John Williams Wins his 23rd Grammy for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. He Is Already Conducting The Last Jedi.
Legendary composer John Williams won his 6th Star Wars Grammy, this time for his work on Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Also a new report confirms that Williams is currently conducting the score for Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi. Read on for the details.
John Williams was nominated in the category “Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media” at the 59th Grammy Awards. He won the award in direct competition with movies like The Revenant, The Hateful Eight (who won an Oscar for music), Bridge of Spies and Stranger Things.
Congrats Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” John Williams, composer #GRAMMYs
— Recording Academy (@RecordingAcad) February 12, 2017
Williams won 5 Grammy awards in the past for his work on Star Wars. The last one was for his score on The Empire Strikes Back in 1980. So, what a comeback 36 years later!!!
You can see the list with all the winners HERE.
In another interesting tweet, filmmaker Robert Meyer Burnett gave a brief update about the scoring of The Last Jedi.
LAST JEDI scoring update. Last Thursday was John Williams’ 85th Birthday. He’s conducting. Rian Johnson wants to use the score for editing.
— Robert Meyer Burnett (@BurnettRM) February 12, 2017
It was revealed before that John Williams will be starting his scoring duties for The Last Jedi much earlier than the usual schedule for such movies. There were lots of speculations why this was happening, and now it’s nice to hear that one of the reasons is that director Rian Johnson wants to sync the movie’s edit with Willimas score.
Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.
Born on April 24, 1980.
If I remember correctly did John conduct on TFA or did someone fill in?
He did:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjNfOhbzxfI
well the force awakens score was … i cant remember a single tune
Listen to this a few times. And then remember what you heard. Problem solved:
https://youtu.be/cUBUlKgsNK8
Duel of the Fates was also a pretty good tune, and so was Across the Stars.
Did these also get recognized?
Sadly, no. I think they deserved to. I don’t see what that has to do with TFA, though.
Prequel Conspiracy TUD. I hate you, you hate me, but we both know it’s true.
That’s what it has to do with this discussion. Nothing. But Ghost will always make sure to be bitter that the prequels get no love.
You win for the entire score, not individual pieces, but he should’ve won for the TPM score, without question.
Of course not Ghost. They were from the Prequels, and yes, we all know there’s a vast Original Trilogy conspiracy to prevent the Prequels from receiving any accolades. The fanboys will obstruct the Prequels from achieving anything during their tenure as the foundation of the Star Wars Saga.
Indeed, should we allow this conspiracy to continue unabated they will only be remembered as the Sarlaac pit they are falsely perceived to be.
#fakereviews
Rey’s theme will be iconic. March of the Resistance and The Jedi Steps are memorable as well. Was lucky enough to hear these live, conducted by John Williams, at Tangelwood last summer.
Can’t wait to see how he manipulates both of these themes…Rey’s theme especially to fit different scenes/tones.
Then you watched the movie wearing noise cancelling headphones.
Or maybe he just thought the soundtrack was not the best, compared to other Star Wars films. Neither did I.
That is a pretty distinct difference though. Preferring one soundtrack over another is completely normal. A Star Wars fan claiming he does not remember a single track is a little hard to believe.
It’s BS if you ask me.
No doubt.
That’s probably because you’ve seen the movie once. The OT score is drilled into your head because it’s 40 years old, lol.
Believe me i watched the movie a lot of times and i dont even like it
Re: “The OT score is drilled into your head because it’s 40 years old, lol”
I don’t believe that’s the case.
With OT (& even some PT tracks) & recall on 1st viewing nearly gasping in the theatre upon hearing many perfect/moving tracks.
TFA – upon multiple viewings, recall thinking – “was there a soundtrack?!”.
Then I think you’re an outlier. In the end, it’s an issue of nostalgia goggles and who is wearing them or not.
I felt that way after seeing TPM. And then my opinion changed the more I saw it.
Re: “I felt that way after seeing TPM”
I sure didn’t feel that way.
Particularly the choral work from the fight scene with Maul stuck in my head after 1st viewing. Got the soundtrack immediately.
Yeah, I had the soundtrack before the movie came out.
But when I saw the movie, aside from Duel of the Fates, not a single scene of music stood out to me the first several times I saw it. Same thing with TFA.
Then, suddenly, the themes were familiar and I loved them.
I didn’t appreciate TPM’s until I picked up the super deluxe every second of music edition soundtrack.
It’s gorgeous, and many of it’s themes resonate through out the rest of the prequels. Which is sad, since a lot of what is in place in the last two films are very filler.
Richly deserved. TFA’s soundtrack is so under-rated in my opinion.
Agreed. People need to look it up on YouTube and appreciate it some more.
So just gave another listen, Rey’s theme for starters.
Good stuff.
