Books and articles about John Williams - please help everyone :)

[Petr Potter 40]

Hey there!

 

i am studying musicology and for my semestral work i have to map out books and articles about John Williams.  Do you know some book about John Williams? Do you know some articles?  (the most important ones) ?

 

In case you want to be even more helpful could you write me what was the book about and how it was written? I dont have that much money to buy each book or magazine to study it. I can buy only few.

 

Thank you so much for any info.

 

THE MORE INFO, THE BETTER!

 

 

[GerateWohl 4,371]

Read this: 

And I propose you just search with "book john williams" here and at amazon.

[Falstaft 2,132]

Emilio's book (specifically the second edition) should be your starting point, and his edited volume (if you or your library can afford it!).

 

If it's specifically Star Wars you're interested in, I've got a pretty substantial and ever-growing bibliography in here: franklehman.com/starwars. I'd also plug Chloe Huvet's recent book, which is a tremendous milestone in JW studies, whether you speak French or not.

 

There's plenty, plenty beyond this, but you should explore on your own, and put those growing musicological research skills to work! Chase up interesting sounding sources, see who gets cited more in order to gauge impact, and (importantly, because this is still a field in its infancy), figure out what hasn't been studied yet!

[filmmusic 1,838]

17 minutes ago, Falstaft said:

I'd also plug Chloe Huvet's recent book, which is a tremendous milestone in JW studies, whether you speak French or not.

What is this book about? have you read it? Is it a musicological book or is it addressed to the general reader?

Unfortunately I don't speak French.

I understand it's specifically about Star Wars?

[ConorPower 148]

Falstaft has given you good starting points, but there has been an increasing amount of musicological work on JW of late — so it would be impossible to pin down everything. And check the bibliographies of the books/chapters too! 

 

I quite like Tom Schneller's look at Williams's use of modal interchange across numerous themes. It really helped me get started with my own research. 

 

There's also some theses I've seen online focussed on Harry Potter and A.I., among others. 

 

(I'll also plug my first article that came out last year)

 

(Also DM'd you a link you might find helpful).

 

2 hours ago, filmmusic said:

Is it a musicological book or is it addressed to the general reader?

Unfortunately I don't speak French.

I understand it's specifically about Star Wars?

Yes it is a musicological book, written entirely French. It's focussed on the original and prequel trilogies specifically.

[filmmusic 1,838]

I'd also plug my own Ph.D. dissertation on John Williams's style (unfortunately in Greek):

https://pergamos.lib.uoa.gr:8443/uoa/dl/frontend/file/lib/default/data/2926491/theFile

 

Summary:

The present dissertation aims to outline John Williams’s style, as it is evident through his film music themes (1975-2018), from a sample of 71 films.
In the introductory chapter the definitions of style and theme are clarified while the historical significance of 1975 with Jaws – as the starting year of study of the composer’s style – is pointed out. The present bibliography around Williams that has to do mainly with the narrative nature of the themes is touched upon onward, the chapters of the research are summarized and the methodology that was used for the writing of the project is presented.
The first chapter examines the horizontal axis, namely melody. The composer’s difficulty in building melodies that sound inevitable is noted, while some common melodic features of his themes are mentioned like a distinctive rhythmic design that gives melody breath, distinctive note patterns with large leaps from the very first bars, unique to the composer’s style, as well as well-defined phrases with strict borders that remind of neoclassical themes. Fourths, fifths and seconds constitute dominant intervals in melodic building, while Aeolian mode is dominant among the composer’s modal melodies.
The second and largest chapter of the dissertation concerns harmony which is mainly chromatic but tonal, an amalgamation of older styles and composers. Harmonic occurrences that pertain to the quality of the chords like modal inflections, specific harmonic progressions like the “tarnhelm” progression and the progression that includes the raised subdominant, double dominants, parallel harmony etc. are presented in specific examples, while the nature of their structure like in quartal harmony, in seventh etc. chords, in added-note chords and in pedal, doesn’t remain unexplored.
In the third chapter of formal archetypes some of the most basic syntax types of the total volume of Williams’s themes are pointed out, with sentence and period – both originating from classical prototypes – dominating. In the meantime some “new” types are mentioned like the sentence with a dissolving third statement, the trifold sentence or the developing sentence, all more modern versions of the classical sentence. A summarized statistical table is presented in the end of the chapter, that examines each type’s frequency in the themes under analysis, as well as some conclusions that are hidden under the numbers.
Thematic unity constitutes the subject of the fourth and final chapter. After the need for connective elements between the themes of a film is examined, the chapter moves on to 11 examples from films where the phenomenon is more or less evident. These connections consist of motivic similarities in the foreground or background, while the analyses are influenced in a large degree from Reti’s, The thematic process in music.
The epilogue, after formulating in its beginning the dissertation’s contribution to the academic world, namely the grouping and systematic presentation of the general stylistic traits of Williams as a film composer, summarizes and recaps its basic points.

