On Saturday, January 6, the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra (DPO) will perform “Huddle Up: The Music of Sports”. Neil Giddleman, who conducts the Orchestra, joined Evan Miller by phone to discuss the program, which features music from sports movies and professional athletics. Evan Miller began the interview by playing John Williams’ “Olympic Theme and Fanfare,” originally composed for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Giddleman noted that Williams has penned more than one piece for the Olympics, but said his original 1984 composition, which will appear on Saturday’s program, remains the most iconic:
“John Williams has written several Olympic themes over the years. I listened to all of them just to make sure this was the one I wanted to begin [the concert] with. And they're all good. But this is the one that's so iconic, and it really, really captures the best things about the Olympics.”
According to Giddleman, music can help audiences feel the excitement and intensity of sports—from professional events to depictions of athletics on film. While Williams’ “Olympic Theme” captures the majesty of the Olympic games with brilliant brass fanfare, Mehendolson’s Symphony No. 4, “Italian,” which the DPO also performs on Saturday, matches the frantic pace of cycling races in the film Breaking Away (1979). Giddleman said that Breaking Away’s score was innovative—and perfectly suited to the film’s plot.
“The main character is really into bicycling and looks up to all these great Italian road racing bicyclists. The film has these amazing sequences of him on his bike with Mendelssohn's “Italian” Symphony in the background. I mean, this movie predates most music videos, but they're just these classic music video type things.”
“Huddle Up: The Music of Sports” also features the highlights from Rocky (1976) and composer Leroy Anderson’s Home Stretch, which was set to the video of Secretariat’s 1973 win at the Belmont Stakes—one leg of the American Triple Crown that the legendary racehorse won that year. Giddleman explained how the Orchestra “raced” Secretariat to the finish of the Belmont at their concert:
“There's this very obscure, but fun, piece by the American Pops composer Leroy Anderson called Home Stretch. It's a horse-racing piece with the percussion sort of doing the hoof beats throughout the piece. And, somewhere along the line, I did some timing calculations and figured out that Home Stretch takes a little bit longer to play than Secretariat took when he won the Belmont Stakes all those years ago. So I found a video of the running of the Belmont and we trained the orchestra to play the piece a little bit faster than they used to so we can actually race against the horse.”
According to Giddleman, the DPO managed to “beat a dead horse” the last time they performed Home Stretch alongside Secretariat’s race. For more information about the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra and Dayton Opera’s 2024 season, which includes Giacomo Puccini’s opera Tosca and the a live-scored screening of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, visit DaytonLive.org.
Text by Peter Day, adapted from an interview recorded by Evan Miller on January 5, 2024.
