Over the Rainbow

This performance of the University of Northern Texas One O’Clock Lab Band was open to the public and took place on the Millennium Stage of The J.F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday evening, the 28th of April, at 6 p.m. Some of the pieces played included "Harlem Nocturne," originally made famous by Johnny Otis; "88 Basie Street," a Count Basie classic; “Three and One,” composed by Thad Jones; “Emily,” by Carl Fontana; and “Over the Rainbow”, a piece originally by Harold Arlen and made famous when it was featured in the 1939 musical The Wizard of Oz. The piece I favored most and will be examining is the One O’Clock Lab Band’s jazzy rendition of Arlen’s “Over the Rainbow.”
Arlen was originally born as Hyman Arluck in Buffalo, New York. He changed his name to Harold Arlen when he performed, which he did with moderate success in his hometown. However, it’s believed that he was drawn to the metropolis of New York in the mid 1920s. The city became a playground for creativity for Arlen, which helped stimulate and develop his natural talents in voice and composition. He ultimately ended up writing jazz and blues pieces for Broadway shows, as well as tunes for Hollywood, which is how his “Over the Rainbow” eventually became so famous with the hit movie The Wizard of Oz.[1]
I had truly mixed emotions when I listened to this piece for the first time, which was on the night of the concert. The best word I can think of to describe this rendition of a classic song is “excited,” for the piece has different highs and lows that speak to each other and that illustrate intricacy, and hence, true mastery of music. The piece started out calm and soothing, as if something I would expect to hear on a warm, spring afternoon. However, not more than 15 seconds into the piece, a single trumpeter smoothly comes in to outline what became the harmonic base for the entire song. When he began to play, the piece seemed to instantly transform the mood of the audience into one of sweet emotion. This happens to tie in directly with the major theme of the piece: the “youthful aspiration for an ideal world of love and joy.”[2] This theme, I believe, was introduced fully about a minute into the piece when the melody switched from being played by a trumpet to being played by a trombone. The cellos and other low-sounding horns changed simultaneously with the trombone from a more somber feel to a happier one, characterized by the change from minor to major notes. This caused the expression on my face to change from tense to more relaxed. Finally, it seemed as though an early placed bridge broke things down and then brought them back up one instrument at a time, all the while creating a seemingly never ending crescendo.
It felt like the epiphany of the piece when a trumpet began screaming the highest note of the melody, marking the final run through of it. It made me stomp my feet with excitement, as a huge smile came over my face. As I was listening to these incredible musicians I felt overcome with just an immense appreciation for the music. This arrangement had turned an old song into something new and exciting, with accents here and there, and symbols splashing all over the place. Following this, what seemed like a spiced up 2-4 back beat on the drum set slowed down the tempo of the orchestra a bit, and some kicking drum fills on the high and mid toms made a nice finale. With the final screech of the trumpets standing in the back row of this ensemble, I was able to mentally recapitulate the magnificent musicianship that had just taken place.
What made this piece so exciting to hear was the fact that a classic Hollywood tune had been completely revamped, and the sound quality at which I was hearing it was far better than any VHS Wizard of Oz tape could have made it sound. There is nothing quite like a live performance. The song was spiced up with various elements of music, including rhythm. This came in the form of accents, which were numerous and varied throughout the piece. High points of excitement in the rhythm would be emphasized with a loud blast from the trumpets or trombones, and it was always a joy to hear these instruments resound. Another element of music, harmony, was also especially prevalent. The bass cello seemed to always be playing a relatively low, splashy melody, while the lead duo of trumpeters, in a concerto grosso style, would play the higher notes in contrast. In this way, it was much easier to hear the brass instruments which were playing the real melody of the song, and the simultaneous pitches created a very fancy, yet flowing harmony that was relaxing to take in. During the very soft sections of the piece, the drummer would play small, unpitched rolls on the snare drum, which seemed to really emphasize the overall feeling of sincerity that the instrumentalists were putting into the playing of Arlen’s piece. Because of the consistent stopping and playing of the trumpeters and the drummer, the piece had a very sectional form. Likewise, the piece seemed to take to the form AABA, where A was the very common melody that most people think of when they hear “Over the Rainbow.” Arlen’s hit song “Get Happy” first made him famous, and it was then that he became widely recognized as a very talented composer. It is for this reason that he was summoned by Hollywood to write theatrical music. Arlen teamed together with Yip Harburg, a lyricist, to create his oscar-winning piece “Over the Rainbow” for the film The Wizard of Oz, which was “edited out of the film three times before finally being included in the final print.” [3] Strangely enough, Arlen is recognized as one of the 20th century’s greatest Hollywood music composers, and his piece has become one of the most recognized tunes of all time.
[1] "Harold Arlen." Jewish Buffalo on the Web. Available from http://jbuff.com/harl.htm. Internet; accessed 1 May 2007.
[2] "Over the Rainbow." Answers.com. Available from http://www.answers.com/topic/over-the-rainbow-1. Internet; accessed 1 May 2007.
[3] "Jazz Programming: Monthly Feature February 2005." Chicago Public Radio. Available from http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/programs/jazz/jz_feb05.asp. Internet; accessed 2 May 2007.