Marcus

I just thought I'd chime in briefly:
 
Williams' leitmotivic technique is often more symphonic than dramatic, which is to say that narrative/extra-musical connotation will at times be subservient to purely abstract musical qualities. 
 
An aspect of this, is that Williams will tend to deconstruct and develop his material on purely musical terms, working in this respect (unlike Howard Shore, since he is inevitably mentioned) more like a composer of concert music.  

I guess JW is just better at writing themes, and better at using them.

Since we just switched to a new page, I'm going to indulge in quoting myself, because I feel like shouting to the heavens how good this score is!!! 
 

Just saw the movie and now listening to it!!! Love it so much. Cried like a baby in theatre😪😪😪

I put it on repeat most of the day .At least 15-20 times by now.
 
I love this, it's kind of a mix  of theme from Jurassic Park with Harry Potter
 
Might end up one of my favorite concert versions ever and one of his most beautiful.

Forgive me if this is the wrong thread of the dozen available choices but I wanted to pop in and say that this is a fabulous sendoff for John's Star Wars - perhaps lacking a single moment of spectacular payoff, as is the film - but fabulous all the same.  I have lately rediscovered Star Wars through my children, and I thank Mr. Williams for being the soul of this world since my own childhood.

Ha! That's it. Beats out my feeble attempt at making meaning of the name earlier in the thread.
 
Wish someone takes that character -- which is really just a once-off 'tribute gag' -- and turn it into a proper SW character, appearing in the novels or animated series, at least. As I said, it's 100% certain that this scene; either a still or a gif, will wreak havoc among people's avatars in the days, months and years to come. Williams' "headshake" will be the perfect gif to add when someone says something stupid.
 
I find it incredibly sporty of Williams to do that; what a day it must have been on the set when they put him through make-up and gave him that mask. I would expect someone like Goldsmith or Elfman to do stuff like that (per GREMLINS, THE GIFT etc.), but Williams has always come off as more reserved in such circumstances. His only previous cameo in a fictional setting was the 3-second bit in STACCATO, when he was in his 20s.

Has it been pointed out yet that Oma Tres is an anagram of Maestro?

I can’t believe I didn’t think to rant about this in my original post. 
 
Philosophical point that emerges from this pencil: I’ve debated endlessly with the likes of @Marcus and other composers on this forum about the writing process. 
 
There is an incessant rumor or perhaps wishful thinking propagated by movies like Amadeus that great composers see all the notes in their head, sit down and write it down and produce a masterpiece. 
 
Whereas I can tell you the main reason you’d actually use these pencils that John Williams uses is to take advantage of the massive twistable and replaceable erasers that take up the top half of the pencil. 
 
That’s exactly why I prefer them to fancier and nicer pencils: I erase a lot and these are great for that. 
 
Now why would a composer who sees his perfect masterpiece in his head need a pencil with a giant eraser?
 
The answer of course is that 90% of a creative endeavor is in editing, exploring, and maturing your original ideas. 

Good idea!
 
EDIT: here it is:

Interesting question, and an all-too-easy answer for me. 
 
 
At times I've been so inclined as to say that Seven Years in Tibet is my favourite Williams score, and it very much is on most days. The suite, which acts as the bookends for the OST, is one of those golden nugget cues for me, encapsulating everything I love about John Williams and his music in a way that escapes words. 

It is brilliant!! Change the bloody fans!! 

Fuck!

I would cheat and present to him the 10 question questionnaire by Bernard Pivot made famous by James Lipton in Inside the Actor's Studio.
What is your favorite word? 
What is your least favorite word? 
What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? 
What turns you off?
What is your favorite curse word?
What sound or noise do you love?
What sound or noise do you hate?
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
What profession would you not like to do?
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

Brilliant score😍😍😍

I love how Williams scores the climax of The Last Jedi. There's a lot of great moments in it!
 
(I'll be using clips from the albums)
On 0:56 on The Spark, this sad and mournful rendition of Luke and Leia's theme from ROTJ, scoring their reunion over such terrible circunstances. They've lost Han, they've lost Ben to the dark side, the galaxy is on the verge of becoming ruled by tyrants - which is specially painful, considering how hard they fought against the Empire.  Then, on 1:52, there's this brief, but very touching and emotional passage for strings, followed by another sad rendition of Han Solo and the Princess, as Luke gives to her sister the dices Han used on the Falcon - the three were briefly reunited, although on a tragic occasion. On 2:15, the music builds and builds and gets more powerful as Luke walks to the outside of the bunker to confront the entire First Order all by himself. I've read a lot of theories about that passage on The Spark - it's the Imperial March on a new setting, it has this and that theme, but what I know for sure is that Williams music helps elevate the scene and it's perfectly sincronized with the picture. On this unreleased bit, the music builds again, leading to a heroic version of Rey's Theme. Now, a bit of a story: I listened to the OST BEFORE watching the movie, which I did on December 17, its first Sunday. Also, before going to the theater, I was spoiled that Luke was going to die at the end. So, when I listen to this choral passage on The Last Jedi, I found it to be a little similar to Amistad or Schindler's List, and I thought it would actually score Luke's tragic demise - and the fact that the OST track followed with a grandiose performance of Kylo's theme, I was even more sure of that.
 
However, I was pleasantly surprised. The choral stuff is not tragic, actually it is the contrary: it scores Rey lifting the rocks of the cavern and allowing the surviving Resistance soldiers to escape, which is preceded by Luke saying "and I won't be the last Jedi". I've give some thought on why Williams used the choir to score this, well, rebirth of the Jedi. Maybe it's a way of connecting the First Order era with the prequel era, an age during there were a lot of Jedi on the galaxy, and which had some more choral based music? Or it is his way of giving the rebirth of the Light Side of the Force a more religious tone?
 
