If it's good, turn it into a symphony

By -

San Francisco Opera premiered a new opera from John Adams in 2005, "Doctor Atomic", an opera about the Atomic bomb physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his Manhattan Project team in the New Mexico desert. This opera, unlike anything ever done (according to John Adams), has received numerous critical acclaim and helped earn Mr Adams Operas highest award. The haunting music of the opera is so good, Adams has turned it into a symphony which premiered at the Cabrillo Festival on Saturday.

Howard Shore won 2 Academy Awards for his score for the "Lord of the Rings" films and the result? You guessed it, a symphony. Shore also recently premiered a new opera "The Fly" in Paris and wrote a piece to commemorate Macy's 150th Anniversary.

This concept of turning previously popular material into a compact symphonic version (although Shores "Lord of the Rings" symphony is still 2 hours) is hardly new. John Williams did it with his score from "Star Wars." Shostakovich had his 8th string quartet turned into a symphony by Rudolf Barshai, a famous interpreter of Shostakovich's music. Robert Dearling in his book "The Music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the Symphonies" (p75) suggests Mozart did the same with the opening Andante Grazioso of his opera Ascanio in Alba (K111) by adding a presto Finale. But the idea that it is still happening is exciting?

Why? This conversion of music from film and/or opera into a symphony shows:

1 - a desire to hear the music of these composers in a format other than the original music intended; the music earning a life of its own.

2 - a desire for symphonic works - symphonies to be exact. As one who wants to write more of this genre, this is great news!

I wouldn't be surprised if the next step was to find pop artists taking their "songs" and turning them into longer symphonic pieces. But then Lee Johnson has already done that with his "Dead Symphony No 6" incorporating tunes from the Grateful Dead (performed by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra on August 1st).

Here is a bit from "Doctor Atomic"

Comments

Anonymous said…
Again the A-bomb...it's all about provoking me right....my ego demands you reply 'Yes'

;)

(Cant' convey a really BIG smiley face in plain text, but that's what this is)

El Ranter
August 11, 2008 at 1:07 PM
Chip Michael said…
Yes, my dear Irish Ranting Friend, I am only trying to goad you into capitulation.
August 11, 2008 at 1:27 PM
Anonymous said…
Aha! I knew it, I KNEW IT!
August 12, 2008 at 2:22 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Role of Music in Opera

By -
There are numerous books on the topic, and every composer, librettist, director, singer and audience member has their opinion as to what role the music should play in an opera. In a play without music, the words ought to support the meaning behind a character's actions. However, in the case of action movies, often times the action is what tells the story and there aren't words, just images to forward the plot. We might hear music to accompany action, build tension, but the action tells the story. Musicals tend to speak until the emotion of the moment just "has" to break out in song - unless it's something like "Mama Mia" where the dialog is the rails we travel on between songs; the songs themselves, written before the concept of the musical, are the focus of the production, while the story is secondary. Operas are a different beast. The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. In &quo
Read more

Episode 210b: Joyeuse le départ

By -
Image
Podcast:  Play in new window  |  Download Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts  |  Android  |  Google Play  |  Stitcher  |  TuneIn  |  RSS Provost Cunningham has Transmigrated, but to where! What is Dr Sage going to do with his body? And how can she bring home her friends, Abigail and Erasmus, without also bring home Cunningham? What are they going to say when they find the “skeleton” she’s hiding in her closet? Cast: Eddie Louise Clark  as Dr Sage Chip Clark  as Professor Savant Justin Bremer  as the Narrator Emily Riley Piatt  as Abigail Entwhistle, Calypso & Dean Stewart Written by  Eddie Louise Theme music by  Unwoman Sound Design by  Chip Michael
Read more

The Art of String Quartets by Brian Ferneyhough

By -
Image
When an artist sets paint to canvas, there are brush strokes used for different effects. Sometimes those strokes are subtle, imperceptible; they produce works of art like the Mona Lisa . Other times the very obvious nature of the stroke is the art, as in works by Van Gogh. With some composers of music, the notes on the page are their craft. How those notes translate into an aural experience is what defines some composers as great artists. Brian Ferneyhough has a masterful command of the techniques of putting notes on the page. These techniques are sometimes so subtle, even though written in black and white, they escape detection. Some of what he attempts with his music is just that, to escape detection, to bury the framework, diverting the ear away from the structure, so only the music is heard . The subtlety is so fine it is almost imperceptible. Even though he studied at several institutions, he is considered self-taught, studying scores from Boule
Read more