John Williams Interviews

Rocket Surgeon

Rocket Surgeon

Guest
Indiana Jones composer Williams to appear on Classic FM special

John Williams at 80: A Classic FM Interview Special will air this Monday (August 27 2012) at 8pm on the Global Radio station.

During the two-hour programme, Williams will look back over his life and career in this, his 80th birthday year. He has written iconic blockbuster film scores such as Star Wars, E.T, Jaws, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park and Superman.

Williams will discuss how he started out as a pianist and composer in Hollywood studios through to getting his break when he received a call from Alfred Hitchcock.

Featuring many of Williams? legendary film themes, the programme will be presented by a new voice to Classic FM, Tommy Pearson. A film music expert, Pearson regularly hosts movie concerts for the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

This week, it was announced that John Williams will be honoured with a Lifetime Achievement award at the Classic BRIT Awards 2012, hosted by Classic FM presenter Myleene Klass this October.

Classic FM?s Managing Editor Sam Jackson said: ?John Williams is a true music legend. With a career spanning more than six decades, he has introduced millions of people around the world to classical music for the first time. Our exclusive interview with him will be a must-listen.?

John Williams at 80: A Classic FM Interview Special will be broadcast on Monday 27th August at 8pm on Classic FM, available on 100-102 FM, digital and online at classicm.com
 
russds

russds

New member
This is actually a great little article, i found over at jwfan.com, which i found very intersting. ToD is my favorite score, and reading/finding this was pretty nice. Not sure if it's been on this forum before:


By George McKinnon Globe Staff - 05/13/1983

It looked like Pops Goes To Africa in Symphony Hall yesterday afternoon what with exotic African instruments crowding the stage and the members of the Tanglewood chorus chanting in a strange tongue.

The reason was that Pops conductor John Williams received a call earlier this week from Steven Spielberg, who's directing the film, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (sequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark) in England and needed at once five minutes of music for the soundtrack.

Williams, who will do the score when the film is completed, immediately set about composing the music for what Spielberg called the "sacrifice scene." Williams called the work "Sanskrit Sacrifice."

Yesterday afternoon 10 members of the Pops percussion and tympani section and 30 members of the Tanglewood chorus gathered on stage for the recording, and a courier waited in the wings to rush the tape to Logan and a flight to London. Spielberg said it was essential that he receive this bit of music posthaste because he needed it to film the sequence.

The movie director had hired a London Sanskrit scholar to write the chant and the Sanskrit lyrics were flown to Boston. Obviously none of the chorus knew Sanskrit, so the chanting was done phonetically.

In order to make the music as authentic as possible, Williams got in touch with Joe Galeoto, a teacher at Berklee College of Music, who has an extensive collection of African musical instruments. The Pops members drummed away on such instruments as an African log drum, a prempensua, bolia and dondos, all drums; and a jyle, a sort of xylophone.

And last night when the Pops audience filed in, the "Sanskrit Sacrifice" was high over the Atlantic bound for London.


(A condensed version of the "Sanskrit Sacrifice" appears on the original soundtrack album as "The Temple of Doom." )
 
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