Favorite short musical moments in Williams scores?

[GerateWohl 5,159]

The rocks are singing.

[Jurassic Shark 13,360]

And people say JW can't write rock music.

[Disco Stu 15,502]

2:45 - 2:55

 

Harry holds Gryffindor's sword aloft

 

 

[Darth Crossfader 583]

https://open.spotify.com/track/6GKhVrsMP4SJYY4SO297Eg?si=ma_Mfyt9Tm2DAIPFGet-jQ&utm_source=native-share-menu

 

1:06-onward is very chilling. Reminds me of ET.

[GerateWohl 5,159]

I adore that violin between 1:39 and 1:54.

 

[ragoz350 480]

Love that short modulation moment, especially the string line. (0:47-0:58)

 

[Bellosh 3,941]

12 hours ago, ragoz350 said:

Love that short modulation moment, especially the string line. (0:47-0:58)

 

 

also that quick bit of yoda's theme at the end --- soooooo good.  and then vader's theme a few seconds later.  unreal cue and score.

[Darth Crossfader 583]

21 hours ago, ragoz350 said:

Love that short modulation moment, especially the string line. (0:47-0:58)

 

 

I especially love 0:40 - 0:47. It's just typical planing chords stuff, but it gets me everytime. I like how the bass line moves down an octave but lingers on the subtonic first.

[Holko 10,396]

 

 

Not sure which thread I should put it in but it wouldn't be out of place in a Liszt rhapsody!

[bollemanneke 3,622]

I recently re-discovered that unused Arrival In New York cue from HA2. What the violins do when the cue is in G major is just... God, I wish I could read the notes, it's so beautiful.

[Tom Guernsey 2,735]

16 hours ago, bollemanneke said:

I recently re-discovered that unused Arrival In New York cue from HA2. What the violins do when the cue is in G major is just... God, I wish I could read the notes, it's so beautiful.

Is that just the track from the main programme (track 7 on the latest LLL release)? Or is there an unused version somewhere? I didn't see one in the extras.

[bollemanneke 3,622]

No, it's that track. 1:38. Stunning.

[Tom Guernsey 2,735]

3 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

No, it's that track. 1:38. Stunning.

Thanks for confirming and yes, it's a great cue!

[Loert 2,740]

1:04 - 1:24 - some of the most intense 20 seconds JW ever wrote!

 

[artguy360 1,909]

On 08/12/2021 at 7:06 AM, Stu said:

2:45 - 2:55

 

Harry holds Gryffindor's sword aloft

 

 

For some reason I was completely blown away by the surprising use of choir. I don't know why. Choir is used in other places in JW's HP scores. But this felt like a real surprise and a pretty badass moment.

[Docteur Qui 1,575]

This passage from 2:24 to the end of "A Walk in the Woods and Bird's Flight". There's just so much emotion and imagery in this 20 second snippet; a plaintive oboe echoed in longing with the clarinet, chilly tremolo strings evoking the falling snow, and a vaguely ominous pedaled note in the bass signalling the danger always lurking around the corner in this world. It's an exquisite moment in a score absolutely brimming with them.

 

 

 

[Darth Mulder 154]

 

Why isn't this on score?

[Bellosh 3,941]

7:23-end.    holy shit how is this outro so good?  it's pulse pounding.  this is why JW is the greatest.  a movie like 1941 has something as intense sounding as an Indy or Star Wars score.  1941 is creeping up into my top 10.

 

 

 

[Naïve Old Fart 10,525]

To Hollywood, and glory!!!!

 

"Top-10?" Piffle!

It currently resides at #4 in my all-time top-5 JW scores.

Now, let me hear ya guns?

My what?!

Ya guns!

[Bellosh 3,941]

6 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

To Hollywood, and glory!!!!

 

"Top-10?" Piffle!

It currently resides at #4 in my all-time top-5 JW scores.

Now, let me hear ya guns?

My what?!

Ya guns!

 

90% of the time i'm in this thread, it's due to a caffeine high + listening to JW.

 

maybe i'll replace The Terminal with 1941 in my list.

[Naïve Old Fart 10,525]

Forget caffeine. All you need is 1941, Adventures On Earth, and The Asteroid Field 

[Bellosh 3,941]

plus this:

 

 

[Naïve Old Fart 10,525]

Yep, and The Mine Car Chase.

[ThePenitentMan1 1,064]

Nothing gets me really moving quite like Desert Chase.

[Darth Mulder 154]

 

I don't remember this score well. This short moment is brilliant. With a slightly altered tone, it can work as a victory motif.

[Naïve Old Fart 10,525]

It's a great piece. Of course, it's better live 

[Bayesian 1,435]

On the occasion of the release of the new and improved Jurassic Park soundtrack, there's a musical moment when Lex is rebooting the park's computer systems I always found incredibly satisfying, both standalone and in context of the scene it was written for.  At 0:32 in this clip, you hear the main theme's first attempt to assert itself triumphantly when Lex realizes she might be able to solve the lock failure problem. The theme fails to assert itself in full once, then twice, but then finally, after she gets the locks powered on, at 1:39, it succeeds.

 

 

The theme's melody at 1:24 is complete, but it's harmonically "off"--it doesn't sound triumphant, it sounds like it's striving, grasping for catharsis. At 1:33, it tries again, sounding surer of itself, but cuts short at 1:37--in time for us to see the locks activate and for us to process the "win"--and then we hear three pairs of notes in bright metal percussion (chimes maybe?) usher in the payoff after a full minute of ratcheting tension--the theme stated in its full harmonically resolved beauty, complete with brass punctuation in the half cadence at 1:45.

