John Williams (composer)

John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (15 November 2022)
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From Jaws to Star Wars, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra celebrates John Williams
CTV News is an American composer, conductor and pianist. In a career that has spanned seven decades, he has composed some of the most popular, recognizable and critically acclaimed film scores in cinematic history. Williams has won 25 Grammy Awards, seven British Academy Film Awards, five Academy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. With 52 Academy Award nominations, he is the second most-nominated individual, after Walt Disney. His compositions are considered the epitome of film music and he is considered among the greatest composers in the history of cinema.

Williams has composed for many critically acclaimed and popular movies, including the '' Star Wars'' saga, '' Jaws'', ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'', '' Superman'', '' E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'', the first two ''Home Alone'' films, the ''Indiana Jones'' films, the first two ''Jurassic Park'' films, ''Schindler's List'', ''Saving Private Ryan'', ''Catch Me If You Can'', ''Seven Years In Tibet'', and the first three ''Harry Potter'' films. Williams has also composed numerous classical concertos and other works for orchestral ensembles and solo instruments. He served as the Boston Pops' principal conductor from 1980 to 1993 and is its laureate conductor. He has been associated with director Steven Spielberg since 1974, composing music for all but five of his feature films, and George Lucas, with whom he has worked on both of his main franchises. Other works by Williams include theme music for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games, ''NBC Sunday Night Football'', " The Mission" theme used by NBC News and Seven News in Australia, the television series ''Lost in Space'' and ''Land of the Giants'', and the incidental music for the first season of '' Gilligan's Island''. Williams announced his intention to retire from film score composing after the release of ''Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny'' in 2023 to focus more on composing independent orchestral and symphonic pieces.

In 2005, the American Film Institute selected Williams's score to 1977's '' Star Wars'' as the greatest film score of all time. The Library of Congress also entered the ''Star Wars'' soundtrack into the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Williams was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl's Hall of Fame in 2000, and received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2004. His AFI Life Achievement Award in 2016 was the first to be awarded outside of the acting and directing fields. He has composed the score for nine of the top 25 highest-grossing films at the U.S. box office (adjusted for inflation). His work has influenced other composers of film, popular, and contemporary classical music; Norwegian composer Marcus Paus argues that Williams's "satisfying way of embodying dissonance and avant-garde techniques within a larger tonal framework" makes him "one of the great composers of any century".

Early life and family

John Towner Williams was born in Flushing, Queens, New York City, to Esther (née Towner) and Johnny Williams, a jazz drummer and percussionist who played with the Raymond Scott Quintet. He is the eldest of four children and has three younger siblings: Jerry, Joan, and Donald. Williams said of his lineage: "My father was a Maine man—we were very close. My mother was from Boston. My father's parents ran a department store in Bangor, Maine, and my mother's father was a cabinetmaker."

In 1948, the Williams family moved to Los Angeles where John attended North Hollywood High School, graduating in 1950. He later attended the University of California, Los Angeles, and studied composition privately with the Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. at Sony Classical; retrieved September 29, 2007. During his time in college, Williams was a pianist at a local club. Williams also attended Los Angeles City College for one semester, as the school had a Studio Jazz Band.

In 1951, Williams joined the U.S. Air Force, where he played the piano and brass and conducted and arranged music for the U.S. Air Force Band as part of his assignments. In a 2016 interview with the U.S. Air Force Band, he recounted having attended basic Air Force training at Lackland Air Force Base, after which he served as a pianist and brass player, with secondary duties of making arrangements for three years. He also attended music courses at the University of Arizona as part of his service.

In 1955, following his Air Force service, Williams moved to New York City and entered the Juilliard School, where he studied piano with Rosina Lhévinne. He was originally set on becoming a concert pianist but after hearing contemporary pianists like John Browning and Van Cliburn perform, switched his focus to composition. During this time Williams worked as a jazz pianist in the city's many jazz clubs.

Early career

After his studies at Juilliard and the Eastman School of Music, Williams returned to Los Angeles, where he began working as an orchestrator at film studios. Among other composers, Williams worked with Franz Waxman, Bernard Herrmann, and Alfred Newman, and also with his fellow orchestrators Conrad Salinger and Bob Franklyn.

