This is the third part of the four-part package that John Williams composed for NBC News. For the Today Show he composed the Scherzo for Today. In musical terms, scherzi are usually the third movement in four-movement works such as a symphony. They tend to be light, fast moving and upbeat. Although this theme starts out very different than the first part of The Mission (Nightly News’ theme), keep listening to hear some sampling of the first part in this music. Even though it was played multiple times a day on a daily basis, most viewers are not so familiar with the theme. That’s because it ran during the national weather scrolls that most local stations replace with their own local forecast. It was also used as a close. Scherzo for Today was phased out in 1990.
John Williams – Today Show theme (The Mission, part III – Scherzo for Today)
And here’s the music that was used for a number of years on the tomorrow on Today promo’s.
Today’s theme from around this period sounds like something straight out of Star Wars for some reason.