Abstract
There seems to be the idea that everything has been written on John Williams, because he is such a famous film composer. Yet, this is not true at all, since academic studies of his work are rare. Moreover, when discussed critically, if not academically, the take on Williams’s work is often oversimplified if not prejudiced. On the other hand, the stylistic influence of Williams’s work on contemporary scoring has also been overstated by fans and favourable critics. The use of big orchestras and dense sound textures is actually the only thing that contemporary mainstream Hollywood composers such as Hans Zimmer seem to have inherited from him, certainly not Williams’s leitmotivic, symphonic, and classical-hollywood-sounding style. This chapter aims at defining Williams’s contribution to contemporary scoring in fairer terms. The essay surveys Williams’s career in terms of his revival of the musical style and repertoire of Hollywood’s Golden Age, and compares his style with the general style of mainstream contemporary film music.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsBibliography
Anon. 1997. Evening at Pops, WGBH/Boston Symphony Orchestra, TV show, episode # 2105. WGBH Archives, Boston MA, U.S.A.
———. 2002. Media Ventures. Where Studios and Composers Meet All under One Roof! Studio Expresso, online, http://www.studioexpresso.com/Spotlight%20Archive/Spotlight-Media%20Venture.htm. Accessed 15 July 2015.
———. 2015. Back to a Galaxy Far, Far Away. International Musician Magazine, June, online. Accessed 5 December 2015.
Audissino, Emilio. 2014. John Williams’s Film Music. ‘Jaws,’ ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark,’ and the Return of the Classical Hollywood Music Style. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
Borum, Jeremy. 2015. Guerrilla Film Scoring. Practical Advice from Hollywood Composers. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Brown, Royal S. 1994. Overtones and Undertones. Reading Film Music. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Buhler, James, and David Neumeyer. 2015. Hearing the Movies. Music and Sound in Film History. 2nd ed. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
Burlingame, Jon. 2014. Remote Control Prods: Hans Zimmer’s Music Factory as a Breeding Ground. Variety, 6 May. Online. http://variety.com/2014/music/news/remote-control-prods-music-factory-as-breeding-ground-1201173763/. Accessed 15 July 2015.
———. 2015a. Film Score Icons Williams, Morricone and Horner Loom Large in Oscar Race. Variety, 9 December, online, http://variety.com/2015/music/awards/oscar-icons-williams-morricone-and-horner-loom-large-in-score-race-1201657637. Accessed 10 December 2015.
———. 2015b. Live Concerts a Cash Cow for Orchestras. Variety, 28 April. Online. http://variety.com/2015/music/features/live-movie-concerts-a-cash-cow-for-orchestras-1201483456. Accessed 5 November 2015.
Chion, Michel. 1990. L’audio-vision. Son et image au cinéma. Paris: Nathan. English trans. and ed. Claudia Gorbman, Audio-Vision. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.
Dyer, Richard. 1999. Making Star Wars Sing again. The Boston Globe, 28 March. Reprinted in Film Score Monthly, June 1999, 18–19.
Farnell, Andy. 2010. Designing Sound. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
Jullier, Laurent. 1997. L’écran post-moderne. Un cinéma de l’allusion e du feu d’artifice. Paris: L’Harmattan.
Karlin, Fred. 1994. Listening to Movies. The Film Lover’s Guide to Film Music. Belmont, CA: Schirmer.
Lehman, Frank. 2015. Trailers, Tonality, and the Force of Nostalgia. Musicology Now, online, 4 November. http://musicologynow.ams-net.org/2015/11/trailers-tonality-and-force-of-nostalgia.html. Accessed 5 November 2015.
Miceli, Sergio. 2009. Musica per Film. Storia, Estetica, Analisi, Tipologie. Lucca-Milan: LIM-Ricordi.
Sonnenschein, David. 2001. Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice and Sound Effects in Cinema. Studio City CA: Michael Wiese Productions.
Terry, Kenneth. 1981. John Williams Encounters the Pops. Downbeat, March 21.
Vernier, David. 1988. Magnificent Modern Maestro. Digital Audio, March.
Wierzbicki, James. 2009. Film Music. A History. New York and London: Routledge.
Wierzbicki, James, Nathan Platte, and Colin Roust, ed. 2012. The Routledge Film Music Sourcebook. Oxon-New York: Routledge.
Williams, Brian. 2012. Rock Center: Interview with John Williams. NBC, 26 July, TV show. Online. http://www.nbcnews.com/video/rock-center/48347279. Accessed 15 July 2015.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Audissino, E. (2017). John Williams and Contemporary Film Music. In: Coleman, L., Tillman, J. (eds) Contemporary Film Music. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57375-9_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57375-9_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-57374-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-57375-9
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)