Classical works similar to Indiana Jones' main theme
FishyThoughts
Jones theme?
Neil
> What classical works have overtures, etc. similar to the main Indiana
> Jones theme?
Please give specific movie title.
Neil Miller, author of The Piano Lessons Book
Enter in Amazon.com search: Neil Miller Piano Lessons Book
Peter T. Daniels
> What classical works have overtures, etc. similar to the main Indiana
> Jones theme?
John Williams is very well known to crib most of his "ideas" from the
"Mars" movement of *The Planets*, by Gustav Holst. There are many
excellent recordings of this work.
Steven Bornfeld
See, I guess I've never really listened to "The Planets" through, and I
didn't know that. I do know that his work is pretty easily
recognizable. Now I'll have to pay attention.
I think some of his earlier work in television was more interesting,
eg: his theme for the Kraft Suspense Theater in the mid 1960s.
Best,
Steve
Peter T. Daniels
wrote:
And the only "lyrical" theme of his I can think of right off the bat,
which I associate with an expamse of desert in the original Star Wars,
comes from "Venus."
AFAICT, John Williams has written two movie scores: Schindler's List,
and the other one.
(Which is a takeoff on the deaf British gentleman's statement: "I only
know two tunes, 'God Save the Queen' and the other one. The people
stand up for the former.")
El Klauso
modulatory devices and orchestration examples which reveal some of the
inspirations of Mr. Williams, but I will point the way to one item
that seems to have a good deal to do with the main "Indiana Jones"
theme, the old AM radio song "That's What Happiness Is," made popular
by the ever-perky Ray Coniff singers.
Old codgers like myself will probably remember the lyrics...
Happiness is - Happiness is
(The call and response are repeated three more times...)
Different things to different people,
That's what happiness is.
El Klauso
some of the best scores of the last 40 years. I value not only his big-
screen work, but I too enjoy his smallscreen offerings, especially the
stock music for "Gilligan's Island."
Katt
> On Jul 5, 12:04 am, FishyThoughts <FishyThoug...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> What classical works have overtures, etc. similar to the main Indiana
>> Jones theme?
>
> John Williams is very well known to crib most of his "ideas" from the
> "Mars" movement of *The Planets*, by Gustav Holst.
More complete horse-pucky from Petey-boy. Really: the damage this asshole
does to the trusting beginners who read the ordure he posts here must be
*immense*. For Williams is not 'very well known' to do anything of the kind;
and aside from a couple of passages in the original 'Star Wars' (heard in
the 'main title'), he can't be accused of cribbing much from 'Mars' at all.
To say that 'most' of his ideas come from 'Mars' is sheerly *idiotic*.
Katt.
Peter T. Daniels
And who the hell are you?
Either you've never been to a John Williams movie, or you've never
heard The Planets.
Adam Funk
> For Williams is not 'very well known' to do anything of the kind;
> and aside from a couple of passages in the original 'Star Wars'
> (heard in the 'main title'), he can't be accused of cribbing much
> from 'Mars' at all. To say that 'most' of his ideas come from
> 'Mars' is sheerly *idiotic*.
It's not necessarily an insult: "Lesser artists borrow, great artists
steal." (Stravinsky, I think.)
--
Bob just used 'canonical' in the canonical way. [Guy Steele]
Katt
news:ioe3m5-...@news.ducksburg.com...
> On 2008-07-29, Katt wrote:
>
>> For Williams is not 'very well known' to do anything of the kind;
>> and aside from a couple of passages in the original 'Star Wars'
>> (heard in the 'main title'), he can't be accused of cribbing much
>> from 'Mars' at all. To say that 'most' of his ideas come from
>> 'Mars' is sheerly *idiotic*.
>
> It's not necessarily an insult: "Lesser artists borrow, great artists
> steal." (Stravinsky, I think.)
I'm not interested in whether or not it's 'necessarily an insult'. My point
was and is that what Petey-boy said is simply *false*. Try and get your head
around the difference. It can be important in a court of law.
K.
Poldie
Everyone knows they come from Stravinsky's `Rite of Spring`!
Katt
news:g6viau$4ci$4...@registered.motzarella.org...
> Katt wrote:
>> and aside from a couple of passages in the original 'Star Wars' (heard in
>> the 'main title'), he can't be accused of cribbing much from 'Mars' at
>> all. To say that 'most' of his ideas come from 'Mars' is sheerly
>> *idiotic*.
>
> Everyone knows they come from Stravinsky's `Rite of Spring`!
Heh! The 'Jawa' music from the original film is a pretty close relative,
yes!
But apart from that, I've not been able to detect much of a connection --
except the kind of thing that happens simply because Stravinsky and Williams
both use the octatonic scale a lot. Do let me know if you've spotted
something more significant: I'd be really pleased to see a substantial post
on this topic.
Heard a fair bit of the RoS in 'Outland' the other week... Anyone else spot
it??
K.
Petrushka
> "Poldie" <_.@._> wrote in message
> news:g6viau$4ci$4...@registered.motzarella.org...
>> Katt wrote:
>>> and aside from a couple of passages in the original 'Star Wars' (heard in
>>> the 'main title'), he can't be accused of cribbing much from 'Mars' at
>>> all. To say that 'most' of his ideas come from 'Mars' is sheerly
>>> *idiotic*.
I think the ``John Williams plagiarised all his material from Mars''
reference was based on about 10 seconds of music about two minutes into
the first film where we get some repeated discordant chords, some of
them in triplets.
>> Everyone knows they come from Stravinsky's `Rite of Spring`!
>
> Heh! The 'Jawa' music from the original film is a pretty close relative,
> yes!
>
> But apart from that, I've not been able to detect much of a connection --
> except the kind of thing that happens simply because Stravinsky and Williams
> both use the octatonic scale a lot. Do let me know if you've spotted
> something more significant: I'd be really pleased to see a substantial post
> on this topic.
Well, on skimming through the first film I noticed a passage (about
10:30) in that's very close to the opening of Rite of Spring part 2 `Le
sacrifice'.
Poldie
Yeah, that's the most obvious one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rite_of_Spring
As a film score
Many subsequent film composers have been influenced by The Rite of
Spring and sometimes make indirect or direct references to the work. For
example, for the original Star Wars, John Williams wrote a cue for a
scene in the Dune Sea of Tatooine that begins with a permutation of the
introduction to Part II of The Rite of Spring. Jerry Goldsmith's score
for Peter Hyams' science-fiction classic Outland can be heard to draw on
Stravinsky's score at several points. The specific motivation for such
reference/homage/borrowing is not always apparent, but in the sleeve
notes of the special edition of the soundtrack of Star Wars Episode IV:
A New Hope, John Williams is quoted as saying that he broke one of his
own cardinal rules, in that he listened to Lucas' temp track. The
similarity between this Star Wars passage and the Introduction of Part
II of Stravinsky's work suggest that George Lucas had used this very
piece as music for that scene. This work also echoes in the theme to
Steven Spielberg's 2005 adaptation of War of the Worlds.[26] The opening
bars of the piece form a theme used in the animated TV series The
Animals Of Farthing Wood.
John W Kennedy
> in the sleeve
> notes of the special edition of the soundtrack of Star Wars Episode IV:
> A New Hope
Original 1977 edition, too.
--
John W. Kennedy
A proud member of the reality-based community.