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- Home Alone – Main Title (‘Somewhere in my Memory’) Over 30 years after its initial release, the 1990 comedy film Home Alone remains a yuletide favourite for millions.
- E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial – ‘Flying’ At the time of the film’s release in 1982, E.T. was a marvel of animatronic achievement, but despite all its expressive abilities and Spielberg’s artful direction, it was going to take a very special soundtrack to achieve the kind of endearment for the creature that would ultimately take this film to the heights of its success.
- Saving Private Ryan – ‘Hymn to the Fallen’ The soundtrack to Saving Private Ryan is one of Williams’s most beautiful and subtle. His 16th collaboration with Steven Spielberg, the film is a graphic portrayal of the Second World War set during the invasion of Normandy.
- Raiders of the Lost Ark – ‘Raiders March’ Raiders of the Lost Ark was the first film to follow the great adventurer Indiana Jones on his daring escapades around the world, and features one of the most instantly recognisable themes ever written for film.
- ‘Out to Sea / The Shark Cage Fugue’ from Jaws
- Excerpts from Close encounters of The Third Kind
- Tuba Concerto
- ‘Hedwig’S Theme’ from Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone
- ‘Superman March’ from Superman
- Theme from Star Wars
- Theme from Schindler’s List
- ‘Yoda’S Theme’ from The Empire Strikes Back
- ‘Sayuri’S Theme’ from Memoirs of A Geisha
- ‘Olympic Fanfare and Theme’
It’s been reported that when the clunky mechanical shark malfunctioned during the filming of Jaws,director Steven Spielberg – working on the principle ‘less is more’ – decided to use music to suggest the presence of the creature instead. Williams’s simple two-note sequence (based on E and F) then became one of the most terrifying motifs in musical ...
While it is true that composer John Williams has provided the world with some of the most instantly recognizable tunes of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, his rigorous training at the celebrated Juilliard School in New York has given him a facility in hundreds of other styles as well. In the shark-cage scene from Jaws mentioned above, he w...
Although the majority of his work has been for the multiplex, John Williams has also frequently provided pieces for the concert hall. This tuba concerto was composed for the principal tuba player of the Boston Pops Orchestra to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the ensemble. The composer exploits just about everything the tuba can do, and turns ...
John Williams has worked with some of the classical world’s foremost musicians in his six-decade (and counting) career. On the album Across The Stars he teams up with top-drawer violinist Anne Sophie Mutter for a dazzlingly virtuosic re-working of the music composed to accompany appearances of Harry Potter’s owl Hedwig in the film series. In just a...
“You’ll believe a man can fly!” says the poster. Well, you certainly will after hearing the iconic ‘Superman March’, one of the best John Williams works, which suggests the miracle of human flight using the simplest of means. A soaring high trumpet gives the impression of height, low thudding strings the earth below, and energetic percussion adds t...
The theme from Star Wars, one of the best John Williams works, uses similar musical material to that of Superman but, for my money, just pips the latter to the post for sheer exuberance and swashbuckling derring-do. The second part of the theme makes an obvious genuflection at Holst’s The Planets, but once again, Williams takes his source, shakes i...
One of the reasons Hollywood film scores became such a sophisticated source of pleasure from the 1930s onwards was the influx of talented Jewish musicians and composers fleeing Nazi Germany and arriving in Los Angeles. Although composer John Williams does not have a Jewish background himself, his love for the idiom is evident in the delicate and ha...
Violinist Anne Sophie Mutter captures all the gentleness, playfulness and even vulnerability in the theme for the 900 year-old Jedi Master Yoda. A sweet melody for a wise and benign character, it might be considered a major-key counterpart to the melancholic minor-key tune for Schindler’s List.
Displaying familiarity with yet another idiom, John Williams provided a Japanese-influenced soundtrack for Memoirs Of A Geisha without falling into the trap of making it sound like the jokey overture to The Mikado. It helped that he chose to work on the project with the Chinese-American cellist Yo-Yo Ma, whose wonderful Silk Road project had alread...
Who better to compose the official music for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles than local boy John Williams? The typical Williams-style ‘big tune’ is counterpointed with an energetic, scurrying fanfare idea which perfectly suggests the energy and vision of the event. Goose-bump music of the highest order.
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The 120 best ORIGINAL instrumental movie themes. Composers more mentioned in the list: John Williams (37 themes), James Horner (11 themes), Hans Zimmer (11 themes), William Ross (6 themes), Thomas Newman (6 themes), Danny Elfman (5 themes), James Newton Howard (5 themes), David Holmes 5 (themes). 1.
- “Star Wars Trilogy” (1977-83) There’s simply no overlooking the incredible music of “Star Wars.” John Williams crafted what is arguably the greatest score in movie history, with many of its pieces becoming mainstays in the larger pop culture zeitgeist for half a century.
- “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” (1982) Surprise, surprise: here’s another John Williams entry on our list! The heart and soul of the movie, the “E.T.” theme is filled with majesty and a magical tone that emulates the atmosphere of this beloved blockbuster.
- “Superman” (1978) Another great John Williams score, the music to “Superman” is instantly recognizable and arguably the greatest superhero movie composition.
- “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” (2003) If the thirst for adventure doesn’t immediately hit you upon hearing this soundtrack, you’re clearly not listening very well.
Jan 25, 2024 · The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) As the wise director Steven Spielberg once said, “Without John Williams, bikes don’t fly” – and this is precisely the score that proves it. When E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial was released in 1982, the titular alien character was a marvel of animatronic achievement. But despite its expressive abilities and ...
Sep 25, 2019 · Jaws – “Theme from ‘Jaws’”. John Williams’ soundtrack for Jaws earned him his second Academy Award (and first for Best Original Score) and it was also ranked the sixth greatest film score of all time by the American Film Institute. Williams saw similarities between Jaws and pirate movies, so his score was inspired by other pirate ...
