A linebacker (LB) is a position in American football that was invented by football coach Fielding H. Yost of the University of Michigan. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up approximately three to five yards (4 m) behind the line of scrimmage, behind the defensive linemen. Linebackers generally align themselves before the ball is snapped by standing upright in a "two point stance" (as opposed to the defensive linemen, who put one or two hands on the ground for a "three point stance" or "four point stance" before the ball is snapped).

Types of linebackers

There are several different designations of linebackers: strongside, middle, and weakside. Usually the strongside and weakside are combined under the title outside, and the middle is renamed inside. In many formations and systems, teams do not use the strong and weakside designations, and merely play their outside linebackers consistently on one side of the formation and designate them either right outside linebacker and left outside linebacker. These terms are abbreviated ROLB and LOLB when appearing in lineup cards.

Middle linebacker (MLB)

The middle linebacker, often referred to as "Mike," was invented by the Chicago Bears in the early 1950s. The middle linebacker is often referred to as the "quarterback of the defense". Often it is the middle linebacker that receives the defensive play calls from the sideline and relays that play to the rest of the team–and in the NFL he is usually the defensive player with the electronic sideline communicator. A jack-of-all-trades, the middle linebacker can be asked to blitz (though they often blitz less than the outside linebacker), cover, spy the quarterback, or even have a deep middle-of-the-field responsibility in the Tampa 2 defense. In standard defenses, middle linebackers commonly lead the team in tackles.

Outside linebacker (OLB)

The outside linebacker is usually responsible for outside containment. This includes the strongside and weakside designations below.

Strongside linebacker

The strongside linebacker (SLB) is often nicknamed "Sam" for purposes of calling a blitz. Since the strong side of the offensive team is the side on which the tight end lines up, or whichever side contains the most personnel, the strongside linebacker usually lines up across from the tight end. Often the strongside linebacker will be called upon to tackle the running back on a play, because the back will be following the tight end's block. He is most often the strongest linebacker; at the least he possesses the ability to withstand, shed, and fight off blocks from a tight end or fullback blocking the backside of a pass play. The linebacker should also have strong safety abilities in pass situation to cover the tight end in man on man situations. He should also have considerable quickness to read and get into coverage in zone situations.

Weakside linebacker

The weakside linebacker, or the "Will", must be the fastest of the three, because he is often the one called into pass coverage. He is also usually chasing the play from the backside, so the ability to maneuver through traffic is a necessity for the Will. The Will usually aligns off the line of scrimmage at the same depth as Mike. Because of his position on the weakside, the Will does not often have to face large interior linemen one on one unless one is pulling. In coverage, the Will often covers the back that attacks his side of the field first in man coverage, while covering the weak flat or hook/curl areas in zone coverage. In a 3-4 defense the "Will" Linebacker plays on the "weakside" of the two middle Linebacker positions and a 4th Linebacker comes in to play the weakside. Known as a "Rush", "Rover", "Jack" and/or "Buck" Linebacker, their responsibility is more pass rush based but often is called into run stop (gap control) and pass coverage.

Formations

The number of linebackers is dependent upon the formation called for in the play; formations can call for as few as none, or as many as seven. Most defensive schemes call for three or four, and they are named for the number of linemen, followed by the number of linebackers. For example, the 4-3 defense has four defensive linemen and three linebackers; conversely, the 3-4 defense has three linemen and four linebackers.

4-3 defense

In the 4-3 defense there are four down linemen and three linebackers. The middle linebacker is designated "Mike" and two outside linebackers are designated "Sam" and "Will" according to how they line up against the offensive formation. If there is a strong call, the linebacker on the strongside is called "Sam", while the linebacker on the weakside is called "Will". The outside linebacker's job is to cover the end to make sure a run doesn't escape, and to watch the pass and protect from it. The middle linebacker's job is to stop runs between the tackles and watch the entire field to see the play develop. On pass plays, the linebackers' responsibilities vary based upon whether a man or zone coverage is called. In a zone coverage, the linebackers will generally drop into hook zones across the middle of the field. However, some zones will send the outside linebackers into the flats (area directly to the left and right of the hash marks, extending 4-5 yards downfield). In a man-to-man call, the "Sam" will often cover the tight end with help from a safety over the top, while at other times, the "Sam" and "Will" will be responsible for the first man out of the backfield on their side of the center, with the "Mike" covering if a second man exits on that side of the field.

In the "Tampa 2" zone defense the middle linebacker is required to drop quickly into a deep middle zone pass coverage thus requiring a quick player at this position.

3-4 defense

In the 3-4 Defense there are three lineman playing the line of scrimmage with four linebackers backing them up, typically two outside linebackers and two inside linebackers. The weak side inside linebacker is typically called the "Will," while the strong side or middle inside linebacker is called the "Mike". "Sam" is a common designation for strong outside linebacker, while the other position is usually called "Jack" and is often a hybrid DE/LB. Usually, teams that run a 3-4 defense look for college defensive ends that are too small to play the position in the pros and not quite fluid enough to play outside linebacker in a 4-3 defense as their "Jack" linebacker.

The idea behind the 3-4 defense is to disguise where the fourth rusher will come from. Instead of the standard four down-linemen in the 4-3, only 3 players are clearly attacking on nearly every play. A key for running this defense successfully is having a defensive front of three large defensive linemen who command constant double teams. In particular, the nose tackle, who plays over the offensive center, must be able to hold ground and to occupy several offensive blockers in order to allow the linebackers to make plays. The focus of the 3-4 defensive line is to occupy offensive linemen thus freeing the linebackers to tackle the running back or to rush the passer or otherwise drop into pass coverage.

Generally, both outside linebackers can rush the passer and play the run. Outside linebackers in the 3-4 defense tend to be larger in comparison to linebackers in a base 4-3 defense. They are also often players who would play DE in a 4-3 defense as situational pass rushing specialists but who otherwise may not fit the expected role of a DE being somewhat smaller in size. Outside linebackers should be able to drop into pass coverage, rush the passer or read and react. When it comes to the inside linebackers, one is generally a run stuffing player who is better able to handle offensive linemen and stop running backs when the offense features a running play, while the other is often a smaller, faster player who excels in pass coverage. However, the smaller or cover LB should also be able to scrape and plug running lanes decently.

The design concept of the 3-4 defense is to confuse the offensive line in their blocking assignments, particularly in pass blocking, and to create a more complex read for the quarterback. Many 3-4 defenses have the ability to quickly hybrid into a 4-3 on the field.

46 defense

In the 46 defense there are three linemen, four linebackers and a safety who is moved up behind the line of scrimmage. Thus it appears as if there are 4 linebackers, but it is really 3 linebackers with one safety playing up with the other linebackers. Three of the defensive linemen are over both of the offensive guards and the center, thereby making it difficult to double team any one of the three interior defensive linemen. This can also take away the ability of the offense to pull the guards on a running play, because this would leave one of the defenders unblocked, or, at best, give another lineman a very difficult block to make on one of the defenders. The safety, like the linebackers, can blitz, play man-on-man, play zone, or drop back into deep coverage like a normal safety would do. The 46 is used in heavy run situations; when a team wants to bring lots of pressure; or merely to confuse the quarterback and offensive line. In the 46 both outside linebackers play on the strong side (the side with the tight end). One of the linebackers plays in front of the tight end, while the other linebacker plays on the outside of him. The middle linebacker plays as a traditional linebacker approximately 5 yards off the line of scrimmage, with the strong safety next to him. Buddy Ryan is generally regarded as the originator of this defense, developing it and using it with great success with the 1985 Chicago Bears. It was named in honor of Chicago Bears safety, Doug Plank who wore the number 46. Today this defense is rarely used as a base defense due to the increased use of spread offenses and multiple receiver sets, but it may be used occasionally to confuse the offense.This defense is used to stop runs.

4-4 defense

This rarely used defense is effective at run-stopping but is slightly weaker than a 4-3 defense at pass coverage because it uses only three defensive backs. One of the outside linebackers is usually called into either blitz or pass coverage in order to make up for the missing DB. In the NFL and college, this alignment is used mainly in short yardage situations or near the goal line. It is commonly used in high school football.

References

Notes

Bibliography

''Complete Book of Linebacker Play'', Joe Giampalmi, Parker Pub. Co., 1984, ISBN 0131575112

Category:American football positions Category:American football terminology Category:Canadian football terminology

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was a Japanese composer and writer on aesthetics and music theory. Largely self-taught, Takemitsu possessed consummate skill in the subtle manipulation of instrumental and orchestral timbre. He drew from a wide range of influences, including jazz, popular music, avant-garde procedures and traditional Japanese music, in a harmonic idiom largely derived from the music of Claude Debussy and Olivier Messiaen.

In 1958, his ''Requiem'' for strings (1957) gained international attention, led to several commissions from across the world and settled his reputation as one of the leading Japanese composers of the 20th century. He was the recipient of numerous awards, commissions and honours; he composed over 100 film scores and about 130 concert works for ensembles of various sizes and combinations. He also found time to write a detective novel and appeared frequently on Japanese television as a celebrity chef.

In the foreword to a selection of Takemitsu's writings in English, conductor Seiji Ozawa writes: "I am very proud of my friend Toru Takemitsu. He is the first Japanese composer to write for a world audience and achieve international recognition."

Biography

Youth

Takemitsu was born in Tokyo on October 8, 1930; a month later his family moved to Dalian in the Chinese province then known as Manchuria. He returned to Japan to attend elementary school, but his education was cut short by military conscription in 1944. Takemitsu described his experience of military service at such a young age, under the Japanese Nationalist government, as "... extremely bitter". Takemitsu first became really conscious of Western classical music (which was banned in Japan during the war) during his term of military service, in the form of a popular French Song ("Parlez-moi d'amour") which he listened to with colleagues in secret, played on a gramophone with a makeshift needle fashioned from bamboo.

During the post-war U.S. occupation of Japan, Takemitsu worked for the U.S. Armed Forces, but was ill for a long period. Hospitalised and bed-ridden, he took the opportunity to listen to as much Western music as he could on the U.S. Armed Forces network. While deeply affected by these experiences of Western music, he simultaneously felt a need to distance himself from the traditional music of his native Japan. He explained much later, in a lecture at the New York International Festival of the Arts, that for him Japanese traditional music "always recalled the bitter memories of war".

Despite his almost complete lack of musical training, and taking inspiration from what little Western music he had heard, Takemitsu began to compose in earnest at the age of 16: "... I began [writing] music attracted to music itself as one human being. Being in music I found my raison d'être as a man. After the war, music was the ''only'' thing. Choosing to be in music clarified my identity." Though he studied briefly with Yasuji Kiyose beginning in 1948, Takemitsu remained largely self-taught throughout his musical career.

Early development and Jikken Kōbō

In 1948, Takemitsu conceived the idea of electronic music technology, or in his own words, to "bring noise into tempered musical tones inside a busy small tube." During the 1950s, Takemitsu had learned that in 1948 "a French [engineer] Pierre Schaeffer invented the method(s) of ''musique concrète'' based on the same idea as mine. I was pleased with this coincidence."

In 1951, Takemitsu was a founding member of the anti-academic : an artistic group established for multidisciplinary collaboration on mixed-media projects, who sought to avoid Japanese artistic tradition. The performances and works undertaken by the group introduced several contemporary Western composers to Japanese audiences. During this period he wrote ''Saegirarenai Kyūsoku I'' ("Uninterrupted Rest I", 1952: a piano work, without a regular rhythmic pulse or barlines); and by 1955 Takemitsu had begun to use electronic tape-recording techniques in such works as ''Relief Statique'' (1955) and ''Vocalism A·I'' (1956). Takemitsu also studied in the early 1950s with the composer Fumio Hayasaka, perhaps best known for the scores he wrote to films by Kenji Mizoguchi and Akira Kurosawa, the latter of whom Takemitsu would collaborate with decades later.

In the late 1950s chance brought Takemitsu international attention: his ''Requiem'' for string orchestra (1957 ), written as an homage to Hayasaka, was heard by Igor Stravinsky in 1958 during his visit to Japan. (The NHK had organised opportunities for Stravinsky to listen to some of the latest Japanese music; when Takemitsu's work was put on by mistake, Stravinsky insisted on hearing it to the end.) At a press conference later, Stravinsky expressed his admiration for the work, praising its "sincerity" and "passionate" writing. Stravinsky subsequently invited Takemitsu to lunch; and for Takemitsu this was an "unforgettable" experience. After Stravinsky returned to the U.S., Takemitsu soon received a commission for a new work from the Koussevitsky Foundation which, he assumed, had come as a suggestion from Stravinsky to Aaron Copland. For this he composed ''Dorian Horizon'', (1966), which was premièred by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Copland.

Influence of Cage; interest in traditional Japanese music

During his time with Jikken Kōbō, Takemitsu came into contact with the experimental work of John Cage; but when the composer Toshi Ichiyanagi returned from his studies in America in 1961, he gave the first Japanese performance of Cage's ''Concert for Piano and Orchestra''. This left a "deep impression" on Takemitsu: he recalled the impact of hearing the work when writing an obituary for Cage, 31 years later. This encouraged Takemitsu in his use of indeterminate procedures and graphic-score notation, for example in the graphic scores of ''Ring'' (1961), ''Corona for pianist(s)'' and ''Corona II for string(s)'' (both 1962). In these works each performer is presented with cards printed with coloured circular patterns which are freely arranged by the performer to create "the score".

Although the immediate influence of Cage's procedures did not last in Takemitsu's music—''Coral Island'', for example for soprano and orchestra (1962) shows significant departures from indeterminate procedures partly as a result of Takemitsu's renewed interest in the music of Anton Webern—certain similarities between Cage's philosophies and Takemitsu's thought remained. For example, Cage's emphasis on timbres within individual sound-events, and his notion of silence "as plenum rather than vacuum", can be aligned with Takemitsu's interest in ''ma''. Furthermore, Cage's interest in Zen practice (through his contact with Zen Master Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki) seems to have resulted in a renewed interest in the East in general, and ultimately alerted Takemitsu to the potential for incorporating elements drawn from Japanese traditional music into his composition:

I must express my deep and sincere gratitude to John Cage. The reason for this is that in my own life, in my own development, for a long period I struggled to avoid being "Japanese", to avoid "Japanese" qualities. It was largely through my contact with John Cage that I came to recognize the value of my own tradition.

For Takemitsu, as he explained later in a lecture in 1988, one performance of Japanese traditional music stood out:

One day I chanced to see a performance of the Bunraku puppet theater and was very surprised by it. It was in the tone quality, the timbre, of the futazao shamisen, the wide-necked shamisen used in Bunraku, that I first recognized the splendor of traditional Japanese music. I was very moved by it and I wondered why my attention had never been captured before by this Japanese music.

Thereafter, he resolved to study all types of traditional Japanese music, paying special attention to the differences between the two very different musical traditions; in a diligent attempt to "bring forth the sensibilities of Japanese music that had always been within [him]...". This was no easy task, since in the years following the war traditional music was largely overlooked and ignored: only one or two "masters" continued to keep their art alive, often meeting with public indifference. In conservatoria across the country, even students of traditional instruments were always required to learn the piano.

From the early 1960s, Takemitsu began to make use of traditional Japanese instruments in his music, and even took up playing the ''biwa''—an instrument he used in his score for the film ''Seppuku'' (1962). In 1967, Takemitsu received a commission from the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, to commemorate the orchestra's 125th anniversary, for which he wrote ''November Steps'' for ''biwa'', ''shakuhachi'', and orchestra. Initially, Takemitsu had great difficulty in uniting these instruments from such different musical cultures in one work. ''Eclipse'' for ''biwa'' and ''shakuhachi'' (1966) illustrates Takemitsu's attempts to find a viable notational system for these instruments, which in normal circumstances neither sound together nor are used in works notated in any system of Western staff notation.

The first performance of ''November Steps'' was given in 1967, under Seiji Ozawa. Despite the trials of writing such an ambitious work, Takemitsu maintained "that making the attempt was very worthwhile because what resulted somehow liberated music from a certain stagnation and brought to music something distinctly new and different". The work was distributed widely in the West when it was coupled as the fourth side of an LP release of Messiaen's ''Turangalîla Symphony''.

In 1972, Takemitsu, accompanied by Iannis Xenakis, Betsy Jolas, and others, heard Balinese gamelan music in Bali. The experience influenced the composer on a largely philosophical and theological level. For those accompanying Takemitsu on the expedition (most of whom were French musicians), who "... could not keep their composure as I did before this music: it was too foreign for them to be able to assess the resulting discrepancies with their logic", the experience was without precedent. For Takemitsu, however, by now quite familiar with his own native musical tradition, there was a relationship between "the sounds of the gamelan, the tone of the ''kapachi'', the unique scales and rhythms by which they are formed, and Japanese traditional music which had shaped such a large part of my sensitivity". In his solo piano work ''For Away'' (written for Roger Woodward in 1973), a single, complex line is distributed between the pianist's hands, which reflects the interlocking patterns between the metallophones of a gamelan orchestra.

A year later, Takemitsu returned to the instrumental combination of ''shakuhachi'', ''biwa'', and orchestra, in the less well known work ''Autumn'' (1973). The significance of this work is revealed in its far greater integration of the traditional Japanese instruments into the orchestral discourse; whereas in ''November Steps'', the two contrasting instrumental ensembles perform largely in alternation, with only a few moments of contact. Takemitsu expressed this change in attitude:

But now my attitude is getting to be a little different, I think. Now my concern is mostly to find out what there is in common ... ''Autumn'' was written after ''November Steps''. I really wanted to do something which I hadn't done in ''November Steps'', not to blend the instruments, but to integrate them.

International status and the gradual shift in style

By 1970, Takemitsu's reputation as a leading member of avant-garde community was well established, and during his involvement with Expo '70 in Osaka, he was at last able to meet more of his Western colleagues, including Karlheinz Stockhausen. Also, during a contemporary music festival in April 1970, produced by the Japanese composer himself ("Iron and Steel Pavilion"), Takemitsu met among the participants Lukas Foss, Peter Sculthorpe, and Vinko Globokar. Later that year, as part of a commission from Paul Sacher and the Zurich Collegium Musicum, Takemitsu incorporated into his ''Eucalyptus I'' parts for international performers: flautist Aurèle Nicolet, oboist Heinz Holliger, and harpist Ursula Holliger.

Critical examination of the complex instrumental works written during this period for the new generation of "contemporary soloists" reveals the level of his high-profile engagement with the Western avant-garde, in works such as ''Voice'' for solo flute (1971), ''Waves'' for clarinet, horn, two trombones and bass drum (1976), ''Quatrain'' for clarinet, violin, cello, piano and orchestra (1977). Experiments and works that incorporated traditional Japanese musical ideas and language continued to appear in his output, and an increased interest in the traditional Japanese garden began to reflect itself in works such as ''In an Autumn Garden'' for ''gagaku'' orchestra (1973), and ''A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden'' for orchestra (1977).

Throughout this apogee of avant-garde work, Takemitsu's musical style seems to have undergone a series of stylistic changes. Comparison of ''Green'' (for orchestra, 1967) and ''A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden'' (1977) quickly reveals the seeds of this change. The latter was composed according a pre-compositional scheme, in which pentatonic modes were superimposed over one central pentatonic scale (the so-called "black-key pentatonic") around a central sustained central pitch (F-sharp), and an approach that is highly indicative of the sort of "pantonal" and modal pitch material seen gradually emerging in his works throughout the 1970s. The former, ''Green'' (or ''November Steps II'') written 10 years earlier, is heavily influenced by Debussy, and is, in spite of its very dissonant language (including momentary quarter-tone clusters), largely constructed through a complex web of modal forms. These modal forms are largely audible, particularly in the momentary repose toward the end of the work. Thus in these works, it is possible to see both a continuity of approach, and the emergence of a simpler harmonic language that was to characterise the work of his later period.

His friend and colleague Jō Kondō said, "If his later works sound different from earlier pieces, it is due to his gradual refining of his basic style rather than any real alteration of it."

Later works: the sea of tonality

In a Tokyo lecture given in 1984, Takemitsu identified a melodic motive in his ''Far Calls. Coming Far!'' (for violin and orchestra, 1980) that would recur throughout his later works:

I wanted to plan a tonal "sea". Here the "sea" is E-flat [''Es'' in German nomenclature]-E-A, a three-note ascending motive consisting of a half step and perfect fourth. [... In ''Far Calls''] this is extended upward from A with two major thirds and one minor third ... Using these patterns I set the "sea of tonality" from which many pantonal chords flow.

