[Post reconstructed after 25.10.07 hack]:
I just got back from a real treat* on the USC campus this afternoon:
Know who that is on the podium? (Click for larger view.)
It’s the composer John Williams. He’s rehearsing with the student symphony orchestra from USC’s Thornton School of Music. He’s preparing them for a concert of his music, which includes, in large part, so many of those film themes we know. Of course, they played the Imperial March (you know, Darth Vader’s music** from Star Wars), and you could see how much of a blast it was for everyone – the players (because the orchestra is at full size, and at full throttle for lots of it – if you don’t know it, you won’t go far wrong if you imagine a huge and expansive piece by Prokofiev), the players again (because it’s the actual composer who is conducting!), the conductor (who was doing quite a jig to the military march bits), the musicians and others in the audience (because its just so great a theme), and everybody (because it is just so huge a part of popular culture). It was just great! In the photo above, they’re in a smaller configuration, playing the main theme from (I think) Schindler’s List. Quite lovely.
-cvj
* Thanks, M!
** Actually, the title of this post was originally to be “Pah Pah Pah Pah Pa-Pah Pah Pa-Pah!”, and there was to be no text at all….but I was not sure anyone would get it.
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The motif from Jaws is The Symphony’s motif in reverse, don’t you think?
I love Jurasic park but I can only watch it once every five years. The music ruminates for me too, not unlike the main title from “Oklahoma” or The Christmas Song” which starts automatically in my head November 10th.
I think this is a testament to our love of music.
Much as I love John Williams, I always thought he stole the Jaws theme from the (much more impressive) last movement of Dvorak’s New World Symphony. So yep, the space opera and dinosaurs win. 🙂
mmmm… personal commentary statement only…
John Williams at USC seems fitting, as he is the Alfred Newman of the late 20th century, with a touch of Nelson Riddle ridiculous thrown in. I have never appreciated his music nor most of the films he has scored; i am simply not a fan of the hyped-action-disaster-uber epic genre.
And really, no one suggesting the opening chord rhythm from Jaws???? I suppose genetically-engineered dinosaurs and space operas are more common now than monstrous sharks/??
Oh my….. I did not even realize I was making a joke…. it was simply a spelling mistake made in haste. My inner geek is evidently in control of my subconscious.
I shall have to try to, er… round out my personality a bit more. Such a bisection of the conscious and unconscious can lead to not being very… centered.
-cvj
P.S. Yes, I was angling to sneak several poor geometry puns into the above.
Yvette, anybody who points out that somebody wrote “Lost Arc†is derailing the discussion and sending it off on a. . . tangent! Should we really be subjected to such. . . derivative humor?
(-:
I always thought it was a “da†sound myself…
And Clifford, I am going to give you a hard time and say no one who writes “Raiders of the Lost Arc†has any hope of overcoming math geekdom. 😉
EJ… you’re right of course… my oversight!
-cvj
How wonderful to be there and watch the great man at work! I love the film music of John Williams.
Of course people wouldn’t get it without proper punctuation! 😉
Pah, Pah, Pah, Pah Pa-pah, Pa Pa-pah
Me too! It was on tv a few nights ago and I got sucked into watching it and then had the theme stuck in my head for a few days…. This has driven it out…
The antidote to it all will be to go watch Superman, or Raiders of the Lost Arc…. sigh…
-cvj
Great. Just when I finally get the Jurassic Park theme out of my head. . .
Pa pa, pa pum, ba da dum da dum dum dum. . . . .