Q&A: John Williams on accompanying Steven Spielberg

[Ricard 2,270]

AZCentral.com interviews Williams on the occasion of his upcoming appearance with Spielberg in Phoenix this Saturday:

http://www.azcentral.com/thingstodo/arts/articles/20130921john-williams-steven-spielberg-symphony.html

[Thor 8,433]

Nice.

I got goosebumps when the interviewer turned to his earlier work towards the end, but alas...it was cut off before it got really interesting.

[Quintus 5,454]

Wow, a refreshingly different interview which actually covered stuff I didn't already know - like how Williams writes a lot of his themes "backwards". Seems unusual, but it also makes perfect sense and thinking about a cue like the Superman March one can really grasp the construction of it in that way. And as always, John was a beautifully articulate gent throughout.

Cheers for linking.

[lostinspace 8]

I think he really doesn't think much of the television stuff in the 1960's, but the music in Lost in Space is what originally got me interested in JW music. In fact I would even go so far as saying it is some of the best of his career so I'm not sure why he never ad libs much on it. Maybe he doesn't remember. It sounds so different to his music post Star Wars. 1977

Great interview by the way. Thanks for posting.

[karelm 3,093]

I think he really doesn't think much of the television stuff in the 1960's, but the music in Lost in Space is what originally got me interested in JW music. In fact I would even go so far as saying it is some of the best of his career so I'm not sure why he never ad libs much on it. Maybe he doesn't remember. It sounds so different to his music post Star Wars. 1977

Great interview by the way. Thanks for posting.

I find the classic fingerprints to all be there in his early tv shows like "Gilligan's Island" and "Lost in Space". The pedal points of Superman and Star Wars are in Gilligan's underscore too. The ornaments he loves, impeccable craftsmanship, trumpet planal chromatic triads are there, quirky tuba solos in Gilligan reminded me of Jabba's theme, and some of lost in space is very much of the same cloth of Star Wars for the tension risers, Robinson family theme, etc. It's not a stretch between this (Lost in Space):

and this (Star Wars):

The Lost in Space sequence has overt Herrmannisms but I think that is because of the temp (the pilot was scored by pre-existing Herrmann music plus Herrmann was the sound of space adventure/fantasy with the Ray Harryhousen movies, Twilight Zone, Day the Earth Stood Still, etc.)

It was a good interview - I'd love to hear more of how he approached these but I bet the reason he doesn't talk about it much is simply because it was just a job and might not stand out to him as relevant the way it does to fans. Sort of like being asked about a student paper or work that wasn't your best but was an honest effort. You probably remember doing it but other than that few details register as important.

[Incanus 5,816]

Wow, a refreshingly different interview which actually covered stuff I didn't already know - like how Williams writes a lot of his themes "backwards". Seems unusual, but it also makes perfect sense and thinking about a cue like the Superman March one can really grasp the construction of it in that way. And as always, John was a beautifully articulate gent throughout.

Cheers for linking.

Williams has very often stated that he usually works the film backwards starting from the end and working toward the beginning so as to get the musical development right and so that it feels like a natural progression through all the points to the finale. Funny how he digresses a bit in that particular question when the interviewer asks how does he approach something like the Olympic Fanfare (as opposed to a film theme I guess).

But this was actually a quite nice interview in all. Williams is still as eloquent and humble as always.

[BLUMENKOHL 1,081]

a hometown hero who attended Arcadia High School — will join him onstage to lead a master class on film scoring, using clips from his blockbusters to dissect how music is used to add emotional depth to the moviegoing experience.

WHAT?! Does he does this often?

Imagine how wonderful it would be to take a master class with John Williams. [and Spielberg...I guess...if we must.]

[Incanus 5,816]

a hometown hero who attended Arcadia High School — will join him onstage to lead a master class on film scoring, using clips from his blockbusters to dissect how music is used to add emotional depth to the moviegoing experience.

WHAT?! Does he does this often?

Imagine how wonderful it would be to take a master class with John Williams. [and Spielberg...I guess...if we must.]

