aviazn

Oh September 2 is a Saturday, and I'm not too far away in Seoul. No idea how hard tickets will be to get, but I'll try! and I'm not working the week before. 

Usually, when I listened to Star Wars, I even skip the main title.

The lack of recognition of the influence of jazz on Williams' voice always rankles me. This recent critical reappraisal of his work is great, as are his appearances with the great European orchestras. But seeking to place him in the pantheon of the European classical tradition while ignoring his jazz background only gets you half the story. It's the jazz imprint on his harmonic and rhythmic language and how he brought that into an orchestral idiom that sets him apart from his peers.
 
Maybe this is a bit grandiose, but I think of Williams as a historic, generational figure at the intersection of two musical traditions from across the world that were brought together in the US through an array of global political and socioeconomic forces — emigration, capitalism, colonialism, slavery, Nazism, abolitionism, etc. Of course, these musical traditions were intermixing for many decades before Williams, but he played no small part in how they combined to create today's modern musical landscape. That, I think, is a much more interesting and significant legacy than simply inheriting the pop mantle of Korngold and Wagner. But obviously, jazz remains a blind spot of classical music critics. You can find a lot more about Williams' jazz roots from music theory geeks on YouTube than classical critics at prestige publications.

Yes, so much of his thematic development sounds like improvisation. The way he uses syncopation to generate energy, or whenever he goes off on those long string passages in scores like War Horse and The Terminal I can hear him improvising. The voicing are even those of a jazz pianist, even if the harmonies are not. Being literate in jazz is vital to understanding JW.

The lack of recognition of the influence of jazz on Williams' voice always rankles me. This recent critical reappraisal of his work is great, as are his appearances with the great European orchestras. But seeking to place him in the pantheon of the European classical tradition while ignoring his jazz background only gets you half the story. It's the jazz imprint on his harmonic and rhythmic language and how he brought that into an orchestral idiom that sets him apart from his peers.
 
Maybe this is a bit grandiose, but I think of Williams as a historic, generational figure at the intersection of two musical traditions from across the world that were brought together in the US through an array of global political and socioeconomic forces — emigration, capitalism, colonialism, slavery, Nazism, abolitionism, etc. Of course, these musical traditions were intermixing for many decades before Williams, but he played no small part in how they combined to create today's modern musical landscape. That, I think, is a much more interesting and significant legacy than simply inheriting the pop mantle of Korngold and Wagner. But obviously, jazz remains a blind spot of classical music critics. You can find a lot more about Williams' jazz roots from music theory geeks on YouTube than classical critics at prestige publications.

The lack of recognition of the influence of jazz on Williams' voice always rankles me. This recent critical reappraisal of his work is great, as are his appearances with the great European orchestras. But seeking to place him in the pantheon of the European classical tradition while ignoring his jazz background only gets you half the story. It's the jazz imprint on his harmonic and rhythmic language and how he brought that into an orchestral idiom that sets him apart from his peers.
 
Maybe this is a bit grandiose, but I think of Williams as a historic, generational figure at the intersection of two musical traditions from across the world that were brought together in the US through an array of global political and socioeconomic forces — emigration, capitalism, colonialism, slavery, Nazism, abolitionism, etc. Of course, these musical traditions were intermixing for many decades before Williams, but he played no small part in how they combined to create today's modern musical landscape. That, I think, is a much more interesting and significant legacy than simply inheriting the pop mantle of Korngold and Wagner. But obviously, jazz remains a blind spot of classical music critics. You can find a lot more about Williams' jazz roots from music theory geeks on YouTube than classical critics at prestige publications.

The lack of recognition of the influence of jazz on Williams' voice always rankles me. This recent critical reappraisal of his work is great, as are his appearances with the great European orchestras. But seeking to place him in the pantheon of the European classical tradition while ignoring his jazz background only gets you half the story. It's the jazz imprint on his harmonic and rhythmic language and how he brought that into an orchestral idiom that sets him apart from his peers.
 
Maybe this is a bit grandiose, but I think of Williams as a historic, generational figure at the intersection of two musical traditions from across the world that were brought together in the US through an array of global political and socioeconomic forces — emigration, capitalism, colonialism, slavery, Nazism, abolitionism, etc. Of course, these musical traditions were intermixing for many decades before Williams, but he played no small part in how they combined to create today's modern musical landscape. That, I think, is a much more interesting and significant legacy than simply inheriting the pop mantle of Korngold and Wagner. But obviously, jazz remains a blind spot of classical music critics. You can find a lot more about Williams' jazz roots from music theory geeks on YouTube than classical critics at prestige publications.

