# John Williams



## Edward Elgar

Yo guys, I'm posting this thread purely for the appreciation and worship of the great man; John Williams. It's true he has had a massive advantage working with the top directors in the buisness, but you have to admire his natural genius for melody an orchestration. What are your favourite scores of his? Personally, my favourite are the Star Wars movies, the Indiana Jones trilogy and Schindlers List.


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## Krummhorn

The first two Home Alone films were my favorites along with your selection of the Star Wars productions.


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## opus67

Jurassic Park and of course Schindler's List.


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## Rondo

Jurassic Park and Star Wars are great. Others that you don't hear about much (but are good) are: 1941 (seriously), The Patriot, Born on the Fourth of July and Far and Away. Just great stuff!


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## SPR

I liked the score for Raiders of the Lost Ark.


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## Weston

I'm going out on a limb and choose a cheesy old TV show theme by the then little known Johnny Williams as he was called. I listen to the all too brief main theme from The Time Tunnel just for its quirky "where's-the-downbeat?" rhythms and fantastic horn ensemble work. It's almost jazz, almost classical.

I hated the show -- loved the theme music.


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## SPR

I heard that John Williams did the 'Lost in Space' theme too. Is that true?

*danger Will Robinson* !


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## Guest

You had me wondering for a minute if I had missed something  I thought you were on about the John Williams.


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## Weston

SPR said:


> I heard that John Williams did the 'Lost in Space' theme too. Is that true?
> 
> *danger Will Robinson* !


Yes, he did that too.


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## LindenLea

It's difficult to know where to start when nominating the best JW scores, there have been so many over the years, and he is absolutely by a wide margin the greatest living composer in my view. It seems to me that these days the vast majority of the finest living composers work in cinema, and sadly very few of them in the 'classical' mainstream.

For me E.T. is his most beautiful and in some ways his most purely symphonic score, it is truly wonderful.

I would say that in recent years his music for 'Catch Me if You Can' and 'Terminal' are so original and interesting, in both cases you would not even think that you were listening to a John Williams score. 

I also love his scores for Saving Private Ryan, all the various Star Wars movies, and Empire of the Sun. 

A word also for Jaws, which will probably remain forever his most iconic score, that ominous sound of the approaching killer shark is perhaps the most instantly recognisable and terrifying musical theme in cinema since Bernard Herrmann's famous shower scene in Hitchcock's 'Psycho'.


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## PostMinimalist

Anyone who is playing piano in a studio orchestra by the age of 10 is going to learn the craft of composition so well that even when he has nothing to say he going to say it in such a way that it dosn't matter!
Doffed caps all round to Master JW


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## anephric

While owing a lot to John Adams, Williams' score to A.I. is absolutely marvelous. 

Whats most amazing about Williams is how his sequel scores almost always trump the original. The Empire Strikes Back, Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom, The Lost World, that third Harry Potter score... he consistantly just ups the ante in the most wonderful ways.

Dracula, The Fury and Empire Of The Sun may be his best and least respected works though.


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## Yagan Kiely

> orchestration.


He doesn't orchestrate all his scores.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121765/fullcredits#cast

Edward Karam .... orchestrator (as Eddie Karam)

Conrad Pope .... orchestrator


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## JoeGreen

While it's true that Williams doesn't orchestrate many of his scores, he does write a lot of very specific and meticulous notes on his sketches, which can span several staffs, in regards to instrumentation. Sometimes the orchestrator finds themselves merely assigning the parts to its corresponding place in the full score. 

So I think we could give some credit to Williams for the amazing orchestration found in his scores.

I love his score for the Original Star Wars Trilogy.


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## Yagan Kiely

Agreed. But a general use of double piano sketch is used mostly.


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## PostMinimalist

Yagan Kiely said:


> He doesn't orchestrate all his scores.
> 
> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121765/fullcredits#cast
> 
> Edward Karam .... orchestrator (as Eddie Karam)
> 
> In a marvelous interview given a long lime ago I remember a hollywood orchestrator was asked what his work entailed and his reply prety much holds true for todays orchestrators.
> He said something like: "The composer gives me the pieces writen on this white paper and my job is to write it out again on this cream coloured paper."
> 
> Most film composers write in pretty detialed short score of about nine or ten staves (nowadays midi files of about 10 channels are common too). Most of the details are already there and the orchestrator puts in a crescendo or a slur here and there. Not to demean the work they do I must add that the work load is usually immense and mind-bogglingly heavy with a zero tolerence for mistakes so there is a lot of pressure and responsibility involved. I know, I've done this kind of work and although it's tough, it by no means undermines the orchestrational ability of the composer. (I won best orchestrated score at the 2001 Thessaloniki film festival for 'Peppermint' with music by Panayotis Kalantzopoulos, which recieved 8 other awards!)
> FC


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## anephric

> While it's true that Williams doesn't orchestrate many of his scores, he does write a lot of very specific and meticulous notes on his sketches, which can span several staffs, in regards to instrumentation. Sometimes the orchestrator finds themselves merely assigning the parts to its corresponding place in the full score.


