Leaderboard

I think we can now safely assume that the TROS recording sessions have started - because that is very clearly the March of the Resistance theme! 😁 I’m so happy that this is really happening, 9 John Williams Star Wars scores.

Another one of my favorite things about JW is his strength with long form. Sometimes this takes place during an entire score where each cue perfectly guides the following into a constantly developing thematic story. But sometimes he does this in a single very long cue. What are your favorite long cues by JW and why do they work so well? I think for me, it is the final "Adventures on Earth" from E.T. Sorry couldn't find the scene from the film alone, just this concert performance. It works for me because the film and score are such a slow burn but ends with a tremendous emotional payoff and full of early 80's joyful exuberance. But it is also deeply moving in its final minutes until the triumphant ecstasy of the fanfare and bold ultimate statement of the E.T. theme that opened the film with a solo piccolo as all the principles look on in stunned amazement and awe at what has transpired. There are only a handful of great concert composers who can do this as well.

How CAN people claim the POA OST is an accurate representation of the score?! The most unique and brilliant cues are missing: Honeydukes music box, A Winter's Spell, the pub music, brief snow scene, etc, etc. No, let's repeat the useless end credits suite instead. Also, I just don't understand why people keep going on about 'the composer's album intentions'. ET lasts 40 minutes and HP1 over 70 because the studio allowed him that luxury. So what makes anyone think that JW would never ever want a complete album to be released? Williams doesn't use some magic formula to completely transform a score for the OST and give us a transcedental 'listening experience'/concept album, he just does what he can with the time they allow him to use!

How can people here call themselves fans of John Williams if they think half the score isn't worth listening to?

Using up 12 minutes of the OST on that end credits suite is one of Williams' most perplexing soundtrack decisions. Almost 20% of the runtime dedicated to music already featured earlier on the soundtrack, from a relatively brisk ~105 minute score. Bizarre.

Lately:

If most of the cues are good enough, I couldn't give less of a shit about a "listening experience". Sorry for viewing a score I love for a film I like in the very specific context for which it was bloody created in the first place.

Journey to the Island Battle of hoth

It remains one of the best things he has written. Manipulative? I differ. More like an unabashed cinematic expression of triumph. Adore this one too:

There are definitely things I really like about both of those OSTs. In terms of listening experience in complete form, SS gets repetitive (prior to Hogwarts) and POA is choppy because of its short, diverse cues. The albums fix those issues at the expense of a lot of incredible music. How glorious it is to have legal access to both options!

All John Williams releases should be enhanced CDs with a link to Jay's spreadsheet for each score! I gave the new release a listen last night, and enjoyed it a lot. It leans heavily on the main theme, but I liked the theme enough that I didn't mind. The piano rendition in "At the Forum" was one of the biggest highlights.

.

For the nth time...here goes 1. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND 2. SUPERMAN 3. THE TOWERING INFERNO 4. 1941 5. THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK Top five non-JW scores 1. THE FINAL CONFLICT 2. BRAINSTORM 3. BLADE RUNNER 4. GRAND CANYON 5. DUNE

.

Y'all are using the word "cue" wrong, usually these long tracks are comprised of multiple cues edited together to form a continuous experience. I don't think he's ever written a single individual cue longer than around 6 minutes, but he's certainly written several series of cues that he intended to be heard connected together (in the film and on album). One of my favorite long JW tracks is "The Mecha World (Extended)" from AI (almost 9 minutes), unfortunately I could only find the shortened OST edit on youtube

Why disrespect the composer by pretending half his score and all the work he put into the musical narrative just outright doesn't exist? A lot of OST choices JW made just beg to be disrespected.

Such a fantastic action cue !!

Fuck no. Literally all the OST edits do is interrupt the actual flow of the actual score.

We need a thread for streaming TV content!

That cue WAS originally on the OST, then axed at the last minute - The Knight Bus was shortened at the last minute too, it originally opened with some of the Playground music, and didn't loop back on itself at the end like the final version

Agreed. The nerve of some people here!

“The Quidditch Match” is fab.

Chase Through Coruscant is one of my favorites! Hard to think of any modern cues that rival that one in length.

but with PoA we never had illegal access

Carbon Freeze, etc.

