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Couldn't have said it better myself; you raise a point which I've been trying to find the words to express lately. It feels like in the 20th century classical music hit a fork in the road (Mahler was one of the key figures to introduce said fork) and went two separate ways: the people who wholly embraced atonality as the ONLY next step for music to go in, and the people who wanted to continue the Romantic tradition (while still dabbling in newer techniques and using atonality like a light seasoning to be employed for great effect/affect). Some examples of the former would be the Mahler pupils and acolytes (Berg, Webern, Schoenberg etc.), and the latter would be figures such as Richard Strauss (post-Mahler's death), Korngold, heck even Sibelius in Finland. It seems like some people were so fascinated by the 12-tone-system that they thought tonality must be done away with entirely, whereas others thought it was an interesting concept and yet still saw value in making music that "sounds good". But in addition to his well-timed use of atonality in otherwise tonal music, Williams is also an interesting figure to me because, like Rachmaninoff in his later years (Piano Concerto No. 4 for instance), he was influenced by jazz in addition to his traditional classical upbringing. The thing that really makes Williams stand out from a lot of other composers, imo, and which makes him feel like this logical "next step" you speak of, is his perfect synthesis of the jazz and classical harmonies and styles. Atonality went away from tonality, but jazz delved further into tonality, venturing into uncharted areas and introducing new ideas of harmonization. It'd be like if Beethoven or Brahms discovered a bunch of new chords, and continued to write melodic, tonally logical music—but now harmonized with a bunch of major 7th chords underneath. Basically what it boils down to is, there was still a wealth of stuff to be explored and accomplished within the tonal system at the time that the 12-tone fanatics jumped ship—which is why someone like Williams feels like a logical "next step"...

I know about Superman 2: Composer John Williams was originally slated to score Superman II in which he was given a screening with Ilya Salkind and Richard Lester. When Salkind left the projection room, Williams and Lester fell into an argument, and when Salkind returned, Williams told him that he "could not get along with this man". To take his place, Richard Lester's frequent composer Ken Thorne was selected to score the sequel. (Wikipedia) I want to see someone argue with him or how Williams yell at someone

Bonding with the Hippogriff is a cue JW wrote for the scene with Harry and Buckbeak after their flight; it went unused in the final cut so isn't on the BMI cue list, the sheet music for it didn't leak either for whatever reason. It is, however, included in the LLL set at the end of the track "Befriending the Hippogriff" JW never wrote a cue called Sir Cadogan Again. What happened was, he wrote a cue called Sir Cadogan meant to go with the Sir Cadogan scene, the scene that ended up getting cut completely from the final film. Later, when the cue got tracked into the end of the film in between Lupin's Departure and A New Broomstick, they put "Sir Cadogan" on the cue list there, cause that's what the music that plays there is called. But then it ALSO go tracked into the scene where the ghosts bust through the stained glass in between the aforementioned unscored bonding scene and Kids Inspect newspaper, so they put "Sir Cadogan Again" on the cue sheet since "Sir Cadogan" had already been used. So, it seems when preparing the Live to Projection concerts, they had to give some name to the little tambourine ditty that plays at the end of the bonding scene, so went with Bonding with the Hippogriff since that's the name of the William score cue that was intended to play there. I hope that clears everything up for you

I'm sure some of y'all have seen this before, but here's John being interviewed by the late Andre Previn in 1988. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj4sRhY-feY

“Now there’s a Woman I can say no to!”

I've heard Williams gloats about having Story of a Woman to himself all the time at galas!

Here is the love theme for Geralt and Yennefer, 2 of the 3 main characters - OST 25. And here is a song rendition of the theme - Her Sweet Kiss (OST 7) It is quite a catchy theme.

