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Celebrity Praise for John Williams


indy4

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It's always fun for me to hear what other celebrities think of John Williams.

Lukas Kendall recounted this story about Seth MacFarlane (creator of Family Guy):

I will name-drop about "Rhythm in Motion." For the past few years, Seth MacFarlane (of Family Guy) has been singing in a big band by his series composer Ron Jones around L.A.—pretty much for fun. I got to meet Seth, he is a HUGE film music fan (you can probably guess from the references in his shows). I gave him a copy of Checkmate/Rhythm in Motion thinking he might enjoy it, or otherwise leave it under a hooker in the trunk of his Jag, but the next time I saw him he actually went out of his way to tell me he thought Rhythm in Motion had some of the most incredible arrangements he had ever heard of some classic—and wildly obscure—Broadway show tunes. In particular he was over the moon about "Varsity Drag"...to the extent that he commissioned a take-down of Williams's version and it became part of Ron's repertoire with the band, especially at Seth's (famously awesome) Hollywood parties. The other Williams curio that he dug was and is "Big Beautiful Ball" from Not With My Wife You Don't! Anyway, it's these kinds of memories that I will treasure...not of you, the little people, but of CELEBRITIES! Thank God!

http://filmscoremont...mID=1&archive=0

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I actually started compiling a list of quotes from other composers about John Williams as I ran into them, I never got around to taking it much further than this:

Others on John Williams:

John Barry:

OMM (by The Observer Music Monthly ): What do you make of modern scores?

JB: Spielberg and John Williams do some fantastic stuff together, but the golden era of songwriting is over. The most important thing is, will this get radio play, not whether it'll fit the movie. It's not the movie scoring as I understand it.

====================================================================

Hans Zimmer:

B(by FSM): So why so many action movie assignments?

Z: You know why I did all those action movies? Because when I was a kid in Europe, all I got to score was art movies. In those days, all I wanted to do was go to Hollywood, compose for action movies and sound like John Williams. But in truth I didn't know how. So Black Rain, my first action movie, was original but only by virtue of my own stupidity. My lack of knowledge made it original.

---------------

B: Earlier, we were talking about innovation and inspiration. Just where is it? Consider: Magnificent Seven, Psycho, Midnight Cowboy, the James Bond series, Omen--these are lasting themes that we all know. Is soundtrack music more prolific, but less inspired? Among all the thousands of scores being released--how much of it has become memorable?

Z: You want a name? John Williams' Shindler's List.

B: Which thrives on one genre theme.

Z: But you know I think it's as good as John has ever written. I looked at that score very closely when I was starting to do Prince of Egypt, because the one thing I didn't want to do is go anywhere near that music, for obvious reasons. So first, I just listened to it for the fun of it. Second, I just got drawn in, not only into the craftsmanship, but just the genius of it.

----------------

Hans Zimmer: The Language of Film (audiohead.net)

“There aren’t that many film composers around. But there are a lot of people who think they could be film composers. I think that what is lacking in film scoring these days is that craftsmanship that Elmer Bernstein and Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams have,” says Zimmer.

“While they really learned to do music, we really learned how to stop our computers from crashing, and didn’t spend enough time doing music. All we can really hope for is that someone really brilliant turns up with brilliant ideas, and great craftsmanship and originality,” he adds.

==========================================

Elmer Bernstein

RED CARPET (by Roger Friedman): Who are your contemporaries?

ELMER BERNSTEIN: I don't have any! They're all younger. John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith. But they're my gang. John Barry is also younger than I am.

-------------

B&N.com: Your fellow Oscar nominees for Best Score were an especially worthy bunch, although I know people who carped about Philip Glass's score for The Hours.

EB: I'm one of the people that likes his score. I know others don't. What's curious, in a way, is that Philip had an easier job than I did, because what he decided to do -- and I think he was absolutely right -- was not to write a thematic score. His is an atmospheric score, really, and he didn't necessarily have to commit to a particular theme. And it works very well.

B&N.com: As do the nominated scores for Frida, (which won), Catch Me if You Can, and Road to Perdition.

EB: This is the best year in a long time. I'm really very proud to be one of the five people this year. If I had to pick the top five composers working right now, it would be every one of these nominees.

B&N.com: What's your personal favorite?

