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Unexpected random encounters with the music of John Williams


Fabulin

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  • 1 month later...

WQXR (one of the biggest classical radio stations, based in NYC) just played several selections from the “John Williams Conducts the Star Wars Trilogy” release. I caught Leia’s Theme, Imperial March, Yoda’s Theme, Parade of the Ewoks, and Here They Come. Probably started with the Main Theme, too. Quite a nice surprise to tune into! Was surprised that it just kept going and going.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've had a lot of weird encounters with his music and others.....and I find its never the hits its always something older or from the deep tracks.

I was in a hotel in Chengdu, Sichuan-China and they were playing the theme to Jane Eyre in the elevator (lift), but only after 6PM, before that it was other music.

 

Sometimes you go on rides at theme parks too that are not a JW brand and they use his music anyway- like at six flags or something or Soarin at Disney used to play the music from Hook.

 

In Japan you hear a lot of stuff like this. I was walking past a construction site in Tokyo with a construction elevator going up and down playing the theme from The Main Street Electrical Parade, which was a Disney parks parade in the 80's. I was so thrown off I had to stop for a minute and watch it to like....register that thing existed haha.

 



 

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I was at a used book sale at my local library, and I overheard a group of people spontaneously talking about what a legend John Williams is, continuing to score the Indiana Jones franchise. I almost dropped into the conversation, but I thought I might scare them away with my level of passion for his music. :)

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Last Friday, I was flipping through SiriusXM and pausing on the Symphony Hall channel when I heard the closing strains of "Amazing Stories" segueing into something else familiar.  Turns out the Classics on Film show was doing a Williams special!  When I checked the app to see if I could listen to the whole episode, they only listed the previous two (Jan. 27 and Feb. 3), so I figured I'd check again after the weekend to see if they updated the list.  Today, the Jan. 27 show is gone, the Feb. 3 is still there, but no Feb. 10 show. 

 

It's a conspiracy, I tell ya!  Maybe this means the show closed with clean recordings of the Vienna Fanfare and "Of Grit and Glory." :flush:

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Watching the world championship in biathlon this week, I hear Williams all over the place. STAR WARS, Raiders' March and the Olympic theme for the medal ceremony. Also some other film music things, like Debney's CUTTHROAT ISLAND.

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If you ever watch golf you may well hear The river, i know ive said this before. Anywhere you hear john is a wonderful thing. He is a treasure

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I can finally contribute to this thread! I don’t follow this Instagram page, but it popped up because I like videos of dachshunds frequently, and this popped up just now, but please enjoy. make sure your sound is on https://www.instagram.com/reel/CloRuTPLwwg/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

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  • 4 weeks later...

"Reverie" from The Fabelmans was used on German TV (ZDF) in a short documentary about shelters for victims of violence against women...

 

from 32:08 onwards...

https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/zdf-mittagsmagazin/zdf-mittagsmagazin-vom-15-maerz-2023-100.html

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  • 4 weeks later...
3 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

Bed music?

It’s what my friend called it (he’s one of those people who has Radio 2 on in the background all the time). It’s the music at the start when she introduces what’s coming up on the show. Not quite theme music but sort of!

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On 17/3/2023 at 6:08 PM, Marian Schedenig said:

At the risk of embarrassing myself, can someone explain the joke? It’s a sweet sixteen bracket, yes, but that’s the only thing I can figure.

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5 hours ago, Bayesian said:

At the risk of embarrassing myself, can someone explain the joke? It’s a sweet sixteen bracket, yes, but that’s the only thing I can figure.

March, as in musical march (and some other kinds too).  

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  • 3 weeks later...
23 hours ago, Quppa said:

 

Just saw this on TV.

Saw this a few months ago in Aus when they were showing it in the Australian Open stadiums - it was a strange surprise but welcome. 

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"Mission Theme", just now, on BBC Radio 2. I've no idea why it was on Radio 2, and I don't want to know.

The highest of the high forced to rub shoulders with the lowest of the low, squeezed in, between Harry Styles, and Ellie Goulding, on The Sara Cox Show.

Fuck's sake.

 

 

 

 

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At the risk of doing a Jay (sorry Jay ;-)...

 

On 11/04/2023 at 4:42 PM, Tom Guernsey said:

On Radio 2 weekday afternoons, Sara Cox uses The Mission (NBC News) theme as her bed music. Better than the other music on her show 😜

 

1 hour ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

"Mission Theme", just now, on BBC Radio 2. I've no idea why it was on Radio 2, and I don't want to know.

The highest of the high forced to rub shoulders with the lowest of the low, squeezed in, between Harry Styles, and Ellie Goulding, on The Sara Cox Show.

Fuck's sake.

 

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Not particularly unexpected, but I don't know where else to put this: You know you're a John Williams fan when you hear TIE fighter and lightsaber noises from the neighbours' TV through the wall and can tell that they're watching the end of ESB because of the bits of score that are clear enough to recognise. (Yesterday, it was SW. I can't make out any actual dialogue, but judging from the intonation, it must be the German dubs)

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Finally get around to Mr Mom by Lee Holdridge (fun score!) and Man Against Vacuum is a clear Jaws parody... however a much more random encounter that didn't feature JW's music from Seinfeld where George is supposedly watching Home Alone on VHS (I know, the ageing) and some plinky comedy music plays that is meant to be the soundtrack but clearly sounds nothing like Home Alone. It's not even Christmassy, indeed it sounds more like something from a kid's TV show. The IMDB even comments on it (Seinfeld has the most ridiculously detailed IMDB pages).

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23 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

Please tell me I'm not the only one who hears a certain John Williams march when looking at this picture:

 

Huh? What march?

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I was getting my teeth cleaned at the dentist this morning in utter silence, so I asked the dental hygienist what happened to the music that usually plays in the room.

 

Well she goes to her computer (which I wasn't expecting; formerly it was just the generic adult contemporary stuff from the reception area was also in the rooms) and started playing something through Spotify or whatever it was she had.

 

First couple pieces were all instrumental, but nothing I recognized.  Then all of a sudden MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA comes on!  I almost didn't believe it at first, but soon enough it was clear that was definitely what it was

 

We got to talking about John Williams a bit, though she actually recognized it as a Yo-Yo Ma piece more so than a Williams one

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I've been living in South Korea for 11 years, and one of the reasons I never watch Korean reality TV is because of its constant onslaught of OCD editing. 

 

Basically 99 percent of every a reality or variety show's runtime is filled with onscreen text accompanied by sound effects, and they constantly play 15 to 60 second clips of music, with only a few seconds void of music between each track. 

 

So whenever someone starts talking about a new topic, or has some kind of reaction to something, it switches to some new music. 

 

It's almost exclusively copywrited music from anywhere in the world, sometimes film music, sometimes pop, and sometimes classical, and primarily from western counties. I wonder if the production companies buy some kind of blanket license to allow them to use basically whatever music they want. 

 

I've heard John Williams pieces dozens of times, mostly Harry Potter or Star Wars, to the point where it's no longer an "unexpected random encounter" because I'm always expecting it. 

 

I always get irrationally angry when it's some film music I like because it's taken so out of context that it detracts from the impact of the piece. 

 

For example on some comedic variety show, someone does something in a determined way then the imperial March starts playing. Or when someone on a travel show walks into a European village saying "wooww it's so beautiful" and they play Hedwigs Theme, or test flight from HTTYD if they want it to sound more exciting. 

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