āThere are reactions that donāt deceive. As soon as I heard the first notes of Mickey and the Magician, I felt shivers running through my body,ā recalls InsidEar Virginie (Ninie) Revelle. āAfter only 30 seconds, the emotion was already thereā.
āThis music is so emotionalā, adds Liz Read (Fairy Godmother on You Tube and Instagram), āthat it makes me cry every timeā.
But what makes the music ofĀ Mickey and the MagicianĀ soā¦ magical?
Mickey and the Magician,Ā an original story created in July 2016 especially for Disneyland Paris, takes us back to the sources for Disney magic. Here we go back in time to the early 19th century in Paris, to the mysterious workshop of a great Magician, whose Assistant Apprentice is none other than Mickey. While he is tidying up the place, our young Apprentice is going to let himself be carried away by his thirst to learn magic.
However, nothing will go as planned and in spite of himself, he will be transported into the most magical worlds of Disney films, from Cinderella to Frozen, and too, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. Strengthened by the teachings delivered to him during his encounters, he will find the secret of true magic, the one that resides in each and every one of usā¦
Music plays a crucial role in Mickeyās initial journey. As Niels of Capturing Disney Parks site explains, Mickey and the Magicianās original soundtrack āpresents songs that are revisited in the spirit of Broadway musicals and that are familiar to all of us from our favorite Disney filmsā¦ā.
The creator of this sumptuous score is none other than Joel McNeely, known particularly for the music inĀ Peter Pan 2: Return to NeverlandĀ (2002), theĀ TinkerbellĀ series, and the night showĀ Disney Dreams (2012).
For the composer, the project began during work sessions where all the showās creators including choreographer Tatiana Seguin (who couldnāt help but dance as soon as she heard his first music propositions), were brought together.
The fact is that dance is at the heart of the show and each scene, the composer has come up with new and particularly catchy arrangements for classic Disney tunes.
āBibbidi-Bobbidi-Booā became a festive march worthy of an operetta by Jacques Offenbach and āA Dream is a Wish your Heart Makesā took on waltz accents a la Johann Strauss.
āBe our Guestā begins with a nod to France via the accordion, before transforming into the type of music that fills us with joy during circus shows, and whose orchestration is sometimes reminiscent of Julius FucikāsĀ Entry of the GladiatorsĀ or sometimes of the music Nino Rota wrote for films such asĀ La StradaĀ or Federico Felliniās 8 Ā½ , classics of the genre.
The arrangements for āThe Circle of Lifeā and āBusaā are rooted in both the 1994 animated classic and the musical, with extensive use of percussions and flutes from around the world.
And for Aladdinās āFriend Like Meā scene, creators opted for a tap dance choreographed by James Doubtfire. Alan Menkenās original music for this sequence happens to be a tribute to Cab Calloway and Fats Waller, two jazz legends where the music naturally lends itself to this type of dance, as seen inĀ Stormy WeatherĀ (1943) orĀ Living in a Big WayĀ (1935). There on, Joel McNeely came up with this upbeat arrangement, adding a ājungle-typeā touch, decipherable by his typical playing on the bass toms of the drums.
āLet it Goā is the only piece not to contain a dance number. The composer has thus remained close to the legendary orchestration written by Dave Metzger for the film.
To intensify all these orchestral tones, exceptional musicians were needed. Thatās why the soundtrack of the show was recorded by the finest English musicians in the famous Abbey Road Studios in London.
Mickey and the Magicianās music is not just about revisiting classics. As Niels further explains, āThe show has its own musical theme that perfectly unites the different scenesā.
The theme song āLet the Magic Shineā, was written by Brendan Milburn and Valerie Vigoda, who had already written several songs for the Tinkerbell franchise, and had participated in the writing of āVive la Vieā, the song from Mickeyās Halloween Celebration. As for arrangements, it is the work of Scott Erickson, who wrote many songs for Disneyland Paris, and who also participated in the writing of āVive la Vieā. For ā Let the Magic Shine ā, he imagined a grand crescendo, starting from soft, sparkling sounds to gradually reach a rich and festive ensemble, with brass and pop percussions, to end the show in beauty.
This version was then entrusted to Joel McNeely, who used this theme as a common thread throughout the show, transforming the piece as the story unfolds. It is heard for the first time at the very beginning, in the form of a ballad being sung while Tinker Bell explores the Magicianās workshop. Then it appears instrumentally in various dialogue sequences, either with refrains played in staccato form, or in āunderscoringā form, unobtrusively accompanying the dialogue and staging, a bit like in a film, before the grand finale.
As you can grasp, from the numbers sung to the main theme song, the music from āMickey and the Magicianā are true artworks ā¦And it is all these pieces that make this show āMagical from beginning to endā, as the blogger Lady Thumper says, āLike a spark that has āthe power to fill our hearts with hopeā.
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