SkyMaker

I'd like ask everyone here. Does anyone have a copy of the John Williams Kennedy Center Tribute? I'm willing to pay you for a copy. Thanks

I just listened to the score to Broke Back Mountain. Are you Kidding me??!! My jaws dropped as to how ridiculous it is that Williams lost to this very short, very boring and very unskilled score. Unbelievable! It goes to show that you win or lose not on the basis of skill or talent, but on popularity. The last few years, Williams lost again and again to much inferior artists. And I mean MUCH!!! Very sad indeed.

My wife and I thought to have a little celebration of our own, by buying a birthday cake that has Happy Birthday John Williams, 74, 2006 on it. We sang happy birthday and for he's a jolly good fellow, and took some photos and ate the cake. It's his birthday, so we wanted to honor him, and we had fun doing so.

What an interesting statement! Do you think the same with Williams, for him not to push so hard when composing? I am guessing that you are not one to have a high goal for yourself? I would like to encourage you to do otherwise, and you'll see that you'll be happier within.

I just read that Theron got her star today. Some while ago I read that Brittney Spears got her star. C'mon, Williams has been in the business for decades and single handledly changed the course of music in films and he still have not received his star yet??!! Yet, less minor people received their stars after only a few, very short years? What's your thoughts on this?

Eric, What a wonderful thing it is to live in the very house that Williams grew up in. Let me tell you, cherish it, because that house will someday be a historical relic, a very important part of an American legend, much like Beethoven's and Mozart's homes are today. You have an advantage over others when it comes to contacting Williams, i.e., he is very much tied to that home as part of his history. Therefore, he is a million more times to respond to you over his "regular" fans. Hence, by all means, write to him, and tell him what you have. Invite him to take a tour and a family dinner. You have something powerful to Williams, and having a cement engraving of his father is something that will certainly mean a great deal for Williams. It will reconnect to his roots and his family. Go for it! He will respond to you, I am very confident of that.

Would anyone who has a copy of the Goldsmith DVD tell me how many minutes total are the contents? Thanks so much.

Miguel, My sincerest congratulations and best of wishes to you, your wife and your children. May life's blessings abundantly befalls all of you.

Hello, my copy of this show I taped disappeared, wondering if else anyone taped it and kept it? Thanks so much.

I understand that it's not the exact Dies Irae, but it's way too close for Williams to say, it was just a coincidence.

It looks clear that Williams have full and deliberate intent by using the Dies Irae for ROTS. Plus, you can also tell there are a great deal of deliberate use of fire and damnation found in Verdi's requiem.

The Williams JVC ad is an advertisement to sell a product, and it is all posed. I'd like to ask you, if this picture is not posed, then do you think he can play the piano with his left hand on those keys he has his fingers on, and right down notes with his right hand? Just picture in your mind how awkward that would be. Further proof that this picture is posed, is from the way Williams head faces the score. As you can see, it's too far angled to the right, looking more towards the edge of the piano. When you work on the piano composing, you face straight ahead a lot more then in that picture, looking towards the score in front of you. But photographic technique sometimes requires to exaggerate a point of view to give the camera a natural point of view. It occurs all the time in movies & TV series. E.g. 2 people faces each other conversing. They would angle their head more towards the each other's shoulder where the camera is pointing towards, to give the impression that he/she is looking straight into each other. Furthermore, one can't make the suggestion that this is a irrefutable and systematic way Williams works on his music. Remember, he has an architect table to the right of him loaded with pencils and erasers, which is where he writes down the notes. Plus, about violins on the right, yes, of course there are orchestras situated like that, and the Boston Symphony does that once in a while, but as far as I remember, not with the Pops. A right seated 2nd violin is fairly rare to find nowadays. Sometimes it's the violas that sits on the right stage, but that's rare also. Therefore, with Williams left hand baton, which is uncharacteristic of him, and the bow on his right, suggests strongly that the photo is printed backwards, which is not a rare thing for newspapers and magazines to do. Now, the harder question is, what brand, high end, Stereo System does Williams listen to at his home? And what high end, speakers does he have?

Just a short note. The photo that appeared on the Canadian Newspaper is printed backwards, because Williams is right handed, plus, the violins are to the left of the orchestra, not the right, as the bow indicates on the photo.

