I’m sorry, I’ve been so busy lately, and if I don’t get started on these posts first thing in the morning, it’s very hard for me to write anything of consequence that reads well. Generally speaking, the earlier I write, the better. Best is when it’s so early, I can’t even think. Just sit down with a cup of coffee and let those fingers go.
But life is such that I can’t always do that. Which is why, for Gustav Mahler’s birthday, here I am at 11:00 a.m., sharing a video of Yoda, Gandalf, and Voldemort conducting the “Resurrection” Symphony. Hey, don’t let it be said that I don’t do my part to popularize the classics.
And it’s not like it’s that farfetched. Dismiss the concept, if you’d like, as puerile nonsense, but it would take wizards of this magnitude to translate the work’s emotional grandeur into images worthy of its transcendent power, even if the music itself is more seismic, uplifting, and transformative than anything that could possibly be expressed on a motion picture screen.
Let me know which of the three you think has the best technique, if you’re so inclined, and happy birthday, Gustav Mahler.
Tag: Harry Potter
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“Fantastic” Conductors Tackle Mahler’s “Resurrection”
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Wizard Music From Lord of the Rings & Harry Potter
This week on “Picture Perfect,” you’ll be spellbound (I hope) by an hour of musical selections from movies about wizards and sorcerers.
Gandalf and Saruman duke it out in Peter Jackson’s frenetic, yet somehow ponderous adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings,” films so bloated and poorly paced that anyone who did not read the books probably wondered what all the fuss was about. Its abundant defects didn’t keep the screen trilogy from making over a billion dollars and garnering 30 Academy Award nominations. Three of those were bestowed upon composer Howard Shore. We’ll be sampling from his music to “The Fellowship of the Ring” (2001).
Made for a fraction of the budget, much less self-serious, and arguably way more fun is “The Sword and the Sorcerer” (1982), which holds no pretense to be anything beyond what it is: a schlocky B-movie sword and sandal swashbuckler. However, the composer, David Whitaker, aspired for something greater. Against tremendous time pressures, he turned in a marvelous score, which sounds like Erich Wolfgang Korngold on a shoestring. If this film had been made by George Lucas, Whitaker would be world famous.
After creating one of his greatest scores for Stanley Kubrick’s “Spartacus,” Alex North had his music for Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” rejected – and not in a nice way. (North didn’t find out about it until the lights went down at the film’s premiere.) Fortunately, the composer was able to salvage the best material for “Dragonslayer” (1981). The plot, about a bumbling sorcerer’s apprentice who faces a seemingly impossible challenge, is serviceable at best, but the dragon may yet be the most amazing committed to film. Also, the score is terrific.
Finally, John Williams kicked off another billion dollar franchise with “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (2001), which in England was released (as was the book) as “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.” Who ever heard of a sorcerer’s stone? I guess the publishers were nervous that Americans would be put off by any association with philosophy.
Prepare to be charmed! It’s music for wizards and sorcerers this week, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
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 – ALL NEW! – 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!
PHOTO: Saruman vexes Gandalf with the exquisite whiteness of his beard
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Harry Potter Lord of the Rings Music
Lumos Solem!
This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” it’s an hour of musical enchantments inspired by “Harry Potter” and “The Lord of the Rings.”
Herbert Chappell composed the occasional concert work (including an impressive guitar concerto for Eduardo Fernandez), in between writing television scores and producing documentaries for the BBC. Unquestionably, his greatest coup was in cutting a deal on behalf of Decca Records for his telecast of “The Three Tenors.” No one, not even the tenors themselves, anticipated its staggering success.
According to Chappell, his concert overture “Boy Wizard,” an impression of Harry Potter, is meant to conjure “an academy of wizardry and witchcraft, owls that deliver letters, cats that act as lie-detectors, unicorns with silvery blood, and a helter-skelter death-defying game of aerial acrobatics, where one whizzes around the sky on turbo-charged broomsticks.” The work appeared in 2001, the same year as the first of the “Harry Potter” film adaptations.
