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

Thu Jun 10 15:33:15 GMT 2021






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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