Then, Kylo attacks Luke at 1:50 on the OST track, but to no effect. And the music that scores the revelation of Luke's trick and that Kylo was fooled and blinded by his own hatred is pretty incredible - almost dance like, with percussion, piano, strings and choir, then concluding with a very indescribable fanfare for French horns. I mean, the music is not heroic neither triumphant, is almost like the score is from Kylo's point of view, expressing his rage and confusion. It's an emotionally complex scene, and I'm not sure how would a less talented composer would have approached it, but Williams certainly nails it.

A key element missing musically from the post-Williams Potter films (aside, of course, from Williams himself) were scores that didn't just support the films they accompanied but that also dared to interact with and engage in helping to create the visual narrative as well.

I think a great example of this is in the first film when Harry first discovers the Mirror of Erised and looks into it to see his dead parents standing alongside him. The scene shows Harry's entire approach towards the mirror and his revelation. Now, Williams could have easily, and quite logically, chosen to start playing his wonderful family theme for the film right when we first make the discovery alongside Harry of what the mirror can do (i.e. when we first actually see his family - at 1:04) and it would have fit nicely and hit the proper emotional beats and what have you. Instead, Williams holds off, instead scoring Harry's approach and discovery with something a little more somber but still effective. It isn't until Harry himself reaches out and touches the mirror (1:40), physically both reaching out with longing for something he can't have and seemingly summoning the next bit of music in the process, that Williams allows the family theme to be heard. 

It's so subtle but so incredibly genius. You don't even really notice it if you're not paying attention to it. On one hand, you have the visuals dictating the score in that it isn't until we see Harry touch the mirror that we hear the theme. On the other, we also have the score interacting with the visuals and, by extension, dictating our own emotional experience because by delaying the usage of the theme Williams is picking and choosing when we, the viewer, get to feel that maximum emotional impact. On an even larger level, Williams doesn't use the theme until Harry himself, by virtue of being so overcome with longing that he is moved to physically react to what he is seeing, reaches his most emotional moment of the scene, and, by waiting until then to play the theme, so also allows us to share with Harry in that emotional moment. Just sublime.
 
 

I always saw that moment in the strings as a kind of sigh, almost, like Dieter's life is released. Even in a film like this, I think Williams has a certain philosophical and perhaps empathetic side that compels him to score things such as death in a very compassionate and "real" way (see the bitter music in "Wade's Death" the following year).

We all have our favourite scores and our favourite cues, but one of the best parts of Williams' scores is his detail to syncing with the picture itself. He regularly writes short, throwaway ideas that perfectly accompany a specific shot or handful of shots, as if something in the visuals specifically inspired him to write something out of the box.
 
I loved this short 10 seconds of score in The Last Jedi from the first viewing:
 
It's deceptively simple but incredibly clever. Williams repeats this three note fanfare but it never reaches climax. The first note is strained and dragged out, over dramatic shots of fast moving objects and panicked characters, yet the drama is focused squarely on this slow-moving bomber drifting towards its target (such excellent visual contrast).
 
Cleverly, these 3 notes appear to be the first 3 notes of the Resistance March. Perfect for a scene that depicts the Resistance at their most desperate hour, unable to 'complete' the theme given the uncertainty of the events unfolding. Combine that with the orchestra swelling on the third note with increasing drama, building towards that fantastic final shot (from the reverse of the bomber hovering over this enormous ship) and you just know Williams wanted to plant something very specific for this short segment of the sequence.
 
So what are your favourite short little moments like this, where Williams departs from the flow of a cue and just dives into a cool one-off idea?

Our @Marcus?

This is a miraculous album. 
 
Imagine being able to craft such imaginative, vital and energetic new takes on this music at 87! 
 
There's incredible flair and elegance on display here, but also deep thought -and a simply stunning (and daring) command of how to pit a violinist against an orchestra. 
 
What a marvelous, generous gift.

This is a miraculous album. 
 
Imagine being able to craft such imaginative, vital and energetic new takes on this music at 87! 
 
There's incredible flair and elegance on display here, but also deep thought -and a simply stunning (and daring) command of how to pit a violinist against an orchestra. 
 
What a marvelous, generous gift.

What string writing? Surely there are film composers with knowledge on how to specifically write for instruments, but Junkie XL surely isn’t one of them. And even if they do, it isn’t on the level that JW has displayed throughout his career and on this album.
 
The comparison between JW and Junkie XL is a bit irrelevant anyway, but I’m surprised at how the sheer craftmanship of Williams’ music seems to be... underestimated sometimes.

Have to echo this. The fact that this is critiqued so intensely at all really puts into perspective just how far beyond Williams is from his fellow film scoring peers. Each and every one of the arrangements on this album reflects a lifetime and wealth of musical knowledge and expertise, finely honed and crafted and now put to task in "classicalising" (if you will) already world class pieces of orchestral music. The violin writing in this is simply masterful. 
 
Can one imagine Junkie XL knocking out a 6 minute cello concerto based off of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice? I think we can all answer that one and the reality is that this kind of thing should simply be absorbed and appreciated whilst it lasts as the world of film music is almost alien to this level of work nowadays!

This is a miraculous album. 
 
Imagine being able to craft such imaginative, vital and energetic new takes on this music at 87! 
 
There's incredible flair and elegance on display here, but also deep thought -and a simply stunning (and daring) command of how to pit a violinist against an orchestra. 
 
What a marvelous, generous gift.