TownerFan

Both Anthony Gabriele and Mike Matessino addressed this aspect in their respective interviews they gave to The Legacy of JW. The decision was to avoid getting into overtime for orchestra musicians (it's already a very long show)

Artie Kane was a true “L.A. Studio Legend” indeed. His career is the epitome of the greatness of that pool of musicians. Here’s the tribute from The Legacy of John Williams: https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2022/06/24/in-memoriam-artie-kane/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/john-williams-90-steps-away-from-film-but-not-music/2022/06/23/26b97ac2-f2f2-11ec-ac16-8fbf7194cd78_story.html Lots of stuff here.

It's 100% John's writing.

The interview you refer to (published in 1999 by French magazine Starfix) has been notoriously signaled as being at least partly made up, so I suggest not taking it too literally. If you're interested in actual historical accuracy about the temp tracking of the first Star Wars film, check out Paul Hirsch's book A Long Time Ago In A Cutting Room Far, Far Away, where there is an entire chapter devoted to the editing of the film and lots of details about the temp track.

Absolutely. It's very intertextual as well.

Lovely conversation, I enjoyed it a lot. Great job, @lairdo!

Yes, it's a new arrangement for cello and violin. Mutter said on her Facebook page that she was practicing it during breaks between gigs in the last few weeks. My guess is that Dear Basketball will be performed live to picture, as the program notes are saying clips will be shown during the concerts.

This is a musical-like moment, so I wouldn't count it strictly as source music.

Imho, it's just John having fun. The whole Canto Bight source piece is a concoction of jazz stylings from the 1930s, mostly Duke Ellington and Artie Shaw, so it's in this vein that he threw in a direct reference to another popular tune. It's part of the things he loved a lot when he was kid growing up.

It was indeed arranged and recorded by him in LA in March 1993. I think it was actually officially released on an album, but I have to check.

Both OYF'N Pripetshok and Yeroushalaim Chel Zahav as heard on the OST album were recorded by Israeli-based choirs. I don't think neither arrangement is John's own. Btw, John did write an original arrangement for a Hebrew song ("Eli, Eli" aka "A Walk to Caesarea") used in the Israel prints of the film replacing "Yeroushalaim Chel Zahav".

John was credited with orchestrations together with Bill Ross in the end credits of the pilot episode. Based on what Holt said in one interview (i.e. besides the theme and suite, JW also recorded a set of demo cues to show how to use the theme), it’s fair to assume that Ross took some of JW’s demo cues and repurposed to some scenes in the first episode keeping John’s original orchestration.

Only a note to say that the 2-weeks window is something told by Natalie Holt during an interview and not something said by JW himself. No need to question it of course, but she didn't collaborate directly with John for this project. JW had to interrupt work on The Fabelmans for doing this and sessions for that were already booked at Sony, so they had to work the schedule around that. Also, the 2-week window very possibly included not just writing, but also reviewing footage, taking notes, set timings with the music editor etc. Part of that job was assigned to Bill Ross because the schedule was tight and it was virtually impossible for JW to do all by himself as usual (why Ross was assigned to do that and not Holt, I honestly don't know). As for the fact he can churn out a suite like this in a day, well, as much as he's still a fast writer, he's not 45 anymore, so he definitely needs a bit more time even for shorter pieces. It's not a mechanical process. Writing film scores is always a problem-solving process. Sometimes the key to unlock the film's needs might come early on, other times arrives at the last minute available. As for the fact JW found the right theme late in the process in cases like Azkaban or Force Awakens, it might be because of how the writing schedule was for those projects. I think he didn't see a completed cut, but he had to start writing nonetheless because he had other deadlines looming. He said many times he prefers to see a completed cut because that way he knows where the music is leading to so he can deconstruct the musical material etc, but with the current methodology of doing films, this is now virtually impossible to do, so you need to start writing with whatever footage is available to score, keeping in mind that stuff is constantly reviewed and changed throughout the process, hence the music needs to change as well.

There is no need to be so confrontational, pal. It’s not a mystery because it’s quite well known how John works with his keyboardists, so there is no big secret being kept in custody. If you listen to the talks I did with Ralph Grierson, Mike Lang or Randy Kerber, all of them tell precisely what is John’s methodology when dealing with synths and electronics. He sketches the synth line and gives indications using words of reference. Lang referred themselves almost as “synth orchestrators” when doing that kind of work for him. I think it’s more than safe to assume that that’s how he did also in the case of Training Montage, sketching the cue the same way he always does and assigning lines to instruments etc. and then turning to his trusted musicians and having them coming up with the synth sound he was looking for. It must be noted that while the piece has electronic timbres and sounds, it’s mostly acoustic and played live for the most part. The big difference with the techno bit in AI that you mention is that in that case the fragment was something purely electronic and not something that John could or would sketch on paper. That is certainly something out of his realm and that’s why he has to rely on other people in cases like that.