Sounds of Cinema Program Notes
Sounds of Cinema
May 20th, 2023
Fanfare for the Common Man
The music of Aaron Copland ranges across the American landscape. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he wove classic American folk songs and folk styles into modern orchestral arrangements with powerful emotional range. For this ability, he has been called the “Dean of American Composers.”
For a city-slicker, Copland demonstrated a remarkable talent for rendering the earthy American west and pioneer life in his music. His ballet Billy the Kid (1938) tells a tale of that young, famous outlaw in dance and music. Copland also scored the films The Red Pony (1948) and Of Mice and Men from novels by John Steinbeck, as well as Our Town (1940), a film version of Thornton Wilder’s classic play about small-town life.
Two other Copland creations are commonly performed today. His Lincoln Portrait (1942) masterfully blends orchestra and spoken words from that president’s speeches and letters. His arrangement for the ballet Appalachian Spring (1944) won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for music in 1945 and remains a popular standard on classical radio and in symphonic repertoires today.
Program Notes by the Kennedy Center
William Tell Overture
Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868) began work on William Tell, his thirty-ninth and last opera, at the end of the summer of 1828, and the first performance was given in August 1829 at the Paris Opéra. Rossini takes the prize for dissociation of words (or situations) and music, and he wrote many a rollicking overture to a tragedy. The poetic and pictorial Overture to William Tell is an exception. Rossini’s contemporary, composer Hector Berlioz thought of this Overture as a kind of “symphony in four distinct movements.” The first, he wrote, “depicts . . . the calm of profound solitude.” This is followed by a storm, then a pastoral scene. “With the last note of the English horn, which sings the pastoral melody, the trumpets enter with a rapid incisive fanfare. . . .This last part of the overture is treated with a brio and a verve that invariably excite the transports of the house.” The Overture to William Tell will be familiar to many listeners due to its frequent use in cartoons and television as “riding music.”
About John Williams
In a career spanning more than five decades, John Williams has become one of America’s most accomplished and successful composers for film and for the concert stage, and he remains one of our nation’s most distinguished and contributive musical voices. He has composed the music for more than 100 films, including the Star Wars films, the first three Harry Potter films, Superman, Memoirs of a Geisha, Home Alone, and The Book Thief. His 45-year artistic partnership with director Steven Spielberg has resulted in many of Hollywood’s most acclaimed and successful films, including Schindler’s List, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Indiana Jones films, Saving Private Ryan, The BFG, and The Post. Mr. Williams has composed themes for four Olympic Games. He served as music director of the Boston Pops Orchestra for 14 seasons and remains its Laureate Conductor. He has composed numerous works for the concert stage, including two symphonies and concertos commissioned by many of America’s most prominent orchestras. Mr. Williams has received five Academy Awards and 51 Oscar nominations (making him the second-most nominated person in the history of the Oscars), seven British Academy Awards (BAFTA), 24 Grammys, four Golden Globes, and five Emmys. In 2003, he received the Olympic Order, the IOC’s highest honor, for his contributions to the Olympic movement. In 2004, he received the Kennedy Center Honors, and in 2009 he received the National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists by the U.S. Government. In 2016, he received the 44th Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute—the first time a composer was honored with the award.
Horn Concerto No. 2 in E-Flat Major, K. 417
Mozart’s so called “second” horn concerto (it was the first he completed) was one of four written for his friend Joseph Ignaz Leutgeb (1745-1811). Leutgeb was the principal horn in the orchestra of the Archbishop of Salzburg when Mozart grew up, and many of the virtuosic horn parts in Mozart’s early symphonies would have been written with him in mind. He gave up professional music in 1777 and moved to Vienna to open a cheese shop - a venture partially funded by a loan from Leopold Mozart. This was apparently a successful business providing him with a living and the opportunity to make occasional concert appearances as a soloist. In 1781, Mozart settled in Vienna, and they renewed their acquaintance. Their relationship must have been a curious one as Mozart frequently made fun of Leutgeb’s slowness of wit. He is even reported to have scattered some sheets of manuscript around the room to make fun of Leutgeb’s awkward attempts to pick them up. The dedication on the original manuscript of the concert reads "W. A. Mozart took pity on Leutgeb, ass, ox and fool in Vienna on 27 May 1783." Despite all the taunting they remained friends for life and indeed Leutgeb helped Constanze in organising Mozart’s manuscripts after his untimely death. Joking apart, Mozart must have regarded the horn playing of his gauche friend highly.
