John Williams with the LSO for recording the music for SW2 Attack of the Clones. Footage shows the music making process between Director George Lucas and Williams. It also shows the recording of the famous love theme "Across the Stars".
I think what makes John Williams seem better to older composers is that his work comes in tandem with materpeice films, which allow a greater understanding of what his music is about, pulling on the emotions a bit more. Such is the benefit of living in modern times.
Matter fact, John Williams Marked me. Concerning Movies History, I rank him 2nd after German Gottfried Huppertz (Metropolis, Die Nebelungen). Concerning US History, I also rank him 2nd, my first one was George Gershwin (An American in Paris, Rhapsody in Blue). John Williams is ABSOLUTELY THE BEST COMPOSER STILL LIVING IN THE WHOLE WORLD. Thank you.
Everytime I listen a track by him I think: "Oh shit, he's a genius" I mean, that harmonies are just so beautiful... I don't know, it blinds me by some kind of powerful marvel. :-)
which is why Williams records several takes of his cues... to make sure that he can get exactly what he wants...the nuance of the emotion from the orchestra.
In the first take, some of the horn players played the second note long, and some of them played it slightly shorter. The second take has a clear space, or "lift", between the second and third note. This makes the passage much more clear. The second note is the long note that Mr. Williams is referring. The horn players agreed on the timing of the cutoff of the note. Also, they emphasized the beginning of the second note a little more the second time, adding to its importance.
Again, how can there be 3 dislikes??????, this is a work of genius. I put John Williams up with the great composers, his work is astounding and will live on forever. I will be devastated when he passes away, such a wonderful man as well as a genius composer.
At 3:00, he says there has never been a love theme in any Star Wars film, yet if I remember correctly there was a love theme in episode v called "Han Solo and the Princess". Its the song that is played when Han is lowered in to the carbonite chamber.
Rochestas and Tonyzebologna> Mr. Williams has said the orchestra rehearses. For Star Wars, Mr. Williams has been quoted saying that they record about 15 minutes of music each day, over a period of about 2 weeks. They don't have concert rehearsals, but for tuning and timing considerations, they do rehearse all throughout the day and record all throughout as well. Tiffanynicolega> I agree.
I would in fact agree, not matter what they may claim every composer has "Borrowed" from every other previous composer, they may not realize it but it's true, It can sometimes be subconcious becuase it comes from the music you expose yourself to, it just comes out sometimes. And I would have to say that while williams borrows sometimes, as all composers do, he does have many original ideas.
True. I think that they just plain forgot about "Han Solo and the Princess", after all it isnt usually the most played piece in all of the star wars repitoire.
Yeah, unlike all the other genres, classical (technically it's not "classical" but you get the point) musical compositions choose not to comp multiple takes, meaning they don't take the best from each take to make one great take. They have to be perfect through the entire take! To make matters even MORE difficult, the songs are usually > 5 min. That's a LONG time for 90+ people to be perfect ALL at the same time!!!
I think they mean in a leitmotific manner. However, they might be saying, "THIS IS THE FIRST LOVE THEME FOR STAR WARS" to get some extra attention, hahaha.
@nikkiwhite40 Those people are hired by a Music Contractor - it is extremely difficult to get into this type of an orchestra, and the people that make it can sight-read extremely, extremely well. They get about one read through and then they have to play it through - perfectly. Plus - on top of all that - time is money so there is a lot of pressure for everything to go smoothly.
That oboe sound solo around the 30s mark sounds the best I have ever heard, even better than the official recordings... What happened? Was it more pronounced in this take or something else? It seemed to out class the entire orchestra.
very brilliant composer. i guess though, which is no problem as long as u can still do ur job but i guess hes old style? he could use like finale and sibelius to hear his music. but thats ok he has his reasons even if they are as simple as he wants to be surprised the first time he stands in front of the orchestra. still he is phenomonal and a great inspiration for myself as an aspiring composer so whatever works for him he better keep up, i just wanted to point it out
it only takes him 2-3 months to do 2 and a half hours of music!! my god! that's painfully difficult, that's al experience that is! tis what i'm going for! i hope it comes naturally with more experiene =D
Williams is brilliant. What bugs me is hearing McCallum and Lucas praise Williams up and down, yet they had no problem hacking apart his music in Clones and Sith. Williams MADE the Star Wars films, and they should have treated his music better in these two films, instead of cutting and pasting so much of Williams score (e.g. Pasting in old "Empire Strikes Back" music for Revenge of the Sith)
With the little bit that I know, I think it was more convenient for John Williams at his age to work in Los Angeles. It is quite strange though, all six of George's films were with LSO, and I'm left scratching my head if the reason given is to actually be believed.
This is extremely unoriginal music, but I guess that's part of writing 'serious' music as the sound track to a blockbuster movie. Thank goodness for Mahler, Debussy, Holst - the main sources for Mr. Williams' material.
Yes tonyzebologna, this particular song is easy , Im talking about the entire score. I dont care what anyone says, sight reading an entire score is fraking hard.
there are a lot of great composer of filmmusic in history and I don't think that John Williams is the greatest. For exemple Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Alfred Newman, Bernhard Hermann etc.
John Williams isnt unique and there are two words that can describe his music,Igor Stravinzky. If you listen to Stravinzky's Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) or even Petrushka you can clearly hear that he completely took lines from those, even some Wagner, and he recycles his works.If you listen to some things from the original star wars trilogy and then Indiana Jones like when he is going into the lighting room in Raiders of the Lost Ark its the same lite motif. So check them out...
"I repeat - Mr. Williams doesn't have any original ideas, but rather, he 'borrows' from the early 20th-century." Apparently a bunch of people don't realize that... In any case, I wouldn't say that means that Williams is completely unoriginal or untalented. Nearly everything Sam Spence ever wrote, for example, contained a reference to something else, or took it's theme from some folk tune, but the music of NFL Films is moving in a way much of its source material is not.
