Composer: John Williams Performer: Los Angeles Philharmonic Conductor: Gustavo Dudamel Year: 2002 One of the best and most inventive pieces ever created.
This piece is one of the most revered works of my life. I keep dreaming of composing a piece that will one day reach this piece.... I cannot help but be impressed by the colorful tonality and textures of this piece, like Messiaen and Dutilleux. I just want to thank you for your great taste in the music you always choose. (I especially can't stop thanking you for uploading Hamauzu's works. )
We were sure that this piece would suit your taste. It' s a monument of contemporary music that continues to inspire more and more composers every day! By the way, it's an honor to have you here, you are one of our favorite composers on here. This channel could not exist without such inspiring persons as you, we are forever appreciative. よろしくお願いいたします、芳賀さん！
Thank you so much for posting this piece Ongaku! 🙏🏻😌 You have such great taste in composers and your channel has been one of my greatest discoveries on TH-cam! John Williams is such a role model for me & for all of us… He’s the ultimate ‘universal’ composer since Bach, in my opinion! He’s got it all, possibly the greatest Melodist of the 20th century (since Mozart, or Tchaikovsky), one of the finest harmonist since Messiaen, but one area where I feel he’s as underrated as he’s inspiring is of course, his orchestration… This piece is perhaps my favorite orchestration masterclass ever penned on paper from him as well… An amazing homage to the hall in which it is performed. The way he uses harmony & color in this piece, like woodwinds textures, brass chords, vibrating string textures, percussion and mallets, harp, bells and piano is like a perfect distillation of the depth of his craft, knowledge and sensitivity. It also tells me how much he loved all of his favorite modernists in it, such as: - Debussy (of course a lot of Ravel also and more overtly than Debussy we could say, whereas Debussy’s influence on him is I feel more hidden, but not less profound, in fact I feel Debussy among the art of French Orchestration i feel is really what’s at the core of his taste and approach to shaping the ‘beautiful sound’ with the orchestra, particularly in, in my opinion, his last 1991 orchestral ‘film scoring’ masterpiece: Hook 🪝), - Messiaen (so much of him, a lot of his ‘birds music’, but particularly ‘early Messiaen’ is imbued in his Star Wars & even Harry Potter Scores and throughout his life… in terms of harmony and timbre), - Dutilleux (probably his closest contemporary in terms of his ‘traditionalist-modernist’ thinking of the orchestra, jazz, and overall ‘clarity & refinement’, very similar to Mozart, in the way he shows grace and never ‘over-writes’, or ‘over-orchestrates’. Williams is often believed to have a complex sound, but if you look at a lot of his scores, they’re actually very deceptively lean, practical, effective & refined, it’s so beautiful to look at), - Takemitsu (the spiritual side of him and probably one of his greatest inspirations in the realm of orchestration, virtuosity, sound, nature, silence and dynamics, it just so happens that Takemitsu was of course also himself profoundly influenced by Debussy & Messiaen…, they’re all like spiritual brothers, family, passing the mantle🗽 …) - Ohana (late Ohana from the 70’s onwards in particular, he’s so similar to Messiaen, Dutilleux, Takemitsu, he reminds me a lot of Williams’s ‘dark music’, and given the importance of 20th century French Composers on Williams, i can’t imagine he didn’t notice his presence, with Dutilleux still one of the most unfairly ignored French masters of all time 😅, also the great American Druckman, and Lutoslawski perhaps), - Boulez (imposssible to ignore in the similar way Boulez developed Messiaen’s techniques and how incredible he was as a Debussyian inheritor both as a rhythmician & orchestrator, and as an overall thinker of ‘sound’ as well), - Ligeti (one of the most inventive minds of the 20th century, this piece in particular, also Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but a lot of those woodwind textures and scalar notes subtly remind me of some finale parts of Ligeti’s San Francisco Polyphony’ for example), - John Adams (a great composer-orchestrator, similar especially in terms of Jazz Harmony, Minimalism (in A.I. Artificial Intelligence), and overall American 🇺🇸 neo-classical/neo-romantic Symphonism, I know Williams expressed during