John Williams Film Scores (Random Reviews from the Overflow Room)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ต.ค. 2024
- What a career! What a legacy! Here's just a fraction of John Williams film scores that I simply didn't have room to keep in the main collection. As you will see, their importance and excellence has nothing to do with where they wound up. I just had to be realistic.
I would like to point out that many of these soundtracks have recently received definitive editions, by specialized labels like La-LA Land, Intrada and Varese Sarabande : CE3K, Hook, E.T., Superman, Earthquake, Jaws, etc.
The soundtrack for the Robert Altman movie Images was very avant garde and unique in his discography
Good point.
I think it;s fair to say, with some slight clarification, that John Williams got me into classical music around 1977 when Star Wars came out and I bought the 2-LP soundtrack. At the same time I started exploring my parents' unplayed small classical collection. But I think it was Williams who got the ball rolling.
What a composer! I love his music - and that includes all the Star Wars scores. Having just watched the latest (and seemingly last) Indiana Jones movie I shall be buying the CD of that soundtrack too.
So glad you devoted an episode to John Williams, David: a supremely gifted composer.
Of course, everyone has a favourite and you can't cover it all. I would love to have seen The Long Goodbye in your collection. Like Images (mentioned by @guillaumechabason3165), it's an Altman film, with whom Williams did his most adventurous work, I think. Variations on a single song. It's somebody's doorbell; it's the muzak in the supermarket; some kids are playing it in a clumsy singalong at a party. The only other music in the film is 'There's No Business Like Show Business', which tops and tails the film. Remarkable score.
Sadly it's NLA on physical media and Spotify, but excerpts are floating around on TH-cam. I heartily recommend it and the film.
Yes, indeed! What a legacy! An extraordinary body of work. The Reivers is so beautiful and wonderful. A breath of fresh air. The Missouri Breaks is just lovely. Earthquake is an absolute blast. I recorded just the main title from Earthquake on one of my RSNO albums that also featured a suite from The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure. Recording Superman: The Movie, one of my all-time favorites by John Williams, or by anyone, with John Debney and the RSNO was such a thrill. I had the time of my life. I released that version of Dracula in the early 90s, but got to take another swing at it and expand it just a few years ago with a Deluxe Edition. And The Cowboys is just magnificent! I also took another swing at that one more recently. Hook is one of his masterpieces. John Williams is a national and global treasure! A gift to our world.
Thank you, for your work Mr.Townson! We love your recordings!
Yes, Robert ! A big thank you for all the marvelous recordings you produced ! 🎶👍
...Dave, do a similar Talk on Goldsmith. Even better, a looooong Talk on epic Horror music for movies. Include Hellraiser 1-3 or burn with us for ever, in Hell...
Yummy!
Goldsmith's score for Planet of the Apes! And Outland is one I'm fond of that most don't remember.
The Jurassic Park disc you show is actually the soundtrack to Jurassic Park 3, composed by Don Davis (the composer of the first Matrix trilogy). Of course it contains John Williams' themes.
Yes, of course. Had to put it somewhere!
A million Star Wars fans prematurely rolled in their graves when Dave waved the Phantom Menace CD and called it "the original Star Wars".
Too bad.
I'll join the Williams praise parade. A terrific composer who always has readily acknowledged influences from Mahler and Richard Strauss in his orchestrations, two guys who knew a bit about that subject. Lots of great ones, but the original "Superman: The Movie" track gets my blue ribbon.
Some of the desert music in Star Wars also has hints of Stravinsky.
What would he have done without The Planets? Close Encounters always makes me think of Kodaly but I suppose that's more of a plot point than a musical influence.
@@bbailey7818 It's fair to say he's had a number of influences, as have most all composers.
This man got me so much more interested in film scores which eventually led me to classical music.
Rather like the music he wrote for The Fury - very haunting main theme. Also War of the Worlds is very interesting and different from his usual stuff
Glad to see The Fury mentioned. Gorgeous score.
