Leaderboard

Not exactly—Williams actually quit as director that night. It was widely reported around the country that the orchestra had discipline problems and that Williams felt he wasn't given enough artistic control. It was a major embarrassment for the Pops, and they had to lure him back two months later. Some of the contemporary news stories make for interesting reading. http://www.nytimes.com/1984/06/14/arts/boston-pops-conductor-resigns-post-abruptly.html http://www.csmonitor.com/1984/0628/062847.html http://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/08/03/Mark-Williams-to-return-as-Pops-conductor/5111460353600/ Of course things eventually settled down, and here's how the LA Times characterized the incident in retrospective when JW retired. http://articles.latimes.com/1991-12-21/entertainment/ca-566_1_boston-pops

The more you listen to and study JW's film and concert repertoire, the more you associate the concept of harmonic "gravity" with a lot more chord progressions/cadences than the traditional ones (e.g. V(7) -> I, IV -> I). For me, any M8M M4M (e.g. Ab -> C, bVI -> I) has an exceptional cadential quality, sometimes even more so than more tonally grounded cadences. NOTE: M8M, not M4M. The first 'M' represents the tonic of a progression.

That concert was at the Hatch Shell, at Boston's Esplanade. Most likely it wasn't with the Boston Pops Orchestra, but rather with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, that while operates under the BSO organization, is made up of freelancer musicians from the Boston area. Also, there is an interview made by a British television channel, in which bits of a rehearsal can be seen and where Williams has to call the orchestra members to attention. The interviewer asks him about that, wondering about lack of discipline, but Williams downplays it as it would be expected. The interview dates from 83 or 84... Finally, I do remember reading the articles from the Boston Globe from that time, and I do recall mention of problems between Williams and orchestra during rehearsal of Varsity Drag -- maybe that was the Sid Ramin arranged piece?... Williams also conducts an arrangement of his own of that one every now and then. I have all of those on my files, and when I get the time, I might just check it out.

I can't wait!!!

Thank you. We have recorded 12 Songs for the album. Yes, there is one Song with lyrics by Paul Williams. ("Nice to Be Around" from Cinderella Liberty). And a friend of mine wrote lyrics to a Williams instrumental. I hope you will like it....

Em, Esu4, Em, Esus4, Emb6/B (CM7/B)

"The Same Hello, the Same Goodbye" was part of a song cycle that Sinatra commissioned the Bergmans in the 70's. They wanted to do it with Michel Legrand, but for whatever reason he wasn't available and then went to Williams. They presented the songs to Sinatra, Alan Bergman sung them, I believe, and while Sinatra loved them, never went on to perform. I believe there were 4 songs -- can be wrong, I'm doing this from memory -- but the remaining ones seem to be lost. Feinstein discovered it while working on the first album of his "Sinatra Project" and recorded the surviving song. I'm also not a fan of Streisand, so I do prefer the Feinstein recording, which I do find to be superb. Feinstein also performed the song at Tanglewood with the Boston Pops under the late Erich Kunzel, using an alternate arrangement for full orchestra.

When will Disney reintroduce these two?

Gotta love those slate numbers and the almost discombobulating wealth of information they bear.

Yeah, I remember a couple of occasions. It was written for Frank Sinatra back in the day, but he never performed it. There's a decent recording out there; with Michael Feinstein. I'm not too fond of Barbara Streisand's version.

As mentioned on the main page, the recent Indy Cast is devoted to an interview with Gloria Cheng. Perhaps Richard is too humble to mention it, but she discusses the important role JWfan played in helping her Kickstarter campaign for Montage.

All around a fascinating talk with some keen insight into the music of not only John Williams but other composers represented on the Montage album. And you have to love the Cheng's little shout out to JWFan, which Ricard's site surely deserves as the first and foremost fan and news site for the "rock star" Maestro.

Of course I have no issue with using woodwinds, that's not what I said. By "in your face," in the context of what we're talking about, I mean artificially pumped up solos, like a flute that seems to come at you from right next to your ear over a really singing string section that should swallow it up, that sort of thing.

Are you really gonna let him talk to you like that, Lee?

People who book the tables as the Pops and have dinner and drinks during the concert should be shot by snipers positioned on the balcony of Symphony Hall!

'Winning' on the internet doesn't matter to me, Stefan. If I were on PC I might have replied more comprehensively, but there's absolutely no chance in phone view and with this site's quotation hassles.

You really gonna let him win?

Okay Jay I'm not going to get into multi quote tit-for-tat with you because OMG THIS FORUM'S MOBILE FUNCTIONALITY!!! and because... because I just can't be bothered.

I'm on a choir as well. Two, actually.

LOL, Stefan, heh There's actually more close mic happening in this score than TPM, the brass has definitely been brought forward and the woodwinds pulled back. It's very evident in the mix but it's still one of my favorite scores. The orchestrations are solid. However, remember, Williams writes in short hand, and giving it to the copyists rather than going through the expert hands of Pope, Neufeld or Karam has resulted in runs not being fully fleshed out as Williams usually likes them. That does not mean that those are the reasons they are buried. In the Signature edition they are all written to be able to be heard beautifully. In one of the FYC tracks, trying to remember which one, you can barely hear the woodwind runs, even when there is a piccolo blasting at it, that would ring out in any orchestra. I write, and when I write, I write big and I know exactly how to balance and orchestra and how things will sound once my music is bering performed, whether the Royal Philharmonic, The Alma Orchestra, The Philharmonia or The Qatar Philharmonic to name a few. And if I know how to balance an orchestra, trust me, this man knows more than all us composers in Hollywood combined! The woodwinds were buried to have a more modern sound. But you can believe what you want of course. And I'm saying this as a huge fan of this score. My favorite is TPM, then TESB and TFA.

Disabled transgendered black gay women With a Target Store so she can go to the bathroom.

What's that shadowy place? That's the Filmtracks message board. You must never go there.

Pinko Commie scum! The whole orchestra should have been disbanded!

'Phila. Orchestra celebrates 'Star Wars,' classical composer John Williams' (New Williams interview) http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/david_patrick_stearns/20160426_Phila__Orchestra_to_celebrate_John_Williams_-_movie_and_classical_composer.html#O57HoM01KVYTmW0S.99

Starship fuel can't melt transparent aluminum beams.

I noticed it more so with the percussion than the woodwinds in the prequels, and mostly in ROTS. Doesn't help that the percussion was recorded separately. There are certainly moments when spot mics are used to bring out other adjective instruments, but the mix all seems fairly natural-sounding to my ear. Certainly more so than with some less "traditional" film composers' work. That was part of what made Hooper's Potter scores sound so jarring to me, for instance - the whole philosophy behind the recording was totally different.

Mr. Ocelot doesn't speak to just everyone. You will need to be vetted!

I don't see why anyone would have a problem with his track titles. They provide entertainment for him and his music crew, some are genuinely funny, and it beats having major spoilers or boringly descriptive track titles like 'The Destruction of Hometree.' Any one who has a serious problem with it should think themselves lucky that they have such a serene life that they are annoyed by something as small as a harmless pun.