his 2012 USC interview (part 2 of an interview you can still find on TH-cam, his admiration for Adams in the way he evaded the perceived ‘snobbism’ of film music, as did three other great & soulful composers like Takemitsu, Tan Dun & Qigang Chen, and actually, rather than film composers quoting the great classical works, flipped the practice and used ‘media music’ to enrich the world of concert ‘art music’, similarly to Williams ambitions of course…), - In addition to all the others ‘often quoted’ influences for him, all the great symphonists, American composers, other film composers, the list is endless, composers like Tchaikovsky, Elgar, Mahler, Strauss, Wagner, Berg, Holst, Respighi, Ravel, Stravinsky, Bartók, Vaughan Williams, Copland, Walton, Hanson, Korngold, Gershwin, Prokofiev, Britten, Rautavaara, Max Steiner, Alex North, Herrmann, Goldsmith of course… But it’s really how he uses the wealth of all this ‘modernism’ to enrich his love for Jazz, Pop Music, America, and Tonal Music, all of that contributing to a new sound which is ultimately…him and his uniqueness! It’s incredibly refreshing to see/hear for a composer of this era… Hans Zimmer cleverly said in that “SCORE” film music documentary, when talking about Indiana Jones Theme, there’s that side of him he writes for the audience, ‘the big theme’, and then there’s all that other stuff he writes for himself… It’s so true, all that so-called ‘background music’ in his film scores is actually filled with diamonds, full of wealth, knowledge and craft, that personally interests me even more than so much of Contemporary ‘Concert music’… I only wish more of his scores, particularly concertos, were available, but ultimately we have to listen 👂🏻 with our inner ears, not so much see with our eyes… At the back of my Dover copy of ‘Bach’s the Well-Tempered Clavier’ it says: “His art was of an encyclopedic nature, drawing together and surmounting the techniques, the styles and the general achievements of his own and earlier generations and leading to a new perspective…” - Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians - I think this unequivocally applies to John Williams. There is so much open-mindedness, freedom, eruditeness, harmony, glory, kindness, youth, humanism, metaphysics, universality, improvisational sponaneity, generosity, spirit, and sorrow in his music. If you truly love Humanity, Nature, Sound & Music, it’s impossible not to love John Williams… He deserved to be called at the very least the greatest film composer who ever lived, and not just thanks to Cinema, but to his talent, he, as a composer, has connected with more people of all ages, ethnic, social & cultural backgrounds, than probably any other composer has or ever will… That’s just who he is, he transcends all boundaries, including his human self… He’s the sound of Love, the connecting source of everything in the end, at its lightest, highest, gloriest, wisest form… More importantly, he has been a true figure of humility throughout his life, which was perhaps one of the true sources of his excellence as an artist… To quote “Quincy Jones’s” Quote he got from his teacher ‘Nadia Boulanger’: “Quincy, never forget: Your music can never be more, or less than you are as a human being…” Thanks again for sharing this performance Ongaku, for the other Williams works, suites you posted, and all those other composers I managed to discover thanks to you. Your covers are beautiful as well ✨ you’re really making a profound contribution to the TH-cam Community 🙏🏻, by the way I also love the first 2003 performance of this piece conducted by Williams himself which was an amazing sight to behold…, but the recording of course wasn’t exactly the best, anyways… 😊 All my best, - A. S. -
My friend, I must tell you that you are one of those enthusiasts that we see only too rarely. It really rejoices me to see a fellow with such a vivid passion for music! This piece is surely one of the best from the contemporary repertoire and possibly my favorite piece ever. You're right about the John Adams, Dutilleux and Takemitsu influence, I always said there was definitely something going on on that level. Btw, if you like that kind of colorful and larger than life orchestration, you should really check the music of Yoshihisa Hirano, one of the great contemporary masters from Japan! I think you'll definitely dig him, it's one of our favorite composers in the Contemporary Ongaku team. Wish you all the best in your musical journey!
