To begin our lesson, you must first listen to the selection.  It is found on the CD entitled "Summon the Heroes" recorded by the Boston Pops Orchestra, conducted by John Williams himself!

        Listen to "Olympic Fanfare and Theme" by clicking here.  Below you will find a call chart outlining the different sections of the composition and their instrumentation features, so you know what to listen for to identify each section next time you listen to this piece of music.  Please note that this track begins with "Bugler's Dream" by Leo Arnaud (1904-1991) which was introduced during the 1968 Olympic Games in Grenoble.  "Olympic Fanfare and Theme" composed by John Williams (b. 1932), written for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, actually begins 46 seconds into the track.
 
 

Now that you have listened to our selection, Let's examine it a little closer, by taking a look at rhythm, melody, harmony, form, expressive elements, the story behind the work itself, the story behind the composer, and how we can connect this composition to the related arts and to culture.  Pay close attention to the information presented here...there will be a quiz at the end of the page!

RHYTHM

    "Olympic Fanfare and Theme" was written in 4/4 meter, or common time.  Many of the rhythms in the A section are very fast rhythmic patterns containing eighth notes and sixteenth notes.  The eighth notes are performed in strict time, and are not uneven like eighth notes are played in Jazz (called swinging eighth notes).  The A section is very agitated and exciting with lots of motion and accent.
    the B section features slower rhythmic patterns with more quarter notes and sustained notes.  There is very little accent.  The motion is more smooth and connected, or legato, than the A section.  It's as if the composer wrote the B section to let the performers and the listener's ears relax after the excitement of the A section.
    The C section seems to be a blend of the A section and the B section, containing both fast, dancing, and bouncing rhythmic patterns of eighth notes, and more sustained, legato quarter note patterns.  The C section might be written as such to get us moving and excited again for the return of the A section!
    Throughout the entire composition, there is lots of repetition of motives heard in other sections.  Even within a section, instruments echo each other with motives belonging to that section alone.  Also, due to the fanfare-like nature of the composition, there is little syncopation to be found in the selection.  The rhythms are kept on strict beats making it easier for someone to march to it, just like the athletes of the Olympic Games as they enter at the Opening Ceremonies.

MELODY

    The melody in Section A is built primarily in leaps, creating the fanfare effect in the trumpets.  The leaps create the excited agitation that we talked about with the rhythms in the paragraphs above.  The trumpets play the same fanfare motive three times before resolving the phrase.  The phrase is built in four measures, and the first three measures contain the same melodic motive.
    the melody in Section B moves more my steps than leaps, creating the smooth, connected legato effect.  The phrases are also built in four measures in a "question and answer" form--the first two measures ask a "question" called the antecedent, and the next two measures seem to "answer" or resolve the question, called the the consequence. The B section is built in two of these four-measure phrases.
    Like its rhythmic features, Section C is once again a blend of the melodic features of both A and B.  Section C contains more leaps in it like the A section; however, its phrase structure is much like Section B with the four-measure phrases built with an antecedent and consequence.

HARMONY

    The harmonies used in the entire selection are rather standard, using major and minor tonalities overall.  There is little dissonance and resolution which is common in other genres like Jazz using very large chords with many notes which sound neither major nor minor to the listener and sound "out of tune" until it is resolved.  It is easy for the listener of "Olympic Fanfare and Theme" to figure out where the composer is going next with his sounds.  The sounds agree with one another--we call this sound consonance.

FORM

As outlined in the table above, the order of the sections in the composition is:

This can be simplified to an overall form of:

since the beginning and end of the selection sound almost alike and the differing section is the middle where the C sections appear.  A--B--A form is called a ternary form.  In ternary form, the B section differs from the A sections in melodic material, texture, and tonality, or some combination of both.  In this case, the B section (which is really made up of the C sections) differs from A and B in texture and melodic material.

EXPRESSIVE ELEMENTS

    One expressive element that composers use is the use of different timbre within the composition.  The A section features a bright brass timbre, the B section features a warm string timbre, and the C section, as we've discussed before features a blend of both timbre with both brass and string sounds.  The use of different dynamic levels can be very effective in conveying expression in a composition.  The A section is very loud, perhaps at a forte or fortissimo dynamic level.  The B section drops off drastically in dynamic level to a mezzopiano or mezzoforte and crescendos into the C section to a mezzoforte or forte.
    Another prominent expressive element in "Olympic fanfare and Theme" is the use of different articulations throughout.  The fanfare in the A section features a very sharp, crisp articulation in the trumpet, while the legato B section requires little articulation at all to maintain the smooth, connected feel in the melodic line.

THE WORK

    "Olympic Fanfare and Theme" by John Williams was composed in celebration of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, California.  It was part of a compilation of compositions specially put together for the 1984 Olympic Games, appropriately entitled "The Official Music of the 1984 Olympics."

