What is it that makes the music of Disney films and stage shows so special? I pose the question to a man who should know. Chris Montan, president of Walt Disney Music, tells me he often gives talks about his job, and starts by saying: "Ask people to name their 10 favourite songs from Warner Bros movies, and they'll probably look at you blankly - even though there are great songs in Warner's films. But ask people their 10 favourite songs from Disney films, and chances are you'll get 20."
He's right, of course. Disney songs have a habit of seeping into our unconscious; we know them instinctively. It's been true since that first classic period of Disney animation films, from 1937 to 1942: Heigh-Ho and Whistle While You Work from Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs; Baby Mine from Dumbo; When You Wish Upon A Star from Pinocchio. The studio maintained this proud record into the 50s (Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo from Cinderella, He's A Tramp and The Siamese Cat Song from Lady And The Tramp) and the 60s (The Bare Necessities and I Wan'na Be Like You from The Jungle Book).
And this breathtaking musical tradition has enjoyed a new lease of life in the past 15 years. The title song from Beauty And The Beast has entered the canon, along with Circle Of Life and Can You Feel the Love Tonight from The Lion King. And just to clinch the argument about the memorable quality of Disney music, what's the longest word we can all remember without pausing to think how it's pronounced? That would be Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from Mary Poppins.
All of which suggests that The Magical Music Of Walt Disney, an orchestral concert to be performed at the Abu Dhabi National Theatre on January 11, will be a rare treat. Said to be the first film-music concert in the capital, it will be performed by London's Philharmonia orchestra. The conductor for the evening will be film music specialist Allan Wilson. "Disney music is like modern opera," he says. "It's a mix of ballet and operetta. You can put on a concert like ours with no words and no voices. It's wonderfully orchestrated and arranged to compensate for the fact there are no words."
But to jog the audience's memories, a movie screen behind the orchestra in the National Theatre will be showing sequences from the relevant Disney film as the music plays. This additional element, says Philharmonia managing director David Whelton, makes a huge difference: "When people go out of the theatre and hear the music at a later date, they associate it with the visual images. That association is crucial."
The repertoire of the concert has been carefully selected to appeal to younger audiences. The films with music likely to be performed include the more recent hits: The Lion King, Aladdin, Beauty And The Beast, The Little Mermaid and Tarzan, and that timeless oldie, The Jungle Book. The tunes from these newer films show how far Disney music has come over the years.
Since the early Nineties, the studio has tapped the talents of veteran pop singer-songwriters to compose its music, including Elton John (The Lion King), Phil Collins (Tarzan) and Randy Newman (both Toy Story films, from Disney's subsidiary studio, Pixar). It's a far cry from the traditions set in Disney's early animated films. Walt Disney was a keen classical music fan, and his hugely ambitious Fantasia (1940), with a score including works by Stravinsky, Bach, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Schubert was "Uncle Walt" attempting not only to bring classical music to mass audiences but also to assert that, by association, animated motion pictures were to be taken seriously.
Quite apart from Fantasia, the music Disney commissioned for his films around that time hints at lofty ideals. Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937), his first full-length animated film, includes Someday My Prince Will Come, which, if not pure opera, is first-class operetta. In fact, entire scores of these early films sound tailor-made for symphony halls. "Snow White is all big choirs, orchestras with voices," says Allan Wilson. "It's true of Pinocchio, too: think of When You Wish Upon A Star. The studio started a tradition back in those days: wonderful songs, and film music in a tone-poem format."
Walt Disney earnestly wished for this high-minded tradition to continue; he had plans to turn his beloved Fantasia into a "living work", re-releasing it every three or four years, with new animated sequences, accompanying well-known classical music, to replace the original pieces. But the Second World War put paid to those plans. The studio's lucrative foreign markets dried up, and it was thrown into severe financial difficulties.
The 1950s proved to be a leaner decade for Disney animation. Cinderella failed to match up to its predecessors, and Walt turned his attention to other media: producing live-action movies, starting with Treasure Island in 1950, hosting the Disneyland television series from 1954, and opening the theme park of the same name the following year. Could it be that Uncle Walt's attempts to diversify his empire allowed Lady And The Tramp, released within months of Disneyland's opening, to sneak in, as it were, under the radar? It's the one undoubted Disney classic of that decade, yet it feels utterly different from anything Walt Disney might have conceived himself. Its songs, by Sonny Burke and Peggy Lee, were a genuine departure, fashioned as they were to Lee's jazzy, slinky, slightly breathy vocals. Its hugely appealing animated characters and such songs as He's A Tramp made it a beloved Disney classic.
Walt Disney refocused his attention on films with animation in the last years of his life, with two further classics, Mary Poppins (1964) and The Jungle Book (1967). If his animated films of the previous decade had been disappointing, these were the two films that finally sealed his legacy. Mary Poppins was a delightful idea: PL Travers' story of a children's nanny with magical powers in Edwardian London, told in a charming blend of live action and animation. Crucially, it was packed with terrific, memorable songs: Chim-Chim-Cheree, A Spoonful Of Sugar and Stay Awake - as well as that other one with the unfeasibly long one-word title.
All these songs made it feel like the film adaptation of a classic stage musical (it later became just that, making its theatrical debut in London's West End in 2004). But the music - from the prodigiously talented Sherman brothers, Robert and Richard - was all original. They were the driving creative force behind Mary Poppins, for which Julie Andrews became the first actor in a Disney film to win an Oscar. It was widely hailed as Walt Disney's finest achievement.
The Sherman brothers returned in top form to supply the songs for The Jungle Book, a funny, enchanting adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's story of Mowgli. Except for The Bare Necessities (credited to Terry Gilkyson), all the best tunes are theirs: Trust In Me (The Python's Song), Colonel Hathi's March (The Elephant Song) and of course, I Wan'na Be Like You, sung so brilliantly in scat vocalese by Louis Prima. Walt Disney was working enthusiastically on The Jungle Book at the time of his death in 1966. It's telling that the music of this film, some of it raucous and jazz-influenced, was far removed from the classical repertoire he had favoured in earlier days. Perhaps he had learned to move with the times - or possibly his increasingly diverse business interests had helped broaden his taste.
Still, the Disney studio then entered a period of decline that lasted for almost two decades. The dawn of a new era for Disney - and its music - came in 1984, with the arrival of Michael Eisner as its chief executive officer. Chris Montan arrived at Disney a month after Eisner took over: "The old Disney had run out of steam creatively after Walt died," he recalls. "By the time we got there, it was a fairly low-energy place looking for a new direction."
Musically, he says, the turning point came when Disney executives first met the song-writing team of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, who had written Little Shop Of Horrors, a Broadway hit that became a successful film. Composer Menken and the lyricist Ashman virtually became in-house songwriters for Disney's animated division, starting with The Little Mermaid (1989). Beauty And The Beast and Aladdin followed in quick succession.
"Alan and Howard became our first rocket fuel," says Montan. "They brought us to a place where, I like to tell people, we may be the only company that has ever matched its original creative run. Disney first had that fabulous period that included Snow White, Pinocchio and Dumbo - and then we did it again, starting with Little Mermaid. I don't think MGM made those great Gene Kelly musicals again, or Warner Bros ever equalled those terrific gangster movies. It's what we're proudest of: that we were able to compete with the legacy before us."
After Ashman's death in 1991, Menken teamed up with lyricist Stephen Schwartz for Disney on Pocahontas (1995), The Hunchback Of Notre Dame (1996) and more recently Enchanted (2007). Together with the various composers of The Lion King, Collins on Tarzan and Randy Newman on the Toy Story films, it genuinely looks like a second Golden Age for Disney. But it didn't happen by accident. "One of the reasons was that we made the music important to the film," Montan says.
"The music of animation was integral to our films, just like a Broadway show. Music is more valued at Disney than at some of the other great film companies," he adds. "When Alan and Howard wrote their songs for The Little Mermaid, the arrangements of the demos they recorded were exactly used in the film, four years later. At Disney, the music's in the soil of a film from the beginning." He rejects the notion that the studio made a conscious attempt to embrace pop music; as he tells it, he and Eisner decided to seek out melodic writers whose music would not date - an important factor, given the gap of three or four years between an animated film going into production and its release. Elton John, Phil Collins and Randy Newman all come into that category.
So if Disney films seemed to happen to lean towards pop, it was more because of the studio's desire not to compromise songwriters' individuality. "I didn't want Phil Collins not to be Phil," Montan recalls. "So we tailored Tarzan to his style, his drumming, his melody writing and singing." Melodic content became king: "I thought it was really important that our songs would not only be catchy in a film, but would live on and be played at school concerts, weddings and graduations," says Montan. "We wanted to reach people around the world, who can feel comfortable with the musical vocabulary we use. I think we've accomplished that pretty well."
It's hard to disagree. Though the Philharmonia usually performs music from the established classical repertoire, David Whelton has the highest regard for the musical legacy of Disney. "It's primarily drawn from the traditions of the best orchestral music and the best Broadway shows," he says. "What's so encouraging is that today the heart of Disney music is that of orchestral sounds." He might have added that people have an emotional relationship with these songs; it's hard to separate them from the films they saw them in. One thing you can guarantee about the concert in Abu Dhabi: the audience will come out humming the tunes.
The Magical Music Of Walt Disney is on Sunday, Jan 11 at the Abu Dhabi National Theatre. For tickets, call 800 4669 or visit the box office at Virgin Megastore.
RESULTS
Lightweight (female)
Sara El Bakkali bt Anisha Kadka
Bantamweight
Mohammed Adil Al Debi bt Moaz Abdelgawad
Welterweight
Amir Boureslan bt Mahmoud Zanouny
Featherweight
Mohammed Al Katheeri bt Abrorbek Madaminbekov
Super featherweight
Ibrahem Bilal bt Emad Arafa
Middleweight
Ahmed Abdolaziz bt Imad Essassi
Bantamweight (female)
Ilham Bourakkadi bt Milena Martinou
Welterweight
Mohamed Mardi bt Noureddine El Agouti
Middleweight
Nabil Ouach bt Ymad Atrous
Welterweight
Nouredine Samir bt Marlon Ribeiro
Super welterweight
Brad Stanton bt Mohamed El Boukhari
Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
- In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
Dengue%20fever%20symptoms
%3Cul%3E%0A%3Cli%3EHigh%20fever%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3EIntense%20pain%20behind%20your%20eyes%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3ESevere%20headache%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3EMuscle%20and%20joint%20pains%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3ENausea%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3EVomiting%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3ESwollen%20glands%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3ERash%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3C%2Ful%3E%0A%3Cp%3EIf%20symptoms%20occur%2C%20they%20usually%20last%20for%20two-seven%20days%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Start-up hopes to end Japan's love affair with cash
Across most of Asia, people pay for taxi rides, restaurant meals and merchandise with smartphone-readable barcodes — except in Japan, where cash still rules. Now, as the country’s biggest web companies race to dominate the payments market, one Tokyo-based startup says it has a fighting chance to win with its QR app.
Origami had a head start when it introduced a QR-code payment service in late 2015 and has since signed up fast-food chain KFC, Tokyo’s largest cab company Nihon Kotsu and convenience store operator Lawson. The company raised $66 million in September to expand nationwide and plans to more than double its staff of about 100 employees, says founder Yoshiki Yasui.
Origami is betting that stores, which until now relied on direct mail and email newsletters, will pay for the ability to reach customers on their smartphones. For example, a hair salon using Origami’s payment app would be able to send a message to past customers with a coupon for their next haircut.
Quick Response codes, the dotted squares that can be read by smartphone cameras, were invented in the 1990s by a unit of Toyota Motor to track automotive parts. But when the Japanese pioneered digital payments almost two decades ago with contactless cards for train fares, they chose the so-called near-field communications technology. The high cost of rolling out NFC payments, convenient ATMs and a culture where lost wallets are often returned have all been cited as reasons why cash remains king in the archipelago. In China, however, QR codes dominate.
Cashless payments, which includes credit cards, accounted for just 20 per cent of total consumer spending in Japan during 2016, compared with 60 per cent in China and 89 per cent in South Korea, according to a report by the Bank of Japan.
Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
Brief scores:
Toss: Sindhis, elected to field first
Pakhtoons 137-6 (10 ov)
Fletcher 68 not out; Cutting 2-14
Sindhis 129-8 (10 ov)
Perera 47; Sohail 2-18
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Revibe%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202022%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Hamza%20Iraqui%20and%20Abdessamad%20Ben%20Zakour%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20UAE%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Refurbished%20electronics%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunds%20raised%20so%20far%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%2410m%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFlat6Labs%2C%20Resonance%20and%20various%20others%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 201hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 320Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 6-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 8.7L/100km
Price: Dh133,900
On sale: now
Electric scooters: some rules to remember
- Riders must be 14-years-old or over
- Wear a protective helmet
- Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
- Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
- Solo riders only, no passengers allowed
- Do not drive outside designated lanes
Squads
Australia: Finch (c), Agar, Behrendorff, Carey, Coulter-Nile, Lynn, McDermott, Maxwell, Short, Stanlake, Stoinis, Tye, Zampa
India: Kohli (c), Khaleel, Bumrah, Chahal, Dhawan, Shreyas, Karthik, Kuldeep, Bhuvneshwar, Pandey, Krunal, Pant, Rahul, Sundar, Umesh
German intelligence warnings
- 2002: "Hezbollah supporters feared becoming a target of security services because of the effects of [9/11] ... discussions on Hezbollah policy moved from mosques into smaller circles in private homes." Supporters in Germany: 800
- 2013: "Financial and logistical support from Germany for Hezbollah in Lebanon supports the armed struggle against Israel ... Hezbollah supporters in Germany hold back from actions that would gain publicity." Supporters in Germany: 950
- 2023: "It must be reckoned with that Hezbollah will continue to plan terrorist actions outside the Middle East against Israel or Israeli interests." Supporters in Germany: 1,250
Source: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
Guide to intelligent investing
Investing success often hinges on discipline and perspective. As markets fluctuate, remember these guiding principles:
- Stay invested: Time in the market, not timing the market, is critical to long-term gains.
- Rational thinking: Breathe and avoid emotional decision-making; let logic and planning guide your actions.
- Strategic patience: Understand why you’re investing and allow time for your strategies to unfold.
The specs: 2018 Mercedes-Benz E 300 Cabriolet
Price, base / as tested: Dh275,250 / Dh328,465
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder
Power: 245hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 370Nm @ 1,300rpm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.0L / 100km
BORDERLANDS
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis
Director: Eli Roth
Rating: 0/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Key fixtures from January 5-7
Watford v Bristol City
Liverpool v Everton
Brighton v Crystal Palace
Bournemouth v AFC Fylde or Wigan
Coventry v Stoke City
Nottingham Forest v Arsenal
Manchester United v Derby
Forest Green or Exeter v West Brom
Tottenham v AFC Wimbledon
Fleetwood or Hereford v Leicester City
Manchester City v Burnley
Shrewsbury v West Ham United
Wolves v Swansea City
Newcastle United v Luton Town
Fulham v Southampton
Norwich City v Chelsea
if you go
The flights
Flydubai offers three daily direct flights to Sarajevo and, from June, a daily flight from Thessaloniki from Dubai. A return flight costs from Dhs1,905 including taxes.
The trip
The Travel Scientists are the organisers of the Balkan Ride and several other rallies around the world. The 2018 running of this particular adventure will take place from August 3-11, once again starting in Sarajevo and ending a week later in Thessaloniki. If you’re driving your own vehicle, then entry start from €880 (Dhs 3,900) per person including all accommodation along the route. Contact the Travel Scientists if you wish to hire one of their vehicles.