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“Harry’s Wondrous World” from Harry
Potter Suite by John Williams (b. 8
February 1932). Composed in Los
Angeles in 2001.
“Ritual Fire Dance” from El Amor
Brujo by Manuel De Falla (b. 23
November 1876; d. 12 November 1946).
Composed in Madrid in 1914-15.
“Magic Fire Music” from Die Walküre
by Richard Wagner (b. 22 May 1813;
d. 17 February 1881). Composed in
Zurich in 1852-4.
Danse Macabre, op. 40 by Camille
Saint-Saëns (b. 9 October 1835; d.
16 December 1921). Composed in Paris
in 1874.
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Paul
Dukas (b. 1 October 1865; d. 17 May
1935). Composed in Paris in 1897.
Firebird Suite by Igor Stravinsky
(b. 18 June 1882; d. 6 April 1971)
Composed in Paris in 1910.
Symphonie Fantastique op. 14 by
Hector Berlioz (b. 11 December 1803;
d. 11 March 1869). Composed in Paris
in 1830.
For those who love music, and that
surely is the majority of us, music
is magic: sounds combined in
interesting and sometimes unexpected
ways to create something quite
inexplicable. In this sense, the
theme of Magic for a concert program
is a proverbial “no brainer.” After
all, what work doesn’t fit into this
category? On the other hand some
works are naturals. In fact, there
are a great many works that
specifically deal with the idea of
magic or the occult. Of course
literature, drama, folklore, myth,
and poetry are filled with examples
of stories that incorporate elements
of magic, sorcery, the fantastic and
the grotesque, all of which
audiences have found compelling for
centuries right down to our own
time. From the “sympathetic magic”
of prehistoric cave people to J. K.
Rowling’s epic tale of the young
wizard Harry Potter, people have
been fascinated with the knowledge
and power of the invisible world,
whether real or fictional. In this
same context the ideas of magic, the
occult, and religion find common
ground, even if it is sometimes an
uneasy neighborhood. The works on
this program span the continuum from
ethnic folklore to contemporary
fiction, all addressing different
aspects of the magical and
mysterious.
The theme of sorcery, wizards and
apprenticeship are taken up in the
seven-part series of books
chronicling the young life of Harry
Potter. The music to the first three
films based on the books has been
composed by the leading film music
composer of his generation, John
Williams. The selection “Harry’s
Wondrous World” derives from the
first film, Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer’s Stone (2001), and
presents a number of familiar themes
that conjure images of the magical
atmosphere of the famous school of
wizardry, Hogwarts, with its gothic
atmosphere, moveable staircases,
animated portraits, messenger owls,
fabulous feasts, floating ghosts and
candles, and amiable giants.
Another important basis for musical
tales of the fantastic is the
folklore of various regions of the
world. In Manuel de Falla’s ballet,
El Amor Brujo (Love, the Magician),
gypsy, or Romani, folklore serves as
the basis for the story. The
scenario revolves around the
folkloristic belief in the
persistence of the spirit of the
dead in the world of the living. In
this version, a woman, Candelas, is
haunted by the wicked spirit of her
jealous lover who has died. She
attempts to rid herself of this
spirit through various purification
rituals, one of which is depicted in
the now famous “Ritual Fire Dance.”
Quivering, trilling strings evoke
the image of a stirring flame as the
oboe followed by the strings play
the first of two main themes. The
second theme is broad and noble
presented in the French horns. The
two melodies intertwine, linked by
the rolling trill of the flame.
Loud, repeated chords at the end of
the movement signal the conclusion
of the dance and Candelas’
ultimately frustrated attempt at
exorcising the spirit.
Before there were movies to write
music for, there was opera. Opera
has had something of a fascination
with the world of magic and the
supernatural. The music dramas of
Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des
Niebelungen contain many examples of
magic and the fantastic. A brilliant
example of Wagner’s “magical” music
comes from the second of the four
works in the Ring cycle, Die Walküre
(The Valkyries). At the end of the
work Wotan, leader of the gods,
punishes his daughter, Brünhilde (a
Valkyrie), for her disobedience. She
is condemned to become a mortal and
will lie asleep until the first man
that finds her, claims her. She begs
for Wotan to surround her by a wall
of fire that can only be penetrated
by the greatest hero. Wotan agrees
and after kissing Brünhilde and
causing her to fall asleep, he
invokes the fire spirit, Loge, who
encircles the Valkyrie with flames.
Wagner, a significant influence on
movie composer John Williams, is
famous for his use of identifiable
themes or leitmotifs, associated
with particular characters or things
in his operas. In the “Magic Fire
Music,” ominous, descending brass
chords signify Wotan’s spear
followed by shimmering strings and
harp representing Loge’s dancing
flames. A theme in the winds
symbolizes Brünhilde’s sleep, while
the brass theme is a foreshadowing
of the hero destined to awaken her,
Siegfried, whose story is the
subject of the third work in the
tetralogy.
