Tomorrow is Independence Day, so it seems appropriate this week on “Picture Perfect” to treat the subject of music from movies related to the birth of our nation.
We’ll hear selections from the 2000 Mel Gibson film, “The Patriot,” in which slow-burning pacifist Mel is pushed too far by ruthless British officer Jason Isaacs and reverts to his bloody French and Indian War ways. By the end of the film, he is literally waving the flag to John Williams’ triumphant score.
Then we’ll hear a suite from the 1942 Jack Benny-Ann Sheridan fixer-up comedy, “George Washington Slept Here,” based on the play by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman – not really about the Revolution, beyond the fact that the ramshackle Pennsylvania farm house purchased by a transplanted New York couple is alleged to have been a resting place for the Continental Army’s most famous general. The music is by Adolph Deutsch.
The 1985 film, “Revolution,” seemed to have everything going for it. The director was Hugh Hudson, whose “Chariots of Fire” was the big winner at the 1981 Academy Awards; its star was Al Pacino; and its composer was John Corigliano, who went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his Symphony No. 2 and an Academy Award for “The Red Violin.” Yet “Revolution” bombed horribly – so horribly that Pacino gave up making movies for the next four years. James Galway plays the flute and pennywhistle on the film’s soundtrack.
Finally, we’ll hear music from the longest continuously-shown film in cinematic history, “Williamsburg: The Story of a Patriot,” created exclusively for the tourist attraction of Colonial Williamsburg. The film features future “Hawaii Five-O” star Jack Lord, and the score is by none other than Bernard Herrmann. Peppered with recognizable patriotic tunes from the Revolutionary era, the charming suite includes quotations from “Yankee Doodle” and the William Billings hymn “Chester.”
Stick a feather in your hat and call it macaroni. Then join me for “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX!
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Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT
SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EDT/8:00 AM PDT
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
https://kwax.uoregon.edu
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PHOTO: George Washington wagers he can crack a walnut with his bare hand in “Williamsburg: The Story of a Patriot”
Tag: George Washington
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250 Years of Independence, and All I Got Was “Picture Perfect”
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Irving Berlin and Fred Astaire Contort on Washington’s Birthday
February 22. Washington’s birthday. Not the contemporary holiday (a.k.a. Presidents Day), mind you, but the actual anniversary of his birth.
Anybody else a fan of “Holiday Inn” (1942), with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire? Irving Berlin astounds with a dozen songs constructed on holidays from the American calendar. Some have earned their immortality (“White Christmas” and “Easter Parade”). Others are completely forgettable. The song celebrating Washington’s Birthday falls soundly into the latter category – which, I argue, only makes it all the more enjoyable.
I find “Holiday Inn” vastly superior to its remake-of-sorts, “White Christmas” (1954), which pairs Crosby with Danny Kaye. Unfortunately Berlin’s celebration of Lincoln’s Birthday as a jaw-dropping black face number hasn’t aged particularly well. (At one point, Bing actually interjects, “Who dat?”) This number, more than anything, is probably what damns “Holiday Inn” to comparative obscurity – except for “White Christmas,” anyway – which is a shame, because the movie is very entertaining. These days, the segment is edited out of most television airings of the film, with the exception of those broadcast on TCM, which doesn’t attempt to whitewash history.
Washington’s Birthday is represented by “I Can’t Tell a Lie.” The number features Bing in a disheveled powdered wig, attempting to undermine Astaire, his rival in love, with a schizophrenic musical accompaniment that ping-pongs wildly (in the film) between 18th century minuet and 1940s big band.
Get a load of Berlin’s excruciatingly contrived lyrics. They can’t all be “White Christmas,” you know.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxh52CY7EsU -
Real Presidents Don’t Lie (Compulsively)
My heart’s not really in Presidents Day this year. Draw your own conclusions. I started typing something up this morning, but as I warmed to the topic, it grew and grew, and then I didn’t have time to come back to it and wrangle it into shape. It’s a shame, because the material is time sensitive. Maybe I’ll rework it for the Fourth of July, when hardly anyone will see it. In the meantime, here’s a comic featuring antifa George Washington, making America great.
Also, to keep it musical, I’ll include a link to Virgil Thomson’s ballet, “Parson Weems and the Cherry Tree,” a Bicentennial commission which, for some reason, is not to be found on the internet in its orchestral guise. Who knew that my recording would turn out to be such a collector’s item? Here, the work is posted in a transcription for piano. If you’re interested, it plays continuously over twelve tracks.
Looking for Lincoln? Search for my post for February 12, Honest Abe’s birthday.
Neither of these guys could tell a lie. Remind you of anyone we know? Me neither. Happy Presidents Day. -
Washington & Lincoln in Music: Forgotten Gems
One never told a lie. The other gave everything to keep us united. We’ve come a long way, baby.
Hard to believe, but Virgil’s Thomson’s George Washington ballet “Parson Weems and the Cherry Tree” (a Bicentennial commission) doesn’t seem to be posted anywhere online in the version for chamber orchestra. I did, however, find it for piano. You just have to let it play through, from tracks 10-21.
Concert overture “McKonkey’s Ferry (Washington at Trenton)” by Trenton’s own George Antheil. Curious that a local boy would spell McConkey with two k’s!
John Lampkin, “George Washington Slept Here”
Roy Harris’ setting of Vachel Lindsay’s “Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight.” (The poem is posted below the video.)
Florence Price’s setting of the same poem
From “Abraham Lincoln: A Likeness in Symphony Form,” by Robert Russell Bennett
More Lincoln music under my post for Lincoln’s birthday on February 12
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1489109922008066&set=a.883855802533484
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Presidents Day Music Lincoln Washington & More
It’s Presidents Day. Before you hit the white sales, I’ve got a few musical selections for you.
Here’s a melody called “Lincoln and Liberty” (originally “Rosin the Beau/Bow”), a tune Lincoln appropriated for his campaign song in 1860. If you note the pattern on the performer’s pants, you might deduce he is an escaped convict.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es3J4yxPFiI
Variations on the tune by Paul Turok:
This is a concert overture titled “McKonkey’s Ferry (Washington at Trenton)” by Trenton’s own George Antheil. I think you’ll agree, Washington has never sounded so Soviet.
Which presidents to celebrate, anyway?
Chester A. Arthur, our 21st president, thought “Hail to the Chief” too undignified, so he requested a new piece from John Philip Sousa. The result was the “Presidential Polonaise” (1886).
I wonder if anyone ever thought to write a polka for Polk?
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