Williams was also a studio pianist and session musician, performing on film scores by composers such as Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, Leonard Bernstein, and Henry Mancini. With Mancini he recorded the scores of 1959's ''Peter Gunn'', 1962's ''Days of Wine and Roses'', and 1963's '' Charade''. With Elmer Bernstein, he performed on the score of Hecht-Hill-Lancaster Productions' ''Sweet Smell of Success''. Williams plays the piano part of the guitar-piano ostinato in the famous Mancini ''Peter Gunn'' title theme. On the ''Peter Gunn'' soundtrack, he collaborated with guitarist Bob Bain, bassist Rolly Bundock, and drummer Jack Sperling, many of whom were also featured on the '' Mr. Lucky'' television series. Williams was the pianist for the soundtrack for the adaptation of Leonard Bernstein's musical, the 1961 ''West Side Story'', and the 1960 film, ''The Apartment''.

Williams during this time period was known as Johnny Williams, and under this name, released several jazz albums, including ''World on a String'' and ''The John Towner Touch''.

Williams also served as music arranger and bandleader for a series of popular music albums with the singers Ray Vasquez and Frankie Laine.

Film and television scoring

Although skilled in a variety of 20th-century compositional idioms, Williams's most familiar style may be described as a form of neoromanticism, which was inspired by the late 19th century's large-scale orchestral music—in the style of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky or Richard Wagner and their concept of leitmotif—that inspired his film music predecessors.

Williams's first film composition was for ''You Are Welcome''—a promotional film for the tourist information office of Newfoundland, created in 1954 when Williams was stationed at Pepperrell Air Force Base. Williams's first feature film composition was in 1958 for the B movie '' Daddy-O'', and his first screen credit came two years later in '' Because They're Young''.

Williams also composed music for various television programs in the same time period including the pilot episode of '' Gilligan's Island'', '' Bachelor Father'' (1959–60), the '' Kraft Suspense Theatre'', ''Lost in Space'' (1965–68), '' The Time Tunnel'' (1966–67), and ''Land of the Giants'' (the last three created by the prolific TV producer Irwin Allen). He also worked on several episodes of ''M Squad''.

He soon gained notice in Hollywood for his versatility in composing jazz, piano, and symphonic music. Williams received his first Academy Award nomination for his score for 1967's ''Valley of the Dolls'', and was nominated again for his score for 1969's ''Goodbye, Mr. Chips''. He won his first Academy Award for his score adaptation for the 1971 film ''Fiddler on the Roof''. In 1972, he composed the score for the Robert Altman-directed psychological thriller ''Images'' (recorded in collaboration with noted percussionist Stomu Yamashta), which earned him another nomination in the category Best Music, Original Dramatic Score at the 1973 Academy Awards.

Williams's prominence grew in the early 1970s thanks to his work for now-film producer Irwin Allen's disaster films. He wrote the scores for 1972's ''The Poseidon Adventure'' and 1974's ''The Towering Inferno''. He also scored Universal's 1974 film ''Earthquake'' for director Mark Robson, completing a "trinity" of scores for the decade's highest-grossing "disaster films", and the 1972 film ''The Cowboys'', a western starring John Wayne and directed by Mark Rydell.

In 1974, director Steven Spielberg approached Williams to compose the music for his feature directorial debut, ''The Sugarland Express''. They teamed up again a year later for Spielberg's second film, '' Jaws''. Widely considered a classic suspense film, its score's ominous, two-note ostinato has become synonymous with sharks and approaching danger. The score earned Williams his second Academy Award, his first for an original composition.

Shortly thereafter, Spielberg and Williams began a long collaboration on their next feature film, ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind''. During the two-year collaboration, they crafted its distinctive five-note figure that functions both in the background music and as the communications signal of the film's extraterrestrials. Williams also used a system of musical hand signals in the film that were based on hand signs created by John Curwen and refined by Zoltán Kodály. In 1975 Clint Eastwood chose Williams to score his classic climbing film ''The Eiger Sanction''.

