One of the great summer traditions in downtown Chicago is the annual Independence Eve concert presented by the Grant Park Orchestra at the Petrillo Music Shell at Columbus Drive and Jackson Boulevard. Over the years, hundreds of thousands of listeners have poured into Butler Field for the free event, making it a communal display of patriotic pride few other cities can rival.
This year’s event, which begins at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, promises to be a bit more musically varied than previous versions. Christopher Bell, the Belfast-born director of the Grant Park Chorus, will be on the podium, and his guest chorus will be the U.S. Air Force Singing Sergeants.
Given the diverse Americana on the program, we thought we’d offer a musical primer to help prepare Grant Park-bound folks for what they will be hearing. (Those who are unable to make it down to the park can catch a live broadcast of the concert over fine arts radio station WFMT-FM 98.7.) Enjoy. And happy holiday!
“The Star-Spangled Banner” (1814)
Composer: Francis Scott Key (1779-1843)
The defense of Ft. McHenry by American forces during the British attack of Sept. 13, 1814, inspired Key to write the poem that was to become our national anthem. The tune he borrowed is not American at all, but of British origin — “To Anacreon in Heaven.” “The Star-Spangled Banner” officially became our country’s anthem in 1931. Ever since, audiences have struggled with its awkward melodic leaps (“and the rockets’ red glare”) and hard-to-remember words (it’s “through the perilous fight,” not “perilous night”). But it wouldn’t be a proper 4th if we couldn’t stand and sing our love of country to the skies, however off-Key we might be.
Overture to “The School for Scandal” (1931)
Composer: Samuel Barber (1910-1981)
This was the 23-year-old composer’s brilliant graduation piece from Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music. Although inspired by the comedy of manners by the Irish playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the piece is American through and through, filled with bubbling gaiety and a gorgeous lyric-pastoral theme that captures the essence of Barber’s romantic style.
“Mississippi Suite” (1925)
Composer: Ferde Grofe (1892-1972)
Those listeners who know and love Grofe’s “Grand Canyon Suite” will respond to the melodic charm and colorful scoring of this earlier orchestral piece, a portrait of the mighty river more as we would like it to be, rather than as it is. The titles of the four movements speak for themselves: “Father of Waters,” “Huckleberry Finn,” “Old Creole Days” and “Mardi Gras.”
“Northern Lights,” “Saints Bound for Heaven,” “Shenandoah,” “Old Joe Clark,” “Revolutionary Etude”
Arranged by Robert Russell Bennett and Robert Shaw
These traditional American folk songs, heard here in choral-orchestral arrangements by Bennett and Shaw, have been sung far and wide by the U.S. Air Force Singing Sergeants. Formed in 1945, the chorus is composed of 24 professional singers, all sergeants in the U.S. Air Force. The ensemble has performed for every U.S. president since Harry Truman, has appeared with many leading American orchestras and has traveled to all 50 states and 49 countries, including the People’s Republic of China. A word about “Shenandoah.” This best-loved of all sea chanteys (1837) seems to have originated, somewhere in America’s heartland, as a ballad about a trader who fell in love with the daughter of the Indian chief Shenandoah. The song later was taken up by sailors plying the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. “Shenandoah’s” popularity spanned the eras of the keel and Mackinaw boats, clipper ships and steamboats. Its rolling melody, full of nostalgic yearning for a vanished America, has made it one of our most beautiful and popular folk ballads.
“An American in London” (1937)
Composer: George Gershwin (1898-1937)
This piece blends orchestrations, dance numbers and underscoring for scenes in the 1937 RKO film “A Damsel in Distress.” The film starred Fred Astaire as a brash Yank who invades British society, meets the girl of his dreams (Joan Fontaine), dances with her and loses her. Robert Russell Bennett and George Parrish created the orchestrations based on Gershwin’s delicious tunes, and it is out of these that conductor John Mauceri crafted what he calls “An American in London.”
“The Irish Washerwoman,” from “Irish Suite” (1947)
Composer: Leroy Anderson (1908-1975)
Long the resident arranger for the Boston Pops Orchestra under Arthur Fiedler, Leroy Anderson came along just in time to provide high-quality lighter fare for classical pops concerts. His catalog of more than 50 light classics virtually defined the sound of the American pops orchestra. Many of his tunes have been recycled for TV shows and commercials, including “The Syncopated Clock” and “The Typewriter,” while his “Sleigh Ride” is a Christmas evergreen. His “Irish Suite,” of which “The Irish Washerwoman” is perhaps the best-known excerpt, is among his more serious compositions. (So, too, is his 1953 Piano Concerto, which the Grant Park Orchestra will play here on July 16 to mark the 50th anniversary of its premiere — at Grant Park.)
Suite from “Oliver!” (1960)
Composer: Lionel Bart (1930-1999)
The Singing Sergeants have prepared an arrangement of favorite tunes from “Oliver!”, one of the most successful of all British musicals, later transplanted to America and to a film version with equal success.
A Cohan Medley
Composer: George M. Cohan (1878-1942)
Floyd Werle, former arranger for the Air Force Band and Singing Sergeants, put together this choral suite of tunes by one of America’s great songwriters and performers. Although Cohan wrote more than 500 songs, he is most fondly remembered for such patriotic standards as “Yankee Doodle Dandy” and “You’re a Grand Old Flag,” both included in Werle’s medley.
“1812 Overture” (1880)
Composer: Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Even though this Russian war horse has absolutely nothing to do with America’s independence, it has become such a staple of 4th of July events that it might as well be about the War of 1812. Tchaikovsky wrote his rousing piece for performance at the consecration of a temple in Moscow built as a memorial to Napoleon’s defeat in Russia in 1812. Intended for outdoor performance, it is scored for a large orchestra and a huge percussion battery that includes actual cannons, which are instructed to boom at designated moments in the score.
