Williams composing fanfare for the Hollywood Bowl centennial - "Centennial Overture"

[Will 2,292]

A little over two hours away! 

 

Someone better post the audio or video quickly. 

[King Mark 3,805]

2 hours later

[Will 2,292]

Can't find anything yet.

[igger6 983]

Hello there!

 

 

Whew.  There's a lot goin' on there.  Maybe it's the garbage audio quality, but from here it's like "Scherzo for X-Wings" had a mutant baby with "In the Moonlight."  This one's definitely a grower for me.  Maybe he'll revise it.

 

 

[artguy360 1,993]

Thanks for sharing the video. As far as the music goes... it's got a lot going on. It's tone is kind of odd. It's got a fun tone to it, sometimes almost comical. The bouncy percussion and bells and thing remind me of JW's music for the news or maybe some of his Olympics stuff. It almost sounds like a less grand, slightly more formal Galaxy's Edge. Maybe this piece is an example of JW writing a concert piece like he does film action scene music. It kind of has JW action music qualities.

[Will 2,292]

Love it!! 

 

It's definitely less melodically unified, and a bit more haphazard in general, than JW's Overture to the Oscars.

 

But it's chock-full of wonderful Walton influence and delightfully exuberant. A real joy to listen to -- reminds me why JW is my all-time favorite composer. A bit of American Journey melded with Overture to the Oscars and For New York/To Lenny. Just magnificent.

 

The quote of "Hooray for Hollywood" at the very end is so cheeky! JW blends it in so well. (Did anyone else catch it? I'm pretty sure it's there though maybe I'm imagining it.)

[Dr. Know 393]

I want to destroy these people who talk through the entire performance.

[Joni Wiljami 1,215]

What is the point to go to a concert and talk through it?. And yes ' Hooray for Hollywood' quote was nice in the ending.

[King Mark 3,805]

I like it! Too bad we'll never hear it in good sound quality. A lot of these Hollywood Bowl /Tanglewood special concert versions survive only in crap quality bootleg form, and I can predict this will be one of them.

 

Hopefully a few people made videos and we'll get a slightly better sounding one to pick from

 

[BB-8 4,617]

My heart is exploding.

What a time to be a JWFan!

 

1 hour ago, Dr. Know said:

I want to destroy these people who talk through the entire performance.

[petek66 27]

I'm getting spoiled by a new JW composition every week.

[WilliamsStarShip2282 326]

I love the piece, had the classic hollywood sound through the whole thing with the little special ending. One can only hope they release a recording of this with Soundings and maybe a few others...

[Tom 5,410]

I love this piece.  Has elements of the style of pieces like the Esplanade Overture (which is one of my favorites), but with aspects of Williams more recent style.  I love his playful side, and the piece really has some nice complexity.  Not to cause unnecessary arguments, but it does make a difference when Williams has time to meticulously work though a piece versus a hurried two-week assignment.

 

A studio recording would bring out all those contrasting lines so much better--every part of the orchestra really gets a chance to shine.  Those last 40 seconds are like every Williams' big endings in one--damn.  Very happy it a bit longer than most of his occasion pieces too--very satisfying overall. 

[Score 773]

Nice piece, fun and playful. There is something interesting happening in almost every bar, and the various sections of the piece are well balanced (not too short nor too long). It would be nice to have a studio recording...  

[Bespin Copilot 9,380]

So all these years when William Ross was composing his film music, John Williams wrote concert music in secret.

 

I can't find another explanation! 

[Tydirium 1,427]

3 minutes ago, Bespin said:

So all these years when William Ross composed his film music, John Williams was composing concert music in secret.

 

I can't find another explanation! 

What do you mean…?

[Bespin Copilot 9,380]

Never

Quote

Me

Mercy

[BB-8 4,617]

Any idea whether this will come out as a proper audio recording?

[Jay 41,649]

I like it! And boy, it was way longer than I thought it would be! 

 

This will make a nice opening track on some future Williams album, hopefully! 

