John Williams, composer
 

What are your favorite soundtracks composed by John Williams?

I feel that John Williams is one of the most effective, accomplished composers of all time.

I love this story about him: after John Williams watched the rough cut of Schindler's List, he was so moved and impressed that he said to the director Steven Spielberg, "You need a better composer than I am for this film."

Steven Spielberg replied, "I know, but they're all dead."

(Source: FMS FEATURE [John Williams Scoring Stage Unveiled - by Jon Burlingame] )

I thought that was funny and very complimentary...and also possibly true! John Williams is awesome.

I was surprised to learn how many soundtracks he has composed:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._John_Williams

Currently my favorite is the soundtrack for Close Encounters of the Third Kind because it has such power, beauty, quirkiness, and emotion, as well as that unforgettable five note hook:

Close Encounters of the Third Kind - soundtrack composed by John Williams
(Excerpts)

First one that popped into my head. But he pretty much can do no wrong IMO.

Jaws

The Adventures of Tintin stands out, actually.

I like him, but there are better composers in the cinema.

The only complaint I've heard about John Williams' film scores is that sometimes the themes from different movies sound pretty similar, which may be true, but completely understandable given how many movies he has done.

What stands out for me is how unique and memorable many of his musical themes are.

For example, with Close Encounters of the Third Kind, you just have to hear those five notes, "Doo Doo Doo DOO Doooooo," and you know what movie they are from.

I feel Williams is great at coming up with a leitmotif, "an associated melodic phrase or figure that accompanies the reappearance of an idea, person, or situation" Leitmotif | Definition of leitmotif by Merriam-Webster

A perfect example is the music associated with the shark in...

Steven Spielberg and John Williams talk about the Jaws shark theme in the following short video, explaining how and why it functions so well. I like how Spielberg says at first he thought John Williams was joking when Williams played the simple two note theme for him:



I must confess I didn't even notice the music The Adventures of Tintin because I was so weirded out by the creepy animation, but I will go listen to what I apparently missed because of the visuals.

I feel John Williams' music is great, but now I'm wondering what other composers out there I've been missing! Which movie composers do you feel are better than him, and why?

I've been really impressed, for example, by how well John Williams matches his composition to the movie action, so it is hard for me to imagine anyone else doing that better than he does.

Do you think that that's because of John Williams' composing skills or more because those five notes are used as a plot device? I'm leaning toward the latter, since it's not a particularly notable song.

Better film composers: Elmer Bernstein, Johnny Greenwood, Mica Levi, Mike Patton, Art Zoyd (if you can count them, they did soundtracks after the movies had been released), and Philip Glass.

Thank you for the list of other film composers. I'll take a listen to them.

I feel John Williams' five note theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind is memorable for both reasons: it is used as a plot device, like you say, but I also feel it is a pretty good sequence of five notes.

Williams also creates a delightful alien musical response that is composed of variations of that five note theme, turning it into a much more complex and interesting piece. The weird, musical playfulness of the response made me not even notice or mind that the aliens, apparently, possessed tubas for making their booming sounds!

I will concede, however, that the human-alien musical scene from Close Encounters of The Third Kind might have been even more memorable if it had gone a little something like *this*:

Close Encounters of the Redneck Kind

+ Michael Nyman & Toru Takemitsu

I don't particularly think that the melody is that special, but that could just be my snobbishness.

And I also forgot my all time favourite, Teji Ito. He did a lot of work with Maya Deren. I tried finding Meshes of the Afternoon on Youtube to post here, but all of the videos have alternate soundtracks for some reason.