Cartoon Music

Cartoon music is the composed and compiled scoring of animated shorts and television cartoons, defined by exact synchronisation with on-screen action. Its classical form was set at Warner Bros. by *Carl Stalling*, whose scores splice public-domain classics, popular songs and the novelty instrumentals of *Raymond Scott* into rapid cue changes timed to individual frames. Orchestras perform abrupt shifts of tempo, key and instrumentation, punctuated by slide whistles, muted brass and percussion effects, while later television work by *Hoyt Curtin* and others adapted the idiom to smaller ensembles, library cues and theme songs.