I hate "Adventures On Earth"

[MrScratch 294]

I went to see the National Symphony Orchestra Saturday night at the Kennedy Center in DC. It was supposed to be Bill Conti conducting a program of film music entitled "...And The Winner Is" However, due to all the snow Conti couldn't make it and nether did his music. So, the program we were going to hear wasn't played and instead what we got was a hastily assembled concert of whatever they had laying around. This included "Let It Snow" "Sleigh Ride" and "The Nutcracker Suite" I guess this was because there was snow on the ground, har har. They also played Giacchino's Star Trek end credits and a bunch of John Williams pieces.

Now ordinarily I wouldn't mind hearing some Williams greatest hits performed live. However, I found out earlier in the day that Conti couldn't make it, but I figured that they would still play the same program. So, quite literally I didn't know about the program change until the concert actually started. This brings me to the topic of my thread. The conductor introduced each piece and before Adventures On Earth, he talked about the iconic image of E.T. "flying over the face of the moon" and how when listening to the piece you can't help but picture E.T. and Elliot soaring through the air. In my already disgruntled mood, it reignited my disdain for the hacked up version of what is arguably the greatest piece of film music ever. Nowhere in the concert piece is the music for E.T. and Elliot flying, so how is that supposed to inspire such imagery?

[Quintus 5,399]

Yeah, AOE definitely features the most anti-climatic and downright jarring cue moment of Williams' career. I never listen to it. Narratively speaking, I find its even more disappointing than Shore's The Fields Of The Pelennor - as heard on the RotK ost, which was a shocker in its own right, at the time.

[King Mark 3,631]

the OST version will always be the best, but there's nothing wrong with the concert version

Unless it's Bill Conti's god awful arrangement of the flying theme he plays at the Oscars sometimes

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

"Adventures" (plural) is a weak concert piece. The thing is, the music contained is fantastic, but the editing choices are horrible. I still listen to it occasionally.

[Nemesis 245]

I have no problem with the concert version, but I don't listen to it much.

[Greg1138 3]

I always feel slightly cheated when I play the concert version....never sits well with me - in fact I have been known to get in the car after the concert and put the proper version on at full blast to redress the balance in my mind...

[MrScratch 294]

the OST version will always be the best, but there's nothing wrong with the concert version

Unless it's Bill Conti's god awful arrangement of the flying theme he plays at the Oscars sometimes

Nothing wrong with it? Musically, E.T. & Elliot never leave the ground. What's the point? Greg is right, you very much feel cheated. As far as I know, Erich Kunzel is the only one to ever record the film version of Adventures on Earth. I wonder if Kunzel ever played it live, it would be a real thrill to see that performed. I'm to the point where I don't even want to hear E.T. live at any concert any more because it's either going to be the hacked up Adventures or the Flying Theme, which I'm pretty tired of hearing.

Conti's original program featured a medley of film music themes that included E.T. (and Star Wars and Raiders) so had he showed up we might very well have heard his Oscar arrangement of the theme.

My friend, who bought the tickets, spoke with somebody from the Kennedy Center yesterday and they are giving us free tickets to any upcoming show. I've seen Conti before, so I wasn't too upset but I know my friend really wanted to see him and hear him conduct Rocky live.

[gkgyver 1,646]

Adventures On Earth isn't necessarily a bad concert suite, it just doesn't do the full version justice in any way.

[Ollie 1,059]

The original album / film version are the two best presentations. Every other recording I've heard fails to impress me.

[Uni 306]

I don't mind the concert version nearly as much as you do, though it's certainly the inferior of the two. You could say that the flying music does actually enter into it, just in the wrong place: the main theme suite (as featured in the film version when the kids ride across the sun--not the moon) is relocated to the end of the piece, at the point when (in the film version) E.T. is taking a stroll up the gangway of his ship.

My biggest problem with the piece is that it leaves out a major adventure--the van/tube "chase" scene. It's just not complete without it.

However . . . when I saw the Colorado Symphony Orchestra perform it last year under the baton of a man who'd played strings for the studio recordings of such august scores as Close Encounters and Jaws, I definitely didn't mind listening to the concert version. Just hearing that music live, particularly the three buildups at the end and the majestic fanfare to wrap it all up, was enough to bring tears to my eyes.

- Uni

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

The original album / film version are the two best presentations. Every other recording I've heard fails to impress me.

Same here!

[Datameister 2,044]

I agree. Actually, a lot of concert versions don't do it for me, but this is one of the worse offenders.

[unus1mundus 0]

Here's a great JW performance of Adventures On Earth in October 2009:

Is this the version you're all talking about?

