Superman Immortal

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 I'm listening to John Williams' score from the original Superman movie.  It is another fine work by John Williams.  Is there any work that isn't?  Well, maybe Sleepers; but that's for another time.

Why does Superman have me writing about John Williams again?  One - it's wonderful!  Two, it is a work full of notes...  One can barely comprehend the amount of notes John William has written to make these film scores magnificent...  Easily 50 years of work with multiple large scale projects every year.  

I watched "Music By John Williams" documentary celebrating John Williams.  John writes his music with a pencil.  ALL OF IT.  He's written every note.  Every. Single. Note.  Just think about that for a minute.  No computers.  No AI.  Full orchestral film scoring.  This man has a complete understanding of each instrument, its range, where it sounds best.  How to use the colors.  A Jedi Knight in compositional music theory and human emotion.  And all originating from his soul, processed by his brain.  Recorded by his hand sitting at a piano; realized in the music we hear in some of the greatest motion pictures ever produced.  Perhaps John Williams is the musical combination of William Shakespere, Robert Frost, Mark Twain, Roald Dahl and Franz Kafka.

Next time you're listening to a John Williams piece, really listen to it.  Listen through the layers of sound and you'll be blown away by how complex his writing is. It takes over a hundred voices to make the one voice of John Williams come to life through musical goodness of rhythm and energy supporting the melody with lots of notes, lots of colors, or both.  The man is a genius!  

John Williams enriches our collective soul. Steven Spielberg said something interesting in the documentary.  When a work is presented to John Williams to score, John watches the movie through Steve's eyes.  When the music is laid alongside the images, Steven Spielberg watches the move through John's.  The synergy of both minds elevates the work of both men exponentially.   

I may not have been alive when Beethoven roamed the Earth, but I am indeed blessed to be alive while the immortal John Williams walks among us mortals.  


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