Happy Birthday Mr. Williams...

[Zannon]

You're a legend in your own right...

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002354/

Every time I look at John Williams' composing credits, I'm amazed at how much he's written...and I always find a new piece that I never knew he wrote...like the Gilligan's Island and Lost in Space themes.

[X'an Shin]

Wait, he wrote the original Lost in Space?!?!

[Dwilah]

And a composing major I know thinks he's no good. Pffft.

[X'an Shin]

And a composing major I know thinks he's no good. Pffft.

He's good, he just borrows a bit too heavily and too often for a lot of people. I'm not saying I'm one of them, just that I can see where they're coming from.

I for one think you have to give him some room to borrow or homage with. No art exists in a vacuum. Everyone's inspired by someone or something that came before it.

[Zannon]

He's good, he just borrows a bit too heavily and too often for a lot of people.

I think its' not a matter of borrowing heavy and often, it's a matter of what films he borrows for. The popular movies tend to have his least original work...Like Saving Private Ryan, EPI, and Home Alone. If you look at the pieces he did for A.I., Minority Report, Hook, and Schlindler's List...there isn't really anything borrowed in those. I think his biggest problem is that he does too many scores in a single year to keep them all 100% original. Just look at 2005...he did RotS, Memoirs of a Geisha, Munich, War of the Worlds, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire...that's a lot of freaking music for one composer to do in one year. In any given year, he does at least 2 scores. The man's a machine and deserves props for being able to do that much exceptional work in a lifetime.

[Dwilah]

I have to agree with Zannon and X'an here. If you listen to his stuff, you find similar themes between soundtracks. And that complaint about borrowing heavily from other places (both his own and other composers) is the complaint of my composing major friend...but, like the dudes said, art and the artist are always inspired by something else AND he produces so much... *shrug*

[Keer]

/kowtow for....

- the scene in Empire Strikes Back when Yoda lifts Luke's X-Wing from the swamp (There Is No Try, Chapter 31). The music starts slow and barely audible (bubbles forming around the X-Wing)....up to Yoda taking a deep breath. That 30 plus seconds is like magic for me every time.

- at the end when Luke joins Leia at the medical frigate window. From then until the end credits start...that's just great! The music is sad & happy at the same time. Discouraging and encouraging. Perfect for the scene and closing the movie.

[X'an Shin]

I wrote a piece awhile back for a gaming site where I basically give him and Nobuo Uematsu mad props for being the two most influential composers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Those guys have made a living (read: killing) off of classical compositions in a pop culture world.