lairdo

I saw him walk in with his wife, Melody Hobson, on the red carpet. He definitely looked frail. Melody was holding his hand (which was very sweet), and he almost tripped transitioning from the red carpet on Hollywood Blvd itself to the red carpet that goes on the curb up towards the Dolby theater (itself a pretty good walk because the theater is behind a number of retail stores. He is only slightly older younger (79) than Harrison (turning 81 in July), is way younger than Johnny (91), but he looked the oldest of anyone out there. Frank Marshall is 76, and he looked spry.

Thanks. Fixed. The first was autocorrect. The second was dumb. My pleasure. So sorry to hear this, and my condolences to you and your family. My parents are just shy of that age and I wonder how much longer they will last. If all goes well, I will be at the Hollywood Bowl with them to hear the Maestro. They do deserve credit for taking me to Star Wars and buying that 8-track soundtrack for the car and of course taking me to the Bowl for much of my teen years every summer.

Yes, I thought was interesting too! Glad he had the cataracts removed. I hear from others who have had that it is truly altering to see more colors. I hope JW is getting the joy of that experience. Thanks. Really, there was way too much going on to even process everything. With my fellow IndyCasters who I have not seen since 2020 (or even longer ago), being out on the red carpet. Getting to meet Ke Huy Quan (Short Round) after the movie. The person who organizes these events for Disney is married to one of my former students, and that person spotted me in photos from the organizer and then told him to go meet me, to being steps from one of the actresses in the film. Still, while I had predicted the appearance of the Maestro to play music, by the time the event started, I had forgotten about that and then the curtain rose to reveal him and 80+ musicians. In terms of the music in the film and without giving spoilers (other than locations but all of which are in the trailer): First off, it's generally audible most of the time it plays. There is a lot of it as Mangold has told us, and still there are some action sequences where no music was used (not dissimilar to Star Wars when the music drops out). I do suspect those moments had music scored for them and the absence now was editorial. (I'm already pining for unreleased music!) The first 20% of the which takes place in the 40s is pretty much all scored and many old themes and motifs from the franchise can be heard winding their way through the action. I'm not entirely sure when we get to hear this separately (if we do) that it will feel very coherent though as I got a sense of jumping around a bit. It works in the movie though, and I wonder about it as a listening experience without the film. As I hoped and guessed on our recent podcast, the sound and music of the era made appearances at times including one key early moment as the movie transitioned to 1969. That is not at all a decision by JW - it was clearly in the script as the music diegetic - but in terms of the overall score of the picture it worked. Generally after that the score charted to some new areas and themes. Helena's music is very differently used than say Marion's theme and different pieces of it the suite we have heard since last summer show up in the right spots with varying orchestrations, tempos and blends with other themes. I liked that. This felt similar to how the Solo suite was used as a basis for numerous moments in that film. Of course the difference being JW's own use of his themes vs. Powell's (which was still quite good). There are plenty of action sequences and one in particular was scored in a manner that JW would have done in the late 60's or early 70's. I felt vibes of Lalo Schifrin and some amount of homage to The French Connection and similar films set in NY in that era. I found that refreshing although perhaps a bit of an oddity compared to to the rest of the score. Definitely heard shades of Tintin when the film was in North Africa which was either how JW scores all those locales or was his own homage to his past work. I suspect the former. It was not a straight lift or anything blatant and worked with the action. Probably missing for me was a clear statement of themes for the Dial itself (although I think it is there) or Voller, the main bad guy. A few times, clearly Mangold just let the music dominate as much as the visuals would allow. Not to the level of Spielberg (e.g. the Truck Chase, Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra, the jungle chase stuff in Skull), but not as infrequent as in the recent Star Wars films. Overall, highly satisfied and looking forward to whatever we get on the soundtrack (which is going to woefully inadequate unless there is a surprised deluxe digital version) and looking forward to deciding where this sits amongst the other 4 films.

Just got back to the hotel after the premier of Dial of Destiny, and the John Williams moment was one I had predicted at breakfast would happen. But that takes nothing away from the moment when the screen rose to reveal the Maestro and the orchestra. Truly an amazing moment even from the back row of the mezzanine section. Hearing Helena's Theme live was truly wonderful. I think Adventures of Mutt was not as amazing as other live performances I heard. Raiders March was fantastic. The place was hopping after the performance. And I very much enjoyed the film and cannot wait to see it again. On the soundtrack - ordered the LP and CD from Disney although hoping to get the CD sooner from Amazon. Really surprised at the August date for both. I do hope we'll get a digital release on June 30.

