John Williams: music for films, television, and the concert stage

Abstract

This volume is a large exploration of the many sides of Williams’s output. Once mostly considered a commercial composer and a mere rewriter of previous composers’ styles, only recently Williams’ music has begun to be taken seriously, and scholars from the music and the film departments have begun to produce research. The present volume seeks to build upon, complement and review what has been written so far on Williams. It is a large exploration of the many sides of Williams’s output, aimed at showing the range of his production (not merely focussing on film music) and at analysing the depth of his dramaturgic and compositional skills with selected case studies. To accomplish this exploration, a large team of international scholars has been assembled from all around the world. The contributors come from film, media and music departments - to provide a variety of disciplinary perspectives on Williams’s work