Grand Canyon Suite
Encyclopedia
The Grand Canyon Suite is a suite
Suite
In music, a suite is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral pieces normally performed in a concert setting rather than as accompaniment; they may be extracts from an opera, ballet , or incidental music to a play or film , or they may be entirely original movements .In the...

 for orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

 by Ferde Grofé
Ferde Grofé
Ferde Grofé was a prominent American composer, arranger and pianist. During the 1920s and 1930s, he went by the name Ferdie Grofé.-Early life:...

, composed during the period from 1929 to 1931. It consists of five parts or movements
Movement (music)
A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession...

, each an evocation in tone of a particular scene typical of the Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park, the 15th national park in the United States...

. Paul Whiteman
Paul Whiteman
Paul Samuel Whiteman was an American bandleader and orchestral director.Leader of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s, Whiteman's recordings were immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as the "King of Jazz"...

 and his orchestra introduced the first public performance of the work, initially titled "Five Pictures of the Grand Canyon,",in concert at the Studebaker Theatre in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 on November 22, 1931.

It consists of 5 movements:
  • I. Sunrise
  • II. Painted Desert
  • III. On The Trail
  • IV. Sunset
  • V. Cloudburst


(In the conductor's score, the coda to the Cloudburst movement is notated as a separate movement: VI. Distant Thunder with Crickets Chirping)

Influence

The Grand Canyon Suite is featured in the Grand Canyon Diorama on the Disneyland Railroad
Disneyland Railroad
The Disneyland Railroad , originally the Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad, is a narrow gauge railroad at Disneyland, Anaheim, California, United States, that was inaugurated on the park's live television preview on July 17, 1955. This live steam railway was constructed for $240,000; each of the...

.

Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon (1958 film)
Grand Canyon is a 1958 short documentary film directed by James Algar and produced by Walt Disney Productions. It was shown as a supplement during Sleeping Beauty's initial run, and it won an Academy Award in 1959 for Best Short Subject...

is a 1958
1958 in film
The year 1958 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 16- "In the Money" by William Beaudine is released on this date. It would be the last installment of The Bowery Boys series which began back in 1946....

 short
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...

 Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...

 film in CinemaScope
CinemaScope
CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection.The anamorphic lenses theoretically...

 format directed by James Algar
James Algar
James Algar was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He received the Disney Legends award in 1998.He was born in Modesto, California and died in Carmel, California.-Selected filmography:...

. It features color film footage of the Grand Canyon accompanied by three movements from the Grand Canyon Suite. In the manner of Fantasia
Fantasia (film)
Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Walt Disney Productions. The third feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are...

, there is no story and no dialogue. The film won an Academy Award in 1959
31st Academy Awards
The telecast of the 31st Academy Awards is among the most infamous. The show’s producer Jerry Wald started cutting numbers from the show to make sure it ran on time. Unfortunately, he cut too much material and the ceremony ended 20 minutes early, leaving Jerry Lewis to attempt to fill in the time...

 for Best Short Subject
Academy Award for Live Action Short Film
This name for the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film was introduced in 1974. For the three preceding years it was known as "Short Subjects, Live Action Films." The term "Short Subjects, Live Action Subjects" was used from 1957 until 1970. From 1936 until 1956 there were two separate...

.

The third movement of the suite also features in the 1983 film A Christmas Story
A Christmas Story
A Christmas Story is a 1983 American Christmas comedy film based on the short stories and semi-fictional anecdotes of author and raconteur Jean Shepherd, including material from his books In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash, and Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories. It was directed by Bob Clark...

.

"On the Trail" was used for many years as the "musical signature" for radio (and later television) programs sponsored by Philip Morris
Philip Morris USA
Philip Morris USA is the United States tobacco division of Altria Group, Inc. Philip Morris USA brands include Marlboro, Virginia Slims, Benson and Hedges, Merit, Parliament, Alpine, Basic, Cambridge, Bucks, Dave's, Chesterfield, Collector's Choice, Commander, English Ovals, Lark, L&M, Players and...

 cigarettes (beginning with their 1933 radio program featuring Ferde Grofe and his orchestra). Frankie Laine
Frankie Laine
Frankie Laine, born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio , was a successful American singer, songwriter, and actor whose career spanned 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of "That's My Desire" in 2005...

 recorded "On the Trail" on his "Call of the Wild" album, orchestra conducted by John Williams
John Williams
John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...

. The lyrics were written by Harold Adamson
Harold Adamson
For the Toronto Police Chief see Harold Adamson Harold Adamson was an American lyricist during the 1930s and 1940s.- Biography :...

. Jon Hendricks
Jon Hendricks
Jon Hendricks is an American jazz lyricist and singer. He is considered one of the originators of vocalese, which adds lyrics to existing instrumental songs and replaces many instruments with vocalists...

 wrote lyrics for "On the Trail" and the song was recorded for Hendricks' album To Tell the Truth (1975).

Partial Discography

In 1945, Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...

 and the NBC Symphony recorded a version of the work for RCA Victor; this recording was among the first LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...

s released by RCA (LM-1004), in 1950.

The Paul Whiteman
Paul Whiteman
Paul Samuel Whiteman was an American bandleader and orchestral director.Leader of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s, Whiteman's recordings were immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as the "King of Jazz"...

 Orchestra's 'Original artist' recording is available on the CD 'Gershwin & Grofé'. http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=1033746&BAB=E

In 1960, Grofe himself conducted the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra
Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra
The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra is an American orchestra based in the city of Rochester, Monroe County, New York. Its primary concert venue is the Eastman Theatre at the Eastman School of Music....

 in a stereo recording of the music, released on LP by Everest Records
Everest Records
Everest Records was a stereophonic record label based in Bayside, Long Island started by Harry D. Belock and Bert Whyte in May 1958. It was devoted mainly to classical music.-History:...

