In a rare interview for the New Yorker, musical maestro John Williams has spoken candidly about his 42-year-long contribution to the Star Wars saga, and questions the opening of the Star Wars fanfare suggesting “it’s probably a little overwritten”.
Speaking to music critic Alex Ross, the 88-year-old recalls that first recording session with the London Symphony Orchestra, one of Classic FM’s partner orchestras, who performed a majority of the music for the films.
“That fanfare at the beginning, I think it’s the last thing I wrote. It’s probably a little overwritten – I don’t know. The thirty-second notes in the trombones are hard to get, in that register of the trombone. And the high trumpet part!
“Maurice Murphy, the great trumpet player of the LSO – that first day of recording was actually his first day with the orchestra, and the first thing he played was that high C. There was a kind of team roar when he hit it perfectly. He’s gone now, but I love that man.”
Williams recalls getting the Star Wars gig following his work on Jaws, whose tense two-note motif would become a force unto itself.
“One day, Steven [Spielberg] called me and said, ‘Do you know George Lucas?’ I said, ‘No, I have no idea who he is.’
“‘Well, he’s got this thing called Star Wars, and he wants to have a classical’ – his term, he didn’t say Romantic – ‘classical score, and I’ve convinced George he should meet you, because he admired the score for Jaws. ’ I came out here one night, to Universal Studios, and met George.”
In the interview, Williams recalls that Lucas mulled over the idea of using pre-existing classical music on the Star Wars soundtrack, but the composer pushed for an original score. Lucas’ representative denies this (… but here’s how Star Wars might have sounded if it had backing from Holst’s ‘Mars, the Bringer of War’, in case you’re curious).
At the end of the New Yorker interview, Williams describes his work on Star Wars as an “extraordinary journey”, saying: “The idea of becoming a professional film composer, never mind writing nine Star Wars scores over forty years, was not a consciously sought-after goal.
“All of this, I have to say to you, has been the result of a beneficent randomness. Which often produces the best things in life.”
Reda the interview in full at the New Yorker here.
