At the Pops! 03•05•2023
Midway March | John Williams (trans. Paul Lavender)
John Williams (b. 1932) has composed the music and served as the music director for 80-plus films, including the 1976 hit Midway. That film, shot in a documentary style, chronicled the historic World War II battle in which the U.S. Navy handed the Imperial Japanese Navy its first defeat in 80 years. Williams was eager to take on the project, in part because the sound track used a new technology called Sensurround to enhance the physical sensations of engines, explosions, crashes, and gunfire. However, given the movie’s documentary style, it didn’t involve much music. Williams wrote only two themes: one military, the other pastoral. “Midway March” presents the military theme, a spirited, lilting, patriotic march that has been described as “Sousa-esque.”
Fields of Gold | Julie Giroux
Julie Giroux (b. 1961) is an accomplished orchestrator, composer, arranger, clinician, and guest conductor. Giroux graduated from Ouachita Parish High School, in Monroe, Louisiana and earned a Bachelor of Music in Performance from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. She began composing commercially in 1984 when she was hired by Oscar-winning composer Bill Conti as an orchestrator upon graduating from college. With over 100 film, television, and video game credits, Giroux has collaborated with dozens of film composers, producers, and celebrities including Martin Scorsese, Liza Minnelli, Celine Dion, Michael Jackson, Harry Connick Jr., and many others.
Many of her projects have been nominated for Oscars, Emmys, Grammys, and Golden Globe awards. She has won individual Emmy Awards in the field of “Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Direction.” When she won her first Emmy Award, she was the first woman and the youngest person to ever win that award. She has won it three times.
Julie Giroux is a self-described video game nerd and fan of comic superheroes. Her favorite superhero is Superman. Describing “Fields of Gold,” Julie says: “There are scenes from Superman movies that always strike home with me; when Superman is standing alone, surrounded by fields of gold as a farmer, a son, and an honest man of quality and just worth. That is how I will always think of him, how I will always think of Superman. “[Fields of] Gold” tells the story of an alien child sent to Earth, the last survivor of a doomed planet and civilization. Lovingly raised by farmers and taught to be fair, humble, hardworking, and to never tell a lie, the child grows into the son they could never have and the superhero everyone can admire.”
Canticle for Flutes | Elliot Del Borgo
Born in Port Chester, New York, Elliot Del Borgo (1938–2013) held a B.S. degree from the State University of New York, an Ed.M. degree from Temple University, and an M.M. degree from the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music, where he studied theory and composition. Del Borgo taught instrumental music in the Philadelphia public schools and was professor of music at the Crane School of Music, where he held teaching and administrative positions from 1966 to 1995. In addition, he was a frequent consultant, clinician, lecturer, and adjudicator in the United States and abroad. As a composer, Del Borgo wrote over 600 works, including music for the closing ceremony of the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. Del Borgo described his work as “music you will want to play again and again.” “Canticle” is a work designed to explore the Baroque Concerto Grosso principle in a modern setting using the flute section as the solo group. The cantabile opens with a slow section that contrasts with the vigor and power of the fast section that follows. A freely played cadenza occurs before a return to an energetic close. “Canticle” was written to portray both the virtuosity and expressiveness of the flute and features the Medalist Concert Band flute section.
Harry Potter Symphonic Suite | John Williams (arr. R. W. Smith)
John Williams (b. 1932) is the initial creator of the music in Harry Potter and the man behind “Hedwig’s Theme,” which is easily the most recognizable song from the entire Harry Potter series. Williams scored the first three films of the Harry Potter series (The Sorcerer’s Stone, The Chamber of Secrets, and The Prisoner of Azkaban), laying a foundation for all the beautiful music to come. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone has been the basis for all the Harry Potter film scores. Williams orchestrates previous themes into different tracks, making each one idiosyncratic in its character, but they all sound familiar and interlinked throughout the films. The artistic strengths of John Williams and Robert W. Smith combine to create a symphonic medley of music from the hit movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Listen for the familiar “Hedwig’s Theme,” “Nimbus 2000,” “Hogwarts Forever,” “Leaving Hogwarts,” and “Harry’s Wondrous World.”
Intermission
El Arca De Noe | Oscar Navarro
Oscar Navarro was born (b.1981) in the town of Novelda (Alicante, Spain), where he began his musical studies, receiving the Extraordinary End of Elementary Degree Award. Navarro studied scoring for motion picture and TV at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music. In the film industry, Navarro has written music for feature films, short films, and documentaries. Winner of the Hollywood Music in Media Awards and nominee in the GOYA Spanish Academy Awards 2014, Navarro’s music is performed and premiered in large concert halls around the world.
El Arca De Noe is a symphonic poem divided into 10 descriptive sections of biblical passages from the story of Noah’s Ark. The symphonic poem, unlike traditional classical symphonic movements, inspires listeners to imagine or consider scenes, images, specific ideas, or moods, and not to focus on following traditional patterns of musical form (e.g., sonata form).
Special thanks to Medalist Band member Al Hansen for creating the slide show illustrating the piece.
1. On the Mountain
Noah is on the mountain (theme played by the English horn) receiving the tragic news of the great flood that will ravage Earth.
2. The Word of God
The lower section of the wind band embodies God speaking his last words to Noah with the background sound of celestial bells.
3. The Land of the Beasts
After God’s profound words to Noah, the land is populated by a multitude of animals, among which the elephants can be heard, represented by the glissandos of the French horn section, under an incessant rhythm marked by the percussion.
4. Noah’s Family
Noah’s family observes with sorrow the vast plains that soon will disappear under the water.
5. The Birds
Over the next few minutes, the music broadly describes the different families of the great animal kingdom that populate Earth, beginning with the birds.
6. The Life of the Sea
This music plunges us into the great ocean populated by dolphins, whales, and other creatures. In the the distance, the bells announce midnight.
7. The Ark at Night Time
In the ark, the warm melody is provided by the horns and light interventions with a flute and piccolo mimicking the call of birds. The melody is picked up by the clarinet, the bassoon,
and then the tenor saxophone.
8. The Storm
Listen for the sound of frogs and others in the first drops of rain. A sudden flash of lightning announces the flood.
9. Destruction
A huge storm is destroying Earth. The melody, previously in the horns, is now, with great fury, in the band’s basses. Inside the ark, there is general nervousness and the sound of the elephants. Outside the ark a few measures of ostinato supported by the bells lead to the big explosion and finally the end of the great flood. Calm comes and the ark disappears into the horizon through a solo for two clarinets that leads to an infinite pianissimo.
10. The New Earth
The gentle melody played by the horn and the call of the dove (portamento of the flute) in the distance heralds the resurgence of new valleys and plains. With a relentless march rhythm and gentle waves of the floodwaters, the ark heads toward the new land. The revival of an unspoiled paradise is blessed by God and offered to Noah and his family.
Program notes by Sue Hinton and Sue Freese
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