You’re too kind! Thank you so much! When I see your body of work and tastes, it naturally really resonated for me… 🙏🏻😌 Yes… I think you’re right, “Soundings” is a forward-thinking masterpiece, our very own 21st century “Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune” almost, and actually perhaps my favorite piece ever written as well, it uses every single best thing Music can offer: Melody, Counterpoint, Harmony, Rhythm, Orchestration, Timbre, Dynamics (Loudness/Silence), Virtuosity, Performance, Storytelling, Abstraction, Nature, Mystery, Beauty, Eternity, Humanity, Love and pushes it to its ultimate… I can’t think of any other piece which balances it all so well and uplifts me more towards Infinity than this one does… I get shivers every single time I listen to it! As corny as it sounds, this piece and its sound is the embodiment of the infinite power of Music, of our Consciousness… It really feels like John Williams’s love letter to “Music” itself… In return to you, another discovery i made is the western composer ‘Sean Shepherd’, another young mind who’s also really fond of Dutilleux and who wrote a great dissertation in 2014 on him called ‘’Tradition And Invention In The Music Of Henri Dutilleux’’. He’s a marvelous American composer-orchestrator as well who also reminds me a lot of Williams in the way he plays with sound… You might be interested! Oh thank you, I will definitely check ‘Yoshihisa Hirano’ out! 😌🙏🏻 Since I discovered artists like Joe Hisaishi, Koji Kondo, Takashi Yoshimatsu, and a lot of other Media Composers, I started growing really fond of all those less-known Japanese & also Chinese Composers, thanks to TH-cam, really looking forward to it! Japan 🇯🇵 is really incredible in its legacy for Beauty, Art & Culture! I’d really love to learn Japanese, someday… Your team is really making the future bright… All my best wishes to you and your team again! - A. S. -
You rightly say it is impossible to not love John Williams, and I say it is impossible to not love your love of John Williams. Every so often I see the best of humanity shine through in the notoriously uneven TH-cam comment section. Thank you for enriching and elevating all of us with your profoundly insightful comment and unmistakable appreciation for not just this great artist, but for music and life itself. Well done my unknown friend!
@@mr.k5865 Wow! Thank you so much my dear friend! Your words truly mean just as much to me! I’m so grateful you feel that way! I’m just someone who felt the need to take some time to reflect & share my deepest appreciation for a generous person like John Williams, who is a true role model for the idea of “letting the work speak for itself”, who through & beyond his music changed me & guided my spirit as an “earthly” being ever since my childhood in the most unsuspected, subconscious of ways that I think “spirited & universal music” can do if, with time, we just let it open our heart and let the meaning in, as we each relate it to the personal story of our own joys & pains in our lives… Similarly to how I believe a truly great melody can only come from… I know Williams described in his 2014 Oscars interview called: “John Williams: A Pivotal Moment in His Life and Work” that he lost his first wife very unexpectedly when he was still quite very young, and he said that in a way, that was his “greatest gift ever given to him by anyone”. It allowed him, only from that point on, to immediately know where to go emotionally in his work, in his thinking as a writer of music, and living his life… It’s that “love”, that literal “passion” behind it all that makes it such a divinely powerful force of wisdom, and really something so precious to celebrate, beyond all technical, or intellectual considerations… I’ve also come to appreciate how it’s all quite simple… We’re all here to remember who I think we truly are in the deepest, simplest spiritual sense, its power to transform us instantaneously if we live this realization with courage, beyond this constant, illusory-perceived authority of “fate, biology, matter & logic”, and then really to love, idealize, dream, fly, to be free, to help, inspire and learn from each other, especially ourself. I think this is ultimately the true legacy of John Williams’s music to me. His indelible stamp of “universality” is something I’ve never ever felt with any other artist… Sometimes it’s not always easy, we are almost 24/7 made or we even let ourself to feel small, or inferior, but really no matter what our level of ability or intelligence we are each one of us worth all the riches in the world & more... Somedays we are inspired by John Williams, by Words & Stories, or Beauty in general, today You for me, or Anyone, and the next day it’s our turn and We inspire, through a smile, or a simple act of kindness… I come from a very modest background myself, with not even a lot of general “education” myself, and so I actually identify/empathize with so many modest people in the comment section in TH-cam. People who suddenly someday decide to share a very private side of them publically and open their heart to whoever will read them… I love that a place like TH-cam can hopefully be just as nourishing in videos such as those crafted by ContemporaryOngaku, or loving comments like Yours, and all the shared worldviews, knowledge & opinions, even those I disagree with, even they can funnily be just as inspiring in their contrast to help us figure out who we truly are, or want to be… When it comes to Music itself, sometimes, I do wonder, after such a great & complete composer like Williams who stands himself on the shoulders of giants, and after our entire history of all styles of music, whether everything left (of significance/resonance to a general audience) still to be discovered or invented in some form within Melody, Harmony & Timbre is coming to a logical conclusion. My head says yes, but then my heart takes great comfort in the fact that again, Love, as a desire to do good and to see the interconnectedness in all things, is what makes it truly original. That with a sincere melody, or simple idea, and the right mix of aesthetics, that in itself makes it new and valuable. There’s probably an abundance of new ideas waiting to be tapped if our minds, as creators, are open enough to them… And that gives me tremendous faith, respect and hunger for the power of great ideas, musical themes and unceasingly questioning “objectivity” in Music as John Williams probably did. On a side note, I understand that John Williams, though a quick writer and re-writer of endless sketches, and a man of constant self-doubt and humility, is probably himself a perfectionist, he also reported not being particularly religious as well, however I personally think he is an obviously, deeply spiritual being, in his 1989 interview called “‘John Williams’ Pursuit of Excellence”, he perhaps said the most revealing thing about himself: “The pursuit of excellence is what life ought to be about. It’s trying to get closer to God, to imitate the perfect state. The odyssey to find perfection should define humanity. This thought comes into my consciousness when I’m working. If I forge my music better, if I shape it better, if I make it better, I am happier than if I hadn’t tried…” Well, as a Sound Architect, he sure succeeded in infusing this idea into his work without ever needing to say it out loud… I think we all feel it when we listen especially to his greatest music! Finally, I’m still wondering the true, yet mysterious extent to which Consciousness, Sound & Music really have on Life, Humans, or Matter itself. I think we’re still in for some of the greatest surprises, yet to come… Funnily, I do wonder sometimes if I would be the same as a person had I not come across the power of music by such a spirit like John Williams, I’m sure the answer is obvious, but thankfully, the mantle has been so generously offered and now we can continue, all the richer for it, as he would say the “endlessly compelling” journey of inspiring each other… Thank you for reading me… Much love to you as well my friend, In Lak’ech! -A.S.-
Oh my good lord. Finally someone has obtained a recording. Thank you.
Great music!
This piece is one of the most revered works of my life. I keep dreaming of composing a piece that will one day reach this piece....
I cannot help but be impressed by the colorful tonality and textures of this piece, like Messiaen and Dutilleux.
I just want to thank you for your great taste in the music you always choose. (I especially can't stop thanking you for uploading Hamauzu's works. )
We were sure that this piece would suit your taste. It' s a monument of contemporary music that continues to inspire more and more composers every day!
By the way, it's an honor to have you here, you are one of our favorite composers on here. This channel could not exist without such inspiring persons as you, we are forever appreciative.
よろしくお願いいたします、芳賀さん！
Thank you so much for posting this piece Ongaku! 🙏🏻😌 You have such great taste in composers and your channel has been one of my greatest discoveries on TH-cam! John Williams is such a role model for me & for all of us… He’s the ultimate ‘universal’ composer since Bach, in my opinion! He’s got it all, possibly the greatest Melodist of the 20th century (since Mozart, or Tchaikovsky), one of the finest harmonist since Messiaen, but one area where I feel he’s as underrated as he’s inspiring is of course, his orchestration…
This piece is perhaps my favorite orchestration masterclass ever penned on paper from him as well… An amazing homage to the hall in which it is performed. The way he uses harmony & color in this piece, like woodwinds textures, brass chords, vibrating string textures, percussion and mallets, harp, bells and piano is like a perfect distillation of the depth of his craft, knowledge and sensitivity. It also tells me how much he loved all of his favorite modernists in it, such as:
