The Bafta-winning composer Alexandre Desplat tells Classic FM about his Hall of Fame choices

Alexandre Desplat's Hall of Fame choices

Composer Michael Giacchino totally doesn't mind that his friend J.J. Abrams went back to John Williams to score the new Star Wars movie. In fact, he's over the moon about it...

Star Wars: Michael Giacchino on John Williams's soundtracks

While Nelson Mandela was incarcerated on South Africa's Robben Island, one of the other political prisoners managed to retain a copy of Shakespeare's complete works, which was secretly circulated through the group. At that prisoner's request, many of the others—including Mandela—signed their names next to their favorite passages.

As Shakespeare scholar David Schalkwyk, also a South African, explains to interviewer Rebecca Sheir, there is something special about "a book that had passed through the hands of the people who had saved my country."

Schalkwyk shares some personal history and reveals what Shakespeare might have meant to the men who signed the Robben Island Shakespeare.

David Schalkwyk is Professor of English at the University of Cape Town and, beginning in 2009, has served as Director of Research at the Folger Shakespeare Library and editor of "Shakespeare Quarterly." He is also the author of "Speech and Performance in Shakespeare’s Sonnets and Plays," "Literature and the Touch of the Real," and "Shakespeare, Love and Service." His most recent book, "Hamlet’s Dreams: The Robben Island Shakespeare," was published in February 2013.

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From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved.

Produced for the Folger Shakespeare Library by Richard Paul; Garland Scott, associate producer.


The Robben Island Shakespeare

Lyrics by LAURA KLEINBAUM
Music/Orchestrations by WILLEM OOSTHUYSEN

Recorded by SALOMON LERNER

You're Winnin' [performed by Amanda Savan and Kathleen Cameron]

Before Laurens and Lafayette came along, my first draft of My Shot was just Hamilton and an extended 2nd verse from Hercules Mulligan. Here is that demo.

My Shot First Draft

Back in September, I had the privilege of having the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra perform a chamber version Animal's of the Solstice; Calm of the Equinox for the ACO's Earshot Composition Competition. Here is a short clip of the Indiana Chamber Orchestra performing my work!

www.americancomposers.org

Animals of the Solstice; Calm of the Equinox Performed by the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra

Raiders of the Lost Ark and John Williams' Indy Scores

A celebration and examination of John Williams' score for 1993's Jurassic Park.

Jurassic Park and John Williams

Trombone/Voice: Aden Brooks
Recorded 9/18/18, Astoria, NY

Nature Variations, for solo trombone, is a set of seven variations and one "interruption". Knowing Aden’s penchant for jazz music, I asked him what his favorite tune is. He replied, “Nature Boy”. Thus, each section is based on that song's melody. The variations are based on different compositional styles and performance techniques, and are titled as follows: "Indeterminacy", "Improvisation", "Topography", "Integral Serialism", "Chance Operations", "Letter-Pitch Substitution: Elegy", and "Multiphonics". The variations may be performed out of order and repeated as desired. Additionally, I’ve written an "Interruption", which, as the name suggests, may interrupt any variation in progress. Altogether, the work is inherently disjointed and does not call for a continuity. In fact, the performer is invited to add to the unstable nature of the work by interpreting the graphic notation contained in some of the variations as well as spontaneously selecting which sections will be performed. The form of the work is reminiscent of the Open Form works of Earle Brown, which were themselves inspired by the mobiles of Alexander Calder. Much like those mobiles, Nature Variations aims to present a set of self-contained sections that can weave in and out of each other, linked only by the Interruption, a device which is itself akin to the eye of the mobile-viewer rapidly shifting focus from piece to piece.

You're Winnin' [performed by Amanda Savan and Kathleen Cameron]

Willem Oosthuysen

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