I, of course, thought Discovery's theme was ass, but then so is the show. I also thought Giacchino's scores were ass and nothing like Star Trek, but then again, look at the movies. All the romanticism stripped away, a lame attempt to make Trek seem more epic and badass. Yeah. That's one thing about this show that works for me. The slow pace. Patrick Stewart acting and being emotional. Talky scenes. Little action. A mystery. It was like...Star Trek. Now we can forget that the last 10 shitty years happened and move on with our Trek lives. Hopefully they don't screw it up.

https://cnmsarchive.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/david-arnold-on-zoolander-and-the-musketeer/ Here is the story... Arnold's answer is confusing. He says both that he wrote the whole score AND that he wrote demos. "Yeah, I’d written the whole score. It was very unusual, because the way that film was developing, Dean phoned me when they got the script, a long time ago, and he was screaming on the phone, saying “This is it! This is the one! This is the one we’ve been waiting for! You’re on!” They were quite a ways into shooting and I think they were getting to the point where they were getting into over-budget difficulties, and I started getting phone calls from Dean and Roland where they were saying “do you still want to do this film?” And I was going, yeah, of course I do! And then another phone call a few weeks later, “Well, we’re going to have to hear some demos first…” I’d done three movies with them and I’ve never done that before! So I said, okay… I’d also heard, before I’d even written anything, that the studio had put out inquiries to John Williams and James Horner, independently of Dean and Roland. One of the producers had worked with John on SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, so he’s going, “look, we can get John Williams – why do you want to stay with Arnold when you can get John Williams?” I think they were under a lot of budgetary pressure. I think the studio was very keen on getting someone with obviously such a huge marquee value as John, ho tends not to put his name to things that aren’t first rate, and as far as I’m concerned very rarely ails to deliver something quite astonishing. So I felt, I’ve got nothing to lose, so I might as well send them his demo that I did. I think it was one of the best thing’s I’d ever written. And virtually immediately I hat a phone call from Dean, saying “look, we haven’t really connected with it, so we’re going to go with John Williams.” I mean, you don’t get a demo and on the same day call up John Williams and have him agree to do the film at the drop of a hat. Obviously, some other things had been going on, and I wasn’t particularly surprised. I was a little disappointed, perhaps, in the way that it was handled, but to be passed up for him certainly isn’t an insult!"

John Williams' Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows Part 2. https://www.harrypotterfanzone.com/david-heyman-david-yates-on-alexandre-desplats-deathly-hallows-music-john-williams-returning/ Though I do like Alexander Desplat's score.

I think there's a lot of over analyzing in this thread.

I remember seeing Ashoka for the first time (the film) and disliked her...but as the series progressed and her story continued in rebels, she is really one of the best things that sprouted from the clone wars.

Maul looks cool so therefore he must be the most badass. also, Ahsoka is a girl so that probably rankles with his fragile masculinity.

I'm not casting doubt, but most composers would say that if an interviewer asked them about collaborating again.

Here's a featurette about the music in the game (in this case embedded in a longer documentary, but it looks like it's from a stand-alone clip):

Simple: he is old and doesn't want to put the time into it. Look at the number of concert works he has composed in the last 25 years and the number in the 25 years before that. Clearly those and conducting across the US has been his greater interest.

Spotify was in shuffle mode, and this came up. I always assumed the score was mostly unlistenable away from context, but was pleasantly surprised by this:

Agreed. Russo is one of these new composers that are getting a lot of projects, but I simply can't get into his music.

Trevorrow's idea of Finn leading a rebellion of defected stormtroopers to fight against the First Order and the opulent greed of the higher-ups in a battle at Coruscant seems like such a logical next step for his character. Not all of his ideas for Episode IX sit right with me, but that's a great one. I mean, there's that one line about Jannah being a former stormtrooper in Episode IX, sure, fine. Does the film even remember that fact past the one scene she mentions it in? No.

My father bought this album back on the day. It was probably what introduced me to the music of John Williams.

In any case - this will be a quality memento of this incredible event we were part of. <3 Still proud that we managed to let the Maestro know in no uncertain terms how welcome he was! :-D

He doesn't have as many fart trombones in his scores as Hans Zimmer.

Some breaking news about the recording from Anne-Sophie Mutters website: https://www.anne-sophie-mutter.de/en/news/john-williams-und-anne-sophie-mutter-in-wien/ The essentials: It‘s going to be on ServusTV (Austrian TV) in the spring, DG is going to release a CD later in 2020. A film recording will also be distributed by DG. A conversation between ASM and JW will also be shown in the TV broadcast.