Takemitsu's words here highlight his changing stylistic trends from the late 1970s into the 1980s, which have been described as "an increased use of diatonic material [... with] references to tertian harmony and jazz voicing", which do not, however, project a sense of "large-scale tonality". Many of the works from this period have titles that include a reference to water: ''Toward the Sea'' (1981), ''Rain Tree'' and ''Rain Coming'' (1982), ''riverrun'' and ''I Hear the Water Dreaming'' (1987). Takemitsu wrote in his notes for the score of ''Rain Coming'' that "... the complete collection [is] entitled "Waterscape" ... it was the composer's intention to create a series of works, which like their subject, pass through various metamorphoses, culminating in a sea of tonality." Throughout these works, the S-E-A motive (discussed further below) features prominently, and points to an increased emphasis on the melodic element in Takemitsu's music that began during this later period.

Pedal notes played an increasingly prominent role in Takemitsu's music during this period, as in ''A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden''. In ''Dream/Window'', (orchestra, 1985) a pedal D serves as anchor point, holding together statements of a striking four-note motivic gesture which recurs in various instrumental and rhythmic guises throughout. Very occasionally, fully fledged references to diatonic tonality can be found, often in harmonic allusions to early- and pre-20th century composers—for example, ''Folios'' for guitar (1974), which quotes from J. S. Bach's ''St Matthew Passion'', and ''Family Tree'' for narrator and orchestra (1984), which invokes the musical language of Ravel and American popular song.

By this time, Takemitsu's incorporation of traditional Japanese (and other Eastern) musical traditions with his Western style had become much more integrated. Takemitsu commented, "There is no doubt ... the various countries and cultures of the world have begun a journey toward the geographic and historic unity of all peoples ... The old and new exist within me with equal weight."

Toward the end of his life, Takemitsu had planned to complete an opera, a collaboration with the novelist Barry Gifford and the director Daniel Schmid, commissioned by the Opéra National de Lyon in France. He was in the process of publishing a plan of its musical and dramatic structure with Kenzaburo Oe, but he was prevented from completing it by his death at 65. He died of pneumonia while undergoing treatment for bladder cancer on February 20, 1996.

Legacy

In a memorial issue of ''Contemporary Music Review'', Jō Kondō wrote, "Needless to say, Takemitsu is among the most important composers in Japanese music history. He was also the first Japanese composer fully recognized in the west, and remained the guiding light for the younger generations of Japanese composers."

Composer Peter Lieberson shared the following in his program note to ''the Ocean that has no East and West'', written in memory of Takemitsu: "I spent the most time with Toru in Tokyo when I was invited to be a guest composer at his Music Today Festival in 1987. Peter Serkin and composer Oliver Knussen were also there, as was cellist Fred Sherry. Though he was the senior of our group by many years, Toru stayed up with us every night and literally drank us under the table. I was confirmed in my impression of Toru as a person who lived his life like a traditional Zen poet."

Music

Composers whom Takemitsu cited as influential in his early work include Claude Debussy, Anton Webern, Edgard Varèse, Arnold Schoenberg, and Olivier Messiaen. (Messiaen was introduced to him by fellow composer Toshi Ichiyanagi, and remained a lifelong influence). Although Takemitsu was reluctant at first to develop an interest in traditional Japanese music after his wartime experiences of nationalism, Takemitsu showed an early interest in "... the Japanese Garden in color spacing and form ...". The formal garden of the ''kaiyu-shiki'' interested him in particular.

He expressed his unusual stance toward compositional theory early on, his lack of respect for the "trite rules of music, rules that are ... stifled by formulas and calculations"; for Takemitsu it was of far greater importance that "sounds have the freedom to breathe. ... Just as one cannot plan his life, neither can he plan music".

Takemitsu's sensitivity to instrumental and orchestral timbre can be heard throughout his work, and is often made apparent by the unusual instrumental combinations he specified. This is evident in works such as ''November Steps'', that combine traditional Japanese instruments, ''shakuhachi'' and ''biwa'', with a conventional Western orchestra. It may also be discerned in his works for ensembles that make no use of traditional instruments, for example ''Quotation of Dream'' (1991), ''Archipelago S.'', for 21 players (1993), and ''Arc I & II'' (1963–66/1976). In these works, the more conventional orchestral forces are divided into unconventional "groups". Even where these instrumental combinations were determined by the particular ensemble commissioning the work, "Takemitsu's genius for instrumentation (and genius it was, in my view) ...", in the words of Oliver Knussen, "... creates the illusion that the instrumental restrictions are self-imposed".

Influence of traditional Japanese music

Takemitsu summed up his initial aversion to Japanese (and all non-Western) traditional musical forms in his own words: "There may be folk music with strength and beauty, but I cannot be completely honest in this kind of music. I want a more active relationship to the present. (Folk music in a 'contemporary style' is nothing but a deception)". His dislike for the music traditions of his own country in particular were intensified by his experiences of the war, during which Japanese music became associated with militaristic and nationalistic cultural ideals.

Nevertheless, Takemitsu incorporated some idiomatic elements of Japanese music in his very earliest works, perhaps unconsciously. One unpublished set of pieces, ''Kakehi'' ("Conduit"), written at the age of 17, incorporates the ''ryō'', ''ritsu'' and ''insen'' scales throughout. When Takemitsu discovered that these "nationalist" elements had somehow found their way into his music, he was so alarmed that he later destroyed the works. Further examples can be seen for example in the quarter-tone glissandi of ''Masques I'' (for two flutes, 1959), which mirror the characteristic pitch bends of the ''shakuhachi'', and for which he devised his own unique notation: a held note is tied to an enharmonic spelling of the same pitch class, with a portamento direction across the tie.

Other Japanese characteristics, including the further use of traditional pentatonic scales, continued to crop up elsewhere in his early works. In the opening bars of ''Litany'', ''for Michael Vyner'' (first movement), a reconstruction from memory by Takemitsu of ''Lento in Due Movimenti'' (1950; the original score was lost), pentatonicism is clearly visible in the upper voice, which opens the work on an unaccompanied anacrusis. The pitches of the opening melody combine to form the constituent notes of the ascending form of the Japanese ''in'' scale.

When, from the early 1960s, Takemitsu began to "consciously apprehend" the sounds of traditional Japanese music, he found that his creative process, "the logic of my compositional thought[,] was torn apart", and nevertheless, "hogaku [traditional Japanese music ...] seized my heart and refuses to release it". In particular, Takemitsu perceived that, for example, the sound of a single stroke of the ''biwa'' or single pitch breathed through the ''shakuhachi'', could "so transport our reason because they are of extreme complexity ... already complete in themselves". This fascination with the sounds produced in traditional Japanese music brought Takemitsu to his idea of ''ma'' (usually translated as the space between two objects), which ultimately informed his understanding of the intense quality of traditional Japanese music as a whole:

Just one sound can be complete in itself, for its complexity lies in the formulation of ''ma'', an unquantifiable metaphysical space (duration) of dynamically tensed absence of sound. For example, in the performance of ''nō'', the ''ma'' of sound and silence does not have an organic relation for the purpose of artistic expression. Rather, these two elements contrast sharply with one another in an immaterial balance.

In 1970, Takemitsu received a commission from the National Theatre of Japan to write a work for the ''gagaku'' ensemble of the Imperial Household; this was fulfilled in 1973, when he completed ''Shuteiga'' ("In an Autumn Garden", although he later incorporated the work, as the fourth movement, into his 50 minute long "In an Autumn Garden—Complete Version"). As well as being "... the furthest removed from the West of any work he had written", While it introduces certain Western musical ideas to the Japanese court ensemble, the work represents the deepest of Takemitsu's investigations into Japanese musical tradition, the lasting effects of which are clearly reflected in his works for conventional Western ensemble formats that followed.

In ''Garden Rain'' (1974, for brass ensemble), the limited and pitch-specific harmonic vocabulary of the Japanese mouth organ, the ''shō'' (see ex. 3), and its specific timbres, are clearly emulated in Takemitsu's writing for brass instruments; even similarities of performance practice can be seen, (the players are often required to hold notes to the limit of their breath capacity). In ''A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden'', the characteristic timbres of the ''shō'' and its chords (several of which are simultaneous soundings of traditional Japanese pentatonic scales) are emulated in the opening held chords of the wind instruments (the first chord is in fact an exact transposition of the ''shō's'' chord, Jū (i); see ex. 3); meanwhile a solo oboe is assigned a melodic line that is similarly reminiscent of the lines played by the ''hichiriki'' in ''gagaku'' ensembles.

Influence of Messiaen

The influence of Olivier Messiaen on Takemitsu was already apparent in some of Takemitsu's earliest published works. By the time he composed ''Lento in Due Movimenti'', (1950), Takemitsu had already come into possession of a copy of Messiaen's ''8 Préludes'' (through Toshi Ichiyanagi), and the influence of Messiaen is clearly visible in the work, in the use of modes, the suspension of regular metre, and sensitivity to timbre. Throughout his career Takemitsu often made use of modes from which he derived his musical material, both melodic and harmonic among which Messiaen's modes of limited transposition to appear with some frequency. In particular, the use of the octatonic, (mode II, or the 8-28 collection), and mode VI (8-25) is particularly common. However, Takemitsu pointed out that he had used the octatonic collection in his music before ever coming across it in Messiaen's music.

In 1977, Takemitsu met Messiaen in New York, and during "what was to be a one-hour 'lesson' [but which] lasted three hours ... Messiaen played his ''Quartet for the End of Time'' for Takemitsu at the piano", which, Takemitsu recalled, was like listening to an orchestral performance. Takemitsu responded to this with his homage to the French composer, ''Quatrain'', for which he asked Messiaen's permission to use the same instrumental combination for the main quartet, cello, violin, clarinet and piano (which is accompanied by orchestra). As well as the obvious similarity of instrumentation, Takemitsu employs several melodic figures that appear to "mimic" certain musical examples given by Messiaen in his ''Technique de mon langage musical'', (see ex. 4).

On hearing of Messiaen's death in 1992, Takemitsu was interviewed by telephone, and still in shock, "blurted out, 'His death leaves a crisis in contemporary music!' " Then later, in an obituary written for the French composer in the same year, Takemitsu further expressed his sense of loss at Messiaen's death: "Truly, he was my spiritual mentor ... Among the many things I learned from his music, the concept and experience of color and the form of time will be unforgettable." The composition ''Rain Tree Sketch II'', which was to be Takemitsu's final piano piece, was also written that year and subtitled "In Memoriam Olivier Messiaen".

