Jump to content

Citius, Altius, Fortius!: The John Williams Olympic Music Thread


Will

Recommended Posts

  • 4 years later...

Almost time for another Olympics to start -- and NBC is still using JW's cues in abundance. Not just re-arrangements -- literally the original recordings conducted by JW. It's glorious. One of many examples is this video, which uses two of the cues JW crafted based on his 1996 "Summon the Heroes" piece:

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

28 minutes ago, crumbs said:

Bit of a shame nobody commissioned him to write a new theme over the past year!

 

Hopefully for LA 2028, right? :)

 

Yeah I'm really hoping he writes something for 2028. He has composed an original piece for the opening ceremonies of all three U.S.-hosted Olympics since 1984. Hopefully he continues that streak (even if he has to deputize someone else -- perhaps Dudamel -- to conduct this time).

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The NBC/Williams relationship seems eternal. In addition to still using his Olympic themes, aren't they also still using his news themes (at the very least they still used "The Mission" when I was in the US last, in 2014)?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Thor said:

The NBC/Williams relationship seems eternal. In addition to still using his Olympic themes, aren't they also still using his news themes (at the very least they still used "The Mission" when I was in the US last, in 2014)?


Yes, they are.  Plus there is also Wide Receiver, the theme for NBC’s broadcasts of NFL games.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, Will said:

Almost time for another Olympics to start -- and NBC is still using JW's cues in abundance. Not just re-arrangements -- literally the original recordings conducted by JW. It's glorious. One of many examples is this video, which uses two of the cues JW crafted based on his 1996 "Summon the Heroes" piece:

 

 


Truly glorious. Also, looking forward to catching the Olympics, and not just to hear more of the Maestro’s music.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, Thor said:

The NBC/Williams relationship seems eternal. In addition to still using his Olympic themes, aren't they also still using his news themes (at the very least they still used "The Mission" when I was in the US last, in 2014)?

 

Yep! Nightly News and Meet the Press still use his original cues. 

 

 

 

The Today Show did stop using JW's music entirely, unfortunately. But Sunday Night Football on NBC still uses his theme (as you note @Matt S.), albeit in a new "modern" arrangement:

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 hours ago, Will said:

Almost time for another Olympics to start -- and NBC is still using JW's cues in abundance. Not just re-arrangements -- literally the original recordings conducted by JW. It's glorious. One of many examples is this video, which uses two of the cues JW crafted based on his 1996 "Summon the Heroes" piece:

 

 

 

The excitement is intense; this makes me want to hear these cues in their entirety! Nothing is available to listen to, huh?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, JohnnyD said:

 

This makes me want to hear these cues in their entirety. Nothing is available to listen to, huh?

 

Here is the first one heard in the above video: 

 

 

It's amazing. Probably one of the most outwardly exuberant pieces JW ever composed.

 

I don't think the second one is on YouTube, unfortunately.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Will said:

But Sunday Night Football on NBC still uses his theme (as you note @Matt S.), albeit in a new "modern" arrangement:

 

Yes, I noticed this when I was in the US in 2012, and found myself in a sports pub in San Diego on a Sunday night. I have no clue about American football, but I was amused by the pop- and rockified versions of the theme. It's much, much younger than the news themes, though. I'm impressed that the same news theme has been used for almost four decades.

 

4 hours ago, JohnnyD said:

Mike Mattessino and John Williams should collaborate with NBC to release a compilation album of these phenomenal cues!

 

There are a lot of cool versions. I have promo versions of all these, and although there are a lot of bumpers and intros/outros, there are also some longer tracks that are completely different in tone and even composition, it seems.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Thor said:

 

Yes, I noticed this when I was in the US in 2012, and found myself in a sports pub in San Diego on a Sunday night. I have no clue about American football, but I was amused by the pop- and rockified versions of the theme. It's much, much younger than the news themes, though. I'm impressed that the same news theme has been used for almost four decades.

 

 

There are a lot of cool versions. I have promo versions of all these, and although there are a lot of bumpers and intros/outros, there are also some longer tracks that are completely different in tone and even composition, it seems.

 

Yeah the variations are excellent. This one is probably my favorite: https://www.networknewsmusic.com/today-2004-bumper/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow NBC almost exclusively used JW's 1984 theme today for the Opening Ceremony! I think I only heard Arnaud's "Bugler's Dream" once (IIRC NBC used to use the Arnaud piece more frequently but in recent years seems to have further increased the prominence of JW's own compositions).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Any chance of an on-demand viewing. I'll miss the first 45 minutes of encore presentation tonight at 7:30 PM EST.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, JohnnyD said:

Any chance of an on-demand viewing. I'll miss the first 45 minutes of encore presentation tonight at 7:30 PM EST.

