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John Williams vs the world


Heritage_Head

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Personally John Williams is my vote (star wars scores being his best imo) imo. But Hans has really got some epic stuff (like the newer batman scores). And a pretty good list of great movies. The wiki page only lists his award winning movies. 

 

An interesting stat about John Williams. He has more Academy award trophies than anyone or any brand other than the entire Disney company combined. Pretty impressive indeed. 

 

To many to list. And opinion of these will be hard if your not sure what they've done anyways. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Williams

 

Edit: Changed the topic Hans as good as he is idk if its a fair fight. 

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Just now, tromprof said:

If Zimmer and Williams were painters, Zimmer would paint the living room, Williams the family portrait.

 Imho williams is the greatest composer/writer of orchestra music. Even beyond just them being movie scores.

 

Lucas has said many times "Not just being humble."Im a huge fan of these stories" But Star wars is one and done without him". "He was/is the magic".

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Zimmer has some great stuff though. The Pirates of the Caribbean scores were great, Transformers movies, The Last Samurai was really good. The batmans (dark knight wow) lion king from the 80s, Love his kung fu panda movie scores. Zimmer has done 203 movies and shows. Impressive. 

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1 hour ago, Heritage_Head said:

 Imho williams is the greatest composer/writer of orchestra music. Even beyond just them being movie scores.

 

Lucas has said many times "Not just being humble."Im a huge fan of these stories" But Star wars is one and done without him". "He was/is the magic".

 

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frankly... I can't stand John Williams despite his praise and popularity, I soundtracks are a specialty for me.

JW's signature themes are notable and time honored, but the main core of his scores/soundtracks are horrible and really taint a film with formalism and inappropriate rhythms and musical ques... I just don't like his work. Sometimes I wont even watch a movie because hes associated with its production.

 

Give me Elliot Goldenthal, Lalo Schiffrin, Masaru Satoh and even Hans Zimmer over JW any day.

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1 hour ago, Schu said:

frankly... I can't stand John Williams despite his praise and popularity, I soundtracks are a specialty for me.

JW's signature themes are notable and time honored, but the main core of his scores/soundtracks are horrible and really taint a film with formalism and inappropriate rhythms and musical ques... I just don't like his work. Sometimes I wont even watch a movie because hes associated with its production.

 

Give me Elliot Goldenthal, Lalo Schiffrin, Masaru Satoh and even Hans Zimmer over JW any day.

Intersting post Schu.

Really didn't think when starting this thread, would ever read "I cant stand jw" But it is music so I shouldn't be surprised. When I hear "I hate pink floyd" my brain is frozen trying to understand how? But its taste no different than food I guess. 

 

 Your right John (and hans) do tend to use musical queues a lot. Most syfy, adventure, horror, suspense, and even comedy do. Unless looking before music was used a lot. Like at really old movies (and even they do just not very well). 

 

Elliot Goldenthal is also really good but uses musical queues a lot (aliens and his batmans for example). Lalo Schiffrin is another icon but again uses them as much as john williams imo (like his MIP movies and his Disney stuff as example). These two don't have as much recognizable music queues so that can I guess make a difference (Like playing a certain riff for a certain charactor who shows up). JW does that more than anyone probably. If thats more what you meant.  

 

Masaru Satoh I hadn't heard of and had to look up. 

 

 

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John Williams clearly has studied musical composition and orchestration. He can be accused of "borrowing" frequently from other great composers, esp. in sound tracks, but is also an excellent composer in his own right. John Williams writing is so excellent it tends to stands along side a film instead of hiding in the background. Few modern movie composers have his level of knowledge and craftsmanship. The film with live orchestra concert is very popular right now. I have played Star Wars and Jurassic Park film concerts this past year, a Danny Elfman concert (video and music from several different films), and Pirates of the Caribbean a couple of years ago. The level of musical sophistication between the Williams scores and the others is vast.

The decision to have that level of musical involvement, as well as where it is placed is also decided by the films director.

Zimmer's stuff is not bad, just not the same level of writing. Danny Elfman has written some good stuff too, and a lot of fun to play.

John Williams is over 80 at this point, I am not so sure he will be producing many more new works.

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Just now, oldtimer said:

Two words.  Roger Waters.

My man!! You sir are very wise.

 

Roger Waters IS as good as it gets and its not even close imo. My hero in audio and easily the biggest factor into this crazy audio world. Also why I started playing music over the last 30 years. All the hours and hours playing. All the bands I've been in the shows I've played. All the guitars, and gear.  WATERS!

 

He transcended music to something beyond music imo. 

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