- Debussy (of course a lot of Ravel also and more overtly than Debussy we could say, whereas Debussy’s influence on him is I feel more hidden, but not less profound, in fact I feel Debussy among the art of French Orchestration i feel is really what’s at the core of his taste and approach to shaping the ‘beautiful sound’ with the orchestra, particularly in, in my opinion, his last 1991 orchestral ‘film scoring’ masterpiece: Hook 🪝),
- Messiaen (so much of him, a lot of his ‘birds music’, but particularly ‘early Messiaen’ is imbued in his Star Wars & even Harry Potter Scores and throughout his life… in terms of harmony and timbre),
- Dutilleux (probably his closest contemporary in terms of his ‘traditionalist-modernist’ thinking of the orchestra, jazz, and overall ‘clarity & refinement’, very similar to Mozart, in the way he shows grace and never ‘over-writes’, or ‘over-orchestrates’. Williams is often believed to have a complex sound, but if you look at a lot of his scores, they’re actually very deceptively lean, practical, effective & refined, it’s so beautiful to look at),
- Takemitsu (the spiritual side of him and probably one of his greatest inspirations in the realm of orchestration, virtuosity, sound, nature, silence and dynamics, it just so happens that Takemitsu was of course also himself profoundly influenced by Debussy & Messiaen…, they’re all like spiritual brothers, family, passing the mantle🗽 …)
- Ohana (late Ohana from the 70’s onwards in particular, he’s so similar to Messiaen, Dutilleux, Takemitsu, he reminds me a lot of Williams’s ‘dark music’, and given the importance of 20th century French Composers on Williams, i can’t imagine he didn’t notice his presence, with Dutilleux still one of the most unfairly ignored French masters of all time 😅, also the great American Druckman, and Lutoslawski perhaps),
- Boulez (imposssible to ignore in the similar way Boulez developed Messiaen’s techniques and how incredible he was as a Debussyian inheritor both as a rhythmician & orchestrator, and as an overall thinker of ‘sound’ as well),
- Ligeti (one of the most inventive minds of the 20th century, this piece in particular, also Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but a lot of those woodwind textures and scalar notes subtly remind me of some finale parts of Ligeti’s San Francisco Polyphony’ for example),
- John Adams (a great composer-orchestrator, similar especially in terms of Jazz Harmony, Minimalism (in A.I. Artificial Intelligence), and overall American 🇺🇸 neo-classical/neo-romantic Symphonism, I know Williams expressed during his 2012 USC interview (part 2 of an interview you can still find on TH-cam, his admiration for Adams in the way he evaded the perceived ‘snobbism’ of film music, as did three other great & soulful composers like Takemitsu, Tan Dun & Qigang Chen, and actually, rather than film composers quoting the great classical works, flipped the practice and used ‘media music’ to enrich the world of concert ‘art music’, similarly to Williams ambitions of course…),
- In addition to all the others ‘often quoted’ influences for him, all the great symphonists, American composers, other film composers, the list is endless, composers like Tchaikovsky, Elgar, Mahler, Strauss, Wagner, Berg, Holst, Respighi, Ravel, Stravinsky, Bartók, Vaughan Williams, Copland, Walton, Hanson, Korngold, Gershwin, Prokofiev, Britten, Rautavaara, Max Steiner, Alex North, Herrmann, Goldsmith of course… But it’s really how he uses the wealth of all this ‘modernism’ to enrich his love for Jazz, Pop Music, America, and Tonal Music, all of that contributing to a new sound which is ultimately…him and his uniqueness! It’s incredibly refreshing to see/hear for a composer of this era…
Hans Zimmer cleverly said in that “SCORE” film music documentary, when talking about Indiana Jones Theme, there’s that side of him he writes for the audience, ‘the big theme’, and then there’s all that other stuff he writes for himself… It’s so true, all that so-called ‘background music’ in his film scores is actually filled with diamonds, full of wealth, knowledge and craft, that personally interests me even more than so much of Contemporary ‘Concert music’…
I only wish more of his scores, particularly concertos, were available, but ultimately we have to listen 👂🏻 with our inner ears, not so much see with our eyes…
At the back of my Dover copy of ‘Bach’s the Well-Tempered Clavier’ it says: “His art was of an encyclopedic nature, drawing together and surmounting the techniques, the styles and the general achievements of his own and earlier generations and leading to a new perspective…” - Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians - I think this unequivocally applies to John Williams.