Just finished the interview, it's really great. Because of their personal history, Previn feels freer to really push Williams, to try and break through the shield of modesty, so he gets more novel reactions/answers than most interviewers.

@Yavar Moradi I was already familiar with Wintory's excellent demo for Discovery. Obviously, they did not go in that direction, tonally, unfortunately. If I'm honest, I despise Russo's music for Discovery so much, it kinda sours me on him as a composer overall. The main title is really obviously modeled on Game of Thrones and it annoys me so much that they did that in a franchise with such a rich musical history. My problem with Kurtzman-era Trek generally is that he's reduced Star Trek to trend chasing, to just aping the style and tone of modern "prestige" television instead of letting Trek be its own thing. I will say, having just heard his Picard theme for the first time (thanks @Gruesome Son of a Bitch!) that it's definitely not immediately offensive like the Discovery theme. It actually reminds me a bit of Silvestri!

Damn some of those images are pretty incredible. As cheesy as it is there’s something moving about Leia sending one last hologram to the galaxy to ask for their aid. It certainly packs more or a punch than Lando showing up out of nowhere with an entire fleet for some reason

Ah yes, Stinky the Hutt. My kid and I just watched that movie this weekend! Was just reminded of one of my favorite George Lucas stories, from the time of The Force Unleashed.

I just want a LEGO minifig.

The viral soundtrack is now out! There is a lot to dig into. I will try to post and exploration of the themes later on. But rest assured there is more to the score than the viral superhit Toss A Coin To Your Witcher.

Thank you very much for your help!

To be passed up for John Williams certainly isn't an insult, but to be passed up for Kloser and Wander on the following Emmerich movies... That's tragic.

That’s what I was thinking, give us a chance to see Alderaan and his relationship with it. They obviously have to follow up on the Maul reveal from Solo (and bring back Emilia Clarke!). I think they would have no qualms revisiting/remaking whatever was done in the cartoons. They could feature Vader in some capacity, maybe he’s hunting down some other leftover Jedi. Maybe Natalie Portman faked her death at the end of RotS (remember in RotJ Leia states she remembers her—OMG what a huge plot hole let’s use it). It would be cool to spend some time on Calamari, see how the Mon Calamari got involved in the Rebellion (I love Mon Calamari, always wanted to see them in a less throwaway capacity). Or bring back the Neimoidians (love them, too!).

Says the guy who just posted this!

No, no....I'm totally with you. I think you perhaps over-analyzed in this case (I think it's simply a matter of him growing older and wanting to work with his trusted colleagues), but please keep such topics coming. It's a refreshing change of pace from the millions of tired STAR WARS threads, joke posts and whatnot in this forum.

With an end title song sung by Willie Nelson.

It’s definitely because you listened to the FYC. I didn’t listen to the FYC and barely hear the cue change.

Sweet interview. I like how Previn pushed Williams out of his humble zone.

He’s 20 years past normal retirement age, he’s basically stated he’s retired other than scoring with Steven Spielberg or Daisy Ridley.

AVID.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Complete Recordings) by Howard Shore: I listened to the last 25 minutes of the score from Parth Galen up until the end credits on my way to work. Still bloody glorious and has such amazing musical flow in how Shore employs his thematic ideas throughout. I really should have the Lord of the Rings complete recordings marathon this weekend. It has been a while since I listened them in their entirety.

Is there are a SW project by Disney that hasn't had production woes? I don't recall any drama from The Mandalorian, but I'm not sure. It just seems like everything I hear about Disney Star Wars involves rewrites, reshoots, people being fired etc.

Great compilation indeed!

JW sounds so different here!

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New trailer and poster for the final season of The Clone Wars

In 1979, the Odeon Leicester Square had the biggest screen, in the UK. Yes, the meteor sequence was good, but I remember the Cygnus lighting up, with special fondness.

Good job imitating/degrading Vangelis.

Not that many films. FORBIDDEN WARRIOR is one that I love; there are some Williamsesque moments in that too. But he's done a low of "show pieces" for various events, and that's where he gets to show off his skill. One that I particularly like is his music for a BATMAN amusement park ride, which sounds like Danny Elfman's score as if it had been 'reimagined' by Williams: