RonBurbella

There was a VERY entertaining, split-second timed video of photographs to accompany the SUPERMAN encore. It started with early black and white photos of JW as a child and as a very young musician. Then it followed his career through the years, with many, many photos of his concerts, film scoring, and collaborations with various artists and celebrities. The photos came to a well-timed end with the last notes of SUPERMAN. Quite effective in showing that HE is our musical Superman. Ron Burbella

WILLIAMS POSTPONED AGAIN! This disclaimer now shows up at the PSO concert calendar: https://www.pittsburghsymphony.org/production/62701/postponed-an-evening-with-honeck-and-mutter-and-williams For ticket holders: we are still actively looking to schedule all guest artists to perform with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at a future date. However, we believe it is best to cancel these concerts until we can announce a new date for the event. Should we reschedule these appearances, those who held tickets to these concerts will be offered a priority presale opportunity to purchase tickets in advance of the general public. At this time, ticketholders will receive a refund. The PSO will reach out to all with new information as it becomes available and appreciates your patience and understanding.

Well, I've had the time to scan the Pilot Episode and all 28 WIDE COUNTRY series episodes (at 5x) to watch for anybody singing a song and look for any song credits at the end. There is NO use of "The Way of a Wand'rer" to be found. Only two songs were sung: "The Wabash Cannonball" and "Wait for the Wagon," with no mention of either in the end credits. There was even a single episode where someone "forgot" to put the "Theme by Johnny Williams" in the end credits! So this song's use (or non-use) remains undiscovered, lost in the output of Revue Studios. As far as I can tell, there is no way to view Alcoa Premiere episodes, except for a few on YouTube.

I've found a used, reasonably priced DVD set (Released 2011) of the complete WIDE COUNTRY (28 episodes). It's ordered. I plan to scan all of the End Credits first, rather than watch all 28 hours of individual episodes. If there is no song credit in any of the End Credits, I'll assume that either the song was uncredited or was from another Revue Studios effort. What are the odds that the song WOULD be in an episode, a copyright filed by Revue Studios, but then the song NOT be listed in the End Credits? Unlikely, I think, but not impossible.

The theme fragment scanned above can be found at the bottom of the back page of the "MARNIE" sheet music (Yes, Bernard Herrmann wrote a song for Marnie) (which was also published by Hawaii Music), with Lyrics by Peter Jayson and Gloria Shayne. Whether he WANTED his music to be used for a song can be debated. So the possible Hawaii Music-Diamond Head association, while tempting, may not be there. I found this copyright notation online : The Way of a Wand'rer. (w Jerry Gladstone, m Johnny Williams) Type of Work: EU0000745285 / 1962-11-15 Musical Work: RE0000497558 / 1990-11-21 Copyright Claimant: Revue Studios (PWH) Since the Copyright Claimant is Revue Studios, I suspect that the song may have been written either for "Wide Country" or "Alcoa Premiere" (both Revue shows), on which Johnny Williams was working at the time. WIDE COUNTRY (1962-1963) (would be my first pick, as it was the story of the travels of a "rodeo bum" out west. Now, if this supposition is actually true, until someone can watch the end credits of all of the episodes to see the location of this credit, the place of the song still remains to be exactly located.

I liked the "early days" focus of the article on John's roots. The music bug bit John early in life. If you're in the Hollywood Bowl area, seeing the scores performed live is a wonderful experience. Last year, I saw David Newman conduct the New York Philharmonic in four world premieres of A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and The Force Awakens. At the last concert, I heard someone calling my name...my daughter, who lives in Manhattan. Katy Perry was sold out at Madison Square Garden, so she and her boyfriend made a last minute decision to go to Lincoln Center, unknown to me. All those John Williams concerts I took the family to as the kids grew up paid off.

