According to The Guardian The composer says in an upcoming biography: “I never really loved film music. No matter how good it is, although that is rarely the case, except for a fragment of about eight minutes, it is simply not real music.”
Williams took the soundtrack for more than 100 films, including Jaws, Jurassic Park, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Et, Schindler’s List and Harry Potter. He is the most nominated, still living Oscar winner in the world, with a record of 54 nominations.
Ode to modest Maestro John Williams: ‘He knows exactly what music the film needs’
‘Misconception’
“Just the idea that film music has the same place in the concert hall as the best music from the classical repertoire is a misconception,” says De Maestro who won five Oscars. “A lot of film music is fleeting. It is especially fragmentary and until someone reconstructs it, it is nothing that we can even consider a concert piece.”
Fruitful cooperation with ‘musical’ Spielburg
When his career was in the initial phase, he was immensely bothered by film directors who had no knowledge of music. A common complaint among film composers.
Steven Spielberg was a relief in that area. Williams had a “very special collaboration” with the director with whom he has been a gold duo since 1974. Mainly because Spielberg is also musical.
“He is more musically trained than most directors I have worked with,” said Williams. “He grew up with a mother who played Clementi, Bach and Chopin. She took him to concerts and he played a little clarinet herself. Very musical.”