Classical Post: "Olympic Fanfare," by John Williams

Apologies for the late post - I've been undergoing some construction on my professional website. This blog will also have some work done in the coming weeks, a renovation, if you will (with less trash dumpsters and more HTML). Today we take a look at "Olympic Fanfare" by John Williams, arranged for concert band by James Curnow.

I spent a bit of time deciding which piece to cover this week - there are many good concert band compositions, and many that I love. I finally resorted to consulting with my good friend and fabulous flautist, David, to ask him which I should choose. He suggested this piece, one we played together in high school (though I suspect he played quite a bit more than I) and we both enjoy greatly.  Thanks, David!

This piece was written by the great John Williams, winner of 5 Oscars for his film scores. He's written the music for immensely popular movies, such as Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, E.T...the list is longer than the lines to return the reindeer sweater your great Aunt Mae gave you for Christmas on the 26th of December. All told, he's scored 75 films. This man knows his strengths, to say the very least. Many musicians would say that he excels in writing major fifth intervals - when played together, its known as a power chord, and rightly so. He is adept at writing exciting, engaging music that fans listen to long after they've left the movie theater.

He wrote this piece for a full symphonic orchestra for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic games. It replaced the previous fanfare, titled "The Bugler's Dream," by Leo Arnaud, written in the 1960's. Arnaud was also a respected film composer, best known for his music in "The Unsinkable Molly Bown." This piece has been arranged for a number of ensembles by a number of composers, but today we look at James Curnow's. It is the most fluid, well known, and complete version of this piece. Its pretty much the only one you can get a hold of for concert band. Take a listen:

I'm going to go ahead and point out that this is a HIGH SCHOOL band. This piece has some seriously challenging parts to it, and I spent a good chunk of time tracking down a recording that was both good quality and a well rounded technique from the ensemble. I learned two things when searching for a decent recording: 1 - there aren't many conductors who upload recordings from their concerts, and 2 - musical ensembles are severely lacking in decent recording equipment. So thank you to the conductor and ensemble of West Milford Highlander Wind Ensemble for putting yourselves out there for the internet to judge.

We have a short intro, which branches into the main fanfare theme at 0:25. Those quick notes are called triplets, and they are very challenging (especially for a high school trumpet player) to make sound clean and not miss any notes. Quick note: most brass instruments are played utilizing partials, which concerns the shape of their lips and amount of air pushed through the horn. As a flute player, I am to this day amazed at how brass players know which partial to aim for.

Listen to this main theme. See if you can pick out when it comes back. At 0:45, we hear percussion added into the mix. We have a bass drum and a cymbal. We gradually the snare drum, but it doesn't become prevalent until 1:06.

At this point, we have the driving rhythm of the snare drum with some lovely melodic lines in the low brass and saxophones, accented with those quick triplets in the trumpet. Seeing as this was used for the Olympics, that driving rhythm is perfect to walk to. Think about military bands and marching bands and how their percussion section is always diving a constant, steady beat. Its the same concept here. 

At 2:21, the snare drops out, but its back at 2:32. This piece has a very constant rhythm with no rubato. (Rubato is the fluctuation of tempos.) At 2:34 we have a reiteration of a previous theme, which sounds very regal and noble. If you listen closely, you can hear the brass and woodwind sections echoing each other with that short little snippet (which is called a motif).

2:45 shows a buildup to a mini climax. We have the constant snare with some little blips of the theme echoing around the ensemble. At 3:01 we have the mini climax - is it over? NOT YET! Listen to how the percussion keeps building and adding, becoming more intense. 3:24 has the flutes with that little "icing" on the top. I'm not ashamed to admit that I faked my way through this piece in high school. Ahem.

We have a full ensemble version of that lovely melodic theme that was introduced by the low brass earlier in the piece. It just feels bigger and more impressive now, especially with the percussion providing that driving force. From 4:15 until the end would be the official grand climax. This piece packs a lot of prestige and pride into approximately four and a half minutes, courtesy of John Williams.

 Pieces like this are timeless, and this arrangement to wind ensemble is well done. Its very difficult to orchestrate a piece for new instrumentation, especially when the ranges of the instruments don't match up. That's all for now, and feel free to leave comments congratulating this band on their job well done!

*Applause*