John Williams: A Composer’s Life (Tim Greiving)
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Innlegg
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Concertos based on film themes;
– Elegy for cello and orchestra
– Stargazers for harp and orchestra
– Memoirs of a Geisha suite for cello and orchestraOh yes, I forgot about those! They are of course great choices if you’re mostly familiar with his film scores but want to start exploring his concert works.
Cool that you supplied some aid to Greiving! Are there facts/tidbits in the book that Greiving got from you, or was it mostly putting him on the right track in some of his research? Nice to see you mentioned in the acknowledgements, anyway!
Yes, that was nice of him. I can no longer remember what we talked about, but there were many e-mails back and forth about Williams’ early days. I probably have them stored somewhere.
Hmm, my impression was that it’s pretty much chronological. But yes, he does jump a bit back and forth here and there, when it’s thematically relevant.
Yes, it is chronological, but there are “jumps” signalled by the “***” throughout the chapters. An alternative would have been to go through each year, talking about things that happened or things he worked on as they occured in “real time”. But that would perhaps have been even more scatterbrained. I’m not really sure how I would have organized it otherwise. I’d have to think about that.
Concertos based on film themes;
– Elegy for cello and orchestra
– Stargazers for harp and orchestra
– Memoirs of a Geisha suite for cello and orchestraLet’s not forget “Escapades”.
Yes, he didn’t get off the chronological beaten path so much as weave in and out while always managing to get back to the time period at hand. Good, creative transitioning on his part what with so much material to cover.
I think Tim could have been more confident in his own opinions – one doesn’t always have to say what people “out there” thought of it.
Good point. As you also noted, his personal thoughts on scores added a true flavor for what I would think would be the primary targeted audience—us. That includes other composers. It is something we’ve done in our own little hobbyist way. And as to photos: tell me you didn’t get a kick out of 12-year-old Johnny’s face on diploma day. Cute kid. But then the photo of I believe John’s oldest son is astonishing. They are dead ringers! It’s like in movies when the same actor plays his father or grandfather.
* It’s tricky to balance one’s fandom with objective analysis, and there were perhaps moments where I felt the salutations were somewhat over-the-top (again, maybe that’s an American thing…we’re more “sober” over here).
Word has reached me that some among our hobbyists are taking him to task for what one characterized his editorializing. I understand that as a legitimate literary criticism. But I simply can’t cast that critical an eye here. Especially because I tended to agree with him 99% of the time! Consider it a loss of objectivity on my part, I celebrate this stuff too easily. 🙂
I’m first in line to admit a Williams fandom out of the ordinary. I think he’s the best composer who ever lived. But I’d probably tone that down just a little bit in a book. Definitely something that needs to be said in an introduction, at least to a moderate extent, as he IS a major figure of 20th and 21st century orchestral music, but then I’d probably leave it be after that. Hyperbole always makes me squirm in my seat, no matter how big a fan I am of somebody. Might have something to do with the European, or especially Scandinavian sentiment (what we call “Janteloven” over here, which is ingrained in our very being). Here’s an interview with actor Alexander Skarsgård that really explains a lot about the culture difference between the US and Scandinavians on this issue:
Yes, I’m sure the “Jante law” will seem like a very strange concept to Americans, and probably many other non-Scandinavians as well. But come to think of it, doesn’t John Williams himself actually represent it, to a certain extent, with his humble and unassuming personality, and annoyance with too much attention? As I mentioned in the review, it looks like this is not an act, but actually how he feels. But of course, in his case, it’s probably just that – a part of his personality, and not caused by any cultural conditioning, as would often be the case in Scandinavia.
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