This week I wanted to take a break from politics and write about art, namely some of my favorite music. I started on the 16th of July and wrote quite a bit, but hopefully it makes for an okay read.
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John Williams and Steven Spielberg have had a collaboration like no other, coming up on their 29th feature film with the release of the Fabelmans (2022). Naturally, the composer/director duo have released a few albums highlighting this partnership– three to be exact.
The first was aptly named “The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration” (1990) and was followed up by “Williams on Williams: The Classic Spielberg Scores” (1993) and “The Spielberg/Williams Collaboraiton Part III” (2017) while also being complied into a complete volume titled “The Ultimate Collection” (2017).
Examining the concert works of Williams is involved enough, so having such a bountiful collection of pieces recorded by the Maestro himself makes for an enlightening library of insight into how Williams chooses to represent which films. Yet, these collaborations are not without their quirks or mysteries that make for a fascinating study.
Part I: “The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration” (1990) performed by the Boston Pops
The first album released is seemingly without trivialization. A celebration marking the first ten films Williams and Spielberg have collaborated on, there isn’t much left out of this track list.
For the initial three Indiana Jones films, you get the “Raiders March”, “Parade of the Slave Children”, and “Scherzo”– all prominent themes for their respective flicks. Both of the concert works for Jaws are included, being the “Title Theme” and “Out to Sea/Shark Cage Fugue”; the debut of two concert works for Empire of the Sun being “Cadillac of the Skies” and “Exsultalte Justi” greatly expand on tracks from the film album; the titular “March” from 1941 rouses delightfully for those who have not seen the movie; there’s even a “title theme” written for the obscure film Always compiled from three album cues.
The collaboration goes as far back as Spielberg’s first feature The Sugarland Express, with legendary harmonica player Toots Thielsman returning to record the “title theme”; and closes out with the full “Main Theme/When You Wish Upon A Star” from Close Encounters of the Third Kind— a rare presentation of the otherwise shortened “Excerpts” Williams performs at most concerts.
There is one prominent theme missing from this collaboration though– the “Flying Theme” from E.T. Rather, Williams opted to have the Oscar-winning score represented by “Over the Moon”, a small accompanied piano concerto, and the “Adventures on Earth” suite. Perhaps due to an album only being able to feature so many songs, Williams felt “Adventures on Earth” sufficiently featured the iconic flying motif enough for listeners to enjoy, but it does seem odd to have left the theme out.
While this first collaboration seemed to cover all bases, there are still a few other minor holes to be found. The track “One Barrel Chase” from Jaws seems to be a concert piece due to its conclusive ending, something we’ll return to later. Temple of Doom features a track called “Short Round’s Theme” which is in actuality a combination of two film cues– but considering that “Always: Title Theme” and “Cadillac of the Skies” (Toy Planes/Cadillac of the Skies) are also constructed this way, it doesn’t seem fair to rule it out for this reason. There’s also the “Swing, Swing, Swing” jazz piece form 1941 that Williams had recorded with the Boston Pops five years prior. Perhaps this piece being a homage to “Sing, Sing, Sing” might have shielded it from being featured, but 1941’s score is no stranger to referencing other music including Williams’ own) and Close Encounters already quotes Pinocchio’s score, so it was again more than likely due to space.
Then there’s E.T again, which has other suites– notably “Abandoned and Pursued” and “E.T. and Me”. Given that the 1982 album was already concert suite heavy, Williams likely chose the two pieces that he felt represented the film best while “Flying” and the other two aforementioned songs were kept for now.
Again, there isn’t much to talk about in regards to this first collaboration, but it’s still the groundwork for what’s to come.
Part II: “Williams on Williams: The Classic Spielberg Scores” performed by the Boston Pops (1993)
Okay, this is it. The real meat and potatoes, the entire reason I wanted to write this short essay.
This second album is a weird duck. It was released only three years after the first and only three movies later compared to the initial records’ ten. So as you might expect, there wasn’t a lot of new material.
The three new films were Hook, Jurassic Park, and Schindler’s List— all of which were very popular scores and the lattermost being another Oscar win for Williams.
So how was it constructed? Well, it’s Hook-heavy. It’s rare to have an entire suite from a film presented in one album, but that’s precisely what we got. All five movements were included– “The Flight to Neverland”, “Smee’s Plan”, “The Lost Boys Ballet”, “The Face of Pan”, and “The Banquet Scene”. This makes the playlist at times feel like you’re doing a dedicated listening to the 1991 film, particularly toward the end when the last three movements start to bunch up.
But again, it’s justifiable given that there were only three new films and the music is certainly fantastic to listen to. Including all of the concert works for these added scores was a great way to build a new album, right?
Well, you would think. Because when it comes to Schindler’s List, the Maestro actually took away one of the concert suites. Schindler’s List comes in three movements for violin and orchestra– “Theme”, “Jewish Town/Krakow Ghetto ‘41”, and “Remembrances”. However, only the first and last of these pieces were included on the album, which might make sense if there were more new films to go alongside with it. So while Hook gets all of its movements, Schindler is missing a piece to complete the set.
