John Williams' "Escapades"

Continuing my series of program notes:

John Williams (born 1932)

Escapades

Closing In

Reflections

Joy Ride

Steven Spielberg’s 2002 film Catch Me if You Can follows the exploits of confidence trickster Frank W. Abagnale who from 1964 to 1969, when he was arrested by the FBI at the age of 21, had successfully passed himself off as an airline pilot, surgeon and lawyer and made many millions in forged cheques. John Williams’ concert work, Escapades, successfully creates a saxophone concertino from three fairly complete sections of Williams’ soundtrack – his 20^th film collaboration with Spielberg. The concert work’s title Escapades neatly captures the film character Abagnale’s career.

Catch Me if You Can made a virtue of 1960s stylisation (pool parties, James Bond, the use of Eero Saarinen’s futuristic TWA Terminal at JFK airport for locations). Williams’ original score matched the visual style superbly. Under the opening titles animation, the orchestra evoked, not only a sense of furtive hide-and-seek (complete with orchestral ‘shh’s), but an atmosphere of Cool Jazz that was just then coming into fashion. This depiction of FBI pursuit becomes the concertino’s opening movement, Closing In. The chromatic saxophone solo may remind listeners of the Bebop improvisations of Charlie Parker but is in fact completely written out. 

Ostensibly a film about scamming, Catch Me if You Can gained an added depth from the portrayal of Frank’s parents’ divorce and custody battle which are the immediate catalysts of Frank’s need to turn to crime to survive on the streets. The melancholy second movement begins in the film as Frank’s family life begins to fall apart.

Prominent use of hemiolas (alternation of duple and triple time) denotes the joyous, up-tempo character of the last movement. This music is created basically by lifting the underscore for a five-minute sequence from the film where Frank’s first attempts to pass off cheques fail until he sees a couple of Pan Am pilots (1960s heroes) emerging from a taxi with a bevy of air hostesses. Frank successfully masquerades as an assistant pilot, finds a way to cash Pan Am payroll cheques, and even takes his first flight in the ‘deadhead’ seat of a cockpit.

The music John Williams has provided for his 100+ films (Jaws was score #43) has often been recognised as being of a higher quality than much film music which remains anonymously subservient to its film. Escapades is one of the rare examples of music that can be lifted straight from a film to the more intense scrutiny of the concert hall. 

Gordon K. Williams © 2012


This note first appeared in program booklets of orchestras associated with Symphony Services International (http://symphonyinternational.net/). Please contact me if you would like to reprint this note in a program booklet. If you would like to read more of my notes on this blog please see:

Edward Elgar's Froissart, published 2 July 2013
Aaron Copland's A Lincoln Portrait, published 3 July 2013
Franz Waxman's Carmen-fantaisie, published 6 July 2013
Jan Sibelius's Oceanides, published 8 July 2013
Richard Wagner's Tristan and Isolde: Prelude and Liebestod, published 12 July 2013 
Aaron Copland's Eight Poems of Emily Dickinson, published 18 July 2013