EB: For me, the score of the year is Thomas Newman's for Road to Perdition. I thought that was absolutely brilliant. Also, John Williams -- who never writes a bad one -- wrote one of his most inventive for Catch Me if You Can. He's just off in another world in this score.

--------------

Roger Hall: Yes, I recall you saying that you first used that instrument in your HEAVY METAL score in 1981. One past composer who also used unconventional instruments was Bernard Herrmann. What do you think of his film music and are there any other past film composers you especially admire?

Elmer Bernstein: There is no question that in my pantheon of film composers, Bernard Herrmann would occupy the first place. With him would be Franz Waxman, Miklos Rozsa, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and David Raksin.

Roger Hall: How about today’s composers?

Elmer Bernstein: Among my contemporaries are the two most obvious ones - Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams - both of whom I admire greatly. Of the younger generation, I certainly admire the work of Thomas Newman and James Newton Howard.

==========================

James Horner

CinemaScore: Do you have any animosity toward those scores that have had to be so derivative?

James Horner: I used to have that problem, but I now turn down the assignment. If I’m told that’s what they want, I say fine, then get him!

CinemaScore: Of course, now you’re in a much better position to do that, as well.

James Horner: Oh, absolutely. I don’t need the credits as much as I did, or I don’t need those kinds of credits. The projects I’m going after now are much more ambitious and people that are making those kinds of films wouldn’t say to me, we want such-and-such, or, we want so-and-so. They simply say, here y’are kid, go to it!

But I don’t blame them for their doubts. Obviously, if you were a producer, or even as the editor of this magazine and you’re having someone do an article, you would want to supervise how the article was to be written and you would want to assume control over it for the first few efforts. It’s the same kind of thing, when you have a fifteen million dollar film and you have a two hundred and fifty thousand dollar music budget, and this person comes in and he’s twenty-eight years old, as I am, and he says, I want to do your score, the producers look at me and they say, Come on, kid, the only person who can write this kind of music is John Williams; so you have to convince them that, yes, there are other people who can write large symphonic music, or sensitive music, or whatever. But they’re still very nervous and I don’t blame them. These are very weird times for Hollywood, things like ANNIE which are sixty million dollars that will take a while to recoup.

--------------

I have a couple of other text files with more clippings, but I can't access them from here.

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Thanks, I enjoyed reading those.

I can't remember the source, but I do recall an interview where Zimmer is asked about the influence and legacy of Williams amongst himself and his peers and he answers, "there is John Williams, and then there is all of us.".

That was probably the most reverential thing I ever read, especially considering Goldsmith was still alive and working at the time, I think.

Hopefully someone will remember it and link to it.

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No quotes, but during last week's film music symposium in Vienna, Alastair King (Hooper's orchestrator and conductor on the Potter scores and I believe other things as well) pretty much directly compared Williams to Beethoven. Silvestri also praised him, though I forget the specifics.

(By contrast, Broughton - of course - didn't miss the chance to share a little Goldsmith anecdote during his session)

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It went roughly like this:

Broughton once ran into Goldsmith in a parking lot and told him he was writing music for the Roger Rabbit cartoons. Goldsmith was unimpressed: "Really? Your writing music for cartoons?"

Broughton's quip: "Of course, his last score was for a cartoon."

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It went roughly like this:

Broughton once ran into Goldsmith in a parking lot and told him he was writing music for the Roger Rabbit cartoons. Goldsmith was unimpressed: "Really? Your writing music for cartoons?"

Broughton's quip: "Of course, his last score was for a cartoon."

End 80's? Only if GREMLINS 2 counts as such. :sigh:

btw, Marian, good things on your playlist!

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Thanks for posting that one Marian.

Funny how cartoons were perceived as a minor genre in those days.

I recall a Rozsa interview were he mentioned Elmer Bernstein as a wonderful composer who just did lousy comedies...

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Of course, Goldsmith had already scored NIMH at that time, and would go on to score another pure cartoon with Mulan. But in his defence, the cartoons he did score left quite a bit of room for structured music, which is probably much harder to combine with the sort of cartoons Broughton scored. He did show one of the Roger Rabbit shorts, and afterwards played the full score without visuals or sfx; it was amazing how much detail there was in the music which you couldn't hear even though the entire audience was used to film music and paying full attention.

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  • 5 months later...

