In Praise of John Williams
In Praise of John Williams
JEEEsus! the man is prolific! I knew he scored a lot of films, but did not realize it was THAT many, nor had I any idea how accomplished in so many areas of music he is/has been. Thought to share the link from Wiki about him. Whoever said a career as a composer isn't an option was not thinking of this guy, surely.
What prompted this was that over the weekend I saw that Jaws was up on Netflix so I thought to add it to my "Halloween List"... (yeah, I know, not super scary but I am one of those people who has to watch horror movies in the middle of a sunny after noon with the doors and windows all open and all the lights on or else I get nightmares for a week... 😂 )
...anyway, I could not get past the credits without instantly remembering the slew of (then considered) "memes" about sharks and in particular all the reactions to John Williams' score. I was little but remember all the adults around me losing their minds. Hard to imagine the impact of the film being the same without it.
Do you know any scores by him and/or have a favourite?
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People, especially enthusiasts of classical music, sometimes criticize John Williams for being a bit repetitive and over-bombastic. But, well, he's first and foremost a film compose, and that's sort of the nature of the genre. People tend to select film composers because they liked their previous work and want something very similar, so they tend to have a pretty consistent style. You see the same with other prominent film composers like Hans Zimmer. I guess what's notable about John Williams is that he was such a prolific and popular film composer for such a long period that his style was the style of film scores for a generation. It's hard to imagine an era of film, hits like Star Wars and Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park, without his bombast. His tendency to "go big" is part of what defined these epics.
All that said, my favorite John Williams composition strays a little bit from film. It's "The Mission," better known as the theme for the NBC nightly news. The short theme is instantly recognizable to probably most Americans, but not so many have heard the full composition. NBC used to play it over credits at the end of the last news segment but I don't think they do any more. Fortunately there's a (potato quality) YouTube video of John Williams himself directing a Sony studio orchestra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7kIgcYgIQk
Lovely! Thank you 😊
I agree about the "go big" signature of his scores. Some are just incredibly powerful and evocative.
My taste strays a bit from the "big" aspect since most of my favourite scores are a little more nuanced and in the softer/quieter range (Ryuichi Sakamoto for example, was (still is) one of my all time favourites), but I can definitely appreciate that many of William's contributions are just brilliant.