Star Wars, John Williams, and I

A Long Time Ago…

Various styles of music have seen me through some really trying times in my life. From a very early age. Some people take solace in books. Others in writing or drawing. For me it was always listening to music. I developed a very diverse music taste from an early age. Partly out of necessity. Partly out of curiosity. I can find good in almost any style or genre. Almost…

My musical upbringing started with Metal and Hard Rock thanks to a metal-head cousin. Bands like Metallica, Iron Maiden, Slayer, Anthrax and many more were filling my ears from a very young age. Always at the appropriate volume. But I never limited myself to just those styles of music. Thanks to some old LP’s, radio, and MTV, I fell in love with many more styles and artists. Such as: Billy Joel, Boston, Chicago, Michael Jackson, Phil Collins(and Genesis), and Rush*. Then there was the deep deep world of orchestral music. Orchestral music entered my life at a young age as well. And it would have a great impact on my life. But I wasn’t listening to orchestral recordings or radio broadcasts. How did that weasel it’s way into my life?

I remember watching PBS a lot from my single digit years into my mid-teens. Not just because I didn’t have cable for a period of my youth. But rather, PBS really did have some great shows back then. Particularly for kids. It was later on at night though that PBS regularly showed orchestral performances. I remember being awestruck at the beautiful sounds being produced on those stages. I even saw Jazz bands and some old Big Band performances. PBS was how I was introduced to the likes of Glenn Miller, Buddy Rich, Maynard Ferguson, and many more. Hell, one night on PBS I saw Fleetwood Mac perform with the USC Trojan Marching Band. Wild. Sure, some of the stuff I heard was unappealing at the time. In those years Opera wasn’t exactly what I wanted to see or hear… ever. I was too young for that. Nowadays though, I can appreciate it’s beauty fully.

But no, it wasn’t PBS that sent me careening downward into the deep rabbit hole that is music. Yeah sure, it helped (after, my ears were opened). I was exposed to(or rather picked up on) orchestral music for the first real time by a seemingly strange source. It was like a massive gate had creaked open in my musical brain. The key that opened the aforementioned great gate was, in fact, Star Wars.

Well, actually it was Star Wars and John Williams.

Though, at the time I had no idea who John Williams was…

* In hindsight, from a young age I was drawn towards bands that used non-standard instruments, like trumpets, trombones, and saxophones. Chicago, particularly in the 1970’s, was outstanding and their horns were electric. Other examples would be Earth, Wind & Fire, and Tower of Power. I was also drawn to heavily percussive music. Which is one reason I love metal so much(Slayer, Dave Lombardo). In particular, technical drumming was always so interesting to me. Neil Peart of Rush is one of my all time favorite drummers. He is a close number 2 to Danny Carey from Tool. But I will stop there before this turns into my top ten favorite drummers list.

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Where It All Began

Like many people, the multi-generational Star Wars saga took hold of me after the first viewing of A New Hope. I mean, how could it not, right? A story about far away worlds and battles in space? A Cute princess? Robots everywhere? Good versus Evil fighting with swords of light that hummed when swung? Laser guns? Pew Pew! Laser guns! Yeah! It was perfect for a young loner soon-to-be nerd/geek with a budding imagination like myself. Even if I really didn’t quite understand all of the story at the time.

To set the stage, the VHS we had was either a copy or was recorded from a TV broadcast. So it wasn’t even a shadow of the quality we are accustomed to in this day and age. VHS was not exactly known for having crisp images and stellar audio anyway. It was just okay. The picture would occasionally start going out of focus or getting lines through it, so you had to occasionally adjust a ‘tracking’ setting to zero-in a decent picture. Some tapes were worse than others. It was all very hands on, the home video experience.

Though we had a regular sized(for the mid 1980’s) TV in the living room, my first viewing was on a small black and white TV with antennas sticking out of the back of it in my room. The antennas most likely had a whole roll of aluminum foil attached to them in some fashion to “improve reception”. A little was enough. A lot was better. This is science, and therefor a fact. That TV’s screen was definitely smaller than some tablets nowadays. But it weighed about as much as(or more than) most TV’s 5 times it’s size do now. And it emitted enough heat to keep you warm on a cold night. TV’s like this had tubes, and they actually had to “warm up” before the screen would come on. Depending on the room temperature this meant that it could take some time. The audio would actually come out of the speaker but the screen would still be off.

This is the stuff I had to deal with in the 1980’s. It all makes me appreciate the technology we have now that much more, let me tell you.

