Hi all! I was wondering where Radio Rivendell listeners place their boundaries regarding what is 'fantasy' music. I have read the submission guidelines and the line about 'listening during role plays' made me think. Would something like an Elfman's soundtrack (since we are approaching Halloween, yay! ) be something that breaks the suspension of disbelief? Or even John Williams score for Jurassic Park? They are fantasy to me, but I'm not so sure about where the general consensus lies on this topic. Best!

For me, it's a question of whether the music pulls me away from a "fantasy" feeling. Totally subjective, I'm afraid. My thought is to go for "inclusive" rather than "exclusive" -- pile up a huge amount of music and let the members vote with their ratings, dropping anything with only one star.

What a great topic! I'm with Kitharis in that the ultimate "answer" is quite subjective. However, there are some rather inferred points as to what I believe should be considered general "fantasy":

-- Unrestrained imagination (fuzzy boundaries) should be the focus of the theme and/or instrumentation. Magic and/or surrealism chiefly drive and define fantasy themes. Fantasy infers escapism from the real world into a more "liquid" realm of dreams and imagination. To me, this infers an escape from the common and mundane, particularly from traditional musical forms. Ambiance, syncopation, nontraditional instruments, minor keys, strange tempos, etc., can all be tools to pull someone away from the rigid and solid into the ether.

-- While fantasy typically invokes medieval and mythological themes, fantasy certainly isn't defined by those themes. In my opinion, however, it is important for the music to set you on a journey of the imagination into another world, particularly one quite unlike our own in some significant way. Sure, many elements of the imaginary world may seem like our own, but something definitely sets it apart (whether through magic, supernatural elements, unexplained phenomena beyond the scientific, etc.).

The "highly subjective" part is the listener's imagination. Quite simply, some people tend towards escapism more than others. In your Danny Elfman example, one person could listen to his pieces "Big Top Pee Wee" or "Breakfast Machine" and simply think of a wacky carnival or a machine working merrily along like clockwork (this is real-world and wouldn't quite qualify as fantasy). However, another listener may conjure images of a very surreal (and possibly dark) world akin to Alice in Wonderland, Willy Wonka, or The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

Even given the theme of a piece, some people will simply insert their own interpretations. For example, Berlioz' Symphony Fantastique is program music with a defined plot of an artist on an opium trip, with a recurring idée fixe of his ideal woman. However, the listener could freely interpret the music however he or she wishes. Certainly, I would be inclined to label it fantasy because of its given theme and its nontraditional approach. It's determining the "sub-genre" that would be a lot trickier.

I think Kitharis and Truthseer pretty much covered all the points I could think of.