I'm excited that I will be attending the Saturday concert. I have not been to the Bowl since pre-COVID (or seen JW since Tanglewood in 2019 SAW him at the Indy 5 Premiere!)! Hope to catch up with fellow JWFans that might be there that night.

Woohoo. Despite my tracker saying the package was out for delivery by USPS, the disc was sitting in the mailbox! Amazingly, no cracks on the case and the CDs are still attached to the tray! Now to listen!

No, not in that quotation, but... ASM says in her audio introduction to The Long Goodbye that JW did in fact update the arrangement for string orchestra. She did not indicate that on Cinderella Liberty, but I think we can guess that he did that too. Both sounded great and felt totally consistent with the bit of Vivaldi that was the 2nd encore between the two JW pieces. I look forward to listening to the whole concert tomorrow (although no other JW parts to it).

Truly enjoyable, and hopefully we'll get the album soon. Both videos (the sessions) and the actual reporter with interviews are lovely to watch.

Agreed. Amazing news! So, from looking at the form, a person can request specific tracks from concerts - not concerts themselves. The linked form notes that performance rights prohibit sharing full concerts. One can find the specific concerts and programs on the BSO site by searching for John Williams under the conductor field. The first entry is May 25, 1979 and they go from there. May 26, 1979 shows that audio is available for it. (May 25 does not.) There is a limit of 15 tracks per month from one person. Oddly when I bring up the concert detail page, it does appear that there are links to play the tracks, but they don't. Is that just me? Actually, I found that some concerts have two speaker icons - a red one indicates you can likely sign up for an account to play the tracks. The other I think means you can use the form to ask. Hopefully, outside of a crowds sourced effort to ask for every track from all those years, the BSO makes a deal with a music label to pubish the concerts in box sets or make them available on streams - some music deal that would pay for the administrative work to obtain the clearances needed. I am sure it's a lot of work. I won't live long enough, but these will all enter public domain at some point for 2100. Unfortunately, I hesitate to think there is a market for them though.

I can definitely hear JW opening a concert with this piece of music (or perhaps the 2nd half of a concert). Would bet it at least gets played at the Hollywood Bowl in September and maybe Tanglewood over the summer if he makes his usual appearances.

I love it! I love how they used footage from the recording session too. It's not just a piece of underscore, it is a concept between the beauty of making music with playing football. (Of course, I had to also watch my USC Trojans lose to Texas again - and I was at that game!)

And SA-CDs from Japan!

Barnes and Noble says my Fabelmans OST is out for delivery today (via USPS). Arriving in Hawaii this soon after other copies are showing up is amazingly fast for USPS. Did not know Emilio's book was on audiobook. Need to go find that. I've read it (and the revision), but I would listen to it too. (Edit: Ah, Audible has it. But I am not a huge fan of Jonathan Davis who narrates it. I have not loved his Star Wars readings. Hmmm...)

What great news, and thanks @Jay for the info which is fascinating in itself. I had long expected Amistad would eventually be expanded, so not surprised. And really if there had only been 1 more cue and the source music (although I knew more was missing), I would have been pleased. The score needs more airtime, and I do think that Dry Your Tears Africa and the entire score really made the move better. So, to get so much music, that really is something to be thankful for. I had not speculated on what today would bring so it was still a nice surprise. (And really, La-La Land's slate for this year is pretty much beyond reproach. All 5 are ones I will order.)

Yep, me too on the date and also I see the updated Dec 16 date too. Wal-mart still shows Dec 9 but that might be because they have not updated yet. I assume Sony informed retailers of the delay and maybe that they will all be getting less quantities than expected. It's possible the Amazon shipping dates will move up into December when they actually get stock.

I guess they are releasing this because of The Fabelmans and riding on an assumption of JW trending in searches due to the soundtrack release. Not that I am complaining. It's a really lovely. Somewhat different than other renditions. Besides streaming, I notice that HDTracks has it for sale for $3 (although HDLISTEN20 will drop that and other new releases by 20% through Monday). I don't see it on Presto or Qobuz yet (not that I looked that hard). Anyway, super happy to have this and also hope we get Vienna 2 in some format or another.