[Foxfan 128]

I also hate the way the climax is just removed for no reason.

Williams did perform the full version though at Tanglewood during the summer of 2003. It was accompanied by the last reel of the film playing above.

[MSM 126]

Adventures On Earth isn't necessarily a bad concert suite, it just doesn't do the full version justice in any way.

I think it's Herb Spencer's arrangement, not JW's own.

[Ollie 1,059]

Every version I've heard away from the film has been slow and lethargic.

[Datameister 2,044]

Maybe that's to compensate for the ridiculously fast tempi everyone takes with "Theme from Jurassic Park"? Even Williams himself?

[Greg1138 3]

Maybe that's to compensate for the ridiculously fast tempi everyone takes with "Theme from Jurassic Park"? Even Williams himself?

Almost everyone - I actually take it a tad slower than the OST speed. I can't play it fast - it just doesn't sound right.

[Datameister 2,044]

Good for you! Now, if we could only get Williams to understand...

[Luke Skywalker 1,796]

The concert version of Jurassic park, is meant to play fast.

Williams recorded it like that in TLW and all his( or others) performances are fast too.

[Datameister 2,044]

That's exactly the problem I'm talking about! He always conducts it way too quickly. It sounds perfect at the slower tempo for which it was originally written in Jurassic Park, whereas it sounds like cheesy pop orchestral crap if played quickly.

[paleo 63]

That's exactly the problem I'm talking about! He always conducts it way too quickly. It sounds perfect at the slower tempo for which it was originally written in Jurassic Park, whereas it sounds like cheesy pop orchestral crap if played quickly.

I totally agree. The theme was composed to convey majesty, gravitas or however you want to call it, and the quick tempo in The Lost World and many concert versions almost ruins the effect (it accompanies the first appeaance of the Brachiosaurus, after all, not the fast Compsognathus ;-)). It would be like hearing Dunbar's Theme in Dances with Wolves twice as fast...

[MSM 126]

That's exactly the problem I'm talking about! He always conducts it way too quickly. It sounds perfect at the slower tempo for which it was originally written in Jurassic Park, whereas it sounds like cheesy pop orchestral crap if played quickly.

He does it more often. Schindler's List with Perlman and the Utah SO is much faster then the OST. Also I think SW Main Theme with Skywalker Symphony is quite sloppy because it is played so fast.

With regard to the JP theme, there is a rumor going around JW records it only uptempo because he is not allowed to play it more slowly since he lost a lawsuit to some-one who claimed JW took the theme from him (including the slow tempo). However, this story has never been proven and is therefore I think an urban legend.

[Datameister 2,044]

I've heard that one, too...I doubt it's true.

[Hlao-roo 389]

There are people who'd conduct these themes more slowly, but they're all dead.

[Greg1138 3]

With regard to the JP theme, there is a rumor going around JW records it only uptempo because he is not allowed to play it more slowly since he lost a lawsuit to some-one who claimed JW took the theme from him (including the slow tempo). However, this story has never been proven and is therefore I think an urban legend.

You're instinct is correct - this has been debunked many times.

[Sandor 797]

With regard to the JP theme, there is a rumor going around JW records it only uptempo because he is not allowed to play it more slowly since he lost a lawsuit to some-one who claimed JW took the theme from him (including the slow tempo). However, this story has never been proven and is therefore I think an urban legend.

You're instinct is correct - this has been debunked many times.

The real reason for the up-tempo version is quite simple actually.

The concert suite consists of The Theme From Jurassic Park and The Island Theme. If played at the tempo as heard on the original soundtrack, the piece would become too long (I guess this is how Williams reasons). However, I have many recordings of solely the Theme from Jurassic Park (sans the Island Theme) and on those versions the tempo is slower. So: Theme only = slow tempo, concert suite arrangement (Theme + Island Theme) = faster tempo.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,554]

With regard to the JP theme, there is a rumor going around JW records it only uptempo because he is not allowed to play it more slowly since he lost a lawsuit to some-one who claimed JW took the theme from him (including the slow tempo). However, this story has never been proven and is therefore I think an urban legend.

You're instinct is correct - this has been debunked many times.

This is a tad disturbing. I can't imagine J.W. being sued for plagairism; he just doesn't seem the type to "nick" stuff. James Horner, on the other hand, should sue himself with every new score!

Is it me, or is "Adventures On Earth" way too slow, which is unlike the End Titles to "The Lost World", which sounds as if the orchestra has a bus to catch.

