MikeH

Did they forget to post the full article?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/darrynking/2023/07/31/a-farewell-to-john-williams-the-maestro-of-the-movies

This is the worst title anyone could possibly pick for an article about John Williams. Almost had a fucking heart attack.

It flows better if shortened to John Williams' Adventure on Earth.

Terribly tough competition between A.I. and JANE EYRE here, but ultimately, I would have to give it to ol' Jane.

I'm not going to lie—I was excitedly curious how quickly this news would hit JWFan!
 
For those who don't know me, I've been writing about film music and interviewing composers (and directors and actors) professionally for the past decade. Besides the many liner notes, I also write articles and create radio stories for mainstream news outlets like the L.A. Times and NPR. I teach a film music history course at USC. And I've been a card-carrying member of this site since 2003.
 
I won't divulge too much just yet, because it's still a little early, but I was excited to finally make it public that this book is happening. I've been working on it for three years now, and I've interviewed approximately 150 people. The big kahuna, of course, is John Williams. I plan to share the story of how that happened one day, but not yet.

Thanks for your excitement! I can promise you that there are many things (stories, facts, quotes) in this book you have never heard...
 
Tim

Apparently Tim Greiving has just announced the first English biography on John Williams, to be released in 2025:
 
https://timgreiving.com/john-williams-in-his-adventure-on-earth/

Even if you aren't musically inclined, this is fascinating...
 
 

There's only so much complaining about the common banality of RCP music can do before you might as well start actually calling the audience completely braindead idiots for eating it up. I would point to this being the film equivalent of going from classical to pop music, but then someone much smarter than me would tell me that there was much more sophisticated work in even the novelty songs of the 60s than what we hear now. Makes it a bit hard for me to know how to argue, other than my initial tastes in music making it easier for me to appreciate the dumb fun sound.
 
(Also, you could probably blame the suits for wanting everything to be so homogenized, especially with composers that we know can tackle various sounds. I really don't know why that's so hard to reconcile.)
 
(Also also, given how much people have been concerned about the potential loss of hired musicians for projects like these, are we actually pissed off that the guy who could easily work without them is still keeping them employed?)

I think at his age the man has a right to write whatever music he likes. If all he ever writes are more ASM arrangements, huzzah. I have no expectations for him to ever write another thing honestly and haven’t for a while. We are spoiled in this era of his life.
 
Although I will of course be grateful when we inevitability do get more.

I must confess, as much as many have lamented the overblown and synth-driven sound of the Balfe scores for both Fallout and Dead Reckoning, I would still choose to listen to them over the Giacchino scores, whose poor performances and mixing render them virtually unlistenable for me personally. It's a shame, because I enjoy the musical content of the Gia scores, but they sound utterly abysmal. At the very least, Balfe's percussion (even if it is overused) feels impactful, and doesn't sound like it was recorded on a potato from the other side of the recording studio.

Man, I'd kill for a few hours with all of that.

Sunday Night. Magic. Had a double date with my BF and another couple (and some extra friends who wanted to tag along lol) having great food and wine, sitting in a garden box at the Hollywood Bowl enjoying Gustavo Dudamel and John Williams conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic to some of his iconic pieces. What more could a person want....... I didn't record all the pieces but here's a selection for you
 
First, Call of the Champions, Gustavo conducting.
Call of the Champions 2023.MOV
 
Duel of the Fates, Gustavo Conducting and a few unfortunate flubs by one or two french horns. It is a very challenging piece and extremely high at points...
Duel of the Fates 2023.MOV
 
Helena's Theme, John conducting. Sorry for the shaky filming, I think it's when I spilt my wine, lol. I thought they played this better than they did last year.
Helena's Theme 2023.MOV
 
Theme from Schindler's List. Bing Wang (concertmaster) on Violin and John conducting. She played it beautifully I thought.
Theme from Schindler's List 2023.MOV
 
One of the Encores. Flying Theme from E.T. with Pride colors of course at the end! John Conducting x
Flying Theme from E.T. 2023.MOV
 
