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Suites from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Mehta vs. Gerhardt vs. Williams


Alfonso Tornero

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As companions to the Star Wars suites recorded by Mehta an Gerhardt, two different suites from Close Encounters of the Third Kind were presented in those LPs from 1977.

Mehta’s version is 13 minutes long, while Gerhardt’s is much longer, up to 21 minutes, and it specifies the titles of its sections: Barnstorming - Arrival of the Mother Ship - The Pilots’ Return - The Visitors - Final Scene. Both versions offer what they seem to be real voices singing in appointed passages, though no choir ensembles are credited.

Now I humbly demand the help from jwfan.com scholars, regarding the authorship of both suites. As it has been demonstrated that Williams himself is responsible for the Star Wars suites concert arrangements, it is logic to assume that the composer also prepared the material for, at least, Mehta’s recording.

Gerhardt’s version seems very more doubtful to me. Certain experts accuse Gerhardt of freely expanding his Battle for the Star Wars suite. Could he do the same thing when preparing the suite for CEOT3K, with the conductor choosing the material for the piece, or maybe Williams also approved this quite different presentation?

As far as I know, Mehta’s and Gerhardt’s suites are unique in the history of recordings. In 1980, Williams composed new music for a new scene in a new version of the film (the revealed interior of the mothership), and he created a new suite including this material, 10 minutes long, and recorded it twice, in the albums Pops in Space [1980] and The Spielberg / Williams Collaboration [1991].

Some years afterwards (and this is speculation), Williams arranged another CEOT3K suite, much shorter and with no mothership’s interior material and no chorus in the palette, about 8 minutes long. This last suite could have been created when Williams was providing material for printed editions under his signature. The first recording I know of was made by Gustavo Dudamel for the cd Celebrating John Williams [2019], but I am quite convinced that the suite was in circulation in concerts quite long before, since in 2008 Stephen Bulla arranged a version for winds, offered in the recordings from John Williams and the President’s Own [2021]. Williams himself employed the version for full orchestra in his concert in Vienna, registered in cd in 2020.

 

CEOT3K.jpg

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