There is so much open-mindedness, freedom, eruditeness, harmony, glory, kindness, youth, humanism, metaphysics, universality, improvisational sponaneity, generosity, spirit, and sorrow in his music. If you truly love Humanity, Nature, Sound & Music, it’s impossible not to love John Williams… He deserved to be called at the very least the greatest film composer who ever lived, and not just thanks to Cinema, but to his talent, he, as a composer, has connected with more people of all ages, ethnic, social & cultural backgrounds, than probably any other composer has or ever will… That’s just who he is, he transcends all boundaries, including his human self…
He’s the sound of Love, the connecting source of everything in the end, at its lightest, highest, gloriest, wisest form…
More importantly, he has been a true figure of humility throughout his life, which was perhaps one of the true sources of his excellence as an artist… To quote “Quincy Jones’s” Quote he got from his teacher ‘Nadia Boulanger’: “Quincy, never forget: Your music can never be more, or less than you are as a human being…”
Thanks again for sharing this performance Ongaku, for the other Williams works, suites you posted, and all those other composers I managed to discover thanks to you. Your covers are beautiful as well ✨ you’re really making a profound contribution to the TH-cam Community 🙏🏻, by the way I also love the first 2003 performance of this piece conducted by Williams himself which was an amazing sight to behold…, but the recording of course wasn’t exactly the best, anyways… 😊
All my best,
- A. S. -
My friend, I must tell you that you are one of those enthusiasts that we see only too rarely. It really rejoices me to see a fellow with such a vivid passion for music!
This piece is surely one of the best from the contemporary repertoire and possibly my favorite piece ever.
You're right about the John Adams, Dutilleux and Takemitsu influence, I always said there was definitely something going on on that level.
Btw, if you like that kind of colorful and larger than life orchestration, you should really check the music of Yoshihisa Hirano, one of the great contemporary masters from Japan! I think you'll definitely dig him, it's one of our favorite composers in the Contemporary Ongaku team.
Wish you all the best in your musical journey!
You’re too kind! Thank you so much! When I see your body of work and tastes, it naturally really resonated for me… 🙏🏻😌
Yes… I think you’re right, “Soundings” is a forward-thinking masterpiece, our very own 21st century “Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune” almost, and actually perhaps my favorite piece ever written as well, it uses every single best thing Music can offer: Melody, Counterpoint, Harmony, Rhythm, Orchestration, Timbre, Dynamics (Loudness/Silence), Virtuosity, Performance, Storytelling, Abstraction, Nature, Mystery, Beauty, Eternity, Humanity, Love and pushes it to its ultimate… I can’t think of any other piece which balances it all so well and uplifts me more towards Infinity than this one does… I get shivers every single time I listen to it! As corny as it sounds, this piece and its sound is the embodiment of the infinite power of Music, of our Consciousness…
It really feels like John Williams’s love letter to “Music” itself…
In return to you, another discovery i made is the western composer ‘Sean Shepherd’, another young mind who’s also really fond of Dutilleux and who wrote a great dissertation in 2014 on him called ‘’Tradition And Invention In The Music Of Henri Dutilleux’’. He’s a marvelous American composer-orchestrator as well who also reminds me a lot of Williams in the way he plays with sound… You might be interested!
Oh thank you, I will definitely check ‘Yoshihisa Hirano’ out! 😌🙏🏻 Since I discovered artists like Joe Hisaishi, Koji Kondo, Takashi Yoshimatsu, and a lot of other Media Composers, I started growing really fond of all those less-known Japanese & also Chinese Composers, thanks to TH-cam, really looking forward to it! Japan 🇯🇵 is really incredible in its legacy for Beauty, Art & Culture! I’d really love to learn Japanese, someday…
Your team is really making the future bright…
All my best wishes to you and your team again!
- A. S. -
You rightly say it is impossible to not love John Williams, and I say it is impossible to not love your love of John Williams. Every so often I see the best of humanity shine through in the notoriously uneven TH-cam comment section. Thank you for enriching and elevating all of us with your profoundly insightful comment and unmistakable appreciation for not just this great artist, but for music and life itself. Well done my unknown friend!
