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John Williams turns 87 today! Happy birthday, Maestro! 🎂🥂🎉🎊🎈🎁

Happy Birthday, Maestro Williams! Thank you for sharing your artistry with the whole world. Here's to many more years of great music. Keep the pencil moving!

ROTJ is this legendary sequence I don't recall one in ROTS

February 8 is always a great day. No matter what I am doing, I make a point to settle in and listen to lots of John Williams music. Now that I am doing a podcast devoted to John Williams I listen to it more than ever. I even released the next episode of my podcast today to commemorate his birthday. It's devoted to the 1964 film "The Killers." http://thebatonpodcast.podbean.com

Mike Matessino posted some clarification to the FSM thread

Nice post, but I don't think it will reach JW.

happy birthday maestro!

Happy birthday, John Williams!

Happy Birthday to the Maestro! By Request & The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration & Williams on Williams & Spielberg/Williams Part III

Yes, but I think it's out of print. Fair warning; the score contains too much mickey mousing, but the themes are great. Haha, true. But while it's fun to hear the Godfather waltz (edit: the love theme!) arranged in many different ways (like this silly arrangement) Fortunella is much more than just that theme.

Williams will be like Bach. People will eventually realize that a titan was in their midst.

Well, it's not an actual book, that will be published that is, but it's my PhD dissertation on Williams' style, which is strictly musicological. I had planned it as a 4 chapter (beyond the introductory chapter) dissertation, but it seems it will be 3 in the end. (I've almost abandoned the idea of a melody chapter because it wasn't turning out as I'd like it to be) I have written more than 1,5 chapters till now (around 150 pages) and at this rate I hope to have finished it by the end of the year, because I have already been very very late. it will be unfortunately in Greek. When I finish it and it is accepted, i was planning to upload it here, just for looking at the numerous musical examples and diagrams, so that someone could get an idea of it.

Where Dreams Are Born Fawkes Is Reborn Seeing the Baby The Arrival of Baby Harry Hatching Baby Raptor

Yeah, they should be the same age.

"Happy Birthday Mr Williams Just join this forum to tell you that thanks to you movie music became an essential part of my life since more than 40 years (oh, god!). I realized then that you were equivalent to classical composers in our lifetime.  I'm eager to listen to your next soundtrack.  Take care !" I could not say it better myself. Williams music has got me through all sorts of hell since the age of 8. When the SW sequels were first being mooted I thought..." Williams will be 87 by the time the last one comes around. I wonder if he'll live that long." And here we are. For me the last two Star Wars scores are a real return to form and eclipse the music for episodes II & III put together. His music has sustained and nurtured me since childhood to the extent that I chose music for a life of work. To end up singing for him in London Voices was the greatest professional achievement of my life. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAESTRO!

Happy Birthday, Maestro!

Wishing you a very Happy Birthday, maestro Williams. May you be blessed with all the happiness and joy in the world, good health and everything you wish for.

By Request by John Williams The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration by John Williams Williams on Williams: The Classic Spielberg Scores by John Williams The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration Part III by John Williams

Happy Birthday Mr Williams Just join this forum to tell you that thanks to you movie music became an essential part of my life since more than 40 years (oh, god!). I realized then that you were equivalent to classical composers in our lifetime. I'm eager to listen to your next soundtrack. Take care !

Happy 87th birthday, Maestro! Thanks for teaching me what film music really is. Long life to you!

Happy birthday!

You're quite hooked on that.

Next thing, Sony will have the labels' existing inventory of their licenced releases confiscated and destroyed.

WE'RE RICH! RIIICH!!!

Marvellous! Simply marvellous! Happy birthday Maestro Williams! Here's to many, many more to come!!!

The Empire Strikes Back. Still the best sequel score ever. Karol

Happy birthday, ya old chum! Karol

With the 2012 edition of Hook, none of the soundtracks mentioned on that list are worth fussing over. MoaG, War Horse, Tintin, Lincoln, The Post, Book Thief, all got more than sufficient releases. Personally, I couldn't care less about the pre-Jaws scores, too.

