JOHN WILLIAMS
PRESENTATION
John Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. He has composed some of the most famous film scores like: Jaws, Star Wars, Superman, Indiana Jones, E. T., Jurassic Park and the first three movies of Harry Potter. Also, he has worked with Steven Spielberg on five movies of him.
John has composed music for four Olympic Games, television series such as Lost in Space and Land of Giants, numerous classical concerti and he was the principal conductor of the Boston Pops’ since 1980 until 1993. Nowadays John is the orchestra’s laureate conductor.
About his prizes, he has won five Academy Award, four Golden Globe Awards, seven British Academy Film Awards, and 22 Grammy Awards. With 50 Academy Awards nominations, Williams is the second most-nominated individual, after Walt Disney.
Now I’m going to do a summary of his early life. Don’t sleep, please XD.
John Williams was born on February 8, 1932 in New York. His father was a jazz percussionist, his brother Donald is a percussioinist and conductor, and his brother Jerry is a studio percussionist as well. Mmm, it seems like ‘chip of the old block’. (Es un chiste malo que no se si lo pillarán, como toda la familia es percusionista y toca con palos…)
In 1948, they moved to Los Angeles where John graduated of High School and University. He also was studying privately with the Italian Composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. In 1952, Williams aceessed to the U. S. Air Force, where he conducted and composed music for The U. S. Air Force Band.
In 1955, Williams moved to New York City and entered the Julliard School, where he studied piano. During this time, Williams worked as a jazz pianist un many clubs and eventually studios, most notobly for composer Henry Mancini.
The last point I’m talking about is his work and music style.
His style may be described as a form of neoromanticism, inspired by composer of the 19th century like Tchaikovsky or Richard Wagner and their concept of leitmotif. This technique of leitmotiv was used very well in Star Wars to represent each character of the history like The Imperial March for Darth Vader or the theme of Princess Leia.
John Williams worked with other composers like Franz Waxman, Bernard Hermann, and Alfred Newman. Williams was also a studio pianist, performing scores of Goldsmith, Elmer Berstein, and Henry Mancini. Spielberg recommended Williams to his friend and fellow director George Lucas who needed a composer to Star Wars. After this movie, he continued composing the music of this popular franchise. Over the next years he was composing other famous themes as Superman, Indiana Jones, E. T., Jurassic Park, Schindler’s list, Memoirs of a Geisha, Saving Private Ryan and Harry Potter. His last work is the music of the first movie called ‘The force awaken’ of a new trilogy.
Finally, I will do an opinion and critique of this composer.
For me, John Williams is the best composer of movies of all time. He has created a lot of amazing music that it wasn’t into the movies, this movies were not so popular. He know perfectly how to transmit action, love, peace, scary, and more and more senses in his music.
But, sometimes I think he repeats, or uses music very similar. A lot of moments of one theme it reminds you to an other theme from a diferent movie.
In conclusioin, John Williams is my favourite film’s composer and he always be remembered by all his magnifique contribution to Cinema and Music.
PD: I hope you like it as mach as I do, Eva!