Influence of Debussy

Takemitsu frequently expressed his indebtedness to Claude Debussy, referring to the French composer as his "great mentor". As Arnold Whitall puts it:

Given the enthusiasm for the exotic and the Orient in these [Debussy and Messiaen] and other French composers, it is understandable that Takemitsu should have been attracted to the expressive and formal qualities of music in which flexibility of rhythm and richness of harmony count for so much.

For Takemitsu, Debussy's "greatest contribution was his unique orchestration which emphasizes colour, light and shadow ... the orchestration of Debussy has many musical focuses." He was fully aware of Debussy's own interest in Japanese art, (the cover of the first edition of ''La Mer'', for example, was famously adorned by Hokusai's ''The Great Wave off Kanagawa''). For Takemitsu, this interest in Japanese culture, combined with his unique personality, and perhaps most importantly, his lineage as a composer of the French musical tradition running from Rameau and Lully through Berlioz in which colour is given special attention, gave Debussy his unique style and sense of orchestration.

During the composition of ''Green'' (''November Steps II'', for orchestra, 1967: "steeped in the sound-color world of the orchestral music of Claude Debussy") Takemitsu said he had taken the scores of Debussy's ''Prélude à l'Après-midi d'un Faune'' and ''Jeux'' to the mountain villa where both this work and ''November Steps I'' were composed. For Oliver Knussen, "the final appearance of the main theme irresistibly prompts the thought that Takemitsu may, quite unconsciously, have been attempting a latterday Japanese ''Après-midi d'un Faune''". Details of orchestration in ''Green'', such as the prominent use of antique cymbals, and ''tremolandi'' harmonies in the strings, clearly point to the influence of Takemitsu's compositional mentor, and of these works in particular.

In ''Quotation of Dream'' (1991), direct quotations from Debussy's ''La Mer'' and Takemitsu's earlier works relating to the sea are incorporated into the musical flow ("stylistic jolts were not intended"), depicting the landscape outside the Japanese garden of his own music.

Motives

Several recurring musical motives can be heard in Takemitsu's works. In particular the pitch motive E♭-E-A can be heard in many of his later works, whose titles refer to water in some form (''Toward the Sea'', 1981; ''Rain Tree Sketch'', 1982; ''I Hear the Water Dreaming'', 1987). left|thumb|290px|Example 5. Various examples of Takemitsu's S-E-A motive, derived from the German spelling of the notes E♭, E, A ("Es-E-A"). When spelt in German (Es-E-A), the motive can be seen as a musical "transliteration" of the word "sea". Takemitsu used this motive (usually transposed) to indicate the presence of water in his "musical landscapes", even in works whose titles do not directly refer to water, such as ''A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden'' (1977; see ex. 5).

Musique Concrète

During Takemitsu's years as a member of the Jikken Kōbō, he experimented with compositions of ''musique concrète'' (and a very limited amount of electronic music, the most notable example being ''Stanza II'' for harp and tape written later in 1972). In ''Water Music'' (1960 ), Takemitsu's source material consisted entirely of sounds produced by droplets of water. His manipulation of these sounds, through the use of highly percussive envelopes, often results in a resemblance to traditional Japanese instruments, such as the ''tsuzumi'' and ''nō'' ensembles.

Aleatory techniques

One aspect of John Cage's compositional procedure that Takemitsu continued to use throughout his career, was the use of indeterminacy, in which performers are given a degree of choice in what to perform. As mentioned previously, this was particularly used in works such as ''November Steps'', in which musicians playing traditional Japanese instruments were able to play in an orchestral setting with a certain degree of improvisational freedom. However, he also employed a technique that is sometimes called "aleatory counterpoint" in his well-known orchestral work ''A Flock Descends Into the Pentagonal Garden'' (1977, at [J] in the score ), and in the score of ''Arc II: i Textures'' (1964) for piano and orchestra, in which sections of the orchestra are divided into groups, and required to repeat short passages of music at will. In these passages the overall sequence of events is, however, controlled by the conductor, who is instructed about the approximate durations for each section, and who indicates to the orchestra when to move from one section to next. The technique is commonly found in the work of Witold Lutosławski, who pioneered it in his ''Jeux vénitiens''.

Film music

Takemitsu's contribution to film music was considerable; in under 40 years he composed music for over 100 films, some of which were written for purely financial reasons (such as those written for Noboru Nakamura). However, as the composer attained financial independence, he grew more selective, often reading whole scripts before agreeing to compose the music, and later surveying the action on set, "breathing the atmosphere" whilst conceiving his musical ideas. One notable consideration in Takemitsu's composition for film was his careful use of silence (also important in many of his concert works), which often immediately intensifies the events on screen, and prevents any monotony through a continuous musical accompaniment. For the first battle scene of Akira Kurosawa's ''Ran'', Takemitsu provided an extended passage of intense elegiac quality that halts at the sound of a single gun shot, leaving the audience with the pure "sounds of battle: cries screams and neighing horses".

Takemitsu attached the greatest importance to the director's conception of the film; in an interview with Max Tessier, he explained that, "everything depends on the film itself ... I try to concentrate as much as possible on the subject, so that I can express what the director feels himself. I try to extend his feelings with my music."

Awards

Takemitsu won awards for composition, both in Japan and abroad, including the Prix Italia for his orchestral work ''Tableau noir'' in 1958, the Otaka Prize in 1976 and 1981, the Los Angeles Film Critics Award in 1987 (for the film score ''Ran'') and the Grawemeyer Award in 1994 (for ''Fantasma/Cantos''). In Japan, he received the Film Awards of the Japanese Academy for outstanding achievement in music, for soundtracks to the following films: 1979 1986 1990 1996

He was also invited to attend numerous international festivals throughout his career, and presented lectures and talks at academic institutions across the world. He was made an honorary member of the Akademie der Künste of the DDR in 1979, and the American Institute of Arts and Letters in 1985. He was admitted to the French ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' in 1985, and the ''Académie des Beaux-Arts'' in 1986. He is the recipient of the 22nd Suntory Music Award (1990).

Takemitsu was posthumously awarded the fourth Glenn Gould Prize in Autumn, 1996.

Notable compositions

;Orchestral Works

''Requiem for String Orchestra'' (1957)

''Music of Tree'' (1961)

''The Dorian Horizon'' (1966)

''Green'' (1967)

''Winter'' (1971)

''A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden'' (1977)

''A Way A Lone II'' for string orchestra (version of A Way a Lone for string quartet)

''Rain Coming'' for chamber orchestra (1982)

''Dream/Window'' (1985)

''Twill by Twilight—In Memory of Morton Feldman'' (1988)

''Tree Line'' for chamber orchestra (1988)

''Visions'' (1990)

:I ''Mystère'' :II ''Les yeux clos''

''How slow the Wind'' (1991)

''Archipelago S.'' for 21 players (1993)

;Works for soloists and orchestra

''Arc Part I'' for piano and orchestra (1963–1966/1976)

:I ''Pile'' (1963) :II ''Solitude'' (1966) :III ''Your love and the crossing'' (1963)

''Arc Part II'' for piano and orchestra (1964–1966/1976)

:I ''Textures'' (1964) :II ''Reflection'' (1966) :III ''Coda ... Shall begin from the end'' (1966)

''November Steps'' for ''biwa'', ''shakuhachi'' and orchestra (1967)

''Asterism'' for piano and orchestra (1967)

''Eucalyptus I'' for flute, oboe, harp and string orchestra (1970)

''Autumn'' for ''biwa'', ''shakuhachi'' and orchestra (1973)

''Quatrain'' for clarinet, violin, cello, piano and orchestra (1975)

''Far calls. Coming, far!'' for violin and orchestra (1980)

''Toward the Sea II'' for alto flute, harp and string orchestra (version of ''Toward the Sea'' for alto flute and guitar (1981))

''To the Edge of Dream'' for guitar and orchestra (1983)

''Orion and Pleiades'' for cello and orchestra (1984)

''riverrun'' for piano and orchestra (1984)

''I Hear the Water Dreaming'' for flute and orchestra (1987)

''Nostalghia—In Memory of Andrei Tarkovsky'' for violin and string orchestra (1987)

''A String Around Autumn'' for viola and orchestra (1989)

''From Me Flows What You Call Time'' for five percussionists and orchestra (1990)

''Fantasma/Cantos'' for clarinet and orchestra (1991), winner of the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition.

''Quotation of Dream'' for two pianos and orchestra (1991)

;Electronic and Tape Music

''Static Relief'', magnetic tape (1955)

''Vocalism A・I'', magnetic tape (1956)

''Water Music'' (1960)

''Kaidan'' (1964)

;Chamber works

''Le Son Calligraphé I–III'' for four violins, two violas and two cellos (1958–1960)

''Ring'' for flute, terz guitar and lute (1961)

''Corona II for string(s)'' graphic work in collaboration with Kōhei Sugiura (1962)

''Arc for Strings'' graphic work (1963)

''Valeria'' for violin, cello, guitar, electric organ and two piccolos (1965)

''Eucalyptus II'' for flute, oboe and harp (1971)

''In an Autumn Garden'' for ''gagaku'' orchestra (1973/1979)

''Garden Rain'' for brass ensemble (1974)

''Waves'' for clarinet, horn, two trombones and bass drum (1976)

''Quatrain II'' for clarinet, violin, cello and piano (1977)

''A Way a Lone'' for string quartet (1981)

''Rocking Mirror Daybreak'' for Violin Duo (1983)

''Signals from Heaven''—two antiphonal fanfares for two brass groups (1987)

:I ''Day Signal'' :II ''Night Signal''

''And then I knew 'twas Wind'' for flute, viola and harp (1992)

;Piano works

''Romance'' (1949)

''Lento in Due Movimenti'' (1950, unpublished/original lost—rewritten as ''Litany'', 1989)

''Piano Distance'' (1961)

''Corona for pianist(s)'' graphic score (in collaboration with Kōhei Sugiura, 1962)

''Crossing'' graphic score (in collaboration with Kōhei Sugiura, 1962)

''For Away'' (1973)

''Les yeux clos'' (1979)