I like Eric Whitacre and his works, but that article made Williams seemed like he was the Tyler Bates of the music community. As in, Whitacre made it seem like people mostly view him as a hack. And while he's received his fair share of critics, thats most certainly not the case.

I like the article, the intent and the effort. And while he counters it in his article, piece still makes it seem like the maestro is in need of defending.

Finally, I'm assuming that last line was a joke because it threw me off at first. He should think about using emoticons :P

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I've noticed just about every time Michael Giacchino or Alexandre Desplat open their mouths, they'll find a way to work their love for Williams somewhere in the interview. I liked what Desplat said in this one: http://collider.com/...terview/136355/

[Recently, I loved] John Williams' Geisha, John Williams' Catch Me If You Can, which should have won everything, I think. His opening titles is forever. It's forever. Just for that he should have had the Oscar. Genius.

Also, I don't remember if anyone ever posted this at the time, but Jamie Bell gave a small shout-out to the Maestro after showing a Tintin clip on the Graham Norton Show (go to 7:15):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQySjz7odcQ

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I like Eric Whitacre and his works, but that article made Williams seemed like he was the Tyler Bates of the music community. As in, Whitacre made it seem like people mostly view him as a hack. And while he's received his fair share of critics, thats most certainly not the case.

I like the article, the intent and the effort. And while he counters it in his article, piece still makes it seem like the maestro is in need of defending.

I agree. While Williams' abilities to imitate other styles does require skill, Whitacre seems to be saying that these works are only meant to be imitations. Williams does draws on other composers, like any composer does in any piece of music, but that's not all or even most of why Star Wars is so great.

Also, I don't remember if anyone ever posted this at the time, but Jamie Bell gave a small shout-out to the Maestro after showing a Tintin clip on the Graham Norton Show:

http://www.youtube.c...jz7odcQ#t=7m10s

Hmmm, the link doesn't seem to be working.

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I like Eric Whitacre and his works, but that article made Williams seemed like he was the Tyler Bates of the music community. As in, Whitacre made it seem like people mostly view him as a hack. And while he's received his fair share of critics, thats most certainly not the case.

I like the article, the intent and the effort. And while he counters it in his article, piece still makes it seem like the maestro is in need of defending.

I agree. While Williams' abilities to imitate other styles does require skill, Whitacre seems to be saying that these works are only meant to be imitations. Williams does draws on other composers, like any composer does in any piece of music, but that's not all or even most of why Star Wars is so great.

Indeed. While Star Wars and other Williams' works have their fair share of influences, its important to keep in my mind that this applies to every composer. And I see what Whitacre is trying to say and its a good point too.

Still, I believe that Williams standing in the world of music is that of a highly positive one, not that of an "unoriginal hack". The article just might seem a bit misleading to people unfamiliar with Williams and film music.

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I like Eric Whitacre and his works, but that article made Williams seemed like he was the Tyler Bates of the music community. As in, Whitacre made it seem like people mostly view him as a hack. And while he's received his fair share of critics, thats most certainly not the case.

I like the article, the intent and the effort. And while he counters it in his article, piece still makes it seem like the maestro is in need of defending.

I agree. While Williams' abilities to imitate other styles does require skill, Whitacre seems to be saying that these works are only meant to be imitations. Williams does draws on other composers, like any composer does in any piece of music, but that's not all or even most of why Star Wars is so great.

Indeed. While Star Wars and other Williams' works have their fair share of influences, its important to keep in my mind that this applies to every composer. And I see what Whitacre is trying to say and its a good point too.

Still, I believe that Williams standing in the world of music is that of a highly positive one, not that of an "unoriginal hack". The article just might seem a bit misleading to people unfamiliar with Williams and film music.

I dunno, there's are a lot of people in concert music circles that look down upon John Williams. There's also a lot of people that really respect him. I wouldn't be able to say whether he's beloved or disliked by a majority of educated musicians. However I can say that most of the people that look down upon him are not educated in his music. That is, they're only familiar with his most popular tunes, which are not his most original works.

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When "Far and Away" came out, Tom Cruise reportedly praised John WIlliams, his contribution to this movie as well as "Born on the Fourth of July."

Damn, but I forgot where I read it! It might have been in one of the Japanese liner notes...

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Hey, I got a response from Mr. Whitacre under his blog post! Awesome.