Shoddy recordings and minuscule-yet-bench-pressable heat emitting monochrome televisions aside. There is so much to like about the Star Wars series. But one of the biggest standouts to me was the music. The main theme literally smacks you in the face and you actually see stars, all while the movie explains whats happening in scrolling text. The music accompanies what is happening on the screen as scenes emotion rises, falls and hits you in the feels. The music’s mood changes right along side the characters action and drama. The themes that they introduce in episode IV, such as the poetic and wonderful Princess Leia’s Theme, can be heard many times in the movie and in the rest of the trilogy(trilogies) in various capacities.

I spent a lot of time in front of a TV watching movies in my loner youth. But this was the first time that I was caught up in the instrumental music of a movie. And this was music that was playing from a single speaker on a crappy TV, mind you. That first punch from the main theme, probably sounded awful, thinking back on it. At least compared to today’s audio standards. But it grabbed me by the collar and slapped me around for a few moments(and I liked it).

After my first few viewings(oh, there were many) of A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back I began to really start taking notice of the music that I was hearing while watching movies. Also, enter PBS, as I mentioned above. It was the 80’s and It was a great decade for movies(the previous decade too!). Many of them had great musical scores. I started watching the movie credits to the end, where they always bury music credits, and I began to notice something. Something big.

A lot of the movies that I loved had soundtracks that were written by the same man.

American composer/conductor, John Williams.

I started to really take notice of his work around the release of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. And by that time, I had seen so many movies with his compositions in them, and hadn’t even realized it! To get a feel for what I am talking about here is a small, but incredible, list of just some of his works that range from the 1970’s to present day:

• Star Wars IV, V, VI, I, II, III, VII, VIII, IX
• Indiana Jones 1, 2, 3, 4
• Superman
• Jaws
• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind
• Hook
• Jurassic Park 1, 2
• Schindler’s List
• Saving Private Ryan
• Memoirs of a Geisha
• full list here

To pull one specific non-Star Wars movie from that list. One of the first cassettes that I ever bought with my own saved up money was in the early 1990’s. It was the soundtrack to Jurassic Park. This was right after I saw that movie in the theater. I fell in love with it immediately and wanted to listen to it more. So I went to a store and bought the tape. It may have even been the same day. Now, while I do not remember what store I bought it at, I do remember the cassettes were behind glass and you needed a clerk to open the cabinet. Stealing cassettes was a big problem around this time. They were small and very easy to pocket. The plastic anti-theft cases weren’t everywhere yet. You were made aware that you were being watched on camera, quite often.

When I found the clerk with the keys, I brought them to the case and pointed to the one I wanted. They grabbed the tape, flipped it over and, for whatever reason, studied it for a second. Then they remarked to me something like, “You know this music doesn’t have words, right?” Now, this was far before I had a decent grasp of how to use sarcasm(I was working on it though), so I just responded with something like, “yeah”, and took my tape to go pay.

The score for Jurassic Park was incredibly captivating to me. I used to listen to it while I read the Michael Crichton novel. I read that book like 4 times in a single week once, during a move. Actually, by the mid 1990’s I would have read many of his books. Sphere, Congo, The Andromeda Strain were all great.

In those early years of the 1990’s my Walkman and stereo had a rotation of stuff that I recorded from the radio(this was stealing music long before Napster and Limewire), a copy of Alice In Chains’ Facelift, the Jurassic Park soundtrack, a copy of Guns N’ Roses’ Use Your Illusion I (November Rain, Slash + orchestral ensemble = you have my attention), and Metallica’s Black album all going, almost 24/7. I ran through batteries so fast that I used to have to steal them from the remotes and whatnot. Still not sorry.

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Some Influential Pieces From The Star Wars Saga

If asked, I probably wouldn’t be able to choose which soundtrack was the best, or the worst in the Star Wars saga. They all fit the movies so well. And they all blend together. You’ll hear aspects from various themes in all the movies. Like the reprisal of the Duel of the Fates when Yoda fights Darth Sidius in Episode III. So the individual soundtracks could all be put together as one omnibus soundtrack, really.

Williams wrote music for so many characters and worlds. Whether you’re crossing the Dune Sea of Tatooine, or braving the swampy jungles of Dagobah. In the congested skies of Coruscant, or the serenity of Cloud City. The musical pieces fit the scenery and characters. But some pieces stand out more than others. And if I were to pick some individual pieces, from the entire saga to best highlight John Williams’ impact on these movies(and me), it would be these. And a few probably are pretty obvious. This list could be long as a Wookie is tall, so I limited it to just a handful.