William Ross stated that the work he did on the second Harry Potter score was next to nothing - Williams writes with such detail that theres very little for an orchestrator to do with it. Ross's credit on the score was nothing more than a professional courtesy


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## tahnak

Edward Elgar said:


> Yo guys, I'm posting this thread purely for the appreciation and worship of the great man; John Williams. It's true he has had a massive advantage working with the top directors in the buisness, but you have to admire his natural genius for melody an orchestration. What are your favourite scores of his? Personally, my favourite are the Star Wars movies, the Indiana Jones trilogy and Schindlers List.


Hello again Edward! I am happy to note that you follow John Williams earnestly. He is one of the greatest living composer legends today. I have been following his compositions from a very early age. My order of John's music is Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Extra Terrestrial, Star Wars series, Schindler's List, Indiana Jones series and not to forget the Superman series. His scores for Terminal, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone as well as the Chamber of Secrets are also gems.


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## handlebar

While not a great admirer of Mr Williams,I do admit to liking "Memoirs of a Geisha",Schindlers List and a few others.

Jim


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## KScott

I have a soft spot more for the John Williams of yesteryear, when he was known as Johnny, and with that, I would have to say my favorite score of his is a little-known comedy/crime caper from 1967 called _Fitzwilly_, which starred Dick Van **** and Barbara Feldon (away from _Get Smart _for this one). It's a transitional score which, on the one hand, evokes all the light comic scores he was doing, such as _Penelope_ and _How to Steal a Million_ (Williams was afraid of what Stravinsky would have thought of it, as he came to the film's premiere), and fortells the coming of the scores he would do for the _Home Alone _series, _Harry Potter _and _Catch Me If You Can_. Even the film's song, "Make Me Rainbows" (lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman) is a precursor to his love themes from _Star Wars _and _Superman_.

My second favorite Williams score is for Brian DePalma's _The Fury_, their only collaboration. It's a shame, as Williams evokes two of his mentors, namely Bernard Herrmann and Franz Waxman, and giving DePalma one of the best scores apart from those Herrmann delivered for _Sisters_ and _Obsession_.

My third favorite is another little-known film, a 1965 war film entitled _None But the Brave_, the only movie Frank Sinatra directed. Ahead of its time, this film dealt with a US Marine unit sharing the island (sort of) with a detachment of Japanese soldiers. Some of the music for the action scenes are quite good, setting the stage for Williams in later years to deal with Spielberg's take on WW2. Of the three scores I mentioned, this is the only one that I believe did not have a soundtrack album issued.

That said, I do love his later scores, but these, along with films like _Diamond Head _and _The Killers_, as well as his television scores for Irwin Allen, set the stage for the John Williams we all know.

By the way, he also composed a very dark and dramatic violin concerto that deserves more performances as well.


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## handlebar

Forgot to add the Indian Jones series. Well done.

Jim


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## kanonathena

Is his style called American classical? He is a great composer but somehow I never got into his style, feel very old and trite, very different from modern movie composers


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## QuietGuy

E.T. (complete score)
Schindler's List
Indiana Jones march
also like the Cowboys Overture (themes arranged into sonata allegro form)
also like The Reivers (arranged for concert performance with narration)


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## Marschallin Blair

*Best Williams Scores*

_Empire_, first and foremost (especially with Charles Gerhardt doing the concert suite with the National Philharmonic) :









_Raiders_, hot on its heels:


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## Eviticus

Superman, HP1 and 3 and Jaws. I do love the ET score too and used to deliberately love winding the windows down in traffic and turning it up full blast to see what reactions i got 

A very diverse and underrated genius. Many purists on here will bang on about him just being a film composer or making out he is borrowing themes but i'm pretty convinced that if mankind continues to exist in 200 years (like the greats before him), Williams music will still be being played ... which is long after the words from todays critics are forgotten.


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet

So I recently came across this article about Williams talking about how he never watched the Star Wars movies. http://thecomeback.com/pop-culture/...mits-hes-never-actually-seen-those-films.html

I must say, I like the man more now after reading it.