There's also that wonderful quote in Miguel's signature from Christopher Reeves: "I owe a tremendous debt of gratitute do John Williams. Without his music, Superman's powers are greatly deminished. Believe me, if you try to fly without that theme, you go nowhere... one step, two steps and... down!" -- Christopher Reeve, May 1993

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Hey, I got a response from Mr. Whitacre under his blog post! Awesome.

There's also that wonderful quote in Miguel's signature from Christopher Reeves: "I owe a tremendous debt of gratitute do John Williams. Without his music, Superman's powers are greatly deminished. Believe me, if you try to fly without that theme, you go nowhere... one step, two steps and... down!" -- Christopher Reeve, May 1993

Alas, there is no greater truth. Superman can't fly without his theme...

So I guess we'll see Superman on the ground, like a normal person in the new reboot.

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Also, I don't remember if anyone ever posted this at the time, but Jamie Bell gave a small shout-out to the Maestro after showing a Tintin clip on the Graham Norton Show:

http://www.youtube.c...jz7odcQ#t=7m10s

Hmmm, the link doesn't seem to be working.

Edited

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  • 10 months later...

Here are two more quotes from Seth MacFarlane:

"Look at the body of work that John Williams has under his belt and
you see how important and memorable that can be if used properly in a
film. There are some movies that he did in the 1980s that should have
had the credit 'directed by John Williams' for the amount that he
brought to it. It's great when directors really understand that music is
a significant part of any filmed production."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jul/31/seth-macfarlane-family-guy-singing-bbc-proms

SM: “With the music, they’re song choices that fit with the movie. I’m a
film score junkie. I’m the world’s biggest John Williams fan. I wanted
this movie to have a classic film score because I felt like what it
would do was play against the edginess of the comedy and earn you some
of the harder jokes. You have to have that to balance things out. With
‘Family Guy,’ for years, that’s what we’ve done. We’ve got these
hard-edged jokes, but we have a pretty serious musical style. I think it
works in tandem with each other.”

http://screenrant.com/seth-macfarlane-mila-kunis-mark-wahlberg-ted-interview-rothc-183016/

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Is that Seth guy among us? I mean, he claims to be the world's biggest John Williams fan.

I'd love to see him forward that claim in the present company. He'd be liable to have his honour somewhat removed from personal aspirations (sorry, I'm just coming off of four consecutive episodes of DEADWOOD).

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Is that Seth guy among us? I mean, he claims to be the world's biggest John Williams fan.

If he's anything like his TV shows, I'd say he'd end rubbing several uptight people here the wrong way.

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i remember reading an interview of Joe Hisaishi. When asked about being the John Williams of Japan, he responded by saying JW's orchestrations are truly breath-taking, but claims his own composition style was closer to Nino Rota than Williams. Something along those lines. I'm currently searching for this interview.

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Is that Seth guy among us? I mean, he claims to be the world's biggest John Williams fan.

Alright guys, it's time to come out with the truth....

I'M SETH MACFARLANE!

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Is that Seth guy among us? I mean, he claims to be the world's biggest John Williams fan.

Alright guys, it's time to come out with the truth....

I'M SETH MACFARLANE!

:(

Is that Seth guy among us? I mean, he claims to be the world's biggest John Williams fan.

Alright guys, it's time to come out with the truth....

I'M SETH MACFARLANE!

:(

Disappointed?

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Zimmer talks about Williams all the time. He said a bunch of stuff when he was first rumored to score Man Of Steel.

He called Close Encounters the greatest tone poem ever written.

Joe Kramer's story in being hired for Jack Reacher revealed Tom Cruise's love for Williams.

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I know Williams has shown praise for Jerry Goldsmith various times. Did Goldsmith ever mention Williams..?

Almost inevitably when asked about the topic. Cited favourite scores included SCHINDLER'S LIST, JAWS, INDIANA JONES and SUPERMAN.

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Joe Kramer's story in being hired for Jack Reacher revealed Tom Cruise's love for Williams.

Oh that sounds interesting! What happened?

McQuarrie (the director) sent Cruise his 8-minute demo suite and Cruise immediately called him and said something to the effect of, "Who is this guy? Where did you find him? I haven't heard a score like this since John Williams did Born On The Fourth Of July."

Cruise in general seems to understand the importance of music. Perhaps it's his dual role as producer, but he tends to show up at the scoring sessions, and he even conducted a piece on M:i:III.

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