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My Musical Journey

I would be completely remiss if I did not convey that John Williams’ music was a major driving force in my taking up and learning to play musical instruments. I wanted to play in those Symphony Orchestras and bands that I had seen on PBS. Or I wanted to play in these orchestras that I was hearing in these great movies. I wanted to perform this powerful music too. All of it. These were my goals from early on. 

I started playing a couple of years later than most kids. Around 7th grade. This was for monetary reasons. Music was not exactly a cheap thing to get into back then. My first instrument was the clarinet. This woodwind instrument is a great starting point for learning the basics, really. Not long after though, I moved on to tenor saxophone and baritone saxophone. I always wanted to play the more powerful instruments. By the end of 8th grade I was asked by my band director if I had any interest in learning to play the tuba. Tuba players in schools were few and far between in this time-frame, apparently*. It didn’t matter that I was an underweight wire of a boy, I jumped. I wanted to play a brass instrument. I was always taken by the brass instruments in the Star Wars movies soundtracks and other John Williams compositions. His use of horns always made me take notice. I had also discovered Drum & Bugle Corps a few years prior(again on PBS), so I totally wanted to play some powerful brass**.

*I moved a lot prior to 10th grade. I had two different band directors, at two different schools, when I was introduced to them they asked me what I played. When I said tuba, they laughed because they thought I was joking. One director said I was the first tuba player in about five years. I had to transfer from that school. I felt bad for that guy. He was genuinely happy to have a tuba player.

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Within three years I was branching out to learning trombone. Within four, the euphonium and the contrabass bugle. A horn not too different from the tuba in terms or range. Though standard tuba’s are pitched in B-flat(Bb) and Bugles are pitched in G(and only had two pistons at the time). I had, with some friends, joined a smaller Drum & Bugle Corps located near-ish to our town. It was amazing! I played some great powerful music like the video above, and I was part of something big! But it was about this time that life began to get harder and harder. And Drum Corps would have to fade into memory.

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So yeah, I did not get accepted to the school. In fact I never even got a notice of that fact from them. It was actually confirmed(what I already knew) that I didn’t make it when I helped my(then) girlfriend move into the dorms for the new semester. Brutal. And honestly, I never recovered from that feeling. Soon after though, I decided I needed to change things, and my life took a sharp turn. In doing so, I lost the ability to play in an organized environment. And after that, I stopped playing altogether. Even at home. That is a piece of regret that I carry every day. One that could be remedied easily, sure. And one day I hope to enact that remedy. But you know what? That disaster more or less led to a major change for the better in my life. 

Gotta search for those silver linings.

I never lost my love of music. If anything, it became emboldened in those years. I needed music more than ever, seeing as I lost my ability to play it. The digital age was on our doorsteps, and it was getting easier than ever to acquire albums. I would collect a ton of John Williams compilations, soundtracks, and other albums from other composers and performers. I would still watch performances on TV or DVD. Though, Drum Corps performances hit me pretty hard(still hurts). Adagio for Strings would still cripple me emotionally as well(still does).

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My Favorite John Williams Pieces

If I had to choose one piece out of the hundreds that John Williams has penned to be my favorite, I wouldn’t be able to. I would have to pick a minimum of two. The first would most likely be one that people have probably never heard of. And it would be from a movie that most have never heard of, let alone have seen.(hell, I have never seen it and I’m discussing a piece from it). The second, is much more widely known. Both are from the 1970’s. Before I was born.

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Thank You Star Wars

Thank You Mr. Williams

To wrap this up, I will say the following; I am not the biggest con-going Star Wars superfan. And I have never read a single novel or scrap of fan-fiction. I cannot name every character, race, allegiance, etc. But I do love the series, and I owe Star Wars a lot. While I have been heavily influenced by music since before I could comprehend, well, anything. I really do feel that it was Star Wars, and the brilliance of John Williams’ compositions that opened my eyes, ears and mind. Setting me on a musical journey that allowed me to see and accomplish so much.

A journey that allowed me to perform on so many different stages with so many talented people young and old. In front of thousands of people. I was also able to play so many of the pieces that I grew up loving(and learned so many new ones). And even though I am no longer playing or performing, I am grateful for the experiences and the memories. 

And who knows. Maybe I will dust off one of my horns one day, and play again.

[This post was originally published at Otherverse Games & Hobbies]