Bank of America music

gene in cincinnati

Member
Contributor
I know this is really off topic, but I am trying to figure out the piano piece in a new Bank of America commercial. The commercial has a wife writing a mortgage request to her husband by placing it in an envelope under his office door.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
It might be a local commercial. I haven't seen it either... I'm just curious what genre it is.

I used to work for a freelance composer, though... and I can tell you a lot of the solo piano stuff you hear on commercials aren't mainstream pieces. If you are an advertising agency, you have to pay rights to use published music... and there are 4 categories to pay: who wrote it, who published it, who performed it, and who owns the physical recording you want to use.

To avoid paying these rights, the big corporations will hire a free-lance composer or a cheesy music shop to either a.) reperform the original and butcher it in such a way that it slips under copyright protection, or b.) just create a unique piece of music.

The guy that I worked for used to write 90% of his stuff from scratch, and almost all of his piano pieces were done that way because it was a *very* easy thing for him to do.

Just curious, what do you want to do with it when you find out what it is.

And also, I remember a few years ago I was totally excited about the music in the Banana Republic commercial for Suede... "River when you flow, you know how I feel" I eventually called their 1-800-number, and the nice lady gave me the info. She said that at first they hadn't known, but so many people were asking about it that they had a special internal memo to all their customer service reps. My point is... pick up the phone and call BofA... you might just get lucky.
 
Thanks Brubeck. I assumed that it was a national or regional commercial since I saw it on the HGTV and I have never seen a BoA in this area.

I work at large consulting firm (we designed and developed tide.com, mazdausa.com, harley-davidson.com, jockey.com, breastbiopsy.com, jcpenney.com, potterybarn.com and many more) and we run into the same licensing situations.

I have heard this specific classical piece before - my gut feeling is that the piece is from a 19th century composer.

There have been quite a few personal favorite classical clips used in commercials lately - I like the American Express commercials using classic Tchaikovsky ballet pieces.

I emailed BofA to see if they could pass on the song info. I'll try calling if they don't return my email.

I am also going to try to find the clip on the web. AdCritic.com was recently acquired after it ran out of money - I wonder if there are other commercial sources out there.

You asked what I wanted to do with it - I want to buy the CD or purchase the MP3 so I can burn it on my classical favorites CD.
 
I've got tons of scores from music theory classes, and my composition classes covered a lot of that stuff, so if you could locate a clip, I might be able to help you identify it.

It is entirely possible that it's a style piece as well... sometimes an agency will ask for a piece that "Sounds just like..." Any composer worth his weight in flour should be able to do that.
 
Gene, the commercial IS a national commercial....that or the regions are HUGE....seeing as I have seen the commercial here in Texas....

HOWEVER....I wasn't paying that close attention....my wife is a real music buff so the next time I see the commercial I will get her in the room and see if she knows what it is.
 
gene in cincinnati said:
Sir Nuke,

I would appreciate it - thanks for the help.

sure thing...of course it may take a while...just depends on how long it is till I see that commercial again. course I usually do watch a fair ammount of the "boob tube" in the evening...so ya never know. :{D
 
This is the email that I got from BofA:

Thank you for your inquiry. We appreciate you using the Online Banking service and value you as a customer. The music in "Love Letter" is from composer Eric Satie. It is called "Gymnopedie #1." Website about Eric Satie is available at http://www.af.lu.se/~fogwall/satie.html. If we may be of further assistance, please contact us by e-mail or by phone at 1.800.933.6262.

Erin Frost
Online Banking
 
well that answers that....lol

guess I don't have to worry about draging my wife in front of the tube and getting her to listen for the music then! lol

I did the very thing you did with Mitsubitsi once...and never got a reply...I even contacted the company that does all their national advertising...same thing..nothing....grrrrr...figured.
 

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