Post by erik on Jul 23, 2022 12:29:29 GMT -5
Known for film scores like Die Hard and Lethal Weapon, Michael Kamen also dabbled in more serious concert music. Case in point, the work in this week's Classical Works Spotlight.
Michael Kamen: THE NEW MOON IN THE OLD MOON’S ARMS
One of the great composers of film music, though he was understandably and often overshadowed by John Williams, Michael Kamen achieved a huge amount of success during the 1980’s and 1990’s in this arena. His first major success had been with the 1987 Richard Donner-directed action film Lethal Weapon, where he collaborated with Eric Clapton and David Sanborn; and then in 1988, he got to top-echelon status with the unusual orchestral score he did for the smash action/suspense thriller Die Hard, which, in its interpolation of the “Ode To Joy” chorus from the Beethoven Ninth Symphony, was an homage to director Stanley Kubrick’s use of it in his 1971 classic A Clockwork Orange. In-between these film projects (including providing additional music to the 1985 sci-fi/horror cult classic Lifeforce), Kamen also found the time to do more “serious” music. One such work came at the turn of the millennium with the four-part symphonic tone poem “The New Moon In The Old Moon’s Arms”. The work was inspired by the existence a thousand years before of a group of Native Americans known as the Anaszi. This group lived in what would become New Mexico, Colorado, and Nevada and had built the first complex homes, miles of long, straight roads, astronomical observatories, and artistic visions on the canyon walls where they lived. The title of the piece was inspired by Kamen having met an Iroqui Indian boy, who told him that the phrase symbolizes “a glimpse of the future in the light of the past”. The piece is structured in seven parts: parts 1 & 2 depict the year 1000 AD; parts 3 & 4 are known as “The Prayer”; parts 5 & 6 are entitled “Moonlight”; and the seventh and final part is “2000 AD”. “The New Moon In The Old Moon’s Arms” was premiered in early 2001 by Leonard Slatkin and the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington D.C., and recorded by them soon after. Kamen would continue to do movie and TV scoring, including contributing to the HBO miniseries From The Earth To The Moon and Band Of Brothers, as well as the 1998 fantasy film What Dreams May Come and the 2003 Western Open Range. He would pass away in London on November 18, 2003 after having suffered from multiple sclerosis.
National Symphony Orchestra of Washington D.C./LEONARD SLATKIN (London/Decca)
Included:
MR. HOLLAND’S OPUS—AN AMERICAN SYMPHONY (Violin: LEILA JOSEFOWICZ; BBC Symphony Orchestra/LEONARD SLATKIN)
Michael Kamen: THE NEW MOON IN THE OLD MOON’S ARMS
One of the great composers of film music, though he was understandably and often overshadowed by John Williams, Michael Kamen achieved a huge amount of success during the 1980’s and 1990’s in this arena. His first major success had been with the 1987 Richard Donner-directed action film Lethal Weapon, where he collaborated with Eric Clapton and David Sanborn; and then in 1988, he got to top-echelon status with the unusual orchestral score he did for the smash action/suspense thriller Die Hard, which, in its interpolation of the “Ode To Joy” chorus from the Beethoven Ninth Symphony, was an homage to director Stanley Kubrick’s use of it in his 1971 classic A Clockwork Orange. In-between these film projects (including providing additional music to the 1985 sci-fi/horror cult classic Lifeforce), Kamen also found the time to do more “serious” music. One such work came at the turn of the millennium with the four-part symphonic tone poem “The New Moon In The Old Moon’s Arms”. The work was inspired by the existence a thousand years before of a group of Native Americans known as the Anaszi. This group lived in what would become New Mexico, Colorado, and Nevada and had built the first complex homes, miles of long, straight roads, astronomical observatories, and artistic visions on the canyon walls where they lived. The title of the piece was inspired by Kamen having met an Iroqui Indian boy, who told him that the phrase symbolizes “a glimpse of the future in the light of the past”. The piece is structured in seven parts: parts 1 & 2 depict the year 1000 AD; parts 3 & 4 are known as “The Prayer”; parts 5 & 6 are entitled “Moonlight”; and the seventh and final part is “2000 AD”. “The New Moon In The Old Moon’s Arms” was premiered in early 2001 by Leonard Slatkin and the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington D.C., and recorded by them soon after. Kamen would continue to do movie and TV scoring, including contributing to the HBO miniseries From The Earth To The Moon and Band Of Brothers, as well as the 1998 fantasy film What Dreams May Come and the 2003 Western Open Range. He would pass away in London on November 18, 2003 after having suffered from multiple sclerosis.
National Symphony Orchestra of Washington D.C./LEONARD SLATKIN (London/Decca)
Included:
MR. HOLLAND’S OPUS—AN AMERICAN SYMPHONY (Violin: LEILA JOSEFOWICZ; BBC Symphony Orchestra/LEONARD SLATKIN)