Love At First Note

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
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"So in the requisite What-I-Want-From-This-Movie Song, aside from being less small, she also expresses a desire for One-True-Love or something, and who should be conveniently listening but her One True Love?"

The vocal counterpart to Love At First Sight. Bob instantly falls in love with Alice when he hears her singing.

Brings to mind creatures of Classical Mythology like the Greek Sirens, who have a specialized Compelling Voice that instantly makes men unable to resist them. Compare Duet Bonding.

Examples of Love At First Note include:

Fairy Tales

  • "Rapunzel"
  • "Sweetheart Roland" deserves a special mention, as the heroine's prince is bewitched into forgetting her, and she breaks the spell by singing to him.

Film

  • The title character of The Killer falls for Jenny this way. Then he accidentally blinds her during a shootout, and the plot happens.
  • An odd variation occurs in An American Tail 2: Fievel Goes West: Cat R. Waul becomes enraptured by Tanya's singing to the point that he inadvertently sabotages his own master plan when she shows up at the end to warn the other mice about the giant mousetrap - she's standing on it, and he screams at his men not to trigger it or else they'll crush her. Not so much love in this case as an appreciation for fine art, even if it does come from someone he'd otherwise be trying to eat.
  • Prince Fabious in Your Highness fell in love with his bride-to-be Belladonna before he even saw her due to her beautiful singing voice.
  • In Sense and Sensibility, Colonel Brandon first sees Marianne while she's playing a harpsicord and singing, visibly falling in love with her in that instant.

Literature

  • Archie and Phoebe in Louisa May Alcott's Rose In Bloom—They've known each other for years, but it's her singing the night after her return from Europe that makes him instantly fall in love with her. Archie even notes the exact time when he feels it happen.
  • Hans Christian Andersen's (as well as Don Bluth's) Thumbelina.
  • Subverted, in the correct use of the term, in Sirena, since it's a Perspective Flip on the Siren myths.
  • Erik of The Phantom of the Opera is basically a Gender Flipped Siren—the Persian even calls him "the Siren" several times!
    • Also shows up in several adaptations, where Erik is shown falling hard for Christine the minute he hears her voice. For that matter, adaptations often have Raoul falling for Christine this way, too, leading to accusations that he's a Shallow Love Interest, whereas he's a Victorious Childhood Friend in the book.
  • In The Hunger Games, Peeta claims he's been in love with Katniss ever since he first heard her sing—back when they were little kids.
  • The eponymous hero of Krabat falls in love with the Kantorka (means: daughter of the cantor) when he hears her singing at the Easter procession.
  • In the Galactic Milieu series, Paul Remillard met and fell in love with his wife during her opera performances. After her voice started failing (due to the psychological strain of multiple miscarriages), Paul's love to her waned, and he started cheating on her, repeatedly, with numerous women, some of whom were already married.
  • In the third set of Dinoverse books, Aaron falls for Claire not at first sight, but because he heard her voice. She's known for being spectacularly beautiful, and for some reason when she hears that he fell for her voice before he ever saw her she thinks it's more meaningful.
  • In Wody Głębokie jak Niebo by Anna Brzezińska, Dulio falls in love with Sirocco after hearing her singing and seeing her image magically preserved in water. This is a pretty big step forward considering that before he intended to kill her for stealing his trophy. Sirocco lampshades this and is distrusting at the beginning. They end up Happily Married anyway and their love story becomes a legend.

Theatre

  • The Phantom of the Opera
    • Especially mentioned in the lines "He was bound to love you when he heard you sing.."
  • In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Bottom has just been transformed into an ass, when all of his friends run away from him. Bottom decides to sing a song which isn't about Titania as they've never met, but he happens to be outside her bower. She's under a spell to fall madly in love with the first being she sees once she opens her eyes, and as such is entranced by Bottom and his song.
  • In Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Anthony falls in love with Johanna in this way.

Western Animation

  • Discussed in an early episode of RWBY, when Jaune lists everything that's wonderful about Weiss. "And have you heard her sing? (Doubles as a Shout-Out to the "White" Trailer.)

Disney

(Yes, they need their own section.)

Scrooge McDuck: A piano was playing over by the stage, and Goldie, the Star of the North, was singing -- She was singing "After the Ball" in a voice as pretty as the crackle of new bells.

  • The above scenario plays out pretty much the same in the DuckTales (1987) adaptation, albeit with a different song.
  • This happens to Shane when he hears a work in progress by Mitchie in Camp Rock.