Paul Archibald Sounding Out

From Shakespeare to J.K Rowling and The Bible to J.R.R. Tolkien, great books have often been the inspiration behind some of the greatest music. This programme looks a just a few of these great books and the music that they inspired

Edward German (1862-1936)
Tom Jones, Act III: For Tonight (Sophia’s Waltz-Song)
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Adrian Leaper (conductor)

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 – Act 1: The Fight
Cleveland Orchestra
Lorin Maazel (conductor)

Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880)
Robinson Crusoe
Offenbach: Robinson Crusoe, Act 3: “I had a dream, a dream of you” Marilyn Hill Smith (soprano)
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Alun Francis (conductor)

John Williams (b. 1932)
Hedwig’s Theme – From “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”
The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra
Nic Raine (conductor)

The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling, often known simply as Tom Jones, is a comic novel by English playwright and novelist Henry Fielding. It was first published on 28 February 1749 in London and is among the earliest English works to be classified as a novel. It became a best seller with four editions published in its first year alone. It is generally regarded as Fielding’s greatest book and as an influential English novel and one of the greatest and most ambitious comic novels in English literature.
Sir Edward German is best remembered for his extensive output of incidental music for the stage and as a successor to Arthur Sullivan in the field of English comic opera. Tom Jones is a comic opera in three acts and after an initial run in Manchester, it opened in London at the Apollo Theatre on 17th April 1907 for an initial run of 110 performances. Sadly, it then disappeared from the professional repertory but eventually became very popular with amateur groups.

Romeo and Juliet was among Shakespeare’s most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with Hamlet, is still one of his most frequently performed.
Prokofiev’s ballet, Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64, was first composed in 1935 but substantially revised for its Soviet premiere in early 1940. Prokofiev made three orchestral suites from the ballet and a suite for solo piano. The ballet’s original happy ending (contrary to Shakespeare) provoked controversy among Soviet cultural officials. Its failure to be produced in the Soviet Union until 1940 may also have been a result of consequences in the performing arts following the denunciation of Dmitri Shostakovich in 1936. Suites of the ballet music were eventually heard in Moscow and the United States, but the full ballet was premiered in Brno (then in Czechoslovakia, now in the Czech Republic) on 30th December 1938.

Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling and the novels chronicle the lives of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Although John Williams only scored the first three films, Philosopher’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets, and Prisoner of Azkaban, several motifs that he created have been reprised and incorporated into the remaining scores, in particular Hedwig’s Theme, which can be heard in all eight films.