indy4

Always good to see JW getting much-deserved credit from the concert music community!

He's written a number of concertos devoted to trees. How many has done for Yoda and Indiana Jones, beyond the suites? And yet he's written more music that can be grouped in the Yoda/Indiana Jones/etc than the tree/etc category. If you're going to argue his film music is insincere (minus a few exceptions), you'd have to explain why he's devoted an entire career to it; he had the money and ability to move on to soley concert music probably by 1975.

I don't think it's fair to say that an introverted person cannot sincerely write extroverted music. Lots of shy people use art to express emotions they are otherwise unable/uncomfortable expressing, the same way you can have an extroverted instrumental musician who can play big and epic pieces incredibly expressively. I'm not saying JW has a social phobia, but this idea that a true artist has to be as extroverted/introverted as his/her work is not anywhere near accurate, IMO. I also don't see the purpose of only administering this blessing of sincerity to one type of JW's works, whether that's the bombastic or less accessible works. Why can't they both showcase different truths of the composer? I'm not an artist, but I dabble and there are days where I feel like producing a piece like "heartwood" and times when I feel like producing a piece like "The Mission Theme."

Great thread topic. Look forward to reading the responses. I'll get the ball rolling with his Cello Concerto.

So Book Thief is either the best or not even in the top 10...

I voted for JW in both categories

Yeah, I do wonder how much of the results of this poll are due to Book Thief and Lincoln being too new to have really sunk in. I don't remember War Horse and Tintin getting such universal acclaim in 2011 (although I may be misremembering).

I'd say the transition to his modern style--at least actionwise--occurred with Jurassic Park, not TLW. Something like "T-Rex Rescue and Finale" is definitely closer to prequel action than OT action.

Interesting conversation. I don't think I would agree with the idea that Williams has sacrificed emotional content for active content. I'll do a bit more thinking and try to post about it later. But for now I'll say that cues like Duel of the Fates, Battle of the Heroes, Anakin's Dark Deeds, Anakin's Betrayal (technically action music), Chase Through Coruscant, etc., are just as emotional as anything from the OT. My gut reaction is that JW went from a sense of nervous but fun anticpation to something darker in mood/more intense, and from something more melodically oriented to something more rhythmically oriented. But again I need to give this a bit more thought to properly formulate my thougths. Good thread idea!

Happy birthday!

I'm 2 minutes into the video linked in the original post, and I think it's a very good recording

Maybe Home Alone 2 when he orders the room service? Or Home Alone for that matter, when he pigs out

One thing that interests me is how JW allowed synths to play a more prominent role in his scores of the 1990s. Since then he's relegated them more to orchestral backing, as Incanus described. Do we think this was due to temp tracks/demands of directors in the 90s? Or was he just experimenting? Also, do any of his concert works use synths at all?

Mu-snynth?

I thought Amistad was good when I saw it. The scenes involving the Middle Passage are hard to watch at times.

Didn't somebody say once that JW did not submit the prequels to the Academy for consideration?

As always, I will defend Thomas and the King until I die. I think it's a very solid effort by Williams. Is this based on the cast recording, or have you actually heard unreleased music?

Menken, easily!

Lol! Out of curiosity, where was the original photo taken (and what's JW reading?)?

Isnt "The Trek" a case of temp track love with Max Steiner's King Kong? Or is that a different cue?

Another clear influence for Death's theme. Check out the trombone line at 0:32 of Mozart's "Tuba mirum" Comes from Mozart's Requiem Mass, which means it could be an intentional reference/homage IMO.

Zam the assassin and the chase thru coruscant General grievous

He's not a pervert. The same thing has been said about certain passages from The Rite of Spring, which was obviously a great influence on JAWS. It also holds up when viewed wit the visuals. In the opening scene Bruce violently attacks a naked, intoxicated woman. And I mean look at the poster...doesn't get much more phallic than that. There's also been some people that say Bruce is really a representative of the "toothed vagina," and male's (irrational) fear of castration. It bites Quint right at his waist, all it's victims (except the first) are male, etc. Not to mention the 70s were right in the middle of the anti-rape movement. You've also got a mayor that refuses to protect his people, similar to some of the complaints aimed at law enforcement in the 70s. I don't think there's any doubt that Jaws is about sexual violence.

"Theme from Jaws" - not erotic, but that in some ways the accelerating up-and-down motion is like the physical thrusting of sex (more specifically, of rape)...it makes sense in relation to the film too

Interesting. Do you hear the death/mortality motif in Death's theme? Yup! First they start on the same note (ie in the opening track, the motif ends on a concert G, and Death's theme starts on a G). But Death's theme also descends down a minor scale after the first 2 or 3 notes