Going to give the entire soundtrack another listen on the better speakers now. 🙂
It’s one of John Williams most mature works. I still don’t understand why people hate on it so much. The orchestration is perfect, the themes are beautiful. It’s John Williams composing for Star Wars with an extra 38 years of experience… Great score
Beyond deserving. Rey’s theme is among his best work in my opinion. https://media.giphy.com/media/uj0ozgl4FSzwk/giphy.gif
Jedi Steps and the Finale is great too.
And March Of The Resistance 😉
That counter melody with the Force Theme, though.
And Kylo’s theme.
I love the Abduction as well. People are tripping when they talk poorly of this score. I find it is solid all the way through.
That music that plays during the Jakku chase is fantastic, too. It’s just not as hummable as our favorites.
It’s haunting and intimidating. I loved his theme straight from the get go.
March of the Resistance, loved that too. Loved when the X-Wings headed to help on Takodana.
That scene till this day gives me the chills.
That whole movie gave me chills. And Rogue One. What a time to be alive!
Took awhile for March to grow on me, throws me to have the good guys have a march rather than something more in line with a fanfare like the Rebel Alliance rocked in the OT.
But now I totally dig it. I finally got to mess with a Star Wars Battlepod, and I went straight to Takodana. And it was awesome having that song playing while I downed First Order TIE Fighters.
So glad to see we won’t be seeing a repeat of TFA’s score issues. Because of JJ’s weird way of editing and poor scheduling, the score didn’t sync very well with the film, hence why so many forgot it.
Listening to TFA’s score by itself, it’s an amazing piece with some of John William’s best work to date. So much maturity and subtlety in his current work.
I expect that with the extended time he has to the composing/arranging/conducting the music, let alone the fact that he has experienced the film solely from watching rough cuts of the film like the other SW films and unlike JJ who showed him random bits and pieces and script pages, this has the potential to be his best SW score yet.
And even if the scoring is completed prior to a finished edit, being able to manipulate the edit to the music would create such a polished integration of the music into the film.
It’s quite funny, because when John recorded scores with London’s Philharmonic Orchestra he had only one opportunity to record the score. If there had been changes in the cut after that, he wouldn’t be able to adjust the music accordingly.
Yes. It’s Abram’s fault that he had less than two years to make a new 200 million plus dollar Star Wars flick and keep it ub3r top secret in the process.
LFL and Disney had nothing to do with it. Blame J.J.
lol?
Congratulations!!! And people say TFA doesn’t have a good score….
Re: “Congratulations!!!”
While I agree Williams deserves congratulations & recognition for his amazing life’s work, I do wonder if this award is more about recognizing him further now at this late stage in his life, appreciating what he’s done in the past & that he’s still working…rather than for the specific piece of work.
The way that some elderly actors receive an academy award late in life for some role that’s not nearly their greatest (& other actors were better that year).
Re: “And people say TFA doesn’t have a good score”
I believe that it’s more that people say TFA doesn’t have a *great* score, compared to other SW soundtracks & Williams previous work.
FWIW – I love John Williams’ work & think that he’s the best modern composer. I do have concerns that perhaps his best work is behind him now & have doubts that we’ll be getting incredible memorable work from him for TLJ / other work he might create going forward.
Sadly, as people age, as clichéd as this will sound… frequently their fire (talent) dies down (/dims). It’s a natural part of life/aging – mental faculties, frequently along side this passion & creativity fade.
Perhaps Williams is truly exceptional in this regard & will surprise us with TLJ soundtrack. [ perhaps I need to listen to TFA soundtrack again? It didn’t stand-out/impress during the movie for me ]
I believe there is definitely a sense of honoring older artists to make sure that they get awards before they die. However, I believe TFA’s score was still worthy of an achievement like this.
I do need to listen to it again.
I’ll confess I’ve only given the soundtrack a single (non-movie watching) listen. And it wasn’t on my better sound-system.
For me it just didn’t stand-out during the movie viewing, where-as in OT (& even some PT) *during* the movie several pieces really moved me or stood-out as just so perfectly matching the scene (stood-out isn’t right, more like perfectly melded where I was enjoying both the music&action/sequence together).
I’m going to give it a listen again.
Too many fans seem to really enjoy it & maybe I didn’t get it a chance on it’s own? Perhaps alongside JJ’s choices for editing/mixing the soundtrack (even volume levels?).
Thanks for encouraging me to give it another go. 🙂
45 Nominations for an Academy Award and 5 wins at the Oscars.
22 wins at the Grammy’s and 17 nominations.
I don’t think they’re trying to hook him up out of pity.
Dude probably has a pile of his awards at the bottom of a closet in his beach house in Maine. Do you think he cares if he wins another?
Didn’t intend to question his accomplishments. As I stated…I consider him the best modern composer & know how *awarded* he already is.
Just pointing out that it’s no uncommon for older artists to receive (/additional) awards when they get to an age where it’s less certain they’ll be around or exercising their art any longer. Sometimes winning an award against more deserved performance/works. And questioning whether this is anywhere near his greatest work/if other work he was up against might’ve been better.
What your suggesting usually occurs when the musician is very well known and accomplished in the industry but with fewer awards. Williams isn’t lacking, I think he was honored because he made a good score.
