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January 2009

Halo hearts Chopin

In 2003 I was laid off from FCB Los Angeles when the office was shuttered. I became a freelance planner for the next year or so and enjoyed the ebb/flow lifestyle all independents are familiar with. Weeks of work followed by days without and vice versa. In some of those downtimes I pursued something I'd ceased when I was seven -- playing piano.

I bought myself a digital piano, took a class at Santa Monica Community College and picked up where I left off. I enjoyed the counterpoint of studying old music versus new marketing. It was something timeless and familiar to turn to after working on CPG creative development or whatever.

I became quite a fan of Chopin's music and learned to play a few of his easier pieces. Sometimes I'd notice some a solo piano tune from the old books of Beethoven or Bach appear in pop culture like the beautiful aria from Goldberg Variations in the movie Hannibal. Or a Chopin prelude coming from the orchestra during the Oscars. These masters are everywhere, I just hadn't recognized them as such before.

So I was amused when recently I was on YouTube and saw a part of Chopin's Raindrop Prelude featured and subsequently studied in the Halo "Believe" spot. It was kind of amusing also to see the rash of videos that spun off the ad, showing how to play it on the piano (e.g. Halo Believe Piano Version).

A small movement of (apparently) teenage boys exposed to the tip of the iceberg of Chopin's opus. And some of them are studying how to play it on their own pianos. They probably love it because it's the new Halo theme and have no idea where the music really came from. But at least they're playing.

January 25, 2009 in Advertising, Music, Video | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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    • I'm Sean. This is my home for homeless thoughts. I'm a planner based in New York. I think simple is smart. For something more official there's this.

      The opinions, observations and nonsense published here are purely my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.

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