Celebrating The Film Music Of John Williams

John Williams has scored some of the most widely recognised music in the history of cinema.

And even that sounds something of an understatement. Apart from The Color Purple (1985), Bridge of Spies (2014) and Ready Player One (2018), Williams has scored every Steven Spielberg directed film.

Williams may have created the music for Spielberg's body of film work, but beyond Jaws, Indiana Jones, E. T. and Jurassic Park, John Williams has scored the music to our lives.

A life that without it would have been a far duller place where we didn't have the scores for The Towering Inferno, Star Wars, Superman, The Witches of Eastwick, Home Alone, JFK, Harry Potter and SpaceCamp. Okay, perhaps not SpaceCamp.

And although his iconic scores are intertwined in our lives, whether it is the Superman theme at a sporting event or the E. T. theme being used on an advert for a phone company, he has also scored life. Williams career has included writing for four Olympic opening ceremonies.

His output is astounding, but not only that, it's the consistent quality of it and creation of truly memorable and beloved scores that continues to resonate.

Just consider the period between Jaws in 1975 and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in 1984, during that period we had:

Jaws 1975

Star Wars 1977

Superman 1978

Jaws 2 1978

Dracula 1979

The Empire Strikes Back 1980

Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981

E.T. - the extra terrestrial 1982

Return of the Jedi 1983

The River 1984

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 1984

Now, that's not a bad record for this - or any other - vicinity.

John Williams has been nominated for a total of 52 Oscars - only Walt Disney has been nominated for more.. The composer made traditional symphonic movie music cool again, creating recurring themes that we know instantly as soon as we hear them.

And he doesn't create music and mood, but also greats music for characters, also known as leitmotifs, obvious examples being the Indiana Jones theme or Superman theme, but even characters like Marion and Lois Lane get their own themes, as do the villains. Talking of which, the Jaws them IS the shark, without that rhythmic piano we wouldn't know if the shark was there or not, or how fast he was approaching.

The beauty and longevity of the music of John Williams is that it is infectious, who hasn't hummed the Star Wars theme, whistled Superman or recreated the Jaws theme in the swimming pool? It also works outside the world of the movie it was originally designed to represent, so you can enjoy the Jaws, Empire of the Sun or Schindler's List scores on their own merits as musical tour de forces.

That's come full circle now with - in a pre covid world anyway - auditoriums and orchestras across the world playing the film music of John Williams along to the actual films as they unfold.

John Williams had trained as a jazz pianist, one of his first roles in Hollywood was playing piano on Robert Wise's West Side Story (1961). It's a film Spielberg has remade, and is currently set for release later this year. And the score? Sadly, that isn't coming from Williams, which would have been fitting.

However, Spielberg and Williams are forever intertwined. Let's hope there are a few more collaborations in the bearded duo yet.

Discover more facts about John Williams here: https://thedailyjaws.com/blog/2018/10/18/22-things-you-need-to-know-about-john-williams

Words Dean Newman

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