John Williams & The Return of the Golden Age Film Score

Star Wars. Indiana Jones. Jaws. Jurassic Park. Harry Potter.

It’s amazing when you pause and think that these iconic scores are the brainchild of one man…

But that list, though impressive in achievement and popularity, barely scratches the surface of the creative output of the musical genius that is John Williams.

If we were to discuss all of his contributions to music, we have a seven decades long (and still going!) career to pore over with an amazing, overflowing library of film scores and concert works at our disposal.

Let’s not forget the accolades this most celebrated composer has won: 25 Grammy Awards, seven British Academy Film Awards, five Academy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards.

Did I mention he has 52 Academy Award nominations, which makes him the second most-nominated individual?

Williams also achieved a task that most composers have only dreamed of — becoming a household name.

And…we didn’t even talk about his conducting nor his 13 year stretch as leader of the Boston Pops Orchestra.

But before John Williams became the multiple award winning composer we know today, he was Johnny Williams, the son of a percussionist for CBS Radio and the Raymond Scott Quintet, from Floral Park, New York.

Young Johnny inherited his father’s affinity for music and began studying piano at seven years of age. With theory books around the house, Johnny was already composing as a child and as a teenager was dabbling into orchestration.

When Johnny Williams, Sr. moved his family to California because one of his shows moved to television, he took a job as a studio musician in Columbia Pictures orchestra. Sixteen year old Johnny made an impression from the minute he stepped on Hollywood soil.

“They had what they called a ‘kicks band’ at Columbia Pictures, where the guys would get together and play each others’ charts. Dad would bring John along, and everybody would go ‘Hey, wait a minute — who’s the new piano player?’ So he was introduced and recognized very early on, because he was, and is, a great piano player.”

Jerry Williams, John’s brother

John’s Hollywood roots grew even stronger after he returned from service in the Air Force and his attendance at Juilliard and the Eastman School of Music in the late 1950’s.

He began as an orchestrator and a studio musician before his first film score was released, Daddy-O (1958).

Here is an excerpt from a podcast with the composer:

“I began to work in the Hollywood studios as a pianist in the orchestras in the late 1950s. And I played in the orchestras of studios in Hollywood for four or five years. Sitting every day watching older colleagues, like Alfred Newman. Some of our listeners will remember these names. Bernard Herrmann certainly they may remember, Franz Waxman and others.

And I played for all of these gentlemen in some fantastic films. Some Like It Hot, I played on the piano the orchestra score of that, and actually accompanied Marilyn Monroe in the headset when she did her little songs, and West Side Story and South Pacific, so many of these, The Big Country, To Kill a Mockingbird.”

So when you and I are sitting down to watch The Apartment, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Pink Panther, Funny Face, The Magnificent Seven, and Bell, Book and Candle, we are hearing John Williams as a pianist in the orchestra. Pretty magical.

Check out this web page to see a complete listing of films in which you can hear John Williams.

During his tenure as a studio musician, John saw the masters at work, the great composers and conductors of the Golden Age of Hollywood: Bernard Herrmann, Alfred Newman, and Franz Waxman, among others.

There’s no doubt that being surrounded by some of the founding fathers of film music was inspiring and formative for the up-and-coming composer.

Remember the man behind such iconic scores as Psycho, Vertigo, and Taxi Driver? As it turns out, he also had a role in shaping Williams into the composer he is today.

In this wonderfully candid interview, Norma Herrmann reveals many things about her late husband’s career. She also comments on the teacher-student relationship Bernard Herrmann and John Williams shared.

Surprisingly, it was a happy one. Norma said her husband “loved and respected Williams” and would be pleased and proud of his achievements. If you are familiar with the temperamental nature Herrmann was known for, you’ll know this pleasant rapport was quite a feat.

Note: Norma’s comments on Williams start at 7:10.

Throughout the 1960’s Williams continued scoring for both the big and small screens. Recognition began when his scores for Valley of the Dolls (1967) and Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969) received Oscar nominations.

However, the 1970’s proved to be Williams’s ticket to the fast lane. In 1971, Williams won his first Oscar with his adaptation of the score for Fiddler on the Roof followed by another nomination in 1972 for Images. His notoriety continued to grow with his scores for the highest-grossing disaster films of the decade: The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno, and Earthquake.

The 70’s also brought a time of change when the old had to make way for the new. No where was this more true than in Hollywood. New, young directors stepped behind the camera taking audiences where they had never gone before.

Another change had taken place, one which had already begun in the 1960’s — that of the musical climate.

In a time when it was becoming the vogue to score films with a pop idiom, in comes John Williams with his masterful score for Jaws (1975), and wins an Oscar for it.

When George Lucas was searching for the right composer to score his “space opera,” Star Wars (1977), he knew he needed an epic musical soundscape to bring his fantastical saga to life. However, unlike previous sci-fi films with an atonal soundtrack and otherworldly instrumentation, Lucas wanted his work to be grounded in the classics to provide an emotional recognition point for his audiences’ foray into these strange, new worlds.

The risk taken by George Lucas and John Williams paid off.

Star Wars was a massive hit, finding a permanent place in our culture upon its release. The soundtrack became the best selling symphonic album of all time, was certified Gold and Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, and has won many awards including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, and two Grammys.

With his work on Star Wars, Williams recalled the adventurous grandeur of Golden Age composer Erich Korngold and the character forming leitmotifs of Max Steiner, creating a galactic symphony of themes while enhancing the narrative with a vast and varied musical palette.

In an interview with Star Wars Insider in 1998, John Williams said, “I’ve been particularly fascinated with the émigrés from Europe in the 1930s — people like Max Steiner and Erich Korngold, but also Vernon Duke and Kurt Weill, who came with [directors] Billy Wilder and Ernst Lubitsch to Hollywood. They brought this tremendous European culture. In a certain sense, my colleagues and I are the artistic grandchildren of these men. We have been the beneficiaries of a rich tradition that grew up here in the early days of sound, in the 1930s and 40s.”

In a time of change and experimentation, Williams played a large part in reviving the Old Hollywood practice of Symphonic scoring, proving that it is effective in both storytelling and marketing. Although times once again are changing, Williams continues composing in the style of the Golden Age composers, (with pencil and paper, no less) inspiring those who will take film music into the next century and beyond.

Lastly, I’d like us to remember that John Williams first aspired to be a concert pianist, not a composer. I know, doesn’t that make your head hurt?!

“Piano was my serious study. I hadn’t intended ever to become a professional composer. Fact wouldn’t imagine anyone could earn a living doing that.”

What changed his mind? When he saw the pianists who were his contemporaries, he decided he had a better chance at being a composer.

Imagine how the world was almost robbed of the incredible gifts this man has left us and future generations to discover and enjoy.

“Life is a great gift. Life itself is just that we’re here, and we think, and we can share things, and see what’s beautiful, hear what’s beautiful…Find the joy in music, find the joy in life, find the joy in each other, find the joy in work, and life becomes really very, very beautiful that way, I think. Go out and find the joy.”

John Williams

Thank you, John Williams, for the joy, and Happy 90th Birthday!!

This post is my contribution to The John Williams Blogathon hosted by Taking Up Room. Thanks for organizing this, Rebecca! It was really special. Continue celebrating the Maestro’s 90th Birthday by heading over here!