A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

(C) 2000 Sony Classical and Lucasfilm Ltd. Although the 1999 single CD recording of music from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace was fairly adequate, for listeners spoiled by the Special Edition soundtracks it was a disappointment. Yes, the music is good, but there is a certain wrongness to the album's arrangements; like its 1977 predecessor, the 1999 soundtrack album takes cues from different scenes and "cuts-and-pastes" them to make nice yet inaccurate arrangements. For instance, Track 1 on the single CD version is called Star Wars (Main Theme) AND The Arrival at Tatooine. The so-called "Arrival at Tatooine" is really heard when the Queen's starship lands on the Coruscant landing platform. On November 14, 2000, fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your level of cynicism regarding Star Wars and merchandising practices), Sony Classical released Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace: The Ultimate Edition: Original Motion P...

Cover Design by Howard Fritzson. Photos (C) 1977, 1980, 1983 by Lucasfilm Ltd. (C) 1990 CBS Records Some day I’m going to build a recording studio with a sound as live as if it were inside a cathedral! – George Lucas to composer John Williams after the recording sessions for The Empire Strikes Back score, 1980 Official Sony Classical Video: Star Wars - Main Title In March of 1990, Star Wars creator George Lucas hired 90 San Francisco Bay area classical musicians and created a one-time ensemble which he called The Skywalker Symphony Orchestra. Between March 19 and 20, Lucas, composer-conductor John Williams, and a recording team led by producer Thomas Z. Shepard worked with this unique group of players at the brand-new recording studio in Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch, located in Marin County, California. The result was Sony Classical’s John Williams Conducts John Williams: The Star Wars Trilogy – Star Wars * The Empire Strikes Back * Return of the Jedi, a 13-track compila...

Slipcover for John Williams: Greatest Hits 1969-1999. Designed by Roxanne Slimak. (C) 1999 Sony Classical/Sony Masterworks Official Sony Classical Video: The Reivers: Main Theme On November 2, 1999, Sony Classical released John Williams: Greatest Hits 1969-1999, a two-disc collection of movie themes and event-related orchestral works composed and conducted by the five-time Academy Award-winning composer and Laureate Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra. Culled from various recordings with different ensembles – including the aforementioned BPO and the Tanglewood, Boston, London, and even Skywalker Symphony Orchestras, this popular recording celebrates the first 30 years of Maestro Williams’ stellar – and ongoing – career as the go-to master of film scores and commissioned “special events” orchestral pieces. Produced by Laraine Perri and designed by Sony artist Roxanne Slimak, John Williams: Greatest Hits 1969-1999 distributes 28 themes and “special events” compositions by ...

(C) 1991 Sony Classical/Sony Music. Cover art by Drew Struzan The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration: John Williams Conducts His Classic Scores for the Films of Steven Spielberg Orchestra: Boston Pops Orchestra Conductor: John Williams Label: Sony Classical Genre: Film Scores/Light Classical Year of Release: 1991 Originally released in November of 1991, The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration is a 13-track compilation of themes composed by John Williams for 10 movies of his long-time collaborator, director Steven Spielberg. It was not a very comprehensive selection; it came out a few weeks before Hook 's theatrical premiere, and films such as Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan were still years away from preproduction, As a result, the one-disc album covers only the first 15 years of the 44-year-long Spielberg/Williams collaboration.  Although some of the films represented in this album were not successful ( 1941, Always ), Williams' m...

In 1991, Sony Classical released The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration, a 13-track album that features music composed by John Williams for the movies by director Steven Spielberg. Those compositions - marches, main title themes, and scene-specific cues - covered the first 15 years or so of what is one of the longest artistic partnerships in film history. As  Variety's film music writer Jon Burlingame states in the liner notes to Sony Classical's John Williams/Steven Spielberg: The Ultimate Collection that there have been other famous director-composer duos: "Film historians often cite Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann, for example, or Federico Fellini and Nino Rota; others might name Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone, or Blake Edwards and Henry Mancini." But, as Burlingame points out: None, however, have been as long or as fruitful as the forty-three-year collaboration of Steven Spielberg and John Williams. None have encompassed such a wide range of subje...