John Williams: his music and his life

From writing the world's best-loved soundtracks - such as Star Wars and Harry Potter - to conducting the Boston Pops, John Williams is one of today's musical giants.

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   1. The force is with him

   Born on 8 February 1932 in Long Island, John Williams has composed some of the most popular and recognizable film scores ever, including Jaws, the Star Wars films, Superman, the Indiana Jones movies, E.T., Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan and three Harry Potter instalments. He has won five Oscars, four Golden Globes, seven BAFTAs and 21 Grammys. With 48 Oscar nominations, he is second only to Walt Disney as most nominated person ever.
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   2. Aspiring young musician

   John Williams grew up in a musical family; his father was a jazz percussionist. Young John attended UCLA while studying composition privately with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Drafted in 1952, Williams spent three years conducting and arranging music for the U.S. Air Force Band. After his service ended, Williams moved to New York City and entered Juilliard where he studied piano.
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   3. Legendary piano riff

   Williams worked as a pianist in jazz clubs and eventually studios, most notably for the brilliant Henry Mancini. 'Little Johnny Love Williams' played the famous piano riff on the groundbreaking Peter Gunn theme. Williams went on to be music arranger and bandleader for a number of albums for singer Frankie Laine.
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   4. Composing TV classics

   Williams returned to L.A. from New York. There he began working as an orchestrator at film studios with such legends from Hollywood's Golden Age as Franz Waxman, Bernard Herrmann, and Alfred Newman. He also developed his skills writing the music for hit 1960 TV shows, Gilligan's Island, Lost in Space, The Time Tunnel and Land of the Giants - pictured.
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   5. Academy Award recognition

   John Williams received his first Academy Award nomination in 1967 for Valley of the Dolls. He was nominated again for Goodbye, Mr. Chips. He won his first Oscar for musical direction for Fiddler on the Roof. High profile scores for 1970s disaster movies followed - The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno and Earthquake.
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   6. An extraordinary partnership

   In 1974, a young director called Steven Spielberg approached Williams to compose music for his film, The Sugarland Express. They teamed up again the following year for Jaws. The threatening shark motif, two low notes played alternately on the tuba, has since become synonymous with sharks in general and danger at sea. Spielberg and Williams have gone on to work on more than 20 films together, most recently War Horse, Lincoln and The Adventures of Tintin.
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   7. A galaxy far, far away...

   Spielberg recommended Williams to his friend George Lucas, who needed a composer for Star Wars. Williams delivered a grand symphonic score in the style of Hollywood's swashbucklers of the 1930s and 1940s. The soundtrack remains the best-selling non-pop record of all-time - and Williams won another Oscar for Best Original Score. He was also nominated for the follow-up scores for The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi.
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   8. At the peak of his powers

   The late 1970s and early 1980s saw Williams at the peak of his powers and success. He scored Superman in 1978, followed by The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), created by George Lucas and directed by Spielberg. Williams' rousing Raiders March theme has defined the character of Indiana Jones and become a concert hall favourite in its own right.
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    9. Boston Pops star

    From 1980 to 1993, Williams was Principal Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra. He is now its Laureate Conductor, leading the orchestra on several occasions each year, particularly during their Holiday Pops season and a week of concerts in May. He conducts an annual Film Night at both Boston Symphony Hall and Tanglewood.
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    10. Schindler's List

    Considered by many to be the finest film score of recent decades, Schindler's List followed hot on the heels of Spielberg and Williams' collaboration on Jurassic Park - and it couldn't be more different. When he first saw the film, the composer told the director: 'You need a better composer than I am for this film.' Spielberg replied, 'I know. But they're all dead!' For the soundtrack Williams, following Spielberg's suggestion, hired the great violinist Itzhak Perlman. The film's main theme, played with such passion and emotional intensity by Perlman, is heartbreakingly simple and touching. For Schindler's List, Williams won his fifth Oscar.

omposer John Williams awarded RPS Gold Medal...

 ... for introducing millions to orchestral music

John Williams receives RPS Gold Medal award. Picture: Royal Philharmonic Society

By Maddy Shaw Roberts, ClassicFM London

‘He has dedicated his life to ensuring orchestral music continues to speak to and captivate millions of people worldwide.’

Internationally treasured composer John Williams, 88, is the recipient of this year’s RPS Gold Medal.

The legendary film maestro, who composed the enduring music for Star Wars, Harry Potter, Schindler’s List and many more, won the coveted award at the 2020 Royal Philharmonic Society Awards, for introducing millions to orchestral music.

His win, one of the highest honours in music recognising outstanding musicianship since 1870, was announced during a digital broadcast on 18 November featuring performances filmed at London’s Wigmore Hall.

Accepting the medal via video, Williams said: “To receive this award is beyond any expectation I could possibly have. For any composer to be able devote his or her life entirely to the composition of music is very fortunate indeed.”

