Williams, John

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JOHN WILLIAMS

Born: New York, New York, 8 February 1932

Genre: Soundtrack, Classical

Best-selling album since 1990: Schindler's List (MCA, 1993)

One of the most in-demand film composers of the last quarter of the twentieth century, John Williams reinvigorated orchestral movie music, composing scores for more than 80 films and winning 5 Academy Awards, 17 Grammy Awards, 3 Golden Globe Awards, 2 Emmy Awards, and 5 BAFTA Awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. He is the composer of memorable theme music for television networks and special events such as the Olympics. He is a conductor, famous for his work leading the Boston Pops Orchestra. And he is a composer of music for the concert hall.

Williams was born in Queens, New York, a borough of New York City, and moved with his family to Los Angeles, California, in 1948. He studied composition with prominent composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and attended the University of California at Los Angeles. After a stint in the U.S. Air Force, Williams returned to New York in 1954, studying piano at the Juilliard School with Rosina Lhevinne, who was one of the most important piano teachers of her time. He played jazz piano in clubs and on recordings in New York, before moving back to Los Angeles where he began his career in the entertainment industry.

A Start in Hollywood

Landing in the Hollywood studios, he worked with studio orchestras and composers, composing and arranging music for numerous television shows in the 1960s. Among the shows on which he worked were M-Squad, Wagon Train, Chrysler Theatre, Lost in Space, Gilligan's Island, and Land of the Giants. He won two Emmys for NBC productions of Heidi (1968–1969) and Jane Eyre (1971–1972).

Williams's first screen credit as a movie composer was Because They're Young (1960). Quickly gaining a reputation as a composer/arranger he was much in demand because of his ability to write in multiple styles. He worked on numerous studio-assigned projects in the 1960s, including Gidget Goes to Rome (1963), None but the Brave (1965), How to Steal a Million (1966), The Plainsman (1966), and Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969). In 1972 Williams won his first Academy Award for his adaptation of the score for Fiddler on the Roof (1971).

In 1974 he met the young director Steven Spielberg, then twenty-eight years old (Williams was forty-two years old) and one of the great director/composer relationships in movie history was born. Spielberg asked Williams to score his new movie The Sugarland Express, which was released later that year.

In the 1970s Williams established himself as the leading composer/arranger for film, working on some of the biggest movies of the decade. Among them were The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Pete 'n' Tillie (1972), The Paper Chase (1973), Earthquake (1974), The Towering Inferno (1974), The Eiger Sanction (1975), Jaws (1975) (for which he won his second Academy Award and a Golden Globe), Star Wars (1977) (for which he won a third Academy Award, three Grammys, and a second Golden Globe), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) (for which he won two Grammys), and Superman (1978). The recording of the soundtrack for Star Wars with the London Symphony became the best-selling soundtrack of all time.

Reinvigorating the Orchestral Score for Movies

With his scores of the 1970s, Williams revitalized orchestral movie music, which had increasingly turned away from the orchestral sound in the decade before. Williams is a traditionalist, but in the best sense of the word, coupling fresh ideas with a highly developed sense of craft. Moreover, his collaborations with Spielberg (Jaws, Close Encounters ) and George Lucas (Star Wars ) helped reestablish the power of a well-conceived musical score to contribute to the success of a movie. His collaborations with Spielberg were so tight that the music was often a primary element and a major influence on how Spielberg shot his films rather than an afterthought.

In 1980 Williams's career added a new branch when he was appointed music director of the Boston Pops Orchestra, succeeding Arthur Fiedler. Williams was a brilliant choice for the Pops, and he expanded the orchestra's repertoire. The orchestra gave him an instrument with which to perform and record, and his rich movie scores became staples of the orchestral pops repertoire. He continued to lead the Pops until 1993, and has guest conducted numerous other symphony orchestras.

Williams's movie career did not slow down throughout the 1980s, during which he produced some of his biggest film scores: The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982, winning Williams his fourth Academy Award), Return of the Jedi (1983), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Empire of the Sun (1987), The Accidental Tourist (1988), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), and Born on the Fourth of July (1989).

Movie projects in the 1990s included Schindler's List (1993), another Spielberg film, for which Williams won his fifth Academy Award. Other projects included Stanley and Iris (1990), Presumed Innocent (1990), Home Alone (1990), Hook (1991), JFK (1991), Far and Away (1992), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Jurassic Park (1993), Sabrina (1995), Nixon (1995), Sleepers (1996), Rosewood (1997), The Lost World (1997), Seven Years in Tibet (1997), Amistad (1997), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Stepmom (1998), The Phantom Menace (1999), Angela's Ashes (1999), The Patriot (2000), A.I. (2001), Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), Attack of the Clones (2002), Minority Report (2002), and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002).

Along with his movie and conducting career, Williams is known for his concert compositions and theme music. He has composed a well-regarded symphony, a cello concerto (1994) premiered by Yo-Yo Ma, and concertos for bassoon, trumpet, flute, violin, clarinet, and tuba. He has composed theme music for NBC News, and themes for the 1984, 1988, and 1996 Summer Olympic Games.

Hollywood has a long tradition of hiring serious composers to produce its music. Williams is a traditional, serious composer who knows how to sell a good tune, has an intimate understanding of his craft, and has the ability to adapt and collaborate in an art form that requires many chefs. He has an old-style romantic ear for melody and works in a harmonic language that is familiar but not hackneyed. He knows how to evoke emotion but avoids being maudlin, and his sense for the grand sweep of an orchestra is in the finest tradition of the golden age of movies. He has been fortunate to build relationships with some of the best directors of his day, directors who understand the power of music in a successful movie.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

By Request: The Best of John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra (Polygram, 1990); Star Wars Trilogy: The Original Soundtrack Anthology (Arista, 1993); John Williams: Greatest Hits, 1969–1999 (Sony, 1999).