John Williams is universally renowned and celebrated as the Maestro of the Movies, one of the most successful and accomplished composers for the screen, a reputation built on and consolidated with an impressive string of collaborations with top directors, seminal contributions to some of the most famous cinematic hits of all times, and countless awards and accolades. Yet, there are many more sides to Williams’s artistry. He has also a considerable background and training as a jazz-man; he is also a respectable and prolific composer of concert pieces that are entering the standard repertoire; he has been the Principal Conductor and Music Director of the Boston Pops Orchestra – ‘America’s Orchestra’ – establishing himself as a proficient and sensitive conductor in both the ‘classical’ and popular arena. This talk presents and explores another facet of his career, that of America’s unofficial ‘Laureate Composer’.
On many occasions, Williams has been the one to call when some landmark in the nation’s history had to be musically celebrated. He has been a visible composer for the Mass Media too, first of all with the signature sound-logo he composed for NBC News, which has been opening the newscasts of one of America’s top networks for more than thirty years. His role as leader of the Boston Pops has caused him to be involved – in both capacities, as conductor and composer – in some of the country’s most momentous events, like the orchestra’s own centennial in 1985 (with a nation-wide televised concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.), the re-dedication of the Statue of Liberty in 1986 (with President Reagan in attendance), the centennial edition of the Olympic Games held in Atlanta, GA, in 1996, the 2000 New Year’s Eve celebration in Washington D.C. with President Clinton, and the inauguration of President Obama’s first term in 2008, plus other appearances, including more Olympics, presidential campaigns, and musical contributions to state visits.
This vast exposure has made him a star composer and a revered figure, but also – for a long time – a maligned and suspicious one. His association with both the ‘imperialistic’ and ‘hollow’ Hollywood films – in particular with some of the key oeuvres of the ‘Reaganite cinema’ – and some of the mass-media events in Reagan’s era might have had a major part in this. He was often rancorously dismissed as a phoney artist in some quarters – notably by high-brow music critics – or identified by some from the culturalist circles as an agent of reactionary ideology, a skilled composer but also a more-or-less complicit endorser of the conservative agenda of those years. The talk surveys Williams’s main contributions and achievements in the field of mass-media and public-event music, and also discusses and problematises the potential/alleged propaganda implications of his music.
2019.
11th Conference of the Music and Media Group of the International Musicological Society, ‘Sounds of Mass Media: Music in Journalism and Propaganda’, Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden, 7-9 June 2019