I guess the honeymoon's over and we're already bracing for disappointment lmao
Spielberg isn't as fresh as he used to be either so what are we even talking about in terms of the "cost" of this collaboration? A potentially underwhelming movie and/or score from a couple legends who were made for each other? Even at their worst it's their voice I'm interested in. If it's great it'll be great, and if it's lame, who's mad somebody else didn't score it instead? Are we really contemplating a classic Spielberg movie with a weak John Williams score that should have been John Powell's?? If anything time has shown we're more likely to get a dumb Spielberg with some good Williams.
Based on the video circulating, it looks like things got a bit heated at the recording session today. Spielberg thought the music should be a bit more suspenseful versus dramatic at one point. Williams initially agreed and changed the tone a bit. When Spielberg further objected to the use of xylophone, Williams got visibly angry, headed to the door, and then turned around, saying. "Hey Steve, here's a title for your little UFO movie." At which point the video cuts off.
We need some real updates. Enthusiastic frenzy quickly turns destructive in the absence of news.
Though it got quite busy too around his 90s birthday in 2022. Looking at the archives of the site's main page, within 10 days we got confirmation that JW was scoring The Fabelmans, announcement of the Vienna II concerts, announcement of JW's retirement from films (walked back in further interviews later), and announcement that JW was contributing a theme for the Obi-Wan show !
Damian Woetzel, president of The Juilliard School, said:
"The catalyst (for this event) is John Williams, who is in Los Angeles, doing what he does—he is working with Steven Spielberg on the next movie. And that is something to be happy about."
One beautiful day, people who work at various levels of the American government wake up and go to work like they do every single day. They're regular people, living regular lives, with spouses, children, etc. They have familial problems, such as the Secretary of Defense who is estranged from his daughter and a senior officer at the White House Situation Room whose son has a fever.
But this isn't a regular day. At all.
A missile is seen cruising the air. It's soon determined that it will hit the continental United States. Who sent it? North Korea? Russia? China? Neither of these countries claims responsibility.
And now what? What will be these folks' reactions to the worst possible scenario? Will the President authorize retaliation? But against whom? To what extent? Can diplomacy solve the problem before the world goes to hell? Who will be saved? Can they intercept the nuke before it hits a major city?
The movie goes out of its way to emphasize how unprepared the Americans, and the world at large, is to deal with such a nightmarish scenario. The movie's characters trained for their entire lives to deal with this. However, they hoped they would never see such thing happen in their lifetimes - but here it is, and they don't know how to handle it.
Not because they are incompetent, this isn't a comedy of errors. But because they are human. And we, as a species, have this tendency of not worrying about the worst possible scenario until it happens.
The people responsible for American security, including the President himself, are just normal, regular folks living their own little lives. They never thought they would be the ones who would have to deal with such event.
Also, the technology doesn't work. There are communication problems at all times. They invested billions of dollars to protect them, but when it counts, their security systems fail. Crucial personnel are on leave. A diplomatic attempt to call the Russians doesn't work.
The point is: the world is filled with nukes, but if one of them is fired, no one is prepared to handle it. Not even in the upper echelons of power. And tech won't save us.
Kathryn Bigelow makes her best movie in ages, and probably my favorite of the year so far. Certainly one of the scariest movies you'll see this year. The cast is top notch, the score is pretty good and the cinematography helps create the constant tension.
I recommend it, but you won't be able to have a good night of sleep afterwards.
Now that the collection is about to go out of print after seven years (one might almost believe this timing was planned), I feel compelled to put the following on record - for myself and Muggle posterity. The release of this magnificent set has given me so many happy memories to look back on that it inspired hours of research and whittling down, but I thoroughly enjoyed every second of writing this article. Consider it a very small but heartfelt contribution to the history of expanded soundtrack releases.
The build-up itself was noteworthy. It all started when La-La Land Records published their infamous ‘2018 is gonna be one for the books’ statement in February. As the year unfolded, I became increasingly annoyed when, month after month, nothing of interest to me came out. Saving Private Ryan was a highlight from that period.
Then came the glorious London Symphony Orchestra concert at the Royal Albert Hall on 26 October. I was very disappointed and worried because of John Williams’ unexpected absence and health that evening, but the accidental giveaway in the programme left me speechless with excitement:
"MIKE MATESSINO has produced and annotated expanded soundtracks of many John Williams scores, including (...) the composer’s three scores for the Harry Potter series.”
That single sentence also made the fabulous performances sound even better: ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind' and especially ‘Han Solo and the Princess' were life-changing musical experiences. ‘The People’s House', played during intermission, was equally touching, perhaps even more so because we were told that the Maestro was listening in hospital. It had been a very long time since I had experienced what it was like to be excited about something as a group as well. And need I still add how satisfying it was to listen to a few Prisoner of Azkaban OST tracks the next day?
Now phase two was upon me: being part of the frantic speculation on JWFan. A few questions were keeping me awake:
- Would this be a Black Friday release?
- Would Mike Matessino have cross-faded cues?
