Tuning In to Dr. Seuss

From now on, when Horton hears a Who, we’ll all know what it sounds like. Thanks to Los Angeles composers Chip Smith and Tony Humecke, the sounds that come out of an “oom-pah,” a “three-snarper-harp” and a “one-nozzled noozer” will ring clear as a “circular-saw-blade fun tree” (which sounds a lot like a bell).

The composers are the first to officially set music to the wacky pictures from classic Dr. Seuss books, a project they undertook almost two years ago for the Seuss Landing section of Universal Studios’ newest theme park, Islands of Adventure, set to open in Orlando, Fla., in 1999.

All Smith and Humecke had to do was answer one question: “What should it sound like?”

The team studied the Seuss illustrations, which depict Who characters playing an array of unconventional instruments, from cellos with mouthpieces to horns with tentacle-like bells. One clue to the sound they were looking for came from the Who characters themselves. One group of Who musicians is “very serious and studious,” Smith said, while the other is “always just on the edge of chaos.” The team attempted to devise a way to find the right combination of both.

Much of the work was done in Humecke’s studio at his Thousand Oaks home. His “studio” eventually encompassed his living and dining rooms to accommodate all the instruments.

“Part of the process is finding just the right kind of junk,” said Humecke, picking up two trash can lids and smacking them together, demonstrating their, er, musicality.

“We didn’t know what an oom-pah or a boom-pah was,” Smith added, “so we made one.”

The composer-inventors, making their way through a jampacked living room, next demonstrated the circular-saw-blade fun tree: “These are not to be played with your hands,” Humecke warned, tapping each claw-like blade with a drumstick, creating a surprisingly melodious chime.

Then Humecke blew into the one-nozzled noozer and swung its hose and funnel, producing a reverberating, moose-like honk.

“We could be serious and play it like a French horn,” he said, “but we weren’t interested in serious.”

Everything about Seuss Landing, from its soundtrack to its rides and attractions, was subject to the approval of Audrey Geisel, widow of children’s author Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss). Geisel had one admonition for his wife, said John Rust, soundtrack producer for the project: “Never license my characters to anyone who would round the edges.”

From the looks--and sound--of things, the Seuss Landing team is honoring Geisel’s wishes.

“Anything that sounded too normal for Seuss land,” Smith said, “we tweaked in digital land.”

Originally, the plan was to build most of the instruments based on Seuss’ pictures, but that alone would have taken months. Instead, they culled the sounds they wanted from household items. A long, plastic PVC pipe, for instance, may not look like much, but it served quite nicely as a “wheezing oom-pah calliope.”

Using all makeshift instruments, however, would have sounded more like the cat in the junkyard than the Cat in the Hat, so traditional instruments were added to balance the mix. They wound up with conventional, obscure and homemade instruments along with an assortment of stainless-steel pots and pans, brake drums, bicycle bells, disc brakes and dozens of tools and trinkets that clang or clunk.

“Basically, if it makes a sound, it was used,” Smith said.

The music-making turned into a family project when Humecke’s 14-year-old son, Gabe, joined in with his “tooth kazoo,” a very “Who-ian” sound the youngster created simply by putting his lips against his teeth. Humecke’s wife, Katie Kirkpatrick, a professional harpist, was a natural on the three-snarper-harp--a combination of harp strings, rubber bands and a Swedish door harp.

With the help of digital remastering, the quirky, squawking, clanging sounds combined for a catchy, toe-tapping musical circus. Some purely Seussian terminology was adopted along the way, including the composers’ favorite, “wonky.”

“[Wonky] has a little dissonant wrong-notedness,” Humecke said. “It’s played with a certain attitude, a little off center, a little naughty.”

The composers hope to complete about seven hours of music for Universal this year. That’s a lot when compared to other theme parks, Humecke said, which, for example, cycle the same two or three minutes of waiting-line music, whereas Rust has planned more than an hour’s worth.

Seuss Landing is just one of five themed areas in the 110-acre park that will feature rides and attractions. Others include Toon Lagoon, where classic characters include Betty Boop and Bullwinkle; Marvel Super Hero Island, featuring the Hulk and Spider-Man; Lost Continent, home to Sinbad and the Dueling Dragons roller coasters; and Jurassic Park, a re-creation of the island depicted in the Steven Spielberg film (Spielberg is a park consultant).

So far, the team of Smith and Humecke is composing music for Seuss Landing and Toon Lagoon. Howard Drossin composed music for Marvel Super Hero Island, and Jurassic Park already has a familiar soundtrack attached to it, the John Williams film score from “Jurassic Park.”

Rust, who oversees the music and sound effects for the entire Islands of Adventure theme park, said Seuss Landing was the one project that required all original music.

“Dr. Seuss left us with his drawings,” Rust said. “None of them had ever been put to [original] music. I had to choose a composer or composer team who could give us a certain sound to go with them.”

He selected Smith and Humecke, he said, because they are “strong ditty writers.” Both have experience composing for theme attractions in Japan and Asia, along with some work in TV and film (Humecke co-wrote the soundtrack to “Down and Out in Beverly Hills”).

When visitors finally make their way over the bridge to Seuss Landing in summer of 1999, the first thing they’ll hear is the circus-like marching tempo of the Smith-Humecke symphony. There are seven versions of the 20-minute symphony that will play in different areas of the park. As guests venture from one area to the next, the music will be in sync where the sections overlap.

“One version is very wonky,” said Humecke, “you get bad boys tooting trumpets louder than they should. Another version is more organic, then there’s everything in between.”

“It’s a tune,” Smith said, “that we want people to know for the rest of their lives.”

BE THERE

Universal’s Islands of Adventure is set to open in Orlando, Fla., in the summer of 1999.