TownerFan

Thanks, I hope you'll like it Thor. I definitely picked the worst moment of the day to publish it, lol

I know you're all getting crazy with Star Wars madness, but if you have 60 minutes of spare time while you wait for the new CD, here's a new Legacy Conversations podcast episode from The Legacy of John Williams: an exclusive interview with legendary music contractor Sandy DeCrescent. https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2019/12/17/sandy-decrescent-podcast Sandy talks about her very long and illustrious career, her days at Universal television with Stanley Wilson where he met many young up-and-coming composers, what a music contractor does, and of course her long and fruitful collaboration with John Williams. Lots of musical excerpts peppered throughout the episode, including some interesting and rarely heard snippets. It ties nicely with Star Wars because Sandy worked with JW also on the upcoming Rise of Skywalker. Hope you all enjoy!

Thanks everyone, much appreciated!

Thank you immensely, @Omen II! I know how much you love these scores, so it means a lot coming from you. I had the privilege to listen to this set in advance and I've gained a lot more appreciation for these three scores thanks to this release. Thank you for your kind words, Jay! I appreciate a lot. So sorry I spoiled the tidbit about JW asking MM to bundle the three scores. Next time I'll be much more careful about my exclusive info Btw, the podcast is now available also on Spotify, for all of your who prefer the popular streaming service

Thanks everyone for the nice words and support. I'm happy you like it. Mike is incredibly generous and giving to do these talks and I'm honoured he accepts to do them for The Legacy of John Williams. I'm sorry I couldn't make it available sooner, but these things take time to do and I do my best job to make them as good as possible. By the way, the good news is that I have two more podcasts almost ready to go before the end of the year, so I hope to make amend of your waiting time

I know you're probably busy listening to other John Williams stuff today , but here's the long-awaited podcast with Mike Matessino about the DISASTER MOVIE SOUNDTRACK COLLECTION: https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2019/12/11/mike-matessino-podcast-disaster-soundtrack-collection/ It's a long and thorough conversation where Mike talked also about his work on Monsignor and Minority Report. Loads of music clips interspersed all throughout. Co-hosting the show with me is again the ever-reliable Tim Burden. Hope you'll all enjoy!

We talked about several topics, not just the Disaster Movie collection. You'll hear soon. The FSM edition of Poseidon is still essential of course because it contains also The Paper Chase and Conrack.

Tomorrow!

He won't win. Competition is strong this year, plus there might be the feeling he already got enough awards. If the Academy has some sort of common sense, they could give him a special award outside the competition.

I too sincerely hope Tom Newman will finally get his own statuette. I fear JW might be out of the games, unless the film proves to be truly outstanding and get sweeps in other categories too. If I were a betting man, all my chips would be on Joker. It has written Best Score winner all over the place. Glad you loved The Irishman too, Disco Stu!

Yes, I've seen it (and I loved it). There is minimal score, yes, and it's gobbled within period songs, but we have seen strange things happening in this Oscar category, so who knows (plus, the score just got a nomination from the Society of Composers and Lyricists).

You're welcome, Jay! So far, my own personal favourite scores of the year are Randy Newman's Marriage Story and Powell's HTTYD 3. They're both truly excellent scores that illustrate in the best way possible why I love film music. But I get the feeling that Williams' The Rise of Skywalker might join the podium

It seems 2019 has been a pretty decent year for Hollywood film music. Quite a few interesting scores both by veterans and emerging composers, so I think there is latitude to see a nice group of people being nominated at next year's Oscars for Best Score. Of course we haven't heard some of those yet (mostly Williams' TROS and Tom Newman's 1917), but it's not hard to imagine they will end up in many Best of the Year lists. So, based on award buzz, industry talk and my own common sense, here's my predictions of which scores will be nominated next January (which are not necessarily my own favourites of course): Joker - Hildur Guðnadóttir Marriage Story - Randy Newman 1917 - Thomas Newman Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - John Williams Us - Michael Abels Runner-ups: Avengers: Endgame - Alan Silvestri Frozen II - Christophe Beck Little Women - Alexandre Desplat Toy Story 4 - Randy Newman Potential Threats: Harriet - Terence Blanchard A Hidden Life - James Newton Howard How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World - John Powell The Irishman - Robbie Robertson Jojo Rabbit - Michael Giacchino The most likely winner imho is Guðnadóttir's Joker and it's easy to imagine why: the film was beloved by critics and audience, the score got mentioned and noticed by many people, and Hildur's popularity skyrocketed thanks to this score and her work on Chernobyl (plus, she's a woman, and we know how this also plays a role in Hollywood's politics nowadays). But perhaps this is going to be finally Tom Newman's time for his long overdue statuette and the score for Sam Mendes' war epic got a lot of positive buzz and mentions in the first reviews that came out last week. However, Randy Newman's exquisite Marriage Story is a major threat, as it's a great score by a beloved industry veteran who still has to win for original score. Michael Abels' effective score for Us has also been noticed and well-reviewed and it might be an almost sure-fire nomination. John Williams' last Star Wars score will certainly get the token nomination, but the chance of winning are likely very remote (but perhaps Disney/LFL will campaign hard to try getting JW his sixth statuette). As for the runner-ups, Desplat is probably the most likely nominee, as he's an Academy favourite and the film is getting great reviews and buzz. Disney might push Frozen II to get a score nomination this time (the first movie ended up being disqualified for the usage of pre-existing music) and the film is already a hit. Silvestri's Avengers might also be a good nominee given the film's popularity and the fact he's well-respected by his peers. The potential "threats" are all films and scores that got positive reviews and/or are associated with films that got award buzz, so perhaps a few of them might end up mixing the cards.

We didn't touch this specific point in our conversation for the podcast (it's coming, guys, I promise! I'm working on it as we speak), but I imagine JW didn't want it included for some reason.

Don’t know where to put it, but this thread seems the most congruous: https://www.etonline.com/live/20191127123822-retro-john-williams-shares-backstory-of-home-alone-score A brief interview from back in the day, featuring also a nice moment with JW playing Somewhere in My Memory at the piano.