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This past weekend, I watched Dudamel Conducts a John Williams Celebration with the LA Philharmonic. The program was available on the PBS website, as a part of their Great Performances section. Gustavo Dudamel conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Natalie Portman hosted the event, which premiered on July 24, 2016. Before watching this program, I had no idea who John Williams was, but I quickly realized that although I didn’t know who he was, I knew many of his works. As a film scorer he has written modern classical music for many popular films, including Star Wars, Catch Me if You Can, and Fiddler on the Roof. The concert started with the Olympic Fanfare and Theme that John Williams composed for the 1984 games.
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It started out as a jolly, syncopated tune that was played at a relatively fast tempo. The song was played at a mezzo forte, but went into a crescendo, then reached a chord. After the chord was hit, the violin had a solo, and played a variety of rhythms, tempos, and tones. Eventually a countermelody joined in and changed rhythms, tones, and dynamics throughout the violin’s solo. There were also several dissonant sections throughout the song. There were several times that the song slowed down and sped up, also. The song ended on a chord that the entire band played …show more content…
The band started out at about a mezzo piano, and was very repetitive. Throughout the song, countermelodies would come in, and there were several melodies playing by the end of the song. The song ended on a chord and in order to dismiss the children after the song, the band played a few lines from the opening measures of Jaws to “scare” the children off the stage. The final song in the concert was the “Imperial March” from The Empire Strikes Back, and John Williams himself conducted the song. It started out with a very strong march played at a fast tempo, and at a mezzo forte. The melody within the march was disjunct as it bounced up and down from note to note. It then went into a slow section that sounded ominous, with the brass playing in a minor key, and the woodwinds playing the harmony below that. The song played the march again, then played an accented version of the march for a few phrases. The song ended abruptly within the