Mind Blowing! (John Williams)

snowleopard

snowleopard

Well-known member
This completely blew my mind. Perhaps because I have a background in music, but if you like John Williams and have an open mind, this may astound you as well. It takes a long time, so make the time to sit down and listen.

Jurassic Park main theme, slowed down 1000%:

http://soundcloud.com/birdfeeder/jurassic-park-theme-1000-slower

I know, you'd think this would mean it would sound like droning subwoofer garbage. Not even close. Just listen to the first ten minutes if that's all the time you have. Incredibly majestic. This is the music I expect to be playing when I die and pass through the Pearly Gates into Heaven.

And if that's what it sounds like getting into Heaven, this is probably what it sounds like going through the Gates of Hell. Williams Asteroid Field from Star Wars slowed down 1000%:

http://soundcloud.com/soaringmusic/jwilliams-sw5-asteroid-field-super-slow

Mind blowing.
 
Sometimes people get so popular they lose some critical respect. Williams falls into that category for me. The guy is a friggin genius.
 
I think part of the problem is how often Williams is imitated. There seems to be this prevailing thought among many composers, and producers as well, that all film scores need to be like Williams, so people go out and make unoriginal music that sounds like a canned symphony orchestra, as if that were the essence of his work.

I think that's why these studies impress me so much. Even warped like this, there's a dramatic harmonic element revealed that shows just how deft and amazing his work really is.
 
Reminds me of how in Inception, the Edith Piaf song that they used for "the kick" was extremely slowed down in the lower dream levels.
 
That's definitely how it's done. And Zimmer did indeed use this for the two-chord "kick" motif (and earned an Oscar nomination in the process). But messing with time stretching doesn't instantly make stuff cool. It can produce a lot of garbage. I think that's part of what makes the Williams tracks so intriguing is that because they are essentially flawless (no one doubts that, right?!) every last nuance comes out during this process in all of it's dramatic glory.

I'm waiting for someone to come along and time-contract Brian Eno's Apollo into a 2 minute track...
 
Jim Brennan said:
Sometimes people get so popular they lose some critical respect. Williams falls into that category for me. The guy is a friggin genius.
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+100...There is a unity of music and image in Williams 70's-80's work that I seldom find these days anymore. You can actually see the movie just by listening to it. Frankly I couldn't really listen to the slowed down version for more than 30 seconds. Williams at regular speed is mind blowing enough for me.
 
Batutta said:
+100...There is a unity of music and image in Williams 70's-80's work that I seldom find these days anymore. You can actually see the movie just by listening to it.
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I find the same thing with a lot of James Horner's work as well. Horner and Williams are the most iconic 1980's to early 1990's film composers in my opinion.

Williams: Indy, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Close Encounters, Far and Away.

Horner: Aliens, Star Trek II, Willow, Glory, Field of Dreams, Sneakers, Patriot Games, Braveheart.
 
Dont forget the old masters please: Miklós Rózsa, Nino Rota, Ennio Morricone and for the young ones: Harry Gregson Williams and some of Danny Elfmans work I also liked but I cant stand that new german kid from the block whose name I refuse to mention...
 
timbook2 said:
Dont forget the old masters please: Miklós Rózsa, Nino Rota, Ennio Morricone and for the young ones: Harry Gregson Williams and some of Danny Elfmans work I also liked but I cant stand that new german kid from the block whose name I refuse to mention...
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Oh yeah, the old masters have to be remembered as well. Ennio Morricone is great. Actually, one of my favorite scores is the one he did for John Carpenter's version of The Thing. It is actually very simple in many cues, but very effective.

Bernard Hermann is one of those iconic golden age of film composers whose work stands up today as well. His music goes together with Hitchcock films like John Williams' does with Spielberg films.

And who is this german new kid on the block who you shall not name? Hans Zimmer? I can't think of any newer/current german composers off the top of my head.
 
Funny. Those aren't the Old Masters to me. I think of guys like Korngold and Steiner.

Next to Williams, my all time "modern" fave is Goldsmith. To do something like Planet of the Apes on one end of the spectrum and Star Trek on the other is amazing. He poached himself once in a while, but who doesn't.
 
timbook2 said:
Dont forget the old masters please: Miklós Rózsa, Nino Rota, Ennio Morricone and for the young ones: Harry Gregson Williams and some of Danny Elfmans work I also liked but I cant stand that new german kid from the block whose name I refuse to mention...
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I respect his body of work but, I've never been an Elfman fan.

This kind of sums it up for me:


Morricone, on the other hand. Or Glass. Or Kenji Kawai.
 
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