John Williams should need little introduction since he is almost certainly the most well-known film composer, and possibly to many people the best-known composer, period. Born in New York, Williams started out doing television work composing for Irwin Allen shows like "Lost in Space", "Time Tunnel" and "Land of the Giants". His first brush with Hollywood was as a pianist. During the Golden Age of Hollywood Cinema, he worked as a pianist and arranger with film music luminaries such as Alfred Newman, Franz Waxman, Bernard Herrmann, and later Henry Mancini. With such exposure to the industry, and the encouragement of Newman in particular, Williams made the transition into film composition. Early steps in that direction found Williams again working for Irwin Allen, when he came to do a series of popular disaster movies including "The Poseidon Adventure" and "The Towering Inferno". One particular early success was his first Oscar (of five currently) for his adaptation of Jerry Bock's music for the stage musical "Fiddler on the Roof". Williams also conducted and provided the incidental music for the film, and the part of the fiddler himself was played by violinist Isaac Stern.
Williams was already establishing a respected position for himself in Hollywood, when his career was to reach an important turning point. Stephen Spielberg was starting out in the movie business and approached Williams to score his early movies. In quick succession this led to Williams' second oscar for Jaws and his introduction to George Lucas who then hired him for his Star Wars saga leading to his third oscar. This succession of events rapidly established John Williams as one of the foremost film composers of the day. The close relationship with Steven Spielberg and the director's own meteoric career meant that he was the composer for many major films of the period, including "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", "Superman", "E.T." (winning oscar number four) and the "Indiana Jones" movies.
Williams' music is firmly from the classical tradition, based heavily on the style of the late-romantics such as Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss. It has at times some modernistic overtones (such as with Close Encounters of the third kind), yet primarily it is just wholesome music full of good memorable tunes with fanfares and fun marches particularly prominent. Williams is rightly well-regarded for his ability to construct a tune and sound which perfectly complements the mood of a film.
Although the relationship with Spielberg was obviously central to his career in Hollywood, it can also be seen as perhaps limiting musically, since most of his movies belonged to a narrow range of family fantasy and adventure stories. However that limitation was not significant in the longer term. Firstly, both director and composer have not always shared an exclusive relationship. Spielberg chose Quincy Jones to score his "The Colour Purple" for example, and John Williams for his part has worked with a number of different directors. Irwin Allen and George Lucas have been mentioned already and, outside this circle, Williams also scored "The Witches of Eastwick" (for George Miller), "J.F.K." (Oliver Stone), "Home Alone" (Chris Columbus) and many others. The other factor that impacted the type of movie he worked on, was that Spielberg himself sought to broaden his range of movie genres with films such as "Empire of the Sun", "Schindler's List" (Williams winning his fifth oscar), "Saving Private Ryan", "Amistad" and most recently "Minority Report".
For a time Williams was conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, and he has written several classical concert pieces. As America's best-known composer, he as also been commissioned to compose works for some big events such as the Olympics and the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty. Several of these works can be found on album collections of Williams' music. In the realm of film music, it seems as though Williams will always be very much in demand. In recent years he has been scoring the three "Star Wars" prequels, "The Patriot", the various "Harry Potter" films, the jazzy retro-sounding "Catch Me If You Can", and for Steven Spielberg, "AI" and "Minority Report". The latter film has an exciting soundtrack by Williams and also features Schubert's Unfinished Symphony during the "conducting" scenes - surely a joke from the Music Supervisor since the crimes detected by the precogs have not happened yet and will be stopped in the nick of time by the police! One point to note that is frequently mis-quoted even in reference books, is that John Williams the composer had no involvement with the "Deer Hunter", though John Williams the guitarist played the theme tune "Cavatina" by Stanley Myers, later to have lyrics added and sung by Cleo Laine.