    The compilation includes different themes for different sports featured in the summer Olympic Games, composed by varying artists, including Loverboy, Toto, Quincy Jones, Foreigner, and Philip Glass.  To listen to a MIDI sample of Philip Glass's composition, "The Olympian--The Lighting of the Torch," click here.

THE COMPOSER

    John Williams was born in New York on February 8, 1932, and moved to Los Angeles with his family in 1948. There he attended UCLA and studied compositions privately with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. After service in the Air Force, Mr. Williams returned to New York to attend the Juilliard School where he studied piano with Madame Rosina Lhevinne. While in New York he also worked as a jazz pianist in both clubs and on recordings. Again Mr. Williams moved to Los Angeles where he began his career in the film studios working with such composers as Bernard Herrmann, Alfred Newman, and Franz Waxman. He went on to write music for many television programs in the 1960s, winning two Emmys for his work. In January 1980, John Williams was named nineteenth conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra since its founding in 1885. Mr. Williams assumed the title of Boston Pops Laureate Conductor following his retirement in December 1993.
    John Williams has composed the music and served as music director for more than seventy-five films including The Lost World, Rosewood, Sleepers, Sabrina, Nixon, Schindler's List, Jurassic Park, Home Alone 2, Far and Away, JFK, Hook, Home Alone, Presumed Innocent, Always, Born on the Fourth of July, Stanley and Iris, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Accidental Tourist, Empire of the Sun, The Witches of Eastwick, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Return of the Jedi, E.T. (The Extra-Terrestrial), Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back, Superman, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Wars, Jaws and Goodbye, Mr. Chips. He has received thirty-four Academy Award nominations and has been awarded five Oscars, four British Academy Awards and sixteen Grammies as well as several gold and platinum records. Mr. Williams' most recent Oscar was for Best Original Score for Schindler's List. Most recently he received Academy Award nominations for his scores for Sydney Pollack's remake of Sabrina, Oliver Stone's Nixon and Barry Levinson's Sleepers.
    In addition to his film music, Mr. Williams has written many concert pieces including two symphonies, a bassoon concerto premiered by the New York Philharmonic in 1995, a cello concerto premiered by Yo-Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1994, concertos for flute and violin recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, and concertos for clarinet and tuba. His most recent work, a trumpet concerto, was premiered by the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra in 1996. In addition, Mr. Williams has composed the well-known NBC News Theme "The Mission", "Liberty Fanfare," composed for the rededication of the Statue of Liberty, "We're Lookin' Good!" composed for the Special Olympics in celebration of the 1987 International Summer Games, and the themes for the 1984, 1988, and 1996 Summer Olympic Games.

 

RELATED ARTS CONNECTION

    This is a picture of the Parthenon in Greece.  The Olympic Games started in Greece.  Note the tall columns at the front of the structure.  The building may be crumbling around them, but the columns are still standing strong.  These strong structures providing a foundation for the rest of the building above them are like the strong brass chords in our composition.

    This sculpture is called "Diskobolos", and was sculpted by a greek sculptor named Myron.  This is a popular sculpture and very often associated with the Olympic Games and the Olympic spirit as it depicts a discus thrower.  Discus is one of the events in the Olympic Games.

MULTICULTURAL CONNECTION

    The original games were held at Olympia, in Greece, and took place every 4 years.  Exactly when they started is not known, but the first written records date from 776BC, and the games continued until they were banned by a decree of the Roman Emperor Theodore I, "the Great", in 393AD So the last games held were in 389AD, which meant the games had been held 293 times (at least). The actual events in the games varied from time to time, but mainly had to do with running, wrestling, boxing and chariot racing. In those games there was interest only in who won, and the winner was awarded an olive wreath. Women were not admitted to the games, either as competitors or spectators.
    Ernst Curtius, a German archaeologist, did a lot of excavation work at Olympia and, presumably inspired by that, in 1852 suggested that the Olympic Games should be revived. This idea was well-received by many and was finally taken up by Baron Pierre de Courbertin and, at his instigation, in Paris on 23 June 1894, a committee agreed to re-establish the Olympic Games, with a first meeting to be held at Athens in 1896 and every 4 years thereafter. Apart from the war years when no games were held, this has been kept up. In the ancient games, wars were suspended in order to allow the games to continue.
    The early games of the modern Olympics were of varied quality and success, with many highlights and low points. There were several calls for the games to be discontinued at various times but they always managed to keep going and, once they were re-established in 1948 (after a 12-year break), their future seemed assured. However, since that time they have become subject to much political action (boycotts and terrorism) so that it is not inconceivable that the future might see them discontinued or modified in some way.

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