In the past several months, anytime Williams is on print or broadcasts, it appears he has lost weight. I was hoping that it was a healthy and deliberate loss, rather than due to an illness. Now that several months have passed and it's consistent that his weight loss is stable and most likely, his prefered weight, I am more at ease that he is in fine health. Also, I really did want him to win this year, the same way I want him to win every year. But it seems to be that, even though his scores are consistently superior to the ones that wins, it seems that his composing colleagues, that votes for the score category knows that Williams is really the best all time film composer, past and present, and it's way too easy for him to outmuscle them all, therefore, a living legend is way too big to contest, and his name appears so frequently on the nominations that the voters just take him for granted, and vote for the less commonly nominated composers. Therefore, recent winners such as Yared, Goldenthal, Corigliano, Shore and other names that rarely gets nominated tend to get more attention on the ballot and therefore ends up winning. But by no means are their scores better than Williams. Williams' virtuoso composing technique can run rings around all of them put together at any day of the week, every week. I only want Williams to win not to prove anything more for Williams, only for him to get a little extra joy & appreciation for his efforts, and to refresh his spirits up.

Jesse, pretty good! I liked your samples, what do you use? Plus, am I making too much an assumption that you're highly influenced by Elfman & Thomas Newman?

I understand of what you saw from the short score of Williams. However, a factor you have not included is Williams' patterns of using the same orchestrator, such as Herb Spencer, or Conrad Pope, or Neufeld. The reasons being that these people know what Williams is aftering. Therefore, he doesn't need to indicate every instrumental group, as to which winds will play the 3rd of the chord, or the top note. He is way too busy for that, plus, unless he is looking to do outside the obvious, he notes it in the score, other than that, he allows logics of orchestration to take care of itself. After all, he knows that it's not logical to have the brass play a chord with the tuba on top and the trumpet on the bottom, unless you're trying to achieve a particular effect, which can sound marvelous if utilized intelligently. Furthermore, the particulars that Williams insists upon, is already known by his orchestrators, because they are his physical servants, not his musical assistants, therefore, Williams would not let his tone to be controlled by anybody but himself. You must know that his orchestrators has a professional knowledge of Williams' musical desires and style. In the event that his shorthand maybe a little unclear, they would call upon Williams to clarify, until such that they know exactly what Williams would want. So, his usage of orchestrators are very different in every sense of the word then those who actually clothes music of other composers. One example is Spielberg's editor Michael Khan, which had edited most of Spielberg's movies for almost 30 years, beginning with Close Encounters. Michael has been quoted on camera that he knows what Spielberg wants, which is a clear indication that Spielberg is very comfortable with Khan, and can give him editorial shorthand, which Kahn then takes over and interprets the direction to Spielberg's tastes. This is built over many years of working together. What they are, of course we don't know. But Kahn knows it intimately. Much the same way Williams orchestrators knows Williams instrumental voicings of his short score as to how Williams would want it. It's not that hard, once you're used to his style. Williams doesn't orchestrate like Mahler, where there are a great deal of experimental and even weird voicings and orchestration. Williams only does that on his concert works, where he is free of time pressures and can take his time to calculate and craft his scores more finely. Time is always against Williams, which is ever the more remarkable that he is able to do so much quality work in such little time. Like it was first mentioned, Williams enjoys the process of his own orchestration, because he regards it as part of the creative process that affects the overall tone of a piece, which he absolutely want to shape by his own thoughts & skill. All in all, the debate of Williams orchestrating his own scores are really concluded by his own words. "I try to be careful with my sketches so that I get just what I want.....so that on eight or ten staves you can get almost a note-perfect accurate score....so I hope it's a compliment to my sketches that you can't tell who did what!" This comment was made with the context that Williams quoted he had used for Star Wars, Herb Spencer, Arthur Morton, Angela Morley, Al Woodbury and himself. Another interview of one of Williams current orchestrator also supports this fact.

