John Williams

Discussion in 'General Music' started by tones, Jan 17, 2006.

  1. tones

    tones compulsive cantater

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    From today's "New York Times":

    Why Stop at 43 Nominations?
    By JON BURLINGAME
    A YEAR rarely goes by in which the composer John Williams doesn't write the score for at least one of Hollywood's big popcorn films, or one of its most thoughtful dramas. Last year he scored two of each: the summer blockbusters "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" and "War of the Worlds," and the end-of-year prestige pictures "Memoirs of a Geisha" and "Munich." Insiders say at least one ("Geisha") and possibly two ( "Munich") are likely to be nominated on Jan. 31 in the original-score category of this year's Academy Awards.

    Mr. Williams, now 73, has been writing movie music for more than 40 years. He has five Oscars and 18 Grammy Awards for classic scores like "Jaws," "Star Wars," "E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial" and "Schindler's List." He has achieved more name-recognition than any American film composer since Henry Mancini, because of his association with popular film franchises from "Indiana Jones" to "Harry Potter," but also because of his frequently televised appearances as conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra in the 1980's and early 90's.

    His sophisticated work elicits widespread admiration. "He has an implicit understanding of drama," says the composer Thomas Newman ("Finding Nemo"), "more specifically, what it is that impels drama and absorbs us in it."

    The film-music scholar Royal S. Brown adds: "He's capable of writing anything, from neo-Romantic to avant-garde. He also writes a better melody than anybody else writing film scores right now. There is an emotional depth to the thematic content; he doesn't just write good themes, he also comes up with amazingly complex harmonic structures to go with them."

    The traditional symphony orchestra is Mr. Williams's primary palette, although he will often augment it with unusual instruments, choral elements and even electronics. "Geisha," for example, is colored with traditional Japanese instruments like the shakuhachi, a bamboo flute; the stringed koto and shamisen; and the taiko drums. The "Munich" score features the Eastern timbres of the ancient oud and of the metallic-sounding cimbalom. Choir figures prominently in "Revenge of the Sith," and synthesizers help pound out the rhythms of "War of the Worlds."

    "We found that we had a very similar sensibility about the music," says the director of "Geisha," Rob Marshall, "in that there should be many places in the film where it was purely Japanese instrumentation - but that that wouldn't be enough to hold an entire film, because the emotion comes with the orchestra."

    The concept, Mr. Williams explains, was to combine the unique sonorities of Japanese music with the more familiar harmonic and melodic approach of Western music. "The essential thing was to try and broaden out the emotional canvas," he says, "beyond the confines of the traditional music of the geishas."

    The atmospheric music of "Geisha" is unlike anything else Mr. Williams wrote. "I've been a great admirer of contemporary Japanese music," he says, citing the work of the composer Toru Takemitsu as a special favorite. In fact, Mr. Williams's 1969 concerto for Western flute incorporated shakuhachi-style effects.

    "Geisha" also features prominent solo passages for two famous string players: the cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the violinist Itzhak Perlman. Mr. Ma, for whom Mr. Williams composed a concerto in 1994, is the musical voice of Sayuri (played in the film by Ziyi Zhang). Her elusive love interest, the kind and mysterious Chairman (Ken Watanabe), is represented by a valse triste for harps and Mr. Perlman's violin.

    "I never fail to wonder how he changes colors," says Mr. Perlman, who also played the solos in "Schindler's List." "He can give you this incredible Asian flavor in 'Geisha,' an Eastern European flavor in 'Schindler's List,' amazing heroic music in 'Superman.' He makes film music into an art."

    Kathleen Kennedy, a "Munich" producer, says Mr. Spielberg and Mr. Williams agreed that the film required music that was "never trying to push the movie emotionally." Mr. Williams adds, "The orchestra doesn't directly support the emotional aspects of what you see, or any of the action."

    Unlike the Holocaust story "Schindler's List," "Munich" demanded a sound that emanated more from the Middle East than Eastern Europe. "What I've attempted to do is to create music that might be Israeli, or Palestinian," Mr. Williams says. He composed what he calls "a prayer for peace," a lyrical theme associated with the film's Mossad assassin Avner (Eric Bana), and a theme for solo voice and orchestra that is used for the multiple flashbacks to the 1972 murders of the Israeli athletes in Munich.

    With an astonishing 43 Oscar nominations already to his credit, Mr. Williams is approaching - and this year, could tie - the record of 45 held by his former boss, the composer Alfred Newman, for whom he played piano back in the 1950's at 20th Century Fox.

    Of Newman, who died in 1970, he recalls: "He was a kind of icon to me. I think it's fair to say that of all the conductors we had in Hollywood in those years, he was by far the best. I don't think any of them could come anywhere near him in terms of wedding a performance to a film sequence. So any comparison between what I've done and what he has done gratifies me enormously."

