Saturday, September 22, 2018

A Score To Settle Podcast - Episode 17, Listening To... John Williams (Part 1)

Welcome to the next new episode of the podcast! In this installment, I am focusing on the music of the most famous and beloved film composer in the world, John Williams. His richly melodic and developed scores have thrilled and stirred audiences for more than four decades, whether accompanying sharks, space ships, wizards or bullwhips. In charting his career and listening for the hallmarks of his style, I wanted to primarily spotlight music before he achieved superstardom as well as those other movies concurrent to the popular blockbusters that are perhaps less notable or less well-known to general audiences. My aim is to focus a bit more on the John Williams you might not have heard.  

Here in part one, I talk about his early career, first as a session player on various film and TV scores recorded in Hollywood, then to his own work in the 1960's including TV series such as LOST IN SPACE and THE TIME TUNNEL and wacky adult comedies with goofy titles like NOT WITH MY WIFE, YOU DON'T. I continue on through that decade and on to his scores from the 1970's, as the variety of projects expanded along with his musical vernacular. This runs the gamut from THE COWBOYS to THE MAN WHO LOVED CAT DANCING, THE TOWERING INFERNO and THE FURY, all of which showcase Williams's immense compositional range, something often undervalued, along with his ability to perfectly accompany any cinematic story. 

I hope everyone who listens finds the episode entertaining and informative and as usual, forgive me any technical or factual errors on my part. Below is the embedded player from which you can listen or simply click on the website link to head directly to where the show is hosted on Podbean. Also, feel free to subscribe and download the episode via iTunes, just search their podcast store for "a score to settle". If you do listen through iTunes, take a moment to rate and write a review of the show, it will help bring more notice. Check out the link to the Facebook page along with my Twitter account, the latter of which you can find at @score2settlepod. Thanks again!

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