''Rain Tree Sketch'' (1982)

''Litany—In Memory of Michael Vyner'' recomposition of ''Lento in Due Movimenti'' (1950/1989)

''Rain Tree Sketch II—In Memoriam Olivier Messiaen'' (1992)

;Guitar

''Folios'' (1974)

''12 Songs for Guitar'' (1974, 1977)

''The Last Waltz'' (1983)

''A Boy Named HIROSHIMA'' (1987)

''All in Twilight - Four pieces for guitar -'' written for Julian Bream (1987)

''Bad Boy'' (1961, 1992)

''A Pieces for guitar - For the 60th birthday of Sylvano Bussotti -'' (1991)

''Equinox'' (1993)

''In the Woods - Three pieces for guitar -'' (1995)

;Film scores

''Pitfall (Otoshiana)'', dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara (1962)

''Harakiri'', dir. Masaki Kobayashi (1962)

''Woman in the Dunes'', dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara (1964)

''Kaidan'', dir. Masaki Kobayashi (1964)

''Assassination'', dir. Masahiro Shinoda (1964)

''The Face of Another'', dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara (1966)

''Samurai Rebellion'', dir. Masaki Kobayashi (1967)

''Double Suicide'', dir. Masahiro Shinoda (1969)

''Dodesukaden'', dir. Akira Kurosawa (1970)

''Empire of Passion'', dir. Nagisa Oshima (1978)

''Ran'', dir. Akira Kurosawa (1985)

''Black Rain'', dir. Shohei Imamura (1989)

''Rising Sun'', dir. Philip Kaufman (1993)

;Other instrumental

''Masque'', for two flutes (1959, 1960)

''Eclipse'', for biwa and shakuhachi (1966)

''Voice'', (1971)

''Itinerant—In Memory of Isamu Noguchi'', (1989)

''Air'' (1995, last published work)

Literary works

Takemitsu, Toru, with Cronin, Tania and Tann, Hilary, "Afterword", ''Perspectives of New Music'', vol. 27, no. 2 (Summer, 1989), 205–214, accessible at JSTOR, (subscription access)

Takemitsu, Tōru, (trans. Adachi, Sumi with Reynolds, Roger), "Mirrors", ''Perspectives of New Music'', vol. 30 no. 1 (Winter, 1992), 36–80 accessible at JSTOR, (subscription access)

Takemitsu, Toru, (trans. Hugh de Ferranti) "One Sound", ''Contemporary Music Review'', vol. 8, part 2, (Harwood, 1994), 3–4, accessible at informaworld (subscription access)

Takemitsu, Tōru, "Contemporary Music in Japan", ''Perspectives of New Music'', vol. 27 no. 2 (Summer, 1989), 198–204 accessible at JSTOR, (subscription access)

Listening

Toru Takemitsu : Air, John McMurtery, flute

Toru Takemitsu : Voice, John McMurtery, flute

Further reading

;General reference

;Other references

Koozin, Timothy, "Traversing distances: pitch organization, gesture and imagery in the late works of Tōru Takemitsu", ''Contemporary Music Review'', vol. 21, no.4, (Taylor & Francis, 2002), 17–34 accessible at informaworld (subscription access)

Nuss, Steven, "Hearing 'Japanese', hearing Takemitsu", ''Contemporary Music Review'', vol. 21, no.4, (Taylor & Francis, 2002), 35–71 accessible at informaworld (subscription access)

Robinson, Elizabeth A. ''Voice, itinerant, and air: a performance and analytical guide to the solo flute works of Toru Takemitsu''. 2011.

Notes and references

External links

Toru Takemitsu: Complete Works

Schott Music Biography

Complete Takemitsu Edition

Slate article focusing on his film music

Interview with Toru Takemitsu

Category:20th-century classical composers Category:Composers for the classical guitar Category:Grawemeyer Award winners Category:Japanese composers of classical music Category:Japanese film score composers Category:Deaths from bladder cancer Category:Cancer deaths in Japan Category:Deaths from pneumonia Category:Infectious disease deaths in Japan Category:1930 births Category:1996 deaths

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Coordinates	35°0′41.69″N135°46′5.47″N
names	John Williams
background	non_performing_personnel
birth name	John Towner Williams
born	February 08, 1932
origin	Flushing, Queens, New York, U.S.
occupation	Composer, pianist, conductor
years active	1952–present
spouse	Barbara Ruick (1956–74) (deceased)Samantha Winslow (1980–present) }}

John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932) is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the ''Star Wars'' saga, ''Jaws,'' ''Superman,'' the ''Indiana Jones'' films, ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,'' ''Hook,'' ''Jurassic Park,'' ''Schindler's List,'' ''Home Alone'' and the first three ''Harry Potter'' films. He has had a long association with director Steven Spielberg, composing the music for all but two of Spielberg's feature films.

Other notable works by Williams include theme music for four Olympic Games, the ''NBC Nightly News,'' the rededication of the Statue of Liberty, the DreamWorks Pictures production logo, and the television series ''Lost in Space.'' Williams has also composed numerous classical concerti, and he served as the principal conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra from 1980 to 1993; he is now the orchestra's conductor laureate.

Williams has won five Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, seven BAFTA Awards, and 21 Grammy Awards. With 45 Academy Award nominations, Williams is, together with composer Alfred Newman, the second most nominated person, after Walt Disney. John Williams was honored with the prestigious Richard Kirk award at the 1999 BMI Film and TV Awards. The award is given annually to a composer who has made significant contributions to film and television music. Williams was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame in 2000, and was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004.

Early life and family

John Williams was born on February 8, 1932, in Flushing (Queens), New York, the son of Esther and John Williams, Sr. His father was a jazz percussionist who played with the Raymond Scott Quintet.

In 1948, the Williams family moved to Los Angeles where John attended North Hollywood High School graduating in 1950. He later attended the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and studied privately with the Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. In 1952, Williams was drafted into the U.S. Air Force, where he conducted and arranged music for the Air Force Band as part of his assignments.

After his Air Force service ended in 1955, Williams moved to New York City and entered the Juilliard School, where he studied piano with Rosina Lhévinne. During this time, Williams worked as a jazz pianist in New York's many clubs and eventually studios, most notably for composer Henry Mancini. His fellow session musicians included Rolly Bundock on bass, Jack Sperling on drums, and Bob Bain on guitar—the same lineup featured on the ''Mr. Lucky'' television series. Williams was known as "Little Johnny Love" Williams during the early 1960s, and he served as music arranger and bandleader for a series of popular music albums with the singer Frankie Laine.

Williams was married to actress Barbara Ruick from 1956 until her death on March 3, 1974. The Williamses had three children: Jennifer (born 1956), Mark (born 1958), and Joseph (born 1960). Williams' younger son is one of the various lead singers the band Toto has had over the decades. John Williams married his second wife, Samantha Winslow, on July 21, 1980.

John Williams is an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi, the national fraternity for college band members.

Film and television scoring

While skilled in a variety of twentieth-century compositional idioms, Williams's most familiar style may be described as a form of neoromanticism, inspired by the same large-scale orchestral music of the late 19th century—especially the compositions of Richard Wagner and its concept of leitmotif—that inspired his film music predecessors.

After his studies at Juilliard, Williams returned to Los Angeles, where he began working as an orchestrator at film studios. Among other composers, Williams worked with Franz Waxman, Bernard Herrmann, and Alfred Newman, and also with his fellow orchestrators Conrad Salinger and Bob Franklyn. Williams was also a studio pianist, performing on film scores by composers such as Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, and Henry Mancini. Williams recorded with Henry Mancini on the film scores of ''Peter Gunn'' (1959), ''Days of Wine and Roses'' (1962), and ''Charade'' (1963). (Williams actually played the well-recognized opening riff to Mancini's ''Peter Gunn'' theme.) Williams (often credited as "Johnny Williams") also composed the theme music for various TV programs in the 1960s: The pilot episode of ''Gilligan's Island,'' the ''Kraft Suspense Theatre'', ''Lost in Space'' (1965–68), ''The Time Tunnel'' (1966–67), and ''Land of the Giants'' (the last three created by the prolific TV producer, Irwin Allen).

Working at Universal Studios, Williams shared music credit on a number of films, the most notable being ''The Creature from the Black Lagoon'' in 1954. Williams's first major film composition was for the B movie ''Daddy-O'' in 1958, and his first screen credit came two years later in ''Because They're Young.'' He soon gained notice in Hollywood for his versatility in composing jazz, piano, and symphonic music. Williams received his first nomination for an Academy Award for his film score for ''Valley of the Dolls'' (1967), and then was nominated again for his score for ''Goodbye, Mr. Chips'' (1969). Williams broke through to win his first Academy Award for his adapted score for the film ''Fiddler on the Roof'' (1971). In 1972 he composed the score for the Robert Altman psychological thriller ''Images'' (recorded in collaboration with noted percussionist Stomu Yamashta) which earned him another nomination in the category 'Best Music, Original Dramatic Score' at the 1973 Academy Awards. During the early 1970s, Williams' prominence grew thanks to his work for now–film producer Irwin Allen's disaster films, composing the scores for ''The Poseidon Adventure'' (1972) and ''The Towering Inferno'' (1974). In addition, he scored Universal's ''Earthquake'' (1974) for director Mark Robson, completing a "trinity" of scores for the highest grossing "disaster films" of the decade. He also wrote a very memorable score to ''The Cowboys'' (1972), a western starring John Wayne and directed by Mark Rydell.

In 1974, Williams was approached by director Steven Spielberg to compose the music for his feature directorial debut, ''The Sugarland Express.'' The young director had been impressed with Williams's score for the movie ''The Reivers'' (1969), and Spielberg was convinced that Williams could compose the musical sound that he desired for any of his films. They teamed up again a year later for Spielberg's second film, ''Jaws.'' Widely considered to be a classic suspense film, its film score's ominous two-note motif has become synonymous with sharks and approaching danger. The score for ''Jaws'' earned Williams his second Academy Award, his first one for an original composition.

Shortly thereafter, Williams and Spielberg began a long collaboration for their next feature film together, ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' (''CE3K,'' 1977). In an unusual step for a Hollywood film, Spielberg and Williams developed their script and musical concepts simultaneously, as in the film these entwine very closely together. During their two-year-long collaboration, they crafted its distinctive five-note figure that functions both in the background music and as the communications signal of the film's extraterrestrials. Williams also used a system of musical hand signals in ''CE3K'' that were based on hand signs created by John Curwen and refined by Zoltan Kodaly.