Of course, there’s also the problem of Jurassic Park which only comes with one concert piece being the unforgettable “Theme”. So, Williams had to begin a process that would be the case for the remainder of the entire longplay.
You see, this album has fifteen slots and so far the new films only take up eight of them. So, Williams had to get inventive by turning to several album cues from films taken from the prior collection and modified them into concert pieces
Jurassic Park does get helped out through this method by adding the track “My Friend the Brachiosaurus” which adds an opening, bridge, and flute cadenza to the album track.
But in other cases, we got the “Basket Chase” from Raiders given a few concert structure tweaks, “Jim’s New Life” from Empire of the Sun and “The Dialogue” from Close Encounters virtually untouched but given concert endings, and “The Barrel Chase” from Jaws lifted straight from the album with no alterations made– and no, this isn’t the “One Barrel Chase” piece I mentioned earlier. Yes, despite there being a piece that already seemed to be in concert format, Williams instead went with a similar yet clearly album-only track for this collaboration.
I will say that “The Battle of Hollywood” from 1941 feels the most conventional of the new songs from older films as it pulls from a variety of cues and pieces them together in a way that feels more like a proper suite and less like a touch-up. It also prominently quotes the Irish folksong “The Rakes of Mallow” and even the Jaws theme at the end, more proof that referencing was never the issue.
There is of course one exception to this approach when it comes to padding the album with older films– that being the very first track in the playlist… the “Flying Theme” from E.T.! Finally, the iconic theme that got left out in the first record made it’s way!
But why wasn’t this the case for the others? I should state that this isn’t a criticism nor am I saying any of this is bad, the music is splendid to listen to all around and at least we can say we have more concert suites now than less. However, I am trying to point out the awkwardness of this album’s construction and how interesting it is to observe.
Williams essentially had to conjure new suites that didn’t exist before very quickly, so it’s understandable the approach he took. Technically, a majority of his suites are inspired by the album and film cues that came before it. But there’s a difference between say “Adventures on Earth” from E.T. where the Maestro greatly expands upon and rearranges the original cue to sculpts it to a concert format compared to most of the returning films on this album where it feels like a quick tack-on to pieces that were never intended for the stage.
Added with the decision to not include “Jewish Town” yet also include all of Hook and a bonus Jurassic track and you have an album that, while great to listen to in its own right and seemingly problem-less out of context, makes you wonder–
“Why didn’t they wait?”
After all, three years and three movies clearly wasn’t enough time to add a fully fleshed out album. What was the deal?
Well, it’s also important to note this was Williams’ final year as principal conductor of the Boston Pops it likely influenced this album’s early arrival.
And yet, Williams had conducted many albums with the Pops even after switching to laureate conductor and it’s not like he couldn’t use another orchestra if needed, so
Why didn’t they wait?
Part III “The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration Part III” performed by the Los Angeles Recording Arts Orchestra (2017)
Well, they waited…
For Part III, anyways. Fourteen movies and twenty-three years later, it was finally time to pick things up where the composer/director duo left off.
Kind of…. more on that in a second.
This album felt a little more like a return to form with great thanks to the many movies needed to be caught up on. In fact, space was actually quite limited, meaning that most films were only given one track to represent them which in a way made it feel more certain that you were getting the main concert suites.
The selections were nothing short of wonderful– “The Adventures of Mutt” from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, “The Duel” from The Adventures of Tintin, “Viktor’s Tale” from The Terminal, “A Prayer for Peace” from Munich, “Dartmoor 1912” from War Horse, “With Malice Towards None” from Lincoln, “A New Beginning” form Minority Report, a revised “Hymn to the Fallen” from Saving Private Ryan, “The BFG” from The BFG, and “Dry your Tears Afrika” from Amistad all crisply recorded here in Los Angeles.
In addition, all three movements from the “Escapades” of Catch Me if You Can were included, featuring an expanded second movement “Reflections” that earned the triptic a Grammy. An echo of the full inclusion of Hook on the previous album perhaps, but considerably shorter and placed all together instead of being spread apart.
Point is, the limited slots and numerous films meant we were getting mostly main themes and nothing that felt like additive content.
However, there are some tracks I haven’t mentioned that keep this album from being quirk free. Remember how I said this album was supposed to have picked up where the last one left off?
Well, it doesn’t.
You see, the first film chronologically featured on this album is intended to be Amistad which came out in 1997. However, there’s actually another film that came out right before it the same year– The Lost World.
And the Jurassic Park sequel isn’t the only movie left absent from this collaboration– A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) and War of the Worlds (2005) are also missing. This means that the supposed “ultimate collection” showcasing the entirety of the Spielberg/Williams collaboration has some significant holes in it.
So where did these films go?
Well, there are three tracks on the album that seem to have taken up their slots. The first is “Marion’s Theme” which actually comes from Raiders of the Lost Ark, technically making it the first film chronologically featured and not Amistad, right?
Well… yes and no. While the theme comes from the first Indiana Jones movie, the concert suite was not finalized until 2008 when it debuted as the second movement in the “Adventures of Indiana Jones” suite from Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. So really, this is a new piece Williams wanted to show off officially, which meant one slot had to be taken up.