[Bespin Copilot 9,380]

[Joni Wiljami 1,215]

11 hours ago, Dr. Know said:

I want to destroy these people who talk through the entire performance.

 

These concerts are always full of lightsabers, why don't they use them!!

[JohnnyD 1,474]

10 hours ago, igger6 said:

Hello there!

 

 

*Chef’s kiss* I want an official recording of this piece, conducted by the Maestro too!

[King Mark 3,805]

There's just no real reason to do a studio recording as it was an event specific piece.Or to even  perform it again

 

and there was no radio broadcast

[MikeH 799]

This is great! I’m hearing some influences from the beach montage cue in Jaws as well. 

[Bespin Copilot 9,380]

A composer can't be influenced by himself... 

[Jurassic Shark 14,526]

Hans Zimmer says hello.

[Joni Wiljami 1,215]

2 hours ago, Sergeant said:

 

.

 

[artguy360 1,993]

Listening to it again this morning, it really does have some JW action music tendencies, especially after the opening fanfare. The fun melody almost recalls the desert chase from TROS.

[BrotherSound 2,485]

18 minutes ago, artguy360 said:

Listening to it again this morning, it really does have some JW action music tendencies, especially after the opening fanfare.

Definitely! I hear some echoes of ‘The Adventures of Han’. There’s what sounds like a jazzier version of its rapid-fire trumpet passage, and the ending timpani solo is also quite similar.

[Will 2,292]

 

Another video I found (haven't watched yet so can't say anything about the quality).

[Joni Wiljami 1,215]

Oh there are small snippets of 'Hoorey' throughout the piece.  In 3:12 and 3:51 in that first YT video.

[lairdo 906]

2 hours ago, Will said:

 

Another video I found (haven't watched yet so can't say anything about the quality).

 

I have watched them both. I would say the 2nd one is maybe a bit less cluttered with extraneous sounds and people walking by, but this one is more muddy unfortunately.

 

Still, the piece is really different and the same simultaneously. I feel that JW was trying to capture all of the types of music the orchestras have played at the Bowl. So, you get some of the rousing fanfare pieces, the more eclectic rhythmic elements perhaps representing some of the 20th century composers, and of course, as noted earlier, Hurray for Hollywood - which even though I knew it was coming still made me laugh. 

 

Hard to imagine how this gets released unless someone commissions something like "The LA Philharmonic Plays John Williams Concert Hall Pieces" (lame title, I know) and then they collect things like this, Soundings (which has no audio only release), the Oscars piece, maybe better recordings of the concerti that Slatkin never had a chance to do. There's probably 2 hours of music that could use some really excellent playing. Or of course, if they wanted to do a "John Williams Live at the Hollywood Bowl" from his 3 concerts this year, that could be cool! Maybe we could get the the TROS suite finally!

 

[Dr. Know 393]

What a fun piece!  Sorry I couldn't be there to hear it live.  Fingers crossed for a studio recording at some point.

[King Mark 3,805]

So far the recordings are very far away from the stage. 

[Tom 5,410]

2 hours ago, lairdo said:

 

Still, the piece is really different and the same simultaneously. I feel that JW was trying to capture all of the types of music the orchestras have played at the Bowl. So, you get some of the rousing fanfare pieces, the more eclectic rhythmic elements perhaps representing some of the 20th century composers, and of course, as noted earlier, Hurray for Hollywood - which even though I knew it was coming still made me laugh. 

 

He might be going for that, but all those types of music also map onto his own music at the Hollywood Bowl--I think it is a fun, rousing piece in the spirit of Hollywood, but with Williams own mature sensibities.

 

As for the comments from many about not getting a recording, I disagree.  This occasion is a bit more momentous than an arrival for a prince or such--and it a celebration of music itself.  I think Dudamel will see to it that it is recorded and released (though these things take time).  

 

After several listens, I think those string lines were developed into the Oscars Overture, but who knows. 

 

Also, did I mention that I think this piece is fantastic? 

