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https://www.facebook.com/scoringsessions/posts/1137108402981716

Very insightful interview with JJ Abrams He does mention John Williams: So: John Williams! Oh my God! First of all, forget his talent and his achievement. As a person, hes the guy you want to know more than anyone. He is the sweetest soul Ive ever met. Hes like this jazzman who became one of the greatest composers of all time. He literally calls you baby! Like, Hey, baby. He calls me J.J. Baby. I waited all my life to meet someone who would call me that! He works in pencil. You go to his home and listen to him play notes on the piano, and while youre listening, you extrapolate what it will be like when you hear the melody with an orchestra. It is unforgettable, a truly miraculous thing to behold. He has every one of his scores leather-bound. I was like, Do you mind if I ? He goes, No, go ahead! So I pulled out the Jaws score, and sure enough, there it is, in pencil on paper: baaaa-bum, baaaa-bum. Youre like, Well, thats what he wrote! Its as if youre hanging out with Mozart, who happened to score your favorite movies. I know everybody knows this, but when you actually think about what hes composed, it is as important as any work ever done on any of those movies. When you think about Superman and Raiders and Jawsand Close Encounterswhich came out the same year as Star Warsand then the Harry Potter movies? He is just superhuman. Its unbelievable that he is as brilliant and yet as modest as he is. Its just an amazing thing to get to know that guy.

As a way of celebrating the Star Wars saga in honor of the upcoming Episode VII, I have begun a series of six posts on my blog that will analyze one prominent theme from each of the six films in turn. The first is on uses of the Force theme (I had an analysis of the Force theme's structure before). http://www.filmmusicnotes.com/celebrating-star-wars-part-1-of-6-uses-of-the-force-theme/ Enjoy!

Long-time JWFan contributor Frank Lehman writes about the music in the three trailers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens in a special article for the American Musicology Society: Full article: Trailers, Tonality, and the Force of Nostalgia, by Frank Lehman

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B014T15OME/jwfancom-20

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/07/06/star-wars-comic-con-panel Trailer (and presumably more Williams music) expected this fall. Almost 5 months before the film's release and I really haven't seen much promotion. I guess we'll see more when the toys are released and the trailer is debuted.

http://makingstarwars.net/2015/06/details-on-a-few-unique-tracks-from-star-wars-the-force-awakens-score/

Anyone got any theories about the "signature" piece of TFA? The equivalent of Duel of the Fates, Across the Stars or Battle of the Heroes? I'm sure the film will have at least 4 new themes, but I'd love to know what's been cooked up for the main theme.

The music at the beginning of the Korean TV spot is beautiful..I wonder if it's Williams (with synth stuff ovelays). If it's Williams I hope it's part of an awesome choral cue

The River Music Composed and Conducted by John Williams A review by Mikko Ojala This is a little gem from 1984 that shares the year with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom but musically is in a wholly different world. Rural Americana performed by small ensemble, given at times a subtle jaunty pop sensibility by a drumkit and peppy rhythms and graced with numerous gorgeous flute and guitar solos the River is a fascinating opus in the middle of the run of the composer's grand symphonic works. Williams's music perhaps with even too generously compliments director Mark Rydell's very everyday drama of a family (Mel Gibson and Sissy Spacek in leading roles) struggling to make ends meet on their farm with the constant threat of the nearby river flooding and with a greedy banker/developer (played by Scott Glenn) waiting to foreclose on the land. Sounds less than riveting drama and plot-wise doesn't it. Well not so with the music! Despite the short running time of the album (the movie doesn't have much more music) the composer crafts not one, not two but three distinct thematic ideas, the jaunty down-on-the-farm main theme, the smoky bluesy often flute-led love theme for the family and the main couple and the dignified and noble "ancestral home" theme that stands for the sanctity of home and hearth and the worthy fight of standing up to the forces of nature (and pressures of modern society). Whoever says Williams is only the guy for strum-und-drang should listen to this humble work with down-to-earth melodicism, beautiful and emotional small scale soloist work, especially for flute and guitar, and the joie-de-vivre that bubbles throughout the music. It is a short album full of highlights. The track The River presents a 2-part end credits suite opening with the sprightly and excited rendition of the main title theme where drumkit gives it a slightly more contemporary (for 1980s) feel before the love theme takes over full of bluesy almost film noirish styled yearning and ends in an extended solo flute coda. Absolutely wonderful stuff and a great way to open the album. The Ancestral Home (the finale of the film, here presented in the middle of the album) is the grandest piece on the album but there is not much orchestral grand standing as Williams slowly builds and builds the long lined noble and gentle Americana theme in the strings, illustrating musically a gradual and steady struggle, which finally burgeons into a triumphant crescendo coinciding with shots of the family and neighbours coming together to build protective wall against the river, celebrating the small victory of the individuals and the community. Love Theme from The River is an extended performance of the bluesy melody, first introduced by flute and trumpet and then given a grander string accompanied reading, that is somewhere between truly romantic and longing. A truly outstanding piece of writing that feels so inherently American without pulling out the old Copland sound palette. The Pony Ride is another playfully energetic piece featuring the main theme and great deft guitar work. It is of course not all sunshine and fun and for variety we have the slow burning suspense of the Tractor Scene (a classic matter-of-fact JW title!) where slow threatening atmosphere is conjured up with minimal means. In the same style the slightly ominous Rain Clouds Gather (the actual main title) introduces the main theme on electric bass and the love theme on flute, both almost sullen and subdued by the foreboding as the eponymous river is seen swollen up by the rain. This is also the only piece of the score that in my opinion gives even a slight hint that it was written in the same year as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom as the flute work here has the same mysterious, almost exotic dark quality that pervaded some of the early scenes in the Indian village in that Indy film. Young Friends Farewell presents a tender guitar dueting with the flute which rounds off the album in wistful mood, leaving us almost with a musical question mark and certainly wanting for more. The River is an often overlooked little gem of a score, intimate yet full of colours and variety and shows how Williams thrives in very different musical genres and situations and is always acutely aware of the size of the film and what are its requirements. The score is a stylistic second cousin perhaps to the later grander evocations of rural Americana in Rosewood or even the flute solo moments in War Horse and just as good. Not to be missed! 4/5 -Mikko Ojala-

