I posted earlier about film composer Alex North (“A Streetcar Named Desire,” “Death of a Salesman,” “Spartacus,” “Cleopatra,” “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”) on his birthday. Now here’s a two-part interview about North with John Williams!
Tag: John Williams
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John Williams’ Grammy Noms & Disney’s Soundtrack Fail
I’m probably the last person on the internet to congratulate John Williams for his latest Grammy nominations. It was announced on Friday that Williams received three nominations for the excellence of his work over the past year – in the categories of Best Score Soundtrack for “The Fabelmans” and Best Score Soundtrack and Best Instrumental Composition (“Helena’s Theme”) for “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” Too bad the idiots at Disney only pressed something like three copies of the “Indiana Jones” CD (and that the movie was terrible).
This brings Williams’ career total to 76 nominations. He’s won 25 times. Williams’ first Grammy nomination was for “Checkmate,” 61 years ago. He is the fifth most-nominated Grammy artist. But who would be interested in owning a new John Williams’ “Indiana Jones” soundtrack, right? Nice going, Disney.
The Grammys ceremony will be held on February 4. Congratulations, John Williams!
“Helena’s Theme”
“The Fabelmans”
“Checkmate”
PHOTO: Williams at the 60th Grammy Awards, at which he was honored for “Escapades” for alto saxophone and orchestra (a concertino of sorts arranged from his score to “Catch Me If You Can) and a Trustees Award, for “individuals who, during their careers in music, have made significant contributions, other than performance, to the field of recording”
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Airport Movie Music on “Picture Perfect” Radio
This week on “Picture Perfect,” get ready to take flight, with music from movies about airports and airplanes.
In the original “Airport” (1970), producer Irwin Allen established the prototype for disaster movies of all stripes by placing an all-star, aging cast in spectacular peril. Burt Lancaster! Dean Martin! George Kennedy! Jean Seberg! Jacqueline Bisset! Helen Hayes! The list goes on and on, longer than the longest runway. The bongo-laden theme is by veteran film composer Alfred Newman,” from the last of his over 200 scores.
Another movie with something of the same feel is “The V.I.P.s” (1963), allegedly inspired by the real-life love-triangle of Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, and Peter Finch. The story is set at London Heathrow Airport, where flights are delayed because of a dense fog. The film was written by Terrence Rattigan and the parts cast from another laundry list of stars, including Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Louis Jourdan, Maggie Smith, Rod Taylor, and Orson Welles, with Margaret Rutherford in an Academy Award-winning performance. The music is by Miklós Rózsa.
By contrast, Steven Spielberg’s “The Terminal” (2004) is an (intentionally) comic take on the predicament of a hapless Eastern European who finds himself in a kind limbo, trapped in an international arrivals terminal in New York, after his country erupts into civil war, so that his passport and other documentation are no longer valid. His plight mirrors that of real-life Mehran Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian who lived for 17 years in a terminal at Charles de Gaulle Airport.
Tom Hanks plays the unfortunate traveler, who makes the terminal his home, and Catherine Zeta-Jones the airline attendant with whom he strikes up a relationship. The music is by regular Spielberg collaborator John Williams, and I think you’ll find it quite different from the Williams known for his work on “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones.”
Finally, we’ll turn to the Alfred Hitchcock thriller “North by Northwest” (1959), a film in which Cary Grant encounters love and danger in, on, and from a variety of planes, trains, and automobiles. Planes are particularly significant. During the course of the film, it’s revealed that the title is in reference to a Northwest Airlines flight; Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) must do all she can to avoid getting on a plane with Phillip Vandamm (James Mason); and of course, Roger Thornhill (Grant) flees from a strafing crop duster. Bernard Herrmann’s opening fandango propels us into the adventure.
Rush more to Rushmore. Departure time below, for “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
Remember, KWAX is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour difference for the Trenton-Princeton area. Here are the respective air-times of my recorded shows (with East Coast conversions in parentheses):
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday on KWAX at 5:00 PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EDT)
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday on KWAX at 4:00 PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EDT)
Stream them here!
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John Williams’ Genius Beyond the Screen
I’m a little late in sharing this – the article ran yesterday – but I couldn’t agree more with the premise. Anyone who sneers at John Williams’ indelible themes doesn’t understand the full extent of his artistry, and those who continue to approach film music as mere grist for pops concerts (especially in “pops” arrangements) is doing film music at its best a serious disservice. I wish someone would have the guts to present extended passages from these scores without the images, so that listeners can appreciate more fully what the composer has achieved. Yeah, they’re not symphonies, but it takes a special kind of talent to make this type of music work as often as John Williams has. If there’s anyone else alive that can maintain this balancing act between the dramatically appropriate and musically satisfying as well as he does, I don’t know of it.
The article is written by Frank Lehman, Associate Professor of Music at Tufts University. It’s refreshing to see an appreciation piece written by someone who understands the inner workings of the music and can actually express himself in musical terms. Too often, these kinds of articles are written by well-meaning fans, who don’t really possess a larger perspective or the necessary tools to communicate musically. Not to trash the fans. Williams is who he is he is, in large part, because of them. But if his music is to be taken seriously, we need people like Lehman.
The article is interactive, with plenty of film and sound clips to illustrate the writer’s points. I wouldn’t want all newspaper articles to be done like this, but for a music piece, especially one about how music works with the movies, this was very well done. Great job, and a fun read, @[100059174186752:2048:The New York Times]!
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John Williams Film Music Lion
He’s a reminder of what film music could be if only composers would be allowed to do their thing, instead of churning out yet another non-descript, inexpensive moan-and-groan that’s convenient to edit right up until the final print is struck. Somebody have the courage to let composers get back to composing, already. Maybe your movies will have more soul. For now, John Williams is the last of the lions.
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