Bach to Juliet Bravo

July 18, 2007 10:14 AM

Which Bach piece is the Juliet Bravo TV show theme based on?

Here's a link to the theme. I know it's arranged by Derek Goom.

Bonus points if you can provide a link to the original Bach piece (MP3 or Midi), or if you can provide a link to the good quality MP3 of the Juliet Bravo theme that used to be on TV Cream before they took all their themes down.

Even more bonus points if you can provide some context to the Bach piece, and teach me a little about Bach!

posted by deeper red to media & arts (9 comments total)

Partita No.6?
posted by inconsequentialist at 12:49 PM on July 18, 2007

Bach Partita No.6

I don't think it is, unfortunately, although there is a passage around 2/3rds of the way in that has a similar progression.

I did a Google search including both "Juliet Bravo" and "Bach Partita No.6" and got zero results. Somebody out there must have discussed this at some point, so I would expect the correct answer to bring up at least one or two Google results.

The theme is actually a JS Bach piece, because Derek Goom didn't even claim authorship (unlike, say, Paul Simon and American Tune). He simply stated that he arranged a Bach piece.
posted by deeper red at 1:34 PM on July 18, 2007

I would've guessed it was based on Vivaldi's Summer allegro:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/04_-_Vivaldi_Summer_mvt_1_Allegro_non_molto_-_John_Harrison_violin.ogg
posted by StarForce5 at 2:01 PM on July 18, 2007

Good question! The closest thing I can think of is the Giga from the piano Partita No.1 (BWV 825). I don't know about MP3's of it, but you can listen to some kid playing it badly here, or you can stream almost the whole thing here.
posted by epimorph at 2:37 PM on July 18, 2007

Thanks for the replies so far, but I don't think they're correct.

The Bach piece in question has to sound like the Juliet Bravo piece. It's so similar that Derek Goom didn't claim authorship, but merely said it was a new arrangement.

The Bach piece might be faster, or slower, and it almost certainly won't have been written to be played on a Fairlight synth/Emulator II and a funky electric bass. But it should sound almost identical otherwise.
posted by deeper red at 3:00 PM on July 18, 2007

The chord progression is exactly the same as part of this Violin Concerto in A minor. That's what it immediately reminded me of, and when I play the theme from the TV theme (transposed into A) along with the concerto, it fits very nicely. But I wouldn't be too surprised if it's something else, either.
posted by sfenders at 6:12 PM on July 18, 2007

What about Sinfonia 3 in D Major?
posted by not me at 10:15 PM on July 18, 2007

I think Violin Concerto in A Minor is a pretty good match. Like sfenders says, there's a chord progression and even a patch of melody that sounds very similar. It occurs when the YouTube counter reaches 3:18.

Of course, Bach recycled melodies all over the place so there may be another piece that's even closer. But until then this'll do for me. Thanks all.
posted by deeper red at 1:12 AM on July 19, 2007

Ello ello ello, what's all this then? Juliet Bravo?

Looks like we've got a positive ID on a stolen piece of music:

Exhibit A: 'Juliet Bravo' Theme, arranged by Derek Goom.

Exhibit B: 'The Well-Tempered Clavier', Book 1: Prelude No. 2 in C Minor, BWV 847, by Johann Sebastian Bach.

It's still the best theme tune ever tho. I was actually going to try and figure out the chords cos I thought it would be cool to be able to play Juliet Bravo on the guitar. But then I saw this.

And I put down my guitar.

Bloody hell. He's freaky lookin' but he's good.

So, where do I collect my bonus points?
posted by Pete Skellern (Capt) at 4:26 PM on July 26, 2007