[Mark Graham just picked up a John Williams sketch and is "in a rush"! Any ideas?]

On 20/3/2024 at 12:32 AM, pete said:

There's a piece called "By The Sea" on the top shelf in the first picture. Anyone ever heard of that before? Sounds a little Jawsy.

 

And two Heartwoods..... One for a smaller ensemble? 

 
I would venture to guess it is Williams’ arrangement of By the Beautiful Sea listed in this program I pulled from the BSO Archives, the lyrics of which go “By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea…” This piece was played at multiple performances that week, one of which I had actually attended back when I was in high school. I don’t remember much about the arrangement other than that it was in a similar vein as his Hooray for Hollywood arrangement and that (you guessed correctly!) it featured a brief quote of the Jaws bass line at the very end of the piece. Anyone curious about how the tune sounds (though not the same arrangement) can listen to The Ferris Wheel Sequence from Williams’ score to 1941.

 

[[GAME] Sheet music extract : find the score]

5 hours ago, Docteur Qui said:

Here's a couple from some arrangements I've been writing:

 

1. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2

 

Spoiler

1) The Portrait Gallery from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

2) The Balloon Sequence (Ballroom Sequence) from The Witches of Eastwick

 

[John Williams to conduct at the 2023 Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival in Matsumoto, Japan (Sept. 2, 2023)]

13 hours ago, AOP said:

I wish I had seen this live!

 

 

 

I also enjoy this little gem.

 

 

[Williams debuts "Helena's Theme" from Indiana Jones 5 at the Hollywood Bowl]

1 hour ago, Miguel Andrade said:

 

Yes, that's the only one I can think of.

 

The only other occasion that comes to mind was Michael Gore's music to "Defending your Life" that was re-recorded by John Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl ahead of the soundtrack release.

I was at the 1996 Tanglewood concert where he performed “Hell’s Kitchen” from Sleepers with the Boston Pops two months ahead of the film’s release.

[San Diego Symphony performs World Premiere of “A New Beginning” and “End Titles” from The Accidental Tourist]

3 hours ago, pete said:

Wow, I've always loved the end credits piece.. and the concert version of the love theme, which they didn't play. 

 

The program lists The Cowboys twice. Did the Cowboys open the concert? It's a great opener. And was there something else played instead of the second "The Cowboys Overture" between Born on the 4th and Hary Potter? 

 

And one more question, what pieces made up the Harry Potter suite?

The Cowboys being listed twice was merely a typo in the program. There was nothing performed in its place the second time.

 

For Harry Potter they only played “Harry’s Wondrous World.”

[San Diego Symphony performs World Premiere of “A New Beginning” and “End Titles” from The Accidental Tourist]

Just attended an amazing concert by the San Diego Symphony conducted by David Newman in an all-Williams program in honor of the composer’s 90th birthday year. The highlight for me was what Newman indicated to be the world concert premiere of “A New Beginning” and “End Titles” from The Accidental Tourist, which I managed to record and am sharing the YouTube link here. Other great pieces were on the program as well (see photo). Overall the orchestra played expertly. It was a great night with friends at the orchestra’s beautiful summer venue, The Rady Shell (guess which one I am in the group photo…).
 

https://youtu.be/6n3l9hRTDSQ

 

 

[Favourite piano performances by John Williams himself?]

 

[SPOTLIGHT ON JOHN WILLIAMS: A Prospero Classical CD release featuring new recordings of JW film music]

3 hours ago, Thor said:

Would it be unrealistic to hope for something other than the greatest hits/evergreens, for once?

I have a feeling it’s most likely going to be recordings of the commercially available Hal Leonard Signature Editions, which do have some, if only a few, of the “non-greatest hits” in the series. Mention of trumpet and clarinet suggests maybe Born on the Fourth of July, JFK, or Lincoln for the trumpet, and The Terminal for the clarinet. All of these are part of the Signature Edition series. I feel like anything recording that isn’t a part of this series would likely be some other arrangement, unless it was Williams himself conducting.

[Schindler’s List on Theremin]

Found this fascinating arrangement of the Schindler’s List theme for theremin and piano.

 

[Wampa and Circumstance: Your JW Graduation Playlist]

I’d probably add:

 

- Song for World Peace

- Hymn to New England

- Theme from The Patriot

- The final two movements of The Unfinished Journey

- Back to America from Angela’s Ashes

- The Long Road to Justice from Amistad

- Theme from The American Collection

- The Banquet from Hook

- With Malice Toward None from Lincoln

["Temple of Doom" Question]

It would be amazing if Williams presented this as a concert piece. I think audiences would get a kick out of the choral and percussion features, and it’d be a nice deviation from the standard concert fare.

[Williams cues that will make for great IN MEMORIAM cues at the Oscars]

The Long Road to Justice from Amistad.

