Epcot Music - the mystery continues...


In my desperate attempts to identify some of the music played prior to the start of Reflections of Earth, I've decided to take a more analytical approach. The songs in particular are the first 2 played in this recording...

http://www.kurtmiller.net/Disney/sounds/preIlluminations.mp3

Or, 1 and 2 in this list...

1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. "Flute Battle" -Cusco
5. ?
6. "Imeland" -Groupa
7. "Montezuma" -Cusco
8. ?
9. "Inca Dance" -Cusco
10. ?

The first song appears to feature:
Accordion (or similar instrument)
Elec. guitar
Percussion

The second song:
Accordion (or similar instrument)
Elec. Bass
Violin
Drum Set

Now, these songs sound pretty similar in style to Groupa's "Imeland", which is also heard during the pre-ROE loop. I've spent a lot of time at Amazon and CDNow listening to Groupa, and I'm pretty sure these 2 tracks in question are not theirs. I listened to clips of their albums, and it appears that Groupa doesn't have an accordion in their lineup (also confirmed at their website).

However, I do feel somewhat confident that these 2 songs are forms of Nordic folk music. I base this theory on the fact that Groupa is a Nordic folk group, and Imeland sounds similar to these 2 songs. I also spent some time (too much time) listening to clips of other Nordic folk groups (Nordic Roots series). I found 3 in particular that sound very similar to the songs in question...

Troka
Hoven Droven
Hedningarna

I listened to clips from most of these groups from albums pre-2000 and heard a lot of similarities, but no definite matches.

Now, I know very little about European folk music, although I know a lot more than I did 24 hours ago. :) Is there anyone out there in the European folk music scene that could possibly shed some light on this musical enigma? It's possible Guest Relations might be able to dig this up, but like I mentioned in a previous post - the show manager didn?t seem to know what was on the CD - so I don't know who they could track down that would have the information. Any help is appreciated!

Sorry for the long post!

-innoventionseast
 

Alex K

Member
More old clues: One of the songs actually features at least one Irish reel (okay, 4/4 time) commonly used in Irish dance. It is typical of Irish dance tracks to string together a bunch of traditional songs together, without actually naming the songs in the album notes, so it is difficult to use search engines to try to find what albums or tracks contain certain snippets of music. The one particular tune used in one of the ROE tracks is also used in the "Lord of the Dance", "Strings of Fire" track.

Anyway, there is a lot of similar music: Cajun, Acadian and Irish (Celtic). Try listening to Grand Derangement at http://www.grandderangement.com/ . Some of their tracks sound very close to what you hear before ROE. I actually thought Epcot would have played their music, since they were guest performers there in 1998 or 1999 (according to their tour schedule).

I guess the search continues.
 
Oh no - you mean I have another genre of music to scour through on CDNow?!? :) I have a feeling there's going to be a lot more Irish/Celtic music than there was Nordic music. CDNow will probably ban me for exceeding reasonable bandwidth allotments. Heh. Anyhow, thanks for the advice! I'll spend some time searching over the next few days and if I manage to find anything, I'll post back here with the results. Thanks again! - innoventionseast
 

TTiiMM

Member
Just for everyone's information... I've posted several tracks to alt.binaries.multimedia.disney related to the ROE pre-show loop.

13m50s - 192kbs - Live - '15 Minutes Before Illuminations'

This is live recording done by Fudgie (thanks Fudgie... excellent recording). I really enjoy this recording, it captures the excitment building up to Illuminations.

8m57s - 48kbs - Live - 'Pre-show Music'

A shorter live recording of the pre-show. Upon comparing the two live recordings, it's interesting to note that the announcements occur at different points of the loop.

224 kbs - Cusco - Flute Battle
256 kbs - Cusco - Inca Dance
224 kbs - Cusco - Montezuma
HQ VBR - Groupa - Imeland

I also posted "Strings of Fire" off of the "Lord of the Dance" CD. It isn't the recording used in the ROE pre-show, but it is close.

Hope you enjoy the music!

Timothy
 

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