The American Adventure

D No: 512

Performing Forces: orchestra

Date Published: MS 

Date of Composition: 1975

Notes: This thirty-eight minute orchestral score was composed for a fifty-two minute theatrical production that was produced by Robert Johnson and friends. It was mounted in two newly created small theater located in the basement of the Earle Warner Theater at 12th and E Streets, N. W. The theaters had quadraphonic sound and seated about 140 each. The audience sat facing a slightly concave screen twelve feet high and thirty-six feet wide, divided into twelve six-by-six foot squares upon which were projected several thousand slides, and some motion picture film at times. By means of this communications system the history of America was vividly unfolded. The script was written by Alexander Nesbitt and narrated by William Conrad. I began my work in mid-August of 1975 and completed the 34 sections of the score, composed and orchestrated by the middle of October. The first week in November thirty-seven members of the National Symphony Orchestra and I began the recording session at 9 am in the Constitution Hall. We finished at about 6 pm, and my work was done, so I thought. However, I got into the sixteen-track sound mixing studio with engineer John Burr where all of the sound effects, narration, and music tracks had to be balanced down to four. That gave me a whole new education. We finished the mix, after many late night sessions, about the first of the year. The show opened in February of the Bicentennial Year and ran each day from 10 am until 9 pm for two years. It then moved to the Wax Museum to be shown by special reservation to tourist groups.

Complete show with narration