To clarify some possible confusion on Williams. Williams has indicated in interviews that he always orchestrates his own scores, 100% of the notes are written by him. The only thing that his orchestrators does is to place his "sketches" into fully laid out manuscript, which, he does not have the time to do. The freedom that his orchestrators have when it comes to contributing to the music is nil, except for some decisions on doubling, and beginning of pitch to end of pitch for harp glissandos, even then, they follow Williams' tastes and preferences. Therefore, 90% of Williams' music on the sketch is incorrect, it's actually, 99 1/2%. You can't really regard his "sketch" as such, because they're actually short scores, not sketches. There is a very big difference between the two. Sketches still needs to be dressed and styled to a final version of the music, whereas short scores ARE the final version of the music, only the physical document itself are not final. Now, there are composers who writes sketches then hires the orchestrator to dress it. Willliams is not one of them. He is too professional for that. He loves the art of orchestration, and regards it as part of the composing process. It is for that reason that his music is all the more astonishing, considering the little time he is given to score a film, yet, he is able to write every single note of a big film score, with all the counterpoint and fast passage orchestral sections, doing it with amazing creativity, originality and speed. One major power of Williams that has no doubt delivered his amazing talent to the fore, is his extremely disciplined attitude and work ethics. He labors and labors and labors, until the job is done. This incessant work habits are part of his genius. His habits are so deeply ingrained as a part of his daily life, that he continues to compose everyday even though he is not working on a movie. He loves the challenge of composing something new. He continues to search music's possibilities that is still untapped. His pursuits of excellence continue to gnaw at his soul, as he forever seeking to do it just a little bit better, and then a little bit better still, and again, just a little more, accumulating over the years to what he has become today, and still are becoming tomorrow. True, great artists such as Williams becomes such because of this pursuit to be and do better, even if it's only one note at a time. Their patience to be incessant, stems from their love of their art. It's not a chore to them, because the process, and above all, the rewards are tremendously satisfying to them. Therefore, their inner wisdom and attitudes which strengthens their sheer force of will to be better, are the vehicles which carries their talents to immensity. They know that their futility is only consigned to a horizon that can be seen, but however mightily they try to get close to it, it always stretches just as far. But, even with this knowledge, where their wisdom comes into play is knowing that, even though perfection can never be reached, their joy and satisfaction in ever pursuing it, and not withstanding their own growth produced from their endeavor, is a great and sweet reward in itself, for it is impossible to not begin a journey and end up elsewhere then where you had started. He said, ?You don?t have to be good, you just need to be strong.? Of course, this, ?being strong? is exactly the reason why he became so good. I believe this is where the seeds of genius stems from. Talent is not enough. It's only the root of genius. Without the necessary attitude, wisdom and patience to cultivate talent with care, genius will never bear fruit. Much like a plant that's not cultivated with diligence and care, it will never bear it's sweet harvest, for its roots died before it has a chance to manifest. Every seed has already a potential to be a tree and to be what it is created to be. However, unless the right circumstances occur to awaken the sleeping seed, and for nurture to undertake, then it will never come to reach it's true potential. Now, where I had made Williams in my life, is having him as my example, as part of my daily life, which is to have the same application of wisdom as he does, with the same faith that,......as long as I persist, I also will be elsewhere in my journey than when I had started.

When Harry Potter 3 and Terminal is available to be purchased, please post and let us know. Much appreciate it.

With the deepest respect I bid him farewell. He was my childhood hero. It was because of Superman, the first of Williams' score that I fell in love with, persuading me to pursue music. The past 9 years, he has been a powerful example to me of determination, courage and pure will. I was counting that he'd live long enough to see him walk again, and the progress has so promising. My wife and I are deeply saddened, and we both felt a void in the air.

Ken, I would like to remind you to make sure that in the future, you spell your name correctly. Thanks

When someone hasn't made a name for themselves in the world, the acquisition of a doctorate is something to appreciate, and will be a powerful tool for the advancement of their career. However, when someone has made a name for themselves in the world, the acquisition of a doctorate is something for the school that presents the doctorate to the recipient which becomes the more powerful entity. It's a way of linking their school to a prestigious artist's name, to bring about a higher pretige to the school. John Williams has so many honorary doctorates that his walls are crowded with them, and he humbly appreciates their thoughfulness. However, the recognition does nothing whatsoever for him. He will not earn more money, nor get recognized in the world as someone with better credentials, nor, will his career become more secure. He already made it, and his name has long been secure as one of the greatest film composer that ever lived. But when it comes to all of the schools that honors him with a doctorate, and they have been many, the schools is the real recipient of the honorary, because they will have added in their roster list of names, John Williams. Plus, whenever, an article is published with his list of credentials, which wil include, in this case, Juilliard, it adds to the prestige of the school's name, because a well known person has received a huge recognition. Therefore, who is the real benefactor? But of course, the school. In summary, do we really need to congratulate John Williams for his honorary doctorates, in order to appreciate that he is really good as what he does? Furthermore, isn't it ironic that those that provide him with all these numerous doctorates over the years, not one of them are capable at doing what Williams does so well. Not one. Not even all of the honorary doctorate schools put together can they compose as well as Williams does. So, then, why is it that the less talented has the "authority" to give the more talente, the recognition, especially since the less talented has shunned Williams' work as something of low quality, popular junk, without an ounce of real music skill that music professors are so capable of? We know better, so isn't it supposed to be the other way around? It's a bit like the cat telling the Cheetah how to run faster. Or a tiny rowboat telling the huge battleship how to maneuver the rough oceans. Or the bumble bee telling the eagle how to soar.

Hey buddy, how are you doing? The movie will actually have english subs. I suspect that there is an advantage and disadvantage for having a dead language in a movie. It being that it's more authentic appearing, but it's tiring that one needs to read a movie rather than watch it. Maybe the DVD will have an english version of it. Who knows. I can't wait to see this movie.

Schindler's List is a powerful score, but Williams is not a jew, so does that answer your question? Williams would have been absolutely and unequivocally marvelous if he were to score Alexander. Oh, one can only imagine what he will do.

Folks, there is a major comparison review of Finale and Sibelius in the March 2004 issue of Keyboard magazine. Just thought you might like to know about it.