Day 779: I Don't Know Everything

A common misconception is that I know absolutely everything about Disney. Unfortunately, I don't. I know, big surprise, I'm not a complete Encyclopedia of Disney. I mean, I do know a significant amount of information, especially when it comes to Epcot and Walt Disney World as a whole, but things do still surprise me from time to time. It just so happens that the other day, I was caught completely unaware at a huge connection to Disney in my life.

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, my family was looking at old slides from Walt Disney World in the 80's and 90's, which led me to listening to some old music from the parks, specifically former versions of Illuminations at Epcot. We all know that I'm a huge fan of the Gavin Greenaway music that graces World Showcase each night these days, but as many times as I've listened to that soundtrack, I'm not anywhere near as well versed in what came before it.

For those that don't know, previous to Illuminations: Reflections of Earth, there were multiple other versions of the show, many of which only showed once a week (usually Saturday nights). The soundtracks for those older editions are largely made up of classical music. The version I found on YouTube, which I've included below, is Illuminations 25 (B), celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Walt Disney World Resort with the return of classical music to the show.

 

It's a pretty long soundtrack, but I was listening to it in full for the first time last week while, of all things, curling my hair on a Wednesday morning. So I'm standing there, curling my hair, and I'm already freaking out because of some of the absolutely brilliant music included in the show, specifically around the point of the inclusion of "The Aquarium" from Carnival of the Animals, "A Night on Bald Mountain" by Mussorgsky and so on and so forth when all of a sudden I start automatically singing along to the score. For a second, I stopped, trying to figure out why in the world I was singing, but then I realized that what came next wasn't just any other song. 

It was Jupiter. 

"Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity" is a movement from the Holst Planets Suite, and it just happens to be the movement our college wind ensemble played this past fall. That's right, I've gotten to the point in my music career where I am playing some of the same pieces as have been included in spectacular shows at Walt Disney World.  You can imagine my excitement. 

As a music major, there's so many wonderful pieces out there, and you can't play it all, but I do believe that now it's one of my goals to play as many of the Disney featured pieces as possible. After all, I already have a few checked off my list! 

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on February 24).

Day 756: Carnival of the Animals

While doing homework over the past few days, I've been listening to a variety of music. For me, that means just about everything all across the board. Literally, I could be listening to rock music or Disney Parks music or something completely classical, which is a lot closer to the music topic of the day.

One of my music major friends was talking about Carnival of the Animals not that long ago, and that led me to wondering when I'd last heard the complete work. It wasn't hard to find the whole thing on YouTube, and then I just set the playlist on repeat while working on some French flashcards. It worked pretty well for me to be completely honest.

There was just one small problem. When you listen to a multi-movement work such as Carnival of the Animals, you have to eventually choose a favorite movement, because that's just how we work around here. If you're talking about The Planets Suite, you have to figure out which planet is your favorite (Mars or Saturn for me...definitely), and if you are indeed talking about Carnival of the Animals you have to choose a favorite animal.

Now for those of you that aren't familiar with Carnival of the Animals, this is a multi-movement work by Saint-Saens based around various animals. So you have the lions and the Tortoises and the Swans and so on and so forth. And the best part? It actually connects to Disney in more ways than one!

If you heard certain portions of Carnival of the Animals, you would definitely recognize at least one of them from Fantasia 2000, which you can watch right here:

And as if that's not enough of a Disney reference, the song is also used in the soundtrack that accompanies the film in the France Pavilion at Epcot. Yes, it's there too! Actually, a solid amount of Saint-Saens music is used in that film, and that generally ends up being the reason I listen to his music more often that other composers. Just goes to show you the power of Disney and the music they use! 

Oh, and for the record, my favorite movement is probably a tie between Aquarium and Swans. 

Also, happy birthday to the one and only Colin O'Donoghue!!!

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on January 28 due to a busy schedule).