Chasing Earworms

Sometimes, there are pieces of music which grab you.

Sometimes in a good way. Sometimes, not so good. Mostly they don't want to let you go. 

Earworms, they're apparently called. 

Burrowing into your auditory subconscious and causing you much frustration/bewilderment as you realise you've been humming the same piece of music for hours (days). During which time, your brain also becomes incapable of remembering any other piece of music exists. 

The worst ones are those songs where you don't know their titles, who wrote/performed them, or even how to sing the tune out loud.

How do you chase down earworms?

Yes, there's an app for that. Several, in fact. But they don't always help. Sometimes, they give the wrong info. And don't get me started on the wordless tunes which are impossible to sing.

One of my earliest experiences with solving an earworm was accidental.

I had heard a piece of music I liked in the middle of a fan compilation of different movie soundtracks on YouTube. The music was apparently from the movie, Inception. 

Now, I suppose I could've found the movie, watched it and read the credits. But that was never going to happen. 

Then, I think I was watching a Japanese ice skater's routine in the 2012 Olympics.

Can you guess what happened next?

My earworm music swirled around with the ice skater's triple satos, and into my disbelieving ears. Tiny white capital letters on the screen announced the music was by 'Audiomachine'.

Bingo.

A quick search of Audiomachine + year + some other variables, and I had my answer: Audiomachine: Breath and Life

I still listen to Audiomachine. It's interesting to see the kinds of amazing projects they do.

Then, there was the time I re-discovered my musical Casio calculators from the 1980s. Where the numbers 1-8 sounded sounded out a major scale plus you had 2-3 classical pieces it would play. 

The last time, I used one of these the internet hadn't even been invented! I then became ree-remembered my curiosity about one of the tunes - which had felt ubiquitous on these electronic devices back in the 1980s. What was it called and who wrote it?!

My searches started with 'piano piece, minor key, classical' - which presumably describes  approximately 99% of piano pieces. Strangely enough, adding 'featured on musical Casio calculators in the 1980s' was not the clue it should've been. 

From there, I cross-checked the titles that came up on YouTube and was amazed (thrilled! Triumphant!) when I found it in a surprisingly short amount of time, albeit after 30-40 years of waiting.

Beethoven's Fur Elise

Much more recently, there was another classical worm - thanks to (I think) a car advert. It was a relatively well-known opera excerpt  where a female voice sang "la-la-la-la-la-la-la".

So I began my search with female voice, aria, opera, Mozart (Mozart is always a good place to start with operas IMHO), and words like staccato, allegro and vibrant.

Cross-reference titles that came up and it was a surprisingly easy find:

Mozart's Queen of the Nile Aria (start at the 0.44 mark - you might recognise it).

And finally, the most recent worm that had me completely stumped.

I was this close to resorting to an app.

This music was one of several pieces included in LittleOne's cheap toy keyboard. LittleOne like it and kept skipping through the other pieces to get to it. Then we started doing interpretive dances to it (as you do).

But because it was a shortened version, I wanted the full version. But it was hard. All I had to go on was: a piece of classical music, playable on piano or in an orchestra.

I was defeated. 

But... again, serendipity struck when least expected.

I went to watch LittleOne's school class in their end-of-year performance. It was lovelywith a song about a bee. But guess what the next class was performing? A dance to...

Brahms Hungarian Dance No. 5 (piano version for 4 hands)

I hope your earworms can be as easily/magically solved or banished or danced to for longer (modern blessing).