TRUE PATRIOTISM : David Friedman Makes Honest Work of America’s Past in Pacific Symphony Holiday Piece

When New York composer David Friedman was asked to write a patriotic piece for Pacific Symphony’s Fourth of July concert, he knew one thing: He didn’t want it to be a mindless hurrah.

“I wanted to tell the truth,” Friedman said recently. “Everybody knows financially, we’re in lot of trouble; there are inequities in the country, and we’re not doing a great job. But it’s not a hopeless situation, and people do have power to change it.”

The result is Friedman’s “We’ve Got to Get Back to the Dream” for soprano, chorus and orchestra, which will receive its premiere Saturday at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. Jack Everly, who made the initial contact with Friedman, will conduct.

“Jack said he wanted something that would be the finale of the concert and would inspire people and be very exciting,” Friedman, 42, said. “My feeling was, yeah, I wanted to do that, and yet I wanted to tell the truth. I didn’t want to say ‘Everything is fabulous and yea, America!’ And I didn’t want to end up ripping everyone to shreds so people would say, ‘What a depressing end to the program.’ ”

Friedman decided to solve the problem by getting back to America’s roots.

“When this country was founded, people were running away from persecution,” he said. “People were looking for religious freedom and to live the way they wanted to. It was a very progressive, liberal, open place. Those were the principles it was founded on. I wanted to talk about that and what has happened since then and what we want to do now.”

For his text, Friedman took lines from the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Pledge of Allegiance, the Gettysburg Address and John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address.

Interwoven is “essentially a big pop anthem,” to be sung by soloist La Juan Carter. “It gradually builds and modulates and modulates and builds with La Juan screaming, ‘We’ve got to get back to the dream!’ ”

Everly orchestrated the piece. Friedman did the vocal arrangements.

“The piece is totally about inspiration,” Friedman said. “It’s about hope; it’s about change. I did write it as a political piece, but I wrote it as my statement about this country. I feel both disappointed and hopeful at the same time. I wanted to send that message.”

Friedman, a native of New York, studied as a classical pianist at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. But gradually he found “all this theater and pop music” sneaking into his playing, he said, and he began realizing his main interest lay in musicals.

Since then, he has conducted five shows on Broadway, among them “Grease,” “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” and “Song and Dance.” He also served as music director and vocal arranger for the Disney animated film “Beauty and the Beast.”

“I conduct all the Disney animated films,” he said.

Several of his songs have won major awards. Currently he’s completing a musical, “Goodbye and Good Luck,” which is scheduled to open this fall in New York.

“It’s taken me a long time to really find out who I am and what I want to do, which is to write pop musicals,” he said.

What: Pacific Symphony’s Fourth of July concert.

When: Saturday, July 4, at 8 p.m.

Where: Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, 8800 Irvine Center Drive, Irvine.

Whereabouts: San Diego (405) Freeway to Irvine Center Drive exit. Turn left at the end of the ramp if you’re coming from the south, right if you’re coming from the north.

Wherewithal: $12 to $44 ($10 for lawn seating).

Where to call: (714) 740-2000 (TicketMaster).