People don't know the names of songwriters of hugely popular songs either.

John Williams will always be the pinnacle of film music well into the 21st century and beyond. I'm confused about the word mainstream though. If you were to ask the average young person who John Williams was, I'd bet not many would be able to tell you. So on a grand musical scale, the popularity of film music in general, especially in the future, is minimal. But for those who do listen to it, it's obvious John Williams will always be there. People involved in film should also know him or recognize the name at the very least.

An apt comparison, as JW has been known for his strong interpretations of Bach:

Not obscure to anyone who has seen the godfather! 😉

Jay, your current avatar and your response match perfectly! Hope this bodes well for Babe The Gallant Pig!

Many happy returns Maestro Williams!

... and in "The Death of Dracula" (my favourite use of the organ in that score), "End Titles"... Me neither from ROTS, but there is an organ in the Finale cue of AOTC.

happy birthday, father

One of the wonderful things about a somewhat good system is that basses are basses, mids are mids and highs are highs. In a good recording, like Rosewood or The Final Frontier, you can get wonderfully clear and strong bass lines because they are distinct from the higher frequencies. (It also means that you at first have to get used to some older and/or lesser recordings sounding comparatively flat). I think of all CDs I have, Tibet is the only one that completely kills that.

Happiest of Birthdays, John! May we see many more to come!

Koray, what do you think of this presentation? I've never heard the sessions myself but would be interested to hear from someone more knowledgeable? Would you say it is a comprehensive presentation? Karol

To the wiki, I've added the Tuba Concerto (released 2/8/19) featuring Dennis Nulty and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra led by Leonard Slatkin.

Damn, that list is even more depressing now we know how many Williams scores Sony Music own the rights to. Basically his entire catalogue from 2005 onwards! Not that I expected any of those scores to be released imminently due to the hefty union fees, but there's some solid stuff in there from pre-2005. Gutted about Memoirs of a Geisha, which I'd hoped MM might be looking into (lots of unreleased music on that one). Hook has to be the worst news though, right off the back of a 4K remaster too. Thoroughly shit of Sony to just drop this news on labels without warning, rather than provide a grace period of 6-12 months of their intentions. I have no doubt, as with the Fox/Disney acquisition situation, if the labels and Mike had known this was coming they would have prioritized contracts for Sony Music scores before the deadline, even if it meant putting other releases on the back-burner. No doubt Williams would have been supportive of a fast-tracked Hook or Reivers expansion if he knew the situation. Especially worried about the latter, as older scores can be lost to time with aging elements. 🤬

The OST was released on Virgin Records, which is now owned by UMG (Universal Music) The unreleased music would have to be licensed from Lucasfilm, who produced the film, and possibly MGM (now owned by Fox, soon to be owned by Disney) who distributed the film

I'm sure Sony (the record label) COULD license unreleased music from a film studio and release an expansion on their own. It's just not part of their regular business model.

That's what I understand. I suppose they could, but everything we've always been told is that a third party needs to come in to make it happen. Maybe someone with more industry expertise will post more information somewhere.

The Patriot soundtrack was released on Hollywood Records (owned by Disney Music Group). So, you'd have to license cues from the OST album from them and the unreleased cues from Sony/Columbia Pictures and Centropolis Entertainment.

I just hope they bring back Liam Neeson so he finds that Sith bastard and kills him.

Not really. It has a really dull and flat sound compared to the 1996 release. The SACD doesn't improve things very much either. The only "use" for me was the then unreleased tracks and the correct and/or alternate performances of some sections compared to the 1996 release.

I wish people would stop telling us about alternates that were recorded, but which we'll never hear because the Rarities were shortened to a single CD with odd mockups on there because reasons.

Here's hoping one day the LOTR trilogy is given the specialty-label-style treatment, with a complete score program containing no edits within cues, followed by a bonus track section of all the recorded alternates