Score

I haven't read it yet, but I am sure it is - John Williams is great at everything he does!

What some might not know is that Williams is also a talented writer! He even won the 1973 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction for his novel "Augustus": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus_(Williams_novel) Later, starting with Jaws, he decided to focus on composing (and playing guitar, of course). Happy Birthday, Maestro!!

The symbol that can be seen inside the lens could be Harry Potter's scar.

Also, Muti is the greatest Verdi conductor, he loves operas, and would probably enjoy conducting JW's "operatic" scores. I wonder if Muti has ever had the time or a chance to get acquainted with JW's work in some depth.

I don't think Muti has ever performed JW. However, he has recorded Rota and Prokofiev (Ivan the Terrible), so he is definitely open-minded about film music. I would be very curious to hear a JW-Muti recording!

1) ANH 2) ESB 3) TPM 4) ROTJ 5) ROTS 6) TROS 7) TFA 8) TLJ 9) AOTC

No love for "The Book Thief"? Really?

My vote for the best single cue goes to "The Book Thief" (track 22 from the OST). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0VoQyfxOx4&list=PLURQ_xwn_OwldIj9aemX2glmNi1upcm6R&index=22 Maybe it should be added to the poll?

John Williams: The Complete Works (So Far) C&C + OSTs. 250 CDs (shipped as 240). That would be quite a big box.

It was "meh" for me. Some visual effects were very good (but this was expected) and some scenes were quite emotional. Acting from the main characters (Daisy and Adam) was very good. The story made no sense at all, neither in itself, nor in the context of the saga, so it was a disappointing conclusion. But the music was very good, so it was worth it! Oh, thanks!

But only since the Force has awakened. Before then, it was perfectly finn for everyone to play it.

We are talking about Star Wars.

Quote (JW's words) from the preface to the Signature Edition full score of the suite from TPM, where he talks about Duel of the Fates (bold is mine): ... I was captivated by the stanza "Under the tongue root a fight most dread, while another rages behind in the head". This seemed to me to be mystical and ritualistic and very appropriate to accompany the great sword fight in the film. For translation into a language that would be cryptic and obscure, I first tried Celtic and Greek, before finally, with the help of a scholar at Harvard, settling on Sanskrit. I feel this beautiful old language contained vowel sounds that would be very effective for chorus. ... So, I don't see any intention to associate Eastern cultures with the bad guys in JW's work. The language was chosen because it sounded better than other (European) options, which were considered in the first instance. Then, there are scenes in the movie where Darth Maul is accompanied by the choir whispering Sanskrit words, and maybe this is what offends the writer of the article. But that is a consequence of the choice of Sanskrit for the main action piece; previous instances of Sanskrit in the movie score play the role of an anticipation, and it would have been weird to use another language.

John Williams explicitly stated to the audience attending the premiere of Rey's Theme (I think?) that JJ had not told him who Rey's parents were, and that he (JW) thought she had to be Luke's daughter, although he didn't know with certainty and "my guess is as good as yours". There must be some audio on youtube about that, but I cannot find it anymore. I am absolutely sure that I heard such statements with my own ears from JW's voice. Since I'm not a Jedi, I don't think JW was talking only to me through the Force. Maybe some other jwfans remember as well. For what is worth, Rey's theme has some harmonic similarity also with the Force theme (which allowed him to superpose them in the End Credits of TFA, see here: starting around 7:27), as well as a rhythmic similarity with Han Solo and the Princess, like the part starting at 7:50. Both of these are as strong (or as weak) as the perceived similarity with the Emperor's theme. If Rey had turned out to have been conceived by the midichlorians, or to be Han's daughter, people would have pointed, respectively, to those other "hints". Anything is possible, but in my opinion the evidence that JW knew about Palpatine when he wrote Rey's theme is weak, and contradicted by his declarations. It is possible that JJ told JW to make the theme ambiguous enough to "suggest everything" while at the same time "not suggest anything".

I still agree with what Loert and I wrote a few years ago, and I think it is applicable to Star Wars as much as to Harry Potter. John Williams' compositional style is much more interesting to me when I listen to the music for itself, separated from the movies. The results resonate better with me, both emotionally and technically. And one could list plenty of SW cues that are more focused on emotions rather than on orchestral bravado, sometimes to the point of being spoiled when combined with the movie scenes (I'm thinking of the final reel of ROTS, for example). But I would not like to sound as if I were diminishing Shore's achievement with the LOTR scores, which is among the greatest things ever done in film music. I just think that JW's achievement was greater. In most cases, I would say that the marriage of Shore's scores to the LOTR movies works better, in great part due to the fact that the story told in those movies is much better than the one told in SW. JW's music works better without the movie, but I don't feel the same about LOTR.