The Complete Recording Sessions of Every John Williams Film Score (1954–2049): Liner Notes

The only thing I've read is that when JW stayed at a hotel for recording in London, he made sure there was a piano in his hotel suite so he could keep working.

Plot twist: Williams is actually a longtime subscriber to Doomcock's channel and watched it religiously during the SW sequels to find out in advance which cues he was going to have to rewrite for JJ

Plot twist: Williams is actually a longtime subscriber to Doomcock's channel and watched it religiously during the SW sequels to find out in advance which cues he was going to have to rewrite for JJ

Plot twist: Williams is actually a longtime subscriber to Doomcock's channel and watched it religiously during the SW sequels to find out in advance which cues he was going to have to rewrite for JJ

Plot twist: Williams is actually a longtime subscriber to Doomcock's channel and watched it religiously during the SW sequels to find out in advance which cues he was going to have to rewrite for JJ

Ha he got confused with Buckbeak's Flight- Now, that's a piece of music that would have made a great concert piece.

Well, that will set tongues wagging. Looking forward to all the Disney rumor blogs citing JWFan as the source for this…

Well, that will set tongues wagging. Looking forward to all the Disney rumor blogs citing JWFan as the source for this…

Well, that will set tongues wagging. Looking forward to all the Disney rumor blogs citing JWFan as the source for this…

Well yeah, in that case, anything goes.

Two weeks to go. I'd lost track of that.
Arg the stages of excitment a new Williams score:
1. announcement
2. filming starts
3. filming finishes
4. starts scoring 
4.5 if we're lucky Williams talks about his progress.
5. finishes scoring 
6. Soundtrack announced
7. Release date announced (sometimes included in stage 6)
8. Track titles!
9. Track lengths!
10. The first listen.
11. Initial disaapointment - not what I was expecting, how could it be? - New kid on the block doesn't belong.
12. Then I realize it's great and it feels part of his canon.
13. Listen for about a month
14. Life returns to normal but it's better because there's more Williams music. 
 
When I started it was just
1. See Williams name on a poster
2. Look for soundtrack
3. Buy soundtrack
4. See the movie maybe.
 
or
1. See Williams name on a soundtrack while browsing the OST section of a record shop. I'm so old!
2. Buy and listen etc,

I've got to say that a Zimmer concert I attended about four years ago was one of the most joyous concerts I've ever attended. Not that I enjoyed Williams in London in 1998 any less, far from it, but the atmosphere at the Zimmer show and the energy and passion of the performers was really something special.

I would read it as a general, philosophical hostility, and a sardonic admission that the film and the score do work on the big screen as intended.

I know, but she's all dead. 

I read that, too. Seems to be widespread — it's included in a recent compilation of flute audition extracts, along with Leia's Theme and Dartmoor, 1912. Some instructor at the University of Georgia has helpfully posted an extract. The performance notes from the editor are fun to read — nice to see the technical aspects of JW's music dissected along with the rest of the greats.

I'm worried that by next year the piece will sound weird without the crickets

Wow, wasn’t expecting this.
 
It’s a major revision of the 1998 symphonic suite, which according to my attempts at Google translating the Japanese CD description, Hisaishi overhauled in 2016 (?), and then tweaked again for this 2021 recording.
 
I’m really, really liking this. In some ways, it’s a complete reimagining of the suite. It’s shorter than the 1998 version, with some fat trimmed from some of the cues. But it also incorporates some material from the score that didn’t make the first one (like the electronic elements in The World of the Dead, reorchestrated), and has more careful movement transitions. And it changes up the instrumentation in places, with vocals in Mononoke Hime, and a violin solo replacing the piano in Ashitaka and San, which I really dig. (Was Hisaishi inspired by JW and ASM?)
 
For me, it feels like both a more complete presentation of the original score material, and a more engaging, cohesive listening experience as a suite. And at 26 minutes with 7 movements, I could even see it playing well programmed in a “serious” concert, like the Swan Lake suite or the WSS Symphonic Dances.