Director Steven Spielberg presented a special congratulatory message to his long-time collaborator via video message, saying: “John, you have brought the classical idiom to young people all over the world through your scores, and through your classical training and your classical sensibilities. You are in the DNA of the musical culture of today.”

In his wonderful introduction to Williams’ win, which was determined by the RPS Board and Council and voted for by RPS members, RPS chairman John Gilhooly said:

“Some of us are born into classical music, never recalling a time without it. Others are drawn to its magic by the spell that orchestras cast in bringing soul, drama and humanity to motion pictures.

“The recipient of this year’s RPS Gold Medal has dedicated his life to ensuring orchestral music continues to speak to and captivate people worldwide in this way. Aged 88 and still at work, he is an international treasure, writing score after score of sophistication and impact, many transcendent of the films for which they were written.”

Elsewhere, cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason was presented with the Young Artists Award for “captivating listeners worldwide”.

Welsh soprano Natalya Romaniw received the Singer Award, while the Scottish Ensemble received the Ensemble Award for their innovation in their 50th birthday year.

(C) 2020 by ClassicFM London

Unlike many contemporary composers, John Williams is a household name, even among families who aren't classic music buffs. To date, his award stats seem inconceivable, even to the most aspiring of professional composers. They include 25 Grammy Awards, seven British Academy Film Awards, five Academy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards (and more to come, we would imagine).

A well-published John Williams quote (filmtracks.com) states, "So much of what we do is ephemeral and quickly forgotten, even by ourselves, so it's gratifying to have something you have done linger in people's memories." Based on that statement, this famous musician, composer, conductor, and music producer must be one gratified human being.

John (Johnny) Williams II: The Basics

We can't post an Artist Spotlight without capturing some of the basic biographical details. But, as we know, there is so much more to any human than birth dates and accolades. Therefore, the second section of this post focuses on facts you may not know about one of the 20th/21st centuries' most famous and well-loved composers. 

The Early Years

John (Johnny during his younger years) Towner Williams II was born on February 8, 1932, making him almost 90 years wise today. He was born in Queens, New York, to parents Esther (née Towner, hence his middle name) and Johnny Williams. His father was a talented jazz percussionist who played with the Raymond Scott Quintet. Later on, after the family's move to Los Angeles in 1948, his father worked as a recording artist and a studio musician for both radio and films.

Williams's mother was originally from Maine and grew up in a family that owned a department store. Her father was also a carpenter and cabinet maker. As a result, John Williams, the composer, felt his life exemplifies both the musicianship and the strong work ethic that defined his formative years and family culture.

As is the way of many professional composers, Williams quickly became poly-instrumental. He began playing the piano at age six. By the time he left grade school, Williams was proficient on the bassoon, cello, clarinet, trombone, and trumpet. Eventually, Johnny-now-John attended UCLA, where he studied composition. 

Williams' later years

In 1951, John Williams got drafted into the military, where he served in the U.S. Air Force Band as a pianist, brass player, and conductor. Upon his release from the service in 1955, he was accepted into Julliard. At first, Williams planned to become a concert pianist but eventually turned his sights to composition. He continued his composition studies at the Eastman School of Music and, upon graduation, Williams began working as an orchestrator in film studios. 

That initial post-graduate job led to Williams's career as a world-renowned film score composer. However, it's impossible to narrow down his "best-known works" because the entire list is recognizable, including:

Jaws (1975)

Superman - The Movie (1978)

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) 

E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) 

Jurassic Park (1993)

Schindler's List (1994)

Seven Years in Tibet (1997)

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

The first three Harry Potter films (2001, 2002, and 2004)

All of the Star Wars films

(Wikipedia's complete list of compositions by John Williams)

We could go on, but you get the point. He also served as music director and laureate conductor of one of the country's treasured musical institutions, the Boston Pops Orchestra.

In our post, Insights From the World's Best Film Score Composers, we quoted John Williams saying, "I think the biggest single mission perhaps of the filmmakers and myself is to try to seek universalisms in the story, in the music, and in the emotions." (Source: Gramaphone). His laudable career exemplifies John Williams's ability to do just that.

10 Fun Facts 

Now, as promised, we'd like to break away from the basic details and leave you with ten fun facts you might not have known about John Williams. 

He's been nominated for 52 Academy Awards, making him the second-most nominated person after Walt Disney.

You can hear some of his early professional piano playing in the movies "Some Like it Hot (1959)" and "To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)."

Williams "allowed" Steven Spielberg to play clarinet, which he'd learned to play in high school in the band street scene. The dailyjaws.com website quotes Williams saying that Spielberg "added the right amateur quality to the piece" (sorry, Steven). 

He paid his way through graduate music school, working as a nightclub jazz pianist and a bandleader called "Little Johnny Love."

