John Williams

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“Writing a John tune is like Williams sculpting.” John Williams, born in 1932 in New York, is a critically acclaimed American film composer and conductor known for creating the original scores of some of Hollywood’s most iconic films. After graduating high school, Williams was drafted into the U.S. Air Force where he was assigned as pianist, conductor and music arranger in the U.S. Air Force Band. In 1955, after serving, Williams studied music at the Julliard School and the Eastman School of Music, before heading to Los DID YOU KNOW? Angeles to became a session musician. John Williams holds the most In the 1960s, Williams was composing Oscar nominations record for a music for popular TV programmes such as living person, with 52 nominations Lost in Space. Recognised for his versatility and five wins. He also holds in composing jazz, piano, and symphonic honorary degrees from 21 American music, Williams received his first Academy universities! Award nomination in 1967 and won his first Oscar in 1971 for Fiddler on the Roof (1971). FUN FACT In 1974, Williams and director Steven In 2005, Williams’s original score Spielberg began a life-long working for George Lucas’s Star Wars (1977) partnership on The Sugarland Express. was picked by the American Film The pair have collaborated on over 20 Institute as the greatest American films, including blockbuster hits E.T. The film score in history! Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Jurassic Park (1993) and War of the Worlds (2005). MUSICAL TERM Williams has penned original scores for Film score: Instrumental music made more than 128 movies; his notable works specifically to accompany a film in include Superman (1978), Home Alone order to enhance the narrative and (1990) and first three Harry Potter movies. emotional impact of scenes..

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Raiders of the Lost Ark (B
CONCERT PROGRAM Friday, March 17, 2017 at 7:00PM Saturday, March 18, 2017 at 7:00PM Sunday, March 19, 2017 at 2:00PM LIVE AT POWELL HALL Scott Terrell, conductor PARAMOUNT PICTURES Presents A LUCASFILM LTD Production A STEVEN SPIELBERG Film JOHN WILLIAMS Raiders of the Lost Ark (b. 1932) Starring HARRISON FORD KAREN ALLEN PAUL REEMAN RONALD LACEY JOHN RHYS-DAVIES DENHOLM ELLIOTT Screenplay by LAWRENCE KASDAN Story by GEORGE LUCAS and PHILIP KAUFMAN Produced by FRANK MARSHALL Directed by STEVEN SPIELBERG Tonight’s program is a presentation of the complete filmRaiders of the Lost Ark with a live performance of the film’s entire score, including music played by the orchestra during the end credits. Out of respect for the musicians and your fellow audience members, please remain seated until the conclusion of the credits. There will be one 25-minute intermission “RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK” Licensed by LUCASFILM LTD and PARAMOUNT PICTURES. Motion Picture, Artwork, Photos Copyright 1981 Lucasfilm Ltd. All Rights Reserved. MUSIC WRITTEN BY JOHN WILLIAMS BANTHA MUSIC (BMI) ALL RIGHTS ADMINISTERED BY WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP. (BMI) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY PERMISSION. Raiders of the Lost Ark — Film with Orchestra produced by Film Concerts Live!, a joint venture of IMG Artists, LLC, and The Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency, Inc. Producers: Steven A. Linder and Jamie Richardson Production Manager: Rob Stogsdill Production Coordinator: Rebekah Wood Worldwide Representation: IMG Artists, LLC Technical Director: Mike Runice Music Composed by John Williams Music Preparation: Jo Ann Kane Music Service Film Preparation for Concert Performance: Ramiro Belgardt Technical Consultant: Laura Gibson Sound Remixing for Concert Performance: Chace Audio by Deluxe The score for Raiders of the Lost Ark has been adapted for live concert performance.
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"It's Aimed at Kids - the Kid in Everybody": George Lucas, Star Wars and Children's Entertainment by Peter Krämer, University of East Anglia, UK
"It's aimed at kids - the kid in everybody": George Lucas, Star Wars and Children's Entertainment By Peter Krämer, University of East Anglia, UK When Star Wars was released in May 1977, Time magazine hailed it as "The Year's Best Movie" and characterised the special quality of the film with the statement: "It's aimed at kids - the kid in everybody" (Anon., 1977). Many film scholars, highly critical of the aesthetic and ideological preoccupations of Star Wars and of contemporary Hollywood cinema in general, have elaborated on the second part in Time magazine's formula. They have argued that Star Wars is indeed aimed at "the kid in everybody", that is it invites adult spectators to regress to an earlier phase in their social and psychic development and to indulge in infantile fantasies of omnipotence and oedipal strife as well as nostalgically returning to an earlier period in history (the 1950s) when they were kids and the world around them could be imagined as a better place. For these scholars, much of post-1977 Hollywood cinema is characterised by such infantilisation, regression and nostalgia (see, for example, Wood, 1985). I will return to this ideological critique at the end of this essay. For now, however, I want to address a different set of questions about production and marketing strategies as well as actual audiences: What about the first part of Time magazine's formula? Was Star Wars aimed at children? If it was, how did it try to appeal to them, and did it succeed? I am going to address these questions first of all by looking forward from 1977 to the status Star Wars has achieved in the popular culture of the late 1990s.
