Composer John Williams says he ‘never liked film music very much’
the 93-year-old believes that, as an art form, film music pales in comparison to history’s great works.
Dalya Alberge
Sun 24 August 2025
THE GUARDIAN
John Williams (right) with Steven Spielberg in 1998. The composer says he has had a ‘very special collaboration’ with the film director.Photograph: Boston Globe/Getty Images
As one of the greatest composers in film, John Williams has written some of the most memorable music in cinema for masterpieces such as Jaws, Jurassic Park and Star Wars.
But despite winning five Oscars, the 93-year-old believes that, as an art form, film music pales in comparison to history’s great works.
“I never liked film music very much,” he confessed in a rare interview for a forthcoming biography.
He added: “Film music, however good it can be – and it usually isn’t, other than maybe an eight-minute stretch here and there … I just think the music isn’t there. That, what we think of as this precious great film music is … we’re remembering it in some kind of nostalgic way …
“Just the idea that film music has the same place in the concert hall as the best music in the canon is a mistaken notion, I think.”
He added: “A lot of [film music] is ephemeral. It’s certainly fragmentary and, until somebody reconstructs it, it isn’t anything that we can even consider as a concert piece.”
Among the more than 100 movies he has scored are the Indiana Jones films, ET, Schindler’s List and the first three Harry Potter films.
He is the world’s most nominated living Oscar recipient, with a record 54 nominations, recognising that his music has played a crucial role in enhancing and heightening a film’s emotion and atmosphere.
With two haunting notes, he captured the chilling threat of the Great White Shark in Jaws, while his mournful Jewish lament in Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List conveyed the heartbreak of the Holocaust.
He was interviewed by Tim Greiving for a biography, John Williams: A Composer’s Life, to be published by Oxford University Press in September.
Greiving was taken aback by Williams’s dismissal of film music: “His comments are sort of shocking, and they are not false modesty. He is genuinely self-deprecating, and deprecating of ‘film music’ in general.”
He said Williams referred to his film-scoring assignments, including the high-profile and much-lauded ones, as “just a job”. He added: “But I also don’t think we should necessarily take his words at face value. He clearly took the job of composing music for films as seriously as anyone in history ever has.
“He has this internalised prejudice against film music. It’s a functional type of music, which is funny because I consider his film music to be kind of sublime art at its best. That’s not modesty. He’s just saying it’s a lesser art form. Typically that is true, though. It is written much quicker and much more economically. But I do think his music defies that. He perfected the art of film scoring. He took it to its greatest heights. He elevated film music to a high art form.”
Despite the acclaim, Williams is self-critical, telling Greiving: “If I had it all to do over again, I would have made a cleaner job of it – of having the film music and the concert music all being more me, whatever that is, or more unified in some way. But none of it ever happened that way. The film thing was a job to do, or an opportunity to accept.”
In the book, he also talks about working with Spielberg, for whom he scored Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Saving Private Ryan, among other movies.
Williams was frustrated early in his career by directors who did not understand music, a typical complaint among film composers.
With Spielberg, he has had a “very special collaboration”, he said. “He’s more … musically educated than most of the directors that I’ve worked with. He grew up with his mother who played … Clementi and Bach and Chopin and so on. And she took him to concerts … He played a little clarinet. And he is very musical.”
Away from film, Williams has composed dozens of concerti, fanfare and other concert works. He was music director of the Boston Pops for more than a decade, inspiring countless children to pursue a career in the orchestra and winning the respect of the classical community worldwide, Greiving said.
Williams has personally approved a new concert performance of his most famous scores, including Star Wars and Schindler’s List.
Titled John Williams Reimagined and featuring new arrangements for flute, cello and piano, it will take place at Cadogan Hall in London on 27 October, with an accompanying album.
Williams said: “Pianist Simone Pedroni, flutist Sara Andon and cellist Cécilia Tsan have enhanced and elevated my music and that brings me great joy.”
John Williams: To say film music is the best is a mistake
John Williams (right) with Steven Spielberg in 1998. The composer says he has had a ‘very special collaboration’ with the film director.Photograph: Boston Globe/Getty Images
As one of the greatest composers in film, John Williams has written some of the most memorable music in cinema for masterpieces such as Jaws, Jurassic Park and Star Wars.
