With his popular “Spring melody” from the “Four Seasons”, Antonio Vivaldi became the first of the great composers to write a tune for the cell phone. He was followed by Beethoven (For Elise), Mozart (40th Symphony) and Tchaikovsky (1812 Overture), to name only a few.

Cell phone users that are up with the times, program their phones so that they are able to identify the caller by the sound of the ring. Dad’s call, then would then ring to „La Cucaracha“, for example, while Mom’s call is announced by “For Elise.” Very clever. But if you stop to think about it, not very fitting—unless your mother’s name is in fact Elise and your dad is a roach (cucaracha, in Spanish)!
Wouldn’t it make more sense to have a ring that uniquely related to that person? Nice idea, but who in the world has his own exclusive tune—a personal leitmotif, so to speak?

The orchestra knows a few, and lets the audience identify them: Pink Panther, Flintstones, Woody Woodpecker, and the Simpsons. None of this comes as any great surprise to the audience, because many of them have already been preparing for this concert at school and have composed their very own leitmotifs for this concert as part of a competition. Several young people are called on stage, and their leitmotifs are played by a musician of their choice. At the end of the presentation, the musicians award state of the art cell phones to the winners of the leitmotif competition.

Bravo! So now thousands of young people join the Pink Panther and the Simpsons in having their own personal leitmotifs. But whose idea was this anyway? Who was the first person to write a melody describing a specific person? A French composer who was slightly mad and madly in love: Hector Berlioz. He called his melody the “Idee Fixe” (or fixed idea) as he was completely obsessed with a beautiful actress named Harriet Smithson.

Monique Mead follows this”Idee Fixe “ throughout Berlioz’ Sinfonie Fantastique and tells the passionate, demented, and daemonic story of the symphony, which include fantasies, a gory decapitation, and a chilling witches Sabbath.
Other composers jumped on the bandwagon and became rich and famous with Berlioz’ idea of the “Idee Fixe,” or personal melody.

In the film Star Wars, the composer, John Williams, gives every character from Luke Skywalker to Darth Vader his own personal melody. Even the Universe has its own tune, which is the theme of the main title. At this point in the program, young people are invited to unpack their instruments and (from their seats) play the theme along with the orchestra.

Where John Williams became rich with Berlioz’ idea, Richard Wagner is the one who made his fame with it. He is the person who invented the word “Leitmotif” and used it as the basis for his great operas. The program ends with the exciting “Ride of the Valkyries”, making this bombastic program (with over 100 musicians) an superb introduction to orchestral music for teenagers.

Antonio Vivaldi: Allegro from „Spring“ from „Four Seasons“
Hector Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique, op. 14
John Williams: Star Wars to play along (Download the music here!)
Richard Wagner: „Ride of the Valkyries“ from “Die Walküre”

Instrumentation:

Large Orchestra of approx. 100 musicians.

Programmpunkte kurz gefasst

Interactive Elements:

Musical Terms:

• Idee Fixe
• Leitmotif

Featured Composer:

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)

Download

Download the music to "Star Wars" here (PDF; 357 kb) so you can play along with the orchestra at the concert!

For further information regarding this program of for teaching materials, please contact us at info@klassik-for-kids.de