As a teenager, the section of any record store where I spent the majority of time browsing was the film soundtracks. Most of my albums were scores by my favorite composers: Bernard Herrman, Jerry Goldsmith, Danny Elfman, and John Williams.
At that time, one could not see a film again unless it was shown on television or re-released in movie theaters. So, I’d play an album on my record player and allow the music to wash over me as I reclined on my bed staring up at the blank ceiling, letting the musical leitmotivs conjure up specific scenes from the film.
This month, a new documentary premiered, “Music by John Williams,” chronicling the maestro’s life story. Its subtitle could be “With Collaboration by Steven Spielberg” because in nearly all of his 34 films, the film director has worked with Williams.
It is an unprecedented nearly half a century of work that began in 1975 with “Jaws” and was last renewed in 2022 with “The Fabelmans.” When they first worked together, Spielberg was 29 and Williams 43.
During this second half of his life, Williams found a second career as a conductor, first as the principal conductor with the Boston Pops Orchestra for 14 years, then as a guest conductor with orchestras around the world (he’ll head the Berlin Philharmonic in June 2025).
Try to imagine any of these movies without hearing in your head their musical themes: “Jaws,” “Star Wars,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Superman,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “E.T.,” “Jurassic Park,” “Schindler’s List,” or “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”
Every time a person sees a film released by Universal, one also hears the fanfare music by Williams. That goes for the Olympics and NBC News. And to think he began this body of work in his mid-40’s. Little did he know his life was only at its mid-point.
His most stirring pieces can rouse one’s spirits: Superman flying through the sky, the Jedi fighters diving deep into the Death Star, Indiana Jones dashing away from danger onto a plane, the boys’ bicycling across the moon. His most quiet passages can bring tears: Elliot saying goodbye to E.T., Schindler at a loss upon receiving a gold watch from the Jewish people whose lives he saved.
Despite technological advances in devices that could write the notes for him on a scoresheet, he adheres to his laborious habit of writing down each note by hand. And, with few exceptions, chooses not to employ electronic instruments because, as he says, you can’t hear a musician’s soul through a synthesizer.
Of course, there are scores of films Williams worked on that aren’t memorable. There are critics who view his work as derivative and schmaltzy. But there’s no denying that some of his compositions will never be forgotten.
John Williams and Steven Spielberg.
Crosby Chronicles 