- Would Warner Bros. have interfered to please ordinary fans?
- Would this be one huge set or three separate ones?
- And, most importantly, would everything be complete?
As Black Friday was steadily approaching, Art of the Score released the first of two podcast episodes dedicated to the Prisoner of Azkaban on 19 November. There are no words that can describe what I felt as I was listening to the renaissance music they played to illustrate just how good Williams’ medieval writing was.
To prepare for the big day, I spent November listening to all 8 Harry Potter soundtracks, a bunch of albums with JW re-recordings, LLL’s Titanic set and the Fantastic Beasts 1 deluxe edition.
Then, at long last, the time had come. I had to be up early on the morning of the 23th to let the cleaner in. She never asked why I half-shouted ‘Oh my God!’ for nearly an entire minute at 9:10. More online frenzy followed as I read, reread and savoured the press release and track list. Being a member of this forum had never been more fun either: I was thrilled to be able to contribute to the discussions on the music that had shaped such a big part of my childhood. Each conversation increased the feverish anticipation I had been feeling for weeks. When she returned from work, my mother told me she would be paying for the set along with the simultaneously announced Schindler’s List expansion. I also received strict orders not to play any more Potter music until the package had been opened, along with the nickname La-La Land. When she asked why the CDs I already had were not enough, I tried to give her the talk about why this was such a monumental release, or as Jay put it, why it was magic in a box, but she started opening bathroom drawers when I was explaining what the Children's Suite was. Never mind. I was the happiest person in the world.
RTE Lyric FM eased the wait between the announcement of the box and its release date with a musical preview of the Sorcerer’s Stone, as the controversial cover art called it, the next day. Hearing Aedín Gormley speak about the set in that sweet, juicy Irish accent was such a treat, not to mention all the incredible details I heard in ‘Platform Nine and Three Quarters' thanks to the station’s dynamic range compression and/or Internet Explorer 8. As usual, Mike’s introduction to that cue and the vocal version of ‘Hogwarts Forever' were the icing on the cake.
Ironically, LLL’s e-mail informing us that they wouldn’t start shipping the CDs until 7 December temporarily suppressed the feelings of magical bliss because I had already had too much experience with postal services handling packages from the US, not to mention those rascals at customs who could be doing infinitely more useful things than flagging soundtrack releases.
When it became time to order the set at 8:55 PM on 27 November, I posted ‘Head for the website! We'll rendezvous there!’, closed my bedroom door and told my housemates not to come in, no matter what might happen. I needed complete silence to focus on the task at hand. My concentration quickly gave way to total panic that made me slam random keys rather aggressively because I couldn’t remember my PayPal password. Meanwhile, valuable time was ticking away: normal people had finally heard about this set too. But I need not have cared because they never did either. Two minutes after completing the purchase, my father was on the phone, who had already asked WB for complete score releases on my behalf in 2005 after I had fallen under the spell of Patrick Doyle’s Goblet of Fire. I was now so giddy that I miswrote my order number in the dedicated thread.
The promise not to listen to any more Potter music would have to be broken pretty quickly too. Not only were there samples to discuss (Azkaban’s weren’t the best selections), the first part of Tim Burden’s interview with Mike Matessino had also just come out. Trying to describe what it felt like to hear Mike speak about Harry Potter would be futile. Let’s just say that my finely tuned antennae, as he calls them, were truly going haywire at this point (and the poor things had already been under tremendous pressure for a month).
Then we discovered that there was no ‘A’ in Window to the Past (the horror!) and what if, WHAT IF! Williams had vetoed the fabled alternate Remembering Mother or other extra content?
Gormley’s soothing Irish brogue came to the rescue once more, however, this time with a preview from Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban on 1 December. Bilbo made things even more historic when she gave a shout-out to ‘everyone on the John Williams Fan Network around the world'. What a joyous moment. To quote Disco Stu: ‘We exist!!!' Or as Bilbo put it: ‘A smirk on the history of Irish broadcasting!' The Independence Day suite was an interesting re-discovery as well, which Alan said they played because ‘someone clearly needed a toilet break.’ Hearing ‘Map to Snow Scene' as recorded for the first time completely took my breath away, however, and to top it off, Mike wished us all a safe and happy holiday season, right after which the LSO broke into the festive march from ‘Christmas Break'. As I re-joined the thread that had been giving me sound notifications for the best part of the day, I was feeling safe and happy all right, not to mention very confident that all the alternates would be included.
When I listened to the Sorcerer’s Stone recording sessions that evening, ‘Gryffindor Wins’ and ‘Love, Harry’ moved me very, very deeply. My mother never knew I was flouting her decrees thanks to the magic of earbuds and trust ‘Coke Ad 60s’ to get the mental Christmas celebrations underway in earnest. Surprisingly, it took years before Williams’ Potter music started having such a profound effect on me. Especially HP1 sometimes makes me wish I could return to a time when everything was so simple and carefree now, if only for a little while.
