If John Williams had been born in the early 1700’s he would have been on the stage with Beethoven, Mozart, Wagner, and all those whose name I cannot properly spell.
Musical “elitests” will name him “only” as a movie composer.
I’d like the opportunity to set spellbound, listening to a three hour concert beginning with the 1977 opening theme and segueing into each of the following themes, in order, that tell the entire saga. Maybe more than three hours.
John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932) is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning over six decades, Williams has composed some of the most popular and recognizable film scores in cinematic history, including the Star Wars series, the first two Jaws films, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the Indiana Jones series, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, the first two Home Alone films, Hook, the first two Jurassic Park films, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, the first three Harry Potter films, Catch Me If You Can, Memoirs of a Geisha, War Horse, and Lincoln. He has had a long association with director Steven Spielberg, composing the music for all of Spielberg's feature films except The Color Purple and Bridge of Spies.
Other notable works by Williams include theme music for four Olympic Games, NBC Sunday Night Football, the NBC Nightly News, the Statue of Liberty's rededication, the television series Lost in Space and Land of the Giants, and the original, not as well known calypso-based theme song to Gilligan's Island. Williams has composed numerous classical concerti and other works for orchestral ensembles and solo instruments, and he served as the Boston Pops' principal conductor (1980-93), and is now the orchestra's laureate conductor.
Source: Wikipedia
I wish that I had been able to see him while he was conductor of the Boston Pops!