[thx99 1,928]

Tom Hooten (LA Phil trumpet) posted a short video from the Hollywood Bowl as a Facebook story, and he focuses in on the sheet music for the overture…
 

https://www.facebook.com/stories/100752565391478/UzpfSVNDOjU0OTMzMDc0MDAyNzM2NA==/?view_single=1&source=shared_permalink

 

Snapshot:

[Tom 5,410]

Just a hint of Great Performances in there as well. 

[King Mark 3,805]

JW is conducting pretty fast for 90 years old. 

[Amer 2,421]

Unfortunately I couldn't enjoy much of it and its an interesting piece but the sound quality didn't do justice here. Hope to hear it again in good quality or better if it gets a proper album recording. The beginning does sound unusually comical 

[Will 2,292]

The ending of this piece is so incredibly good. Can't stop listening.

[SilverTrumpet 645]

When we get stuff like this and Overture to the Oscars, I end up appreciating his weird concert pieces like the Violin Concerto and Highwood's Ghost a hell of a lot more.

 

God bless the man for writing such wonderful music so consistently at this point in his life.

[igger6 983]

I guess nobody in the front of the Bowl had the temerity to film it…

[BB-8 4,617]

I hear the "In the Moonlight" theme.

[igger6 983]

Here's one more for Centennial Overture Bingo!

 

 

[Tom 5,410]

A Hector upload.  The best quality of them all, as to be expected.  

[King Mark 3,805]

Hector J Guzzman?

 

Yes it sounds better than the other ones. Too bad there's a girl talking to someone in the beginning.

 

Maybe someone can make a patchwork version using all the videos to minimise ambient noise and people talking

[lairdo 906]

23 hours ago, igger6 said:

I guess nobody in the front of the Bowl had the temerity to film it…

 

Nicely played!

[BB-8 4,617]

 

From 0:55 onwards...

[Falstaft 2,205]

On 04/06/2022 at 2:37 PM, BrotherSound said:

Definitely! I hear some echoes of ‘The Adventures of Han’. There’s what sounds like a jazzier version of its rapid-fire trumpet passage, and the ending timpani solo is also quite similar.

 

That's not the only Disney Era SW sound I hear in this -- there's the opening motif of TROS's Friendship theme (G-A-F#-G-C), and the rhythmic profile of that Sabrina-esque metamotif he loves using (G-F#-Ab-C) sounds like some of the Tension and First Order music motifs.

 

It's just pure Williams goodness, from start to finish: nothing we haven't heard before (inc. the Shostakovich and Walton echoes) but put together in a really compelling overall package. There's some of that impertinent comic scherzo style of his that I can never get enough of. The overture seems more developmental and motivically disciplined than usual, though curiously at the expense of a big, extended hummable tune. @Ludwig, correct me if I'm wrong, but is there what you'd describe as a traditional "grammatical theme" at all in this piece? Makes it tricky to know what to transcribe.

[Tom 5,410]

1 hour ago, Falstaft said:

 

That's not the only Disney Era SW sound I hear in this -- there's the opening motif of TROS's Friendship theme (G-A-F#-G-C), and the rhythmic profile of that Sabrina-esque metamotif he loves using (G-F#-Ab-C) sounds like some of the Tension and First Order music motifs.

 

It's just pure Williams goodness, from start to finish: nothing we haven't heard before (inc. the Shostakovich and Walton echoes) but put together in a really compelling overall package. There's some of that impertinent comic scherzo style of his that I can never get enough of. The overture seems more developmental and motivically disciplined than usual, though curiously at the expense of a big, extended hummable tune. @Ludwig, correct me if I'm wrong, but is there what you'd describe as a traditional "grammatical theme" at all in this piece? Makes it tricky to know what to transcribe.

I think the playful theme is almost hummable--a nice hybrid between his concerto and film themes.  I like that the Horray for Hollywood motif plays as a sort of b-theme with some little variations--like it waiting its turn to shine at the end.