What was John Williams' first sign of true greatness?

[Wojo 2,453]

If John Williams had never written Jaws and Star Wars, would there be an entire forum to a man whose career highlights began and ended with The Cowboys, How to Raise a Million, and arranging Fiddler on the Roof?

[Naïve Old Fart 9,533]

No there would not. JW would be just another composer in the vein of Jerry Goldsmith: a jobbing composer, who makes uniformally good music, but does not get his proper dues.

You are old too

Define "old".

[Uni 306]

No there would not. JW would be just another composer in the vein of Jerry Goldsmith: a jobbing composer, who makes uniformally good music, but does not get his proper dues.

I have to think you're joking with this. You can't seriously be suggesting there wouldn't be a fan site for JW if he were "just another" Goldsmith. . . ?

You are old too

Define "old".

Anyone who saw Real Genius or Revenge of the Nerds in a theater.

[John Takis 206]

Just wanted to put in that I wouldn't call JAWS an early "sign" of greatness. JAWS is greatness, full stop.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Hell yeah!

[Uni 306]

Exactly. And it didn't just happen out of thin air. There have to have been signs of it before then (and there were).

[Naïve Old Fart 9,533]

No there would not. JW would be just another composer in the vein of Jerry Goldsmith: a jobbing composer, who makes uniformally good music, but does not get his proper dues.

I have to think you're joking with this. You can't seriously be suggesting there wouldn't be a fan site for JW if he were "just another" Goldsmith. . . ?

No, Uni. I'm saying that JW, like JG, would be just another jobbing composer who would never get his dues from either the larger section of the public, nor the Academy. One Oscar for a 40-plus caerer, is insulting! There would probably be a JWfan, but it might exist in a different form.

You are old too

Define "old".

Anyone who saw Real Genius or Revenge of the Nerds in a theater.

Never even heard of these 2, so...I am officially not old.

[karelm 2,913]

Exactly. And it didn't just happen out of thin air. There have to have been signs of it before then (and there were).

As others (including myself) have pointed out - the signs were there from the start. The various elements and opportunity didn't all coalesce until the 1970's but the roots were there from the start. The same could be said for any great artist. For example, Stravinsky's first great success was Firebird. But it was also the fact that he evolved so much with Petrushka a year later and then hit his masterpiece with Rite of Spring 2 years later. So it was an increasingly impressive home run after home run but from the start the signs were there of an amalgamation of tradition (Russian tradition) with creativity (fierce individuality) and exotic influences (French in this case) that are present in his earliest works though not fully developed and the opportunity for them to coalesce required Diaghilev (Spielberg/Lucas with JW's Wagner/Korngold + Mancini/pop/jazz). I think these things are noticeable in the early 1960's but hadn't fully developed or had the opportunity to shine until 1970's where one after another was an even greater knock out.

[ricsim88 244]

Like you guys I feel Jaws is amazing and a bit of a departure from his "older" style. But I definitely hear some greatness in Fitzwilly, as a trumpet player I love his use of the piccolo trumpet for the main theme. He must have been in a baroque phase. Let's not forget Towering Inferno. Rousing theme, precursor to some of his later works. I agree that the greatness has been there all along. The main greatness being to adapt to the restrictions of a movie. Can't think of anybody who can produce such great music while dealing with those restrictions.

[skyy38 21]

The Towering Inferno.

Irwin Allen must have let John Williams vent his spleen on this show, because everything about it spells "greatness".

Begin with the opening motif in the treble clef where Williams ( in my estimation ) literally "spells" out the Glass Tower's height in just four notes and then spends an epic five minutes reworking the theme in the open credits.

And this movie is loaded with motifs, which bodes well for his future work on "you know what."

And, like "YNW", The Towering Inferno is NOT wall to wall music like most epics would be in the now.

The music only appears when needed and is also the true definition of "underscore" when it plays.

Recently, I have become a fan of this version of the main titles. I had previously thought that some happily demented fan-boy

had done a remix, but whatever! It's like the "Special Edition" version, if you take my meaning.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

It was obviously The Book Thief. It took him a little while to achieve true greatness.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

The Force Awakens will be the score that will make or break is career.