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Williams's Most Inventive Cues


Hlao-roo

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Williams is not generally credited as an innovator, even among his fanbase, but he has produced some gems over the years that are creative enough at least in their execution to distinguish themselves above and beyond any underlying influences. Let's see if we can compile a collection of cues that exemplify Williams at his most inventive...

 

I'll lead off with what is quietly one of Williams's most influential pieces of music:

 

The Conspirators * by John Williams on Grooveshark
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I don't know enough about music to say with any certainty that these are JW's most inventive cues, but here are my picks:

- Escapades from CMIYC

- "The Motorcade" from JFK

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Images is definitely something different for JW, but I'm not sure how new it is in the grand scheme of music?

Peter Maxwell Davies got there first, but I'd say IMAGES is unique through the dichotomy of its two completely different sound worlds.

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Images is definitely something different for JW, but I'm not sure how new it is in the grand scheme of music?

Peter Maxwell Davies got there first, but I'd say IMAGES is unique through the dichotomy of its two completely different sound worlds.

I suppose dichotomy isn't necessarily a good thing, but that's representative of what we're going for here. It doesn't have to be unprecedented: music can be inventive by putting a new spin on existing ideas, or by successfully integrating or juxtaposing elements derived from various sources in imaginative ways.

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"Indy's Very First Adventure" from The Last Crusade is a cue that is a downright tour de force of inventiveness. It includes a great many of Williams' typical techniques: atonal chords with a tonally suggestive bass, leitmotivic references, parallelism, scherzo-esque textures, rollicking good tunes, big brassiness, and colorful orchestration. It's not just that these techniques are there, but that they're fused into a coherent, engaging, and exciting whole in a way that only Williams could do.

If that ain't inventive, I don't know what is.

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"The Land Race" from Far and Away

It has a lot of Williams-isms: big brassy melody and counterpoint, lush lyrical strings, woodwinds runs, frequent modulation and key change, percussive flare with the cymbals and bass drum, and conservative sprinklings on the glockenspiel. Also, his use of pipes, penny whistles, fiddles and bodhrans in some lovely lyrical passages.

In a way, however, it feels a lot like the music is more easily associated with the unfettered freedom and thematics of aviation and aircraft than the Oklahoma Land Rush. If it weren't for the film, I would probably never make the connection despite the cue's title.

Despite this, I find it to be an inventive cue, even if it feels a lot like leftovers from "Hook".

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Good to see some love for FAR AND AWAY. One of the most underrated Williams scores round these parts.

Let's not use "underrated" for "less discussed". Plenty of people here love that score, me included.

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Good to see some love for FAR AND AWAY. One of the most underrated Williams scores round these parts.

Let's not use "underrated" for "less discussed". Plenty of people here love that score, me included.

No, it is in fact criminally underrated.

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But what does Jeremy Soule think about it?

He'd probably comment about its "Chromaticism, counterpoint and the scherzo orchestration textures."

You know, like he did with Hook's Flight to Neverland.

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Good to see some love for FAR AND AWAY. One of the most underrated Williams scores round these parts.

Let's not use "underrated" for "less discussed". Plenty of people here love that score, me included.

No, it is in fact criminally underrated.

OK, let's hunt the culprits down and make them see the light!

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Good to see some love for FAR AND AWAY. One of the most underrated Williams scores round these parts.

Let's not use "underrated" for "less discussed". Plenty of people here love that score, me included.

No, it is in fact criminally underrated.

OK, let's hunt the culprits down and make them see the light!

Okay...

But only if the DA's office can guarantee us an airtight case against the culprits.

In the meantime, here is a link of 80 of Williams' best cues (according to them, at least):

http://www.empireonline.com/features/john-williams

Feel free to debate the merits of the article and what it gets right/wrong.

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Good to see some love for FAR AND AWAY. One of the most underrated Williams scores round these parts.

It's a beautiful score that obviously doesn't go underrated by the composer himself. It doesn't translate well, though, in my opinion, to the slower tempos Williams often favors for concerts.

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It has two good themes but the underscore almost never lives up to them - and seems Hollywood-generic and old-fashioned whenever Williams tries to inject his Boston Pops-big tutti style like in the finale or the race sequence (save for some good cues like THE DUEL or FIGHTING FOR DOUGH). In retrospect, i would love post-95 Williams being handed over the themes from the `92 movie.

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Good to see some love for FAR AND AWAY. One of the most underrated Williams scores round these parts.

Let's not use "underrated" for "less discussed". Plenty of people here love that score, me included.

No, it is in fact criminally underrated.

It is one of my very favourite scores, I listen to parts of it frequently. It is probably in the top 10 of JW's scores.

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Good to see some love for FAR AND AWAY. One of the most underrated Williams scores round these parts.

Let's not use "underrated" for "less discussed". Plenty of people here love that score, me included.

No, it is in fact criminally underrated.

It is one of my very favourite scores, I listen to parts of it frequently. It is probably in the top 10 of JW's scores.

Then you will be spared.

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