.

Then in CoolEdit I created a 1/4 second "tone" of 220 Hz, shaped it with the "Envelope", "Echo" and "Filter" features and then had the program up or down shift that "Note" to fit the notes on the Musical Staff I had created, for frequency and duration.

I copied the resulting WAV file to my good Win 7 PC and used "Windows Live Movie Maker" to import a video I made of my LGB Charlie Brown MotorCycle car and the Doghouse "Float" I made for it to pull. Then I added the WAV file twice to produce the above video.

BTW The Doghouse is complete with a Chandelier, pool table and a bar (for quaffing rootbeers). There is also a grill outside the door for a cook out. Snoopy is on top and Woodstock is flitting about above him (hanging by a black thread from the motorcycle "antenna"). The "Float" is the battery box for the motorcycle.

Anyway, now that I have something similar to what is rattling around in my head out where others can hear it... Does anyone recognize piece?

Name that tune!


----------

