artguy360

The way I see it, JW is in his most refined phase of his career. His mastery of instruments has never been better. 
 
At the same time, he has moved away from some of the relative simplicity and directness of his 80s era. 
 
The length of his career has produced several distinct artistic phases and I've loved following this journey.

The way I see it, JW is in his most refined phase of his career. His mastery of instruments has never been better. 
 
At the same time, he has moved away from some of the relative simplicity and directness of his 80s era. 
 
The length of his career has produced several distinct artistic phases and I've loved following this journey.

I agree. He's writing some of the best music of his career right now, even if they are new arrangements of existing works. Just imagine what his (potentially) final film score for Steven Spielberg, and his final film score in general, might yield.
 
It's that much more exciting thinking what he could do with the Raiders March, seeing how inspired his revisitations of other works have been. 

This passage from 2:24 to the end of "A Walk in the Woods and Bird's Flight". There's just so much emotion and imagery in this 20 second snippet; a plaintive oboe echoed in longing with the clarinet, chilly tremolo strings evoking the falling snow, and a vaguely ominous pedaled note in the bass signalling the danger always lurking around the corner in this world. It's an exquisite moment in a score absolutely brimming with them.
 
 
 

For some reason I was completely blown away by the surprising use of choir. I don't know why. Choir is used in other places in JW's HP scores. But this felt like a real surprise and a pretty badass moment.

For some reason I was completely blown away by the surprising use of choir. I don't know why. Choir is used in other places in JW's HP scores. But this felt like a real surprise and a pretty badass moment.

1:04 - 1:24 - some of the most intense 20 seconds JW ever wrote!
 

Love that short modulation moment, especially the string line. (0:47-0:58)
 

Reminiscence therapy sounds so much as a disjointed cut and paste job that i cant believe Williams sanctioned it. In my humble opinion.

I am so confused by this. Pessimistic me thinks they just licensed some of JW's music and are animating a sequence to it.

I am so confused by this. Pessimistic me thinks they just licensed some of JW's music and are animating a sequence to it.

For me, that moment is when Luke reaches out to Leia through the Force and the Falcon turns around in the clouds. Amazing rendition.

I've never seen the point of having access to listen to new John Williams music and then choosing not to do so.

"thank you, you'll be hearing from my lawyers." ~ JW

Honestly that would still be cool imo

I will listen to it several times the moment it is available inevitably post my opinions on this forum.

The way I see it, the mystical, magical nature of the forest has its own theme. There is a piano-centric theme for Ashitaka and San towards the end of the film/score. This melody you've timestamped is from the Princess Mononoke theme, both the orchestral version and the song with lyrics. I think it is less a theme for San and more a theme for the life of all the spirits/gods of the old world who are being killed and driven away. To me the pastoral melody speaks to the ancient world. Plus, in the Japanese lyrics, the words are about the spirits when that melody is being sung.

I just hope JW grabs this golden opportunity to write the first ever love theme of the saga.

The dude is scoring Anime now--he can handle a flash drive.
 
Congrats to the Julliard folks--an early career highlight!

Honestly, this is just sad. Williams took on Harry Potter because of his grandkids. Now they're probably all teens/young adults obsessing over anime. At this stage of his life, Williams is making a Hail Mary attempt to try to reconnect with his distant weeb grandchildren and show he's still hip by delving into the anime genre. 
 
At 90, Williams might be one of the oldest people to just now be getting into anime. 

For me, that moment is when Luke reaches out to Leia through the Force and the Falcon turns around in the clouds. Amazing rendition.

Benny's Hill

For me, that moment is when Luke reaches out to Leia through the Force and the Falcon turns around in the clouds. Amazing rendition.

I think JW will use a more evocative title like The Rebellion is Reborn or Duel of the Fates.

This is not a DH update, but we were able to meet the maestro himself yesterday! He came to Juilliard for a conducting session where we played Superman March, theme from Jurassic Park, and Adventures on Earth. I was lucky enough to play piano/celesta, and Molly (who was in town to see his Carnegie concert the night before) was turning pages for me. So the short version is: both of us were in the room with JW and it was thrilling! And yes we did give him a flash drive with GOF, OOTP, and HBP on it.

Basically we wrote him a thank-you letter for everything his music means to us, and presented highlights from the project as a fan gift (along with the knit JW). The project content was in an envelope so we don't know what he thinks or if he's heard it but we're just happy to have expressed our appreciation in some way!

-BP