The next one is perhaps a little more perplexing– “With Malice Toward None” from Lincoln. Wait, didn’t I already mention that? Well, I’m not referring to the trumpet concerto I previously listed, but rather an alternate. Yup, there are two versions of the same song on this album, with this one being the string elegy rendition. So not only does Lincoln double dip, but it’s not even a different piece like “Get Out the Vote” or “The People’s House”. It’s the same song.
Well okay, that’s oversimplfying. Both versions are actually quite different from each other, but given the limited space on the album, you would think Williams would pick one over the other. Evidently, he did not and decided both were too good not to include– and to be fair, they are both some of my favorite concert works of his from the 2010s, so an argument could be made in favor for this sequencing. Still, it just feels a little more unfair when trying to think inclusively about which songs to use.
Lastly is a rather special case– “Immigration and Building” from The Unfinished Journey. If you haven’t heard of this before, it’s because it is not a feature film but rather a commissioned work by the Clinton administration for the turn of the century. Steven Spielberg directed a documentary style film to accompany a five movement suite by Williams featuring some of America’s most influential poems and texts. On the one hand, including this on this album feels like a rare gem and a real treat– something even the most die-hard of listeners wouldn’t have expected to be privy to. On the other hand, it’s not a feature film and perhaps doesn’t feel in the same echelon as the rest of the entries on these albums. I mean, why wasn’t their television collaboration Amazing Stories included? What about the 2009 short film A Timeless Call about veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan? It certainly feels a little odd that a feature film got bumped for something like this, but at the same time the piece is so thrilling and unique that its inclusion can’t be something to be mad at, just questioned.
So in the end, we have three films that are left out. Why these three films were selected for removal is anyone’s guess. Perhaps they are the films that felt least culturally relevant and were easiest to cast off or maybe it came down to sequencing– it’s possible their tracks didn’t flow well with the rest and couldn’t make the cut.
Fact of the matter is: the collection is incomplete.
Part IV: A New Beginning
While the decision to include certain tracks across these three album is fascinating to me, it’s more obvious to think that there was never going to be enough room for everything. Williams has written an innumerable amount of pieces that either are concert works or were album cues that had an intention to become concertos, yet never left the LP.
The second entry, of course, has the most intrigue given it’s strange release and construction. But, Parts I and III seem to hit all of the major themes from many films while surviving only a few oddities.
But I think there’s room for one more.
Williams recently announced his retirement from the silver screen so that he may write more concert only works. This would mean that The Fablemans (2022) would theoretically be the final entry in the Williams/Spielberg collaboration.
Now, this would seemingly put us in a worse position than The Classic Spielberg Scores with only two new films to be added.
Except, there are also those three films left out of Part III.
The Lost World features its “Theme” which is iconic in its own right compared to its Jurassic older brother; War of the Worlds has the “Reunion” and the never officially recorded “Escape from the City”, and A.I. Artificial Intelligence provides “For Always”– a unique flavor to the repertoire given that it features lyrics sung by Josh Groban and/or Laura Fabian. Even if Williams chose to go with “Where Dreams Are Born” which has a soprano singing in their place, it would make for a fascinating listen amid the usual instrumental work.
Alongside The Post (2017) and The Fablemans, you now have five films to be added to a fourth album. On top of that, there are numerous other suites left out of Part III due to its limited spacing. We could finally have a recording of “Irina’s Theme” from Indiana Jones, the horn/strings “Elegy” from Lincoln, “The Sea Battle” from Tintin, “Sean’s Theme” from Minority Report, “The Long Road to Justice” from Amistad, and so much more.
There’s potential here– but it would also be history revolving once more. While Part I and III felt like best hits tracks, Part II distinctly felt like the B-Side of concert suites and a Part IV would likely feel the same. But what’s wrong with a B-Side?
This collaboration shared over five decades is more than deserving of a complete celebration and the fact that were have three albums dedicated to it is amazing enough. They are not all straightforward, but perhaps that’s the beauty of it.
When I wonder what it would have been like to never have had Part II and instead have Part III pick up from Hook in 1991, I realize it’s not something I would have wanted. Part III would have been overcrowded and all those extra pieces that allowed certain films to breathe would have been lost to us. More movies likely would have to be dropped and the picture would be more incomplete than it is now.
I will say that having the sequencing be perfect for Part I and III while being more responsive to circumstance for Part II makes for an interesting listen on its own when done from start to finish. Quirks and kinks aren’t bad, music itself is never perfect. There are minute alterations to the score that come from the individual performers to the fluctuations in the air around them. Perhaps small barely detectable noise filters through the recording or a tempo is slightly faster or slower than “normal”. Entropy always takes hold.
And I think these albums are a largely representation of this wonderful things we call music– affected by outside factors, put together in a way that we as consumers can only speculate at. The fact that I can write so much about it is a testament to its construction.
And for now, I am hoping to get the chance to write more.
This blog post is part of the CIMA Law Group blog. If you are located in Arizona and are seeking legal services, CIMA Law Group specializes in Immigration Law, Criminal Defense, Personal Injury, and Government Relations.
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