During the same period, Spielberg recommended Williams to his friend and fellow director George Lucas, who needed a composer to score his ambitious space epic, ''Star Wars'' (1977). Williams delivered a grand symphonic score in the fashion of Richard Strauss and Golden Age Hollywood composers Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Its main theme, "Luke's Theme" is among the most widely recognized in motion picture history, and the "Force Theme" and "Princess Leia's Theme" are well-known examples of leitmotif. Both the film and its soundtrack were immensely successful—it remains the highest grossing non-popular music recording of all-time—and Williams won another Academy Award for Best Original Score. In 1980, Williams returned to score ''The Empire Strikes Back'', where he introduced "The Imperial March" as the theme for Darth Vader and the Galactic Empire. The original ''Star Wars'' trilogy concluded with the 1983 film ''Return of the Jedi'', for which Williams's score provided most notably the "Emperor's Theme", "Parade of the Ewoks", and "Luke and Leia". Both scores earned Williams Academy Award nominations.

Williams worked with director Richard Donner to score the 1978 film ''Superman''. The score's heroic and romantic themes, particularly the main march, the Superman fanfare and the love theme, known as "Can You Read My Mind", would appear in the four sequel films. For the 1981 film ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'', created and directed by Lucas and Spielberg, Williams wrote a rousing main theme known as "The Raiders March" to accompany the film's hero, Indiana Jones. He also composed separate themes to represent the Ark of the Covenant, the character Marion, and the Nazi villains of the story. Additional themes were featured in his scores to the sequel films ''Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'' (1984), ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' (1989), and ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'' (2008). Williams composed an emotional and sensitive score to Spielberg's 1982 fantasy film ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial''. The music conveys the film's benign, childlike sense of innocence, particularly with a spirited theme for the freedom of flight, and a soft string-based, harp-featured theme for the friendship between characters E.T. and Elliott. The film's final chase and farewell sequence marks a rare instance in film history in which the on-screen action was re-edited to conform to the composer's musical interpretation. Williams was awarded a fourth Academy Award for this score.

The 1985 film ''The Color Purple'' is the only theatrical feature directed by Steven Spielberg for which John Williams did not serve as composer. The film's producer, Quincy Jones, wanted to personally arrange and compose the music for the project. Williams also did not score ''Twilight Zone: The Movie,'' but Spielberg had directed only one of the four segments in that film; the lead director and producer of the film, John Landis, selected Jerry Goldsmith as composer. The Williams-Spielberg collaboration resumed with the director's 1987 film ''Empire of the Sun,'' and has continued to the present, spanning genres from science fiction thrillers (1993's ''Jurassic Park),'' to somber tragedies (1993's ''Schindler's List'', 2005's ''Munich),'' to Eastern-tinged melodramas (2005's ''Memoirs of a Geisha'', directed by Rob Marshall). Spielberg has said, "I call it an honorable privilege to regard John Williams as a friend."

In 1999, George Lucas launched the first of a series of prequels to the original ''Star Wars'' trilogy. Williams was asked to score all three films, starting with ''The Phantom Menace.'' Along with themes from the previous movies, Williams created new themes to be used as leitmotifs in ''Attack of the Clones'' (2002) and ''Revenge of the Sith'' (2005). Most notable of these was "Duel of the Fates", an aggressive choral movement utilizing harsh Sanskrit lyrics that broadened the style of music used in the Star Wars films. Also of note was "Anakin's Theme", which begins as an innocent childlike melody and morphs insidiously into a quote of the sinister "Imperial March" of the prior trilogy. For ''Episode II,'' Williams composed "Across the Stars", a love theme for Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker (mirroring the love theme composed for the second film of the previous trilogy, ''The Empire Strikes Back''). The final installment combined many of the themes created for the series' previous movies, including "The Emperor's Theme", "The Imperial March", "Across the Stars", "Duel of the Fates", "The Force Theme", "Rebel Fanfare", "Luke's Theme", and "Princess Leia's Theme", as well as new themes for General Grievous and the film's climax, entitled "Battle of the Heroes." Few composers have scored an entire series of this magnitude: The combined scores of all six ''Star Wars'' films add up to more than 14 hours of orchestral music.

In the new millennium, Williams was asked to score the film adaptations of the widely successful book series, ''Harry Potter''. He went on to score the first three installments of the film franchise. As with his ''Superman'' theme, the most important theme from Williams's scores for the adaptations of J. K. Rowling's ''Harry Potter'' series, dubbed ''Hedwig's Theme'', has been used in the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth films (''Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'', ''Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'', ''Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'', ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1'' and ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2''), scored by Patrick Doyle, Nicholas Hooper and Alexandre Desplat respectively. Like the main themes from ''Star Wars'', ''Jaws'', ''Superman'', and ''Indiana Jones'', fans have come to identify the ''Harry Potter'' films with Williams's original compositions. Williams was asked to return to the film franchise to score the final installment, ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2'', but director David Yates stated that "their schedules simply did not align" as he would have had to provide Williams with a rough cut of the film sooner than was possible.

In 2006, ''Superman Returns'' was completed under the direction of Bryan Singer, best known for directing the first two movies in the ''X-Men'' series. Although Singer did not request Williams to compose a score for the intentionally Donner-esque film, he employed the skills of ''X2'' composer John Ottman to incorporate Williams's original ''Superman'' theme, as well as those for Lois Lane and Smallville. Don Davis performed a similar role for ''Jurassic Park III'', recommended to the producers by Williams himself. (Film scores by Ottman and to a lesser extent Davis are often compared to those of Williams, as both use similar styles of composition.)

In 2008, Williams returned to the ''Indiana Jones'' series to score the fourth film—''The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull''. He received a Grammy nomination for his work on the film. During 2008, he also composed music for two documentaries, ''Warner at War'', and ''A Timeless Call'', the latter of which was directed by Steven Spielberg.

Williams also composed the score to ''The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn,'' the first film in the upcoming ''Tintin'' trilogy based on the comics by Hergé. This film continues his long-time collaboration with director Steven Spielberg, and he will work with producer Peter Jackson for the first time. The film is currently in post production. Williams is also scheduled to score Spielberg's upcoming films ''War Horse'' (2011) and ''Lincoln'' (2012).

Conducting and performing

From 1980 to 1993, Williams succeeded Arthur Fiedler as Principal Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra. Williams never met Fiedler in person but spoke with him by telephone. His arrival as the new leader of the Pops in the spring of 1980 allowed him to devote part of the Pops' first PBS broadcast of the season to presenting his new compositions for ''The Empire Strikes Back,'' in addition to conducting many Fiedler audience favorites.

Williams almost ended his tenure with the Pops in 1984. Considered a customary practice of opinion, some players hissed while sight-reading a new Williams composition in rehearsal; Williams abruptly left the session and turned in his resignation. He initially cited mounting conflicts with his film composing schedule, but later admitted a perceived lack of discipline in and respect from the Pops' ranks, culminating in this latest instance. After entreaties by the management and personal apologies from the musicians, Williams withdrew his resignation and continued as principal conductor for nine more years. In 1995 he was succeeded by Keith Lockhart, the former associate conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops Orchestra.

Williams is now the Laureate Conductor of the Pops, thus maintaining his affiliation with its parent, the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO). Williams leads the Pops on several occasions each year, particularly during their Holiday Pops season and typically for a week of concerts in May. He conducts an annual Film Night at both Boston Symphony Hall and Tanglewood, where he frequently enlists the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, official chorus of the BSO.

Williams has written many concert pieces, including a symphony; a Concerto for Horn written for Dale Clevenger, principal hornist of the Chicago Symphony; a Concerto for Clarinet written for Michele Zukovsky (Principal Clarinetist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic) in 1991; a sinfonietta for wind ensemble; a cello concerto premiered by Yo-Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood in 1994; concertos for the flute and violin recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra; and a trumpet concerto, which was premiered by the Cleveland Orchestra and their principal trumpet Michael Sachs in September 1996. His bassoon concerto, "The Five Sacred Trees", which was premiered by the New York Philharmonic and principal bassoon player Judith LeClair in 1995, was recorded for Sony Classical by Williams with LeClair and the London Symphony Orchestra. He is also an accomplished pianist, as can be heard in various scores in which he provides solos, as well as a handful of European classical music recordings.

Williams was the subject of an hour-long documentary for the BBC in 1980, and was featured in a story for ABC's newsmagazine 20/20 in 1983.

In 1985, Williams was commissioned by NBC to compose a television news music package for various network news spots. The package, which Williams named "The Mission", consists of four movements, two of which are still used heavily by NBC today for ''The Today Show'', ''NBC Nightly News'', and ''Meet the Press''. Williams also composed the "Liberty Fanfare" for the rededication of the Statue of Liberty, "We're Lookin' Good!" for the Special Olympics in celebration of the 1987 International Summer Games, and themes for the 1984, 1988, 1996, and 2002 Olympic games. His most recent concert work, "Seven for Luck", for soprano and orchestra, is a seven-piece song cycle based on the texts of former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove. "Seven for Luck" was given its world premiere by the Boston Symphony under Williams with soprano Cynthia Haymon.

Williams makes annual appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, and took part as conductor and composer in the orchestra's opening gala concerts for the Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2003.

In April 2005, Williams and the Boston Pops performed "The Force Theme" from ''Star Wars'' at opening day in Fenway Park as the Boston Red Sox, having won their first World Series championship since 1918, received their championship rings. For Game 1 of the 2007 World Series, Williams conducted a brass-and-drum ensemble through a new dissonant arrangement of the "Star Spangled Banner."

In April 2004, February 2006, and September 2007, he conducted the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City. The initial program was intended to be a one-time special event, and featured Williams's medley of Oscar-winning film scores first performed at the previous year's Academy Awards. Its unprecedented popularity led to two concerts in 2006: fundraising gala events featuring personal recollections by film directors Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg. Continuing demand fueled three more concerts in 2007, which all sold out. These featured a tribute to the musicals of film director Stanley Donen, and had the distinction of serving as the opening event of the New York Philharmonic season. After a four-season absence, Williams is scheduled to conduct the Philharmonic once again in October 2011.

Notable compositions

Film scores

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The following list consists of select films for which John Williams wrote the score and/or songs.

