John Williams - The true hero of the Saga?

John Williams is a national treasure. Unfortunately, we'll have to face SW life without him one day, BUT I am so thankful that he is going to be producing the music for the ST.

When I think of movies I simultaneously think of him.

Great thread! I'll definitely be coming back to discuss this more.

 

If you watch the first SW trailer from December 1976 without John Williams score, its like you're in a different world. Now I'm not saying it would have been a bad movie, but it would have been a different movie with a different score. John Williams scores are just memorable and they really stick with you. Think of Indiana Jones, Star Wars, ET, Jurassic Park, they are timeless.

 

John Williams is indeed a national treasure and THE preeminent composer for American cinema. JFK and The Terminal stand out to me, apart from SW and Indy of course. Schindler's List, Amistad, Close Encounters, 1941, and the list goes on. Critics are always so quick to point out how he borrows from Holst or Stravinsky, but George specifically asked for that. When John becomes one with the Force, his ghost will be the one appearing in every SW movie for all time.

 

I tend to think that the proliferation of music technology, affordable DAWs, etc. has made it a little too easy to "compose." There are some good composers out there today, but none so prolific and excellent as John Williams.

I've heard it said that "good composers borrow, but great composers steal."

 

Actually most of Lucas's friend and other people who watched the first film rough cuts without music found the entire movie near impossible to watch.

Personally I find that scene great. Wonderful scene great dialogue and acting from HS and NP. The music just adds to it.

 

John Williams IS the Force. *cue Binary Suns Theme*

 

Michael Giacchino would be the right successor for the movies.

 

Wow. You just made me remember when I was younger, and I had the OT on VHS (of course, then it was just "THE Star Wars Trilogy"). I totally forgot about this, but once I actually hooked up a a cassette tape recorder next to the TV so I could record the movie and listen to it in my room.

This was back when it was somewhat difficult to go to the store and pick up a soundtrack to any of the movies, especially for a kid like me. So that way I had the soundtrack (albeit with all the movie speech and sounds too). I completely forgot about that.

 

HAD?!

I still have mine sitting in my DVD case along with Episodes I & II on VHS, they never released Ep III on VHS.

 

Heh, I almost outed myself on the grievous error of letting my collectibles go. But actually I just misspoke. I still have my OT VHS set along with a Special Edition OT VHS set, tucked away in a box for safe-keeping.

I actually was never aware of such a feature on any of the DVDs. I tend to only half-delve into special items on a disc sometimes.

 

bit late to this thread.. but had to add to it.

whilst his music was only one piece of the jigsaw puzzle, i very much doubt we would all be here right now talking about how good star wars was and how much we were looking forward to next years new trilogy had he not done the music.

when luke loses it at vader mentioning his sister in ROTJ and the final fight begins.. the music is simply magical. so so powerful.

there are others that imo had the same kind of vision when it came to putting music to film.. john barry who did dances with wolves and lots of bond films (and a little known film called 'high road to china which i find utterly haunting), and Trevor Jones who did last of the mohicans.. the last few minutes of that film are simply breathtaking.

all in the 'ear' of the beholder though obviously

 

Absolutely! I was so ticked off when I went to buy the soundtrack album when ROTJ first came out and realized that a.) they'd chintzed out on us and only released it as a single album rather than the double albums they put out for SW and Empire, and b.) they had left this key piece of music off of it. I've watched ROTJ countless times over the past 31 years, and that moment with that music STILL raises the hair on my arms.

I really hope that LFL is grooming a true successor to John Williams - somebody who can mimic and expand on his style rather than just write music that kinda-sorta sounds like a Williams score. John isn't going to be with us forever, but his composition style could be, given the right composer.

 

I couldn't agree more! Obviously John Williams couldn't be matched, but if anyone were to try, Giacchino would have my vote. He really knows how to portray action, tension, emotion etc perfectly. I also think, given his recent work on Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, he would honour the themes of John Williams and keep elements of the existing Star Wars music as he has done for the original Planet of the Apes films. I'm behind you on this one!

John Williams managea to create scores that weave seamlessly with the visuals whilst also being utterly memorable and awe-inspiring, but one of the things I love most in his work is his dedication to themes.

Throughout the saga you hear so many variations of the force theme (arguably the greatest piece of music ever made - if you tell me otherwise I will silently feel very sad for a while) which are all as mind blowing and emotionally powerful as that first instance of Luke looking up at the binary sunset, but each has its own moment and a flavour to match such an occasion.

I recently listened back to the Phantom Menace soundtrack and, aside from realising how great it was, I couldn't help but notice the subtle injection of the imperial march in Anakin's theme, which had passed me by until listening to the audio alone. It's moments like that which truly underline the magic of John Williams' work and how it truly ties every scene together with the strongest stitches. Phenomenal work!

 

Definitely, Star Wars can't work without John Williams.
And trying to mimicking him or even do a new score using the London Symphony Orchestra doesn't work, like in case of Shadows of The Empire.
Clone Wars also do sound more alien with that score and Rebels got this spot on with actually copying the music from John Williams.

PS: Sorry for negativity, but 80's and 90's US cartoons and the replacement scores in Japanese TV shows are making them unbereable to watch for me.
The same case goes with the trailer fro the first Star Wars as it looks again like some generic 80's crap. Music can do a lot.

This video is for example, American replacement synthesizer score, mixed in the series without any pause in continuous 20 minute mix from start to end
versus Japanese score recorded with small orchestra and composed by a classical composer in queues and mixed for appropriate scenes.
The atmosphere is vastly different:

 

I wouldn't say that it absolutely wouldn't work to try and mimic Williams composition style, but it would take a composer who has a true gift for that same kind of style. You can't just put anyone in there and have it work.

It's one thing to score a Star Wars video game. Yes, you want it to create the right atmosphere, but in the end... it's a video game. A movie score has a helluva lot more riding on it, and just half-assing it isn't going to work.

The Clone Wars score was passable, but IMHO the Rebels score is just bland and forgettable despite the composer swiping entire pieces of soundtrack music from the SW movie scores. Rehashing the existing compositions isn't the answer at all.

What makes Williams' SW film scores work is that not only is he a truly gifted composer, but he also is one of the best soundtrack composers out there in terms of his use of character and location themes. It's not about just composing effective themes for the main characters - it's about being able to come up with just the right variations on those themes to move the story forward, while also creating incidental music that is just as interesting.

That's what got me about Williams' soundtracks (particularly the ones for ANH and ESB) when I was a kid - they are very interesting pieces of music to listen to, and they are also able to evoke just the right emotions.

The problem is, not that many composers out there can do this. It's like the ability to mimic the style of a particularly unique guitarist while not simply doing note-for-note copies of his tunes.

In Williams' case, I don't know that there necessarily is a potential successor out there who has what it takes to truly pick up the torch and carry on when Williams can't do it anymore. And without a Williams-type score, I just don't see the new films having quite the impact that they need to have.