    Ms. Kennedy says: "The extraordinary thing about John is that every time you go on the scoring stage with him, there is such a tremendous respect from the musicians. They literally give him a standing ovation at the end of every scoring session. You don't see that very often."

    Mr. Marshall adds: "He's not just a master composer in a room by himself but a master of how to work with a director, how to bring a world to life, bring an emotion to life. He's a storyteller."

     
    tones, Jan 17, 2006
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  2. tones

    cyclonebri1

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    So? What you trying to say Dave???????

    sorry,:micro: :micro: :cookie: sorry
    B.
     
    cyclonebri1, Jan 24, 2006
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  3. tones

    tones compulsive cantater

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    That I found this an interesting article and that I thought others might too?
     
    tones, Jan 25, 2006
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  4. tones

    alanbeeb Grumpy young fogey

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    Personally I think he's part of the one of the major problems of Hollywood movies nowadays - the relentless over-scoring of movies where you just don't get a break from being told by the music exactly what emotion you are supposed to be feeling at any given time. Some restraint in film scores could help a lot.

    His music is good though, I'd be interested if he did more concert music.
     
    alanbeeb, Jan 25, 2006
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  5. tones

    tones compulsive cantater

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    In some ways, Alan, I think the film composers have taken up the baton from the fallen "classical" composers, much of whose stuff has become simply too cerebral for ordinary non-musically-educated folk such as myself. It follows on directly from late 19th century romantic classical. I guess I like a good toon, and I'm always amazed that there are still good toons being written. To me, Williams's best (of the ones I've heard) is the march from "Superman".
     
    tones, Jan 25, 2006
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  6. tones

    tones compulsive cantater

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    P.S. Alan, there's a review of Spielberg's "Munich" in the local rag today, and it has this to say:

    For once, the film composer John Williams provides a minimalist soundtrack, which makes the film more intimate.
     
    tones, Jan 26, 2006
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  7. tones

    dunkyboy

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    John Williams is one of my very, very few personal heroes (possibly the only others being Sir David Attenborough and Jackie Chan :) ). His music is sheer, towering genius distilled into easily and immediately enjoyable nuggets of musical goodness...

    Part of it is that he has produced so much WONDERFUL music. I mean, there are a fair few composers that have kicked out a good tune or two, or composed a particularly good score (Thomas Newman, Carter Burwell and Danny Elfman come to mind...), but John Williams churns out brilliant, iconic music by the bucketful...

    And his music isn't just good, it MAKES the movies. I mean, can you imagine the likes of Superman, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, E.T., or Jaws without Williams' music?? And from Star Wars there are at least a half dozen worderful, totally memorable themes - Main Theme, Yoda, Luke & Leia, the Imperial March, the cantina music - every one of which is instantly recognizable (even to non-SW fans :) ). And he's not just good at coming up with catchy melodies, but he always, always executes them flawlessly and imaginatively. If you think the Jaws score is just "du-duh du-duh", I suggest you get a copy of the soundtrack (or better yet, a John Williams compilation CD) and play it on a very nice hifi at very high volumes. :)

    And he's done so much good stuff of a much more low-profile nature as well. One of my favourites is the score of Empire of the Sun.

    Two of my all-time favourite hifi demo tracks - primarily because despite the wonderful, exhilirating full-orchestra sonics, they're also thigh-slappingly great choons that never get old - are the Parade of the Slave Children, from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra (also one of the best titles ever :) ) from Last Crusade. Just ask anyone who's heard my hifi (or been to a hifi gathering where I was present) and they'll almost certainly have heard one or both of these tracks at very silly volumes. :D

    Dunc
     
    dunkyboy, Feb 21, 2006
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  8. tones

    dunkyboy

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    I would agree with this wholeheartedly. Munich has flaws, but the score damn well ain't one of them. It's very good.

    BTW, I would argue that Williams never did the overtly emotive thang unless it was the sort of movie that needed it. A lot of Spielberg movies for instance are unsubtle, laugh-on-cue, cry-on-cue types, but that's just how they work... If you don't like that, cool, but plenty of us do. :)

    I'd be interested to know which of Williams' scores you feel would be better served by a more minimalist musical style?

    Dunc
     
    dunkyboy, Feb 21, 2006
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  9. tones

    KUB3 ciao

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    And of course the 007 movies featured JW's talent :)
     
    KUB3, Feb 22, 2006
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  10. tones

    lordsummit moderate mod

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    John Barry did the 007 work :)
     
    lordsummit, Feb 22, 2006
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  11. tones

    KUB3 ciao

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    bugger :D
     
    KUB3, Feb 22, 2006
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