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New JW Interview on Die Welt (in german)


TownerFan

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Cool! It's a little small to read properly, but it's mostly the standard questions and replies, from what I can glean. If I had the time and a better scan, I might be able to translate.

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Try right click - view image, then ctrl+scroll.

 

I can remember just enough German to tell that yes, these are not the most new and original questions, but little enough that I'd miss words that change the meaning of a sentence from agreement to denial or something, so I'll leave it to others.

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26 minutes ago, crumbs said:

It looks like part of the interview got cropped off underneath the photo. I could only find this low res version via their online portal:

q8AFJFu.jpg

 

Is John Williams joking or real?

He was asked about new releases of his older works in near future.

 

He said he just approved a 30 disc set of Star Wars, 15 CDs of Indiana Jones and 4 discs from Hook inclusive the abandoned Musical which he had recorded completely but told nobody before. And he approved the score to Sugarland Expres, The Rare Breed and Story of a Woman because he find it not too bad. And a new expansion from Heartbeeps, which he compares with Beethoven 5th.

 

I think he is joking.

 

EDIT: Never mind. Good take crumbs!

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13 minutes ago, ckappes said:

He said he just approved a 30 disc set of Star Wars, 15 CDs of Indiana Jones and 4 discs from Hook inclusive the abandoned Musical which he had recorded completely but told nobody before. And he approved the score to Sugarland Expres, The Rare Breed and Story of a Woman because he find it not too bad. And a new expansion from Heartbeeps, which he compares with Beethoven 5th.

 

I think he is joking.

 

I'm sure he's dead serious!

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4 hours ago, Thor said:

Cool! It's a little small to read properly, 

 

4 hours ago, Holko said:

The better scan is included right there. You just have to zoom in.

 

4 hours ago, Thor said:

I tried, but can't zoom in long enough. It's still relatively small.

 

 

On this forum, you have to click on a picture one to get the larger version, THEN CLICK ON IT AGAIN to get the fully-full-sized version in its own tab, that you can then zoom into all you want.


Remember: Two clicks!

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Great interview! But of course when it comes to minute details, caution is advised in taking everything verbatim... like him calling Wagner "God the Father", which crumbs has translated from the article's "Gottvater", which itself seems to be a mistranslation on the journalist's part of "Godfather", which means something slightly different ;)

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At least half of the answers in that interview (not counting crumbs' little addendum) don't really sound like Williams to me. And not just like very liberal translations into German either. More like they interviewed him and then took the gist of his answers and wrote their own original German version. Which makes me wonder how much we can trust the few new insights that are not part of his usual set of answers.

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9 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

At least half of the answers in that interview (not counting crumbs' little addendum) don't really sound like Williams to me. And not just like very liberal translations into German either. More like they interviewed him and then took the gist of his answers and wrote their own original German version. Which makes me wonder how much we can trust the few new insights that are not part of his usual set of answers.

Something about this translation is really weird and amateurish. What about "With a two-tone bass ostinato that gives a plastic monster danger." WTF is plastic monster danger? Is that a thing?

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6 minutes ago, MaxTheHouseelf said:

Something about this translation is really weird and amateurish. What about "With a two-tone bass ostinato that gives a plastic monster danger." WTF is plastic monster danger? Is that a thing?

 

That's Google Translate for you. You will always get bizarre phrasings.

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8 minutes ago, MaxTheHouseelf said:

Something about this translation is really weird and amateurish. What about "With a two-tone bass ostinato that gives a plastic monster danger." WTF is plastic monster danger? Is that a thing?

 

The German sentence checks out as a sentence. But it doesn't strike me as something William would say in response to a question about writing music for gas chamber scenes.

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8 minutes ago, MaxTheHouseelf said:

WTF is plastic monster danger? Is that a thing?

No, danger is the object of that sentence, so the motof gives danger to the plastic monster. Makes a sometimes kinda weak prop scary. It's comprehensible even if not perfect.

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39 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

At least half of the answers in that interview (not counting crumbs' little addendum) don't really sound like Williams to me. And not just like very liberal translations into German either. More like they interviewed him and then took the gist of his answers and wrote their own original German version. Which makes me wonder how much we can trust the few new insights that are not part of his usual set of answers.

This is what I thought as well, when I read the interview.

16 minutes ago, Thor said:

 

That's Google Translate for you. You will always get bizarre phrasings.

