Music and the Mind

Several years ago, for a communications class, I delivered a presentation that included musical snippets from several films. This was done to demonstrate the power that music has to create a mood and communicate feeling to the audience. From the Empire theme in the Star Wars series and the Halloween theme of Michael Myers, the bad guys are known before they are even seen. The grand entrance of the tropical island in Jurassic Park sets an expectation of awe and wonder. Every great movie is accompanied by a wonderful score inspired by the movie yet able to stand alone. To paraphrase what conductor Jeff Tyzik said at the pops concert of the Oregon Symphony this evening, ‘the movie needs the music but the music doesn’t necessarily need the movie.’

As you may have guessed, this evening’s concert consisted of “Music from the Movies.” We were treated to “Superman”, “Harry Potter”, and many others, including an arrangement by the conductor of eight movies through the years.

What a wonderful evening! As with most music, a flood of memories and thoughts came rushing back with each piece. Thoughts of Christopher Reeve as the man of steel and the all too human man that died before his time; the joy and wonder at seeing Hogwarts for the first time; Sir Alec Guinness commanding his troops in a Japanese prison camp or, for many of us, the Comet song (they even let the audience whistle, but no singing); and Johnny Depp riding a sinking ship into a harbor all came springing vividly to mind as the music rolled out over the audience in wave after wave of rich sound. This was only the first half…

The second half of the concert started with a holiday selection. Songs from the movie “Home Alone” were accompanied by the Pacific Youth Choir and the voices of these young musicians were clear and true and truly sent chills up my spine more than once during their short stay on stage. My own memories of being in choirs over the years and the excitement of a performance gave me momentary butterflies. Once the choir was finished the music turned to a medley from “The Holly and the Ivy” which contained many recognizable songs that I did not realize were a part of any movie, let alone a single one.

The final piece of the concert, as mentioned above, was a medley of eight numbers arranged by the conduct, Jeff Tyzik. These pieces were all from movies that received academy awards and every one of them was known to me and evoked strong memories of the movies from which they originated. The pieces were, “Tara” theme from “Gone with the Wind”; “Laura” theme from “Dr. Zhivago”; the theme from “Ben Hur”; the theme from “Dr. Zhivago”; “Lawrence of Arabia”; “Pink Panther”; “The Way We Were”; and the night finished with “Rocky.” I was a little surprised at the reaction of some audience members when the strains of “Gonna Fly Now” began but even the scoffers were entranced by the final chord.

In all, this evening’s pops concert was a spectacular reminder of days gone by and an outstanding example of how important music is to my life and, obviously, the lives of others.