A score that surprised me was "Space Camp." Some very good music for a relatively mundane piece of fluff.
Love Williams's score to The Eiger Sanction it's beautiful!
Yes, I love that score!
Do you have that disc of lounge piano covers of his themes as a tribute to Williams' own early Hollywood career playing thus?
So glad you talk so much about the great film composers. Wanted to recommend a terrific early score, back when he was still billing himself as Johnny Williams. The 1967 Dick Van Dyke comedy Fitzwilly. Ten years before Star Wars, and there are clear echos in this great score of things to come. The opening title theme, with its harpsichord ostinato, sounds like a comic version of the Indiana Jones theme. Great stuff!
One of my favorite recent Williams releases is the fantastic double CD of The Eiger Sanction by Intrada Records. I just love that music. One of the ultimate 70s scores. And the only score Williams did for a Clint Eastwood film.
Just bought that and it's a fantastic score, definitely one of my top William's soundtracks, have you listened to the 14 min plus anthology of this one on TH-cam, I wish that it had been included in the package but it's a fan edit, anyway, great choice!👍
I'm glad you mentioned Dracula and The Cowboys, two fabulous scores not often mentioned. But Poseidon Adventure is great!
Last night I went to hear a John Williams tribute concert at the Hollywood Bowl. I was there among more than 10,000 light saber wielding patrons, most of whom, I would imagine, do not often attend LA Phil concerts (I did a small, unscientific survey of the people around me, and for many it was their first LA Phil concert).
The music came from Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, ET, and Schindler's List. The piece that moved the crowd the most of the theme from Schindler's list. Part of the credit is certainly due to the orchestra's Bing Wang, who played the solo part beautifully. But it was moving to me how the crowd lept to its feet at the end of a relatively quiet piece in the middle of the program. So say what you will about the piece relative to the others, last night it pulled hearts more than any other.
John Williams was a huge influence on my descent into the swamp of classical music! Specifically, a cassette of sci-fi themes he recorded with the Boston Pops in the 1980s. That rich, memorable stuff was a great preparation for romantic symphonic music in general.
Nice to hear mention of the Williams scores to Dracula and The Reivers, among my favorites as well. Also, I had no idea he did the soundtrack for The Cowboys.
Dear Dave..I'm so anxious to know how you regard the legacy of film composer Ennio Morricone.
Is he in your canon of great composers at all...? Thank you..
Good question!
Great question! Dave???
@@alanmcginn4796 🙋🏻♂️👍
@@alanmcginn4796 I really don't know. I haven't thought about it, to be honest.
@@DavesClassicalGuide I think you'll be able to make up your mind if you watch 'Once Upon A Time In The West'.
Another film score by John Williams was for the 1969 movie DADDY'S GONE-A-HUNTING. Great thriller movie if anyone is into movies of this type. It starred Carol White, Scott Hylands and Paul Burke. Keep em comin' Dave !!!!
Which one of those CDs contains his incidental music to Gilligan’s Island?
A Three Hour Tour-de-force!!
I do like the John Williams Vienna Concert, with Anne Sophie Mutter playing 7 or 8 violin numbers. I am not as fond of the Cello Concerto embedded in the Berlin Concert. There was another subsequent concert at La Scala, but apparently it is not going to be released for home use. In Vienna, Williams announces that the VPO is the greatest orchestra in the world, and then in Berlin, he announces that the BPO is the greatest. Maybe he changed his mind between concerts?
Dave, your mention of incidental music suggests a Top 16 Incidental Music scores for Beginners.
I don't know if they belong, but I've always thought Sullivan's five scores to Shakespeare play some of his finest music outside the Gilbert line. But there's so many great incidental scores, perhaps going back to Haydn and Il Distratto.
I'm really enjoying your film score discussion. Keep it up!
Does John Williams have a box ?
Two of them! A Sony box and a Philips box. Only a couple scores in the Sony box though, and none in the Philips.