2010s

''Lincoln'' (2012)

''War Horse'' (2011)

''The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn'' (2011)

''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2'' (2011) Music composed by Alexandre Desplat. The cues "Leaving Hogwarts" and "Hedwig's Theme" were used from ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'', and another variant of "Hedwig's Theme" was used from ''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets''

2000s

''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'' (2008) At the 51st Grammy Awards, John Williams won an award for the Mutt Williams theme

''Munich'' (2005) Oscar nomination, Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition; and Grammy nomination for Best Score Soundtrack Album

''Memoirs of a Geisha'' (2005) Oscar Nomination, Grammy, Golden Globe, and BAFTA winner

''War of the Worlds'' (2005) Grammy nomination

''Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith'' (2005) double Grammy nominations

''The Terminal'' (2004)

''Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'' (2004) Grammy and Oscar nominations (soundtrack)

''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'' (2002) Grammy nomination/Adapted and conducted by William Ross

''Minority Report'' (2002)

''Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones'' (2002)

''Catch Me if You Can'' (2002) Oscar nomination

''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' (2001) Oscar nomination and double Grammy nominations

''A.I.: Artificial Intelligence'' (2001) Grammy and Oscar nominations

''The Patriot'' (2000) Oscar nomination

1990s

''Angela's Ashes'' (1999) Grammy and Oscar nomination

''Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace'' (1999) Grammy nomination

''Saving Private Ryan'' (1998) Golden Globe, Grammy, and Oscar nominations

''Stepmom'' (1998)

''Amistad'' (1997) Grammy and Oscar nominations

''Seven Years in Tibet'' (1997)

''The Lost World: Jurassic Park'' (1997)

''Rosewood'' (1997)

''Sleepers'' (1996) Oscar nomination

''Sabrina'' (1995) double Oscar nominations

''Nixon'' (1995) Oscar nomination

''Schindler's List'' (1993) Oscar, Grammy, and BAFTA winner

''Jurassic Park'' (1993)

''Far and Away'' (1992)

''Home Alone 2: Lost in New York'' (1992)

''JFK'' (1991) Oscar nomination

''Hook'' (1991) Grammy and Oscar nominations

''Home Alone'' (1990) double Oscar nominations

''Presumed Innocent'' (1990)

''Stanley & Iris'' (1990)

1980s

''Always'' (1989)

''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' (1989) Oscar nomination

''Born on the Fourth of July'' (1989) Oscar nomination

''The Accidental Tourist'' (1988) Oscar nomination

''The Witches of Eastwick'' (1987) Oscar nomination

''Superman IV: The Quest for Peace'' (1987) Adapted and conducted by Alexander Courage

''Empire of the Sun'' (1987) Oscar nomination, BAFTA winner

''SpaceCamp'' (1986)

''The River'' (1984) Oscar nomination

''Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'' (1984) Oscar nomination

''Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi'' (1983) Oscar nomination

''Monsignor'' (1982)

''Yes, Giorgio'' (1982) Song only – "If We Were In Love" Oscar and Golden Globe nomination

''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (1982) Golden Globe, Oscar, and BAFTA winner (soundtrack)

''Heartbeeps'' (1981)

''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' (1981) Oscar and double Grammy nominations

''Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980) Oscar and double Grammy nominations, BAFTA winner

1970s

''Dracula'' (1979)

''1941'' (1979)

''Superman'' (1978) Oscar nomination and double Grammy nominations

''The Fury'' (1978)

''Jaws 2'' (1978)

''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' (1977) Oscar nomination

''Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope'' (1977) Oscar, Golden Globe & BAFTA winner

''Black Sunday'' (1977)

''The Missouri Breaks'' (1976)

''Midway'' (1976)

''Family Plot'' (1976)

''The Eiger Sanction'' (1975)

''Jaws'' (1975) Golden Globe, BAFTA and Oscar winner

''The Sugarland Express'' (1974)

''Earthquake'' (1974)

''The Towering Inferno'' (1974) Oscar nomination

''Tom Sawyer'' (1973) Oscar nomination shared with Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman

''The Paper Chase'' (1973)

''The Long Goodbye'' (1973), also title song.

''Cinderella Liberty'' (1973) Oscar nomination

''The Cowboys'' (1972)

''The Poseidon Adventure'' (1972) Oscar nomination

''Images'' (1972) Oscar nomination

''Fiddler on the Roof'' (1971) Oscar winner (score adaptation)

''Jane Eyre'' (1970)

''Storia di una donna'' (1970) His only score written for a foreign movie

1960s

''Goodbye, Mr. Chips'' (1969) Oscar nomination

''The Reivers'' (1969) Oscar nomination

''Heidi'' (1968)

''Fitzwilly'' (1967)

''A Guide for the Married Man'' (1967)

''Valley of the Dolls'' (1967) Oscar nomination (songs written by André and Dory Previn)

''John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!'' (1965)

''The Rare Breed'' (1966)

''How to Steal a Million'' (1966)

''None But the Brave'' (1965)

''The Killers'' (1964)

''Gidget Goes to Rome'' (1963)

''Diamond Head'' (1963)

''Bachelor Flat'' (1962)

''The Secret Ways'' (1961)

''I Passed for White'' (1960)

''Because They're Young'' (1960)

1950s

''Daddy-O'' (1958)

The Olympics

Williams has composed music for four Olympic Games:

"Olympic Fanfare and Theme" – 1984 Summer Olympics, Los Angeles

* Written specifically for the opening ceremonies. In a 1996 re-release, the opening trumpet fanfare was replaced with "Bugler's Dream", a previous Olympic Theme written by Leo Arnaud. This recording has been used as the theme for NBC's Olympic coverage ever since.

"The Olympic Spirit" – 1988 Summer Olympics, Seoul

* Commissioned by NBC Sports for their television coverage

"Summon the Heroes" – 1996 Summer Olympics, Atlanta, Georgia

* Written in commemoration of the Centennial of the Modern Olympic Games. Premiering on July 19, 1996, the piece features heavy use of the brass and wind sections and is approximately six minutes in length. Principal Boston Pops trumpeter Timothy Morrison played the opening solo on the album recording. It has been arranged for various types of ensembles, including wind ensembles. This theme is now used prevalently by NBC for intros and outros to commercial breaks of the Olympics.

"Call of the Champions" – 2002 Winter Olympics, Salt Lake City, Utah

Television themes

For NBC (United States):

* ''NBC News''—"The Mission"

** ''NBC Nightly News''

** ''The Today Show''

** ''Meet the Press''

''NBC Sunday Night Football''

''Amazing Stories''

''Checkmate (TV series)''

''Land of the Giants''

''Lost in Space''

''The Time Tunnel''

Theme for ''Great Performances''

Score for ''Gilligan's Island'' (first season)

Concerti

"Concerto for Flute and Orchestra" (1969), premiered in 1981 by the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin

"Concerto No. 1 for Violin and Orchestra" (1976 rev. 1998), premiered in 1981 by the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra under Slatkin

"Concerto for Tuba and Orchestra" (1985), premiered by the tubist Chester Schmitz of the Boston Pops for their 100th anniversary

"Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra" (1991), recorded by Michele Zukovsky for whom it was written

"Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra (The Five Sacred Trees)" (1993), recorded by Judith LeClaire with the London Symphony Orchestra

"Concerto for Cello and Orchestra" (1994)

"Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra" (1996)

"Elegy for Cello and Piano" (1997), later arranged for Cello and Orchestra (2002). Based on a theme from ''Seven Years in Tibet''

"TreeSong, Concerto No. 2 for Violin and Orchestra" (2000)

"Heartwood: Lyric Sketches for Cello and Orchestra" (2002)

"Concerto for Horn and Orchestra" (2003). Premiered with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in November 2003

"Duo Concertante for Violin and Viola" (2007). Premiered at Tanglewood in August 2007

"Concerto for Viola and Orchestra" (2009)

"Concerto for Harp and Orchestra: On Willows and Birches" (2009)

"Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra" (2011)

"La Jolla Quartet: A Chamber Piece for Violin, Cello, Clarinet, and Harp" (2011). Premieres August 2011 at the La Jolla Music Society's SummerFest (Also has worked with Yo Yo Ma)

Celebration pieces and other concert works

"Prelude and Fugue for Orchestra" (1965). Available for download in MP3 at the United States Marine Band website.

"Symphony #1" (1966), premiered by Houston Symphony under André Previn in 1968. Williams reworked the piece in 1988 (performed by San Francisco Symphony during a visit as guest conductor in early 1990s)

''Thomas and The King'' (musical, 1975), premiered in London. Recorded in 1981 by the Original Cast.

"Jubilee 350 Fanfare" (1980), premiered by the Boston Pops conducted by Williams. Piece celebrating the 350th anniversary of the City of Boston

"Liberty Fanfare" (1986), premiered on July 4, 1986 by the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra. Piece composed for the Centennial of the Statue of Liberty

"A Hymn to New England" (1987)

"Fanfare for Michael Dukakis" (1988). Composed for Michael Dukakis' presidential campaign and premiered at the 1988 Democratic National Convention

"For New York" (Variations on theme by Leonard Bernstein) (1988). Composed for Leonard Bernstein's 70th birthday celebrations

"Celebrate Discovery" (1990). Composed for the 500th anniversary celebration of the arrival of Columbus in America

"Sound the Bells!" (1993)

"Song for World Peace" (1994)

"Variations on Happy Birthday" (1995)

"American Journey" (1999). Portions premiered as accompaniment to a film by Steven Spielberg as part of the Millennium Celebration in Washington D.C. December 31, 1999

"Three Pieces for Solo Cello" (2001)

"Soundings" (2003), composed for the Walt Disney Concert Hall

"Star Spangled Banner" (2007), special arrangement for game 1 of the 2007 World Series played by the Boston Pops Orchestra

"A Timeless Call" (2008). Score to the Steven Spielberg war veteran tribute film shown on day 3 of the 2008 Democratic National Convention

"Air and Simple Gifts", performed by Itzhak Perlman on violin, Yo-Yo Ma on cello, Gabriela Montero on piano, and Anthony McGill on clarinet. Composed for the Barack Obama 2009 presidential inauguration

chamber music piece for the La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest in California

Awards

John Williams has won five Academy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. He has been nominated for 21 Golden Globes and 59 Grammys. With 45 Oscar nominations, Williams currently holds the record for the most Oscar nominations for a living person, and is the second most nominated person in the history of the Academy Awards, tied with late fellow film composer Alfred Newman and behind only Walt Disney's 59. Forty of Williams' Oscar nominations are for Best Original Music Score and five are for Best Original Song. He won four Oscars for Best Original Score and one for Best Adapted Score ''(Fiddler on the Roof).''

