Program Notes
The Wizard of Oz

Whether it is Judy Garland’s performance of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” the bouncy Munchkins, or the Wizard’s curious phraseology, the songs and visuals from The Wizard of Oz remain icons of classic Hollywood cinema and American culture at large. The widespread popularity of the movie, however, masks the fact that Oz is a very unusual work. In particular, the film’s orchestral score — directed by Herbert Stothart and realized by an entire staff of arrangers and orchestrators — is one of the major distinguishing and most overlooked features of the movie.

Ironically, most musicals of the 1930s did not have long or involved orchestral accompaniments. Instead, the performances of songs took priority over background orchestral music, which mainly contained instrumental arrangements of the vocal melodies. The 1937 release of Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs broke this mold. Not only was it the first feature-length animated film, but it also was a Hollywood musical featuring wall-to-wall orchestral music. While Snow White was animated instead of live action, it shared many characteristics with the Oz film released two years later. Both films were fantasy musicals in which young girls were taken from their homes, aided by little people, and antagonized by alarmingly nasty women with double identities. (One critic who considered The Wizard of Oz to be an overdone imitation of Snow White jokingly referred to Oz as The Seven Thousand Dwarfs by Actual Count.)

Whatever the case, it is clear that Herbert Stothart’s music department at MGM followed the example of Snow White by assembling a lengthy and complex orchestral score that went far beyond merely accompanying the songs. What makes the Oz music especially interesting is the frequent inclusion of outside pieces of music. If you listen carefully, you will find a wide selection of musical quotes ranging from Schumann’s “The Happy Farmer” to Stravinsky’s Petrushka; from Mendelssohn’s Op. 16 to Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain.” Also included are popular tunes, such as Henry Bishop’s “Home, Sweet Home” (played as a countermelody to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” during Dorothy’s “there’s no place like home” speech) and Arthur Pryor’s “The Whistler and His Dog” (played when Toto escapes from Mrs. Gulch’s basket). Although quoting - or cribbing - other composers’ works in film scores has been scorned as uncreative, its use in The Wizard of Oz is very thoughtful. Music director Herbert Stothart believed that including famous pieces of music in a movie could serve a double purpose by intensifying the drama while also exposing audiences to great classical music. Thus, many of his film scores include skillfully adapted excerpts from works by Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, and Delius. The quotes in The Wizard of Oz, however, do more than offer a lesson in music appreciation; they also evoke nostalgia.

Granted, the music hardly does this by itself - the entire film is a celebration of the nostalgic spirit, be it through the sepia tone scenes of rural Americana or Judy Garland’s determined journey back to her family (even the word “nostalgia” comes from the Greek, meaning “return home”). The musical quotes enrich these nostalgic elements by imitating the type of music played during so-called “silent” movies. Melodies like “The Happy Farmer,” “The Whistler and His Dog,” and “Reuben, Reuben” (heard during the tornado) frequently accompanied rural or comic silent films of the 1910s and 1920s. Including these songs in the Oz film score would have reminded adult audiences in 1939 of silent films they had seen during their own childhood, contributing to the nostalgia. Although we do not have these same memories to draw upon, we can still appreciate and enjoy the potpourri of musical styles interwoven into The Wizard of Oz score, complementing this American fairytale’s wit and charm with an equally rich and colorful orchestral accompaniment.

Nathan Platte of Ann Arbor, a doctoral student in musicology department at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance, wrote program notes for this concert.