I think it is not a very common occurrence. Seeing the TCM produced AFI Master Class, the Art of Collaboration masterclass discussion with those two gentlemen that was shown on TV last year gave a pretty good idea of how it would probably be like, which is to say pretty fantastic. I would love to hear them discuss solely their collaborations in detail, giving examples of scenes and how they approached them and why.

[BLUMENKOHL 1,081]

The fact that’s he’s always positive doesn’t mean he doesn’t offer guidance and preference. Often I will do a scene with the orchestra one or two ways and sometimes even more. We’re fortunate in that we haven’t had the kind of restrictions that would make that kind of experimentation unpractical.

I wonder if John creates the alternates preemptively, or after Spielberg requests them.

Artists and designers taught by [good] teachers, are always taught to offer a small choice to their "patrons" to help steer the conversation. "Here's the piece with drums and here it is with col legno strings" would make the discussion in your patrons mind about col legno vs. drums instead of say "I HATE YOUR WORK, I NEED SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!" while still satisfying their need to make a decision. It basically becomes habit. So you as the artist get to maintain the vast majority of your work's integrity.

A: Very often I work backwards. I’ll try to write the end of the film or the end of the piece so I can see where it’s going, and then de-compose it, take it apart so that elements of that ending can be exposed in the beginning and then gradually developed and form into what we would think of as the theme from X or Y. It would be the opposite, I suppose, of classical construction, where you start with a theme and then develop it. I’ve done that also. But because of the nature of film themes, which need to be relatively short and “speak” fairly quickly in the midst of a lot of aural competition — sound effects, dialogue and so on — I think it’s a special kind of challenge to try to get that right.

Very interesting. Would be interesting to get an insight to how he actually develops a piece, ala that John Corigliano lecture I posted a while back. They both have very beautiful structured pieces, so it would be cool to see how John gets there.

a hometown hero who attended Arcadia High School — will join him onstage to lead a master class on film scoring, using clips from his blockbusters to dissect how music is used to add emotional depth to the moviegoing experience.

WHAT?! Does he does this often?

Imagine how wonderful it would be to take a master class with John Williams. [and Spielberg...I guess...if we must.]

I think it is not a very common occurrence. Seeing the TCM produced AFI Master Class, the Art of Collaboration masterclass discussion with those two gentlemen that was shown on TV last year gave a pretty good idea of how it would probably be like, which is to say pretty fantastic. I would love to hear them discuss solely their collaborations in detail, giving examples of scenes and how they approached them and why.

Are those available anywhere to watch?

[Incanus 5,816]

Here is the first part of the programme. Be warned, some classic JW anecdotes in this discussion and of course the two friends do some mutual back slapping but that is to be expected. Still a really fascinating talk between these two great men and collaborators. And naturally there is not enough in just 1 hour show. I really wish there was a series of these.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcc_7DDilpY

[JamieC 13]

I wonder if that's an original Edward Hooper in the picture frame in the background of the wideshot ?

[Genius_Gone_Insane 5]

Wow, a refreshingly different interview which actually covered stuff I didn't already know - like how Williams writes a lot of his themes "backwards". Seems unusual, but it also makes perfect sense and thinking about a cue like the Superman March one can really grasp the construction of it in that way. And as always, John was a beautifully articulate gent throughout.

Cheers for linking.

Agreed. The "backwards" part was nice to hear officially. Granted, he has hinted at this style of composition for a long time. This is interesting on a personal level as well. I am a hobbyist composer and I have found that working backwards creates much better results, at least in my case. Essentially, when you get a great riff or motif, you make it as grand as possible. And then you ask yourself, "well, what should come before this?" And then after you get that part settled, "what should come before that?"

Now I'll get a little philosophical here. If remakes, cover songs, and sequels were the hallmarks of the 1990's through the 2000's then "What should come before this?" is the major theme of this next era. George Lucas started it with the Phantom Menace, one of the great underappreciated films in history. OK, that's why I am self-titled Genius Gone Insane, because I think of crazy shit like that. (Though I don't think it will sound so crazy in 50 years).

Point being, I think CEOT3K is Williams' favorite score because it so clearly grows from beginning to end. Anyway.

