Leo Arnaud was born in Lyon, France, on this date 120 years ago. You may not know his name, but from July 26 to August 11, yet again his most famous music will resound everywhere, as the 2024 Summer Olympics take place in Paris.
Arnaud composed the most widely recognized of Olympic fanfares, “The Bugler’s Dream,” for Felix Slatkin, for inclusion on his 1958 album, “Charge!” It was originally part of a larger work, the “Charge Suite.” However, in 1968, it was picked up by ABC, for use in its coverage of the Winter Olympics from Grenoble. As a result, the fanfare entered the popular consciousness, and it has been used by ABC in all its subsequent Olympics coverage. When the games moved to another network, the fanfare fell into dormancy for a time, but was revived by NBC for the Barcelona games in 1992.
Arnaud, who worked as an orchestrator in Hollywood for many years, studied with Maurice Ravel and Vincent d’Indy. His orchestrations can be heard in films ranging from “The Wizard of Oz” to “Ryan’s Daughter.”
In the 1980s, he revisited “The Bugler’s Dream” for a new recording on the Telarc label with legendary symphonic band director Frederick Fennell. This is a very interesting recording, since the composer not only expanded the fanfare into an Olympic triptych – adding a second movement, called “La Chasse,” and a third, titled “Olympiad” (written only a few days before the recording session) – but he also appears with the ensemble as a percussionist.
In more recent years, Arnaud’s fanfare has often been heard in an amalgam with John Williams’ “Olympic Fanfare and Theme,” written for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
When it comes to Olympic music, these guys are pure gold. Happy birthday, Leo Arnaud (1904-1991)!
Slatkin’s recording of “The Bugler’s Dream” (Olympic Fanfare at 2:52):
The third of Arnaud’s fanfares, “Olympiad,” for Fennell:
John Williams’ “Olympic Fanfare and Theme”:
The amalgam:
