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HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES POP! Goes The Orchestra By Alvin Powell
Trying to draw a crowd to Paine Hall on Nov. 13? Looks like it’s a job for — SUPERMAN! Or Superman’s theme music anyway. The Man of Steel and the music that accompanied a 1940s Superman cartoon will be one attraction during the Harvard Pops Orchestra’s opening concert of the 1999-2000 season. The concert, which will present listeners with an evening of music written or adapted to accompany cartoons, will be performed against a backdrop of the actual cartoons played on screen in the concert hall. Pops President Thomas Lue ’01 said that the animation lineup includes the vintage Superman cartoon along with other animated classics. In contrast to the Harvard University Band, which just marked its 80th year (see accompanying story), the Pops is one of the newer music groups on campus. Founded in 1996, the Orchestra’s road hasn’t been an easy one so far. After the student who started the Orchestra, Eric Damast, graduated in 1997, the group disbanded for a year.It regrouped last year, when Lue’s interest in popular orchestral music led him to resurrect the Pops and hire a professional conductor, Music Director Allen Feinstein ’86. The result was a successful season last year, Lue said. One of the most joyous concerts for Orchestra members was a live musical accompaniment to the 1925 silent film Phantom of the Opera. This year, they wanted to do something with a similar spirit, but without doing another silent movie, Lue said. They settled on animation. "[The Phantom] was a really fun concert for us," Lue said. "We thought, ‘How could we replicate that feeling without doing another silent film?’ " Not every number in the upcoming program will be performed to a backdrop of animation, Lue said. The concert, which begins at 8 p.m. on Saturday (Nov. 13), will include numbers from older cartoons, such as Looney Tunes, newer cartoons, such as television’s The Simpsons, and the world premiere of cartoon composer Sammy Timberg’s Jazz Rhapsody. Lest potential concertgoers envision an evening of plinking, plunking, and crashes to accompany animated pratfalls, Lue points out that many cartoons, particularly earlier ones, used existing classical and other music to accompany the animation. Of course, there will be some plinking and plunking. The concert will be the first of four for the 60-member Pops Orchestra this year, with two other full concerts in February and April and then a mini-concert planned for the ARTS FIRST celebration in the spring. "We really wanted to provide something different from other orchestras on campus," Lue said.
Copyright 1999 President and Fellows of Harvard College |
