[DPops 2013 Feb] 1. Skyfall 

Yale Davenport Pops Orchestra presents:
Where in the World Is DPops?
February 12th, 2012
Skyfall
John Barry & Adele Adkins / Paul Epsworth
arr. Hendrik Kits van Heyningen CC '14
Skyfall
Director Sam Mendes' film "Skyfall" is the twenty-third installment in the James Bond franchise and debuted last year to much critical acclaim. Praised as one of the best Bond films, it contains many classic Bond elements and tropes while simultaneously featuring a darker and more introspective mood along with a complexity of character rarely present in Bond films. In my Skyfall arrangement, I have attempted to capture this duality by highlighting both classic and modern Bond themes, centered around the hit title song "Skyfall" by Adele / Paul Epsworth.
We begin with solemn trumpets lifting us from darkness, showing us light at the end of the tunnel. Although clearly an homage to the epic opening fanfare of Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra," this is truly the chorus of Adele's Skyfall presented in its broadest sense, as Bond begins the long and difficult process of grappling with his past. Quickly whisked to an exotic land, we arrive at a sudden groove complemented by "quasi-synth" flutes and strings further exploring implications of the Skyfall theme. But then we are more stagnant; tuba and trombone blasts punctuate a slow, ominous return of the Bond chromatic motive, and we crescendo into a shattering climax marking the beginning of John Barry's classic "James Bond Theme." The classic 007 Gun Barrel music returns in all of its former glory; James Bond is tuxedo-clad and back!
But nostalgically reliving the glory days is decidedly not the solution here, as the final fanfare of the James Bond Theme is tragically deferred. The mischievous minor-major ninth guitar chord that famously ends the theme is instead replaced with the traumatically sorrowful minor (add ninth) chord in brass and tremolo strings that begins the Adele song. We are now firmly in the soundscape of Adele's hit song, and we soak in themes of solemnness, inevitability and fate that mark the ending of the film. Beginning only with piano, the song quietly grows in intensity and instrumentation as it progresses; each verse or chorus is more bold than the last, ultimately leading to a large fully-orchestrated climax as if the sky were falling. In the end, a clarinet lament takes us right back to the traumatic minor ninth chord that started us on our journey, but it has not quite all been for naught. Although it came at an unusually high cost, Bond has saved Britain once again.
Program notes by Hendrik "007" Kits van Heyningen

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