[nightscape94 966]

I may be wrong in my assumption, but I don't think it's really a "Master Class" as you saw in the AFI thing. I think the article may misrepresent what will happpen

I think it's just what they've been doing recently at concerts together, which is to show the Last Crusade bit and E.T. scenes and conducting the orchestra to the film, to show the audience the difference.

[BLUMENKOHL 1,081]

That's what I suspect as well. Bah. Lame.

[Jay 39,587]

AZCentral.com interviews Williams on the occasion of his upcoming appearance with Spielberg in Phoenix this Saturday:

http://www.azcentral.com/thingstodo/arts/articles/20130921john-williams-steven-spielberg-symphony.html

http://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=23544&p=937261

[Ricard 2,270]

AZCentral.com interviews Williams on the occasion of his upcoming appearance with Spielberg in Phoenix this Saturday:

http://www.azcentral.com/thingstodo/arts/articles/20130921john-williams-steven-spielberg-symphony.html

http://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=23544&p=937261

Changing the title of that thread would have made things easier for everyone

[Sharkissimo 1,974]

The fact that’s he’s always positive doesn’t mean he doesn’t offer guidance and preference. Often I will do a scene with the orchestra one or two ways and sometimes even more. We’re fortunate in that we haven’t had the kind of restrictions that would make that kind of experimentation unpractical.

I wonder if John creates the alternates preemptively, or after Spielberg requests them.

Artists and designers taught by [good] teachers, are always taught to offer a small choice to their "patrons" to help steer the conversation. "Here's the piece with drums and here it is with col legno strings" would make the discussion in your patrons mind about col legno vs. drums instead of say "I HATE YOUR WORK, I NEED SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!" while still satisfying their need to make a decision. It basically becomes habit. So you as the artist get to maintain the vast majority of your work's integrity.

It's not so much alternates, as how often (more so than other composers' scores I've studied) Williams uses 'cueing.' What this means is if say 'Cue Only' is written next to the 1st trumpet part, it means that it's non essential (or ad lib - in classical terminology - with Williams 'ad lib' has aleatory connotations) - and can be kept in or left out at Williams's discretion on the podium.

[JamieC 13]

I may be lagging way behind here, but here's an on-camera interview with Steven Spielberg and John Williams that I'd not seen before. Scroll through to about 1 hour and 13 minutes to see them chatting together. However, the whole programme is really worth watching.

JC

[Thor 8,433]

Wow, Jamie -- that was really great! Had not seen that before. I love the 'improvised' mood of the interview. And to think this was a time when they were actually amused by the since over-told JAWS story.

[JamieC 13]

Have you watched the whole programme ? It's really fascinating.

[Thor 8,433]

I haven't yet, but I probably will. I know pretty much everything about Steven Spielberg as I've studied him in detail for years, but there might still be something worthwhile there.

[JamieC 13]

There's some vintage footage behind the scenes that I have never seen before.

[Once 691]

And to think this was a time when they were actually amused by the since over-told JAWS story.

Yeah, that's really special to watch, actually. I don't think I've ever seen Williams this joking. "And I was only 75!"

[Jay 39,587]

Wow, that was absolutely fantastic to watch! (not the whole video, I watched the Steven/John part from 1:12-1:19). Amazing to see them so casual together like that!

John looked so young - no glasses!

[JamieC 13]

Hi there Jason : if you've time, do watch the whole piece as it's an absolutely fascinating look at Spielberg in his offices on the Universal studio lot just after ET had been released. There's also footage of him directing his Kick the Can portion of Twilight Zone: The Movie.

[Ricard 2,270]

Thanks JamieC, that was absolutely wonderful

[Incanus 5,816]

Thanks JamieC, that was absolutely wonderful

Ditto! Fascinating stuff!

[JamieC 13]

Hi gang

Have any of you read this piece ?

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/illusion-chasers/2013/09/28/john-williams/

JC

[Incanus 5,816]

Maurizio posted that one in this thread.

[Luke Skywalker 1,941]

how nice and down to earth they look there