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James Cameron
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American Blockbuster Movies, Technology, and Wonder
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Program Notes
ABOUT THE SCORE MOVIES AT THE SCHERMERHORN AT MOVIES “It was not music that might describe terra incognita but the opposite ohn Williams did not compose his Star Wars Oscar nominations. A New York native, he began of that,” Williams once explained, “music that would put us in touch Jscores for the concert hall...but he did compose studying the piano at age 7 and was composing and them with a concert hall mentality. George Lucas conducting by the time he reached North Hollywood with very familiar and remembered emotions." wrote his original 1977 script while listening to and High School (having moved so that his father, a jazz taking inspiration from great works of the classical drummer, could play with film studio orchestras). He repertoire, and when he hired Williams to score the conducted and arranged for military bands during his development of their themes. “It was not music that Star Wars also helped revive symphonic scoring film, that kind of music — symphonic, grand,aged three-year service in the Air Force, then resumed his might describe terra incognita but the opposite of in films, after a decade of jazz and rock dominating — felt like it had always belonged inside his new studies at The Juilliard School, moonlighting as a jazz that,” Williams once explained, “music that would movie soundtracks. Williams’ scores inspired universe. TheStar Wars cosmos now contains eight pianist in New York nightclubs. These disparate skills put us in touch with very familiar and remembered countless imitators and ushered in a neo-neo-classical full-length scores by Williams, written over the course — a deep well of classical knowledge, a chameleonic emotions, which for me as a musician translated renaissance at the movies.
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Film Marketing and the Creation of the Hollywood Blockbuster Colton J
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John Williams John Williams
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The Blockbuster Movie
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The Functions of the Minimalist Technique in Film Scores
Copyright by Rebecca Marie Doran Eaton 2008 The Dissertation Committee for Rebecca Marie Doran Eaton certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Unheard Minimalisms: The Functions of the Minimalist Technique in Film Scores Committee: ____________________________________ Eric Drott, Supervisor ____________________________________ Byron Almén ____________________________________ James Buhler ____________________________________ Edward Pearsall ____________________________________ Charles Ramírez Berg Unheard Minimalisms: The Functions of the Minimalist Technique in Film Scores by Rebecca Marie Doran Eaton, B.A.; M.M. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2008 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, I would like to thank my committee, whose insightful comments have helped me shape this work. Special recognition goes to Dr. Almén, whose copyediting expertise has kept me from committing several grammatical gaffes, and Dr. Buhler, whose approach to film music has informed my own. I owe a deep debt of gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Eric Drott, whose keen—and always timely—critiques have steered my dissertation toward one with both breadth and analytical depth. I would also like to thank the entire theory department at UT Austin. Its support though T.A. and A.I. positions has helped me hone my pedagogical craft, while the Kent Kennan fellowship has allowed me to finish my dissertation in a timely manner. Thanks must also be given for the collegial atmosphere—especially amongst my fellow students—which made attending UT a delight. My family, of course, has been the basis for my success.
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Film Marketing & the Creation of the Hollywood
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The Role of the Tuba in John Williams's Film Scores for Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind
UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones May 2017 Of Sharks and Spaceships: The Role of the Tuba in John Williams's Film Scores for Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind Stephen Davis Turner University of Nevada, Las Vegas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/thesesdissertations Part of the Film and Media Studies Commons, Fine Arts Commons, and the Music Commons Repository Citation Turner, Stephen Davis, "Of Sharks and Spaceships: The Role of the Tuba in John Williams's Film Scores for Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (2017). UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones. 3053. http://dx.doi.org/10.34917/10986219 This Dissertation is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Dissertation in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. This Dissertation has been accepted for inclusion in UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. OF SHARKS AND SPACESHIPS: THE ROLE OF THE TUBA IN JOHN WILLIAMS’S FILM SCORES FOR JAWS AND CLOSE ENCOUNTERS
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Film As Film
Film Studies in Focus Return of the Blockbuster Star Return of the blockbuster Wars Context: The Star Wars Saga in 1977 - 2005 • The first film Star Wars released in 1977, followed by sequels The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and The Return of the Jedi (1983) • Star Wars re-released in 1981 as Star Wars Episode IV – A New Hope • Alongside Jaws (Dir. Steven Spielberg, 1975) seen to instigate a new era of blockbuster cinema in Hollywood • Followed by a prequel trilogy, beginning with The Phantom Menace (1999), Attack of the Clones (2002),and The Revenge of the Sith (2005) Context: The Star Wars Saga from 2012 onwards • Acquired by Disney in 2012, leading • The main saga films now supported to the production of a sequel trilogy by a Star Wars Stories series of comprised of The Force Awakens films as well as TV shows, following (2015), The Last Jedi (2017), and the Cinematic Universe model Episode IX (2019) pioneered by Marvel Context: The Blockbuster • Focus on spectacle rather than plot • Increased budgets, increased use of special effects • Films compared to the experience of riding a rollercoaster • Unprecedented focus on merchandising Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Dir. Stephen Spielberg, 1984) Blockbuster Cinema & New Hollywood • The late 60s to mid 70s considered by critics to be a time of significant change in Hollywood, both industrially and artistically • Classical Hollywood: film industry dominated by major studios; Classical Hollywood Style; universal family audience • The Hollywood Renaissance: major studios lose dominance,
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