Battle of Two of my Favorite Recent Pieces

[Tom 4,674]

Perhaps I could have titled this less subjectively, but there you go. 

 

Yes, I know that the Yorktown march is old, but the arrangement in question is a new animal, and I consider it among Williams's best of the last decade.  I also consider Of Grit to be a brilliant/borderline masterpiece.

 

 

 

And just in case you have forgotten how much more this is developed from the original, here you go.

 

[Bellosh 3,422]

too good of a poster to let this sit with 0 replies..

 

I am very unfamiliar with the score to Midway, but that Pops version sparked my interest A LOT...gonna give the score a full listen.

 

Of Grit and Glory is something I only listened to once.

 

on a related note to that piece, i believe it was the biggest blow-out in NCAA Championship history....imagine getting blown out that bad when JW writes a f*cking theme to your championship game! 

[Tom 4,674]

The Championship game was unfortunate, and it seems analogous to great Williams's scores being let by the movies they accompany, at least Box Office wise, with IX, The Post, BFG, Fabelmans, and now DoD.  Hopefully, ESPN will continue to use it as the main theme for future games.  

 

The Yorktown piece is marvelous both for its own listenability, but also by just how much new life Williams gave to a much older, almost never performed, piece.  I wish he would do that with many of his older works.  The Mutter arrangements are probably the closest thing we are going to get for most of them, for which I am thankful.  But to paraphrase Oskar, he could have done more.  

[Edmilson 7,477]

16 hours ago, Tom said:

Perhaps I could have titled this less subjectively, but there you go. 

 

Yes, I know that the Yorktown march is old, but the arrangement in question is a new animal, and I consider it among Williams's best of the last decade.  I also consider Of Grit to be a brilliant/borderline masterpiece.

 

 

 

This piece is awesome! I haven't heard it before, and now I love it! This is how I imagine a John Williams theme would be for a movie about the Justice League or the Avengers.

 

Grit & Glory is good too, but Yorktown is the clear winner.

[Tom 4,674]

I saw Midway on tv as a kid and, like SW and the other greats, I was absolutely enamored by the score, particularly this Yorktown theme, without knowing anything about JW.  Once becoming a fully conscious JW fan, I couldn't understand why there wasn't a concert version (although I did like the Midway March).  Finding that on the Lockhart album was a fulfillment of a childhood dream.  Plus, Williams went all out with the arrangement.  

[Thor 7,533]

As I've said before, I always found it bizarre that it was called a march. To me, it felt more like a hymn. Too slow for a march. Whereas "Hymn for New England" feels more like a march. But as Marian and others pointed out then, a march can take many forms and shapes, as can a hymn.

 

In any case, a great tune that outshines "Grit and Glory", IMO.

[Tom 4,674]

Yes, it is definitely hymnal, but it gets a regal processional march section in the middle.  However, he called the original version a march, which lacks that addition altogether. So, who knows what he was thinking. 

[GerateWohl 4,388]

The Men of the Yorktown has such a sweet melody like we don't hear it too often in Williams works. Is is a little bit like the Throne Room theme from Star Wars. 

[Tydirium 1,167]

Tough choice, as I looove both these pieces. However, I’m actually going to go with “Of Grit and Glory” on this one. The more lyrical secondary theme might be one of my favorite JW themes ever. I really hope we can get an official release at some point; it still sort of blows my mind that Disney (which owns ESPN) didn’t put it out as a digital single.

[Tom 4,674]

On 21/07/2023 at 10:03 AM, Tydirium said:

Tough choice, as I looove both these pieces. However, I’m actually going to go with “Of Grit and Glory” on this one. The more lyrical secondary theme might be one of my favorite JW themes ever.

Yes, it has a definite earworm quality and it nicely uplifting.  It reminds me a bit of Elgar's Nimrod, but it has its own identity.