During the same period, Spielberg recommended Williams to his friend and fellow director George Lucas, who needed a composer to score his ambitious 1977 space epic film '' Star Wars''. Williams eventually delivered a grand symphonic score in the fashion of Gustav Holst's orchestral suite ''The Planets,'' as well as Richard Strauss, Antonín Dvořák, and Golden Age Hollywood composers Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. The Star Wars theme is among the most widely recognized in film history, and the " Force Theme" and " Princess Leia's Theme" are well-known examples of leitmotif. Both the film and its score were immensely successful—it remains the highest grossing non-popular music recording of all time—and Williams won another Academy Award for Best Original Score.

In 1980, Williams returned to score ''The Empire Strikes Back'', introducing "The Imperial March" as the theme for Darth Vader and the Galactic Empire, " Yoda's Theme", and " Han Solo and the Princess". The original '' Star Wars'' trilogy concluded with the 1983 film ''Return of the Jedi'', for which Williams's score provided most notably the " Emperor's Theme", " Parade of the Ewoks", and " Luke and Leia". Both scores earned him Academy Award nominations.

Williams scored the 1976 Alfred Hitchcock film '' Family Plot''. Williams did not much like the film, but did not want to turn down the chance to work for Hitchcock. Hitchcock merely told him to remember one thing, "Murder can be fun." Hitchcock was very satisfied with the result.

Williams worked with director Richard Donner to score the 1978 film '' Superman''. The score's heroic and romantic themes, particularly the main march, the Superman fanfare and the love theme, known as "Can You Read My Mind", appeared in the four sequel films. For the 1981 film '' Raiders of the Lost Ark'', created by Lucas and directed by Spielberg, Williams wrote a rousing main theme known as "The Raiders March" to accompany the film's hero, Indiana Jones. He composed separate themes to represent the Ark of the Covenant, the character Marion, and the story's Nazi villains. Additional themes were featured in his scores to the subsequent '' Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'', a prequel (1984), '' Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' (1989), and ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'' (2008). Williams composed an emotional and sensitive score to Spielberg's 1982 fantasy film '' E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'', for which he was awarded a fourth Academy Award.

In 1985, Williams was commissioned by NBC to compose a television news music package for various network news spots. The package, which Williams named " The Mission", consists of four movements, two of which are still used heavily by NBC today for ''Today'', ''NBC Nightly News'', and ''Meet the Press''.

The Spielberg–Williams collaboration resumed with the 1987 film ''Empire of the Sun'', and still continues, spanning genres from science fiction thrillers (1993's '' Jurassic Park)'' to somber tragedies 2005's ''Munich'' to Eastern-tinged melodramas (2005's ''Memoirs of a Geisha'', directed by Rob Marshall) to dramatic war films (1998's ''Saving Private Ryan)''. Spielberg has said, "I call it an honorable privilege to regard John Williams as a friend." "...and I consider it a privilege to call John my Friend."

In his Academy Award-nominated score for ''The Accidental Tourist'' (1988), Williams developed the two main theme sections in different ways, turning the mood lighter or darker through orchestration and an unexpected use of synthesizers.

1993's ''Schindler's List'' proved to be a challenge for Williams, and after viewing the rough cut with Spielberg, was originally hesitant to score the film, being so overcome with emotion watching the cut. He told Spielberg, "I really think you need a better composer than I am for this film." Spielberg then replied, "I know, but they're all dead." Williams enlisted the help of classical violinist Itzhak Perlman to play the main theme for the film. Williams then garnered his fourth Oscar for Best Original Score, his fifth Academy Award overall.

In 1999, Lucas launched the first of three prequels to the original ''Star Wars'' trilogy. Williams was asked to score all three, starting with ''The Phantom Menace''. Along with themes from the previous films, Williams created new themes to be used as leitmotifs in 2002's '' Attack of the Clones'' and 2005's ''Revenge of the Sith''. Most notable of these was " Duel of the Fates", an aggressive choral composition in the style of Verdi's Requiem, utilizing harsh Sanskrit lyrics that broadened the style of music used in the ''Star Wars'' films. It used vocal melodies instead of his usual compositions using brass instruments. Also of note was "Anakin's Theme", which begins as an innocent childlike melody and morphs insidiously into a quote of the sinister "Imperial March". For ''Episode II'' Williams composed "Across the Stars", a love theme for Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker (mirroring the love theme composed for ''The Empire Strikes Back''). The final installment combined many of the themes created for the series' previous films, including "The Emperor's Theme", "The Imperial March", "Across the Stars", "Duel of the Fates", "The Force Theme", "Rebel Fanfare", "Luke's Theme", and "Princess Leia's Theme", as well as new themes for General Grievous and the film's climax, titled "Battle of the Heroes".