Oh, wow. Those were literally last year's rules - they've changed again? Well, that's only good in this case! Very true.

Correct, the score can be short. I just found this link to the rules for best original score from last year and there is little reason to expect them to change for this year. https://www.oscars.org/sites/oscars/files/93aa_music_rule.pdf The key rule for a non-sequel is that 60%+ of the music in the film has to be originally scored for the film. So, assuming the piano pieces in the movie are relatively short, I suspect there is likely enough score to qualify the maestro's work. And an appeal process exists to even ask the Governors to waive that requirement, which I think they would do in this case given the other music are basically diegetic (or at least narratively driven). Plus, would the Governors really turn down this sort of request from Spielberg? I doubt it. And frankly, the Amblin folks all know the rules and might even have ensured that the score was 60% in the final mix. In searching for the above rules, I also ran into the list of composers who have multiple best score nominations. We know that JW is the most nominated in this category (and most nominated living person ever). With 47 score noms (not including 5 song noms), he is ahead of Alfred Newman (43). The next closet composer is Max Steiner (24 - although he was composing before the award category existed) and then no one else above 20. I always think that only 5 wins for JW is really a paltry amount. But actually, in this category, only Newman has more with 9. Four people have 4 wins. Just goes to indicate how impactful JW has been. Longevity helps of course but even if we take review his first 75 years, the numbers are still impressive and include all 5 wins and 40 score noms (up through and including Munich & Geisha in 2006). Amazing. So, like many others in this thread, if ~20 mins of score is what we get, it's 20 mins x many listens of enjoyment to happen starting in under 2 weeks.

Gosh I hope we get this track!

I just found a list of some of the honors bestowed on musicians by the monarchy. https://www.heraldica.org/topics/famous/knighthd.htm Can't vouch for the validity of this site, but if accurate, a few observations I can make for it: Most leading composers of the 20th century do not have KBEs - mostly just CBE or below. Many are knights but not necessarily knights of the the British Empire. The key exception is Benjamin Britten who was made a Baron, and that ranks above KBE. Examples: William Walton, CBE Richard Bennett, CBE Malcom Arnold, CBE Ralph Vaughan Williams, OM Some KBEs in the conductor ranks: Previn (who probably counted as both conductor and composer, as Sir Johnny does.) Georg Solti Mstislav Rostropovich Yehudi Menuhin was made KBE and then a Baron So, indeed this KBE is a pretty rare honorary award and speaks to the impact of Sir Johnny's influence. Really quite cool even if he cannot fashion himself (not that he would) as a Sir. We've been all rising when he walks in or out of the room for years anyway. In terms of any kinds of honors going to composers with film or TV pedigrees, Williams joins Previn (who stopped doing scores in the 60s'), Britten (who composed scores to make ends meet in the 30s), Arnold (who did a few), Bliss (also in the 30s), Andrew Lloyd Webber (stage), Elton John (as a songwriter), Ralph Vaughan Williams (with a few compositions that started as film scores), Bennett (a fair few), and Walton (who worked in film sporadically but over multiple decades- the Olivier/Shakespeare scores being standouts that are still played in concert halls). Long Live (Sir) John Towner Williams!

Amazingly, my Presto basic shipping via RoyalMail (not tracked) made it in 8 days. Hope your ships out soon.

Unless you count The Fate of Atlantis adventure game and comic. However, it would be great to have this in big screen fashion for sure.

I know and I get your meaning. I am just affirming we do deserve it. Divinely or otherwise. If anything, the world is slightly better, slightly smaller, slightly more lovely. 4 mins cannot save the world, but it can nudge it in the right direction. And we are going to get probably ~45 mins of Fablemans and 79 mins of Indy 5 (plus whatever is not released) to give the world a nice shove too! But we are very fortunate and should be thankful for every note. (And glad you like KOTCS too!)

Well something must have been more recent, but didn't we get the Hook theme via the trailer about 6-9 months in advance? I like KOTCS. In any case, I don't think there was much fanboy griping about the music in that movie. So, Steven hands over the reins and we get "Jim" Mangold - who JW spoke very highly of! We definitely deserve this. I mean, really, this is going to end up being the last or nearly last JW film score suite from a movie. We might get three from Indy 5 - Helena, a short Raiders march as we have recently heard, and maybe one more?

Even stranger is that the track is listed with the fine print of (video only) on the back cover. It's not a space issue on the disc either. There is still plenty of room.