John Williams: The American Composer

John Williams: The American Composer

In American Culture, myriads of art forms have been created. There are the photographers, who capture beautiful moments with the click of a camera and touches of computer editing. Next are the sculptors, carefully depicting real life or imaginative works with soft clay molded into a thousand different shapes. Writers use language to leave images in our heads and create stories in our minds. Dancers are their own artwork, illustrating artistic expression through moving their bodies in a rhythmic fashion. There are also drawers and painters, depicting their works on canvas or paper with pencils, paints and other various media. Out of all of the forms of art, there is one specific form of
art that is unique to everything else: Music. “A painter paints his pictures on canvas[,] but musicians paint their pictures on silence” (Leopold Stokowski). One major way music is portrayed as an art is through movie scores, giving the movie more substance. Music in films, especially the works written by the renowned American composer John Williams, has made an enormous impact on American Culture.

On February 8, 1932, in Long Island, New York, the musical genius John Williams was born. He always had music as a part of his life, especially since his father was the percussionist for the Raymond Scott Quintet and for CBS Radio. He began playing piano at a young age, and at the age of 15, he had already decided he wanted to become a concert pianist. Not only was he a young, talented pianist, but he also led a jazz band of his own and was beginning to experiment with arranging music. In 1948, Williams and his family moved to Los Angeles and, at the age of 19, his first original composition, a piano sonata, was premiered. Later, he attended Los Angeles City College and UCLA and was privately tutored for composing and studied orchestration. He then went on to be the conductor with the Air Force for three years.

After this experience, he returned to the United States and attended school at Julliard, where, with the help of Madame Rosina Lhevinne, he perfected his piano performance skills. Lhevinne also encouraged Williams to continue to compose music, so he returned to Los Angeles to work in Hollywood as a piano player. As a Hollywood pianist, he accompanied numerous well-known movies and TV shows, like South Pacific, To Kill A Mockingbird, and Peter Gunn. He became a staff arranger for both 20th Century Fox and Columbia at the age of 24. With all of these accompanying and arranging gigs, his career soon shifted to a much more serious composing opportunity. He received jobs for composing scores for a multitude of TV shows such as Gilligan's Island, Land of the Giants, and Lost in Space. Williams eventually composed extremely popular soundtracks for movies that topped the charts (“John Williams” IMDb). He is now known as “one of the most popular and successful American composers of the modern age” (John Williams Web Pages).

As Williams’s compositions and arrangements became more and more popular, they began to receive recognition and awards. He has won three Golden Globes, five awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, two Emmys, five Academy Awards, and seventeen Grammys. Some of his most recognized works include the scores for Schindler’s List, Jaws, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Superman, Jurassic Park, Home Alone, JFK, The Indiana Jones Series, The Star Wars Trilogy, and many, many more. Williams has received multiple gold and platinum records and, Schindler’s List was awarded a Grammy and an Oscar. His score for the “original Star Wars trilogy transformed the landscape of Hollywood film music and became [an icon] of American Culture” (John Williams Web Pages).

So, what makes John Williams’s compositions so great?
Besides loads of experience and an incredible imagination, there is an explanation to why movie music makes such a heavy impact on viewers. The background music in a film can make all the difference: Without the music, the movie may seem to have less depth, and even be boring. The film score is meant to manipulate the audience and create a “more convincing atmosphere of place and time” (Fischoff). The costumes, characters, and sets are important to create an accurate setting, but the background music is also crucial. In scary movies, such as Jaws, the music is a key factor in inspiring the horrific feel. The iconic theme from Jaws that everyone has heard evokes fear in the minds of the viewers with dissonant chords. In a study conducted by Daniel Blumstein, the “irregular minor chords trigger the same instinctual response [a mother animal] feels when her babies are threatened” (Why is Scary Music Scary). Also, the music can emphasize character’s moods and thoughts. For example, the music from the theme of Schindler’s List, a dramatic movie about the Holocaust, has a beautiful score of longing, solemn melodies complementing the tone of the movie. “The Star Wars Imperial March” (Darth Vader’s theme), in contrast, has loud, upbeat, powerful chords demonstrating Darth Vader’s attitude and the overall feeling for the scene. Movie music also is able to enhance thematic development. A scene could only reach a certain intensity without the background music. At the Climax of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, another famous work of Williams, the music is high pitched with a quick tempo, creating tension and adding to the characters’
complexities.
Movies have been a favorite American pastime since the turn of the century, and without movie music, they would be very different. John Williams has greatly impacted America with his exquisite film scores; it is almost impossible for any American to not hear any of the spectacular compositions he has invented. He and his work are a major attribute to the American Heritage because of all of the iconic works he has composed. Whether they know it or not, almost every American has most likely been impacted by John Williams in some way by being touched by his incredible movie music.