@@mr.k5865 Wow! Thank you so much my dear friend! Your words truly mean just as much to me! I’m so grateful you feel that way! I’m just someone who felt the need to take some time to reflect & share my deepest appreciation for a generous person like John Williams, who is a true role model for the idea of “letting the work speak for itself”, who through & beyond his music changed me & guided my spirit as an “earthly” being ever since my childhood in the most unsuspected, subconscious of ways that I think “spirited & universal music” can do if, with time, we just let it open our heart and let the meaning in, as we each relate it to the personal story of our own joys & pains in our lives… Similarly to how I believe a truly great melody can only come from… I know Williams described in his 2014 Oscars interview called: “John Williams: A Pivotal Moment in His Life and Work” that he lost his first wife very unexpectedly when he was still quite very young, and he said that in a way, that was his “greatest gift ever given to him by anyone”. It allowed him, only from that point on, to immediately know where to go emotionally in his work, in his thinking as a writer of music, and living his life… It’s that “love”, that literal “passion” behind it all that makes it such a divinely powerful force of wisdom, and really something so precious to celebrate, beyond all technical, or intellectual considerations… I’ve also come to appreciate how it’s all quite simple… We’re all here to remember who I think we truly are in the deepest, simplest spiritual sense, its power to transform us instantaneously if we live this realization with courage, beyond this constant, illusory-perceived authority of “fate, biology, matter & logic”, and then really to love, idealize, dream, fly, to be free, to help, inspire and learn from each other, especially ourself. I think this is ultimately the true legacy of John Williams’s music to me. His indelible stamp of “universality” is something I’ve never ever felt with any other artist… Sometimes it’s not always easy, we are almost 24/7 made or we even let ourself to feel small, or inferior, but really no matter what our level of ability or intelligence we are each one of us worth all the riches in the world & more... Somedays we are inspired by John Williams, by Words & Stories, or Beauty in general, today You for me, or Anyone, and the next day it’s our turn and We inspire, through a smile, or a simple act of kindness…
I come from a very modest background myself, with not even a lot of general “education” myself, and so I actually identify/empathize with so many modest people in the comment section in TH-cam. People who suddenly someday decide to share a very private side of them publically and open their heart to whoever will read them… I love that a place like TH-cam can hopefully be just as nourishing in videos such as those crafted by ContemporaryOngaku, or loving comments like Yours, and all the shared worldviews, knowledge & opinions, even those I disagree with, even they can funnily be just as inspiring in their contrast to help us figure out who we truly are, or want to be…
When it comes to Music itself, sometimes, I do wonder, after such a great & complete composer like Williams who stands himself on the shoulders of giants, and after our entire history of all styles of music, whether everything left (of significance/resonance to a general audience) still to be discovered or invented in some form within Melody, Harmony & Timbre is coming to a logical conclusion. My head says yes, but then my heart takes great comfort in the fact that again, Love, as a desire to do good and to see the interconnectedness in all things, is what makes it truly original. That with a sincere melody, or simple idea, and the right mix of aesthetics, that in itself makes it new and valuable. There’s probably an abundance of new ideas waiting to be tapped if our minds, as creators, are open enough to them… And that gives me tremendous faith, respect and hunger for the power of great ideas, musical themes and unceasingly questioning “objectivity” in Music as John Williams probably did. On a side note, I understand that John Williams, though a quick writer and re-writer of endless sketches, and a man of constant self-doubt and humility, is probably himself a perfectionist, he also reported not being particularly religious as well, however I personally think he is an obviously, deeply spiritual being, in his 1989 interview called “‘John Williams’ Pursuit of Excellence”, he perhaps said the most revealing thing about himself: “The pursuit of excellence is what life ought to be about. It’s trying to get closer to God, to imitate the perfect state. The odyssey to find perfection should define humanity. This thought comes into my consciousness when I’m working. If I forge my music better, if I shape it better, if I make it better, I am happier than if I hadn’t tried…” Well, as a Sound Architect, he sure succeeded in infusing this idea into his work without ever needing to say it out loud… I think we all feel it when we listen especially to his greatest music!
Finally, I’m still wondering the true, yet mysterious extent to which Consciousness, Sound & Music really have on Life, Humans, or Matter itself.
I think we’re still in for some of the greatest surprises, yet to come…
Funnily, I do wonder sometimes if I would be the same as a person had I not come across the power of music by such a spirit like John Williams, I’m sure the answer is obvious, but thankfully, the mantle has been so generously offered and now we can continue, all the richer for it, as he would say the “endlessly compelling” journey of inspiring each other…
Thank you for reading me…
Much love to you as well my friend,
In Lak’ech!
-A.S.-
What is the background art please?
AI
'One of the best and most inventive pieces ever created.' I strongly disagree. This suite is a pure mess which leads to nothing. There's no art to it.
I enjoyed it. That led to something.
Your partner ditched you or something ?