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John Williams

John Williams

John Williams has been played over 20 times on NTS, first on 6 January 2016. John Williams's music has been featured on 29 episodes.

John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932) is one of the most widely recognized composers of film scores. As of 2017, he has received 50 music-related Academy Award nominations, an accomplishment surpassed by none.

Early scores and compositions are credited as Johnny Williams.

Williams is best known for heroic, rousing themes in adventure and fantasy films. This includes some of the highest grossing films of all time, such as the Star Wars movies, the Superman movies, Jaws, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, and the first three Harry Potter movies. His richly thematic and highly popular 1977 score to the first Star Wars film was selected by the American Film Institute as the greatest American movie score of all time. Five of his film scores won Oscars.

His long career has also included many sensitive dramatic scores (such as Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, and Munich) and quirky character studies (like Catch Me If You Can, the theme for which makes extensive use of jazz, perhaps in homage to Mancini's famous music for The Pink Panther). Also noteworthy are his recent collaborations with Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman on the score for Memoirs of a Geisha, as well as Williams' other more experimental concert works.

Williams has composed the scores for every Steven Spielberg movie, with the exception of The Color Purple (scored by co-producer Quincy Jones) and Duel (Spielberg's first feature film).

While skilled in a variety of twentieth-century compositional idioms, his most familiar style may be described as a form of neo-romanticism, influenced by his predecessors and their use of large-scale orchestral music. Korngold (and other Hollywood Golden Age composers), is clearly evident in many of Williams' most famous works.

Anyone who has watched the Olympics on television has heard Williams' "Olympic Fanfare and Theme," parts of which (especially the last fifteen seconds of the fanfare) receive extensive playtime every four years.

Williams also composed "The Mission," the worldwide-known theme from NBC News.

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John Williams

John Williams has been played over 20 times on NTS, first on 6 January 2016. John Williams's music has been featured on 29 episodes.

John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932) is one of the most widely recognized composers of film scores. As of 2017, he has received 50 music-related Academy Award nominations, an accomplishment surpassed by none.

Early scores and compositions are credited as Johnny Williams.

Williams is best known for heroic, rousing themes in adventure and fantasy films. This includes some of the highest grossing films of all time, such as the Star Wars movies, the Superman movies, Jaws, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, and the first three Harry Potter movies. His richly thematic and highly popular 1977 score to the first Star Wars film was selected by the American Film Institute as the greatest American movie score of all time. Five of his film scores won Oscars.

His long career has also included many sensitive dramatic scores (such as Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, and Munich) and quirky character studies (like Catch Me If You Can, the theme for which makes extensive use of jazz, perhaps in homage to Mancini's famous music for The Pink Panther). Also noteworthy are his recent collaborations with Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman on the score for Memoirs of a Geisha, as well as Williams' other more experimental concert works.

Williams has composed the scores for every Steven Spielberg movie, with the exception of The Color Purple (scored by co-producer Quincy Jones) and Duel (Spielberg's first feature film).

While skilled in a variety of twentieth-century compositional idioms, his most familiar style may be described as a form of neo-romanticism, influenced by his predecessors and their use of large-scale orchestral music. Korngold (and other Hollywood Golden Age composers), is clearly evident in many of Williams' most famous works.

Anyone who has watched the Olympics on television has heard Williams' "Olympic Fanfare and Theme," parts of which (especially the last fifteen seconds of the fanfare) receive extensive playtime every four years.

Williams also composed "The Mission," the worldwide-known theme from NBC News.

Tracks featured on

Most played tracks

The Chairman’s Waltz
John Williams
Sony Classical2023
Theme From Schindler's List (Reprise)
John Williams
MCA Records1993
Star Wars (Main Theme)
John Williams, The London Symphony Orchestra
RSO1980
Flying Theme (From E.T)
John Williams, The London Symphony Orchestra
Decca2018
Nicole
Johnny Williams
20th Century Fox Records1966
Main Theme (From "Back to the Future")
Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Marko Letonja, Max Steiner, Bernard Herrmann, Nino Rota, Maurice Jarre, John Barry, John Williams, Alan Silvestri, Howard Shore
Warner Classics2021
End Credits (The Dance Of The Witches Reprise)
John Williams
Warner Bros. Records1987
Main Title And First Victim
John Williams
Decca2000
Symphony No. 2, Op. 132 "Mysterious Mountain"
John Williams, Hovhaness, Judith Leclair, London Symphony Orchestra
Sony Classical1997
Moving
John Williams, Michel Legrand
Film Score Monthly2002