Film music vs. Classical music

Well it’s been a little while since my last post. We’ve moved from April to August; I could say life has been busy, but to be honest I simply haven’t had anything worthy to write about. Sometimes I forget about BtNG. Then someone leaves a comment and reminds me that it still exists.

This here post is one I’ve been brewing on for a while. It’s nothing original. Many people have remarked in the past about how some themes from movie scores sound very similar to others from older classical pieces.

1) The first example is of course the most notorious:

JAWS theme, by John Williams

Havergal Brian (1876-1972)

This morning I was a full twenty-eight minutes late to work, due to the closing of a portion of I-465 that I normally take to work. Apparently there was a major overnight accident involving several semis. Now the highway is covered in fritos, mayonnaise and Gatorade. Yikes!

I eventually found myself crawling at a snail’s pace along Girls School Road. This afforded me the opportunity to listen to 88.7’s weekday morning program “Symphonic Sunrise”. Sometime after 8:00 there was a little blurb about a composer who had apparently written the “largest symphony ever”

An Evening of Verdi

This weekend, the ISC will perform its last concert of the 2007-2008 season with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra downtown at Hilbert Circle Theatre. Since joining the choir about a year and a half ago, among many things, I have enjoyed learning and performing the great choral/orchestral masterworks (which I should have already been familiar with). Among these have been Brahms’ German Requiem, Mendellsohn’s Elijah, Handel’s Messiah and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.

This weekend’s Requiem  is no less exciting. Verdi’s work has all of the drama and force that are found in his myriad operas. The German conductor Hans von Bülow called it “Verdi’s latest opera in church vestments.” And Brahms himself wrote, “Only a genius could have written such a work.” 

The text omits the traditional Gloria and Credo while including a lengthier Dies Irae set to the poem of Thomas of Celano. This large portion of the work is separated into nine sections.

As I’ve said before, it is a distinct privilege to work with Mario Venzago and the ISO. I honestly believe our orchestra is one of the very best in the nation, and that is in large part due to Maestro Venzago’s energetic and creative leadership. The chorus will join forces with Apollo’s Voice, a professional chamber choir made up of singers, conductors and various musicains associated with IU Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington.

Should be a treat.

A Truly Inconvenient Truth

 

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N.Y. Philharmonic plays concert in North Korea

Wow. I thought this was an incredible story. It is very encouraging; and I am always gladdened to see that music can bring anyone together at any place and any time–even if only for a moment.

You can read the full article here.