Camille Saint-Saëns, like so many
European composers of his time, drew
upon familiar folk traditions for
some of his works. Most notably is
the subject of what is probably his
most well known orchestral work,
Danse Macabre. The source of this
programmatic work is an old
superstition that tells how at
midnight on Halloween, Death,
through his violin playing, is
empowered to call to life the dead
who can then dance for him until the
break of day. For this composition,
Saint-Saëns uses the solo violin to
represent death itself and his
violin playing is made even more
sinister through the use of
scordatura, or irregular tuning of
the violin. Here the highest string,
normally E, is tuned to E-flat,
creating an interval of a tritone
between it and the next lower
string. Medieval musicians
considered the dissonant tritone to
be “the devil’s interval.” Two main
themes again dominate the movement,
a kind of grotesque dance of quick
rhythmic character and a more
lugubrious, diabolical waltz idea.
The texture builds throughout as
presumably the number of dancing
corpses grows until after reaching
the height of their frenzied dance,
the rooster (oboe) crows his warning
that the Sun is about to rise.
The French composer, Paul Dukas,
created a work that has become
iconic in American culture, The
Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Its
appearance in the 1940 Walt Disney
film Fantasia, starring Mickey Mouse
as the besieged apprentice has made
it familiar to audiences for
generations. Dukas’ source for the
story is a poem by Johann Wolfgang
von Goethe written 100 years before
the music. Goethe’s poem is itself
an adaptation of much older (2nd c.
CE) poem by the Greek poet Lucian.
The story tells of a young sorcerer,
who in the absence of his master
uses his limited powers to induce a
broom to fetch water from a stream.
When he tries to make the broom
cease, he can’t recall the proper
words and the broom continues,
unrelenting. The apprentice decides
to take an axe to the broom to make
it stop, but to his horror the
pieces each become new water bearers
only compounding his dilemma.
Finally the master returns using his
greater powers to subdue the unruly
broom.
Like de Falla’s ballet, El Amor
Brujo, Stravinsky’s Firebird was
also originally a ballet based on
the folklore of the composer’s
native land. In the case of
Stravinsky, that land was Russia and
the story centers on a heroic figure
captivated by a magical bird that
saves his life and ultimately
bestows happiness upon him. The
hero, a young prince named Ivan,
finds himself in the land of an evil
giant, Kashchei, the Deathless.
There he sees the Firebird whose
beauty entices Ivan to steal one of
its feathers. He later meets a group
of 13 maidens, one of whom he falls
in with. The maidens are prisoners
of Kashchei and when they return to
him, Ivan follows, only to be
captured himself. As he about to be
turned to stone, he waves the
magical feather and the Firebird
appears and tells Ivan how to
destroy Kashchei. For his score,
Stravinsky drew upon the musical
vocabulary of his famous teacher,
Rimsky-Korsakov, to create brilliant
and exotic orchestral color and
rich, pungent harmonies. Though
highly indebted to his master, the
Firebird was the launching point for
the career of one of the
20th-century’s most important and
influential composers. Although the
original Firebird premiered in 1910,
Stravinsky arranged sections of the
ballet into the Firebird Suite for
concert performance in 1919.
The Symphonie Fantastique is
certainly Hector Berlioz' most
famous work. The complete title of
the work is “Episode in the Life of
an artist, Fantastic Symphony in
Five Parts.” Berlioz conceived his
Fantastic Symphony with an explicit
program roughly based on his own
obsessive and ill-fated infatuation
with an Irish Shakespearean actress
named Harriet Smithson. In the
symphony's program, the young
musician and the object of his
obsessive love are generally
recognized as Berlioz and Smithson.
Though not explicitly “magical” the
presence of witches and sorcerers
suggests an occultish quality to the
final two movements whose music is
at turns grotesque, solemn,
horrific, and exhilarating.
Part Four: March to the
Scaffold-Having become certain that
his love goes unrecognized, the
artist poisons himself with opium.
The dose of the narcotic, too weak
to kill him, plunges him into a
sleep accompanied by the most
horrible visions. He dreams that he
has killed the woman he had loved,
that he is condemned, led to the
scaffold, and that he is witnessing
HIS OWN EXECUTION. The procession
moves forward to the sounds of a
march that is now somber and fierce,
now brilliant and solemn…
Part Five: Dream of a Witches
Sabbath-He sees himself at the
Sabbath, in the midst of a frightful
assembly of ghosts, sorcerers,
monsters of every kind, all come
together for his funeral. Strange
noises, groans, outbursts of
laughter, distant cries which other
cries seem to answer. The beloved
melody appears again … now it is no
more than the tune of an ignoble
dance, trivial and grotesque: it is
she, come to join the Sabbath. ... A
roar of joy at her arrival. ... She
takes part in the devilish orgy.
©2007 Robert S. Katz, Ph.D.
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