John Williams

Harry’s Wonderful World [and generally for all his pop works]

            While John Adams, Phillip Glass, John Corigliano, and a host of others vie for the mantle of successor to Aaron Copland, in point of fact, the average American has probably heard more music for symphonic orchestra by John Williams than all of the others put together.  He stands alone in his position as the most successful and most admired film composer of the last thirty years or so.  Over four-dozen Academy Award nominations (five won) and some twenty-two Grammy wins speak for themselves.  His music is so ubiquitous that it is easy to forget just how much of it we know and experience.  While there have been any number of film composers who have experimented in various styles of writing for films, it is he who is most responsible for the rebirth of the great symphonic film m