How likely is it that the LSO will continue to record the new Star Wars movies? Given that Ep. 7 has an unconfirmed release date of May 2015. Scoring would take place a few months prior like in Feb or March. Do you think the Hollywood Studio Symphony could pull this off? I guess hypothetically JW could write the music and have someone else conduct it, but I'm guessing he gets a lot of satisfaction of conducting them live. Any thoughts ? ! ADMIN NOTE: On March 21st it was officially confirmed to be in LA. http://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=23272&p=1105384

From the same company that posted the Falcon video with the mysterious music. Sounds a bit like Williams.

About Star Wars 7 music department , do we have to take imdb info seriously ??? Matt Ashbeck ... composer: additional music Ramiro Belgardt ... music editor Alejandro de la Llosa ... orchestrator Sandy DeCrescent ... orchestra contractor Felix Erskine ... additional composer: teaser trailer Mark Graham ... head of music preparation Gregory Jamrok ... music preparation Randy Kerber ... musician: keyboards Shawn Murphy ... score engineer / scoring mixer Victor Pesavento ... music preparation Conrad Pope ... orchestrator Brian Popkin ... composer: additional music William Ross ... conductor John Williams ... conductor Robert Wolff ... scoring editor Joe Zimmerman ... music preparation

https://www.facebook.com/RebelForceRadio/posts/962531903790211?comment_id=962536243789777&offset=0&total_comments=14&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R9%22%7D Obviously could be total BS....

Well this sounds new: Karol

On the newly published Abrams comment; While it's pretty much impossible for Abrams to be objective here, it's still cool to hear good things about the score. Still not really expecting another Empire though (nor even another Phantom) ADMIN NOTE: Video here: http://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=25574&p=1159598

Do we know if Williams is conducting any of the Force Awakens? If someone else is conducting, will that have a major effect on the outcome of the score?

Of course nobody knows as of yet but if you had to hazard a guess, what direction do you think Williams will take with the Force Awakens score? From the footage so far of the film, it looks more like the originals. Do you think Williams therefore may return to his writing style that he did for the originals or do you think we will hear something more akin to the prequels and his more modern style?

The Horse Doug Adams tweets: "It's being reported that Bruce Broughton has let it slip that #JohnWilliams is going to do all his own orchestrations on #StarWarsVII" "If true, that's pretty cool." "This staggered recording schedule thing may be a great boon in the day of compressed post-productions. Wonder if it'll become the new norm." http://twitter.com/dougadamsmusic This was today, not yesterday, BTW, so no April Fools I know Jason likes direct links, but I can't access Twitter from my work PC. Jason, SOURCE ME SOME TWEETZ!

Post any pictures you may have of John Williams here in this thread! Let's get a nice collection going! I'll start

http://makingstarwars.net/2015/05/john-williams-to-record-some-of-the-star-wars-the-force-awakens-score-next-month/ Perhaps they'll utilize some London Symphony players like they did with Harry Potter 1 & 3... I wonder if any of it will be used in any upcoming trailers.

I'm not sure if you guys know it yet, but it seems like Jurassic Park IV has been put by the wayside (for the 100th time) and Universal Pictures has decided to re-release the first film in digital 3D. The re-release will hit theaters July 19, 2013 (Universal has moved the Tom Cruise-starrer Oblivion to April 26 from its original July 19 spot). http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=jurassicpark3d.htm I know my dad will be happy to see this in theaters again...

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/05/john-williams-star-wars-the-force-awakens

I vote THE LOST WORLD. Wish we'd get a proper expansion. Williams really does a good job of writing music to match the jungle setting of the film. The main theme works great, too. Very militant, like the antagonists of the film.