Home Alone

This program is usually heard as a "film with live orchestra" event: the movie runs on a large screen while the orchestra plays every note of the score in perfect sync with the picture, without any spoken narration breaking in.

Listeners can expect the sound world Williams built around a boy left behind at Christmas: a lilting, waltz-like main theme that carries a sense of wonder and a little loneliness, brassy and percussive chase music for the slapstick burglar scenes, and a warm choral setting of "Somewhere in My Memory," the song that has become the score's best known tune.

Because the music follows the film scene by scene rather than in separate concert movements, there is no traditional pause structure. The orchestra plays continuously through the film's two hours, matching sudden shifts from tender to comic to suspenseful within seconds, which is part of the fun of hearing it live rather than as a soundtrack recording.

The moment most first-time listeners remember is the choir entering during the film's most reflective scenes, giving the household chaos an unexpected lift of feeling, and the boisterous orchestral slapstick underscoring the booby-trap sequences near the end.

John Williams wrote the score for "Home Alone" for its 1990 theatrical release, working with director Chris Columbus on a family comedy about a boy accidentally left home while his family flies to Paris for Christmas. The score, including the song "Somewhere in My Memory," earned Williams two Academy Award nominations and became one of his most widely recognized holiday scores.

In recent years orchestras across the United States have presented the film in "live to picture" screenings, where the ensemble performs the entire score in real time alongside a projection of the movie, replacing the studio recording heard in theaters. These performances, often scheduled around the Christmas season, have introduced the score to concert audiences beyond its original film release.