In the new millennium, Williams scored the first three film adaptations of J. K. Rowling's widely successful book series '' Harry Potter''. As with his ''Superman'' theme, the most important theme from Williams's scores for the ''Harry Potter'' films, "Hedwig's Theme", was used in the fourth through eighth films ('' Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'', '' Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'', ''Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'', ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1'', and ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2''), scored by Patrick Doyle (''Goblet of Fire''), Nicholas Hooper (''Order of the Phoenix'' and ''Half-Blood Prince'') and Alexandre Desplat (''Deathly Hallows''). Like the main themes from ''Jaws'', ''Star Wars'', ''Superman'', and ''Indiana Jones'', fans have come to identify the ''Harry Potter'' films with Williams's original compositions. Williams was asked to return to score the film franchise's final installment, ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2'', but director David Yates said that "their schedules simply did not align", as he would have had to provide Williams with a rough cut of the film sooner than was possible.

In 2002, for the 20th anniversary edition of '' E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'', Williams composed a reorchestrated score for the Universal Pictures logo segueing to music from the movie.

In 2006, ''Superman Returns'' was directed by Bryan Singer, best known for directing the first two films in the ''X-Men'' series. Singer did not request Williams to compose a score for the intentionally Donner-esque film, but he employed the skills of '' X2'' composer John Ottman to incorporate Williams's original ''Superman'' theme as well as those for Lois Lane, Krypton and Smallville. In 2011, the "Main Title Theme" and elements of "Can You Read My Mind" were used in the final scene of "Finale", the series finale of The WB/ CW television series '' Smallville''. Don Davis, recommended by Williams to the producers, performed a similar role for ''Jurassic Park III''.

In 2008, Williams returned to the ''Indiana Jones'' series to score the fourth film, ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull''. He received a Grammy nomination for his work on the film. ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'' was also the only film score from the ''Indiana Jones'' film series not to be nominated for an Academy Award. Also in 2008 Williams composed music for two documentaries, ''Warner at War'' and ''A Timeless Call'', the latter directed by Spielberg.

In 2011, after a three-year absence from film scoring, Williams composed the scores for Spielberg's ''The Adventures of Tintin'' and ''War Horse''. Both scores received overwhelmingly positive reviews and earned Academy Award nominations, the latter also being nominated for a Golden Globe. The Oscar nominations were Williams's 46th and 47th, making him the most nominated musician in Academy Award history (having previously been tied with Alfred Newman's 45 nominations), and the second most nominated overall, behind Walt Disney. Williams won an Annie Award for his score for ''The Adventures of Tintin''. In 2012, he scored Spielberg's film ''Lincoln'' and subsequently received his 48th Academy Award nomination.

In February 2013, Williams expressed interest in working on the ''Star Wars'' sequel trilogy, saying: "Now we're hearing of a new set of movies coming in 2015, 2016... so I need to make sure I'm still ready to go in a few years for what I hope would be continued work with George." He also scored the 2013 film ''The Book Thief'', his first collaboration with a director other than Spielberg since 2005. The score earned him an Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations and a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition. It was his 44th nomination for Best Original Score (and 49th overall), setting a new record for the most nominations in that category (he tied Alfred Newman's record of 43 nominations in 2013).

In 2015, Williams scored '' Star Wars: The Force Awakens'', earning him his 50th Academy Award nomination. He was also set to write the score for '' Bridge of Spies'' that year, which would have been his 27th collaboration with Spielberg, but in March 2015 it was announced that Thomas Newman would score it instead, as Williams's schedule was interrupted by a minor health issue. This was the first Spielberg film since ''The Color Purple'' (1985) not scored by Williams.

In 2016, Williams composed the score for Spielberg's '' The BFG'', which opened in July 2016.

In 2017, Williams scored the animated short film '' Dear Basketball'', directed by Glen Keane and based on a poem by Kobe Bryant. He also wrote the music for '' Star Wars: The Last Jedi'', the eighth episode of the saga, and Steven Spielberg's drama film '' The Post'', both of which opened in December 2017.

Williams contributed "The Adventures of Han" and several additional demos for the 2018 standalone ''Star Wars'' film '' Solo: A Star Wars Story'', while John Powell wrote the film's original score and adapted Williams's music.

A three-disc box set compilation of all of Williams's musical scores for Spielberg's films, ''John Williams & Steven Spielberg: The Ultimate Collection'', was released on March 17, 2017, and includes two previous score compilations from 1991 and 1995.

Williams's body of work in film composing was featured in the 2017 film '' SCORE: A Film Music Documentary''. The documentary was written and directed by Matt Schrader, a former CBS News reporter. It was funded via Kickstarter, and also included appearances by 47 other composers.

In March 2018, Williams announced that following '' Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker'', which was released in December 2019, he would retire from composing music for the '' Star Wars'' franchise: "We know J. J. Abrams is preparing one ''Star Wars'' movie now that I will hopefully do next year for him. I look forward to it. It will round out a series of nine, that will be quite enough for me." Williams makes a cameo in the film as Oma Tres, a Kijimi bartender.

In July 2018, Williams composed the main musical theme for Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park attraction '' Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge''. William Ross, who conducted the symphonic recording of the theme with the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) on Williams's behalf, additionally arranged Williams's original composition in different musical contexts for use, recording nearly an hour of musical material at Abbey Road Studios in November 2018. Williams won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition for his ''Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge Symphonic Suite''.

In June 2019, ''The New York Times Magazine'' listed Williams as one of hundreds of artists whose material was destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire. That same year, he served as music consultant for Spielberg's 2021 film adaptation of ''West Side Story''.

Williams is attached to score Spielberg's next film '' The Fabelmans'', scheduled to be released on November 23, 2022. He also composed the theme music for the ''Star Wars'' miniseries ''Obi-Wan Kenobi''.

In June 2022, Williams announced that ''Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny'', the fifth and final '' Indiana Jones'' film, scheduled for a 2023 release, would likely be his last film score as he plans to retire from film and focus on composing concert music.(this article explicitly confirms that Williams was born on February 8, 1932; "Williams, who turned 90 on Tuesday")

Conducting, performing, and other classical works

From 1980 to 1993, Williams served as the Boston Pops Orchestra's Principal Conductor, succeeding Arthur Fiedler. Williams never met Fiedler in person but spoke to him by telephone. His arrival as the Pops' new leader in the spring of 1980 allowed him to devote part of the Pops' first PBS broadcast of the season to presenting his new compositions for ''The Empire Strikes Back''.

Williams almost ended his tenure with the Pops in 1984 when some players hissed while sight-reading a new Williams composition in rehearsal; Williams abruptly left the session and tendered his resignation. He initially cited mounting conflicts with his film composing schedule, but later admitted a perceived lack of discipline in, and respect from, the Pops' ranks, culminating in this latest instance. After entreaties by the management and personal apologies from the musicians, Williams withdrew his resignation and continued as principal conductor for nine more years. In 1995, he was succeeded by Keith Lockhart, the former associate conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops Orchestra.

Williams is now the Pops' Laureate Conductor, thus maintaining his affiliation with its parent, the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO). Williams leads the Pops on several occasions each year, particularly during their Holiday Pops season and typically for a week of concerts in May. He conducts an annual Film Night at both Boston Symphony Hall and Tanglewood, where he frequently enlists the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, the BSO's official chorus.

Williams has written many concert pieces, including a symphony; a concerto for horn written for Dale Clevenger, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's principal horn; a concerto for clarinet written for Michele Zukovsky, the Los Angeles Philharmonic's principal clarinetist, in 1991; a sinfonietta for wind ensemble; a cello concerto premiered by Yo-Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood in 1994; concertos for the flute and violin recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra; and a trumpet concerto, which was premiered by The Cleveland Orchestra and their principal trumpet Michael Sachs in September 1996.

His bassoon concerto, " The Five Sacred Trees", which was premiered by the New York Philharmonic and principal bassoon player Judith LeClair in 1995, was recorded for Sony Classical by Williams with LeClair and the London Symphony Orchestra. Williams was the subject of an hour-long documentary for the BBC
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