Music of John Williams: 40 Years of Film Music

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Music of John Williams: 40 Years of Film Music album cover
Album Information

Total Tracks: 45   Total Length: 228:14

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Super Musicman

EMUSIC-01FF0150

This album showcases John Williams' "amazingness". If you haven't pretended to fly with arms out while listening to the main theme of Superman, I highly recommend it.

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*****! A Musical Legend!

EMUSIC-01EE36D6

John Williams is able to capture the appropriate emotion in his music, at one time rapturously melancholic, at another vividly triumphant. I have been watching him perform live at Hollywood Bowl every year. This is a great collection of his legendary contribution to the music industry.

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5 stars 5 stars 5 stars!!!!!

Huami

Truly a Masterpiece. Wonderful to have on almost any occassion, whether driving out into the country highway or simply reading a book inside the bedroom. Inspiring... Moving... Soothing... Indeed, Music for the Soul (n n)

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Very Poor Jurassic Park Track

MusicalFood

This recording of Jurassic Park is very poor at the start, with backround noise. There are other versions available of perfect quality.

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WOW

MyPod

John Williams is a living legend. His list of Iconic scores continue to grow. Some of the worlds most powerful and moving modern "classical" music comes directly from the mind of this man.... absolutely awesome, a GREAT collection!!!

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Awsome this is a must !!!!!

uoptiger79

This is a must for all music lovers young and old alike. John Williams gives everybody something that they want to hear. Great album.

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Moving

nacho

This music is great to blast out the day you are camping out at the next star wars movie.

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WILLIAMS FREAK ALERT

ClassicalFreak1234321

THIS IS YOU'RE BEST FRIEND IF YOU LOVE JOHN WILLIAMS! DOWNLOAD NOW!!!

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AWSOME

Tram

This sound track is made up of some of the most creative composition. I can't say enough about how this music moves me.

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They Say All Music Guide

Reynold da Silva’s Silva Screen Records (of which Prime Time is an imprint) has devoted itself to new recordings of film music (usually, as here, performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra), and its box set The Music of John Williams: 40 Years of Film Music, filling four CDs and running over three hours and 45 minutes, is one of its most ambitious efforts. That’s appropriate for Williams, both because he is the most successful film composer of the 40-year period beginning in the early ’60s and because his music is produced on such a large scale. Since the ’70s, Williams has been associated with directors Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, and he has matched their blockbuster films with his large-scale scores, producing some of the most memorable themes of the era, including instantly recognizable music from Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and the Star Wars and Indiana Jones series. Spielberg and Lucas have often attempted to evoke the styles of the old serials of the ’40s, such as Flash Gordon, but on an epic scale, and Williams has done much the same thing with his music, which owes little or nothing to the more jazz- and rock-influenced film composers of the ’50s and ’60s, and everything to the film composers of an earlier generation, such as Franz Waxman and Victor Young, with its sweeping orchestral statements, martial rhythms, and grandly ornamented melodies. Yet, like the directors, Williams does it all with a slight wink to the audience. This collection doesn’t restrict itself to Williams’ best-known work, but it does demonstrate that even in his lesser-known pieces, his style is often much the same. The overture from The Cowboys, for example, while employing some standard Western elements familiar from Hollywood movies of decades before, also has a hint of Star Wars. Even when he is scoring a more downbeat film like Born on the Fourth of July, Williams can’t seem to help writing his usual uplifting music. Despite its length, this collection can’t do more than offer excerpts of Williams’ extensive work, but the sampling is representative, and the best of the composer’s familiar themes is included. – William Ruhlmann

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