Official sheet music for "Superman Theme" (John Williams) for piano - PDF download, instant print & online streaming - ♪ audio samples (video) ♫ Key: C Major ♬ Show/Movie: Superman Without a doubt, a significant part of the enormously dramatic impact the Superman theme has on audiences lies in the way a couple of its transitions prepare and build up to the subsequent themes. Clearly, our superhero has arrived and sprung into action. Williams preferred the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) during this time for their impeccable sight-reading skill, and also for the legendary principal trumpet, Maurice Murphy.
But coming to rest on the dominant chord here, the music, and therefore our hero’s story, sounds unfinished. /CSpg /DeviceGray /F13 13 0 R Theme From Superman John Williams Piano solo. Has the Morricone book you mention sheet music excerpts? But it doesn’t stop there. The Superman March is one of my favorite compositions by John Williams, and while I’ve poured over the score myself more than a few times, your level of insight puts me to shame. Music / Composing, performing and listening skills, Music / Musical history, styles and forms, The Greatest Showman Musicals Mash Up KS3 Keyboard Sheet Music (This is Me, Million Dreams etc), Pop Music Mash Up KS3 Keyboard Sheet Music (Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande), Reggae: Three Little Birds - Bob Marley Keyboard Sheet Music, The Blues â Full Scheme of Work for KS3 Music, GCSE Music Listening Tests (Suitable for Edexcel, AQA, OCR and Eduqas), World War 2 Music (1930's - 1940's music), Remote Learning - Musical Genres and Styles Mini-projects Book 1 & 2 Bundle, Remote Learning - Musical Genres and Styles Mini-projects Book 2. Jerry Brubaker, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Symphonic Suite from, Music by Howard Shore / arr. 1 0 obj Note names are on the score. Print and download Theme from Superman sheet music from Superman arranged for Piano. Other arrangements are available in your region.
/Type /Catalog Williams keeps his theme lighter, more buoyant, and ultimately somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Significantly, the contour in the march outlines another heroic rising fourth. ��ͅ��B�ٌ_tG����ߜm�?BgA�1�S�r�_ʍ= A��Vxi�YCI)2,kɦђ�w�t[:��uҖ� ���T��N�u�BE���D� (m ����&�bP9���SY�z��8��0�s풲��}�^����H� Perhaps you could continue analyzing this film with some of the more minor themes like The Destruction of Krypton, The Journey to Earth, Growing Up, Lex Luthor’s theme (The March of the Villains), etc.
This withholding of an appropriately final chord is a powerful tool in the composer’s toolbox as it leaves us craving resolution, forcing us to listen all the more intently in the hopes of achieving it. Top 10: American Film Score Composers
Jerry Brubaker, Music by John Williams / arr. I have looked around too, but always found the same easy-play things you mention. Please enable JavaScript on your browser to best view this site. Thank you! After all, much of the source material for the Strauss piece (Nietzsche’s book) concerns the concept of the Übermensch, often translated as the “Superman”. Great idea about analyzing more of Superman. h�23W0P0�P0�T����+�-�� �b��B��.��% I haven’t yet seen it, so I’m not sure what to expect. This is also the moment where the music seems to utter the word “Su-per-man!”, Heard as such, the music fuses the characteristics of these first few bars with Superman’s very name. The medley contains: "Theme from Superman" * "The Planet Krypton" * "The March of the Villians" and "Finale." Join a community of music enthusiasts with a passion for music education.
Do you often analyze it on paper as well as in your ears? �\�w����a=��^+q)X�igv�q)��ߞ��M\)a���6oz? Thank you for this website and the insight that you bring to cinematic music. Alfred. stream /F12 12 0 R Victor López, John Williams: Fantasy of Flight (Medley), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Symphonic Suite from, Music by Howard Shore / arr. Or do you take your sheet music examples from some published anthology, or do you simply transcribe what you hear? See also Incidental music. The fanfare breaks down into four short pairs of motives – I’ll call each pair an idea: Each idea contains two notes that stand out more than the others: the very first note and the “goal note” of each idea (shown in the top staff below). Yes, now that you mention it, there is a more-than-coincidental similarity between the fanfares for Superman and Zarathustra. registered in England (Company No 02017289) with its registered office at 26 Red Lion h�d�� Do you listen to it first and then watch the movie? Content on this site may not be reproduced in any way without written permission from the author. (More on this later.). 5 0 obj The medley contains: "Theme from Superman" * "The Planet Krypton" * "The March of the Villians" and "Finale." John Williams’ Superman theme is one of the most iconic in film history as it so effectively captures the film character’s features in musical terms: his unstoppable power, triumphant heroism, stabilizing presence, and capacity for romance. I’ve also always thought that the jump from the tonic to the dominant in the “march” theme suggested jumping high (over a tall building? I loved how you revealed the connection between the fanfare and the love theme. John Williams Is My Favorite Film Composer Of All Time. Robert W. Smith, By Harold Arlen and E. Y. Harburg / arr.
For new films, it’s harder because I don’t have the luxury of stopping the film and going back over certain parts. This towering score, as arranged for your concert band by Bob Lowden, contains all of the famous John Williams musical trademarks -- drama, power, and massive sound blocks. Far from being just a collection of catchy tunes, the structure of the Superman theme as a whole contributes greatly to its emotional power. 6 0 obj
Below is the concert version of the Superman theme: This version begins with the fanfare (whereas the film version omits this initial appearance), which is set in a moderate tempo and at a moderately loud dynamic. endstream endobj 128 0 obj <>stream Interesting how very similar basic material can be fashioned in quite different ways even with a strong literary connection to boot. John Williams . 2 0 obj Required fields are marked *. Williams does darken the mood somewhat at the end of his fanfare by dipping into the minor mode, but it sounds heroic rather than terrifying. >> For entire films, like for the James Bond series I just finished, I always watch the whole film then go through it more selectively a second time, making note of what cues come in where. Together with the noble brass melody and the subtle but dramatic timpani roll, it is as though a great storyteller is preparing us to hear a mythic tale of epic proportions, the musical equivalent of Star Wars’ famous “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away”. /SA true
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Not only that, but the kinds of chords Williams uses in this passage are constructed using fourths (an interval we heard prominently in the fanfare) rather than the more typical chords in thirds (called tertian harmony). endobj Learn how your comment data is processed. Good to hear that someone liked Man of Steel. What a terrific post! /ca 1.0 /Type /Page h�t��j�0�_e. It appears our superhero is up against some great force, and using all his might to try to overcome it. I must have listened to that a thousand times and never caught that little piece of genius. Do you think it’s plausible that Williams was making a knowing musical allusion to this earlier “Superman” music? But that’s not to say you couldn’t make your own. %PDF-1.4 It’s certainly possible to go too far in saying what relates to what, so I really only go for patterns that are strong and, hopefully, convincing. Note that this is essentially the same melodic shape that we saw in the analysis of the Force Theme from Star Wars, which also seemed to depict the struggle of overcoming obstacles, and hence I termed it the “struggle” contour. Wonderful bit of trivia about Maurice Murphy and his distinctive heroic sound!
<< Worksheet is in PDF format within a .zip folder. /F10 10 0 R But of course, this being Williams, the Superman fanfare is more compact and structured as a symmetrical theme with four bars to each phrase whereas the Strauss is much broader in concept, the space between each note feeling like a mile wide.