Film Music Of John Williams

John Williams is a world-renowned American contemporary composer, enjoying a global reputation for his unique and contagious film music. In the transitional period, Hollywood film music underwent dramatic difficulties and hardships. However, Williams, as a pioneer in the contemporary film music, absorbed solid theories and advanced techniques from the former scholars, and family turned the art of film music to a new chapter.Williams has devoted all his life to composing, many of his words are so attractive that they can draw people’s attention immediately. The thrilling and fabulous music in Star Wars, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List and many other blockbusters have caught the audiences’heart and made them lost in the exciting scenes. Some pieces of his film music are magnificent, resounding and thrilling; some are graceful, elegant and leisured, giving people an internal yearning and vision as if they are personally on the scene. Therefore, he really deserves the honorable title of "Textbook of the American Film Music." Even though he has been82years old, William is still going on with his career in the art of film music with great righteous ardor.When it comes to a film, people first think of the lead characters in the film and relevant classical scenes. Apart from that, film music plays an essential role. The nature of film music is to make the film plots stand out by using diversified methods, which then make the film as a whole more attractive. The film scenes and close-up shots have specific meanings, which carry the realistic significance of the films. However, music is an art with the most delicate feelings. In view of the non-semantics and polysemy of the music, the scope of the emotional space and illusion space endowed by it greatly exceeds the shot language expression of the scenes and close-up shots. The diversification of the William’s composing methods and his flexible techniques and response to the extensive market demands will be carried forward and hit a new high.Williams has composed numerous pieces of film music up to now, among all his works, his theme music is particularly outstanding. People can easily find that almost every piece of his works express one or several vivid and clear music themes. Some of the theme music is inserted in the climax of the film or in the thrilling and suspenseful ending. His film music is like a surprisingly delicate touch, which is perfectly combined with the film whichever insertion method he adopts. The focus of his composing story is characters His film music is combined with the tragic destiny in the film to highlight the infection that the film present in front of us. To some extent, the music unreservedly expounds Williams’unique composing inspiration and unremitting exploration spirit.The film theme music plays a significant role in the film music. The ups and downs of the film plots and the fickle personalities of the characters in the film are the soul of the whole film. The film theme music composed by Williams is organically interacted with other factors of the film, which is successful in demonstrating the whole plot of the film more clearly to the audiences. The value-added function of the music on the film art is also rationally reflected.Against the background of the music elements, this paper, bases on the composing life of Williams, analyzes and summarizes Williams’classical film theme music in an effort to conclude the style techniques and art characteristics of Williams’film music composition. This paper also expounds the aesthetic value of Williams’film music in the perspective of art philosophy.This paper firstly gives a brief introduction of the composing life of Williams, which not only is a preliminary summary of background for the research topic selection, but also lays the foundation for better exposition of the function of the film music on plots. The body part consists of three chapters. In the first chapter, the paper briefly introduces the composing experiences of Williams. The chapter is divided into three sections, which specifically introduces the hardships Williams underwent in his film music composition from the mid1960of the20th century to the preliminary period of the new century, with each period featuring different film music characteristics of Williams. In the second chapter, the author involves six famous film music works of Williams and divides them into three types according to different definition classifications. Following that, this paper summarizes the value-added function of Williams’different music elements on the films. The third chapter, the author elevates from the basic elements of film music to its art value. Whether in terms of film music’s audio stimulation, or enhanced audio effect through the theme of the scenes, or starting from people’s emotion, Williams continuously and artistically integrated his music and the film, giving full and clear expression to the art charm of the film music. In this chapter, the paper will comprehensively narrate the issue from several aspects, which is in fact a summary and sublimation of the concepts mentioned in the first two chapters.