John Williams - composer - at 90

Subject: John Williams - composer
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Feb 22 - 10:25 PM

The other John Williams - not the classical guitarist, but the composer of many works including a whole bunch of movie scores - was featured in a Guardian article about his upcoming 90th birthday.

John Williams at 90: ‘He is so much smarter than his critics’
"He has created some of the most memorable film scores of all time, including Jaws, Star Wars and ET. Is it time he was regarded as a great composer?"

There is a story that John Williams was working on Schindler’s List when he suggested to Steven Spielberg that he needed a better composer for his overwhelming Holocaust drama. “I know, but they’re all dead,” replied the director.

The anecdote is redolent not only of Williams’s humble view of his handiwork but also speaks to the traditional gulf in perception between the populist Williams – he has the most entries of any living composer in Classic FM’s hall of fame – and the vaunted masters of classical music. Celebrating his 90th birthday on 8 February, Williams has a body of film work that encompasses blockbusters (nine Star Wars movies, four Indiana Joneses, three Harry Potters, two Jurassic Parks and the first Superman film) and serious historical fare (JFK, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, Lincoln).

There was a thread to do with Movie Soundtracks but I decided to give Williams his own thread.

Subject: RE: John Williams - composer - at 90
From: Nigel Paterson
Date: 05 Feb 22 - 11:24 AM

I have also read, somewhere, that Williams was initially reluctant to write the score for "Schindler's List because he wasn't Jewish. He felt that only a Jewish composer would be able to adequately express the gravitas of the subject matter.

Subject: RE: John Williams - composer - at 90
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Feb 22 - 12:05 PM

There are a couple of lists (odious as they are) of "top film composers" he ranks highly on:

Top 10 film composers – of all time from BBC's ClassicalMusic site and Screen Rant's (never heard of it before) The 10 Best Film Music Composers Of All-Time, Ranked but both lists contain only very recent composers, making them very short-sighted.

When you look at just a few of the other "serious" composers who worked in film, the fact that Williams has made such a great living at it doesn't make him any less of a serious composer than the rest in this august group. It means he found a niche that has kept him very busy.

Aram Khachaturian wrote amazing stuff (my favorite symphonic piece from films is his work on Spartacus), Leonard Bernstein wrote several things, not just West Side Story, Dmitri Shostakovich was a very busy composer for film, George Gershwin, Bertolt Brecht, and the list could go much longer. This is a non-folk or blues music subject, I realize. The "other" John Williams pops up around Mudcat, and he's a classical guitarist, so there is wiggle room for these other folks.

There are composers like Sergei Rachmaninoff whose music appeared in lots of films (and he died in Beverly Hills in 1943) but he never actually composed for film. So there is that distinction to be made. Those listed above made a good living writing for film.

Subject: RE: John Williams - composer - at 90
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Feb 22 - 07:10 AM

When you think of the Olympic themes like the trumpet florishes you don't think of John Williams but it is. Unlike some soundtrack composers he writes and conducts his score to the millisecond of whst appears on the screen.

The bravado of an Indiana Jones or the pathos of Schindler's List they are masterful in the extreme. Star Wars goes beyond Wagner in the treatment of themes for various characters. He knew how to borrow from Holst The Planets in a way that it is not obvious.

Subject: RE: John Williams - composer - at 90
From: Nigel Paterson
Date: 07 Feb 22 - 11:09 AM

Very surprised not to see in Beek's "Top Ten", Erich Korngold. Move over John Barry & make way for Korngold. "Greatest Composer" is a debatable, but ultimately unanswerable question. Quantity of scores composed requires simple addition only. The quality of the scores is a subjective, academic discourse that frequently becomes unsatisfactorily cyclic.

Subject: RE: John Williams - composer - at 90
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Feb 22 - 11:23 AM

Korngold! I knew there was someone else I've loved over the years that I was missing.

Subject: RE: John Williams - composer - at 90
From: Nigel Paterson
Date: 08 Feb 22 - 12:40 PM

"Unlike some soundtrack composers he... (John Williams) writes and conducts his score to the millisecond of what appears on the screen".
Most composers, including John Williams, have, since around 1975, had the benefit of SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers) timecode. The code is represented thus: 00:00:00:00...hours, minutes, seconds & frames. Synchronising music to picture is, today, a familiar process to both composer & director alike, thanks to SMPTE.

Subject: RE: John Williams - composer - at 90
From: keberoxu
Date: 08 Feb 22 - 01:33 PM

For an "Evening at the [Boston] Pops" program in 1980,
John Williams, an institution with that particular organization,
was joined by C-3PO and R2-D2.

scroll down to see YouTube video at end of article

Subject: RE: John Williams - composer - at 90
From: robomatic
Date: 09 Feb 22 - 09:59 PM

Sergei Prokofiev, Thomas Newman, Bernard Herrmann

and of course, Danny Elfman!

Subject: RE: John Williams - composer - at 90
From: Mrrzy
Date: 09 Feb 22 - 10:01 PM

My last reunion's Evening with the Pops did a tribute to his movies, it was glorious, that was 2017.

Going again in 2022...

Subject: RE: John Williams - composer - at 90
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 10 Feb 22 - 11:31 PM

The most the most recognizable two notes in popular music... the opening of the Jaws theme.*

RIP Maestro.


*Honourable mention to sometime "Wrecking Crew" bassist Abe Luboff.

Subject: RE: John Williams - composer - at 90
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Feb 22 - 02:02 PM

I know - akin to the beginning of Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra and how it was used for 2001 A Space Odyssey.

John Williams isn't gone, though, Phil. He's just approaching his 90th birthday.

Subject: RE: John Williams - composer - at 90
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Feb 22 - 02:17 PM

That Strauss piece always morphs in my memory - I listen to the first part then expect it to riff into the Saint-Saëns Symphony No 3 in C minor, Op 78, "Organ" fourth movement at about two minutes in (https://youtu.be/M68gT9XQMEw). With such a great beginning, the rest of the Strauss underwhelms for major chunks of that tone poem. I must have listened to those two often enough at about the same time that they merged in memory. I can't think of any other pair of pieces that has happened with. (And they're both great adapted for movies.)