 

[Petr Potter 40]

Thank you people !

 

can someone post another source or summary? Thank you !:) 

15 hours ago, Falstaft said:

Emilio's book (specifically the second edition) should be your starting point, and his edited volume (if you or your library can afford it!).

 

If it's specifically Star Wars you're interested in, I've got a pretty substantial and ever-growing bibliography in here: franklehman.com/starwars. I'd also plug Chloe Huvet's recent book, which is a tremendous milestone in JW studies, whether you speak French or not.

 

There's plenty, plenty beyond this, but you should explore on your own, and put those growing musicological research skills to work! Chase up interesting sounding sources, see who gets cited more in order to gauge impact, and (importantly, because this is still a field in its infancy), figure out what hasn't been studied yet!

 

man if you are Frank Lehman, than man, i must give you a big wow!

i do know about you about 10 years already and i do read your stuff. You are just amazing.

 

[Petr Potter 40]

On 03/04/2023 at 6:54 PM, filmmusic said:

I'd also plug my own Ph.D. dissertation on John Williams's style (unfortunately in Greek):

https://pergamos.lib.uoa.gr:8443/uoa/dl/frontend/file/lib/default/data/2926491/theFile

 

Summary:

The present dissertation aims to outline John Williams’s style, as it is evident through his film music themes (1975-2018), from a sample of 71 films.
In the introductory chapter the definitions of style and theme are clarified while the historical significance of 1975 with Jaws – as the starting year of study of the composer’s style – is pointed out. The present bibliography around Williams that has to do mainly with the narrative nature of the themes is touched upon onward, the chapters of the research are summarized and the methodology that was used for the writing of the project is presented.
The first chapter examines the horizontal axis, namely melody. The composer’s difficulty in building melodies that sound inevitable is noted, while some common melodic features of his themes are mentioned like a distinctive rhythmic design that gives melody breath, distinctive note patterns with large leaps from the very first bars, unique to the composer’s style, as well as well-defined phrases with strict borders that remind of neoclassical themes. Fourths, fifths and seconds constitute dominant intervals in melodic building, while Aeolian mode is dominant among the composer’s modal melodies.
The second and largest chapter of the dissertation concerns harmony which is mainly chromatic but tonal, an amalgamation of older styles and composers. Harmonic occurrences that pertain to the quality of the chords like modal inflections, specific harmonic progressions like the “tarnhelm” progression and the progression that includes the raised subdominant, double dominants, parallel harmony etc. are presented in specific examples, while the nature of their structure like in quartal harmony, in seventh etc. chords, in added-note chords and in pedal, doesn’t remain unexplored.
In the third chapter of formal archetypes some of the most basic syntax types of the total volume of Williams’s themes are pointed out, with sentence and period – both originating from classical prototypes – dominating. In the meantime some “new” types are mentioned like the sentence with a dissolving third statement, the trifold sentence or the developing sentence, all more modern versions of the classical sentence. A summarized statistical table is presented in the end of the chapter, that examines each type’s frequency in the themes under analysis, as well as some conclusions that are hidden under the numbers.
Thematic unity constitutes the subject of the fourth and final chapter. After the need for connective elements between the themes of a film is examined, the chapter moves on to 11 examples from films where the phenomenon is more or less evident. These connections consist of motivic similarities in the foreground or background, while the analyses are influenced in a large degree from Reti’s, The thematic process in music.
The epilogue, after formulating in its beginning the dissertation’s contribution to the academic world, namely the grouping and systematic presentation of the general stylistic traits of Williams as a film composer, summarizes and recaps its basic points.

