History Music / JohnWilliams

* OldMaster: Again, he's 80 years old, yet he still showed much younger composers why he's the maestro who took the world of film music by storm back in the 70's with the releases of ''Literature/WarHorse'' and ''Film/TheAdventuresOfTintin''.

In addition to his film scores, Williams has composed music for four OlympicGames, ''The Mission'' suite for the ''NBC Nightly News'' and the inauguration of President BarackObama, among many others. He also conducted the Boston Pops Orchestra from 1980-1993 and remains Director Laureate to this day.

Williams composes music in a [[Creator/RichardWagner Wagnerian]] style, using 19th-century Romanticism as his milieu. His scores make extremely liberal use of {{Leitmotif}}--practically every major character and concept has its own musical motif woven into the score. Williams is also fond of the {{Fanfare}}. Despite these stylistic preferences, he seems willing to experiment with every movie, adding different instruments and techniques with each new film. (For example, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDdFM6U9-eQ one piece]] of the ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' score uses an electric guitar.) When a Williams composition is playing, you will generally be in for a good movie. If the movie's not good, well, [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome the music]] [[SugarWiki/RuleOfSeanConnery certainly]] [[AwesomeMusic/JohnWilliams will be]].

Williams composes music in a [[Creator/RichardWagner Wagnerian]] style, using 19th-century Romanticism as his milieu. His scores make extremely liberal use of {{Leitmotif}}--practically every major character and concept has its own musical motif woven into the score. Williams is also fond of the {{Fanfare}}. Despite these stylistic preferences, he seems willing to experiment with every movie, adding different instruments and techniques with each new film. (For example, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDdFM6U9-eQ one piece]] of the ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' score uses an electric guitar.) When a Williams composition is playing, you will generally be in for a good movie. If the movie's not good, well, [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome the music]] [[RuleOfSeanConnery certainly]] [[AwesomeMusic/JohnWilliams will be]].

Williams composes music in a [[Creator/RichardWagner Wagnerian]] style, using 19th-century Romanticism as his milieu. His scores make extremely liberal use of {{Leitmotif}}--practically every major character and concept has its own musical motif woven into the score. Williams is also fond of the {{Fanfare}}. Despite these stylistic preferences, he seems willing to experiment with every movie, adding different instruments and techniques with each new film. (For example, [[watch one piece of the ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' score uses an electric guitar.) When a Williams composition is playing, you will generally be in for a good movie. If the movie's not good, well, [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome the music]] [[AwesomeMusic/JohnWilliams will be]].

Williams composes music in a [[Creator/RichardWagner Wagnerian]] style, using 19th-century Romanticism as his milieu. His scores make extremely liberal use of {{Leitmotif}}--practically every major character and concept has its own musical motif woven into the score. Williams is also fond of the {{Fanfare}}. Despite these stylistic preferences, he seems willing to experiment with every movie, adding different instruments and techniques with each new film. (For example, one piece of the ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' score uses an electric guitar. Happy hunting! [[spoiler:or just look [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDdFM6U9-eQ here]]]].) When a Williams composition is playing, you will generally be in for a good movie. If the movie's not good, well, [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome the music]] [[AwesomeMusic/JohnWilliams will be]].

* ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' (duh-''dum'', duh-''dum''...)
* ''Franchise/StarWars'': "[[BootstrappedTheme Luke's Theme]]" from all six films, "The Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme)" and "Duel of The Fates" are the best known.
* ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind''
* ''Film/{{Superman}}'' (he also wrote themes for ''SupermanIVTheQuestForPeace'')
* The ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' films
* ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial''
* ''HomeAlone'' (and its first sequel)
* ''Film/JurassicPark'' (and ''its'' first sequel)
* ''SchindlersList''

* ''Film/{{Superman}}''

* ''HomeAlone''
* ''Film/JurassicPark''

Early in his career, Williams worked for producer Creator/IrwinAllen (under the name "''Johnny'' Williams"), providing the themes (and pilot scores) for Allen's TV series ''Series/LostInSpace'', ''Series/TheTimeTunnel'' and ''Series/LandOfTheGiants'', and such disaster films as ''Film/ThePoseidonAdventure'' and ''Film/TheToweringInferno''. Williams himself credits much of his success to the collegial relationships he developed with his fellow musicians during his own stint in a studio orchestra.

** Another self ShoutOut that is easy to miss but very difficult to forget is in the JurassicPark theme - when it really kicks in, it heavily references [[CloseEncoutersOfTheThirdKind five other famous notes.]]

** Another self ShoutOut that is easy to miss but very difficult to forget is in the JurassicPark theme - when it really kicks in, it heavily references [[CloseEncouterOfTheThirdKind five other famous notes.]]

* {{Fanfare}}: He's so good, he's gotten raves from the directors just from watching him conduct. RichardDonner even admitted he screwed up a recording take for ''Film/{{Superman}}'' by running into the room shouting how great it was.

* OldMaster: Again, he's 80 years old, yet he still showed much younger composers why he's the maestro who took the world of film music by storm back in the 70's with the releases of ''Literature/WarHorse'' and TheAdventuresOfTintin.

* OldMaster: Again, he's 80 years old, yet he still showed much younger composers why he's the maestro who took the world of film music by storm back in the 70's with the releases of WarHorse and TheAdventuresOfTintin.

