John Williams, the Composer

Some years ago, my friend Tracee ruined John Williams's music for me. She said that all of his music sounded the same. I didn't try to argue because I realized that every movie theme was composed of variations of the same melody, but my stained glass window was shattered, nonetheless.

The difficulty of the matter was that I had to reconcile the examination of her claim and the fact that I love the scores for so many movies that he worked on. Superman (don't love the movie so much, however), Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and many more. Here are my apologetic arguments:

1) Fanfare necessary for caliber of movies: the blockbusters that Williams was tasked to score for needed to have big, moving music pieces. It wasn't a matter of quality more of volume.

2) Classical Music of old and Pop music today: If you listen to classical music on more of rare-seldom basis, you may become familiar with the sounds of many of the famous composers. You will be able to discern if a piece is Bach's or Mozart's just as you may be able to decipher between The Monkeys and The Beatles. John Williams soundtracks are just as recognizable (so are Hanz Zimmer's).

3) Borrowing from classical composers: Some of William's pieces have movements similar to those by Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain or the Symphony No. 4 In A Major Op. 90 - Italian Saltorelo by Felix Mendelssohn. Is this plagiarism or just sampling? If America's Ventura Highway can be sampled by Janet Jackson then John should be able to sample from the greats.

4) The Spurious Theory: This is a slightly similar point as number one but a different spin. John Williams is a robot. He is just a machine with a complex algorithm for making music for huge movies. There is not one bit of talent to his orchestration-- except for the computer programmer.

5) Boston Pops: To quote Vince Noir and Bollo "no smoke without fire." If John Williams is a hack, how does he get to be the conductor and now laureate conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra?  How does a great director continue to use John's efforts and methods to support Oscar winning movies?

You be the critic.