OH! I KNOW THAT ONE!

Program Notes

Classical music has survived for centuries, not just in its original form, but woven into the fabric of everyday life, sometimes in its original form and many times in new and creative ways. Because the older masterworks are now in the public domain, artists can freely repurpose iconic melodies without worrying about copyright issues. Classic melodies find their way into all sorts of genres. Filmmakers use these familiar themes to set a mood in a way that dialogue often cannot. Music can instantly trigger dramatic tension, comedy, romance, playfulness, pageantry, mystery…and the list goes on. Television, podcasts, advertising, and other forms of public media are able to do the same. Think of the Bach Toccata and Fugue and its immediate evocation of eerie surroundings and supernatural dealings, or the Barber Adagio for Strings, used in Platoon, inciting deeply emotional and haunting scenes of war. It is now used routinely to mark national tragedies. Think of Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra, the opening of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Only a tiny fraction of listeners has any idea what comes after those initial chords. And the uses of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in popular culture would be impossible to count. Today’s repertoire presents a selection of these iconic pieces that have found a new home in modern culture.

We begin with the William Tell Overture by Gioachino Rossini. Rossini had been commissioned to provide music for a Schiller play inspired by the 14th century patriot William Tell and actually borrowed an overture from one of his earlier operas because of time constraints. The opera William Tell premiered in 1829. While the overture is in four parts, the most familiar section is the one at the end, full of galloping energy. Rossini said that in the context of this opera, this section represented a cavalry charge by mounted Swiss rebels. Radio producers in the 1930’s decided it was perfect for their Western hero, the Lone Ranger, on radio, television and in movies. It has been used so much in animated cartoons, commercials and everyday references that it has become a musical cliché of sorts. The opera became so popular in Rossini’s time that he was able to retire on its proceeds. It was his last opera of thirty.

Edvard Grieg began his formal study of music at age 15 at the Leipzig Conservatory. He was reportedly unhappy there but did gain a solid basis in musical composition, with access to the continual stream of world famous musicians and composers who came to the Leipzig Gewandhaus. He struggled to complete his studies, but finally graduated in 1862 and published the pieces which had constituted his final exams. He was encouraged by mentors to compose a symphony. He did but never liked it and directed that it never be publicly performed. Inspired by the stories of Hendrik Ibsen, he composed The Peer Gynt Suite in 1875. The five act work follows the wild life of a boastful anti-hero as he travels the world and relates exotic tales, escaping his problems at home. The most familiar section describes frantic creeping, panic and chaos with its rapid acceleration and steady increase in volume. It has been widely utilized in TV, movies, ads, and cartoons, including Sponge Bob Square Pants, Inspector Gadget and a number of video games.

Tchaikovsky reportedly disliked the Overture of 1812, composed in 1880, and said that it was meant to be an "occasional piece for public activities rather than a work of deep, heartfelt artistic expression." It was not written for the US War of 1812, as was popularly believed, and had nothing to do with the United States at all. It rather tells the story of the 1812 invasion of Napoleon’s forces into Russia, and the Russians driving the French out. It was actually composed to celebrate the completion of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. In 1891 Tchaikovsky performed the work in America to open Carnegie Hall in New York. A century later It attracted the attention of Arthur Fiedler, who included it in a Boston Pops July 4th concert in 1974, probably because he liked the loud and bombastic sound, with cannons and church bells. By 1976 it was included in nearly every Independence Day program of every major orchestra, often accompanied by fireworks. It had somehow become a patriotic American anthem! It has been widely used in films and television, including The Muppet Show and The Simpsons. In V for Vendetta, a 2005 film, it was played while an anarchist blew up the Old Bailey and the Parliament Building in London. It is also the first musical bit heard in 2016’s LaLaLand.

