Kudos for Yavar from bringing this up on FSM, but Bruce Botnick has revealed on the latest Goldsmith Odissey episode that he has just finished work on a Legacy expansion of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, clocking in over 160 minutes.
Anyway, to try and get this back to the original discussion about the "best film score" and the general state of film music past, present, and future…
Many (most?) of use are here because we are *musically* interested in film music. To me, film music has traditionally been an extension or spin-off of classical music - opera is often cited as the most closely related genre (certainly in part because of Wagner's groundwork in narrative thematic writing, and Korngold's early successes in opera, which he then incorporated in the genesis of the Hollywood sound). But tone poems (cf. Richard Strauss) have at least as much claim (and perhaps Strauss' own most film like opera writing in Elektra are passages that happen in the past, or off stage, and are conveyed purely musically). There's stage music as well, which is essentially film music for non-films, although usually not as closely matched to the action. And there's narrative ballet: Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet is perhaps the most film music like non-film work I've experienced, because at least in the John Cranko staging at the Vienna State Opera essentially plays like a silent film. The story and even details of the dialogue are silently acted out and purely (but totally understandably) narrated by the music, and the action sequences are perfectly timed (it is, after all, a ballet).
What at least almost all of these have in common is that they were written by composers who were composers first, "musical supporters" second. Tone poems, except for being based on an external source, were entirely constructed by the composer. In opera, at least the music and timings were the composer's doings, even if the libretto was written by someone else - but Strauss worked closely with his librettists, asking for dramaturgical changes and also discussing details of timing in relation to the stage descriptions (which is part of why I usually object to stagings that try to tell their own story at the expense (!) of the original conception), and Wagner (and some others) of course wrote their own librettos for full control.
Combine that with the first generations of film composers coming from a concert background and being "classically trained", and you got narrative writing that, like a good opera or ballet, tells and supports the story based on the story's narrative, yet absolutely were meant to also have enough musical merit to be able to stand on their own (here is where I most strongly disagree with Thor about film and stage music deriving its *musical* structure from the story's *narrative* structure and therefore having artistic worth when presented in this structure).
For decades, most films had room for this kind of score, partly because of their prevailing style, but also because of technical aspects: Originally the necessity of music because film had no sound besides the distracting noise of the projector, later because foley technology on its own could not yet reproduce real world sound extensively enough to be convincing on its own.
Compared to this "traditional" kind of score (which obviously dominated the Golden Age but was still prevalent until at least the 1990s), modern films do not "need" music as much as those of earlier decades did. They are often more "realistic" than earlier films, making a prominent melodic score stand out more and possibly distract. Also, films that go for a larger than life experience (and thus could support a more prominent score) are also usually littered with loud sound effects that leave little room for music that goes beyond basic rhythms or sound design (Harald Kloser once described his score for an action sequence in (I believe) The Day After Tomorrow and explained that basically the only thing he could do in it that would be at all noticeable in the sound mix was change the rhythm at key moments). At the same time, because they are less reliant on music, many films have not only stopped using the wall to wall scores that were fashionable for a while (at least for certain genres), but reduced the music even further to a few key moments, leaving little opportunity for actual musical development or a narrative music arc. The fact that fewer and fewer composer are "classically trained" these days (and that the mere idea of considering such a training not a strict necessity for all composers, but a major factor in the artistic success of most of the good ones, has a rather elitist and outdated aura now) also doesn't help in crafting a coherent musical work from these reduced opportunities, and here at least I am convinced that Zimmer and Co are, overall, less capable, and also less interested (or perhaps even aware) in these things than their predecessor. Goldsmith could famously take a 2 hour drama and spot it so sparesly that the score only began after one hour, totalled 30 minutes, and yet formed a substantial musical narrative from beginning to end, but I'd venture that most composers today lack the necessary training/craft/experience/call it what you will to perform at a similar level.
That's usually no problem for the films. A good film doesn't always need a good score, and a bad film, while perhaps made more tolerable (or even partially admirable) by a good score, remains a bad film (although it may give us a great score to listen to away from it as a byproduct). More importantly, a modern film can be supported by a score with no higher musical aspirations whatsoever. From what little I can remember, I consider Zimmer's Dunkirk high effective sound design, just not something musically relevant. Here we also come to the clash between "traditional" music and ambient music/sound design. I'm not generally a fan of the latter, but unlike some I don't automatically categorise it as a bad score - even when I don't find much musical relevance in it.
That kind of music (including some works that I like, more that I can appreciate, and many where I just don't see the musical merit) has its fans, of course, but I do wonder if there is something like an "ambient film score fan"? I.e. someone who specifically likes ambient film music, rather than just liking that sort of music in general, including those cases where it's been applied to a film? I wouldn't see the reason, or necessity, for it, at least (unless we're talking about people who like film music because of the films and the filmic associations the music triggers in them).
