On The Record – Barry Hearn
with Sarah Kienle
Principal trombone Barry Hearn (Cece & Ford Lacy Chair) interweaves his favorite music with his life story, from small town Texas, to the East Coast, and coming back to the Lone Star State.
BEETHOVEN: SYMPHONY NO. 6
“That is my very first memory of classical music… When my mom would take my brother and I to sporting events or to music events she would have a cassette player and always classical music playing, and I always remember driving and I remember listening to Beethoven Six and really enjoying it… every time I hear it, it takes me vividly back to those moments.”
BILLY JOEL: “THIS NIGHT” FROM AN INNOCENT MAN
“It was the song that Laura and I danced to right after our wedding… and a couple of the pieces I chose have this designation, but they’re kind of adaptations from honest classical pieces. In ‘This Night’, the main chorus comes from Beethoven’s Pathétique Sonata… my Theory I teacher at UT Arlington played this tune and he was like, ’See? Even rock music adapts from classical because it’s just an extension of.’”
TOMMY DORSEY & HIS ORCHESTRA: “SONG OF INDIA” FROM THIS IS TOMMY DORSEY
“This is another tune, like Billy Joel’s ‘This Night’, that’s adapted from an orchestral or an opera piece in this case. Rimsky-Korsakov wrote an opera called Sadko in the late 1800’s, almost 1900, and it’s adapted from an aria called ‘Song of the Indian Guest.’ A lot of people have kind of adapted this tune, this main melody that’s part of this aria, and the ‘Song of India’ that Tommy Dorsey did was in the mid 30’s, late 30’s or so, but it’s kind of one of his signature pieces and it’s one that I very much love listening to.”
MARLO THOMAS AND FRIENDS: “FREE TO BE.. YOU AND ME” FROM FREE TO BE…YOU AND ME
“The album… was so popular that it evolved into a TV series two years later and ABC picked it up… and they made like a Sesame Street like television show teaching kids how to be better people. And it actually is really revolutionary because even in the mid 70’s or 1974 when they wrote this, they were talking about gender neutrality. You know, some of the topics that we in 2020 are still wrestling with… It’s just amazing that we are still at that point. But the main tune ‘Free to Be… You and Me’, it’s a very simple tune and it is as 70’s as you’re going to get. You close your eyes and you swear everyone is in suede bell-bottoms while they’re singing this.”
CHICAGO: “SATURDAY IN THE PARK” FROM CHICAGO V
“Chicago is absolutely one of my favorite bands. You know, they had a horn line of a trombone, a trumpet, and a sax, and the three of them were just superstars… ‘Saturday in the Park’ is an early 70’s tune, and the guy that wrote it, it’s based really on his experience being in Central Park… his feeling of being a voyeur looking at what people are doing on Saturdays in the park: the family time, the laughter, the relaxing… and he wanted to write a song that kind of typified his feeling of seeing humanity enjoying themselves.”