This will always reign supreme in this young boy's heart:

This is surely one of his most beautiful scores in terms of its uniquely bittersweet quality - getting to hear the film presentation in all its sonic radiance, I appreciate it in a new way. I've never seen the film and enjoy the musical narrative with only a brief outline, yet like all great Williams it succeeds as absolute music with its own internal logic and thematic profundity. The Gloria is certainly him at his most grandiose! Those rich, dissonant, spacey sonorities fighting against the "pure light" of C major are impressive. (Wonderful "cheat" getting to sneak in yet another big C major finale in a diegetic context.) There are moments of great poignance, like I've rarely heard elsewhere (although the religioso material seems familiar enough in effect). The theme is clever, melodically inventive given its resemblance to Godfather and harmonically quite dark. Harpsichord is familiar from Family Plot, the disaster scores and elsewhere... but enough already with it (the theme), it doesn't appear to see much if any variation, just a first response on my part though. Reunion in Italy is perfection - he just banged this whole thing out in a few weeks one summer?! Near total stylistic switchover from E.T. but a suitable warmup for RotJ. Is that a prominent cor anglais near the end of Santoni's Compassion?

Wow I hadn't listened to that track in a while ^^ Very cool project Also I just released this new video, an awesome cue by Mr Goldsmith !

As always, extremely difficult! I'll try to limit it to one Star Wars and one Indiana Jones pick. 1. The Empire Strikes Back 2. Raiders of the Lost Ark / Jaws (Edited Jaws in last minute) 3. Seven Years in Tibet 4. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial 5. Empire of the Sun Of course, there are loads of dark horse Williams scores (including Seven Years and Empire of the Sun), many of which I'd throw into a longer non-ranked list thanks to an old discussion in the Discord. This would include The Post, War Horse, Lincoln, The Adventures of Tintin and The Book Thief, to name a few. And as as for Star Wars and Indiana Jones, two top caliber series that would dominate my list if I didn't show more variety and thought, I'd put Temple of Doom over The Last Crusade (although I cherish both dearly), and Star Wars would see The Phantom Menace, Star Wars, Revenge of the Sith and The Last Jedi taking top billing behind Empire. Obviously, Close Encounters, Superman, and Schindler's List (although I don't just listen to the latter leisurely) are three glaring absences, but it's oh so close! Seven Years in Tibet is probably my most unique pick. I adore that score. The suite is near perfect!

@Jay's spreadsheet should help a lot

Williams 1 Hook 2 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 3 The Empire Strikes Back 4 Close Encounters of the Third Kind 5 The Lost World Non-Williams 1 Fellowship of the Ring by Shore 2 Batman by Elfman 3 Independence Day by Arnold 4 Wrath of Khan by Horner 5 Star Trek The Motion Picture by Goldsmith

Typo fixed

And why would I want to do that if I could listen to the real thing? Oh wait, because only the concept bullshit gets released while the actual score rots for decades, that's why.

You see, you need to approach OSTs like a concept album. Like it's taking you on a 40+ minute tour of the music.

Walk away, man, just...walk away.

I'll be in 'Murica two weeks from now. I'm practicing. You foreign scum!

The prequels are perfect.

I'm guessing the excess of shorter cues proved a headache for him once he actually finished recording and had to start assembling tracks. Basically every cue longer than 2 minutes made the OST intact, while a selection of the score's more unique shorter cues were turned into composite tracks to fill out the assembly. Makes the omission of Confrontation in the Shrieking Shack a mild head-scratcher, but clearly a lengthy film cue didn't fit with his mindset for that release (more of a textural representation of the score than one concerned with any semblance of chronology).

I'm tempted by both the finale from CE3K and Adventures On Earth, but for me, it's got to be "The Last Battle." Wasn't actually the last battle, but I don't hold that against it.

We had a decent OST with all the necessary tracks. It might have even had too much music.

isn't that his worse long cue?

Damn i just bought a 4K TV and now they're pitching 8K

I disagree.

Rachmaninoff - Sonata No.2 (at 6:00)

I hope it is not the meeting in Sicily film version that has been vetoed by Williams and they forgot to delete the references in the booklet....

Because no JWfan was asked to proofread the booklet!

Adywan is pretty damn good.

So I'm not the only one!

A couple of new ones :