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It's interesting to find influences in Williams' scores (that's why I like to linger around the "Williams's Most Plagiaristic Cues" thread), but to automatically say that that is a negative thing, or that Williams "stole" that fragment, is silly and premature. It's obvious that in the 200+ hours of film/TV music that Williams has written there will be some melodic fragments which sound similar to other fragments. I even saw someone on another forum go as far as call Williams a "fraud". Lol. What it comes down to is the "too good to be true" phenomenon, where people see that Williams consistently writes good, popular soundtracks, and feel like there is some underlying trick. But there is no trick - Williams is just a talented composer with a lot of experience under his belt (he composes every day!) and a vast knowledge of different types of musical repetoire. Sometimes some other melody might seep into his work...but this is nothing compared to Williams' (and any other good composer's) ability to weave musical material, develop it, contrast it, orchestrate it and sculpt it into an interesting piece of music. (Of course there is also the element of "patting one self on the back", where people like to point out similarities just because they feel good about the fact that they have a knowledge of classical repetoire that extends beyond Ride of the Valkyries and Turkish March. )

John Williams stole my car, and nobody believes me.

Huh? If you're going to be that deliberately vague, the 'sacred grandeur of Parsifal' steals over all film score elegies. The quintal/quartal harmonies in Torn Apart owe little to Wagner.

Ditto. I still firmly believe the ideas for prequels were not bad. I like a lot of stuff behind the film and how Lucas was trying to do something else and perhaps even offer a deeper commentary on the matters of politics, immortality, greed and "certain point of view". As a short treatment, that story must have felt like a terrific idea. Those seeds are more ambitious than anything in the original trilogy and could result with great films, with the right approach and execution. How it turned out, we all know. Karol

Dear John fans, I am just obsessed with the Schindler's List score. Especially the theme and "Remembrances". As a beginning piano player I must say that his work is very challenging. The fingers are sometimes difficult to place, like it is not written for persons with small hands like me. Personally don't like the ending notes of "Remembrances". The ending is very powerful and dramatic, but those last white rolling notes (left: G,D,B♭, right: G,B♭,D,G) miss something in my opinion. I will include a link where you see me playing this piece and to my opinion those last white notes should be more dramatic and complex. I would like to discuss this with the master himself but I don't want to bother him with my humble opinion. I would like to thank the master for writing this piece, it makes me cry every time I play it. What you think?

A lovely "hidden" composer. The symphonies are where to start. The first is truly gorgeous. I'll find a bit of chamber music too that's special.

eh

Definitely! http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.9196/.f

I quite like the set of symphonies on Naxos from Stephane Deneve. The first symphony is quasi-impressionistic with hints of Wagner (by way of Franck). The rest are more overtly Germanic. It is conservative music but very beautiful and finely crafted. He's a solid composer if you like this Cesar Franck, Vincent D'Indy style...something like Bax but not quite as opulent and with more structural integrity. Deneve is a consistently good conductor who balances precision, clarity and mystery. The first symphony is somewhat like a tone poem in four movements but evocative with long shadows of impressionism. His best works are probably the ballets like "The Spider's Feast" and "Bacchus and Ariane". Rich and detailed music.

Here ya go!

There really would have been no point in introducing yet another protagonist. You have your core three. Focus on them, especially Rey. Her training, progression, and overall story is the anchor the entire new trilogy. Don't get sidetracked with unimportant or superfluous additions unless they directly affect the arc of the story.

Wow, what silliness from that reviewer. Yes, Wagner was very influential since he was a dramatist but what a stretch to say this opening... And torn apart are similar beyond very loose similarities.

Nixon is a great one! A lot of the Mahlerian scale darkness of Williams's 2000's scores have their roots in this mix of brooding darkness and Americana.

Star Wars, Cinema Gala. A bit of a lethargic performance. Not as great as Kunzel, Gerhardt or Utah Symphony performances.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Catch Me If You Can - John Williams

And not to toot our own horn (or trumpet) but the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Jouko Harjanne version is much better than the Sandoval one.

A lot of the comments he's made in recent years are just mind boggling. He often comes off as a petulant child.

Phil's motif from Heartbeeps!

John Williams, Arttu Sipilä: Concertos for Trumpet and Orchestra / Harjanne, Finnish Radio SO (2013, Pilfink Records, JJVCD-118) John Williams: Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra. All the recorded concert works of John Williams: http://www.goplanete.com/johnwilliams/music/composer/concert.htm

It's been stuck in my head for days!!

I called it! Star Wars: Episode VIII Release Pushed to December 2017 At least now John Williams has plenty of time to score it. OF COURSE, there's a Spielberg conflict though; Ready Player One is currently scheduled to open on the same day.

Lincoln The Lost World Assassin's Creed's Syndicate The Hateful Eight

It's a rare case of a 2+ hour score where it's all good and can be enjoyed apart from the film.

Yes, I know. I wonder if your feelings on sarcasm are clear, Lord Jayder?

Star Wars: The Force Awakens. followed by Star Wars: The Force Awakens. followed by Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I think I like this score.

Bono is a twat!

This is how the apologists see Lucas: This is how everyone else sees him:

March of the Resistance from Star Wars the Force Awakens: Damn that fugue is catchy!

"For Gillian" from The Fury.

Aesthetically, this is where his work as a director was always the strongest.

Lucas is an incredibly complicated and fascinating individual. There is virtually no one else in the movie business like him; the kind of person who, arguably more than any other single person, has shaped the ways movies are made in the modern age and yet has a reputation for being a hack. I'm not sure he was ever a truly talented writer and director. His earliest films are good but the success of Star Wars was in a lot of ways due to the collaborative way in which it was made. But it was Lucas' vision and it cannot be understated how great that vision was. He's one of the best idea men the industry has ever had; the lesson in his later downfall is that even creators with the best ideas need vetting and shaping from other talented minds. There can't be the kind of ego that refuses to listen to anyone outside one's own mind, no matter how much of an auteur the creator is.

Yub Nub

I love the handful of little solo clarinet moments sprinkled throughout this score, it's one of my favorite Williamsisms, the way he writes them. WHO IS WITH ME?!

it's odd because apparently Poe was originally just killed off and left dead, but they changed it to bring him back and keep him in the story. the thing is, BB8 belongs to him. BB8 needs to be kept as a major character, which means Poe is involved or you kill him off and take his droid, right? One of my favourite parts is in the end credits medley, when they take the Finn music and segue directly into Poe's music, and keep the running ostinato going behind it. It works fantastically well. Maybe they both seem to lack development because they are linked in that way. The way Finn's 2+2+2+2+3 polymeter transforms into poe's 6/8 + 3/4 makes me feel alive, and I feel it is a lot stronger than any of the times his theme is introduced on-screen.

For me it'll always be that entire last hour of Jedi. And then he did the same with TOD the following year! Mind-blowing. No wonder he took a break in 85.

Yep. Battle of Hoth, Asteroid Field, and Rescue From Cloud City/Hyperspace make ESB undeniable on this front. SW's got the killer combo of Tie Fighter Attack and Battle of Yavin (maybe my two favorite action cues) but the rest are no match for ESB's best. There's of course great action cues in each film. Special mention to TPM I guess for (apparently) having a trilogy's worth of action cues.

Although those 2 tracks are great, the action highlight from TESB for me is the entire escape from Bespin sequence. JW does a great job there, even throwing in some of Yoda's theme and a sweeping rendition of Han and the Princess as they board the Falcon. And the end music to that track before the film cuts back to Luke and Vader is ridiculously good.

TESB! Battle of Hoth/The Asteroid Field is unbeatable.

Sorry, but that was too hard to resist.