* ''CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind''

-->--Regarding ''Film/SchindlersList''

Early in his career, Williams worked for producer Creator/IrwinAllen (under the name "''Johnny'' Williams"), providing the themes (and pilot scores) for Allen's TV series ''Series/LostInSpace'', ''Series/TheTimeTunnel'' and ''Series/LandOfTheGiants'', and such disaster films as ''ThePoseidonAdventure'' and ''TheToweringInferno''. Williams himself credits much of his success to the collegial relationships he developed with his fellow musicians during his own stint in a studio orchestra.

->''[A] lifetime is just simply not long enough for the study of music.''

''"[A] lifetime is just simply not long enough for the study of music."''

John Williams (February 8, 1932) is one of the world's most famous and prolific movie composers. Professionally active for six decades, he has been nominated for 47 Oscars (winning five), six Emmy nominations (winning three), 22 Golden Globes (winning four) and 59 Grammys (winning twenty). Only WaltDisney has been nominated for more Academy Awards, and Williams currently holds the record for most nominated living individual.

Interestingly, many fans of classical music actually hold Williams in rather low regard, as '''many''' elements of his compositions (including some of his most well-known themes and motifs) are borrowed from older pieces of music. Though even they admit he's less guilty of this [[JamesHorner than others]]. For most listeners this is one of his strengths; in the words of the founding editor of ''Film Score Monthly'' Lukas Kendal: "His themes sound inevitable. They sound like they fell out of his sleeves; they sound like they've always existed. And it's extraordinary how you get just two notes for Jaws or five notes for Close Encounters [of the Third Kind] and have them feel like they've always existed."

Williams composes music in a [[Creator/RichardWagner Wagnerian]] style, using 19th-century Romanticism as his milieu. His scores make extremely liberal use of {{Leitmotif}} -- practically every major character and concept has its own musical motif woven into the score. Williams is also fond of the {{Fanfare}}. Despite these stylistic preferences, he seems willing to experiment with every movie, adding different instruments and techniques with each new film. (For example, one piece of the ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' score uses an electric guitar. Happy hunting!) When a Williams composition is playing, you will generally be in for a good movie. If the movie's not good, well, [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome the music]] [[AwesomeMusic/JohnWilliams will be]].

Interestingly, many fans of classical music actually hold Williams in rather low regard, as '''many''' elements of his compositions (including some of his most well-known themes and motifs) are borrowed from older pieces of music. Though even they admit he's less guilty of this [[JamesHorner than others]]. For most listeners this is one of his strengths, in the words of the founding editor of ''Film Score Monthly'' Lukas Kendal: "His themes sound inevitable. They sound like they fell out of his sleeves; they sound like they've always existed. And it's extraordinary how you get just two notes for Jaws or five notes for Close Encounters [of the Third Kind] and have them feel like they've always existed."

* ''Franchise/StarWars'', "[[BootstrappedTheme Luke's Theme]]" from all six films, "The Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme)" and "Duel of The Fates" are the best known.

* The first three ''Film/HarryPotter'' films (technically William Ross adapted the second from Williams's music), although the main themes he composed are still used in the latter films.

Early in his career, Williams worked for producer Creator/IrwinAllen (under the name "''Johnny'' Williams"), providing the themes (and pilot scores) for Allen's TV series ''Series/LostInSpace'', ''Series/TheTimeTunnel'' and ''Series/LandOfTheGiants'', and such disaster films as ''ThePoseidonAdventure'' and ''TheToweringInferno''. And Williams himself credits much of his success to the collegial relationships he developed with his fellow musicians during his own stint in a studio orchestra.

* BootstrappedTheme -- The "''Star Wars'' Main Theme" was originally intended to be purely "Luke's Theme", though it became so synonymous with the franchise as a whole, Williams forewent creating a new main theme for the Prequels, and even included the theme in several places in the Prequel scores. A rearranged but still recognizable version of the theme was later used for the animated ''Clone Wars''

* OldMaster: Again, he's 80 years old, yet he still showed much younger composers why he's the Maestro who took the world of film music by storm back in the 70's with the releases of WarHorse and TheAdventuresOfTintin.

** As sort of a self ShoutOut, Williams uses a few notes of the music he composed for the first Harry Potter film in one of the final scenes of RevengeOfTheSith. Fitting, since both scenes involved an infant with great potential being left with relatives after the death of their mother.

''"[A] lifetime is just simply not long enough for the study of music"''

Williams composes music in a [[Creator/RichardWagner Wagnerian]] style, using 19th-century Romanticism as his milieu. His scores make extremely liberal use of {{Leitmotif}} -- practically every [[strike:major]] character and concept has its own musical motif woven into the score. Williams is also fond of the {{Fanfare}}. Despite these stylistic preferences, he seems willing to experiment with every movie, adding different instruments and techniques with each new film. (For example, one piece of the ''AttackOfTheClones'' score uses an electric guitar. Happy hunting!) When a Williams composition is playing, you will generally be in for a good movie. If the movie's not good, well, [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome the music]] [[AwesomeMusic/JohnWilliams will be]].

-->--Regarding ''SchindlersList''

->'''JohnWilliams''': [[HeroicSelfDeprecation You need a better composer than I am for this film.]] \\

* MemeticOutfit: A black turtleneck sweater.