When John Towner Williams brushed on silk..

[AI 0]

Am I the only one who thinks Brush on Silk is totally unique in the Williams ouvre.

When else has he gone native like that. When else has a written a piece, which I frankly doubt he even wrote, except in a cursory position.

How much of this did he write?

[Miguel Andrade 1,263]

Am I the only one who thinks Brush on Silk is totally unique in the Williams ouvre.

When else has he gone native like that. When else has a written a piece, which I frankly doubt he even wrote, except in a cursory position.

How much of this did he write?

I'm sure he spent a lot of time listening to Japanese music, in order to somehow emulate the style of the music. Now, I wouldn't be too amazed to discover that he might had had some assistance on this one, at the very least from the actual performers.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

As good as it is, I doubt it is anything but a slight approximation of actual Japanese music.

[Maestro 147]

You can still hear Johnny in this piece. It's like Zam the Assassin performed with Japanese instruments (which sounds like an insult or an accusation of plagiarism...it's not).

[GoodMusician 56]

There isn't any doubt in mind that what's performed is almost completely a deliberate composition by JW. If you listen to the track it sounds like you're listening to something from Japan, but watching it in the film, it fits the film in a way JW can only do.

It does have that curious layered over thing at the end. There arn't too many extended techniques in this that are new to williams... that he hasn't used before. Meaning all he had to do was study a little about the koto or even say to the player "add a little to the performance to make it especially japanese..."

But I do agree... Memoirs was really Williams first truly ethnic score...I always thought Far & Away could have gone a little further... and 7 Years was not nearly ethnic enough... this was almost purely that... but it does say something about the film. Using ethnic music isolates the film to Japan. Makes it feel unique, untouched... which is exactly the point in the film...Japan's isolation until the war allowed for there to be such a thing as a true Geisha...

So it all works.

[Sandor 797]

I only this has been said all too often, but I saw Brokeback Mountain yesterday and I just can not believe the Academy chose that score over Memoirs. While listening to the Brokeback score, I was thinking of how wonderful Williams' score really is.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Right now all I care about is your cartoon nudity!

[Sandor 797]

Here's another one. Especially for you!

[Jeshopk 8]

It's formulaic. Change the scale, the instruments, and have a good sense of rhythm/melody, and you too could write like brush on silk! Send away for the easy how-to manual!

Really, most Western composers could emulate ensemble writing of non-western country, but why? Once in a lifetime, the opportunity arises.

[TownerFan 4,983]

Memoirs was really Williams first truly ethnic score...I always thought Far & Away could have gone a little further... and 7 Years was not nearly ethnic enough... this was almost purely that... but it does say something about the film. Using ethnic music isolates the film to Japan. Makes it feel unique, untouched... which is exactly the point in the film...Japan's isolation until the war allowed for there to be such a thing as a true Geisha...

So it all works.

I think these musical choices always depend on the movie for which they're thought. For example, in Far and Away Williams explored and produced authentic Irish music (thanks also to Chieftains' wonderful performance), but he had to frame it inside the context of that film (which was a deliberate, nostalgic homage to classic Hollywood Cinemascope shows like Cimarron or A Quiet Man). If Williams would have produced an all-authentic Irish score it probably would have been maybe too pretentious or out of context. Instead, he fully realized what the needs of the movie were and integrated the Irish tunes and orchestrations around the full classic symphonic palette, which was absolutely necessary for a film like Far and Away.

In many cases, this is what Williams usually does when he's asked to provide an ethnic flavour to his scores (I'm thinking also about Amistad or Seven Years in Tibet or Munich, to cite a few, but the same could be said about the faux-Renaissance sounding parts of Prisoner of Azkaban). He always brings the symphony orchestra on the foreground and then augments it or changes its standard setting with various "non orchestral" instruments, feeding them in and out around the contour of the symphony. That's because 1) he's a true lover of the orchestra 2) he's fully aware that the narrative and emotional needs of those kinds of movies are better serviced with such an approach and 3) he likes to play a little inside and out the standard conventions of the symphony orchestra. He thinks in terms of orchestral color, to add some spice and flavour to what is essentially a classically structured score.

In this sense, Williams' approach to ethnic autheticity is a full continuation of the approach composers like Waxman, Rozsa and Newman explored through their film scores (although they were probably forced a bit more to play not too far to the conventions of traditional film scoring). They all are traditional, classically-trained composers who likes to think about and play with orchestral and harmonic colors. In a film score, those colors are intimately tied with the emotional and intellectual reactions of the audience watching.

In Memoirs of a Geisha, it's clear that Williams explored ethnic authenticity a bit further than he usually does. Probably he sensed that the story, the approach to the filmmaking and the emotional needs of the film requested a deeper and more complex ethnic approach. I remember an interview where he said he invited a koto player in his studio for several days to try and explore the various possible harmonic/textural possibilities of that instrument, just to learn how to play around it with the orchestra. Probably he didn't want to sound fake or too "pastiche" in this case, but he wanted to bring his own compositional voice as close as much in spirit to pre-WWII Japanese music.

[Marcus 390]

Greetings one and all! (I've been absent from this board for a while now, but finally seem to be able to log in again...)

I think "Brush on Silk" has Williams' fingerprints all over it, and it is far more structured and developed (in a western way) than a piece of authenic ethnic music would be (even in traditions that are semi-classical in a sense, like Indian/Persian and certain Japanese traditions). I highly doubt much was left to the individual performer, it seems highly "composed". Didn't he in fact create a full blown orchestral version of this for the suite he presented at Tanglewood last year?

If the pitch content is limited to such fitting an emulation of an existing music, I think the rhythmic design of the musical ideas is still very typically 'Williams'.

And there are other pieces, or parts of pieces, quite close to the "authenticity" of "Brush on Silk", in films such as Amistad and Seven Years in Tibet.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

If the "so called" jazz in CMIYC wan fully written out by Williams, I'm sure this was too.

John is far more familiar and secure with Jazz then with Japanese music, so if he didn't allow for improvisation for a musical style that he trained in them he certainly would not allow it for one with which he has only a limited knowledge.