 

hey its amazing!

 

can you please tell me how i can quote this disertation? seems i cant translate the name of university, the department of study, thx! 

[filmmusic 1,838]

5 hours ago, Pierre said:

can you please tell me how i can quote this disertation? seems i cant translate the name of university, the department of study, thx! 

I don't know which system you use but it's basically:

Konstantinos Zacharopoulos, The film music of John Williams (1975-2018): melody, harmony, formal archetypes and thematic unity, Ph.D. dissertation, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens 2020.

 

In the end you can find a bibliography with many Williams articles, theses etc. 

[The Lost Folio 183]

I recently updated the (chronological) bibliography on my website, which I am sharing here in case that may be of interest to anyone. I tried to make it as thorough as possible, although I'm sure several other sources exist. I excluded all dissertations/theses, interviews, and newspaper articles. You can find the bibliography here: https://sites.google.com/view/johnwilliamspiano/bibliography

[igger6 894]

Every now and then, a thread reveals how many people on this board are actually, imperceptibly, posting in their second language, and I am blown away.  Ya done good in school, kids!  I would never have known.

[Thor 7,518]

Great work and list, The Lost Folio! You are of course aware that all of those books are based on existing theses of some kind? The first non-thesis-based biography book on John Willams is (hopefully) coming next year, by Tim Grieving.

[mrbellamy 6,288]

More like a year and a half, Tim's announcement said Spring 2025 

[Jurassic Shark 12,083]

So there's still time to beat him to the finish line.

[BB-8 3,481]

Apparently Pierre has now reached safer waters.

 

 

[leahquinn62 0]

On 03/04/2023 at 11:44 AM, Petr Potter said:

Hey there!

 

i am studying musicology and for my semestral work i have to map out books and articles about John Williams.  Do you know some book about John Williams? Do you know some articles?  (the most important ones) ?

 

In case you want to be even more helpful could you write me what was the book about and how it was written? I dont have that much money to buy each book or magazine to study it. I can buy only few.

 

Thank you so much for any info.

 

THE MORE INFO, THE BETTER!

 

 

Here's a hint... For starters, be sure to include The Music of John Williams: 40 Years of Film Music by Emmy Westbrook on your list. It's a fascinating dive into Williams' creative world, revealing his technique, style and influence on film music. Enjoy studying it, because this author really shares interesting insights!

[filmmusic 1,838]

4 minutes ago, leahquinn62 said:

Here's a hint... For starters, be sure to include The Music of John Williams: 40 Years of Film Music by Emmy Westbrook on your list. It's a fascinating dive into Williams' creative world, revealing his technique, style and influence on film music. Enjoy studying it, because this author really shares interesting insights!

Why can't I find anything about this book in google?

[Holko 9,529]

Is it a bot?

[Thor 7,518]

If you have people to translate for you (I don't think Google Translate works on pdfs), here's my Norwegian article on the Robert Altman/John Williams collection, published in the film magazine Z in 2019 (page 32):

 

 

Z filmtidsskrift_regissør og komponist_Pressepdf.pdf

[Faleel 5,359]

1 hour ago, Holko said:

Is it a bot?

I would assume, isn't "The Music of John Williams: 40 Years of Film Music" a compilation CD?

[Miguel Andrade 1,263]

It's a SilvaScreen compilation: https://www.discogs.com/release/4640885-John-Williams-The-Music-Of-John-Williams-40-Years-Of-Film-Music

[Holko 9,529]

1 hour ago, Faleel said:

I would assume, isn't "The Music of John Williams: 40 Years of Film Music" a compilation CD?

Yeah, and no real info about an author with that name either.