I was preparing part two of Spitfire Audio's BBC Symphony Orchestra review when my daughter bursts into the room showing me something on her phone and saying, "You should play this!"
In the video there was a little girl dressed all in dark playing an all dark cello with a very dark song! “It's the new series Wednesday on Netflix!”, continues my daughter, a very popular TV series released in November 2022, directed by Tim Burton and centered on the character of Wednesday, played by the American actress Jenna Ortega.
Intrigued, I finish following the video, because the protagonist seems to really play the cello. Even the musical part seems very realistic to me, I have to please my daughter (pain in the ass) and study the piece entitled "Paint It Black”, a famous song that I didn't recognize at first…
listening
The song played by Wednesday on cello in the first episode of the TV series is “Paint It Black" by Rolling Stones, one of the most famous songs ever written by the Rolling Stones from 1966. The version played by Wednesday is instrumental, but the lyrics of the song speak of grief over the death of the singer's girlfriend. The song describes the feelings of those who have just lost the person they love and no longer want colors in their life, with a black heart and the desire to paint everything black as a sign of their mood. Here the similarity with Wednesday who removes all the colors from her room to have a more familiar environment more suited to her character. Here is that dark energy that I immediately noticed and that probably captivated the fans.
Su YouTube I've noticed a lot of covers of this song, but honestly, as a cellist, I've noticed a lot of tricks used... Listening carefully to the song and playing the cello, I immediately realize it can't be actually played, as some positions on the instrument wouldn't be accessible, at least not using a single cello. However, isolating the cello's sound, I notice a familiarity, especially in the second part where there's the pizzicato, which isn't the traditional one. Of course! It's the "leader" cello from the Spitfire library I reviewed a few days ago on AgeofAudio. Link: fabiop139.sg-host.com/bbc-symphony-orchestra
sequencing
The first phrase was made using the “spiccato” technique, with good programming to give that nice string change effect. The chord at the end of the phrase using the “long” articulation instead, which really captures the effect that is created on the cello when staggering the strings (the bow cannot play more than two strings at a time, so if we play a chord of three notes and more, we play the lower notes first and then move on to the higher ones, obviously changing the position of the bow on the strings).
La second part sees the use of “Bartok” pizzicato, an articulation not very common in sound libraries for strings. This technique is performed by lifting the string and then letting it slam on the string, creating a percussive effect. The final result is very interesting and inevitably reminds me of the effect used by Berlioz in his dance of the skeletons, where, however, to simulate the sound of the bones of the skeletons, the technique "with the wood" was used, i.e. the stick of the bow striking the strings. In the original song other low notes have also been added, to give an even darker effect.
Conclusions
Usually I don't take the solo instruments of the sample libraries so much into consideration, partly because I prefer to play or have the solo parts played, partly because the result is usually poor. In this case, however, the result is really realistic and from what you see on social media it has been a great success. In this specific case I have to say:-” Bravo Spitfire Audio and a very good composer Danny Elfman who managed with his writing to make the song so realistic that it seems that the soundtrack is played by a real instrument”.
