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I came up with a breakdown of Williams' film output into style periods for an academic chapter I wrote on Williams' theme writing a couple of years ago. It was in John Williams: Music for Films, Television, and the Concert Stage. See below. There are several points supporting the divisions between the periods, but my study of his theme writing further bolstered them. Basically, I took one theme from each of his films to be the "main" one (if he composed the theme, of course, so excluding those based on others' pop songs or musicals) and included a primary new theme from any sequels. What I found was that: Whereas in the first period, Williams' main themes tended to state an idea and repeat it (e.g., Daddy-O, The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing, and The Poseidon Adventure) Williams' second period showed a marked shift towards themes that stated an idea then varied it (e.g., Superman fanfare, E.T., Imperial March). I think this is something we all kind of know about Williams' style, and it really became apparent in this period. While the first two periods showed an overwhelming preference for long-lined themes based on 8-bar models, his third period regularly included either much shorter themes (like Nixon, Amistad, and Minority Report) or ones that are more amorphous because they're drawn out way beyond a more regular 8-bar model (e.g., the dinosaur theme in Jurassic Park, Duel of the Fates, and Catch Me If You Can). The fourth period shows a return to the long-lined theme as the norm, the sole exception thus far being Tintin's motif from The Adventures of Tintin. I did this work to justify some further conclusions I made about Williams' theme writing and their associations in the film, but it was good to draw some divisions in his output. As others above have stated, you could certainly get more granular with further divisions, but the four I proposed seemed to me pretty convincing distinctions at a very broad level. And it seems many others here agree with 1975, 1993, and 2008 as new beginnings of sorts.

"Earthwake" -- sounds like the perfect name for an environmental issue movement! Time to wake up and save the earth, folks!

For anyone not aware, there was a lot of conjecture surrounding unused TFA music featured in one of the film's making-of documentaries. The music above is an example of such music, which several posters attributed as a possible Jedi Steps alternate. I decided to test how the music would play over that scene and where it might fit. This was the best result I could create but it's pure guesswork, so just use the video as a reference for the music itself. What's interesting for me (and someone with a stronger musical knowledge might be able to confirm my theory) is that the horns playing in counterpoint to the strings from 0:11-0:15 appear to be playing a fragment of the Jedi Steps theme! It actually sounds like a prototype of the theme before Williams refined the idea into the final film version. The use of mysterious strings at 0:03 are also carried across to the final version of the cue here:

Mike Matessino has provided me with a more detailed explanation of this that I can share:

It's funny to talk about the "disaster period". I started mine about 2-3 years ago and I'm still in it!

It is 100% impossible to have a mature discussion about female artists on JWfan.

Turtlenecks Through Time

The scores to these are nuts. I've never before looked forward to listening to the soundtrack to a television show, much less on a weekly episode-to-episode basis. It's crazy how good some of these themes are and how casually Göransson seems to be with dropping them on us. Like, this... ...could have easily been the main theme in a big movie for a pack of rebels or fighting fringe group but it's likely just gonna be a one-off in a 35 minute television episode? That's bonkers. It's nice to have a good television show to look forward to watching every week but to have a good television show and a great score to look forward to every week? Oooh mama...

Maybe the editor is someone here who's purposely trying to screw with us.

Scores recorded outside LA aren't affected by this issue, so even if ROTS were a post-2005 score there would be no issue expanding it. The 3 sequel trilogy scores will incur heavy fees to expand though, as they were all LA recordings.. and when you consider how extensive the ST sessions have been, and the volume of music recorded, the total cost to record these scores would far exceed any of JW's other post-2005 scores (but hopefully waved through as loose change by Disney). The real shame here is the lack of a sliding date, which locks scores to these fees regardless of time passed (so much for thinking +10 or +20 years meant a fee reduction). So these scores are effectively off-limits to small labels forever now.

Do svidaniya Maestro.

cringey boomer humor.

I'm pretty convinced this is the case too. It's so strange to think something as now-iconic as Jedi Steps was a replacement for another cue, though it's not the first time this has happened (e.g. the original Binary Sunset). I also suspect that this unused material was used for inspiration (or temp-tracked) for some of Ahch-To music in The Last Jedi. Lots of similarities there as well. Wonder if some day we'll ever learn the definitive answer to these questions...

It's almost as if movie directing has been a field dominated by men in the past...

Seducing Daisy Ridley and other comical hi-jinx How to Rip-Off Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Still Become a Millionaire

Where's Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare?

The world really needed another movie glorifying crime and humanizing gangsters that's two days long.

When are we going to see Baby Palpatine merchandise? He took Natalie Portman from me, which is a far more unforgivable crime than killing Han.

Except that old raisin apparently lived or wasn't the real raisin in the first place, if we are meant to guess why the raisin is back.

Eh. I've half forgotten that by now.

Going to listen to Jansons' Scheherazade album today in his memory. What a wonderful conductor he was- one of my personal favourites. Rest in peace, Mariss.

