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An orchestra backed the quartet on classic songs. Classical Mystery Tour will re-create them.
BY CHRIS SHULL
The Wichita Eagle
Most know the Beatles as a quartet -- John, Paul, George and Ringo.
Conductor Martin Herman thinks of the Beatles as a larger collection of musicians -- namely the violinists, cellists and instrumentalists who played the background music on such classic songs as "Eleanor Rigby," "Penny Lane" and "Yellow Submarine."
Before Herman came along, those orchestral accompaniments were confined to Beatles recordings. Then Herman, conductor of Classical Mystery Tour, a Beatles tribute band, wrote down those recorded background melodies so orchestras could play them.
Classical Mystery Tour will re-create the Beatles' greatest hits with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra at a concert Saturday in Century II Convention Hall.
Jim Owen, Tony Kishman, Tom Teeley and Chris Camilleri will play and sing as John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, respectively. Herman will conduct, leading the symphony in his note-for-note orchestrations of 20 familiar Beatles songs.
Herman is also a composer and music professor at California State University Long Beach. Beatles music, he said, fits well with a symphony orchestra -- and not just because it provides the musical support the Beatles intended.
"The Beatles' music and lyrics is almost classical music now," Herman said. "It has classic status. Those songs will never grow old; they will never die."
Classical Mystery Tour performed in Wichita with the symphony twice before, in 1999 and in 2004. The group performs about 50 concerts a year, Herman said.
To create the orchestra music for Classical Mystery Tour, Herman painstakingly listened to Beatles recordings and notated each instrumental part.
The Beatles' music was groundbreaking when it was recorded in the 1960s. A pop band singing with a string quartet (on "Eleanor Rigby") or with a solo French horn (on "For No One") was then unheard of. And a piccolo trumpet swooping and soaring above "Penny Lane"?
"The thing that struck me was the sheer imagination behind it -- the interesting colors they were able to get," Herman said.
As often as not, the Beatles played as a straight-ahead rock quartet. But some songs, many conceived with Beatles producer George Martin, incorporated classical music, the Indian sitar, um-pahing brass bands, and other unorthodox instrument combinations.
The Beatles' sonic imagination was captured on each of their iconic albums. Herman's orchestral transcriptions allow these intricate and innovative songs to be re-created live.
"Even for those who came at it one generation, two generations removed, the music still has power, it still speaks," Herman said. "These songs resonate on a really deep level for all of us."
If you go
A BEATLES POP CONCERT
What: By tribute band Classical Mystery Tour, the Wichita Symphony Orchestra and members of "Beatlemania!" conducted by Martin Herman
Where: Century II Convention Hall
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
How much: Only $4 tickets remain, at the Century II Box Office, or by calling 316-267-7658.