[Williams cues that will make for great IN MEMORIAM cues at the Oscars]

The Days Between from Stepmom

[Wanted: Lights, Camera... Music! Vol. 2. Wishlist for new recordings]

Basing my list on known concert arrangements that have been performed live at least once:

 

The rest of the Lincoln suite

Circus Train Chase from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

The full JFK suite

The Sea Battle from The Adventures of Tintin

Escape from the City and Epilogue from War of the Worlds

 

[“We’re Lookin’ Good” performance from 1987]

This apparently just surfaced a couple of days ago. It’s from the 1987 Boston Pops 4th of July concert conducted by Williams (skip to 19:30):

 

 

[Williams’ Horn Concerto in San Diego]

I attended the San Diego Symphony’s performance of John Williams’ Horn Concerto this past Sunday. This was an afternoon matinee performance, and was the second of two performances that mark the first times that this orchestra has performed this piece. Principal Horn Benjamin Jaber was the soloist, and David Danzmayr was the conductor. The concerto was the second piece in the concert program, preceded by Jean Sibelius’ Finlandia and followed by intermission and then Sibelius’ Symphony No. 1 in E minor (Opus 39). Both Sibelius pieces were very well executed, but I’ll spare those details as this is a John Williams thread.

Prior to this performance, I had only listened to the concerto a small handful of times, so to prepare myself for the concert I actually listened to the piece in its entirety earlier that morning, following along with my Hal Leonard Signature Edition piano reduction score in order to re-familiarize myself with it. The hall was roughly 60-70% full in attendance, but it was evident that the majority of the audience was not too familiar with Williams’ concert repertoire. I’m sure many were expecting to hear something akin to Star Wars, etc. The much older couple sitting next to me kept whispering amongst themselves, “Well, that was certainly different-sounding,” though they seemed to enjoy the performance nonetheless. Mr. Jaber produced a wonderfully warm and rich sound overall, effortlessly and subtly adjusting his tone quality in order to suit the characteristics of each individual movement. He demonstrated excellent intonation and expressiveness. My personal favorite movements of his performance were movements 2, 4, and 5, though movements 1 and 3 were brilliantly played as well. The percussion section expertly set the atmosphere in “Battle of the Trees,” and I felt that the horn soloist was able to infuse an added tinge of humor to the movement in his playing. He even made a funny face at the end of the movement, acknowledging to the audience that “yes, this is indeed a strange-sounding piece of music,” to which several audience members lightly chuckled. “The Hunt” movement was also fun to listen to. The orchestra kept the energy going and was well balanced throughout the entire movement, finishing on an exciting downbeat that caused the audience to burst with cheers and applause despite there being one more movement (although in fairness, the ending of this movement does have that definitive “finale” sound to it). The final movement, “Nocturne,” was played exquisitely and with great emotional sensitivity, and brought the first half of the concert to a soft, beautiful close. I've included two pictures that I took and posted on Instagram - one following the concerto's conclusion, and the other as a collage highlight the concert program.

Based on previous posts on these message boards, I seem to be one of the only forum members in the San Diego area, so I’m always more than happy to be this city’s “ambassador,” if you will, on this website (if any other members are local to San Diego and have been hiding in the shadows, I'd love to meet up someday!). I’m hoping that this orchestra continues to perform more of Williams’ concert works, especially the concerti. I saw the orchestra perform his Cello Concerto and the Elegy for Cello and Orchestra a few years ago, but that’s about it as far as I know. That said, it was an amazing performance by the San Diego Symphony – one of their best concerts that I’ve seen overall.

Future scheduled San Diego Symphony concerts of interest to film music fans include:

• July 13 and 14: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in Concert
• July 19: Galaxy Quest in Concert
• July 20: Back to the Future in Concert
• July 26 and 27: Hooray for Hollywood - A Night at the Oscars
• August 1 and 2: The Empire Strikes Back in Concert
• August 23: Singin' in the Rain in Concert

[Williams’ Horn Concerto in San Diego]

Just found out that the San Diego Symphony will be giving performances of the Horn Concerto on April 27 and 28, in a program that will also include two works by Sibelius.

 

https://www.sandiegosymphony.org/performances/danzmayr-conducts-sibelius/

 

[Williams' manliest most testosterone-fuelled music?]

Men of the Yorktown. It’s right there in the title.😜

["Celebrating John Williams" concert (Gustavo Dudamel/LA Phil, Disney Concert Hall, January 24-27, 2019) - 2CD set available on March 15]

12 hours ago, ricsim88 said:

Can someone who has the CE3K signature score confirm if it matches the Dudamel recording? 

Thanks

 

Yes, this is the Signature Edition.

[Hal Leonard Signature Editions]

It was only a matter of time...

 

The Adventures of Han: https://www.halleonard.com/product/4492354/the-adventures-of-han?subsiteid=1

Han Solo and the Princess: https://www.halleonard.com/product/4492295/han-solo-and-the-princess?subsiteid=1

[John Williams scores that use the organ?]

The Hal Leonard Signature Edition scores for Suite from Jane Eyre and “Men of the Yorktown” from Midway include parts for organ.

[Williams' scariest music?]

7 hours ago, Josh500 said:

 

That's actually the first that came to mind for me, then the Jaws theme. 

 

Finding Orca from Jaws 2 features some scary music too. By the way, does anybody know how that sound effect (?) at 2:48 was achieved, when it sounds like air is leaking from the air tanks...? So effective! 

 

 

It almost sounds to me like an actual whistle (like a police whistle) but that the player is only lightly blowing just enough air to create the wind effect without producing an actual tone.

[John Williams playing instruments]

 

[Favourite Williams Harp-line ending]

 

 

 

 

[John Williams' 'Film Night' in Boston - May 23 & 24, 2018]

27 minutes ago, Bespin said:

 

Hey experts... is it a new arrangement or the first performance of it?

 

This flute version has been around for a while. There’s a YouTube video of Williams conducting it with the Boston Pops in Japan in the 90s, and I’ve been to at least one concert where it was performed.