JOHN WILLIAMS

Probably because Williams is more or less retired, so anytime he does write something, it's a major event for score fans.

From Tony Carty at FSM....


Don’t you just love the BBC? Hardly anything all year then:
On Friday 14 December the TV channel BBC 4 presents:
8.10-9.00pm: ‘John Barry: Licence to Thrill’. A special Omnibus arts programme from the year 2000 which gave a profile of the acclaimed composer from Yorkshire who did so much to develop a unique ’Bondian’ style of music. Contributions to the documentary included Bond producer Barbara Broccoli and lyricist and close friend Don Black, among others.
9.00-10.30pm: ‘James Bond 50th Anniversary Gala Concert’. A special Bond music concert recorded at the Royal Festival Hall in central London, with an orchestra conducted by Carl Davis, and presented and narrated by Honor Blackman.
10.30-11.30pm: ‘… Sings James Bond’. Rarely seen short performances of some of the James Bond theme songs, uncovered from the BBC’s archives, and taken from a range of BBC shows and programmes from the last 40-50 years. Artists and groups include Matt Munro, Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones, Wings, Sheena Easton, A-ha, Tina Turner and Garbage.
Meanwhile . . .
On BBC Radio 2:
8.00-10.00pm: Friday Night is Music Night – A concert of the music of John Williams
The concert features the BBC Concert Orchestra under their Principal Conductor, Keith Lockhart who has worked with John and who took over from him as Principal Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra. They are joined by the choral forces of London Voices who have featured on many of John's film soundtracks including Star Wars and Harry Potter.
The concert recorded last month at the Watford Colosseum includes music from John's Academy Award winning scores - Jaws; Star Wars; E.T.; and the young violinist Charlie Siem joins the orchestra to perform music from Schindler's List. Also included Close Encounters of the Third Kind; Raiders of the Lost Ark; Empire of the Sun; The Witches of Eastwick; Hook; Jurassic Park; Amistad; Saving Private Ryan; Harry Potter; along with his most recent Oscar nominated scores for Warhorse and Tin Tin.
So, does anyone recall a line in a song by Flanders and Swann “We’re most gregarious” referring to buses?
Happy movie listening – Tony Carty

I think it has more to do with the composer than the country.

Oh Jesus! Not the everyone has opinions thing again! For crying out loud! This is a discussion board and we all have opinions... I thought this was common knowledge... and some opinions are right and some are wrong! FACT! <-- winky, winky... I'm joking. No one have a fit!

BTW, I will say though that when you mentioned that Michael Giacchino can't compose melodies - you might think that's just an opinion but that's where you are just flat out wrong. FACT! There's no defending that.

And if I want to say that the negative prequels reviews are right then I don't want to have to read yet another post on how we all have to respect out opinions and blah, blah, blah. Everyone is so sensitive these days.

-Erik-

You don't say!

-Erik-

Dear Captain, you should know that whilst the rest of us mortals have opinions, Erik's opinions are facts©

See I was right! And so was Steven! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!



Do you have any of Giacchino's Medal of Honor scores?

-Eik-

No. Too expensive! But I listened to bits of it on YouTube. Quite nice. I'm very cuirous about his next Star Trek score. (My main concern is though, that they come up with a cohesive story that isn't a collage of Star Wars elements.)
And Steven: The guy who inspired those last minute re-edits that turned everything to the worse?

As some of you may know, I currently have an 'obsession' in all things early Williams -- a quest for information about the 'seeds' of his creativity, both professionally and personally. I've explored all his early films (except for one that is impossible to find) and am currently trying to wade through his jungle of TV material in the 50's and 60's.

On the other hand, I also want to know a bit more about his background -- stuff that isn't covered in any biographies or the stories "between" the dates and facts.

In this search, I recently wanted to know more about Esther Towner Williams, JW's mom. We know a lot about his father, Johnny sr., who was famous session drummer in the 30's and 40's and 50's. But we don't know anything about his mother. What did she do? Was she involved in the entertainment biz? Was she in any way influential in JW's creativity?

Well, I still don't know anything about her profession, but I did manage to find a record of her at ancestry.com, and -- amazingly -- a PHOTO! So here's a photo of Esther (1909-2006):

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/6411 … lliams.jpg

Pretty cool, eh?

She certainly passed on half of hers!

Actually, I found the path all the way back to 1597. He, he...

I actually made a news segment of this over at montages.no:

http://montages.no/nyheter/john-william … star-wars/

Abrams has a great deal of clout. If he doesn't want to use John Williams, he probably won't have to. We'll see.

Yeah, umm, if Kathleen Kennedy wants Williams she'll get Williams.

-Erik-

I know Williams is the obvious choice, but I personally wouldn't mind seeing this go to someone like Giacchino. It's not unheard of that a composer takes the reigns from Williams and produces something equally worthy (Desplat). Not that I think anyone will ever be able to top Williams' original scores, but I'd like to hear a fresh take on the Star Wars universe, someone younger, and I think Giacchino is the man for the job. (The Force Unleashed scores, and of course McNeely's symphony, are great examples of this.)

I hope I didn't just commit film music social suicide by suggesting I'd rather hear a Giacchino Star Wars score than a new John Williams one.