[Thor Joachim Haga]

I’ve been following the “John Williams doesn’t like film music” discussion on social media and messageboards — IMO much ado about nothing, as Tim himself points out in his response article.

I found myself rooting for Williams’ sentiment, and being mildly amused by the shock-like reactions of fans. In particular, this is a good JW quote, as taken from Tim Grieving’s book:

“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.” Furthermore, he criticized most film music as “ephemeral” and “fragmentary and, until somebody reconstructs it, it isn’t anything that we can even consider as a concert piece.”

I’m really rooting for Williams because of the last part, the reconstruction bit. Yes, I know he’s talking about concert suites and not soundtrack albums, but the same sentiment applies, so I found it appropriate in this thread. Film music, as it is, is terrible listening on a structural level unless you do something to it.

Where I depart from Williams is a a more general dismissal of film music’s virtues. What I like about it, as I’ve always said, is its “emotional immediacy”, the fact that it has to get to its emotional point more quickly and succinctly, per the limits of a scene. Not a lot of time for ornamentation like you can in concert music. That’s an attraction to me.

But yeah…..LOVE his sentiments on this issue, and that it riles up the purists and traditionalists.