No John Williams that I noticed, but a couple pieces by Bernard Herrmann. Now, Bernie did real music – a symphony, a string quartet, a clarinet quintet – in addition to some of the most famous soundtracks in Hollywood history.
The one that brought a real smile to my face was the suite of music for Hitchcock’s NORTH BY NORTHWEST; based, weirdly enough, on Spanish Fandango form.
One of my favorite scores – what orchestration! – and one of the most exciting film scores ever. Remember how it strikes up again when Thornhill finds the knife in his hand and flees the United Nations in an overhead shot?
Was Fanfare for the Common Man one of a set of fanfares? I once found a reference to “Twelve Fanfares,” but I’ve never found anything further.
I know that a radio commercial used a similar fanfare, but it might easily have been ret-conned by a modern industrial composer – just change the low notes to high ones, etc.
There were actually 18 fanfares composed for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, each by a different composer. They were mercifully performed at separate concerts.
There’s also a *Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, *composed by Joan Tower.
Yeah, I realize that now. They just played “Fanfare” for the 18th time, and I noticed it wasn’t the Beef Tune.
…my god, haw MANY American composers thought it would be a cute n’ clever idea to write a set of orchestral variations on “Yankee Doodle” ? Far, far too many.
All I’ll say about Copland is that he apparently hated basses. We did one of his pieces in band once, and the tuba part consisted of about 63 measures of rest, then four notes, then another 44 measures of rest.
Copland definitely has a ‘sound’ . . . but his unique voice is part of what makes him great.
Another 20th century American great, John Williams, is also beloved because everything he writes sounds like John Williams. Everything Mozart wrote sounds like Mozart.
Lesser composers are the ones who can’t manage to make themselves heard above the sonorous din of rhythm and harmony. Great composers stake out new territory. Copland certainly did that.
Chicagoan here. I heard something that was rather nice but by someone I never heard of that he conducted.
The night WFMU changed from classical to classic rock the DJ played that. Kept an open mike as he explained to callers that it was supposed to be like that. FMT plays the big Bs. FMU rocked. Um, before it rocked.