But that applies to the German text as well. I hope Die Welt didn't use Google translate.

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15 minutes ago, Thor said:

That's Google Translate for you. You will always get bizarre phrasings.

The german sentence makes no sense either. I thought the translation by @crumbs was already pretty accurate, but the german translation itself is not right.

 

16 minutes ago, Holko said:

No, danger is the object of that sentence, so the motof gives danger to the plastic monster. Makes a sometimes kinda weak prop scary. It's comprehensible even if not perfect.

I understand what is meant but it's still phrased weirdly.

 

18 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

The German sentence checks out as a sentence. But it doesn't strike me as something William would say in response to a question about writing music for gas chamber scenes.

Yeah, the transition makes no sense.

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11 hours ago, Darth Mulder said:

It's very odd interview. Williams seems to be unusual honest. Despite he did not say opinion on contemporary film music. I'm curious about that. 

Well, no answer is actually an answer. I'm quite sure he doesn't like it. Otherwise he would have said things like "Oh, I enjoy a lot of it. Especially....".

 

On the other hand, he doesn't watch movies and doesn't listen to music much. How can he have an opinion about something he hasn't heard?

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7 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

I'm surprised none of the German speaking people here have provided a proper translation. It it had been in Norwegian, I would have shared translation duties with @Thor and gotten it done in half an hour.

I can proof-read it later today.

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2 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

I'm surprised none of the German speaking people here have provided a proper translation. It it had been in Norwegian, I would have shared translation duties with @Thor and gotten it done in half an hour.

I actually started it yesterday, but as I saw @crumbstranslation, which was much more fluently written and better in terms of grammar than mine, I didn't go on with it. So it's already pretty accurate I'd say and you definitley understand all the important stuff. There are some small things like

 

21 hours ago, crumbs said:

Have you ever cried in the cinema?
No not true.

... that would be something like "No, not really." or

 

22 hours ago, crumbs said:

Still, you've come back to film. Why?

I had to earn money, I had a wife and children. And in the film business, where my father worked as a drummer in the studio orchestras, I was at home very early. I felt comfortable there as a pianist. You had to be quick, I learned that while watching television in my first years.

I think he wants to say something like..."I learned that in my first years working in the Film/TV industry."

 

But overall its pretty good.

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3 hours ago, Steve said:

Well, no answer is actually an answer. I'm quite sure he doesn't like it. Otherwise he would have said things like "Oh, I enjoy a lot of it. Especially....".

 

Yeah, I found that an odd response as well. Especially when he previously gushed about the way younger composers are experimenting with "electronics," discovering new textures, all these things he doesn't know how to do.

 

I'm sure he also once cited Out of Africa as a film he wishes he'd scored.

 

I'd say it's just Williams being polite and not wanting to make ripples in the industry. He's been around Hollywood long enough to play the game. He usually conveys what he's thinking through subtext, instead of outwardly stating things (ie. his constant public jabs at TFA's loud SFX, or the way he gushes about Abrams as a person in interviews vs ASM revealing his private dismay at how the last score was utterly butchered).

 

One thing that never changes is his love of the symphony orchestra, the virtuosity they can only achieve when playing together. It's not hard to guess what he thinks of modern film scores which rely on samples, record musicians via striping, then assemble scores in ProTools and process them to sound like SFX more than instruments. He made an impassioned plea back in 2019 about the way 'modern institutions were under threat,' citing the symphony orchestra as an endangered species (or words to that effect).

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https://www.welt.de/kultur/plus227230129/Komponist-John-Williams-Natuerlich-ist-mir-Darth-Vader-am-naechsten.html

 

The online version is behind a paywall, but from what we can get, it seems longer. The printed version was likely condensed.

 

Anyone from Germany with an account there able to check? Thanks in advance!

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2 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

I'm surprised none of the German speaking people here have provided a proper translation. It it had been in Norwegian, I would have shared translation duties with @Thor and gotten it done in half an hour.

I must appologize. I was the whole day off yesterday and I harldy managed to read the interview myself. And I saw the efforts made by the others, so I thought that point is covered. :blink:

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32 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

I must appologize. I was the whole day off yesterday and I harldy managed to read the interview myself. And I saw the efforts made by the others, so I thought that point is covered. :blink:

 

No need to apologize. :) As someone else pointed out, it's all about the small details which could change the meaning of an answer if not translated correctly.

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