The Music of Avonlea

Post by **Timothy** » Tue Aug 30, 2005 7:20 am

Gus was playing air-fiddle? Aww, I still love that scene.

alecking · Post by **alecking** » Tue Aug 30, 2005 10:26 am

I always thought he held that violin with the dexterity of a plumber.

Annie · Post by **Annie** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 6:48 am

Haha, poor Michael. I still get a kick out of watching him play his fiddle in one of the cannery scenes in Aunt Hetty's Ordeal - the music is lively, the people are clapping . . . and Gus isn't stamping his foot on the beat.

But that's hardly his fault, I suppose.

Does anyone happen to know any tidbits or info about composer Don Gillis? Compared to Welsman and Hardy, there really isn't much about him on the web.

alecking · Post by **alecking** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 12:09 pm

He passed away and he composed the WaMB theme.

Post by **Timothy** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 7:14 pm

alecking wrote:He passed away and he composed the WaMB theme.

Hopefully not in that order.

alecking · Post by **alecking** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 9:07 am

I don't have the dates, but the WaMB theme was first heard on RTA. Can't remember the ep. though.

Annie · Post by **Annie** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 4:56 pm

I think it first showed up in Memento Mori and variations were also later used in Comings and Goings and So Dear to My Heart. It's amazing how many WAMB themes were orignally used in RTA.

Shelly · Post by **Shelly** » Wed Sep 07, 2005 8:31 pm

Yep. The Wind theme was played at the end of "Memento Mori", as well as at the end of "So Dear to My Heart".

Post by **Timothy** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 9:31 am

Annie wrote:It's amazing how many WAMB themes were orignally used in RTA.

That's blasphemous to use RTA stuff on other shows. That would be like RTA using scenes of Colleen Dewhurst from other movies and poorly integrating it into a Marilla death scene... Oh, wait, they did!

Annie · Post by **Annie** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 6:17 pm

I wonder if the ending of RTA was so close to the beginning stages of WAMB that Don Gillis, being the composer of both, felt overwhelmed and just decided that a similar audience would appreciate familiar music.

Come to think of it, a couple selections from RTA and WAMB were used yet again in the third Anne movie (the "Happy Christmas Miss King" opening/closing theme, for example). Even with fellow composer Peter Breiner's help, the soundtrack is redundant.

Post by **Timothy** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 8:00 am

I think it had to do with a lack of funding. Television budgets were getting cut after RTA and recycling music was an unfortunate result.

Wild Roses · Post by **Wild Roses** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 8:36 pm

So is the RTA soundtrack not worth buying?

Annie · Post by **Annie** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 9:00 pm

I think it's poorly compiled. There a few memorable pieces from selected episodes such as "Love May be Blind" and "The Great Race," but I remember my first impression of the CD when I listened to it was that the music didn't sound familiar.
The track titles are extremely misleading - there are certain tracks that are labeled as being character themes, but were never meant to be used as such. For example, the "King Family Theme" can only be heard in one episode of the entire series, and that is "Best Laid Plans," which has absolutley nothing to do with the Kings.
I found that the other CD's at the Boutique actually have more RTA themes/music that would be recognizable to an RTA audience.