I'll be attending the annual FILM NIGHT at Tanglewood, August 14th. The Visitor Center is unable to provide me with the Final Program of film music to be played except for Raiders, Close Encounters, Jaws, and....CHINATOWN. So I guess the Tribute to "Steven Spielberg" will be half of the concert, and the "other half" will include Chinatown. TWO QUESTIONS: (1) Does anyone know of or have the ENTIRE Film Night program? (2) Does anyone know if FILM NIGHT will be broadcast live over the Internet as it has been in the past? Thanks! Ron Burbella

I just got the Tanglewood brochure for the 2009 season. This year, FILM NIGHT AT TANGLEWOOD will be on Saturday, July 18th. Here's what the brochure says about the program: "John Williams returns to lead the Boston Pops and special guests in his annual celebration of music from the movies. This year's program is a tribute to the legacy of Warner Bros. Pictures and will include film and musical excerpts from some of the studio's legendary movies, including selections from Mr. Williams' own scores for Superman and Harry Potter." So, in addition to Williams' music, I guess there will be lots of Korngold and Steiner. Ron Burbella

Years ago, John Williams had recorded a substantial series of intro and exit "Bumper Cues" for NBC's coverage of the Olympics. And I think that sometime last year he recorded a new set of bumper cues for the 2008 Olympics. I always found how he extracted them from his larger Olympic musical works into 5-10-15-second cues to be musically interesting and quite clever. Somewhere out there are copies of these internal NBC Library cues. Anybody have a copy, either of the first batch or the more recent batch? Please contact me. And then there are those diligent home recording enthusiasts who taped hours and hours of Olympic coverage to try and get those bumper cues without any fading-in or fading-out or any dreaded "voiceovers." God knows I tried back in 1988 with only limited success. Did any determined fan have more success than I did? Ron Burbella BurbellaRon@cs.com

Hi All, I will be attending the annual FILM NIGHT concert at Tanglewood with John Williams and the Boston Pops with my wife and daughter. Is anyone else attending? *********************************************************************** I hope that some of those who cannot attend will listen live and record the FILM NIGHT concert for me. WMNR-FM will again broadcast the consert live over the Internet. The radio station link is http://www.wmnr.org Just click on the "Listen" button. Real Audio does a decent job. **************************************************************************** The BSO concert information link is: http://www.bso.org/bso/mods/perf_detail.js...pid=prod2110020 Here's the e-mail I got from the station manager of WMNR-FM, confirming the broadcast. Happy Listening! Ron Burbella ************************************************************************** Hello, Yes, we will. Enjoy! Best wishes, Jane Stadler WMNR Oporations ----- Original Message ----- From: BurbellaRon@cs.com To: info@wmnr.org Sent: Saturday, July 12, 2008 2:05 PM Subject: John Williams' "Film Night" Concert (July 26th) Hello, Can you tell me if you will be broadcasting the John Williams "Film Night" Concert from Tanglewood on July 26th, 2008, as you did last year in August of 2007? Thanks! Ron Burbella

The August 2007 FILM NIGHT concert at Tanglewood was broadcast over the internet by WMNR-FM last year. Does anyone know is they will be doing the same for this year's FILM NIGHT on July 26th? I will be attending the concert, but I would also like to try to record the concert off the internet, or at least connect with someone who will be doing that if I can't. Ron Burbella

I know that John Williams' CALL OF THE CHAMPIONS was composed to be done with choir, but I was wondering if there has been recorded an "orchestral-only" version. In Googling around on the topic, I see that it has been performed in many concerts, and I assume that not all of them featured a choir. Are there any orchestral-only versions out there? Ron Burbella

The Hollywood Bowl web site now lists John Williams annual two-concert weekend to be Aug. 29-30, with special guest narrator Stanley Donen, who will narrate a segment on the music of MGM musicals that he directed. This duplicates, in part, the Williams-New York Philharmonic concert from September 2007. Whether or not the Williams music featured in the concert remains the same remains to be seen. Here's the link: http://www.hollywoodbowl.com/tickets/perfo...ail.cfm?id=3551 Ron Burbella

I'm looking for someone who taped the FILM NIGHT at Tanglewood Concert last night (8/25/07). It was broadcast in its entirety from 8:30PM till almost 11:00PM. Ron Burbella