charlesk
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Posts posted by charlesk
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About conductors playing Williams, I think there are several reasons why you don't see this too much:
1.- Why they should if there are already high quality recordings done by the composer? In several years, after Williams dies and other new recording technologies appear, we may see more conductors doing their versions.
2.- Very few conductors played works from other composers when the composers were alive and directing themselves. How many conductors played Mahler, Beethoven and Mozart when they were alive and conducting themselves?
3.- Williams have three different styles: the orchestral suite or march, which is a 'pop' version of themes from a movie, and maybe they are too pop for a concert (but composers like Tchaikovski, Rossini also have 'pop' versions of longer works), the original soundtracks, which are far more complex, difficult to play and not so easy to listen to as a Mahler (because they are closely related to an action, and requires IMAGINATION), and the concert pieces which are only going to be understood in 20 years.
4.- A large percentage of the audience that goes to a concert is, unfortunately, people that go because that makes them appear cultivated, so they only go when they play a work from an historically renown composer. People who go to concerts for truly appretiation of music, these people that know so well the work that could stand at any part of the performance and take the baton and continue conducting from memory, guys like the some of the ones that participate in this forum, these are minority, these would go and listen a concert of the whole soundtrack of Star Wars, with the same concentration they listen to Wagner.
Williams soundtracks are musically complex, technically demanding, richly instrumented, and makes use of 600 years of musical history by incorporating counter-point, leitmotiv, atonality, irregular rithms, etc. and have nothing to be ashamed of compared with other "classical" works. If Williams have lived 200 years ago, he would be a fantastic symphonist and opera and ballet composer, just as Wagner would do music for movies if he lived in this century.
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The Lost World is a great action movie. It has some genious sequences, like Sara's rescue while she's on the breaking glass, culminating with the T_Rexes "sharing" a meal. The shot of the Raptors chasing they guys in the high grass... And the finale in San Diego was just for fun. Hey, it's a movie, not a documentary, it doesn't have to be like the book (which is also fiction, you know?).
As for the music, JW outdone himself. This is one of my favorite soundtracks. One of the best tracks, "The Hunt" didn't get to the movie, maybe because JW was using too modern rithmic irregularities. It's absolutely great, because JW use of modernism is not excentric or pretentious. Also, powerfull percussion in all the score is amazing.
I think that JW wants to continue exploring more into this ethnic, percussive genre, and there are not many opportunities to do this in other movies.
Williams scoring JP4? YYYYYEEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!!!
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Hey, why don't we go back and redo in CGI all the puppets from The Muppet Show? Or the Gremlims? Let's do Alien in CGI.
I think that the remaking stuff is sheer sickness, perfection mania of an obsessive mind, that is more interested in form than content. Lucas' ego has spoiled one of the best stories ever told.
The CGI in EPII was excessive. Even Spielberg, who's also a perfectionist and did his own share of retouches and CGI, thinks that having actors perfom in blue screens and not real sets makes them unconnected with the character and story. As an amateur actor, I can tell he's right.
The things that helped me accept the CGI yoda are precisely those introduced by Frank Oz, the original puppetter, the trembling of the ears and some expressions that the CG guys succeded in replicating.
But he stills looks 'isolated' or from a 'diferent world' in shots with live actors, just like any other CGI, just like any Jar-Jar. CGI has to first achieve the imperfection of life.
Lucas: leave the old Yoda as it was and use the money to produce us Indy 4, directed by Spielberg.
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I like the live performance soundtrack, even though the brass is not as strong.
When you know this score so much and know where it goes with the action, watching the movie with the live performance adds another element of tension and emotion, because at some points, Williams gets out of sync, and you think "oh no!" but then he makes adjustments and gets back with the action, just in time to surprise you with an absolutely perfect sincronization at a climaxing part.
The cinema 2002 re-release was the onlytime I saw ET and I didn't cry. Somehow, the cut in the score, just before the take off (because the rifle shot is not there anymore), spoiled the magic of the moment.
But in the live performance, Williams manages to re-sync the music to the action without the cut, returning the magic, for me a least. I could cry again. This is the most important value of the live performance.
Also, some slower parts with solo instruments are played more concert-like, more expresively than the original soundtrack.
Last is the applauses. The audience applauds at certain parts, even though they knew it was going to be recorded, they just can't help it, so overwhelmed they were. It brings life to the experience. I envy all of them for the opportunity they had.
I thank Spielberg to get into the trouble of including this life performance into the DVD. It's invaluable for me and shows the huge admiration he has for the composer.
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Ren, what a noble task!
Having children understandind the complexity of orchestral music, and recognizing the themes (leit motivs) in like opening a door to a wolrd of future discoveries. I was introducted to classical music by Williams SW, which I listen so much as a kid that I could almost sing the whole 2 LPs from memory.
Then I heard Holst's Planets Symphony, and fell in love with Mars, clearly the inspiration for some SW themes. From then on I explored many classical composers and learned to love their music.