But despite winning five Oscars, the 93-year-old believes that, as an art form, film music pales in comparison to history’s great works.
“I never liked film music very much,” he confessed in a rare interview for a forthcoming biography.
He added: “Film music, however good it can be – and it usually isn’t, other than maybe an eight-minute stretch here and there … I just think the music isn’t there. That, what we think of as this precious great film music is … we’re remembering it in some kind of nostalgic way …
“Just the idea that film music has the same place in the concert hall as the best music in the canon is a mistaken notion, I think.”
He added: “A lot of [film music] is ephemeral. It’s certainly fragmentary and, until somebody reconstructs it, it isn’t anything that we can even consider as a concert piece.”
Among the more than 100 movies he has scored are the Indiana Jones films, ET, Schindler’s List and the first three Harry Potter films.
He is the world’s most nominated living Oscar recipient, with a record 54 nominations, recognising that his music has played a crucial role in enhancing and heightening a film’s emotion and atmosphere.
With two haunting notes, he captured the chilling threat of the Great White Shark in Jaws, while his mournful Jewish lament in Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List conveyed the heartbreak of the Holocaust.
He was interviewed by Tim Greiving for a biography, John Williams: A Composer’s Life, to be published by Oxford University Press in September.
Greiving was taken aback by Williams’s dismissal of film music: “His comments are sort of shocking, and they are not false modesty. He is genuinely self-deprecating, and deprecating of ‘film music’ in general.”
He said Williams referred to his film-scoring assignments, including the high-profile and much-lauded ones, as “just a job”. He added: “But I also don’t think we should necessarily take his words at face value. He clearly took the job of composing music for films as seriously as anyone in history ever has.
“He has this internalised prejudice against film music. It’s a functional type of music, which is funny because I consider his film music to be kind of sublime art at its best. That’s not modesty. He’s just saying it’s a lesser art form. Typically that is true, though. It is written much quicker and much more economically. But I do think his music defies that. He perfected the art of film scoring. He took it to its greatest heights. He elevated film music to a high art form.”
Despite the acclaim, Williams is self-critical, telling Greiving: “If I had it all to do over again, I would have made a cleaner job of it – of having the film music and the concert music all being more me, whatever that is, or more unified in some way. But none of it ever happened that way. The film thing was a job to do, or an opportunity to accept.”
In the book, he also talks about working with Spielberg, for whom he scored Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Saving Private Ryan, among other movies.
Williams was frustrated early in his career by directors who did not understand music, a typical complaint among film composers.
With Spielberg, he has had a “very special collaboration”, he said. “He’s more … musically educated than most of the directors that I’ve worked with. He grew up with his mother who played … Clementi and Bach and Chopin and so on. And she took him to concerts … He played a little clarinet. And he is very musical.”
Away from film, Williams has composed dozens of concerti, fanfare and other concert works. He was music director of the Boston Pops for more than a decade, inspiring countless children to pursue a career in the orchestra and winning the respect of the classical community worldwide, Greiving said.
Williams has personally approved a new concert performance of his most famous scores, including Star Wars and Schindler’s List.
Titled John Williams Reimagined and featuring new arrangements for flute, cello and piano, it will take place at Cadogan Hall in London on 27 October, with an accompanying album.
Williams said: “Pianist Simone Pedroni, flutist Sara Andon and cellist Cécilia Tsan have enhanced and elevated my music and that brings me great joy.”
John Williams: To say film music is the best is a mistake
Dalya Alberge
Sun 24 August 2025
THE TELEGRAPH
John Williams is best known for his film soundtrack compositions but thinks some movie scores are ‘ephemeral, fragmentary’ - Lawrence K. Ho/via Getty Images
He is arguably cinema’s greatest composer of film music, but John Williams has admitted to not enjoying the genre.
Although he created the soundtracks to masterpieces such as Jaws and Jurassic Park, Star Wars and Saving Private Ryan, the 93-year-old composer, who has won five Oscars, believes that, as an art form, film music cannot compare with history’s great works.
The revelation comes in a series of interviews conducted by Tim Greiving for a major forthcoming biography, titled John Williams: A Composer’s Life, to be published by Oxford University Press in September.