In an interview with businessinsider.com, Williams admitted that he's never seen a single "finished" version of the Star Wars Films.

Technology is not his thing. Williams composes his scores at a desk with a pencil and paper, with his adjacent Steinway piano as a companion. John Williams has this to say about technology, "I have not evolved to the point where I use computers and synthesizers. First of all, they didn't exist when I was studying music, and luckily, mercifully, I have been so busy in the interim years that I haven't had time to go back and retool. And so my evolution, in very practical terms, i.e. piano and pencil and paper, has not changed at all." (Grunge)

John Williams's son, Joseph, was the lead singer of the band Toto, most famous for their songs, "Africa" and "Rosanna."

While best known for his film scores, a composer is a composer through and through. Williams has also composed concert hall performances that include two symphonies and various concertos for horn, cello, clarinet, flute, violin, and bassoon. Watch Yo-Yo Ma performing Williams's Concerto for Cello and Orchestra. 

The iconic first three notes of the Jaws theme song (which Spielberg thought were a joke at first) have become the most famous musical introduction in history after the beginning of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. 

Two of his first Academy nominations were for movies you've probably never heard of: Valley of the Dolls (1967) and Good-Bye, Mr. Chips (1969).

At a sharp and still-composing 89 years old, John Williams is a musician, composer, producer, and conductor who deserves every bit of the respect and accolades he's received. We look forward to what this soon-to-be nonagenarian composes next. 

Musical Autograph Books

by Maureen Buja, Interlude

Starting in the 16th century with small albums created by fellow classmates and continuing into the 20th century with the rise of musical groupies (actually, this started much earlier), the autograph book is an interesting view into the relationship between musicians and their audience.

An autograph book is typically a small book (4”x 6” or A6 size) that was small enough to fit into the owner’s hand (or handbag) and could be produced when a celebrity was sited. Some autograph books only have signatures, but others, particularly those kept for signing at parties, often have more interesting contents. This book, up for auction in December 2013 at Bonham’s, has the signatures of all four members of the Beatles:

Whereas this leaf is much more interesting:

The English conductor John Barbirolli signed this page in 1927 “With best wishes” and included a bit of music from Puccini’s La bohème. At the time, Barbirolli was just 28 years old and conductor of the British National Opera (which later became the English National Opera).

Here’s another leaf, signed by the pianist Wilhelm Backhaus in 1908, which carries a tag from Chopin‘s Ballade in A-flat Major.

So far, we’ve just seen examples from performers. Composer’s autograph pages can be even more interesting. Here’s one from Austrian composer Ernst Krenek that is addressed to the American conductor Mario de Bonaventura in 1975. The phone number is for somewhere in the state of Connecticut (please don’t phone it – the conductor is no longer at that number) and giving a 7-note tone row (no clef, but e flat, b flat, f flat, d flat, g flat, g natural, d flat, and b flat if read in treble clef). The composer notes “I hope the number is correct – the tone row is not.”

Another album leaf is this beauty from the composer, pianist, and teacher Theodor Leschetizky, dated London 25 October 1897. This gives a selection from the Scherzo from his Souvenirs d’Italie, Op. 39, a piano suite.

When a formal autograph book wasn’t available, composers often took what was to hand, generally music paper, and made their own album leaves:

This leaf, cut down from a larger piece of music paper, inscribed “for Ann” and signed by William Walton is an excerpt from the “Polka” from his experimental work Façade, which was commissioned by Dame Edith Sitwell. Walton, born in 1902, was 75 in 1977 and the shakiness of his hand writing makes a startling contrast with the strength in some of the other autograph pieces.

One more autograph is a two-sided autograph, this time from the composer, conductor, and librettist Arrigo Boito. It is also cut down from a sheet of music paper and contains a musical quote from the Epilogue to his opera Mefistofeles, for which he also wrote the libretto. This is from the beginning of the Epilogue, “The Death of Faust.”

These autograph books are an interesting view into what a composer or a performer or a conductor found most interesting. Sometimes these are recent compositions, sometimes these are their most famous piece, and sometimes, it might have been inspired by conversations with the autograph collector. In most cases, we can only guess at why that piece of music might have been included but in every case, it’s an interesting record of the past, passed forward by hand.

All album leaf examples are from the collection of the New York antiquarian music dealer Wurlitzer Bruck.

(C) 2014/2021 by Interlude

Frankfurt Does the Foxtrot: Seiber, Hindemith, Schulhoff and Tansman

by Georg Predota , Interlude

Foxtrot

The composer, conductor and educator Bernhard Sekles (1872-1934) caused a minor scandal in 1928. Sekles was director of the Hoch Conservatory of Music in Frankfurt am Main, and he decided to put Jazz on the curriculum. The courses in the theory and practice of jazz would be taught by Mátyás Seiber (1905-1960), and concerts held in the “Volksbildungsheim.” Seiber started his musical career at the Budapest Academy of Music. When he entered a wind sextet for a competition and was not awarded a prize, Bartók resigned from the jury in protest.