More toil and trouble followed when the ‘Awaiting shipment’ e-mail took rather long to arrive, never mind the fact that it meant absolutely nothing. If ‘fulfilment’ changed to ‘shipment’, it meant my package was being prepared, I firmly told myself. Luckily, LLL ended that part of the ordeal after a few hours. Knowing that Mike Matessino himself was helping to ship orders made the excruciating wait a bit more special as well and on the 12th, Something Wicked was finally coming this way.
The second Art of the Score episode released on 3 December was somewhat less interesting. I guess it was payback time for having asked them for the isolated score now.
Some Americans started getting their sets now and I left my computer for one hour during which Bespin created an uncountable number of hilarious threads that I wish had not been closed. Any excuse to keep ranting about this release was welcome, including possible broken cases and the weight of the box.
Meanwhile, Tim Burden’s second episode contained too much music, but equally interesting information.
Lockdown quickly made an unboxing video for our entertainment too: another milestone for me, partly because he took the time to describe all the pictures on the discs.
Then an individual who shall remain nameless graciously sent me a digital version, but Mother Superior’s instructions were still ringing in my ears and this needed to be done properly anyway: I wanted to hold the set, open it, rip it and play my own files. Just pressing ‘Download’ would do a disservice to this special occasion. Even fellow members posting pictures of their packages with excited comments were making me happy now, including mrbellamy's first Azkaban impressions. All I could do was post ‘No, sir, not one blasted, miserable package, not one!’ while others were steadily reaching the other side. I pressed that ‘Download’ button eventually, of course, and took an extremely quick sneak peak at Azkaban. To my dismay, the alternate ‘Marge Points the Finger', the film version of ‘Sir Cadogan' and the shawm, THE SHAWM! weren’t there, a cue I had never cared about in my life until now. Fortunately, the fact that some high frequencies were apparently cut off on a few cues didn’t bother me in the slightest.
Four days before Christmas Eve, I got my package at last. I can still feel the box I accepted from the postman in my hands and customs hadn’t touched it either. I even got to hold the set for two seconds after some quick begging before it was confiscated, re-packaged (why?) and put under the Christmas tree. Schindler’s List was not off-limits, though, which somewhat dampened the holiday joy in the flat.
The unboxing happened five days later during the third family reunion, which couldn’t end quickly enough. I was so glad my discs weren’t scratched, unlike King Mark’s, and holding the collection in my hands felt like a final confirmation that one of my lifelong dreams had indeed come true. The next morning, I ripped everything and spent ten minutes replacing Alice in Wonderland track titles with the correct ones taken from the LLL announcement, which had reached sacred status by now, as far as I was concerned.
The first complete listen had to be spread over 11 days because of more Christmas obligations, but that was okay: I wanted to milk the excitement for as long as I could. HP1 was as good as perfect. 2 had a few questionable track combinations and the train station-flying car crossfade was not ideal. 3 caused dissatisfaction because some of it was out of order, that trailer cue was really weird and the absence of breaking glass and Hermione’s scream in ‘The Rescue of Sirius’ felt unnatural, but hearing the Three Broomsticks pub music was surreal. Also, I feel I have to mention JWFan’s persistent remarks about my obsession with A Winter’s Spell. I still believe it sounds better in the film and don’t recall posting enough remarks about it to justify the relentless teasing that eventually made me crack up.
Then I listened to the score away from the computer, somewhat came round to the listening experience idea and spent a few happy days making my own chronological edit that would change every time we learned more about the music. In the process, I discovered that we nearly had all the necessary clean openings and endings, I learned to live with the absence of the shawm and other alternates that were apparently not even recorded.
Allow me to repeat one more time just how formative this whole experience was for me as I’m coming to the end of this reverie. This set gave me the best Christmas I have had to this day. Even now, I occasionally put my hand on it or carefully take out the cases, which still smell brand-new, and I feel privileged and grateful to own it every time I do. Sometimes I even revisit the threads and promotional content to relive some of the joy I felt during those memorable months. Nothing of this magnitude will ever happen again in my lifetime, film score-wise, even if they expand HP4, the very first score that made me listen to film music. Although, if they released those tea breaks…
I would like to thank the following people for their pivotal contributions to this special chapter of my musical life:
- Aedín Gormley, for her two radio shows partly dedicated to the set.
- Tim Burden, for his in-depth chat with Mike Matessino.
- Art of the Score, for their fantastic first podcast episode.
- Bilbo, for arranging the JWFan shout-out, and Thx99, for archiving both shows for me.
- Lockdown, for his unboxing video.
- Jay, for assisting in the making of this set.
- JWFan, for the invaluable community spirit that made it all so special.
- Mike Matessino, for delivering a nearly perfect result and for caring about the material as much as we do.
- Warner Bros., for allowing him to do so.
- La-La Land Records, for releasing the discs.
- My mother, for the best Christmas present ever.
- And finally, John Williams himself, who, to this day, can make the door to the magical world appear wherever and whenever I need it to.
This truly was a year for the books.
Mischief managed.
Nox.
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