John Towner Williams's Music Career
Grab Bag Assignment
For this writing assignment, I chose stage and screen percussion in the 1970s. I had a hard time trying to find someone that did just percussion in songs so I decided someone that composed songs for movies in the 70s. I chose john Williams because he composed the music for Star Wars. The music is fantastic and it fit the characteristics that I signed up for. John Towner Williams was born on February 8, 1932 in Floral Park, New York. His dad was a jazz percussionist who played with the Raymond Scott Quintet. (Wikipedia). Williams has two brothers, Donald and Jerry, both of who work as percussionists in Los Angeles.[18] When he was sixteen years old he moved with his family to Los Angeles and went to North Hollywood High school. 1952, Williams was drafted into the U.S. Air Force, where he conducted and arranged music for …show more content…
The U.S. Air Force Band for some of his assignments. After his service in the Air force, he moved to New York City and went to Julliard where he learned how to play the piano. During his time, there, he worked as a jazz pianist in many jazz clubs. Known as "Johnny" during the 1950s early 1960s, Williams composed the music for many TV programs and served as music arranger and bandleader for a series of popular music albums with the singer Frankie Laine. In 1970 Williams composed one of the most famous soundtrack in movie history.
Spielberg recommended Williams to his friend George Lucas, who needed a composer for Star Wars. Williams delivered a grand symphonic score in the style of Hollywood's swashbucklers of the 1930s and 1940s. The soundtrack is still the best-selling non-pop record of all-time - and Williams won another Oscar for Best Original Score. He was also nominated for the follow-up scores for The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi. The Star Wars soundtrack is one of the most recognizable music score. Believe it or not he has not actually watched any of the Star Wars movies. He also composed the movies Jaws’ score, which earned him an Academy Award, his second win and first for Original Score,[1] and was later ranked the sixth greatest score by the American Film Institute. The main shark theme became a classic piece of suspense music, it made people terrified of going into the water. He spent two months writing more than 50 minutes of music for the movie and recorded with a 73-piece orchestra. People can recognize it almost immediately when they hear
it. Even though I only listed only a couple of movies that Williams wrote there are many more. Even though Williams is 80 years old, he is still going strong in composing music for movies. There is a lot more information about Williams, he has lived a great life so far. It has been a great time learning about this amazing composer.
For this writing assignment, I chose stage and screen percussion in the 1970s. I had a hard time trying to find someone that did just percussion in songs so I decided someone that composed songs for movies in the 70s. I chose john Williams because he composed the music for Star Wars. The music is fantastic and it fit the characteristics that I signed up for. John Towner Williams was born on February 8, 1932 in Floral Park, New York. His dad was a jazz percussionist who played with the Raymond Scott Quintet. (Wikipedia). Williams has two brothers, Donald and Jerry, both of who work as percussionists in Los Angeles.[18] When he was sixteen years old he moved with his family to Los Angeles and went to North Hollywood High school. 1952, Williams was drafted into the U.S. Air Force, where he conducted and arranged music for …show more content…
The U.S. Air Force Band for some of his assignments. After his service in the Air force, he moved to New York City and went to Julliard where he learned how to play the piano. During his time, there, he worked as a jazz pianist in many jazz clubs. Known as "Johnny" during the 1950s early 1960s, Williams composed the music for many TV programs and served as music arranger and bandleader for a series of popular music albums with the singer Frankie Laine. In 1970 Williams composed one of the most famous soundtrack in movie history.
Spielberg recommended Williams to his friend George Lucas, who needed a composer for Star Wars. Williams delivered a grand symphonic score in the style of Hollywood's swashbucklers of the 1930s and 1940s. The soundtrack is still the best-selling non-pop record of all-time - and Williams won another Oscar for Best Original Score. He was also nominated for the follow-up scores for The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi. The Star Wars soundtrack is one of the most recognizable music score. Believe it or not he has not actually watched any of the Star Wars movies. He also composed the movies Jaws’ score, which earned him an Academy Award, his second win and first for Original Score,[1] and was later ranked the sixth greatest score by the American Film Institute. The main shark theme became a classic piece of suspense music, it made people terrified of going into the water. He spent two months writing more than 50 minutes of music for the movie and recorded with a 73-piece orchestra. People can recognize it almost immediately when they hear
it. Even though I only listed only a couple of movies that Williams wrote there are many more. Even though Williams is 80 years old, he is still going strong in composing music for movies. There is a lot more information about Williams, he has lived a great life so far. It has been a great time learning about this amazing composer.