John Williams and Jaws

Dun...dun...dun...dun....dun, dun, dun, dun. Who says you can't hear writing?

Those two alternating notes - E and F or F and F sharp - represented something primal and relentless in the shark and our fear in the Jaws, as we only see four minutes of the shark in the entire film, the music - along with the pov camera and the yellow barrels - became the shark.

Here's our exclusive interview with Ben Palmer, talking about conducting Jaws with a live orchestra and bringing the Williams score to life.

John Williams had one rule, to never fool the audience, if you watch the scenes with the cardboard fan or underwater shots where the sharks isn't there, we never here the Jaws theme. We only here it when the shark is there.

Having got us used to that rule, once we are aboard Orca and the shark appears from the water in front of a chumming Roy Scheider or to rip the rope from Robert Shaw's hands, the shark appears without musical warning. It's an effective surprise as much to the lack of an accompanying score as it is to the framing of the shot and the editing. All working together perfectly.

Not that Spielberg felt that way when Williams introduced him to those two notes that would go onto scare millions in the their cinema seats and out of the water. Initially Spielberg thought that Williams, when he played the now famous theme on the piano, was joking. He soon came round to the understanding that it was essentially the life-force of the shark.

Speaking in an interview to the LA Times, John Williams, said: "It could be something you could play very softly, which would indicate that the shark is far away when all you see is water. Brainless music that gets louder and gets closer to you, something is gonna swallow you up.”

Spielberg thought he was going to get something other worldly and grandiose, and initally laughed at the repeated notes presented to him, but he would go onto credit John Williams' score as the reason for half the success of Jaws. And it's true.

It's also true that the Jaws score is so much more than the Jaws theme, the character of the shark may have his own theme, a leitmotif, so does Orca and its crew. In fact is has several, promoting adventure on the high seas and the thrill of the chase. And for me, it's here where the Jaws score really excels - especially when the various themes are mixed.

My favourite pieces of Jaws music is the sea-shanty feel of ‘Out To Sea’ and its swashbuckling variants featuring the Orca theme of the ‘Great Chase’, ‘Man Against Beast’, ‘The Shark Cage Fugue’ and ‘Blown To Bits’. In the latter it’s hard to not resist mumbling like Brody and shouting blow up, blow up in perfect timing.

‘Man Against Beast’ in particular is my favourite as it is as if all the various themes in Jaws collide, vying for position, fighting for aural supremacy. It is quite literally breath-taking and for more is what really makes the score and film so memorable.

Check out this sublime video of ‘Man Against Beast’ that illustrates my point exactly, if I’m sounding a little Matt Hooper it’s intentional. This amazing clip hosted by Richard Dreyfuss shows him talking about the score and how it was so amazing he got dragged in and forgot he was in it, even after working on it for four months. We see a clip featuring sound but no music and then Williams steps up, baton in hand, to weave his musical magic. I dare you to not smile like a son-of-a-bitch whilst watching it.

The Jaws theme, as important and well-remembered as it is, is but the aperitif. This section of the score is the main course; it is both exhilarating and exhausting at the same time and has echoes of Korngold from 40 years earlier. It is sublime swashbuckling at its very best…or should that be beast?

And in 2005 the American Film Institute announced Jaws as the sixth greatest American film score of all time. Seems a little low if you ask me! Star Wars took the top spot.

Jaws could be categorised as part of the 70s disaster genre - this one being of natural disaster - and that was an arena of film making that John Williams had already more than made his mark in as he was on scoring duties for The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno and Earthquake, which filled screens with smoke and shakes the previous year.

Jaws would go onto win an Oscar for its score at the 1976 Academy Awards, with a little help from Spielberg, as he played clarinet on on of the tracks. So perhaps Spielberg did win a little piece of an Oscar for Jaws after all.

Williams didn't have far to go to collect his award though as he was in the orchestra pit conducting the orchestra for the prestigious awards ceremony. He'd previously won a golden statue for his adaptation of the music for Fiddler on the Roof, but this was his first for Best Original Score. So far, he has taken home a further three others, for Star Wars, E. T. - the extra terrestrial and Schindler's List.

What's also great about the music of John Williams is that his scores are timeless, they don't age. That orchestral score is as vibrant and as exciting as It was on the day it was released in the US, June 20 1975. It is still the score I return to most, whether that by on LP, CD or Spotify.

The method of delivery to my ears may have changed, but Williams' relevance and excellence - for any of his scores - not just Jaws, or the criminally under appreciated Jaws 2, remains a constant.

So, although Jaws was filmed in 1974 and the hair styles and fashions may specifically date it, the score - along with the filming and editing - is as fresh and crisp as it ever was. In fact with the second portion taking place at sea with three men on Orca, it could easily have been something shot last week. Jaws will never get long in the tooth.

Words Dean Newman

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