nicholas

Imagine you are in a smart-ish restaurant when suddenly you notice that John Williams is sitting on the next table with a small group of friends. Would you: 1) quietly finish your meal as if you had no idea who he was, then leave without glancing back 2) giggle inanely and keep whispering about him to your partner 3) constantly wink at him and give him thumbs-up signs 4) approach him and ask him to sign your napkin 5) insist on joining him at his table and spending the rest of the evening asking him questions, despite his constant entreaties for you to leave

I don't mind the electric guitar in AOTC either - the track it's in is so distinctive anyway that it seems a natural part of it. And surely the maestro can hardly be blamed for the disco version of CE3K? Wasn't that a grotesque marketing exercise by someone else? Things not on the list: I must say I hate the song in Hook which is otherwise one of my all-time favourite scores - sentimental tripe. As are the words to the Flying theme in Superman. But we can probably blame someone else... (Bricusse?) But more seriously - I find it hard to listen to "Remembering Munich" now. When I first heard that track I was absolutely smitten by it - I thought it was one of the most powerful things I'd ever heard. But now I just wish the singer wouldn't do that glottal-stop thing - I wish she'd just deliver the piece with a little more emotional restraint. Of course the other instrumental versions of the same theme remain sublime...

I love "Restoration" from Jane Eyre - an uncannily accurate pastiche of "English" music - it could almost have been written by Butterworth. It seems to me as if Williams's scores (on CD) can be divided into 2 classes - those that are essentially orchestral suites of themes, and those that contain large amounts of narrative (ie background) or "action" music. I tend to prefer the former as listening experiences, and the best in that class I would suggest were Schindler's List, Angela's Ashes and Jane Eyre. But remember, the key to an appreciation of the maestro - everything has something.

Fantasy seems to be flavour of the month, and I cannot bear much fantasy.

I did post before on this subject and the piece was wrongly identified! I am quite surprised no-one knows it - the music is so attractive and accessible... Perhaps I should offer a prize?

Sadly it isn't... I know the Copland clarinet concerto and this isn't it (although I admit it could be!). Thanks for the reply anyway. It seems I am destined to remain in ignorance...

I have posted this request here before some time ago but thought I'd try again on the off-chance. I am trying to identify a piece of music from HBO's 9/11 documentary "New York: In Memoriam." It is the beautiful slow melancholic jazzy orchestral music which accompanies the opening shots of the Twin Towers. Sounds a bit like Copland, but isn't. All I know is that it is by an American composer. Please help if you can! I want that music!!

Thought I had it for a moment then - I thought List A was films set in the US, list B abroad (and you can't get much more abroad than a Galaxy far, far away). But then I got to "The Lost World" and "Angela's Ashes" in list A and my grand theory crumbled to dust...

I hope this isn't one big wind up to ruin our weekends... TELL NOW!

I wonder whether John WIlliams would agree with the premis of this thread ( ie that melody is the most important aspect of music). I think that unlikely. If you listen to his concert music, as opposed to the film scores, there is far less melody. The cello concerto, the violin concerto, even a piece I love like the Five Sacred Trees, really don't have any "hummable" tunes to speak of. The music is more like (to borrow a literary term) a stream of consciousness passing through one mood and sensibility to another. I believe the scores are more melodic because they use the leitmotif technique, to a degree a necessity of the scoring process, and not because of any personal preference of Williams himself.

The first soundtrack I ever owned was Close Encounters of the Third kind on (and this will date me) cassette. It's hard now to imagine the impact that film had on my generation (I was about 14 when it came out). It was my brother's birthday and we all came up to London to see it at the Odeon in Leicester Square. The feeling of suspense was tangible - everyone was waiting to see the alien... We must have been pretty gullible in the late 70s because I remember the cinema didn't explode into laughter at the appearance of that silly grinning puppet (and why do aliens never wear clothes?). But the most abiding impression I took away from the film was of the music. So I asked for it for Christmas. And I have loved the score ever since. Strange how sweet and nostalgiac memories of childhood can be summoned up by atonal music in the manner of Ligeti... The second soundtrack I ever owned - which I bought because it was by the same composer as CE3K - was The Fury. On an LP. But that's another story... Actually, I'm serious. Why DO aliens never wear clothes?

