Baroque Hoedown

"Baroque Hoedown" is a song by the duet Perrey and Kingsley (formed by the French Jean-Jacques Perrey and the German-American Gershon Kingsley). Original from 1967 album Kaleidoscopic Vibrations a follow-up to their previous 1966 album, The In Sound From Way Out!. The two albums were reissued in 1988 on one compilation album entitled The Essential Perrey and Kingsley.^[1]

Recording[]

In 1963, Robert Moog met German music engineer Herb Deutsch at the New York State School Music Association gathering at the Eastman School of Music. Deutsch encouraged Moog to create the first prototype of a voltage-controlled synthesizer by combining a voltage-controlled oscillator and amplifier model with a keyboard. Moog noticed he could change pitch electronically by adjusting voltage using silicon transistors, and created a system that altered voltage by one step in order to change the pitch by an octave.^[2]

Later the Moog synthesizer went on sale in 1967^[3] and the duet Perrey and Kingsley they became the first to make recordings with the Moog synthesizer,^[4] predating 1968 album Switched-On Bach by Wendy Carlos that popularized the Moog synthesizer. "Baroque Hoedown" was recorded using the Moog synthesizer by Jean-Jacques Perrey and Gershon Kingsley and included in 1967 album Kaleidoscopic Vibrations: Electronic Pop Music From Way Out.

Disney & "Baroque Hoedown"[]

"Baroque Hoedown" continues to be used as the theme song throughout the Main Street Electrical Parade at Disneyland, Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade: DreamLights! at Tokyo Disneyland. Shortly after the opening of Walt Disney World, the President of Walt Disney Productions was concerned with the little attention being paid to Disneyland, so a project was started to design a nighttime event for the park that would keep visitors into the evening hours. What transpired was the creation of the Main Street Electrical Parade. Disneyland’s vice president of entertainment Bob Jani had considered using the symphonic music from the movie Fantasia as the background music for the parade, but producer Jack Wagner felt the music should be electronic rather than orchestral.^[5] Wagner’s album collection included Spotlight on the Moog: Kaleidoscopic Vibrations by Jean Jacques Perrey and Gershon Kingsley, and the song "Baroque Hoedown" was chosen because of its ideal tempo for parade choreography.^[6] The current Magic Kingdom parade was originally created for Disneyland, debuting in 1972 and running there until 1996, and later ran at its sister park, Disney California Adventure, from 2001 to 2010. An identical parade ran at Tokyo Disneyland from 1985 to 1995 and an entirely new and technologically updated parade, Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade: DreamLights!, premiered there in 2001. In 2009, the Disney California Adventure version of the parade was updated with a new soundtrack based almost entirely on the DreamLights! arrangement, while largely retaining its 1970s-era floats. This version of the parade was moved from California Adventure to the Magic Kingdom in 2010, where it ran until 2016. It returned to Disneyland for a limited time in January 2017 and is scheduled to make another limited appearance there in August 2019.^[7]

In 2014, Hong Kong Disneyland premiered its new nighttime parade, Paint the Night, a spiritual successor to the Main Street Electrical Parade featuring two recurring theme songs throughout: a Cantonese-language arrangement of Owl City's "When Can I See You Again?" (from the film Wreck-It Ralph) and "Baroque Hoedown." With the Electrical Parade relocated to Florida indefinitely, the Disneyland Resort premiered its own version, the Paint the Night Electrical Parade, on May 22, 2015, again featuring "When Can I See You Again?" (now in English) and "Baroque Hoedown."

The composition later became the theme song for Disneyland's Main Street Electrical Parade in 1972 and all of its subsequent iterations around the world,^[8] as well as for Hong Kong Disneyland's Disney Paint the Night Parade and, for a time, Walt Disney World's Electrical Water Pageant. It was also incorporated into Disneyland's Light Magic, Paint the Night Electrical Parade and Remember... Dreams Come True as a tribute to the Main Street Electrical Parade; however, it was not until 1980 that Perrey learned about Disney's use of the theme.

In the 1970s, Walt Disney Productions chose this tune to be the theme for the Electrical Parade. It was extraordinary, I didn't know about it because the publishers said nothing to me. It was by chance, in 1980, that I went there and was so surprised to hear "Baroque Hoedown" arranged for a full orchestra.

— Jean-Jacques Perrey, text from English subtitle^[9]

In popular culture[]

• The Beatles, under the production of Perrey fan Kenny Everett, sampled "Baroque Hoedown" in their 1968 Beatles Fan Club Christmas record, four years prior to its use in the Electrical Parade.
• "Baroque Hoedown" was used from 1975 until its completion as the final theme of the Mexican series El Chapulín Colorado starring the actor Chespirito. ^[10]
• In 1978, film pioneer Mike Jittlov used a variation of the song as the soundtrack of his Disney-themed short film, Mouse Mania, which debuted as part of the prime time Mickey Mouse 50th Anniversary Special.
• A version of the song was recorded by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet in the style of Vivaldi for the 1995 various artists compilation album Heigh-Ho! Mozart.
• A remix of the song, "Main Street Electrical Parade (Retro Future Mix)," appears in the game Dance Dance Revolution Disney's Rave in 2000.
• In 2002, Reel Big Fish released a cover of the song (under the title "Main Street Electrical Parade") on Dive into Disney, a Japan-only ska and punk Disney tribute CD.
• In 2004, They Might Be Giants released a cover of the song on the various artists compilation album DisneyMania 2, which also contains excerpts of "The Unbirthday Song" from Alice in Wonderland and "Brazzle Dazzle Day" from Pete's Dragon, which were both used in the Electrical Parade as well.
• A cover version appeared in the Japanese Pop'n Music video game series.
• American guitarist Buckethead plays the melody live during his song "Jowls."
• Elements of the melody appear in "The Theme from Rock to the Future" and "starship.6" by Plus-Tech Squeeze Box, as well as in their remix of Naivepop or Petitfool's "Bicycle Race."

See also[]

• The Main Street Electrical Parade
• Perrey and Kingsley

References[]