Williams has received three Emmy Awards and five nominations, six BAFTAs, twenty-one Grammy Awards, and has been inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame and the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame. In 2004 he received a Kennedy Center Honor. He won a Classical Brit award in 2005 for his soundtrack work of the previous year.

Notably, Williams has won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition for his scores for ''Star Wars'', ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'', ''Superman'', ''The Empire Strikes Back'', ''E.T. The Extraterrestrial'', ''Angela's Ashes'' (1999), ''Munich'' (2005), and ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.'' The competition includes not only composers of film scores, but also composers of instrumental music of any genre, including composers of classical fare such as symphonies and chamber music.

In 2003, the International Olympic Committee accorded Mr. Williams its highest individual honor, the Olympic Order.

In 2010, Williams received the National Medal of Arts in the White House in Washington for his achievements in symphonic music for motion pictures, and "as a pre-eminent composer and conductor [whose] scores have defined and inspired modern movie-going for decades."

AFI

Williams's richly thematic and highly popular 1977 score to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope was selected in 2005 by the American Film Institute as the greatest American movie score of all time. His scores for ''Jaws'' and ''E.T.'' also appeared on the list, at No. 6 and #14, respectively. Other Williams scores for the following films were nominated for the list:

''A.I. Artificial Intelligence'' (2001)

''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' (1977)

''The Cowboys'' (1972)

''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' (2001)

''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' (1981)

''Schindler's List'' (1993)

''Superman'' (1978)

''The Witches of Eastwick'' (1987)

Academy Awards

|- | 1967 | ''Valley of the Dolls'' | Best Score Adaptation | |- | rowspan=2 | 1969 | ''Goodbye, Mr Chips'' | Best Score Adaptation | |- | ''The Reivers'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1971 | ''Fiddler on the Roof'' | Best Scoring Adaptation and Original Song Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 1972 | ''Images'' | Best Original Dramatic Score | |- | ''The Poseidon Adventure'' | Best Original Dramatic Score | |- | rowspan=3 | 1973 | ''Cinderella Liberty'' | Best Original Dramatic Score | |- | "Nice to Be Around" (from ''Cinderella Liberty'') | Best Original Song | |- | ''Tom Sawyer'' | Best Score Adaptation | |- | 1974 | ''The Towering Inferno'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1975 | ''Jaws'' | Best Original Dramatic Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 1977 | ''Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope'' | Best Original Score | |- | ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1978 | ''Superman'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1980 | ''Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1981 | ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 1982 | ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' | Best Original Score | |- | "If We Were in Love" (from ''Yes, Giorgio'') | Best Original Song | |- | 1983 | ''Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi'' | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 1984 | ''Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'' | Best Original Score | |- | ''The River'' | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 1987 | ''Empire of the Sun'' | Best Original Score | |- | ''The Witches of Eastwick'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1988 | ''The Accidental Tourist'' | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 1989 | ''Born on the Fourth of July'' | Best Original Score | |- | ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 1990 | ''Home Alone'' | Best Original Score | |- | "Somewhere in My Memory" (from ''Home Alone'') | Best Original Song | |- | rowspan=2 | 1991 | ''JFK'' | Best Original Score | |- | "When You're Alone" (from ''Hook'') | Best Original Song | |- | 1993 | ''Schindler's List'' | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=3 | 1995 | ''Nixon'' | Best Original Dramatic Score | |- | ''Sabrina'' | Best Original Musical or Comedy Score | |- | "Moonlight" (from ''Sabrina'') | Best Original Song | |- | 1996 | ''Sleepers'' | Best Original Dramatic Score | |- | 1997 | ''Amistad'' | Best Original Dramatic Score | |- | 1998 | ''Saving Private Ryan'' | Best Original Dramatic Score | |- | 1999 | ''Angela's Ashes'' | Best Original Score | |- | 2000 | ''The Patriot'' | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 2001 | ''A.I. Artificial Intelligence'' | Best Original Score | |- | ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' | Best Original Score | |- | 2002 | ''Catch Me If You Can'' | Best Original Score | |- | 2004 | ''Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'' | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 2005 | ''Memoirs of a Geisha'' | Best Original Score | |- | ''Munich'' | Best Original Score |

BAFTA Awards

|- | 1975 | ''Jaws'' | Best Film Music | |- | rowspan=2 | 1978 | ''Star Wars'' | Best Film Music | |- | ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' | Best Film Music | |- | 1980 | ''Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back'' | Best Film Music | |- | 1981 | ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' | Best Film Music | |- | 1982 | ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' | Best Film Music | |- | 1988 | ''Empire of the Sun'' | Best Film Music | |- | 1993 | ''Schindler's List'' | Best Film Music | |- | 1998 | ''Saving Private Ryan'' | Best Film Music | |- | 2002 | ''Catch Me If You Can'' | Best Film Music | |- | 2005 | ''Memoirs of a Geisha'' | Best Film Music |

Emmy Awards

|- | 1962 | ''Alcoa Premiere'' | Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composed for Television | |- | 1963 | ''Alcoa Premiere'' | Outstanding Achievement in Composing Original Music | |- | 1968 | ''Heidi'' | Outstanding Achievement in Musical Composition | |- | 1971 | ''Jane Eyre'' | Outstanding Achievement in Musical Composition | |- | 2002 | The 74th Academy Awards | Outstanding Music Direction | |- | 2009 | ''Great Performances'' | Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music |

Golden Globe Awards

|- | 1973 | ''The Poseidon Adventure'' | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 1974 | ''Cinderella Liberty'' | Best Original Score | |- | ''Tom Sawyer'' (with Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman) | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 1975 | ''Earthquake'' | Best Original Score | |- | ''Jaws'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1977 | ''Star Wars'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1978 | ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1979 | ''Superman'' | Best Original Score | |- | | 1981 | ''Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1982 | ''E.T.'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1983 | "If We Were In Love" (with Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman) from ''Yes, Giorgio'' | Best Original Song | |- | 1985 | ''The River'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1988 | ''Empire of the Sun'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1989 | ''The Accidental Tourist'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1990 | ''Born on the Fourth of July'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1994 | ''Schindler's List'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1996 | "Moonlight" (with Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman) from ''Sabrina'' | Best Original Song | |- | 1998 | ''Seven Years in Tibet'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1999 | ''Saving Private Ryan'' | Best Original Score | |- | 2000 | ''Angela's Ashes'' | Best Original Score | |- | 2002 | ''Artificial Intelligence: AI'' | Best Original Score | |- | 2005 | ''Memoirs of a Geisha'' | Best Original Score |

Grammy awards

The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States.

|- | 1962 | ''Checkmate'' | Best Soundtrack Album or Recording or Score from Motion Picture or Television | |- | 1975 | ''Jaws'' | Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture | |- | rowspan=3 | 1977 | ''Star Wars'' | Best Pop Instrumental Performance | |- | "Main Title" from ''Star Wars'' | Best Instrumental Composition | |- | ''Star Wars'' | Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture | |- | rowspan=2 | 1978 | "Theme" from ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' | Best Instrumental Composition | |- | ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' | Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture | |- | rowspan=2 | 1979 | "Main Title Theme from Superman" | Best Instrumental Composition | |- | ''Superman'' | Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture | |- | rowspan=2 | 1980 | ''Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back'' | Best Instrumental Composition | |- | ''Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back'' | Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture | |- | 1981 | ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' | Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture | |- | rowspan=3 | 1982 | "Flying" (Theme from ''E.T.'') | Best Instrumental Composition | |- | ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' | Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture | |- | "Flying" (Theme from ''E.T.'') | Best Arrangement on an Instrumental Recording | |- | rowspan=2 | 1984 | ''Olympic Fanfare and Theme'' | Best Instrumental Composition | |- | ''Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | 1988 | ''The Witches of Eastwick'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | 1989 | ''Empire of the Sun'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | 1990 | ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | 1992 | "Somewhere in My Memory" (with Leslie Bricusse) from ''Home Alone'' | Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | rowspan=2 | 1993 | ''Schindler's List'' | Instrumental Composition for a Motion Picture or Television | |- | ''Hook'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | 1994 | ''Jurassic Park'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | 1997 | "Moonlight" (with Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman) from ''Sabrina'' | Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | rowspan=2 | 1998 | ''Seven Years in Tibet'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | ''The Lost World: Jurassic Park'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | rowspan=2 | 1999 | ''Saving Private Ryan'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | ''Amistad'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | rowspan=2 | 2000 | "Theme" from ''Angela's Ashes'' | Best Instrumental Composition | |- | ''Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | |- | 2002 | ''Artificial Intelligence: A.I.'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | |- | 2003 | ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | |- | rowspan=2 | 2004 | ''Catch Me If You Can'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | |- | ''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | |- | 2005 | ''Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | |- | 2006 | ''Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | |- | rowspan=3 | 2007 | ''Memoirs of a Geisha'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | |- | ''Munich'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | |- | "A Prayer For Peace" (Theme from ''Munich'') | Best Instrumental Composition | |- | rowspan=2 | 2009 | "The Adventures of Mutt" from ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'' | Best Instrumental Composition | |- | ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media |

See also

Star Wars music

Superman music

Harry Potter music

References

Further reading

External links

John Williams Fan Network

Music by John Williams

The John Towner Touch (1957) (First solo album)

The John Williams Web Pages

Hollywood Bowl's Hall of Fame

John Williams Music Network

John Williams at Soundtrackguide.net

John Williams on SoundtrackNet

John Williams Discography at SoundtrackCollector.com

The John Williams Collection

John Williams Sheet Music and Scores

Timelines John Williams (Article Part 1 of 6) Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6

Critical review of Williams's career by Anthony Tommasini at New York Times (2005)

John Williams Fan Site (Chinese language)

John Williams on Pandora

Category:1932 births Category:People from Queens Category:20th-century classical composers Category:21st-century classical composers Category:American film score composers Category:American music arrangers Category:Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners Category:BRIT Award winners Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Harry Potter music Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music Category:Juilliard School alumni Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Living people Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:United States Air Force personnel Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients

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