Seth

That's what I would say as well.

Exactly-the first few minutes of the Cello Concerto are really good, but the piece just rambles on after that and never really seems to go anywhere. The Five Sacred Trees, now, is a different piece entirely and I enjoy it a great deal, particularly Tortan.

The beginning of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe got under my skin-synths and a percussion groove underneath the sweeping shot of the train in the countryside just really didn't work. I also question some of Williams' own choices-The Terminal and Born on the Fourth of July both stand out as overdone for vast majority of the films they were written for. I also have minor issues with the use of the "Lament" theme in Revenge of the Sith when Anakin is preparing to choke Padme; it just seems too melodramatic, but I am hesitant to blame Williams alone because of the script and acting in that scene.

No. He has written some stuff that I just cannot take (Catch Me If You Can being an immediate thought). I also have a hard time getting around the Cello Concerto. So no, I do not like everything he writes just because its John Williams.

I've seen Midway. As I recall I didn't care for it that much-it's too long and, frankly just not very good. It is also sparsely scored if I remember correctly.

What is ATHF?

These aren't scores, but I can recommend three classical pieces that give me the same impression-Arvo Part's Credo, and the Symphony No.2 and Prayer of St. Gregory by Alan Hovhaness. The last two cues of Signs have a type of cathartic sound that I guess you could classify as kind of religious.

Superman, by far. The first half is great but the second half doesn't hold up as well. That and I find March of the Villains obnoxious.

Very impressive stuff, especially the orchestration.

I like Signs.

I recommend Apollo 13; the album release has a lot of songs and dialogue, but I think the score is well worth it.

That's Gorecki.

a) The Empire Strikes Back B) Minority Report c) The Cello Concerto

I'm kind of partial to the hardinger fiddle in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. That score seems to be a treasure trove of ethnic instruments-the rhaita, the hardanger, cimbalom, and various African percussion instruments. But Memoirs is great too.

That's something I wonder about. When the liner notes gives a list of orchestra personnel, does that mean every musician listed played on the sessions simultaneously? I mean, some of the action music in War of the Worlds sounds like there are 3 tubas, 4 pianos and 12 horns making noise, but I can't imagine The Terminal using 6 trumpets or 7 horns one any one cue, which is what the liner notes list.

While at this point (with no other projects lined up) I think it would be kind of nice to have Williams return as the Potter series matures and darkens, it depends on what else comes up. If he is attached to a film similar to Geisha, that allows him to stretch and be creative, then I would hope he would ditch Potter. I really think I like his "restrained" scores lately more than the action scores, although War of the Worlds was a nice mix of both that was brilliant in the context of the film.

Isn't this a bit like comparing apples and oranges? I mean, GOF would have given us another action score but Geisha allowed him to grow as a composer and it gave us an exquisite score that deserves the Oscar it probably won't win. Just my way of thinking. Seth

I was not aware of that. So what's the situation with these two sequences? Did Williams not originally score them or did something happen after the recording sessions?

I'm watching Return of the Jedi right now and I just noticed that a few seconds of music from Empire are tracked into the scene where Wedge fires his torpedoes into the Death Star's reactor core. The music comes from the second half of "Losing a Hand" right before it transitions into the Hyperspace cue. Is this a new thing for the DVD or has it always been this way?

I think the story about him getting mad at a Pops rehearsal refers to his piece "America, the Dream Goes On." Apparently members of the orchestra snickered and/or made rude remarks while rehearsing the piece. As far as the ego goes, I've never read or heard anything that would make me believe he has an ego. He seems to be very humble and softspoken in all the interviews with him I have read or seen.

I've got to go with The Terminal. I think it's a shame that Minority Report is getting the boot, though.

Yeah-ROTS didn't make the shortlist. My picks would be -Munich (John Williams) -Cinderella Man (Thomas Newman) -The New World (James Horner) -Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Patrick Doyle) -The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Harry Gregson-Williams) The last wasn't a favorite of mine but I was trying to be realistic with my last pick. Seth

And a well-deserved win it was.

Sorry to scare you Sturgis. I didn't mean to imply that The Office was going to be canceled, just that it didn't seem like it's the kind of show that would really catch on in America, or at least on a large scale-in other words, it just seemed like the type of show that would get a cult following that was not big enough for the network to warrant keeping it. Seth

Nice! He is perfect in that role; maybe his win will convince NBC to keep the show.