When Lalo Schiffrin was asked to write the theme song for Mission Impossible, he knew very little about the plot of the TV series. In an interview, he declares: “I hadn’t even seen the script yet. I had no clue what it was about. I realised that there was a lot of suspense. They gave me something to read, the outline, and I said, yeah, I’ll do it.” Later, when he started composing, he realised that he would very much like to know a little more about the series to be able to write a theme song for it. Again he was denied: “[The director said] you will have to score it without anything on the screen [...] we’ll score to your music.” Schiffrin laughs and says: “I wish they would give me more things without anything on the screen.”
To celebrate 10 years of Praelexis, we put together a show, “edutainment” if you will. After a short introduction, we listened to Wilken Calitz, Ander Terblanché and Winand Grundlingh rendition of Schifrin’s theme song for Mission Impossible. This song was to set the mood for an evening of creative celebration. Our host for the evening, Gillian Arends, explained: “Tonight we want to share stories and through those stories, we want to celebrate taking calculated risks, audacity, excellence, resolve, partnerships, people, products and processes.”
Gillian explained the reason for the very original edutainment celebration: “People nowadays say that we need to move from STEM to steam, it's not just about science, technology, engineering and mathematics, we actually have to include the arts, because when we think about the arts, it allows us to be creative. It allows us to collaborate.” At Praelexis we understand the importance of creativity and collaboration, but most importantly, we also understand the importance of fun. Keep an eye on our socials as we share more jewels from this exciting evening.
To witness the incredible celebration, click on the link to watch the first captivating video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/QfXE9cpC1Xc
Source:
Composer Lalo Schifrin on the "Mission Impossible" score - EMMYTVLEGENDS.ORG. 2017. [Video file]. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-OdhpBiAro