French movie music

Maurice Ravel; Daphnis et Chloe; London Symphony Orchestra; Claudio Abbado, conducting

In the spring of 1986, during my sophomore year at SDSU, Dr. S. took the Concert Choir on tour. Dig this itinerary. We sang first at Iowa State University of Iowa in Ames, Iowa. Then we traveled to Wichita, KS, to perform a concert in a church. After driving through Texas, we sang at Loyola University in New Orleans, LA. With a free night, some of my friends and I caught Pete Fountain’s show in his bar in at the Hilton. Clarinet man can swing, baby! We then hightailed it to Tallahassee, FL, to sing at Dr. S.’s alma mater, Florida State University.

Dr. S. had included a song called “When The Trumpet Sounds” by Dr. Andre Thomas on our tour repertoire. On all other performances of this wonderful spiritual, I played the piano accompaniment. But on this performance, Dr. S. informed me that Dr. Thomas would accompany the chorus. It turns out that FSU has Dr. Thomas on their music faculty. Choral composer man’s got gospel piano hands, baby!

After our choral concert, we went to Daytona Beach to see the sunrise and have some well-earned time at the beach. Then we capped our tour by going to Walt Disney World for two days. I remember that Dr. S. paid for our second day at WDW.

Those two days were like a dream come true. Anybody who has every gone to Walt Disney World has seen first hand how cast members go many miles out of their way to insure that their guests have one of their greatest vacations. I truly enjoyed our time there.

My favorite part of our WDW experience came at the France Pavillion. This attraction features a movie called “Impressions de France” which they present on a gargantuan screen. The gorgeous travelogue brings prominence to the French countryside, major cities, various regions and important structures, using magnificent cinematography for their aerial views and close up shots. The eighteen minutes it takes to watch this film fly by too quickly.

The soundtrack highlights some of the finest moments in French classical music. “Syrinx” for solo flute by Debussy, “Rondeau” from “Concerto in C for Harp and Orchestra” by Boieldieu, “Ouverture” from “Gaite Parisienne” by Offenbach and several sections from “Carnival of the Animals” by Saint-Saens log just a few of the selections that aurally augment the beauty on the screen. And when they showed the hot-air balloons taking off near Chaumont Castle on the Loire River and in front of the cliff city of Rocamadour, I heard, for the very first time, the lush and exotic music of “Daphnis et Chloe” by Maurice Ravel.

The great Russian ballet impresario and Ballets Russes founder Sergei Diaghilev commissioned Mr. Ravel to write music for a ballet in 1909. The story concerns the love between the goatherd Daphnis and the shepherdess Chloe. Mr. Ravel scored this masterpiece for a fairly traditional orchestra, but he also included a wind machine, two harps and a wordless choir. Flashy French composer's got a flair for the flamboyant and fantastic, baby! At almost an hour in performance length, the “symphonie choreographique”, as Mr. Ravel referred to it, emerges as his longest work. Later in his life, the composer extracted music from this ballet to create two orchestral suites.

I don’t like to watch movies on network television. Someone has usually cut sections out so that commercials can fit into the broadcast. When I read “Les Miserables” almost twenty years ago, I read the unabridged version. If Victor Hugo took the time to mention anything in his novels, he must have considered it important. So, even though Mr. Ravel “cut up” his own work, I prefer to listen to the whole thing, not the best parts. Unfortunately, I use that same reasoning for not sharing candy bars.

Credits: To Dr. Andre Thomas and many other choral composers, for writing music that captivates young people yet incorporates a style that a young music appreciator can recognize. Thank you, Dr. Thomas, for your commitment to excellence in young people.