[Nick Zwar]

As I said in the related FSM thread, I think in many ways, John Williams is right. Lots of film music is dull or uninspired, simply uninteresting. A lot of film music is just serviceable. It’s composers like Miklós Rózsa, Bernard Herrmann, Alex North, Leonard Rosenman, Jerry Goldsmith, Ennio Morricone that showed film music doesn’t have to be and can be more, but of course a lot of is just forgettable.

Then let’s not forget that Williams has a more modest demeanor to begin with, and some people don’t think much of what they themselves do or have accomplished. Marlon Brando was one of the most respected and revered actors in Hollywood ever, yet he didn’t think highly of acting as a profession, and — like Williams in the interview here — though of it as a good way to make money.

Some of the things Williams said are just blatantly obvious, like “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”. Well, yeah, to compare “film music” (hundreds of new ones every year) to “the best music in the canon”, well, yeah… can’t argue with that. A lot of film music is ephemeral and fragmentary, and just not very interesting.
However, film music can be as good as any “classical” work, it just usually isn’t.