I was transported to the magic of a movie theatre when Okanagan Symphony’s Rosemary Thomson (in Darth Vader black) conducted the opening bars of Star Wars on Sunday.
What a magnificent piece, and what an appeal it has 35 years later. We know the music note for note, we see the images that accompany it, yet to hear it played live was astonishing –– to think that here in our very own theatre this iconic piece was re-created. No wonder it got one of the three standing ovations.
I refer (of course!) to the true Star Wars – the first one released (1977) – now subtitled Episode 4 – A New Hope. There are now six in the series, with every score composed by John Williams.
Wikipedia reports: “George Lucas’ design for Star Wars involved a grand musical sound, with leitmotifs for different characters and important concepts. Williams’ Star Wars title theme has become one of the most famous and well-known musical compositions in modern music history.”
Williams composed three of the pieces selected for Sunday. He’s certainly the “go-to” guy for film scores, and I regard him as in a class of his own. To me, he’s the Beethoven of Hollywood, his music ranking alongside any symphonic portfolio, either classical or modern.
Yet most of us don’t buy movie soundtrack CDs. So on Sunday we had this rare opportunity just to listen: to concentrate on what makes so many films memorable –– the emotions expressed in the music.
The first half of the evening brought us standard classical pieces which have been chosen for films. Notable was the John Corigiliano’s Chaconne used for The Red Violin, with Okanagan-born Melissa Wilmot as soloist. Her encore, Caprice (from the same film), was a tour de force, and probably the practice piece from hell.
Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, once voted by BBC listeners as the saddest classical work ever, was chosen for the announcement of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s death and the funeral of Albert Einstein. It was used for Oliver Stone’s Oscar-winning Platoon and for many other films. In Canada it was played at the state funeral of New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton.
And there was Debussy’s Clair De Lune (Moonlight), now memorable in the Twilight series.
To open the concert was perhaps the most famous movie adaptation of a classical piece, Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries. One of the most popular and dramatic of classical concert pieces, it’s from Die Walküre, the third opera in his massive four-part cycle The Ring. It was originally performed with Brünnhilde atop a mountain engulfed in flames, planning to deter all but the bravest of heroes.
What’s so impressive is that although Wagner only composed this as the backing music for Brünnhilde’s aria, it works amazingly well with the vocal removed.
Used in 1957 for the Warner Bros. Cartoon What’s Opera, Doc? (when Bugs Bunny sings Kill the Wabbit) it again achieved notoriety when Francis Ford Coppola used it for Apocalypse Now. In a brutal helicopter attack the ground is strafed with napalm and airborne loudspeakers play the piece at full volume.
Other movie composers featured were Henry Mancini (a lush Hollywood medley including Days of Wine and Roses and Pink Panther), and Enrico Morricone with Gabriel’s Oboe from The Mission (played by Lauris Davis).
With the Harry Potter Symphonic Suite (John Williams) we were on familiar ground. Often in minor chords with sudden key changes, this played well as a symphonic piece –– at times happy, at times creepy and mysterious, ultimately triumphant.
Lord of the Rings (Howard Shore) featured the bleak uncertainty of Frodo’s quest, the danger (with dramatic brass and percussion chords in 5/4 time), and the happy innocence of the Hobbits. It also included the song In Dreams (sung by 17-year-old Quinn Bates).
And for the encore – John Williams (yes, again!) with Indiana Jones.
–– Jim Elderton is a local filmmaker, and music enthusiast, who reviews the Okanagan Symphony’s season for The Morning Star.