I hope, for the sake of humankind, that there are more Ren's out there, teaching the future generations to appreciate orchestral music. We walked a long way just to stop here and die with pop and rap.
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Hi, I'm returning to the forum after a long time...
I'm an amateur composer, and a fan of JW. If I'm not careful, most of my experiments sound a lot like Williams. In terms of film music, 40 minutes of original themes is A LOT, because basically what you do is variations of them, orchestrations and effects to enhance the action.
I think an educated musician can take Williams themes and instructions and extend these over a whole movie in the style of J. Williams. So, Ross might have done a lot of this (orchestrations, variations and effects on JW themes), but might have been not as successful in his attempts to introduce original material (like Don Davis in JPIII?).
This is where an educated musician is not enough, inspiration is required, and yes, I do think that JW might have preferred to make some "adjustments" to certain parts (his name in on it after all), and because of his talent, is like a "complete rescoring" (this guy could "arrange" the "Happy Birthday" song in a way that could blow your mind).
But JW is extremely educated and if he was asked to change some of Ross stuff, he would never tell. If we don't see further Williams-Ross collaborations, then we will know the truth.
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I read that Williams has been commissioned to compose an opera for Placido Domingo's Company. I'm very curious about it.
-What style he will pick? I hope not the subjectivity and abstraction of his concert pieces, but something richer in melody.
-What is the subject of the opera?
If you have any information, please post it here. Thank you!
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I can't tell how often, but I'll give you my insights. Williams reinforced the low brass used in standard orchestra, with more bass trombones. Normal trombones have this metallic, raspy sound, but don't have too much dept in the bass. Williams combines trombones, bass trombones and french horns at unison (playing octaves). Tuba is used not quite at unison in those passages too fast for the tuba. Going very low in the register of these instruments (all brass instruments) makes them sluggish and ineffective for fast notes. He pushes them to the lower register in long notes, while other instruments (Bass strings) play the fast notes.
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I'm sorry to disagree with the person who said JW is not a genius. As a theorist/composer he claims to be, he has to admit that John Williams defined how to use the modern orchestra, and I think is the mayor contributor to the movie soundtrack genre.
If we take away his indelible themes, and only analyze his orchestrations, we just have to marvel how he totally revolutionized this art. I wonder what Wagner, Ravel, Shostakovitch and Stravinsky would say after listening to one of those virtuoso orchestral passages that Williams offers in his action cues, or the magnificent arrangements he does in his love themes.
I think that other geniuses, like the composers mantioned above, will be as astonished with Williams'genius as Haydn and Salieri were with Mozart and Beethoven, who in their own time also redefined what a composer can do with an orchestra.
My definition of genius is simpler: if by removing this person from history, the art would be hardly damaged and several years back in its evolution, then this person is a genius, because his contribution significantly moved the art forwards and defined new standards. Hence, John Williams, is an absolute genius. Period.
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Williams has many times expressed how much he loves making film music. If he decided not to score completely HP2, it's just because:
1.- There are some other more interesting projects
2.- HP2 does not have the elements for Williams to keep evolving and innovating.
3.- HP2 is not a movie of the category of a full Williams score. HP1 was barely passable.
4.- Williams is a icredibly prolific composer, and we should not worry that he is not composing a full score, because for sure there will be other interesting works that same year.
5.- Williams is maybe trying to find a succesor. He's unfortunately not inmortal (his music I think it IS!). Finding a succesor is a dificult task, but nevertheless, he can always try (he already knows that Don Davis is not the one, and Courage is too old).
So, calm down. I agree, I don't like Williams composing music for children's movies.
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Minority Report is one of the most abstract Williams scores since Close Encounters. It's also more Herrmanesque. Instrumentation is less elaborated than later SW, there is no big brass, since strings are used profusely, more than any other instrumental group. The music, although abstract, seems to be deeply tied to the action, and it's very effective. It will require more imagination and more attention to be able to be enjoyed alone.
There is a beautiful melody in Sean's Theme, very resemblant to Presumed Innocent. Those who only seek the action, just go to the "Anderton's great Escape". That's the only
The altered female voice in "Visions of Anne Lively" made me shudder when I heard it in my car.
Another favorite is "Spyders", with its frantic theme.
The optimistic last track reminds me again A.I. and Close Encounters. Overall, I like it, but it will take more time to unleash its secrets.
If you like great JW pictures
in General Discussion
Posted
I just love how much Spielberg loves Williams music. He's an absolute fan of the composer. He once said that if he wasn't a director, he would like to be a film music composer.
You can see this in the featurette in ET DVD, after the movie ends, with live orchestra, and audience applauds Williams, Spielberg takes the mic, and his voice is trembling with the excitement.
I hope Spielberg will one day materialize this admiration with a John Williams documentary, featuring own home made films of the composer conducting.