Around the World

Composed and Conducted by Victor Young

This week’s song, “Around the World,” was not composed as an independent piece, but was the main theme of an orchestral score for a film version of Jules Verne’s fanciful novel, Around the World in Eighty Days. Both the film and the score by classically trained composer and conductor, Victor Young, won Academy Awards in 1956. Young’s score is a tour de force which takes his listeners on what we might now call a “virtual” tour around the world by means of evocative airs which transport us musically to the lands which the film’s characters pass through on their journey.

Like George Gershwin (composer of last week’s song, “Summertime”) Victor Young was a master at establishing mood and tone in his compositions. For this reason he was highly sought after by filmmakers and and scored dozens of high quality films, including a particular Esolen favorite, The Quiet Man (1952), and his work was nominated for the Academy Award twenty-two times in his career. The score of “Around the World …