Classic Ross Amico

Tag: John Williams

Where Did All the Inspirational Movies Go?

Where are all the inspirational movies? Now, more than at any time in recent memory, there should be a wave of optimistic films to lift us up, out of all the dread, gloom, and rancor.

Over the course of his unparalleled career, John Williams almost always managed to convey the exhilaration of being alive, even in the darkest thrillers. Everyone remembers his theme for the great white, but it’s the swashbuckling third act that made “Jaws” a monstrous hit.

Not that everything has to be a march, necessarily, but how about a few interludes of light and beauty? Must these be totally absent from the movies these days? Is the best in life really reflected in the hip, the dark, the badass, and the ironic? Must the pace always be relentless?

The 1970s was far from the most hopeful decade. In the wake of Vietnam, Watergate, and all the political and social unrest of the 1960s, who could have predicted that a young generation of filmmakers would embrace imagination, wit, and adventure? After a hot afternoon of sweating it out on a gas line, the American public was hungry for affirmation and escape. They could still find it in a darkened theater, and these movies became enormous moneymakers.

But then, as usual, the Man got a hold of it and squeezed hard. A corporate mindset took root and bled everything of its fun and turned the world into a bleak thrill-ride.

There was plenty of grit in American movies of the 1970s, to be sure. But at some point, you’ve got to look away from all the crime and conspiracy, the dystopias and divorces, the horrors, real and supernatural, and celebrate the simple pleasures of biking to a friend’s house, sitting in a park with the sun on your face, or standing on a lawn in your bare feet.

Who knows, maybe it’s just not practical to expect any kind of soul, patience, or reflection anymore, with all the smartphones and computers. And the tighter deadlines for composers, and the ability to manipulate films virtually until the day they are released.

Does anyone watch the birds or the snow or the clouds, or even dream? Or breathe? Or is that considered boring? All I’m asking for is a little poetry, or even a smile.

Even when the movies weren’t the best, John Williams put his stamp on the music, so that you felt you were actually watching something ennobling. He’s one of few who still knows how to convey that life is worth living.

Happy birthday, Maestro. Now at work on a violin concerto for Anne-Sophie Mutter, John Williams turns 89.

The Reivers (1969):

The Fury (1978):

Jaws 2, for crying out loud (1978):

The Rise of Skywalker (2019):

February 8, 2021
Rollerball Tie-Dye Super Sunday Livestream

Roy and I seemed to regain our mojo last night. Chalk it up to ROLLERBALL. That, and a whole lot of tie-dye (to say nothing of the hoagies and buffalo wings). They don’t call it Super Sunday for nothing.

We’ll be back on Friday, to get you in the mood for Valentine’s Day, with THE FURY (1978). This Brian De Palma thriller is not just about Kirk Douglas and exploding heads. It also features a great score by John Williams from the same year he composed “Superman.” Happy birthday to the Maestro, who is 89 today!

You don’t need extrasensory perception to divine that Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner will return, livestreamed on Facebook, this Friday evening at 7:00 EST!

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

A direct link to our discussion of ROLLERBALL (with snacks) here:

February 8, 2021
Milton Babbitt a surprising composer

In reading an interview with John Williams in The New Yorker only a few months back, I was amused to discover that he and Milton Babbitt enjoyed a friendship of sorts. I guess Babbitt was a Bernard Herrmann fan. Who knew?

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/the-force-is-still-strong-with-john-williams

Babbitt, who was born in Philadelphia on this date in 1916, was a fixture at Princeton University for many years. It’s telling that he joined both the music and mathematics faculties there. Later, he also served on the faculty of the Juilliard School.

He gained widespread notoriety for his essay published under the title “Who Cares If You Listen?” The provocative slant was actually the result of an editorial decision. Babbitt’s original title had been “The Composer as Specialist” – not likely to generate nearly as much controversy.

Broadly speaking, while he frequently composed in a serial style, his music is fairly lucid, without undo congestion, and with a minimum of soul-crushing dissonances. On the contrary, he often achieved a paradoxical simplicity under the guise of complexity.

