Will

That's a great analogy. It's an extraordinary cue, my favorite based on the samples (that may change when we hear full cues). To me the "soaring" part of it sounds like a bird or some other creature is flying high above the ground and gracefully swaying back and forth. When I first heard "Overture" in the Cannes video (obviously not knowing it was the overture) I figured it must be for some sort of flying scene. After listening to the sample I actually had to stand up and walk around because I was so overwhelmed by the cue (kinda like Williams after watching Schindler's List, but the emotion for me was joy as opposed to sadness).

It's true that "always" in this case is not too long a time -- it means "since last fall." Thanks for setting the record straight!

What are your referring to here? That cue has actually grown on me with later listens. Initially I wasn't a huge fan, but now I'm starting to really enjoy it.

Now it might be my all-time favorite Williams score! Dream Country sort of reminds me of Empire of the Sun in the first few seconds of the sample. I particularly love those last couple seconds, the melody that gets cut off. TFA felt more new and fresh to me compared to his previous 2010s output. The BFG sounds terrific and I've already called it a masterpiece, but it does seem to keep the general sound from many parts of Tintin, War Horse, Lincoln, and The Book Thief. TFA really felt like, "Woah! I didn't know JW could still write like this!"

Understandable. And a good practice generally to give the score a little time to simmer before passing judgement. I now consider TFA a masterpiece, but I didn't think it was quite that good on my first listen.

Make that a couple hours! For some reason on my first couple listens to "Overture" I wasn't hearing the incredible strings and woodwinds under the main melody. Great orchestration, such a sense of excitement!

To prove your point about memorability, "Overture" has been stuck in my head for the last 15 minutes! I love how you describe it: elegant and like a dance. The music sounds so graceful.

@Disco Stu I'm confident that it is indeed a masterpiece. Now, my definition of masterpiece may not be your definition. I think many of JW's scores are masterpieces. I mean, in theory, it's possible that the entire rest of the score is total crap. But I doubt that's the case.

Just listened to the samples: My review is five joy emojis out of a possible five. What a beautiful score, another masterpiece. The classical flavor is wonderful. It reminds me of church hymns and traditional Christmas carols in terms of the harmony in many places, which is probably because those two things amount to most of my classical music listening these days. A lot of the emotional melodies have a really warm, rich tone to them. The evil giants theme is more or less pulled from Home Alone, but I happened to like the Wet Bandits' theme so I don't really mind. The Overture was the first thing I listened to and it was marvelous. We heard it in the Cannes video but it seemed even better now. What a magical way to open the film. Oh, and The Witching Hour seems to take inspiration from Williams' "Starry Night" cue from TFA, which I loved. Everything I heard is kind of clumped together in my head and it's all a blur, so I can't offer much more analysis at the moment. It still seems surreal to be listening to new JW music. In case anyone is wondering, here are the OST tracks that I believe we heard in the Cannes videos: Overture To Giant Country Finale Sophie and the BFG

Execution wasn't perfect (e.g. the love dialogue) but Lucas and the other filmmakers deserve way more respect for their creation than they are getting. You know, here's what I think might be the reason for the disconnect between my opinion and that of most others: I am a huge Star Wars fan, and my favorite part about the saga (not counting the music) is the opportunity for analysis and thinking about the story. Many of you probably want to just watch a movie and have a fun time. (as I do with most films; SW is an exception)

While I have only watched each SW OT and PT film once, at this time I actually prefer the prequels to the originals. The originals are more fun, but the prequels are more interesting and emotional, IMO. They tell a tragic, beautiful, and intriguing story. Some hate the prequels because of their political complexity, but that's what I love about them. And ROTS is the most emotional film of the original six, and my favorite. The key is to look at the prequels as part of a larger story as opposed to as individual films. That's what Lucas intended the Star Wars saga to be (at the time he was making the prequels) -- one story told in six episodes. By the way, it's hard to say whether it was actually Lucas's intent to make SW a ring composition, but the Ring Theory is certainly an immensely interesting read. I read all 8 pages of it, and I think others should too before they go prequel-bashing. Because if this is what Lucas intended, then the prequels deserve to be placed at the pinnacle of filmmaking achievements: http://www.starwarsringtheory.com/ring-composition-chiasmus-hidden-artistry-star-wars-prequels/

I hadn't been planning to listen to samples, but I can't help myself. If they had come out a day or two before release, I probably could have avoided them (e.g. with TFA it leaked on the Wednesday before release and I was able to avoid listening until my CD arrived Friday). But with a full week still... Well, here goes.

Sounds great! Getting major Tintin vibes.

Yep, it's absolutely better to have Lucas involved. I wish he could have executive produced TFA as well. Overall I rather enjoyed KOTCS, actually. 1977. Fixed. The correct one.

Wow, the music sounds great! And I love Rylance here! The War Horse-esque opening chords are wonderful. The comedic stuff isn't too noteworthy, although it's good as always from Williams. There is at least one more great warm chord in between the comedic stuff -- more War Horse vibes, which is great because War Horse's score was a masterpiece.

Here's exactly what he said about that (apologies for the weird formatting): Also, there's this on Rogue One: I saw this news earlier and was meaning to post it, but then I saw you'd beaten me to it! Terrific news, it wouldn't feel quite right without him. So we have Spielberg, Williams, and Lucas! At first, I was kinda mad at Disney about this. But I quickly warmed to the idea because it will mean that Williams, Spielberg, Ford, and Lucas work together on the last original timeline film, which is how it should be. Although are the filmmakers really that limited if they keep the current timeline? It seems like there would still be a lot of room to tell interesting stories.

Darn. And I really hope "Star Trek Main Theme" is different from what we've gotten before from Giacchino in the end credits, but I fear that it's the same thing. After the IMO terrific covers for the first two, we get this. Well, it's just cover art. I get some of them, but not all. I know the puns on Giacchino's OSTs annoy some people, but I rather enjoy them.

I see you've changed your signature again. What's it now?

Yep, just realized that about five seconds ago.

UPDATE: The article I link to in this post was previously linked to here: ORIGINAL POST: Has this been posted here yet? Inside the Mind of Steven Spielberg, Hollywood’s Big, Friendly Giant: http://www.wired.com/2016/06/steven-spielberg-the-bfg/ Haven't actually had a chance to read it yet; hopefully later. I did do a few quick "find in page" searches to check if there was anything about Williams, music, etc. and unfortunately there is not.

Great, I'm very much looking forward to this!

Wow, I always thought the whole E.T. OST was a re-recording! Thanks for setting the record straight.

2:10-2:25 Been dancing around in my head on and off today.

Wait, that's your handwriting? I thought it was Williams's!

Wow, I'd never listened to Williams' Lost in Space work, that's a pretty cool cue! By the way, what is the Williams cue seen in your signature?