 

I'm not sure if a replay stream will be available online. NBC makes Olympic sport replays available here for people with a cable TV login (https://www.nbcolympics.com/replays), but I'm not sure if they'll do the same for the ceremony.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Being in the Olympics mood, I have been constantly listening to the Maestro's four Olympic pieces and his various, well, variations of his Olympic Fanfare, Olympic Spirit & Summon the Heroes, all while watching the different Olympic events unfold. However, I came across this:

 

 

Does anybody know the story behind this piece? I never heard it before, was surprised to have come across it, and I like it very much.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

35 minutes ago, JohnnyD said:

Being in the Olympics mood, I have been constantly listening to the Maestro's four Olympic pieces and his various, well, variations of his Olympic Fanfare, Olympic Spirit & Summon the Heroes, all while watching the different Olympic events unfold. However, I came across this:

 

 

Does anybody know the story behind this piece? I never heard it before, was surprised to have come across it, and I like it very much.


That’s “Contemporary Tease” which is also featured on the same in-house NBC CD that contains “Dramatic Tease” and is referenced in the thread @Jay linked to above (I think).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kinda hilarious mess-up on NBC tonight -- coming back from a commercial break, they seemed not to be sure what music to play! First we heard the opening to the alternate Summon the Heroes variation. Then that cut off and we heard the beginning of a Summon the Heroes bumper. Then that cut off and we heard another, different Summon the Heroes bumper. Then it was silent. Clearly someone in the control room was having difficulties! :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Interesting: Tonight, as we near the end of the Games, I heard the original intro to JW's Olympic Fanfare & Theme (i.e., not Bugler's Dream) on the NBC broadcast. I had never -- not in this Olympics or any other in my lifetime -- heard NBC use that JW intro. They always used the 1990s version with the Arnaud Bugler's Dream intro. 

 

I think most of you will know what I'm referring to, but just in case, the first few seconds of the following video is the original intro I'm referring to, which was used tonight on NBC: 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

46 minutes ago, King Mark said:

If you've been collecting Williams olympic music for years, the only pieces not available in good quality to date are the original Olympic Fanfare and Theme Bumpers. And one Summon the Heroes alternate (with new extended ending)I'd like to have in better quality. And there's also a super cool  Williams arranged version of Burgler's Dream only heard in the Athens promo video

 

 

Are you referring here to "Olympic Soccer"?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm loving this discussion and learning a lot, but what are "Basketball" and "Olympic Soccer"?  My YouTube searches are coming up empty.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Back in 2012, Spectrum had 2 channels for the summer Olympics that only showed basketball and soccer.

 

In between broadcasts each channel played a different version of Summon The Heroes on a continuous loop. The one on the basketball channel is the one referenced in the video km provided.

 

The soccer cue appeared to be cobbled together from various takes of the theme to include a much grander, triumphant finish to Summon The Heroes. 

 

 

18 minutes ago, igger6 said:

I'm loving this discussion and learning a lot, but what are "Basketball" and "Olympic Soccer"?  My YouTube searches are coming up empty.


You won’t find them labeled that way. 
 

That was the generic names I gave the 2 cues when I discovered them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, thx99 said:

 

Yes, the "bells" version, as we've referred to it at times, heard in the first 40 seconds of my YouTube upload (along with OF&T, "The Hanging" from Goldsmith's Bad Girls, "Finale" from Edelman's Dragonheart, "Contemporary Tease", and "Summon the Heroes"):

 

 

 

Alas, the copyright overlords appear to have taken down this video. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

37 minutes ago, JohnnyD said:

 

All of the music in that promo SHOULD be and NEEDS to be released.

 

0:00 to 0:40! Wow! Never heard this before! Wow!

 

0:40 to 1:14 is of course Olympic Fanfare and Theme! Already released.

 

1:14 to 3:12! Wow! Never heard this before either! Wow!

 

3:13 to 4:44 is of course Olympic Theme (Contemporary Tease)! Wow!

 

4:45 to 5:15 is of course Summon the Heroes! Already released.

 

5:16 to end is the final part of Olympic Fanfare and Theme! Already released.


Below are the comments I had included for my YouTube upload, which gives the names of the musical selections. The only selections which haven’t been released commercially are the “bells” arrangement of “Bugler’s Dream” (presumably by Williams) and “Contemporary Tease”. The two middle selections are not by Williams and are available on the respective commercial releases of the scores.

 

C79FE8B4-4587-4F01-9BF9-A35A02F024E2.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I figured the ones I did not name were not by the Maestro, except of course 0:00 to 0:40. Still, everything blended pretty well together. Though, the Maestro's music blended especially well together; that segue from his arrangement of "Bugler's Dream" to Olympic Theme for example!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.