Program Notes

In composing this overture, written in January 1986, William Thomas McKinley bore a task unlike many other composers who wrote new compositions for the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops Orchestra. When John Williams was appointed as Arthur Fiedler's successor to the “Pops” in 1980, he expanded the orchestra's repertoire by commissioning new composers that were not associated with lighter fare that audiences for this series was not accustomed to by contribute fresh and original works for these concerts such as John Corigliano, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Noel DaCosta and McKinley. "When John Williams and I discussed the possibility of a new orchestral overture, he emphasized that he wanted a work in keeping with the highest standards of the classical tradition, a work which could serve a BSO [Boston Symphony Orchestra] subscription audience as well as a sophisticated Pops audience. Thus, when I received the formal commission from the BSO, I was deeply honored to be chosen and doubly honored by John’s confidence in my abilities to augment this very rich genre and tradition. I set out, therefore, to create a musical panorama...” Scored for a large orchestra including two harps, piano, celesta, organ and an immense percussion section, McKinley's musical panorama of his adoptive city begins “...with a powerful and gripping orchestral gesture, punctuated by a repetitive rhythmic motive [sic] (the ‘Boston’ motive!) which is thoroughly developed from start to finish, interrupted only by a slow middle section which provides contrast.” This “Boston” motif is a powerful fanfare that is permeated throughout the overture, its rhythmic motivation vacillating between jazzy duple and triple rhythmic values which, in turn, create a rich tapestry of polyphonic and poly-rhythmic episodes where the orchestral colors also vary from straightforward Neo-romantic lushness to dense layers of inharmonious modernism, yet always maintains an accessible sensibility for the audience to understand the melodic impulsion of the composer's personal voice, which he further clarifies in his program notes for the premiere: “Dominant throughout, orchestrational brilliance intensifies an aural experience encompassing vivid colors of celebration and jubilance and, at the same time, sustaining the dramatic form and virtuoso character of a symphonic overture. I have tried to provide a musical palette which is evocative, and which allows the audience to discover some important references to their own musical background, experience, and taste– references ranging from Strauss to Gershwin, from Barber to Williams, from early blues to modern jazz, from minimalism to maximalism–organically blended in my style which is at once euphonious, contemporary, and filled with musical surprise.”

—Kevin Scott, November 2022

Commissioned by John Williams and the Boston Symphony Orchestra for the 101st season of the Boston Symphony Pops orchestra. Premiered on the 6th of May 1986, Symphony Hall, Boston, MA. Boston Symphony Pops Orchestra, John Williams, Cond.