Last but 100% not least. The incomparable Imperial March. John conducting, then Gustavo comes in to foil hi, then Gustavo conducts whilst John finds a light saber and then both are on the podium. 
Imperial March 2023.MOV
 
This was the first time in which Williams to me showed his age, I mean he is 91. The cutest though was when he was introducing the three pieces from Star Wars. "First we will start with the Asteroid Field, and then on to Princess Leia's theme and finally the Throne Room and end credits to Star Wars... uuuummm, hope? Wait, I forgot the title to the movie, can someone please tell me the title to that movie?!" Everyone shouted A New Hope and he pointed at the crowd as if to say, yes that one! Then a hundred We Love You's came out to him <3

I just had to transcribe and record this one !
 
 

Finally saw the movie a few days ago and I have to say hearing a brand new JW score for the first time in the theater is still a one-of-a-kind experience !
I always find myself fascinated by it all, down to the very last note of the end credits (at which point I pretty much always find myself alone in the theater since, well...practically everybody walks out before the very end, which I never do and which IMO is even more sacrilegious when it is JW music !!)
But yeah, thank you Maestro for still gifting us with these wonders 🙏

We have a 1970s title coming up. And at least one 1960s title planned. Perhaps a 1980s title, too. I’m a big Barry fan so plenty of love will come his way from Neumation. 
 
After release of our announced batch, Neumation will focus primarily on smaller, lesser known scores:
Mandel, Hopkins, Kaper, Safan, 60s TV music etc. It may be more accurate to say, titles that are historically important, but not blockbusters. That repertoire is well covered. There is much more variety outside of blockbuster Hollywood music. 
 
Oh, never assume. Heh.
 
This is less of an issue for Neumation, though several publishers recently sold the print rights which has been a hurdle and will possibly cause complications down the road.

Anything John Barry

I'm waiting for my second viewing to start. I'm here mostly for Johnny. Want to hear the music again now that I know the album (haven't heard it before my first).
 
Karol

This was yesterday when I went to see Dial Of Destiny at my local theater, of course I had to dress as Indy for the occasion. What do you guys think?
 
I absolutely loved the movie and the score very much.

 
Me as Indiana Jones

I stayed through the credits, and a family member who does not like film music commented on how achingly beautiful “Helena’s Theme” is. It reminded me that, at least for Williams scores, it’s worth staying through the credits.

Well, one week has passed since I bought the album, and by now I can say I enjoy this score more than any other in the past years, if not decades. I have spent a significant portion of my spare time listening to the album, often even the whole thing, and just can't get enough. I'm really grateful to have an experience like this one more time.

I desperately want to hear a clean version of the NYC chase music. It just sounds so different to the rest of the score. I’d be really interested to hear about that choice.

I think this is John's best score in several years. Not sure how many. But several.

Not sure if this warrants its own thread or not, but I've done a first pass at transcriptions of the new themes from DoD. I don't know if we've come up with consensus labels for all of these, besides the obvious for Helena and Voller. Also have little confidence that the Archimedes theme is transcribed rhythmically 100% accurately, or the tertiary Nazi theme harmonically.
 
 
Helena (transcribed from arrangement that premiered last year):

 
 
 
 
Antiquity/Antithykera Mechanism (transcribed from "Prologue")

 
 
 
Antithykera Mechanism (transcribed from "Archimedes Tomb")

 
 
Antikythera Piano Figure (transcribed from "Battle of Syracuse")
 

 
 
 
 
 
Archimedes (Transcribed from "Prologue")

 
 
 
Nazis 0 "Voller" (transcribed from "Airport")

 
 
 
 Nazis 1 "Spirit" (transcribed from "Prologue")

 
 
 
Nazis 2 "Supremacy" - exotic and furtive (transcribed from "Prologue")

 
 
 
Nazis 3 "Might" -- chorale(transcribed from "Prologue")

 
 
 
Nazis 4 "Determination" -- Transcribed from "The Airport"

 
 
 
 
Syracuse -- Transcribed from "The Battle of Syracuse"