But "narrative classical film music", broadly speaking, as a sub genre of classical music, is something that has traditionally established certain characteristics that can easily "hook" people and turn them into "film music fans". I still argue it's not distinct enough from "classical" music for me to understand why some people like the one and not the other (unless you argue that film music is "easier" because it requires no attention span, which would roughly translate to the elitist claim that film music is artistically worthless because it lacks the structure of "true" classical music - a view which I obviously don't subscribe to), but it *is* distinctive enough to make people seek out more of the sort, *and* branch out into other forms of classical music as well. John Mauceri has argued the the Hollywood film score isn't late Romantic or post Romantic but in fact the peak of Romantic music. I would agree at least insofar that traditional Hollywood film music has for decades been one of the best areas for composers who wanted to write substantial orchestral music while still building on a mainly tonal, "Romantic" foundation (with still much room for avant-garde and modernism).
And for those of us who are fans of that approach in particular (which I'd argue is the closest that film music has come to a somewhat distinctly definable musical genre), I definitely would argue that current film music isn't "what it used to be": Because most films don't need it, because most studios don't want it, because many current films don't have the room, or the production process, for "fully musically developed" scores, and because as a result much fewer composers who have the necessary skill and craft are still actively working in this business. Those who do remain and may have what it needs to write scores that can compete, in "artistic merit", with the greats of earlier generations share a much reduced set of opportunities that call for such scores. On that count I would argue that the current state and the current trends of films and film music don't look so great for people interested in film music of the kind and for the reasons I ramblingly (sorry) described above. But who knows what new trends may appear in 10, or 20, or 500 years. Elmer Bernstein asked "Whatever happened to great movie music" in 1972 - and just look what the next couple of years brought.
Indeed - and the hardback casing is very sturdy (if only DG had put the Mutter/Williams/Vienna discs in some of those).
Of course there's not really any new information in there for die-hard Williams aficionados, but for anyone else (the real target audience for a "spotlight" album, I guess) it's very nice to have an extensive overview of his career, paired with a few comments by notable collaborators and himself, and some cool "concept art"-like paintings/drawings relating to several of the scored films. Also a nice painterly filter applied to all of the photos... they really wanted to art it up
Unfortunately the sequel trilogy didn't really allow for JW to let loose with a lot bombastic action music, but the music at the beginning of TLJ will always be one of my favourite musical moments, especially the complete version. It has basically everything: Reworkings of motifs and themes from the OT, the musical style of the prequels and the developing of themes from TFA.
Lukas Kendall has written about this book, and Joe Kraemer has made a mockup of one of the 4 never-recorded cues that debuted in it, synced to final film footage
It is sad to miss out on further development of most of the pre-existing themes, but boy, do I like what we got instead! It's like TLW. I would have loved to have heard a sequel score that really built off of the first one's ideas, but I can hardly be mad about the new direction he did take.
Incidentally, for anyone here who enjoys the films' production design, I've been working on a 3D model that explores the changing designs of Hogwarts. Feel free to check out my blog if you're interested: https://hogwarts4d.home.blog
Since the album is out today, I hope you'll enjoy this sort of companion piece. Kevin Griffiths is a super nice guy and quite knowledgeable about film music and JW. We had a very nice conversation.
I find this connection a bit far fetched, it's really only three notes in the middle of the phrase, and the gesture/movement of the piece is completely different (Puccini is more static, a grandiose statement, whereas Williams is full of energy and forward drive).
I'm hoping for an eventual album with the two violin concertos and treesong (runtime permitting).
Technically it would qualify, being an extended work for soloist and orchestra in 3 movements (side note, are you confusing Treesong with Heartwood? Since the latter is for cello, and in one movement). But a composer is free to call his works what he likes, and "concerto" also carries some connotations of scope, so he may see Treesong as more of an impressionistic (in a loose sense of the word) fantasy or meditation, compared with the more ambitious scope of e.g. the first violin concerto.
New (I guess) interview with legendary sound designer and film editor Ben Burtt, mostly focused on music and the differences of mixing music in the old days vs. today. He mentions JW several times.
ChrisAfonso reacted to Henry Sítrónu in Alan Menken's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) - 2021 Walt Disney Records Legacy Collection
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ChrisAfonso got a reaction from Cerebral Cortex in John Powell on working with John Williams for 'Solo'
ChrisAfonso got a reaction from crumbs in John Powell on working with John Williams for 'Solo'
ChrisAfonso got a reaction from Jurassic Shark in John Powell on working with John Williams for 'Solo'
ChrisAfonso got a reaction from BB-8 in SPOTLIGHT ON JOHN WILLIAMS: A Prospero Classical CD release featuring new recordings of JW film music
ChrisAfonso got a reaction from Falstaft in How highly would you rank John Williams's Nixon?
ChrisAfonso got a reaction from crlbrg in JW is writing a new violin concerto for Anne-Sophie Mutter - "Violin Concerto No. 2"