John Williams soundtracks on Amazon.com:
Films by John Williams:
Valley of the Dolls
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
The Reivers
The Missouri Breaks - an example of Williams' earlier experiments using a Jazz influenced style
Images
Tom Sawyer
The Rare Breed
Cinderella Liberty
The Cowboys - an early taste of the Williams style
Dracula - just like the Hammer Horror sound
Fiddler on the Roof - though Jerry Bock did the songs
The Poseidon Adventure
The Long Goodbye
Earthquake - the main disaster effects are played without music, but the titles and rescue scenes show interesting examples of John Williams' early style for the cinema
Seven Years in Tibet
Jane Eyre - made for TV in 1971
The Fury
Sugarland Express - his first film collaboration with Steven Spielberg, who had previously worked with the composer Billy Goldenberg on several TV series and the film "Duel"
Black Sunday - an action suspense movie with a suggestion of ethnic musical influences in the earlier scenes
The Towering Inferno
The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing - replacing Michel Legrand at short notice, Williams used some Cowboys western style, but mostly a harmonica led jazz theme with some dreamy sequences and short cues for timpani and snare drum
Battle of Midway - a long film with a single stirring march
Close Encounters of the third Kind - with its integral 5-note theme
Superman 1, 2, 3, 4 - absolutely perfect for the comic book hero
1941 - includes another march and also borrows the Jaws theme for a rising submarine!
Raiders of the Lost Ark 1, 2 (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom), 3 (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) - another rousing march, adventure, excitement and some nods to ethnic styles
Star Wars 4 (A New Hope), 5 (The Empire Strikes Back), 6 (Return of the Jedi) [the Original Trilogy], and 1 (The Phantom Menace), 2 (Attack of the Clones) and 3 (Revenge of the Sith) [the later prequels] - fanfares and themes to denote characters now familiar the world over
ET, The Extra-Terrestrial - full of childhood innocence and wonder
Yes, Giorgio - song
The Big Chill
The River
SpaceCamp
Empire of the Sun - underrated soundtrack, the boy choir illustrates a certain innocence unaware of the war, but there are many harsh events to bring a darker touch to the music
The Witches of Eastwick - devilish
The Accidental Tourist
Always
Born on the Fourth of July
Home Alone 1 and 2 (Lost in New York) - cartoonish
Far and Away - almost celtic and with a contribution from Enya
Sleepers - with Brad Pitt and Robert de Nero
Amistad - includes African influences
Saving Private Ryan - low-key except for the end title "Hymn to the Fallen" which emotes reverence, sorrow and pride
Sabrina
Stepmom - a homely theme and generally playing a supportive role to the story and characters
Seven Years in Tibet - the music is a touch enigmatic for this soul-less film
Angela's Ashes - Williams' first soundtrack for director Alan Parker, the movie is set amid abject poverty in Ireland and the hauntingly sad theme uses oboe, strings, harp and piano
A.I. Artificial Intelligence- among the dreamy tracks there are some modernistic cues like CE3K or suggestions of the Ligeti and Khachaturian tracks on Kubrick's 2001
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (and sequels "Chamber of Secrets" and "Prisoner of Azkaban") - magical and exhilarating with the third being a touch darker and more adult, see Patrick Doyle for "Goblet of Fire"
The Patriot
Minority Report - an exciting departure from Williams' familiar family fantasy movies
Catch Me if You Can - yet another oscar nomination, for this unusual score with 60s feel and jazz influences
The Terminal - this has a light sound with suggestions of Eastern European origins and a jazz influence for the decorating scenes, in many ways the music is hardly noticable but adds immensely to the mood of the film
War of the Worlds - for Steven Spielberg
Memoirs of a Geisha - with performances by Yo-yo Ma (cello) and Itzhak Perlman (violin)
Munich- a suspenseful, sad and thoughtful yet ultimately hopeful soundtrack
TV music and themes by John Williams:
Checkmate - an effective theme and incidental music for one of his first TV Series when Williams was still known as "Johnny"
Lost in Space (seasons 1, 2, 3)
Time Tunnel
Gilligan's Island
Land of the Giants
NBC News "Mission Theme"
Recommendations:
Many John Williams soundtracks are available, though there are also many CDs featuring "best of" compilations such as "Filmworks" or John Williams conducting the Boston Pops Orchestra in his film music. There are also a large selection of sheet music available for piano and other instruments, and there is also a John Williams web-site which is well worth a visit. In terms of sheet music, John Williams is better served than almost any other film composer and any supplier should have a number of titles available. For immediate online download you might want to check out these sections of the Music Notes site - Harry Potter Sheet Music and Star Wars Sheet Music.
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