In the 1960s, Babbitt became interested in electronic music, apparently more for its rhythmic precision than for any unusual timbral considerations. I find it endearing to learn that he was also fond of jazz and musical theater. He himself was a saxophonist. In 1946, he penned a musical, “Fabulous Voyage,” a retelling of Homer’s “The Odyssey.”

Babbitt was the recipient of an honorary Pulitzer Prize in 1982. He died in Princeton in 2011, at the age of 94.

Listen here for “Penelope’s Night Song” from “Fabulous Voyage”:

“Composition for Twelve Instruments” (1948):

“Reflections” (1974) for piano and synthesized tape:

Milton Babbitt on electronic music:

January 10, 2021
Johnny Williams Before the Blockbusters

Before “Harry Potter.” Before “Jurassic Park.” Before “E.T.” Before “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Before “Superman.” Before “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” Before “Star Wars.” Before “Jaws.” Before even John Williams… there was Johnny Williams.

Well before Williams became America’s most famous living composer, he was busy honing his craft as an orchestrator, an arranger, a session pianist, and a composer in the bush league of television. This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll hear some of “Johnny” Williams’ music for “Lost in Space.”

Also on the program will be selections from “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour” by Bernard Herrmann, the theme from “Wagon Train” by Jerome Moross, and a medley of well-known television music by Jerry Goldsmith.

Movie composers think inside the box, on “Picture Perfect,” this Saturday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

December 5, 2020
Film Composers on TV Picture Perfect

The music is big… it’s the PICTURES that got small.

This week on “Picture Perfect,” it’s an hour of music from television scores by composers better known for their work in film.

Bernard Herrmann began his film career right at the top, with “Citizen Kane” in 1941. He is perhaps best recognized for his scores for the films of Alfred Hitchcock, many of which have gone on to become classics, including those for “Vertigo,” “North by Northwest,” and especially “Psycho.”

Less well known is his work on the television series “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour,” which ran from 1963 to 1965. Herrmann composed music for 17 of the episodes. He was also responsible for suggesting Hitchcock’s signature tune, Charles Gounod’s “Funeral March of a Marionette,” which appears throughout the series in Herrmann’s own arrangement.

Jerome Moross, Herrmann’s friend since childhood, had also enjoyed his share of success on the silver screen. Moross is best-remembered for having written the score for “The Big Country.” Nobody wrote western music quite like Moross. So it’s hardly surprising he would be asked to contribute to twelve episodes of “Wagon Train.”

When someone noticed that the “Wagon Train” theme bore a striking resemblance to some of Moross’ music written for the film “The Jayhawkers,” two competing studios were kind enough to look the other way.

Unlike Moross and Herrmann, who were both well-known by the time they ventured into television, John Williams was still very much on his way up. Williams, then billed as “Johnny,” was active in the movies throughout the 1960s, but his film projects at the beginning were mostly undistinguished, with titles like “Daddy-O,” “Gidget Goes to Rome,” and “John Goldfarb, Please Come Home.”

Of course, he worked as a musician on more reputable projects, appearing as pianist on the soundtracks of “The Big Country,” “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Charade.” He also worked as an orchestrator on “The Guns of Navarone.”

But what provided much of Williams’ bread-and-butter throughout the ‘60s was his work on television series like “Checkmate,” “Gilligan’s Island,” and – for our purposes this week – “Lost in Space.” Happily, that “Williams sound,” so beloved by fans of “Stars Wars,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” and “E.T.,” was already in place.

Finally, Jerry Goldsmith may have been a little bit ahead of Williams in the ‘60s, in terms of being offered more substantial films, but he too worked in television, providing scores for “Have Gun, Will Travel,” “The Twilight Zone,” and “Dr. Kildare.” We’ll conclude the hour with a medley of familiar Goldsmith television themes, with the composer conducting the London Symphony Orchestra.

You’re invited to think inside the box, as film composers write for television this week, on “Picture Perfect,” this Saturday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

December 4, 2020

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