I honestly do not think that "A. on E." works as a concert piece (I have seen/heard J.W. conduct it). I agree with other posts that say that it is just not "involving". Having said that, the only way to show one's appreciation on hearing it live, is to rise to your feet, give J.W. a standing ovation, strip naked, run up to the stage, jump all over J.W., smother him with kisses, offer to have his baby, etc., etc.

[Sandor 797]

With regard to the JP theme, there is a rumor going around JW records it only uptempo because he is not allowed to play it more slowly since he lost a lawsuit to some-one who claimed JW took the theme from him (including the slow tempo). However, this story has never been proven and is therefore I think an urban legend.

You're instinct is correct - this has been debunked many times.

This is a tad disturbing. I can't imagine J.W. being sued for plagairism; he just doesn't seem the type to "nick" stuff.

Certainly not intentionally. But any musician can unknowingly create something that sounds similar to another composer's work. Ask Coldplay and Joe Satriani.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,554]

With regard to the JP theme, there is a rumor going around JW records it only uptempo because he is not allowed to play it more slowly since he lost a lawsuit to some-one who claimed JW took the theme from him (including the slow tempo). However, this story has never been proven and is therefore I think an urban legend.

You're instinct is correct - this has been debunked many times.

This is a tad disturbing. I can't imagine J.W. being sued for plagairism; he just doesn't seem the type to "nick" stuff.

Certainly not intentionally. But any musician can unknowingly create something that sounds similar to another composer's work. Ask Coldplay and Joe Satriani.

...or on the subject of Coldplay, ask Kraftwerk, or The Verve/Andrew Loog Oldham, hee, heee, hee!

[Ollie 1,059]

John Williams has been sued before, the Les Baxter / E.T. fiasco is the only one I know of. I'm trying to remember if the JP thing was mentioned in the news, but I don't think Williams was found guilty.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,554]

John Williams has been sued before, the Les Baxter / E.T. fiasco is the only one I know of. I'm trying to remember if the JP thing was mentioned in the news, but I don't think Williams was found guilty.

Mark, what is this "Les Baxter/E.T. fiasco" all about? I've never heard of it.

[Ollie 1,059]

http://jwfan.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=15431&st=0&p=438064&hl=LES%20BAXTER&fromsearch=1entry438064

[Naïve Old Fart 9,554]

Ooh, er. Thanks for that. Still, it could be worse; it could be the whole Monty Norman/John Barry thing.

[Ollie 1,059]

That's a tad bit different though.

At least Norman worked on the score first, Baxter had nothing to do with E.T.

[Greg1138 3]

With regard to the JP theme, there is a rumor going around JW records it only uptempo because he is not allowed to play it more slowly since he lost a lawsuit to some-one who claimed JW took the theme from him (including the slow tempo). However, this story has never been proven and is therefore I think an urban legend.

You're instinct is correct - this has been debunked many times.

The real reason for the up-tempo version is quite simple actually.

The concert suite consists of The Theme From Jurassic Park and The Island Theme. If played at the tempo as heard on the original soundtrack, the piece would become too long (I guess this is how Williams reasons). However, I have many recordings of solely the Theme from Jurassic Park (sans the Island Theme) and on those versions the tempo is slower. So: Theme only = slow tempo, concert suite arrangement (Theme + Island Theme) = faster tempo.

Nonsense. Any conductor or MD worth their salt - esp "Old School" such as Williams - would not alter tempi in that manner just to please the timings of a concert programme - the programme itself would just be changed.

John Williams has been sued before, the Les Baxter / E.T. fiasco is the only one I know of. I'm trying to remember if the JP thing was mentioned in the news, but I don't think Williams was found guilty.

I don't think it even got as far as a Court - it's just a plain old bullshit story IIRC (probably made up by Horner fans?? )

[Joe Brausam 215]

It wouldn't be to alter timing. It would be to make the transition from the theme to the Island theme less jarring.

[Datameister 2,044]

But the transition isn't jarring in the first place. There quite simply is no good reason for the faster tempo - as far as I can tell, conductors just like it better that way, which is silly.

[Joe Brausam 215]

I'm really not one to argue about tempi. The tempo of many pieces of classical literature can vary wildly from recording to recording. Just look at Shostakovich's 5th symphony for a great example of that, the perhaps the length of Wagner's Ring Cycle on different recordings. Music shouldn't always be exactly one way, one of the great things about it is how it is open to interpretation.

[Ollie 1,059]

I'll agree to a certain extent. But if you're trying to replicate film recording I think it's best to stick as close to the original performance as possible.

That's one of the reason I don't own any of Herrmann's re-recordings of his own film music, too slow. And don't forget Williams' painfully slow version of Goldsmith's TMP theme.