Well for starters, only recent theatrical releases make it onto Blu-ray in my country - things like the major franchises, big budget spectacles and box offices hits. Don't expect anything arthouse or older than five years ago, unless it's a huge crowd-pleaser like E.T. - and even that is changing. So anything that does not fall in the categories I've listed has to be imported, meaning it's much more expensive. Our currency has plummeted over the last ten years and the cost of living is increasing by the month. 5, 6 and 8 Euros with postage is very expensive when converted. Add to that the fact that Blu-ray never really took off here, at its height you'd be lucky to find a store or rental place stocking more than 50 to 120 titles max. Most people here are happy to rent the latest release on DVD or wait for it to show on satellite TV, or pirate it. Collectors are very thinly spread. There's hardly any secondary market. First Worlders, you guys are very spoilt, enjoy it and spare a thought for those on the arse-end of the world.

My Struggle! by John Williams

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Home Alone (LLL) Home Alone 2 (LLL) - John Williams A Christmas Carol (Quartet) - Nick Bicât Hark! Ding dong! Christmas time is here! Bring a torch, Jeannette, Isabella! Come all ye faithful! Disco Stu is comin' to town! Sing a song to the glorious season!

I have this as well (I was lucky to get it when it was first released). I did not find the movie all that compelling (other than the climbing footage), but I will watch it again since I just watched the three disaster movies (total coincidence to the scores releasing!). I loved the Trevanian novels (upon which the move is based) when I was in high school. In fact, there is a sequel to this story called the Loo Saction, and I suppose if Eiger had done better, Eastwood would have made Loo Section too. The movie did make back its costs though, so who really knows. I will listen to the Williams score again this morning as I too had forgotten it, and I like the thinking about this as part of wrapping up this period of his scoring career. I might put Missouri Breaks into this period too (despite it overlapping time wise with Jaws). I think Midway & Black Sunday belong in the Jaws-forward period.

Seen eight. But does The Matrix really count since they were blokes back then?

I'm annoyed. Mike didn't tell us to save our pennies in his interview last year. How will we afford this now??

Always loved the horn solo in Duncan's Toy Store, and of course the whole "To the plaza, presto" cue ! So here it is, all transcribed by ear ( as far as I know there isn't a lot of Home Alone 2 sheet music out there ^^ )

Henry Mancini recorded an album of film music in 1976 with the London Symphony Orchestra which included a Disaster Movie Suite made up of Earthquake, The Towering Inferno and Jaws. While I knew of the album I had never heard any of it, but noticed today that someone has posted a few selections on YouTube. Given that it features rare cover versions of Johnny's two 1974 disaster main titles, I thought you might enjoy hearing it if it is new to you too. I think it's rather good.

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So when does the Black Friday 2020 JW prediction poll open?

Good question. Maybe Varese simply paid the pricey fees? Maybe Giacchino pulled strings to negotiate a different fee? Who knows, and Varese will never tell us.

Might you be thinking of the Disaster Movie Suite conducted by Henry Mancini and featuring a suite from Earthquake, The Towering Inferno and Jaws? It was an English orchestra (the LSO) but Hank was an American conductor, of course. There is a thread about the album here.

Last week, I purchased BLADE RUNNER 2049, on fabulous DVD, for the princely sum of £1.

For me it was after 18:29! I read an article on the web saying: "The Masterpiece I'll forgot in two weeks!"

Cliffhanger is super fun!

Yeah i meant that in the list it is not mentioned

I always thought the Parade of the Ewoks took its cue from this one. It is 2019--we are no longer allowed to fat-shame via the tuba.

Looks like Klaud's role was actually expanded heavily in the October reshoots. New shot released:

I love how many of you group 1959-1975 as simply his "early years". That period has SO many different aspects and sub periods and evolutions; perhaps more than any other in his musical life.

A good apple is a good apple, no matter what part of the barrel it is from.

It makes sense to not have Palpy in Rogue One simply because he wasn't in the original Star Wars movie beyond a few passing references. As a direct prequel to Ep IV, it was still Tarkin's time to be the central villain.

Personally I thought it was strange he didn't appear in either of the spin-offs (especially Rogue One which was overflowing with OT references), so I believe the idea they were saving him for IX as the last hurrah. If Snoke was that important, I doubt they would have let Rian kill him off. He only ever felt like Emperor-Lite to me. There's also a lot of unresolved plot threads introduced in ROTS about "cheating death." That was JJ's favourite scene in the prequels so it's no surprise he took the concept and ran with it. If the Jedi can live forever by becoming one with the force, why can't the Sith in a corrupted way? If you want to tie the whole saga together, that's the starting point.

Here's my mockup of JW's arrangement of "Anything Goes", from the opening sequence of Temple of Doom; always wanted to hear what was going on behind all that tap dancing! Enjoy!

Happy Spooky Season everyone. Here is my Map Room: Dawn mockup from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Enjoy!

If you give me 20 $ perhaps.

A Great addition to my collection. I'm pretty new in "Expanded scores", but I feel this one is a must have because it adds so more texture to the OST. I purchased the original CD some months ago and I didn't get very used to it. In fact, the few times I've listened it, I find it very vocal and a little bit repetitive. So the first CD containing the instrumental score is soooo welcome! And when we reconstitute the chronological playlist, the listening experience is even more greater. Another great LLL release!