The Barber of Seville, by Gioachino Rossini, (yes, the Lone Ranger man) is considered to be a masterwork of comedy within music, the ultimate example of opera buffa. Rossini had grown up around the theater, since both his parents were involved in Italian theater. He composed his first opera at age 14, and by age 15 was earning pocket money by playing violin, horn, and harpsichord, and singing in public. It was the beginning of a prolific career in music. The Barber of Seville was reportedly written in less than one month and premiered in 1816. It describes the antics of a clever and enterprising character named Figaro, who is the barber in the title. After two centuries the opera itself is still performed. Additionally, it has been used scores of times in modern productions. Figaro’s high-energy entrance aria (Figaro! Figaro! Figaro!) was used in a famous Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd cartoon short The Rabbit of Seville in 1950. It was also used for Woody Woodpecker in 1944 and Tom and Jerry in various cartoons. It appears in movies, including Citizen Kane in 1941 and Mrs. Doubtfire in 1993. Television episodes include Seinfeld in 1993 and The Simpsons (The Homer of Seville) in 2007.

The opera Carmen by Bizet, composed in 1875, has some of the most familiar tunes in the genre, and its music has appeared many times in pop culture. The Carmen Fantasy for violin was written in 1883 by Pablo de Sarasate, a Spanish violin virtuoso and composer. He began his violin lessons at age five and was well into the concert circuit by age 15. He composed a large number of violin pieces, and of the 55 still in existence most are rarely played. He is best known for Zigeunerweisen (1878) and the Carmen Fantasy. Sarasate’s dazzling technique and sweet, clear sound were much sought-after by audiences of his day. The challenging and technically demanding work is seen by modern players as a rite of passage for novices and an adventurous undertaking for experienced payers. The five movement piece begins with Aragonaise, then moves to the very familiar but much ornamented Habanera. After a brief interlude we hear Seguidilla, with the Gypsy Dance, the most amazingly difficult movement of the five, bringing the work to a rousing close. In the recent past, Habanera plays in the background of an emotional scene in Up, a Disney Pixar film. It has also been used multiple times on Sesame Street. Who can forget The Swedish Chef and Beaker crooning it as they cook? Or a lullaby version played as Elmo goes to sleep?

Jules Massenet was the composer of thirty operas. While critics did not find him to be an operatic genius, considering him old-fashioned and unadventurous, he had an excellent sense of theater, and of the Parisian taste in music. He was very popular and was deemed to be the leading composer of operas in France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The story of Thais, composed in 1894, involves a religious monk, Athanaël, who tries to turn the courtesan Thais from a life of earthly pleasure to God. As the story progresses Athanaël realizes that his own pursuit is driven by earthly obsession, while Thais ultimately achieves spiritual peace. The Meditation is a serene, soaring melody for solo violin, representing the spiritual journey and conversion of the title character. It appears as an interlude between the third and fourth scenes of the opera. Meditation quickly broke away from the opera and became a stand-alone violin miniature, used in multiple settings to create a mood of peace, drama and spiritual reflection. Alone, it has been recorded by history’s greatest violinists, including Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifitz, and Anne-Sophie Mutter. With its dramatic phrasing and emotional peaks, it also makes wonderful music to skate to and has been used in multiple competitions. In a pop culture near-miss, Orson Welles wanted to use it in his classic 1941 film Citizen Kane but was prevented by copyright issues.

For his 1946 The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Benjamin Britten went back to a stately dance tune by Henry Purcell, who lived from 1659 to 1696. At that time it was composed for a play called Abdelaze, and Britten found it right for an educational documentary film called Instruments of the Orchestra which was presented in London that year. It was quickly adopted by symphony orchestras for the concert hall. In 1949, it was performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic with Britten conducting. It gained massive American exposure after being featured in a 1961 episode of Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’a Concerts on CBS.

After introducing the theme in the full orchestra, Britten deconstructs the orchestra by creating a stream of brilliant and imaginative variations featuring individual instrument families, namely woodwinds, brass, strings and percussion, before returning to the full orchestra. Each family performs its variation, and then all four sections are reunited around the original melody in a grand D-major finale. In 2012, Wes Anderson featured it in a movie called Moonrise Kingdom, and it is frequently used as an educational piece with school groups.