[Commlist] New Book: The Film Music of John Williams. Reviving Hollywood's Classical Style

New Book Publication:


*The Film Music of John Williams. Reviving Hollywood's Classical Style*


Revised, updated, and expanded second edition of *John Williams’s Film 
Music. /Jaws/, /Star Wars/, /Raiders of the Lost Ark/, and the Return of 
the Classical Hollywood Music Style* (2014)


by Emilio Audissino

Senior Lecturer in Media and Audiovisual Production, Linnaeus 
University, Sweden.


The University of Wisconsin Press

Series: Wisconsin Film Studies

390 pp.

https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/5787.htm 
<https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/5787.htm>


 >From the triumphant “Main Title” in /Star Wars/ to the ominous bass 
line of /Jaws/, John Williams has penned some of the most unforgettable 
film scores – while netting more than fifty Academy Award nominations, 
the second-most Oscar-nominated person after Walt Disney. Yet despite 
such critical acclaim and prestige, this is the first book in English on 
Williams’s work and career.


The book explores why Williams is so important to the history of film 
music: beginning with an overview of music from Hollywood’s Golden Age 
(1933–58), it traces the turning points of Williams’s career and 
articulates how he revived the classical Hollywood musical style. Each 
landmark of this musical restoration is charted, with special attention 
to the scores for /Jaws/ and /Star Wars/, Williams’s work as conductor 
of the Boston Pops Orchestra, and a full film/music analysis of/Raiders 
of the Lost Ark./ The result is a precise definition of Williams’s 
“neoclassicism” and a grounded demonstration of his lasting importance, 
for both his compositions and his historical role in restoring part of 
the Hollywood tradition.


This 2021 updated and revised edition of Emilio Audissino’s volume 
includes the most recent sequels of the /Star Wars /film franchise that 
made Williams famous, provides updates on the academic literature about 
Williams, and features an entire new chapter devote to the understudied 
score for the 1979 film /Dracula/. Audissino discusses Williams’s 
approach to writing by examining his neoclassical style in context, 
demonstrating how he revived and revised classical Hollywood music. This 
volume details Williams’s lasting impact on the industry and cements his 
legacy as one of the most important composers in movie history.



Table of Contents:


Introduction to the Second Edition


Part I: The Rise and Demise of the Classical Hollywood Music Style

1. A Chronicle of Classical Hollywood Music

2. The Style of Classical Hollywood Music

3. The Modern Hollywood Music Style


Part II: John Williams and the Classical Hollywood Music Style

4. Star Wars: An Oppositional Score

5. The Saga of the Star Wars Music

6. Williams’s Early Years: Spotting the First Traces of Neoclassicism

7. Jaws: Williams’s Neoclassicism Floats Up to the Surface

8. Williams’s Neoclassicism: Style and Habits

9. Raiders of the Lost Ark Background: A Neoclassical Film

10. Raiders of the Lost Ark Analysis: The Return of Max Steiner

11. Dark Neoclassicism: The “Sublime” Score to Dracula

12. Reviving the Hollywood Music Classics beyond the Films


Closing Remarks on Neoclassicism and Today’s Hollywood Music


Appendix I. Williams’s Versatility for Spielberg (and Others)

Appendix II. Film and Television Scores

Glossary

Notes

Bibliography

Index



https://www.emilioaudissino.eu/academic-stuff/john-williamss-film-music/


(emilio.audissino /at/ lnu.se)
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