The Most Famous Olympic Theme John Williams DIDN’T Write

You may know that John Williams composed the music that has been heard on every television broadcast of the Olympic Games since the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. But did you know he didn’t write all of it?

The Olympic Fanfare and Theme is actually often performed as a combination of two themes, one Williams wrote and one he didn’t. The first 45 seconds or so is actually taken from a piece by French film and television composer Leo Arnaud, which was itself based on a military fanfare composed during the time of Napoleon! Arnaud studied composition at elite French conservatories with Maurice Ravel and Vincent d’Indy before immigrating to the United States in 1931. He worked as an arranger for the prominent bandleader Fred Waring before leaving for MGM in 1936, spending 30 years with the movie studio.

Arnaud’s “Bugler’s Dream” had been the theme used for pre-1984 broadcasts of the Olympic Games, beginning with the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Interestingly, it wasn’t actually written for the Olympics at all but rather was commissioned by Felix Slatkin, concertmaster and sometime conductor at 20th-Century Fox and the father of conductor Leonard Slatkin. Leonard recalled: “Arnaud and my father worked quite closely on this and all the other arrangements for the album. Most likely, Leo did the orchestrating and my dad worked out the content.” The work ended up on a 1958 Capital Records album called Charge! that featured a compendium of military music, which is how it accidentally caught the attention of ABC Sports producer Roone Arledge.

According to company lore, Arledge asked someone from the engineering department to scour the music library for a piece of music that “somehow would symbolize the grandeur of the games.” The employee returned with six options, but Arledge only listened to Charge! and was instantly struck by “Bugler’s Dream.” The day before he was to leave for the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, Arledge made his selection. ABC used “Bugler’s Dream” to open their coverage of the 1964 and 1968 Winter Olympics, and it has been a feature of television broadcasts of the Games since then.

Modeled on Joseph-David Buhl’s French military fanfare “Salut aux étendards,” which was composed around the early 1800s, “Bugler’s Dream” smooths out the dotted rhythms of the original melody and adds a new, more mellifluous ending.

By the time Williams was working on his Olympic theme, “Bugler’s Dream” was such a favorite with audiences that Williams decided to integrate it into his composition. Another challenge was that it was written for herald trumpets, so the music had to conform to the possible notes that could be played on that instrument.

John Williams’ arrangement of “Bugler’s Dream” takes Arnaud’s idea and lends it more drama with a new harmonization and fuller orchestration, even adding some extra fireworks for the brass section. Williams calls for absolutely massive orchestral forces, including three flutes (with one also playing piccolo), three oboes, three clarinets (with one also playing bass clarinet), three bassoons (one doubling contrabassoon), four French horns, four trumpets, four trombones, tuba, timpani, an array of percussion instruments (snare, field drum, cymbals, bass drum, suspended cymbal, chimes, glockenspiel, vibraphone and triangle), harp, piano, and strings. A typical brass or wind section—say, for a Mozart symphony—would be half that size or smaller.

At about 45 seconds in, you’ll hear Williams’ own fanfare as the piece abruptly shifts to key of C major, quite a departure from the E-flat major key of the “Bugler’s Dream” opening. As the snare drum begins its march, Williams’ Olympic theme unfolds as the strings and horns take center stage with a sweeping melody that Williams once described as a sonic embodiment of “the human spirit stretching to prove itself.” The trumpets and woodwinds answer with a fanfare figure. As the work builds to a stirring climax, you’ll hear the strings driving the rhythmic energy forward as the brass section carries the melody. This is roughly the same compositional technique as Williams’ “Imperial March” from Star Wars, but of course with the opposite emotional effect!

Under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas, the Los Angeles Philharmonic performed the West Coast premiere on Friday, July 27, 1984 at the Hollywood Bowl in “Prelude to the Olympic Games.” This concert was broadcast live on Classical California KUSC and on classical radio stations around the country. The following night, Williams led the piece himself at the opening ceremonies of the 1984 Olympic Games at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

In a 1992 interview with Jon Burlingame, Williams expressed that he wanted the music to reflect “the spirit of cooperation, of heroic achievement, all the striving and preparation that go before the events and all the applause that comes after them.”