Jim Shooter

Amazing. 50 Oscar nominations. That's a record I think will be very hard for anyone to break. But my best guess is Ennio Morricone will receive the award, his first real Oscar for The Hateful Eight. He's 87, that's probably his last chance for getting it. (I'm rooting for Thomas Newman too, he's deserved it so much for years.) Still: congratulations to Maestro Williams on being nominated for the 50th time for an Oscar.

Star Wars is anything BUT modern cinema. It has its own cinematic and musical style. It can't be compared to anything, because it's one of a kind, therefore it can't be outdated. Star Wars IS John Williams, and take away his music, Star Wars becomes ridiculous. I'm very glad to see Williams healthy and conducting. His beard and hair looks whiter and nicer than ever. No matter how good or original his new score will be, we are very lucky to have a composer like him still working with full Force. Thank you very much, maestro Williams for giving us another masterpiece!

Jay, I'm aware that Williams orchestrates his own music, and his orchestrator(s) help him (only?...) speed up the writing process for the scores, but let's not underestimate the work of the orchestrator either, if I may suggest. If John Williams, like Howard Shore, writes music in the old fashioned way in terms of orchestrating it all by himself, all the better and I'm very happy about it. Then the change of the sounding of his scores can only be explained either by the evolvement of his orchestrational style or my deaf ears. It's possible that he himself began to change the orchestrations, and the mixer put emphasis on different isntrumental sections, I don't know. In the end, it's all a matter of taste. As far as I'm concerned, I prefer his older, (for the lack of a better word) richer orchestrations, á la Star Wars IV-VI, Superman, Indiana Jones-trilogy, E.T. Are you referring to me? Yes, perhaps that's the case. Maybe the recording techniques have changed too over the years, becoming more sophisticated (digital) and Williams' orchestrational technique has changed also... Would only this be the reason? Maybe, maybe not.

Just to clarify: It's Williams' orchestrations, whether they be penned in full score by Spencer, Pope, Neufeld, Karam etc. The difference in style has only to do with Williams' preferences. These have become less contingent on romantic-mid 20th century techniques (Tchaikovsky-Shostakovich-Polish 60s avant-garde) as Williams' own style matured (which is also why "Star Wars" is the least Williams-esque of the star wars scores). You may like or dislike his artistic evolution, but don't blame the orchestrators for his choices; they're his, not theirs. Thanks for your reply, Marcus. I know it's John Williams' orchestrations, it's his music after all, but the orchestrator, especially someone like the late great Herbert Spencer had some artistic freedom and input in terms of some musical solutions which might've been approved by John Williams. If orchestrations wouldn't matter why would he have given a cue for example to Thomas Newman in Return of the Jedi to orchestrate, if it had already been done by himself? I know Williams orchestrates his own music and he has final say in everything, but a good orchestrator can give some options to the composer and sometimes it makes the music sound better but it can make it sound worse. In my humble opinion after Herber Spencer passed away, Williams' scores started to sound a little bit different. I'm no expert whatsoever, I apologize to anyone who is, I can only rely on my amateur ears, and I feel that his music after circa 1993 started to become less powerful, as if less instruments had played, I don't know, again, I'm no musician, only a music lover. If you listen to Jaws, or Star Wars, or Close Encounters, or Raiders, or E.T., or Superman, etc. up until Hook, it's obvious even for an average Joe (or in my case, Jim), that these scores sound large in scale, larger than the ones that came after them. I know, there were the Star Wars prequels too, but I can detect the difference in orchestration even there too. Yes, this can be explained by the evolution of John Williams' orchestrational style, and I can accept that but I think it has something - not everything, but something - to do with the new orchestrators like Conrad Pope and/or John Neufeld. I'm sorry if I offend anyone who has another opinion, but that's the way I feel. If it's John Williams (I know and understand it's his music), I accept it, I just don't like his newer scores as much as his scores of the '70s and '80s. And especially his action music has become very generic and not at all that imaginative as in his older scores. Take the final war cues of Hook for instance. And while I sincerely hope that his music for Episode VII will be no less than magnificent, I remember the action music from The Minority Report, which was very good and from Crystal Skull, which was O.K., and I hardly remember anything from then on, because it was Williams emulating Williams, which is still way better than what for example the late good James Horner did repeating himself over and over again. Don't get me wrong: John Williams is in a league of his own, always will be, but we have to accept the fact that he is not young and fresh anymore and his creativity has become less imaginative. I'll know for sure after The Force Awakens. I consider it his swan song. His last Big Score. His farewell from film music. To me he'll always be a god. My musical god.

Where did you hear arabian flavouring in this clip? I didn't. By the way it isn't like KOTCS. It sounds like an action cue from The Minority Report or The Attack of the Clones. That's better, but still nowhere near his best. Yes his musical style may be evolving, but it's not certain for the better. He may've reached his best form between 1975 and 1993 when he wrote masterpiece after masterpiece. Since then - with new orchestrators - his style changed and I'm not sure for the better. He is still very good, John Williams of course, but not the same he was before. That's not a bad thing, but I think he created his best scores between '75 and '93. I hope Abrams wanted something similar to Return of the Jedi and asked Williams to evolve from that score. And orchestration is very important. Williams does a lot of the orchestration himself, but a good orchestrator can elevate a score with clever solutions. Herbert W. Spencer was a wonderful orchestrator who made Williams' great scores greater.

I know that, crumbs. I'm not upset, I'm sad. And I'm not judging the whole score, I said my opinion about Williams' action music I heard in this clip and his action music of late. I hope the full score will be great, I really hope so. As a matter of fact, my one and only hope is in the score of that film.

I really miss Herbert Spencer's orchestration. Since his passing, Williams' scores sound different. I wish HS orchestrated Ep. VII, it would sound more like the original trilogy. This clip does sound like TKOTCS, which I don't like. Williams' action music sound very generic for me lately. Compare these to the Battle of Hoth or the Asteroid Field in TESB and you easily see the difference between the "old" Williams with Spencer and the "new" Williams with Conrad Pope. I prefer Spencer. Too bad he passed away a long time ago.

No, I'm not. Sorry to dissapoint. I'm just an ordinary John Williams and comic book fan.

I've preordered my copy along with Jaws 2. Merry John Williams Christmas to everyone! Jaws - Jaws 2 - Star Wars Ep. VII: this is a wonderful way to end 2015.