Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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Mulan Orchestral Arrangement

Music by Jerry Goldsmith, David Zippel, and Matthew Wilder
Arranged by Kira Tang '27 & Ro Malik '27

Conducted by Jeremy Ng '26
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Songs:
00:00 - Reflection
02:34 - Haircut
03:41 - I'll Make a Man Out of You
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ABOUT THE WORK

An enduring Disney classic, Mulan (1998) is at its heart a story about defying
expectations. The film is set in ancient China, where the titular heroine struggles to conform to society’s gender roles, first “failing” to perform traditional femininity and then facing starkly different, yet similarly restrictive expectations of masculinity after she disguises herself as a man in the fight against the incoming Hun invasion. Ultimately, Mulan’s quick thinking and refusal to be boxed in are her strengths, and it is through being herself that she leads her friends in saving the day.

Our medley begins with “Reflection,” which Mulan sings after her appointment with the matchmaker goes awry. Listen as the different instruments layer and build towards the climax of the piece (in the film, when Mulan wipes her makeup off in her family’s temple), which is followed by a horn solo. Next, we transition into “Haircut,” which is when Mulan decides to take her father’s place in the army and prepares to leave home. Amidst driving percussion, see if you can catch an easter egg played by our clarinets, bass clarinet, saxes, piano, and second violins—a combination of motifs from “Reflection” and our next song, “I’ll Make a Man Out of You.” After the final dramatic chord that marks when Mulan rides her horse off into the night, our medley leads into “I’ll Make a Man Out of You.” In the film, this is when Mulan and her fellow soldiers train for battle, the chorus reinforcing prescribed notions of what it means to “be a man.” Look closely and you might even see some members of the orchestra dueling with their neighbors! Notably, “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” has a poetic reprise towards the end of the film, when Mulan’s friends disguise themselves as women in the group’s plans to sneak into the palace and save the emperor. We end with the final theme from Jerry Goldsmith’s instrumental “Suite From Mulan,” which marks when Mulan returns home to her parents. Though Mulan brings gifts from the emperor that honor her as a hero, her father drops these to the ground and embraces her, finally accepting her as she is.

For many in our orchestra, Mulan is a childhood favorite. During our first rehearsal for this concert, we sang “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” to get a sense for the rhythms, and most members knew the lyrics by heart. More broadly, the themes of Mulan resonate with the ethos of DPops: finding community and celebrating our unique strengths through defying convention and categorization.

~ Program notes by Kira Tang

#mulan #orchestra #dpops #yale