On a road trip, the radio fades to static. I switch to CD and listen to By Request: The Best of John Williams. Superman happens to be on deck. Somewhere between the first few notes and the final triumphant statement of the theme I find myself thinking, "What a great time to be alive."
Being alive in the era of John Williams is the modern equivalent of being alive in the time of Mozart or Beethoven. Two hundred years from now people will still be listening to his music the same way we listen to yesterday's giants today.
Then a question occurred to me. How long did it take John Williams to become a master of the cymbal?
Listen to the Superman March. The use of cymbals is extraordinary. Providing a splash of sparkle at precisely the right moment. Elevating the punctuation of a musical phrase. Sophisticated and intentional glitter accentuating the musical idea.
It's difficult to describe exactly what they do. They don't merely crash. They leap.
There is almost a skip immediately preceding flight. The cymbals punctuate just how large Superman is intended to feel. They accompany Clark Kent's transformation from an awkward Daily Planet reporter into a superhero of epic proportions. With every triumphant statement of the theme, the intensity continues to build until the final note.
Years ago, I wrote about the Dallas Winds' bass drum player and the special punch she brings to the ensemble. The bass drum doesn't simply make the music louder. It gives the music unmistakable character. It provides punctuation and weight that elevates what everyone else is doing.
John Williams does much the same thing with cymbals. He a master cymbalogist.
The cymbals provide a sparkle and punctuation that turns the volume of exuberance one click higher with every crash. Not because they're louder, but because they somehow make the moment feel larger than it did a second before.
Perhaps that's part of John Williams' genius. He doesn't simply compose melody. He composes scale. Superman isn't merely heroic. He is impossibly optimistic, noble, and larger than life. The cymbals highlight those qualities we see on screen and John Williams captures in music.
And every time they shimmer and crash, Superman doesn't simply arrive.
He takes flight.