The concerto follows the usual three movement format, beginning with an Allegro maestoso with broad melodies well suited to the rich and noble voice of the horn. The movement demands both effortless breath control and considerable agility from the soloist. The second movement is lyrical and reflective and explores the beauty of a sustained horn melody, and is the movement that will be performed tonight. The final movement is a lively rondo placing the horn in its most usual context - the hunt. At each return of the rondo theme, the soloist leads off the hunt closely followed by the full orchestra. The movement sustains the idiom of the chase throughout and is filled with fanfares and brilliant dialogue between the soloist and orchestral instruments.
Program Notes by the Portobello Orchestra
Mars from The Planets
The Planets is an orchestral suite -- what composer Gustav Holst called, “a series of mood pictures” -- where each movement depicts one planet. The suite contains seven movements: although eight planets were known to exist (Pluto had not yet been discovered, much less demoted), Earth is at the center in the astrological scheme. Mars, The Bringer of War, emphasizes brass and low brass in 5/4 rhythm. Blatant dissonance and the unconventional meter suggest the influence of Stravinsky. "The most ferocious piece of music in existence" evokes a battle scene of immense proportion. Holst directed that it be played slightly faster than a regular march, giving it a mechanized and inhuman character.
Sound Barrier Rhapsody
The Sound Barrier Rhapsody is a short, dynamic orchestral tour de force in five discernible sections. It can be fully appreciated as pure music, but it is interesting to note the source of the original material. A resounding opening statement identifies the Sound Barrier motif - strong and unyielding - before the entry of delightfully skittish waltz, a playful accompaniment for some carefree aerial acrobatics as a Spitfire pilot momentarily enjoys the freedom of the skies and puts his aircraft through its paces. There is a moment of drama, well pointed by brass and percussion, as the aeroplane is edged over skyward, reaching for the stars, before the emergence of a sudden calm, like the eye of the storm, a delicate dreamscape patterned by piccolo, flute and celesta adorned by shimmering strings.
This tranquil mysterioso passage conjures the vision that is at the very heart of the film - mankind's quest to conquer time and space, to reach out into the universe - but it is a pursuit of trial and error, of success and failure - a grim ostinato introduces some plaintive variations on the main motif, a requiem for a young pilot sacrificed to the quest. The waltz theme reappears as 'The Prometheus', a prototype jet destined to surpass the speed of sound, skirts the clouds prior to zooming upward - peaking to the glorious sound of three piccolos rising above the ensemble - before beginning the rapid descent which will finally smash through the sound barrier. Cries of victory from horns and trumpets herald in a magnificent maestoso passage, a celebratory march comprising a substantial reworking of the film's prelude music and leading to a final but now subdued statement of the Sound Barrier motif, firmly checked by a dominant and decisive coda.
Program Notes by Malcolm Arnold
Can-Can from Orpheus in the Underworld
Orpheus in the Underworld (or Orphee aux enfers) is a two-act comic opera, and by some is one of the first full-length operettas. The original French text was provided by Ludovic Halevy, and later revised by Hector-Jonathan Cremieux. The work was premiered in 1858. It was quite scandalous by some, poking fun at traditional classical drama performances, not backing away from the societal and political scandals of the day...and let’s not even mention inclusion of the oh-soindelicate “can-can!!” Actually, let’s DO mention it: This version of the Overture (as arranged by J.G. Busch) features a rousing introduction followed by several featured instrumental solos (clarinet, oboe, cello, and violin) before closing with the “Infernal Galop,” or “can-can” that bring the Overture to a close.
Program Notes by the Michelle Pellay-Walker
La donna è mobile from Rigoletto
"La donna è mobile" ("Woman is fickle") is the Duke of Mantua's canzone from the beginning of act 3 of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto (1851). The canzone is famous as a showcase for tenors. Raffaele Mirate's performance of the bravura aria at the opera's 1851 premiere was hailed as the highlight of the evening. Before the opera's first public performance, the aria was rehearsed under tight secrecy: a necessary precaution, as "La donna è mobile" proved to be incredibly catchy, and soon after the aria's first public performance it became popular to sing among Venetian gondoliers.
As the opera progresses, the reprise of the tune in the following scenes contributes to Rigoletto's confusion as he realizes from the sound of the Duke's lively voice coming from the tavern (offstage) that the body in the sack over which he had grimly triumphed was not that of the Duke after all: Rigoletto had paid Sparafucile, an assassin, to kill the Duke, but Sparafucile had deceived Rigoletto by indiscriminately killing Gilda, Rigoletto's beloved daughter, instead.