Such is the power of Williams’s music that it is his repetitive use of two notes in Jaws, conveying the ominous threat of the approaching great white shark, that first comes to mind when audiences think of Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece.
But Williams told Greiving: “A lot of [film music] is ephemeral. It’s certainly fragmentary and, until somebody reconstructs it, it isn’t anything that we can even consider as a concert piece…
“Just the idea that film music has the same place in the concert hall as the best music in the canon is a mistaken notion, I think.”
Williams recalled that during his years of working at the Boston Pops, he would be asked to “play some great film music”.
“Well, I go, here, this was a great score, and I’d look at it – and there’s no score there. There’s a couple of cues that have to be put together. Something over here doesn’t play because it’s two and a half minutes long, and it wasn’t good to begin with...
“Film music, however good it can be – and it usually isn’t, other than maybe an eight-minute stretch here and there... I just think the music isn’t there. That, what we think of as this precious great film music is... we’re remembering it in some kind of nostalgic way.”
John Williams is best known for his film soundtrack compositions but thinks some movie scores are ‘ephemeral, fragmentary’ - Lawrence K. Ho/via Getty Images
He is arguably cinema’s greatest composer of film music, but John Williams has admitted to not enjoying the genre.
Although he created the soundtracks to masterpieces such as Jaws and Jurassic Park, Star Wars and Saving Private Ryan, the 93-year-old composer, who has won five Oscars, believes that, as an art form, film music cannot compare with history’s great works.
The revelation comes in a series of interviews conducted by Tim Greiving for a major forthcoming biography, titled John Williams: A Composer’s Life, to be published by Oxford University Press in September.
Such is the power of Williams’s music that it is his repetitive use of two notes in Jaws, conveying the ominous threat of the approaching great white shark, that first comes to mind when audiences think of Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece.
But Williams told Greiving: “A lot of [film music] is ephemeral. It’s certainly fragmentary and, until somebody reconstructs it, it isn’t anything that we can even consider as a concert piece…
“Just the idea that film music has the same place in the concert hall as the best music in the canon is a mistaken notion, I think.”
Williams recalled that during his years of working at the Boston Pops, he would be asked to “play some great film music”.
“Well, I go, here, this was a great score, and I’d look at it – and there’s no score there. There’s a couple of cues that have to be put together. Something over here doesn’t play because it’s two and a half minutes long, and it wasn’t good to begin with...
“Film music, however good it can be – and it usually isn’t, other than maybe an eight-minute stretch here and there... I just think the music isn’t there. That, what we think of as this precious great film music is... we’re remembering it in some kind of nostalgic way.”
Williams with Star Wars droid C3P0 in 1980 - Boston Globe
Greiving described Williams’s dismissal of film music as “sort of shocking”, but said it was “not false modesty” and that he was “genuinely self-deprecating, and deprecating of ‘film music’ in general”.
He added: “He clearly took the job of composing music for films as seriously as anyone in history ever has… He perfected the art of film scoring. He took it to its greatest heights. He elevated film music to a high art form.”
With his soft, unassuming demeanour, Williams told Greiving: “If I had it all to do over again, I would have made a cleaner job of it – of having the film music and the concert music all being more me, whatever that is, or more unified in some way. But none of it ever happened that way. The film thing was a job to do, or an opportunity to accept.”
He also spoke of his long-standing collaboration with Spielberg, for whom he scored Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T., among other movies. He described Spielberg as “very musical”, in contrast to “most of the directors that I’ve worked with”.
He said: “My career with Steven began to develop, one film by another. No plan. He didn’t have one either, and we were just going ahead and doing what we thought we should do next.”
Williams added: “I think a lot of things [films] I didn’t do because people thought – and they were right – that I was chronically and consistently busy with Steven. I’ve had people say that to me: ‘Well, we thought you were married to Steven.’ Which I suppose, in many ways, I was, or have been, or still am.”
Beyond his film work, Williams has composed dozens of concerti, fanfare and other concert works.
He has welcomed new concert arrangements of some of his most famous film scores, including Star Wars, Schindler’s List, E.T., Memoirs of a Geisha and Harry Potter.
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