There is a lovely French horn solo of Cinque's Theme from that unjustly-neglected score Amistad.

I'm not a great fan of Elgar but he has his moments. There is a movement towards the end of the first Wand of Youth suite (The Slumber Scene, possibly? - not sure of the title) which is almost intolerably sad and "tender" - quite beautiful. Of course John Williams' ultimate Elgarian moment is in Star Wars, Throne Room and End titles - that majestic ceremonial march theme could quite easily have been penned by Elgar.

At least it's interesting. Although I've never heard the score, I admire the mundanity of "Fixing the Plumbing" in "The Accidental Tourist." Really whets the appetite...

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. I do like to own an actual CD so I shall probably get the trilogy recording with Cliff Eidelmen and the Scottish players. It will be interesting to hear the styles of the other scores as well. Did Jerry Goldsmith turn these down, or was he never even asked, I wonder, after the probnlems with scoring Alien?

John Williams is really the only film composer I listen to but with the current dearth of projects for him I am thinking of diversifying. I was always quite taken by Goldsmith's score for Alien and would like to get hold of it, but it seems the original soundtrack recording is pretty hard to get hold of in any form. The most widely-available alternative seems to be the Cliff Eidelman version of the trilogy of scores, including Horner's for Aliens, recorded by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Would anyone recommend this as a satisfactory version, or is it better to be patient and hold out for the OST? Any advice gratefully received!

It has to be Angela's Ashes - the beautiful harp solo track.

LONDON Waterstone's book shop on the south side of Piccadilly quite near the Circus is vast - on 6 or 7 floors. I believe it's the biggest of its kind in Europe. It also has the advantage of a bar on the top floor with great views. Also, try the CinemaStore on Upper St Martin's Lane in Covent Garden - a good range of books, with a small but eclectic selection of soundtracks. Worth going for the staff alone - outrageously camp. On my last visit I said something to one of them which implied he was of "a certain age". He slapped me and said, "Ooh! I'm not marrying YOU!"

I agree Rhapsody in Blue is modern in the sense that it could only have been written in the 20th-century. What I meant was that the harmonic language of the piece I'm trying to identify is dissonant in a more experimental way than is the Rhapsody, which is based on conventional jazz harmonys (which would of course have been pretty modern-sounding in its own time). I suspect the mystery piece was not specially composed specially for the documentary, which features many well-known American composers, like Copland and Barber. The music was specially recorded by Slatkin and the New York Philharmonic. But nothing was specially composed for it, as far as I know.

THANK YOU SOOO VERY MUCH!!!!! My pleasure. Nicholas , your request , I cannot answer. Any soundclips? Thanks anyway - sadly, soundclips are beyond my limited technological abilities. I only recently mastered the toaster.

No - it's too 'modern' for Gershwin, but thanks anyway.

Hope you don't mind me hitching a free ride on this post, as it were, but the ease with which this question was answered - and I love the Brahms - has given me A New Hope with identifying a piece of music. Last time I requested the info. I drew a complete blank. The piece is the music used against the opening title sequence of the HBO documentary "New York: In Memoriam" against the backdrop of the Manhattan skyline. It is a melancholic, but slightly jazzy, lament with "scrunchy" dissonances, the syncopated rhythm picked out by a high bell. It begins with what sounds like a clarinet or oboe solo... This piece is so beautiful I cannot believe no-one can help me identify it. I want it!!! Can anyone help before I go mad?

I love the idea of "seriously" in this context...

Richard Attenborough is an inspired idea. I myself would go for Dick van Dyke to play John Williams, and for the score to be by an unknown with an Italian-sounding name, performed entirely by a very bad synthesised orchestra. You know the sort of thing.

Since this is the season for futile speculation - I wonder if they will ever make a bio-pic of John Williams, in the manner of "The Glenn Miller Story"? If they did, who should play the maestro? And - more beserkly yet - who should do the score?