Mátyás Seiber

In 1927 he joined a dance orchestra on a transatlantic liner, and visited both North and South America. A cellist by trade, he perfected his skills as a jazz musician in various jam sessions in New York and elsewhere. Seiber immigrated to England in 1935 and he collaborated with Adorno on a jazz research project in 1936. In a lecture on jazz to the “Music of Our Time Congress,” he was demanding that jazz be “taken seriously and subjected to intelligent analysis, chiefly through an appreciation of its rhythmic techniques.” Seiber was also a capable composer and educator, and he published a number of didactic pieces, including his favorite, the foxtrot—tracks 1 and 4 in this recording.

Mátyás Seiber

Sekles and Seiber did not simply invent an academic subject; they responded to various musical stimuli and interests that were part of the musical and cultural fabric of the time. Six years earlier, Paul Hindemith had already caused a massive scandal with his Kammermusik No. 1.

The Amar Quartet in 1921 with Hindemith
in the center

At that time, a culture struggle was long underway as a critic wrote, “A hissing and seething begins, a pushing, shoving, and pulling, screams and shouts assault our ears; one sees sensuously distorted, common faces, hears whipping and blowing, laughter and shouts, groaning and rejoicing, whistling and yelling; pairs mingle in the most lascivious manner in what are literally foxtrot melodies, barbaric sound of half-engrossed, giddily reeling people are uttered…” The incorporation of the foxtrot in the last movement of this work clearly shocked listeners, but it was not a cheap and reckless joke on Hindemith’s part. For one, the foxtrot quotation is linked to its structural surroundings, and secondly, it is the counterpart of the “Ragtime” for large orchestra that Hindemith had composed in 1921. As Hindemith writes, “I cannot offer analyses of my works because I do not know how I should explain a piece of music in a few words. Besides, I believe that my things are really easy for people with ears to understand, so an analysis is unnecessary. People without ears cannot be helped even with such guides for idiots.”

Paul Hindemith: Kammermusik No. 1, “IV Finale: 1921” (Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra; Werner Andreas Albert, cond.)

Erwin Schulhoff

Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942) was born in Prague and began his studies of composition and piano at the age of 10. Schulhoff was one of the first generation of classical composers to find inspiration in the rhythms of jazz music. He meticulously organized concerts of avant-garde music, and in 1919 authored the following manifesto. “Absolute art is revolution, it requires additional facets for development, leads to overthrow in order to open new paths… and is the most powerful in music…. The idea of revolution in art has evolved for decades, under whatever sun the creators live, in that for them art is the commonality of man. This is particularly true in music, because this art form is the liveliest, and as a result reflects the revolution most strongly and deeply–the complete escape from imperialistic tonality and rhythm, the climb to an ecstatic change for the better.” Schulhoff’s 1920 declaration that “Music should, first and foremost, produce physical well-being, ecstasy even, by means of rhythm” underlines his affinity with jazz, as does a letter to Alban Berg in which he writes: “I have an absolute passion for the dance in vogue and myself have times when I dance with bar ladies night after night – purely out of rhythmic intoxication and subconscious sensuality… Thereby I acquire phenomenal inspiration for my work, as my conscious mind is incredibly earthy, even animal as it were.” Composed in 1931, the Suite dansante en jazz is clearly indebted to jazz idioms, and the concluding Foxtrot was Schulhoff’s self-proclaimed “favorite dance rhythms.”

Alexander Tansman at the home of Vladimir Golschmann and his wife in St. Louis (U.S.A.) in 1931, watching while Prokofiev tries out Tansman’s Second Concerto on the piano. (Photo: Ruth Cunliff Russel, St. Louis, U.S.A.)

The origins of the Foxtrot are supposedly found with a Vaudeville actor born Arthur Carringford in 1882. He joined the circus early on, and when a music publisher liked his voice he was hired to sing songs in vaudeville theatres in San Francisco. Originally billed as “Mr. Frisky of Frisco,” Arthur eventually migrated to the East Coast and changed his stage name to “Fox.” When the New York Theatre was being converted into a movie house, management decided to try vaudeville acts between the shows. Harry Fox and his company of “American Beauties” were hired to provide the entertainment. As part of his routine, Harry Fox was doing trotting steps to ragtime music, which people referred to as “Fox’s Trot.” As the roof of the theatre was converted into a large dance floor, the “Foxtrot” became one of the featured dances in weekly dance contests. Mind you, there are various alternate histories regarding the origins of the foxtrot, but the dance quickly made it to Europe and found great popularity in the ballroom. And it also found it’s way into the toolkit of numerous composers across the continent.