.

A surround sound
Surround sound
Surround sound encompasses a range of techniques such as for enriching the sound reproduction quality of an audio source with audio channels reproduced via additional, discrete speakers. Surround sound is characterized by a listener location or sweet spot where the audio effects work best, and...

 recording of the full orchestral version is available on the Audio-DVD 'American Classics - Grofé: Grand Canyon Suite'. http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/3116784/a/American+Classics+-+Grof%E9:+Grand+Canyon+Suite.htm

There is a CD of 3 of Grofé's suites (Mississippi, Grand Canyon, and Niagara Falls) performed by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra is an English orchestra. Originally based in Bournemouth, the BSO moved its offices to the adjacent town of Poole in 1979....

: http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=1043778.

An SA-CD by the New York Philharmonic
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...

 conducted by Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...

 titled 'Bernstein Gershwin etc.' includes The Grand Canyon Suite: http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=1783400. Bernstein's recording has been released in several editions previously, including the Royal Edition series.

In 1982, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

ian Isao Tomita
Isao Tomita
, often known simply as Tomita, is a Japanese music composer, regarded as one of the pioneers of electronic music and space music, and as one of the most famous producers of analog synthesizer arrangements...

 recorded an electronic version on his Grand Canyon album: http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=6776374&BAB=E.

Columbia Masterworks released a recording of the Grand Canyon Suite performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy was a Hungarian-born conductor and violinist.-Early life:Born Jenő Blau in Budapest, Hungary, Ormandy began studying violin at the Royal National Hungarian Academy of Music at the age of five...

. Catalog Number ML5286. Library of Congress catalog card R58-1077

A recording of the suite coupled with Porgy and Bess: A Symphonic Picture
Porgy and Bess: A Symphonic Picture
Arranged by Gershwin's good friend and sometimes assistant Robert Russell Bennett in 1942, Porgy and Bess: A Symphonic Picture includes most of the best-known songs from the Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess, although not exactly in the order of their appearance...

, and played by Antal Dorati
Antal Doráti
Antal Doráti, KBE was a Hungarian-born conductor and composer who became a naturalized American citizen in 1947.-Biography:...

 and the Detroit Symphony is on Decca.

Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...

 recorded a swing version with his trio on the album Great Connection.

Steven Richman conducted the Harmonie Ensemble/New York in the complete original Paul Whiteman Orchestra version of Grand Canyon Suite, coupled with the original Mississippi Suite on Bridge Records in 2006, entitled "Symphonic Jazz: Grofe and Gershwin".

Disneyland Records
Disneyland Records
Disneyland Records is the original name of the Walt Disney Company's record company.After long associations with primarily RCA Victor Records, with a few select titles on Capitol, Disneyland Records was established by the Disney studio in 1956 with its first release entitled A Child's Garden of...

 released an abridged recording of the Suite, played by Symphonie-Orchester Graunke, and conducted by Frederick Stark. This recording is actually the soundtrack of the Disney 1958 live-action short subject Grand Canyon. This version has not been released on CD, but the short film is included as an extra on the DVD release of Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...

's Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty (1959 film)
Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the fairy tale "La Belle au bois dormant" by Charles Perrault...

.

In Popular Music

Jazz pianist Wynton Kelly
Wynton Kelly
Wynton Kelly was a Jamaican-born jazz pianist, who spent his career in the United States. He is perhaps best known for working with trumpeter Miles Davis from 1959-1962.-Biography:...

 recorded a version of the third movement "On the Trail" on his 1964 album It's All Right!
It's All Right!
-Track listing:# "It's All Right" - 2:51# "South Seas" - 5:30# "Not a Tear" - 5:59# "Portrait of Jennie" -Track listing:# "It's All Right" (Curtis Mayfield) - 2:51# "South Seas" (Rudy Stevenson) - 5:30# "Not a Tear" (Stevenson) - 5:59# "Portrait of Jennie" -Track listing:# "It's All Right"...

.

Jazz organist Shirley Scott
Shirley Scott
Shirley Scott was an American hard bop and soul-jazz organist. She was most known for working with her husband, Stanley Turrentine, and with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis...

 also recorded "On the Trail" on her 1967 album Girl Talk
Girl Talk (Shirley Scott album)
Girl Talk is an album by American jazz organist Shirley Scott recorded in 1967 for the Impulse! label.-Reception:The Allmusic review by Michael G...

.

In 1969 "101" Strings recorded and released an LP of "The Grand Canyon Suite" on Somerset/Stereo Fidelity Records (SF-7900-A[B])

In 1982 Isao Tomita
Isao Tomita
, often known simply as Tomita, is a Japanese music composer, regarded as one of the pioneers of electronic music and space music, and as one of the most famous producers of analog synthesizer arrangements...

 created an electronic version of the Grand Canyon Suite on the album with the same name.

Grand Canyon Suite on the album Refugee
Refugee (Refugee album)
Refugee was the self-titled and only album of Refugee. The album was originally issued on Charisma Records in March 1974. It was re-released under the TimeWave label on June 27, 2006....

 by the band Refugee
Refugee (band)
Refugee was a progressive rock group formed by former The Nice members, bassist Lee Jackson and drummer Brian Davison, with keyboardist Patrick Moraz....

has no resemblance to the suite by Ferde Grofé.

External links

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