The Lost Folio

According to the Hal Leonard piano arrangement (currently available on SheetMusicDirect), the theme shifts between 2/2, 4/4, and 6/8.

I think after decades of Star Wars music by dozens of composers (TV shows, games, etc.) we know that the Star Wars "style" can be easily imitated by any professional (or even amateur) composer.

I definitely hear the ostinato in compound time -- and most of the piece as well. I've tried checking the videos for any signs that JW would be conducting in 4/4 or 12/8, but that's not very conclusive! He seems to subdivide some of the beats in 3, but he might as well just be marking each note regardless of the measure.

Sony also has the Yo-Yo Ma recording of the American Collection Theme, first released on Classic Yo-Yo (and never reissued since?): https://www.amazon.com/Classic-Yo-Yo-Ma/dp/B00005OAY5/

485 1590 is simply the product catalogue number. Technically speaking, all boxes released by Decca/DG are always limited. They eventually sell out and that's it. It may take a year, it may take five, or more, who knows.

This is very far from true!! A great conductor can do a lot even with a lack of rehearsals, a bad one won't.

I think there's a bit of both. Hurwitz is right saying that pops concerts (and recordings) generally don't leave much room for conductors to show their art. But also, for having seen John Williams conduct quite a few times, including with the great Philadelphia Orchestra, he doesn't seem to be very inspiring. He gets the job done, mostly, but in most selections more like a bandleader than a classical conductor. But the last concert in Philadelphia had so many mistakes, Johnny was unable to give clear downbeats and tempi. (I was really glad Stéphane Denève was there to conduct the E.T. selections--the best I had ever heard--by far!!) There might be a few reasons for that though, starting with his age, but also considering that there are minimal rehearsals for these concerts, so no time to explore the breadth of interpretation. That being said, I still enjoy all of these recordings! Most often than not they are highly exhilarating! And I entirely disagree with Hurwitz's condescending attitude.

Looks like a plain old rectangle to me!

This looks great! But the booklet looks even slimmer than I had anticipated. I also don't understand the logic of the red Philips banner. For some albums they are using the original LP cover (Pops in Space, Aisle Seat, Digital Overtures), but for others they are using later CD reissues (Pops on the March, That's Entertainment, We Wish You a Merry Christmas). I would have prefered the original LP cover for albums that had one since it looks nicer and cleaner. I know, it's a detail... And I still personally do not mind CD 21 without duplicate tracks. You can prefer otherwise, but no one can say it doesn't make sense to remove duplicated tracks! Yes, it was more effort -- which they did because they thought it was the logical move.

Has there ever been a Decca/DG "classical" box set with any duplicated tracks? I personally have not seen any. The problem is not necessarily with the new box (which, as you say, is complete), but with the original albums, lazy enough to duplicate tracks instead of recording a few more minutes of music! I personally prefer having no duplicated tracks since I can make playlists reproducing the semi-compilation albums. It looks like they went with recording dates instead of release. Perhaps the booklet will have more complete recording dates than originally printed on the sleeves. Discs 1-4 rec in 1980. Disc 5 rec in 1981. Disc 6 rec in 1982. Disc 7-8 rec in 1983. Disc 9-11 rec in 1984. Disc 12 rec date unknown, but likely 1984. Disc 13-14 rec in 1985. Disc 15 rec in 1986. Disc 16-17 rec in 1987 (with additional tracks for "Lucky to be me" rec in 1989). Perhaps "Lucky to be me" was initially planned for 1987, but shelved because they only recorded 30 min of music then? Discs 18-19 rec in 1988. Disc 20 rec in 1989. And the 2 semi-compilation albums combined at the end, rearranged with all the JW compositions first. Makes sense to me, but we won't know for sure until it's in our hands.

That's why I put the "film concertos" in a separate volume. Some of these works deserve to be included as they can truly be considered original concert works (Escapades being the prime example). I am still wondering whether to include pieces like The Cowboys Overture, written especially for the Boston Pops, and therefore an actual concert work (I currently do not include it).

I finally completed updating my collection of John Williams' complete concert works. I divided the 70+ works into 5 categories (or volumes), with works in chronological order within each category: Early Concert Works (1 CD) The Concertos (5 CDs) Concertos from Film Scores (1 CD): I excluded the ASM arrangements since they are already collected on the recent album Occasional Works (3 CDs): I hesitated on how to organize these works, but decided to include everything in order, even if it means Soundings is right after Call of the Champions. Definitely not the most interesting listening experience here... Chamber Works (2 CDs) As many have already commented in this thread, it's remarkable to hear not only the sheer quantity of works but their extraordinary variety! John Williams' contribution to American music would be significant even if he had never written a single film score.

My personal C&C catalogue (with a single version of each cue, and including only official releases) is currently about 110 hours. Bonus tracks (again, only from official releases) total about 17-18 hours of additional material (avoiding exact duplicates on expanded reissues), but I have no idea how much of these are major/minor alternates or completely recomposed cues. So, at most, about 130 hours of officially released music. How much more music could be released on future expansions? Who knows? But looking at the shrinking list of non-expanded scores, definitely not another 100 hours! Meanwhile, if you count only one version of each of his original concert works (excluding the many film score arrangements and suites), there's about 12-13 hours (including 6 hours of concertos). Sure, he reworked many of them multiple times, but the Cello concerto remains the Cello concerto no matter how many times JW revises it!

I've tried, but sadly there are now so many John Williams websites and websites selling sheet music that it's almost impossible for a very small personal page using all the same keywords to score high in Google's algorithms.

This is a really great idea. But I think it would work a lot better as a website, maybe a wikipedia-type page that people can freely edit. I can imagine a JW chronology having at least 1000 dates (100+ score recordings and releases, 100+ concert works premieres and major performances, several hundred concerts, etc.) The project is cool but daunting for a forum! @Jay, just wondering, would such a page be possible somewhere on jwfan or would there need to be (yet) another JW-dedicated website?