NEW YORK ā After more than six decades of making bicycles soar, sending panicked swimmers to the shore and other spellbinding close encounters, John Williams is putting the final notes on what may be his last film score.
āAt the moment Iām working on āIndiana Jones 5,ā which Harrison Ford ā whoās quite a bit younger than I am ā I think has announced will be his last film,ā Williams says. āSo, I thought: If Harrison can do it, then perhaps I can, also.ā
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Ford, for the record, hasnāt said that publicly. And Williams, who turned 90 in February, isnāt absolutely certain heās ready to, either.
āI donāt want to be seen as categorically eliminating any activity,ā Williams says with a chuckle, speaking by phone from his home in Los Angeles. āI canāt play tennis, but I like to be able to believe that maybe one day I will.ā
Right now, though, there are other ways Williams wants to be spending his time. A āStar Warsā film demands six months of work, which he notes, āat this point in life is a long commitment to me.ā Instead, Williams is devoting himself to composing concert music, including a piano concerto heās writing for Emanuel Ax.
This spring, Williams and cellist Yo-Yo Ma released the album āA Gathering of Friends,ā recorded with the New York Philharmonic, Pablo SĆ”inz-Villegas and Jessica Zhou. Itās a radiant collection of cello concertos and new arrangements from the scores of āSchindlerās List,ā āLincolnā and āMunich,ā including the sublime āA Prayer for Peace.ā
Turning 90 ā an event that the Kennedy Center and Tanglewood are celebrating this summer with birthday concerts ā has caused Williams to reflect on his accomplishments, his remaining ambitions and what a lifetime of music has meant to him.
āItās given me the ability to breathe, the ability to live and understand that thereās more to corporal life," Williams says. "Without being religious, which Iām not especially, there is a spiritual life, an artistic life, a realm thatās above the mundanities of everyday realities. Music can raise oneās thinking to the level of poetry. We can reflect on how necessary music has been for humanity. I always like to speculate that music is older than language, that we were probably beating drums and blowing on reeds before we could speak. So itās an essential part of our humanity.
āItās given me my life."
And, in turn, Williams has provided the soundtrack to the lives of countless others through more than 100 film scores, among them āStar Wars,āāJurassic Park,ā āJaws,ā āClose Encounters of the Third Kind,ā āE.T.,ā āIndiana Jones,āāSuperman,ā āSchindlerās Listā and ā Harry Potter.ā
āHeās lived through the better part of a century, and his music encompasses all of the events and changes of those times,ā says Ma, a longtime friend. āHe is one of the great American voices.ā
Itās an amount of accomplishment thatās hard to quantify. Five Oscars and 52 Academy Award nominations, a number bested only by Walt Disney, is one measurement. But even that hardly hints at the cultural power of his music. A billion people might be able to instantly hum Williamsā two-note ostinato from āJawsā or āThe Imperial Marchā from āStar Wars.ā
āIām told that the music is played all over the world. What could be more rewarding than that?ā says Williams. āBut I have to say it seems unreal. I can only see whatās in front of me at the piano right at this moment, and do my best with that.ā
Williams has a warm, humble, courteous manner despite his stature. He began an interview by offering: āLet me see if I can give you anything that might be useful.ā All those indelible, perfectly constructed themes, he believes, are the product less of divine inspiration than daily hard work. Williams does most of his work sitting for hours at a time at his Steinway, composing in pencil.
āItās like cutting a stone at your desk,ā he says. āMy younger colleagues are much faster than I am because they have electronic equipment and computers and synthesizers and so on.ā
When Williams began (his first feature film score was 1958's āDaddy-Oā), the cinematic tradition of grand, orchestral scores was beginning to lose out to pop soundtracks. Now, many are gravitating toward synthesized music for film. Increasingly, Williams has the aura of a venerated old master who bridges distant eras of film and music.
āRecording with the New York Philharmonic, the whole orchestra to a person were awestruck by this gentleman at now 90 who hears everything, is unfailingly kind, gentle, polite. People just wanted to play for him,ā says Ma. āThey were floored by the musicianship of this man.ā
This late chapter in Williams' career is in some ways a chance to place his mammoth legacy not just in connection with cinema but among the classical legends. Williams, who led the Boston Pops from 1980 to 1993, has conducted the Berlin, Vienna and New York philharmonics, among others. In the world's elite orchestras, Williams' compositions have passed into canon.
āA purist may say that music represented in film is not absolute music. Well, that may be true,ā says Williams. āBut some of the greatest music ever written has been narrative. Certainly in opera. Film offers that opportunity ā not often but occasionally it does. And in a rewarding way musically. Occasionally we get lucky and we find one.ā
Williams' enduring partnership with Steven Spielberg has, of course, helped the composer's odds. Spielberg, who first sought out a lunch with Williams in 1972 after being captivated by his score to āThe Reivers,ā has called him "the single most significant contributor to my success as a filmmaker.ā
āWithout John Williams, bikes donāt really fly," Spielberg said when the AFI honored Williams in 2016.
They remain irrevocably linked. Their offices on the Universal lot are just steps from one another. Along with āIndiana Jones,ā Williams recently scored Spielberg's upcoming semi-autobiographical drama about growing up in Arizona, āThe Fabelmans." The two movies make it 30 films together for Spielberg and Williams.
āItās been 50 years now. Maybe weāre starting on the next 50,ā says Williams with a laugh. āWhatever our connections will be, whether itās music or working with him or just being with him, I think we will always be together. Weāre great, close friends who have shared many years together. Itās the kind of relationship where neither one of us would ever say no to the other.ā
In Spielberg's films and others, Williams has carved out enough perfectly condensed melodies to rival the Beatles. Spielberg once described his five-note āCommunication Motifā from āClose Encountersā as āa doorbell.ā
āSimple little themes that speak clearly and without obfuscation are very hard to find and very hard to do,ā says Williams. āThey really are the result of a lot of work. Itās almost like chiseling. Move one note, change a rhythmic emphasis or the direction of an interval and so on. A simple tune can be done in dozens of ways. If you find one that, it seems like you discovered something that wanted to be uncovered.ā
One thing you won't hear from Williams is a grand pronouncement about his own legacy. He's much more comfortable talking like a technician who tinkers until a gleaming gem falls out.
āMy own personality is such that I look at what Iāve done ā Iām quite pleased and proud of a lot of it ā but like most of us, we always wish we might have done better,ā he says. āWe live with examples like Beethoven and Bach before us, monumental achievements people have made in music, and can feel very humbled. But I also feel very fortunate. Iāve had wonderful opportunities, particularly in film where a composer can have an audience of not millions of people, but billions of people.ā
Williams has a number of concerts planned for the rest of the year, including performances in Los Angeles, Singapore and Lisbon. But while Williams may be stepping away from film, he remains enchanted by cinema, and the ability of sound and image, when combined, to achieve liftoff.
"Iād love to be around in 100 years to see what people are doing with film and sound and spatial, aural and visual effects. It has a tremendous future, I think," says Williams. āI can sense great possibility and great future in the atmospherics of the whole experience. Iād love to come back and see and hear it all.ā
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Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP