COMPOSER DOES WHAT HE CAN FOR OLYMPICS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 11, 1992                   TAG: 9202110238
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LES MENUIRES, FRANCE                                LENGTH: Short
COMPOSER DOES WHAT HE CAN FOR OLYMPICS
After writing the music for a dozen movies, Philippe d'Aram took on a more daunting task: composing a soundtrack for the Winter Olympics.
"I tried to express the mountains, youth and the Olympic sports," said d'Aram, who was brought in by the event's organizers to provide a theme for the first French-hosted Olympics since 1968.
D'Aram said his Olympic project was similar to composing for the cinema. He wanted to evoke the scene of the games - the Alpine amphitheater of the Savoy region of eastern France.
The music is driven by a stirring rhythm that brings to mind the stride of a speed skater or a cross-country skier. The haunting sound of the pan pipe - a mountain instrument - rises above the beat. A children's choir sings during some passages.
"For something as important as the Olympics, you do what you can," said d'Aram.
His melody is heard before and after each medal ceremony, on commercials touting the games, and throughout the day from French radio and television networks broadcasting the events. D'Aram also wrote a special tune the French railway uses to announce shuttle train departures to Olympic sites.
"You're afraid that people will grow tired of something they hear so often, but people tell me they enjoy the music," d'Aram said.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB