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John Williams. By Michael Tu. Biography. Born on February 8, 1932 Full Name is John Towner Williams Family would later move to Los Angeles, California in 1948. His father was a jazz percussionist that played with the Raymond Scott Quintet. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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John WilliamsBy Michael Tu
BiographyO Born on February 8,
1932O Full Name is John
Towner WilliamsO Family would later
move to Los Angeles, California in 1948.
O His father was a jazz percussionist that played with the Raymond Scott Quintet.
O Would learn from Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco while attending UCLA.
O Was drafted by the U.S. Air Force in 1952.
O Conducted and arranged music for the Air Force Band.
O Term of service with the Air Force ended in 1955.
O Williams would attend the Julliard School in New York City after his service.
O While there, he would study piano with Rosina Lhévinne.
O While attending school, Williams worked as a jazz pianist for several clubs.
O Worked as a music arranger and bandleader for Frankie Laine.
O After Julliard, Williams moved back to LA to work as an orchestrator and pianist at various film studios.
O First major composition was for the movie Daddy-O in 1958.
O Williams would later composed over ninety motion pictures, including:
O Jaws, the Star Wars series, Superman, Indiana Jones series, E.E., Home Alone, Jurassic Park, and the first three Harry Potter movies.
O Williams also composed themes for some television series and the Olympics.
O Williams also composed and conducted concerts.
O Was the Principal Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra from 1980 to 1993.
O Became the Laureate Conductor of the Pops after retiring from his previous position.
O Some concerts he wrote includes: a cello concerto for Yo-Yo Ma, a concerto for horn for Dale Clevenge, “The Five Sacred Trees”, for Judith LeClair, and a concerto for clarinet for Michael Zukovsky.
O Williams also worked with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
O Was married twice.O Married his first
wife, Barbara Ruick, in 1956.
O The two had three children together: Jennifer, Mark, and Joseph.
O Barbara tragically died in 1974 due to cerebral hemorrhage.
O Williams would eventually remarry in 1980 to Samantha Winslow.
HistoryO Jaws was released in
theaters on June 20, 1975.
O Jaws became the first motion picture in the US to gross $100 million in the box office.
O Would eventually reach $470.7 million world wide.
O Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope was originally released in theaters on May 25, 1977.
O Grossed $775.4 million.
O Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark was released in theaters on June 12, 1981.
O Grossed $384.1 million.
O Those three movies garnered many accolades.
O Jaws was a Golden Globe, BAFTA and Oscar winner.
O Episode IV was an Oscar, Golden Globe & BAFTA winner.
O While Raiders of the Lost Ark was an Oscar and Grammy nominated.
Listening GuideO Jaws themeO http://www.youtu
be.com/watch?v=E-sX2Y0W8l0&feature=related
O 0:16 – song starts, beginning is being played by some woodwind/brass and string instruments.
O 0:37 – pace quickens, building in intensity; plays a melody that’ll be repeated many times in the song
O 0:43 – percussion instruments are added in the mix
O 1:17 – song builds to a crescendo, then the previous melody takes a backseat and a new melody is added to the mix
O 1:47 – previous melody comes back to the front
O 2:00 – melody goes into another crescendo and again goes into the background while a new melody surfaces
O 2:16 – crescendo builds up one last time
O 2:50 – song ends
O Star Wars themeO http://www.youtu
be.com/watch?v=4rQSJDLM8ZE&feature=related
O 0:03 – song starts with a medley of instruments from string, percussion, and brass family starts playing; plays the main melody
O 0:50 – main melody repeats O 1:05 – pace quickens before it slows
down to almost a stopO 1:30 – a singular flute plays a small
solo before the other instruments begin to play again; tempo quickens
O 2:00 – a darker, oppressive feeling melody is played followed something that sounds more joyous and free; main melody is played again
O 2:12 – melody gets a lot faster and sounds hurried
O 2:19 – main melody is played againO 3:07 – song comes to a slow crawl once
again; tempo is slowO 3:45 – pace is quickened and the main
melody is being played againO 4:50 – melody changes, making its way
to the conclusionO 5:30 – song ends
O Indiana Jones theme
O www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rQSJDLM8ZE&feature=related
O 0:02 – song starts with the brass family, begins with the iconic fanfare (main melody); string and percussion instruments are also used
O 0:39 – brass instruments dies down and strings take center stage with percussion backing up
O 0:55 – brass instruments comes back
O 1:22 - and leads back into the main melody
O 1:38 – transition into main melody gets a little bit airy sounding
O 2:10 – fanfare dies down and a more somber tone begin to play; tone is softer and less rushed.
O 3:35 – tone becomes more livelier and tempo picks up a bit, with the familiar melody starting in the background
O 4:01 – old melody comes back into the forefront
O 5:09 – song ends
SourcesO http://web.archive.org/web/20071012155709/http
://sonyclassical.com/artists/williams_composer/adbio.html
O http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_John_Williams
O http://www.last.fm/music/John+Williams/+images?page=1
O http://www.dlwaldron.com/JohnWilliamsbio.htmlO http://mahawa.jw-music.net/family.htm