> The composer is also unrelentingly modest about his work. He acknowledged that these compositions[Stars Wars film music] have garnered worldwide adulation and acclaim, but refused the call them "classics" himself.
> 
> " So I'm a composer of music and I look at Mozart and I look at Beethoven and Bach, the greatest organizers of sound that we've ever had, and you need to be humble when the shoulders that we stand on are so great. "
> 
> He doesn't think he has ever got it right.
> 
> " You hope that you've gotten 90% of it or as close to it as you can. But at least with me, and I think with most writers of any kind, you really don't say "Eureka! This is it!"
> 
> "It's work on this, come the next week and reshape it and do it-like honing away at it.
> 
> " I'm not so brilliant that I can sit down and write a melody or a theme or a whole scene or a whole work as Mozart might have done."


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## pcnog11

Saving Private Ryan is my favourite, the wordless choral harmony added so much emotions. 

I think JW excels other area outside movie music, his Olympic Fanfares are wonderful pieces. Good stuff!


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## Bellinilover

_Schindler's List_ is magnificent. I haven't seen or heard _ET_ in 25 years so I can't really comment on it, and I never got into _Star Wars._ His last score, _Lincoln_, is lovely.


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## Bellinilover

Eviticus said:


> Superman, HP1 and 3 and Jaws. *I do love the ET score too and used to deliberately love winding the windows down in traffic and turning it up full blast to see what reactions i got *
> 
> A very diverse and underrated genius. Many purists on here will bang on about him just being a film composer or making out he is borrowing themes but i'm pretty convinced that if mankind continues to exist in 200 years (like the greats before him), Williams music will still be being played ... which is long after the words from todays critics are forgotten.


What reactions did you get?


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## Gordontrek

I just revisited his score to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and heard this:





From 4:00-8:00, I was absolutely, positively floored. First time in years that a film composer has left me speechless.


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## Zimmer80

Jurassic Park and Schindlers List. Still amazing to listen to. Bought both soundtracks when the films came out when i was like 12.


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## Harrowby Hall

OK, it's a few months since the last post on this thread, but I don't recall anyone mentioning the score for _War Horse._ Totally different from the popular conception of a "John Williams" score. It is English pastoral - reminiscent of Vaughan Williams.

Talking about influences, does anyone else detect the influence of William Walton in some of the celebrated John Williams scores. I wonder if the _Star Wars_ march was influenced by Walton's Coronation March _Crown Imperial_?

It is difficult to identify a favourite John Williams film score. I think I would probably suggest _ET, Raiders of the Lost Ark_ and _Jurassic Park._


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## Joe B

I'll never forget Jan Hoffman of East Germany men's short program figure skating performance from the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. Skating to Mr. William's theme from "Superman" he wowed the crowd in every way. I remember ABC Sports showing a brief moment of Scott Hamilton watching Hoffman's skating.....I believe his jaw was open in astonishment. That night, Hoffman owned the crowd by his performance....which perfectly fit William's score.....he was that evenings Super Man.


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## Bellinilover

I'm currently addicted to the _E.T._ soundtrack. I haven't seen the movie all the way through since I was 12; of course, then I didn't appreciate the score, which I now absolutely love.

One thing I really appreciate about the soundtrack CDs of Williams' scores is the fact that they tend to include _all_ of the end-credit music (i.e., everything played, in the theater, while the final credits are rolling). So few movie soundtracks, it seems, have this.


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## Bellinilover

Zimmer80 said:


> Jurassic Park and Schindlers List. Still amazing to listen to. Bought both soundtracks when the films came out when i was like 12.


I was 15 when they came out and can still remember all the excitement surrounding them, _Schindler's List_ in particular.


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## Eidi

This is one of my film scoring. What do you think?


__
https://soundcloud.com/eidikakuno%2Fthriller-car-chase


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## bharbeke

The soundtrack for The Last Jedi is very strong. After one listen, the tracks that resonated with me the most were "The Supremacy," "The Battle of Crait," "The Last Jedi," and "Finale."


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## ClassicalMaestro

It think the new Star Wars score is one of his best works ever.


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## NapMcDonald

My favourite is definitely his Star Wars films! The original trilogy, I think, are utterly stunning! I actually made a video essay on how he writes his themes for the original trilogy - it's nothing profound but I'm learning how to do video essays


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## bharbeke

If you like his Star Wars music, I highly recommend checking out the three-part podcast from Full of Sith called How the Force Works. It analyzes the music of the Star Wars saga in general and The Last Jedi specifically.


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## pianozach

John Williams moved to Los Angeles in the 1950s and worked as a session musician, most notably for composer *Henry Mancini*. He worked with Mancini on the *Peter Gunn* soundtrack


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