He blended old themes with exciting new ones, and once again we have a Star Wars film with characters you can imagine just hearing the music that accompanies them on the screen.
I like Rogue One’s soundtrack but it fell flat on that note.
I’m glad Ryan wants the edit to sync with the score. The proper use of music in movies can turn a good one into a great one.
Agreed. I hated how George Lucas cut up the score in the DVD releases of the prequels.
I absolutely love this soundtrack..rey’s theme is my favorite, then Jedi Steps…but damn Kylo Ren’s arrival is always stuck in my head..LOL
Yeah, I always expect to hear Kylo Ren’s mini-theme play whenever my wife comes home.
Wah wah wah waaaaaaaaaaaaaah wah. Wah wah wah-wahhhhhhh.
I want a “First Order March” for TLJ! 🙂
Yes…..
March of the resistance is my favorite track of TFA and the imperial march is my favorite track of ESB- so sure- bring on the Martches
MARCH BATTLE!
If they do happen to have a “first order march” or theme it would be pretty epic to have the music battle each other in a scene where the resistance and FO are goin at it.
1) why so long after the movie’s release? I’m not familiar with how the Grammys work.
2) so does this mean that the soundtrack really was great (there was debate about that in these comments at release), that the competition was poor, or that nostalgia was a huge factor?
Yes it was great. Certain people heard a score that was 85% new music and didn’t like the fact that it wasn’t all recognizable music with classic themes. Other people who gave it more than a single listen without instantly dismissing it recognized what excellent additions to the Star Wars musical canon it provided.
Nominees for Grammys are picked in November/late October. That’s also why Adele’s “25” won this year and not the previous one – it came out in November 2015, too late to be qualified.
2). That is up to you to decide.
1) As someone else mentioned, the Grammy Awards are not based on a calendar year, like 2016 for instance. Instead, for reasons unknown, they award music released between October 1st of one year through September 30th the following year. This wouldn’t seem to be a problem if the award show wasn’t in mid-February, a full four and a half months after the close of the award season, and that results in Adele and John Williams both winning a 2017 Grammy for music they released in 2015.
Yassssssss
ironic….
Lol
Really curious about The Last Jedi score now, Like others have said below me I don’t know if the TFA score was inferior to the PT one due to him getting a bit long in the tooth and to be fair he’s pretty much doing this his whole life and even Michael Jordan was a shell of the man he was during last year to say nothing with how the human mind deteriorates with old age. SW aside, It’s been quite awhile since he’s really brought it with any new material.
Or it was simply due to JJ’s sheer hackiness which is a real criticism considering that Lucas brought down the PT with his bizarre musical choices in certain scenes though I still enjoy any prequel track over what we heard in the ST so far.
Things are amiss when the Rogue One soundtrack feels more like Star Wars than an actual legit Star Wars episode and it’s not like Giacchino can be accused of overusing familiar themes in that.
Seriously? What soundtrack have you been listening to?
You should listen again. TFA’s score is pretty terrific.
JJ’s hackiness?
I felt Rogue One’s music was great, but it didn’t feel as much like Star Wars which was kind of the point.
Pssst. Snark (The poster above) hates all things Episode VII and J.J. Abrams. He used to come here twice a day just to bash the film and Director.
Every. Day.
Same posts, same topic, always a complaint.
Was surprised to see he liked Rogue One since had been condemning it over a year ago.
Yeah, I’ve been getting that vibe. He rarely replies either.
It sucks, cause sometimes he actually has insightful things to say.
TFA’s score was not inferior to the prequel score. It dropped off after Episode I in a big way.
He’s looking great for his age. Keep it up, John!!
Rey’s theme was so great, but the rest of the OST are a little uncharismatic and random compared with the rest of SW movies. It’s really disappointing coming from him. Not bad, but not great at all.
I liked the Resistance March, and especially The Jedi Steps. Kylo Ren’s motiff has stuck with me too. Rey’s Theme was another jewel in the crown.
There was some filler in there, but all of the SW soundtracks have filler. The only reason we can hum the entire OT soundtrack is because it’s been the soundtrack of our lives. I would say every OT and PT movie has about 3-4 really hummable tunes, and the rest are more filler to create texture to certain scenes. TFA is right in line with that.
Great vid here on the current state of film-scoring, and why you rarely walk out of the theater humming the hero’s theme song anymore:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl2I-UU0cz4
Great vid here on the current state of film-scoring, and why you rarely walk out of the theater humming the hero’s theme song anymore:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vfqkvwW2fs
Great video, thanks for posting.
As a lover John Williams and of a LOT of the Marvel scores and themes, I hate that video. A lot of one sided arguments in there.
Typo in last sentence: Willimas
Agreed.
Wow, The Phantom Menace is by far my favorite soundtrack. The Force Awakens Was really good when you really listen and figure it out a lot, but I’m surprised Ep. 1 didn’t win anything.