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Favorite JW Piano moments


ChuckM

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E.T. End Credits

Accidental Tourist

Remembering Childhood

The Reunion (AI)

This may not count, but I love the little piano chords heard in "Ants!" specifically at 0:13. Makes the piece so much creepier.

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E.T. End Credits

Ah, yes, I love the beginning to that. (Well, all of it actually, but especially the beginning part.)

He also uses a very similar technique in the end credits to Amazing Stories.

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"We Don't Wanna Grow Up" from Hook

"Lord, Why do You Want the Wee Children?" from Angela's Ashes

"The Battle of Hoth" - Empire Strikes Back

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I also think it's interesting to note the degree to which John Williams uses piano in his scores. As I've studied some of the conductor's scores, I've realized that he uses piano all over the place in contexts where it's pretty difficult to hear.

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Ooh, so many. John Williams is an inspiration to us pianists everywhere, I would say. I was listening to "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" yesterday, and I enjoyed the (Continuum?) chords at the beginning of "Grave Robbers", so I suppose I will list that.

Oh, and "Catch Me If You Can", too. Oh, and "The Terminal", cannot forget "The Terminal".

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Did JW play piano on some of the Twilight Zone episode scores?

For me, top JW piano moment is from Accidental Tourist, "Wedding Scene." There's little touches, like 1:26 into the piece, after the strings has taken over, you can still hear the piano peacefully following along. Nice.

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Pretty much any time it appears in The Terminal, especially Jazz Autographs and Dinner with Amelia.

Let's also not forget the chilling reiterations of the main themes to Munich and Schindler's List in their respective End Credits suites.

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The piano solo (eventually accompanied by celeste and harp and so forth) in the helicopter scene at the end of Jurassic Park. That one really gets to me.

Absolutely. I can't get enough of the mini 'motif' he does on the piano when the woodwind comes in - is that the same one you're referring to?

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one of my favourites would be:

"Battle in the Snow"

Exactly.

I also very much like that little toccatas (sp?) in Visitor in San Diego from Lost World or Fifty Miles of Desert from The Eiger Sanction.

Apart from the action cues, I like the opening of Images - In search of Unicorns or these small bits of piano solos in WotW and Munich. Angela's Ashes also springs to mind.

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The title is pretty self explanatory.

I personally love the piano bits throughout The Accidental Tourist.

No arguement from me, there! Accidental Tourist is a lovely score, and one of my all-time Williams faves.

City Theme, from "Earthquake" is not bad, either.

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Something that hasn't been mentioned yet: The Theme From Sabrina. Some of the best writing Williams has ever done for the piano. Underrated theme as well; especially the "bridge" part.

Piano Bar from A Guide For The Married Man is also good.

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Some good shouts already on this thread. In a similar vein to the Battle in the Snow music, one of my favourite 'percussive' uses of the piano is towards the end of The Eiger Sanction when more than one member of the climbing party (I'm trying to avoid spoilers here!) fall hundreds of feet to their deaths from the mountain. Williams accompanies each fall with a massive, reverberating cluster chord on the piano in its lowest registers. In fact, it may even be that the piano was opened up and the lower strings struck with something - perhaps someone with a better ear than mine could confirm, if they have the DVD. Either way it's very effective, but unfortunately the cue was not included on the album rerecording.

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That bit in ESB when Luke is following Lando, Leia and co at Bespin. I think it's around where Boba Fett first fires at him

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Something that hasn't been mentioned yet: The Theme From Sabrina. Some of the best writing Williams has ever done for the piano. Underrated theme as well; especially the "bridge" part.

Thank you. It has actually been mentioned by ETandElliott. It's my fav piano piece of all time, love to play it myself also.

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one of my favourites would be:

"Battle in the Snow"

Definitely! Also all of the piano solos on Earthquake are lovely. Especially the lovely little jazz piece, Something for Remy (I think, or maybe it's Something for Rosa, I can't remember.)

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No one else for "The Separation of the Family"? ("The Reunion" is kind of corny; I'm glad Williams revised the cue.) I feel it's such a real piano part. Most of these examples, e.g. E.T. end credits, are wonderful but totally in the fantasy realm.

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I love Banning Back Home, the light-jazz '70s nostalgia feel. There's a hint of Charlie Brown (Vince Guaraldi) to that track, and I've always loved it. Although it's come in for a lot of flack here at JWFan in the past as I recall.

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Banning Back Home is the only bit of Hook that I even like.

Over the Moon is probably best as Quint points out.

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