John Williams

The thing that needs to be remembered with film composition is the primary role of the music being written is to aide the film in that particular moment- the music isn't necessarily being written with the intention of listening to it as a stand alone piece. Sometimes aiding the film means writing in a minimalist style, sometimes it means writing silence, and sometimes it means fanfare and melodic motifs galore. It also means sometimes you can't write whatever you want, as you're working under the direction of the director and others whom have a final say in what your music is going to sound like.

Also to be considered, most film scores are composed under incredibly tight deadlines- if inspiration doesn't strike for a solid theme and idea, sometimes "borrowing" and building off an existing fantastic idea might be the only option. Additionally, working on such tight deadlines also means not having endless amounts of time to pour into a piece of music to get it to a point where you feel it's the absolute best you can do. These composers are restricted in what they can do for those reasons and many, many more. Their music gets thrown out, chopped up, moved around, and maimed quite often to a degree far from their original intentions. On top of that, as they are writing, the films are often going through various revisions and they need to constantly edit their score to fit each revision of the film, all while working within a set budget and timeline, coordinating multiple orchestral recording sessions which sometimes means getting 40+ people on the same page.

That being said, considering all that, I think John Williams does exceptionally well. He knows his stuff, his orchestration is solid and defining of his own sound.
Yes, he certainly has had some influence in his writing and notable themes. What film composer hasn't? Go listen to the Planets suite and tell me you can't hear the influence in a vast span of film scores- including several of Williams.
Go listen to Dvorak's new world symphony and tell me the Lord of the Rings soundtrack didn't straight up lift the theme of the 2nd movement. It happens everywhere, especially in tonal music where many great melodic ideas have already been mined in some fashion.
I also saw Hans Zimmer was mentioned, and I have the least amount of respect for him - I don't believe he can even read music, yet alone know how to properly orchestrate a piece for orchestra. He has many, many people working beneath him who receive 0 credit for any of the work they do.

The influence of Williams has spanned generations- he is a kind, humble, and generous individual who has given his life to creating the memorable moments in film we all hold dearly.

He is a fantastic composer - very, very influential. There are so many current musicians who grew up loving music because of being introduced to it through his music. It is rare that members of a symphony orchestra fan all over someone but they do that with him. He is also one of the most modest and professional composers - no one has anything bad to say about him. He is the image of professionalism, modesty, incredible talent, some of the best work ethic anywhere.

His music is very finely crafted. He can pretty much work in any style from atonal to lush romantic to jazzy to americana to English patoralism, impressionism, etc. I haven't heard a single thing from him I didn't like and most of it I love deeply.

I think I would consider Close Encounters his great score because it has the most stylistic and emotional range from start to end. You really have to listen to the work in its entirety to get a sense of just a grand that finally is. In the movie, the last 15 minutes are virtually a ballet with almost no useful dialog. And it is some of the most cathartic and transformative ever the big bulk of that being handled by the score.

I challenge anyone to think of a single score with greater range by any composer. There are so many other favorites but that is just one that comes to mind.

Hogwash said:

Would you mind telling us a detailed account of your experience? UFO's have been in the news a lot lately.

Click to expand...

Sure. Let me start by saying I am not a conspiracist, I do not believe alien life visits us and I do believe UFO's are exactly that, unexplained, and that ascribing anything more to them is fool hardy.
So, with that disclaimer, here it goes.

I was 21 years old working on my uncle's onion farm. (I always wanted to be a farmer) I was with my 18 year old girlfriend. It was dead of night, closer to predawn than midnight. I was staying in my grandmother's farmhouse where by chance I live today. My grandmother was in the downstairs bedroom, my girlfriend and I were upstairs in one of the bedrooms, the other 2 bedrooms upstairs were without occupant.
My girlfriend, with her striking blue eyes and shoulder length hair lived next store in a house my grandmother rented to her mom. She was truly beautiful and we were in love.
That night, when we made love, was the first indication that something was different. The intensity of my orgasm was something I had never experienced prior nor since. It was pure bliss yet unsettling. I can't put to word how different it was.
After, we listened to music and relaxed as we always did dreading when I'd have to walking her home, pre-dawn. We never slept much that summer.
As we lay there, something, I still can't say what it was, made me get up and walk to the empty bedroom across the hall from us. I just had a feeling, something, someone was there.
Nothing was amiss that I could find, so I went back to the bedroom from where I had come and that is when my girlfriend noticed that my veins were raised, stretching the skin as if about to break through. It seemed every vein in my body was in this extended condition.
We did not know what to think.
Finally that dreaded time came when I had to walk her home.
When we stepped outside the back door, the same side of the house where the empty bedroom was that I has explored earlier, we saw a very bright "star" in the sky. Well, except it was too big to be a star.
Suddenly we realized it was not very far away at all. It was between us and the big old oak tree in back. Less than 300 feet away. Probably closer to 200 feet. It was then that we noticed two things. First, it was moving, slowly. It circled behind the barns and out around her house. In addition to this circular motion it had descended because as it passed behind the barns and house it was not visible. As it did, we could hear all the animals of the wild crying out, screaming out. I had no idea animals made so many sounds of distress, which were unmistakably what the sound's were.
These sounds all came from the back of the house where this object was.
Finally, it moved away, out into the dark onion fields. Thousands of acres of onions. As it did the animals started to settle down on the back side of the house and now the same screams of distress could be heard on the other side of the house.
Yes, the sounds were first head behind the house, there we were surrounded by the sounds, then the sounds moved to the front of the house and became faint. All in correlation with the movement of this object.
As we were walking across the lawn to her house we could see out in the fields lights. This is where the orb had moved to. But this was not light from the orb. This was larger light and it was strange because it was a self contained light. It held it's place, not radiating out, not illuminating things around it. Again, this was a complete unique experience, I have never seen a light like this prior or since.
And this, where lights never are at night. In the middle of the onion fields.
I said good night and walked back to my grandmother's house. When I got back in the house the electric was strange. The lights would turn off, flicker, go back on.
My grandmother was somehow awake. The only night that summer she did not sleep through the night.
Next door, at my girlfriend house, it seems her mom too was awakened by something. Her mom went outside and sat on her front porch to have a cigarette. Her front porch faced the fields when the very big self contained light was and she too saw it. Having lived her entire life in the onions fields this was unique to her too.

If you recall the movie Close Encounters, you will see the similarities. Just an inner feeling of something, not sure of what, the probes or as I called it, an orb. The giant lights of the mothership, the self contained light not outwardly illuminating. The energy field that made the animals squeal and electric become unstable.

@mikeh375