Happy 80th birthday to the maestro, John Williams

[Secret Fawful]

Let the games BEGIN...


I believe, in addition, it's also H.P. Lovecraft's birthday.

[Vainamoinen]

I welcome this thread and will condone spamming youtube links and corresponding Drew Struzan posters.

Particularly this one.



My personal belief, however, is that Williams' 80th birthday was on February 8th.

[DrRocketGenius]

Originally Posted by Vainamoinen

My personal belief, however, is that Williams' 80th birthday was on February 8th.

That's because it was. But there was a concert this weekend to celebrate that February 8th birthday, for some reason.

[Shadowknight1]

A bit early/late, isn't it?

Still, may Mr. Williams keep bringing us awesome music for many more years.

[Alcoremortis]

I like John Williams. I like his pieces enough to own a good deal of his soundtracks and piano arrangements of them. The only other composer who comes close is Hans Zimmer.

[Shadowknight1]

Originally Posted by Alcoremortis

I like John Williams. I like his pieces enough to own a good deal of his soundtracks and piano arrangements of them. The only other modern composer who comes close is Hans Zimmer.

Fixed.

[Alcoremortis]

Originally Posted by Shadowknight1

Fixed.

This is true. My all time favorite would be Stravinsky. With Rimsky-Korsakov in a close second.

[Secret Fawful]

John Williams composes his own music at his piano for each person in his orchestra. Hans Zimmer needs six people working under him to help write music for him.

I like the music he produces, but don't even put Zimmer near the same league. Even if Time, One Day, The Kraken, Imagine the Fire, Introduce a Little Anarchy, the Broken Arrow Theme, and Journey to the Line are masterworks of modern movie scores.

[Vainamoinen]

Originally Posted by Secret Fawful

John Williams composes his own music at his piano for each person in his orchestra. Hans Zimmer needs six people working under him to help write music for him.

Completely true. Zimmer draws on the talents he finds in "his" composer school, and there is ample reason to suspect exploitation. At his whim, they removed ACTUAL Pirates of the Carribean composer Klaus Badelt from the CD covers of both the second and the third part although it's clear that Zimmer uses Badelt's source material extensively, most of the time. And that just seems to be how he works. If he does the motifs, it's his name on the cover. If he does the arrangements, it's his name on the cover. That's not Williams' style. Zimmer's present love for musical nihilism has yielded some interesting results, but I say there's laziness involved also. Williams would never do it that way.

The Williams CDs below are in my collection. I think I don't own a single all-Zimmer soundtrack. I own a Badelt soundtrack though.


The Spielberg/Williams collaboration
Williams on Williams: The Classical Spielberg scores
E.T. 20th anniversary OST
Raiders of the lost Ark OST
The Last Crusade OST
Home Alone OST
Phantom Menace OST
Revenge of the Sith OST
Empire Strikes Back Special Edition OST
Return of the Jedi Special Edition OST
John Williams conducts John Williams: Star Wars Triology

...not sure that's all. Let me check.

[Trenchfoot]

You can hear the concert for his 80th birthday in a completely legal way right here:

http://www.wgbh.org/programs/The-Bos...n-Parade-40665

Those lucky bastards got to hear two pieces from Tintin live! Curse them!

In all seriousness, happy unbirthday!