When it comes to film scores, there’s John Williams and then there’s everyone else.
Over the past six decades, he’s become a household name as one of the most prolific and famous film composers of all time, with five Oscars and many other award wins.
The man created the signature sounds and themes of many of the biggest films of all time including “Star Wars,” “Jaws,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Jurassic Park,” “Superman,” and “Harry Potter” among so many others.
Turns out though that the 93-year-old maestro isn’t a big fan of the genre he made his living in. In a recent interview with The Guardian author Tim Grieving’s upcoming biography of the man, Williams revealed:
“I never liked film music very much. Film music, however good it can be – and it usually isn’t, other than maybe an eight-minute stretch here and there. I just think the music isn’t there.”
He says the appreciation for film music is the product of:
“Remembering it in some kind of nostalgic way… just the idea that film music has the same place in the concert hall as the best music in the canon is a mistaken notion, I think. [It’s] ephemeral, fragmentary and, until somebody reconstructs it, it isn’t anything that we can even consider as a concert piece”
Williams’ most recent original score for a theatrical film was for “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” in 2023. Williams has also composed numerous concert works.