 

I love that chimes moment in particular, which you can hear at 3:33 in this track:

 

 

[Brando 2,181]

From my personal edit (and therefore a film rip since the film's insert hasn't been released yet), but the Lost Boys arriving at the scene of the battle in Hook. The music takes a turn as Peter is caught by net and pulled down by the pirates and then immediately shifts gears and the orchestra swells as he shouts Bangarang and the Lost Boys swing down to battle with the pirates. Such a fun, exciting moment. For some reason it won't paste at the timestamp, but 3:35 is where it starts.

 

 

[BB-8 4,047]

 

[BB-8 4,047]

 

[artguy360 1,909]

I love JW's SW transition music. I feel like the sequel trilogy didn't have as many great scene transition highlights though. Am I wrong?

[Tom Guernsey 2,735]

1 hour ago, artguy360 said:

I love JW's SW transition music. I feel like the sequel trilogy didn't have as many great scene transition highlights though. Am I wrong?

I agree, they are terrific. I don’t think the sequel trilogy did have many, they were all too “efficiently” edited for that kind of thing. There’s a few from AOTC and ROTS that weren’t on the soundtrack albums that I’d really love to hear properly sometime. Eventually. Before the heat death of the universe. 

[Docteur Qui 1,575]

5 hours ago, artguy360 said:

I love JW's SW transition music. I feel like the sequel trilogy didn't have as many great scene transition highlights though. Am I wrong?

 

You're absolutely right. Some of the best things JW has ever written are fanfares or amazing thematic variations for otherwise boring shots of ships taking off and landing. The sequels were too slick for their own good!

[mrbellamy 6,797]

5 hours ago, artguy360 said:

I love JW's SW transition music. I feel like the sequel trilogy didn't have as many great scene transition highlights though. Am I wrong?

 

Feel like there were a few factors that went into this. Fewer "wipes" in general, maybe more notable interior than exterior locations, less planet-hopping built into the narrative...compared to the prequels, especially, I think probably more variety in how they were cutting between story threads, sometimes they'd just do a hard-cut in for example. There's that stuff in Last Jedi where Poe's mutiny and Finn/Rose undercover are edited and scored as basically continuous action. Whereas I think Lucas settled on a pretty uniform "stop the scene, wipe to a grand establishing shot" for a ton of transitions in the writing and editing as he went along. You can look up the count of the wipes in each episode lol, the sequels each are under 20 while the OT averages around 40. Meanwhile Ep III has 102....

 

But I feel like whenever the sequels set Williams up for a few seconds on a big exterior, especially going in from a wipe, he'd do a little something. Probably the best of these from each movie imo.

 

 

 

 

[artguy360 1,909]

6 hours ago, Docteur Qui said:

 

You're absolutely right. Some of the best things JW has ever written are fanfares or amazing thematic variations for otherwise boring shots of ships taking off and landing. The sequels were too slick for their own good!

I don't think the sequel movies are very slick at all. I think the smaller scope of the films (especially compared to the prequel trilogy) meant there were fewer expansive shots of planets and environments and less frequent cutting back and forth between different characters on different worlds. The sequel trilogy is more roughly constructed and with less of a sweeping feel and scale.

[Brando 2,181]

1:25-1:27. The Desert Chase is already perfect but this 2 second moment underscoring Indy looking down onto the truck is something I look forward to every time this track starts.

 

[Manakin Skywalker 5,364]

Speaking of Indiana Jones

 

 

[Andy 5,215]

Why this section from 00:50-01:15 was cut from the album arrangement, I have no idea.

 

Those stabs from the celli and brass as Brody collects his gear to begin climbing the mast. And then... somehow the strings feel so strained and tired as the Orca sinks.  The strings and harp pair so well with the shot of the sunlight seeming to wane.   

 

 

[Brando 2,181]

14 hours ago, Manakin Skywalker said:

Speaking of Indiana Jones

 

 

5:43 of this in the film pairs so well with the blast of the train horn chugging along in the background of the shot. The sound design here is oh so so good.

[BB-8 4,047]

 

0:00 - 0:06

[Loert 2,740]

^^^ That transition just screams "bootleg recording"

 

Oh, um, it's my turn, um... I really love the string chords from 2:26

 

 

[Jay 39,755]

I love all the love The Last Crusade has been getting lately in various threads.  Always been a favorite score of mine!

[Brando 2,181]

Mentioned Indy a several times, now I’ll reference some JP moments: 5:15 here. This little descending(right term?)note as the Buck hears his baby crying and turns his head and roars. Literally anytime I turn my head this plays in my mind. It changes the course of the track, in a way, from a complete rampage thru the city to a chase after the baby. And then of course you have the brilliantly scored chase as the jungle drums return in a frenzy. Absolutely perfect.

 

[Holko 10,396]

15 hours ago, Brando said:

And then of course you have the brilliantly scored chase as the jungle drums return in a frenzy.

Oh wow. Haven't seen the movie in years and wasn't planning to watch it again... the chase I imagined for this section was so so so much better and more fitting to the music

[Darth Mulder 154]

 

This sounds like Don Davis to me. 

[Edmilson 9,122]

Visitor in San Diego is probably my favorite action cue by Williams.

[Andy 5,215]

That moment referred is very “monster movie” music to me. 

[Brando 2,181]

1 hour ago, Andy said:

That moment referred is very “monster movie” music to me. 

Very much so. Over the top Spielberg movies are so much fun (looking at you too, Temple of Doom).

[Andy 5,215]

I like the Lost World as a movie.  I never expected more from what it delivers.

[Brando 2,181]

57 minutes ago, Andy said:

I like the Lost World as a movie.  I never expected more from what it delivers.

I love it because it’s fun. It’s a balance of dark and silliness. Trailers hanging over a cliff? Most likely very implausible. But because of this ridiculous scene we get extremely great and fun action cues to listen to.