In 1995, American composer Craig Russell was reading “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” aloud to his family, when he became “an unexpected party” to a commission for string orchestra. Russell responded with a seven-movement suite. In 1997, he added two more movements and expanded the orchestration to create “Middle Earth.”
We’ll hear “Frodo Leaves the Shire,” “Gimli, the Dwarf,” “Galadriel and Her Elvin Mirror,” “Gollum,” “Gandalf: The White Rider,” “Shelob’s Lair,” “Orcs and Ring Wraiths,” “Strider and the Crowning of Aragorn,” and “Frodo and Company Return.”
Aulis Sallinen is one of the most respected of contemporary Finnish composers. In 1996, he completed his Symphony No. 7, on a commission from the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, which he gave the subtitle “The Dreams of Gandalf.” Its origins were in a projected ballet inspired by “The Lord of the Rings.” However, the composer hastened to add that the symphony doesn’t actually depict any of the events in the story, but rather its atmosphere and its poetry.
To round out the hour, we’ll have a few minutes to enjoy selections from a fondly-remembered song cycle on Tolkien texts, “The Road Goes Ever On,” by Donald Swann (of Flanders and Swann fame).
I hope you’ll join me for this program of music inspired by pop-cultural and quasi-literary wizards. The effect is guaranteed to be pure magic, on “Spellbound,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
In addition to the considerable achievements noted above, Herbert Chappell also wrote “The Gonk,” employed so memorably in George A. Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead.” Get your hit of whimsical zombie music while awaiting tonight’s broadcast by following the link below.
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Harry Potter Music Magic John Williams
Lumos Solem!
This week on “Picture Perfect,” with Halloween right around the corner, enjoy selections from John Williams’ music for “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” and “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.”
La-La Land Records has compiled every last note as heard in the films, alternate takes, source music, trailer music and teaser ads, and a never-before-released concert suite – eight hours of music on seven CDs – remastered in a limited edition boxed set of 5000 copies.
John Williams is the last of the big screen wizards. Get ready for an hour of pure magic, this Friday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
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Wizard Movie Music: Lord of the Rings to Harry Potter
This week on “Picture Perfect,” you’ll be spellbound (I hope), as I present an hour of musical selections from movies about wizards and sorcerers.
Gandalf and Saruman duke it out in Peter Jackson’s frenetic, yet somehow ponderous adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings,” films so bloated and poorly paced that anyone who had not read the books probably wondered what all the fuss was about. Its abundant defects didn’t keep the screen trilogy from making over a billion dollars and garnering 30 Academy Award nominations. Three of those were bestowed upon composer Howard Shore. We’ll be sampling from his music to “The Fellowship of the Ring” (2001).
Made for a fraction of the budget, much less self-serious, and arguably way more fun is “The Sword and the Sorcerer” (1982), which holds no pretense to be anything beyond what it is: a schlocky B-movie sword and sandal swashbuckler. However, the composer, David Whitaker, aspired for something greater. Against tremendous time pressures, he turned in a marvelous score, which sounds like Erich Wolfgang Korngold on a shoestring. If this film had been made by George Lucas, Whitaker would be world famous.
After creating one of his greatest scores for Stanley Kubrick’s “Spartacus,” Alex North had his music for Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” rejected – and not in a nice way. (North didn’t find out about it until the lights went down at the film’s premiere.) Fortunately, the composer was able to salvage the best material for “Dragonslayer” (1981). The plot, about a bumbling sorcerer’s apprentice who faces a seemingly impossible challenge, is serviceable at best, but the dragon may yet be the most amazing committed to film. Also, the score is terrific.
Finally, John Williams kicks off another billion dollar franchise with “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (2001), which in England was released (as was the book) as “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.” Who ever heard of a sorcerer’s stone? I guess the publishers were afraid Americans would be put off by any association with philosophy.
I hope you’ll join me for wizards and sorcerers this week, on “Picture Perfect,” this Friday evening at 6 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
PHOTO: Saruman vexes Gandalf with the exquisite whiteness of his beard
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