Is This John Williams' Greatest Secret?
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- Опубликовано: 3 окт 2024
- When a technique shows up over and over again, it's worth paying attention.
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This really reminds me of Ravel and Debussy . Never just straight triads , always added notes to give it a shimmer.
5:51 I may be the only one, but to me it was earth shatteringly different with the added suspensions. Far more emotionally complex and affecting. This was so enlightening. Thank you!
Emotionally different, for sure. Musically subtle in that the uneducated ear wouldn’t know why it had a greater sense of pensive longing. One has moved from outdoor/external, looking at the physical setting, to indoor/internal, looking at memories or regrets.
It's always a pleasure to learn a little more about John Williams! Thanks for this Ryan!
I knew there was something sus about him
🤣 this is WAY funnier than it should be
Greatest quote ever 🤣
😅
That was great in multiple ways: Firstly I am a Willams fan and absorb every bit of information about his writing. Secondly the information was delivered on point in a very understandable way and lastly I dig the examples you made when you applied that tools to existing melodies.
I am looking forward for Pillars of composition 2 and I wish for a „Write Like Williams“ course.
Thanks Ryan!
I mean it sure would be interesting if JW commented on these more technical aspects of his craft. He consistently stays very quiet on these details, but then again he’s never publicly asked about them. I wonder why someone of his accomplishments hasn’t appeared more interested in passing on his knowledge. Perhaps he does privately though. Has he ever had pupils, even nominally? I’m amazed he’s not sick to death of cracking the same self-effacing Schindler’s List “Steven you need a better composer” line after 30 years.
I absolutely love the vid, it's interesting how much the background shapes the overall picture in Williams' work!
One interesting expansion on the topic is how his usage of suspension changes throughout his different phases. He evolved his style throughout the 2010's towards an influx of suspensions that just don't resolve altogether, but instead become integral to the structural harmony. Often, this is done in otherwise harmonically stable contexts, keeping the line between those and his often times extraordinarily unstable developmental passages a little blurry.
His harmonic language became a bit more muted and less energetic in the process.
So many secrets ! So little time !
Thank you for this tutorial Ryan. It's quite amazing how this subtle technique adds a feeling of movement in the background.
I think it’s just another element that he uses to constantly keep multiple things moving forward at once. I find it’s rare that his music comes to a complete standstill. Constant little flourishes bounding back and forth between different sections just keeps a constant forward momentum. Maybe an oversimplification but I think this is what a lot of his best work does to keep you fully engaged.
Williams does this A LOT when he stays on the same degree for a while, usually the tonic. In the Friendship Theme (from Harry's Wondrous World), the harmony stays on C for 6 of the 8 bars, similarly with Kensington Gardens from Hook, he just switches between the tonic and dominant. But he almost never stays or revisits one chord for more than a bar without adding these suspensions/extensions and if he does it's usually because there's a very active line above.
Excellent observation
2:52 really reminds me of "across the stars" melody
Thank you for this. This is not something I think I would have noticed about his writing that I'm very happy to now see more clearly.
So many treasures to discover in Williams' scores !
Thanks for the composing 'secrets' Ryan! I am amazed at the orchestra plug-ins that sound so real these days. After spending many years at guitar, I am going back to learn how to score with keyboard. Maybe I will finally publish something.
This was really cool, especially loved the example at the end really highlighted your point. It's subtle bit still kinda fundamental.
thanks for sharing this konwledge
I love subtle effects
It's the subtleties that are the difference between good art and amazing art
That's interesting. I never really knew about how the suspension was used classically, having the setup preceding its usage in the following harmony, since I came from Jazz. It makes sense that you described it that way, though.
You should make a dedicated john williams channel. There's so much content to put there and I love your channel btw
Hey Ryan! Awesome video! I really think you should do a video on Dune, it would be awesome to see some insights from the film. Keep up the good work!
You found the life of John Williams!!!! I like this… it’s like you’re a music archeologist
Thank you. Wonderful explanation.
Love this guy, I'm a composer and it really helps alot!
I see you made a lot of videos about John Williams! I'd love to see a similar thing done with some other composers like James Horner (simple yet extremely effective melodies), James Newton Howard (particularly "The Village" soundtrack), Zimmer (especially pre-Pirates of the Caribbean Zimmer), maybe even Bill Brown (Lineage 2 soundtrack has some gems, try listening to "Shepherd's Flute").
Excellent video Ryan! Thank you.
Very insightful. Thanks.
Again a great video. Thank you very much, Ryan. I learned a ton of all kinds of musical insight views based on your videos 👏👏👏👍
Love this technique. Romanticists like Tchaikovsky also use it extensively. Romeo and Juliet romantic overture is my favourite.
Great insight Ryan and helpful...
Interesting video on Suspension Theory. It is subtle.
OMG FINALLY SMONE TALKING ABOUT THE HOOK SNDTRK! THE MOST UNDER APPRECIATED SCORE OF ALL TIME
Also a part in like and Leia as this incredible motion in the accompany line
Can you produce a video talking about the song, 'Black Hole Sun'. I'd like to hear your opinion on the way the chords are used & why. That song has fascinated me for a long time.
A great knowledge of late romantic, early 20th Century, and Hollywood composers. Compositions that are not usually heard by the general public. As attributed to Stravinsky: "Good composers borrow, great composers steal!"
This reminds me of Anne-Katherin Dern's video not too long ago about prepared dissonances. I think hers examples showed more uses as an appoggiatura than cycling back and forth but i do think the principle is the same as here in this video
The repetitive eight note suspended chords also remind me of The Mission, for NBC News, particularly the early 21st century theme for the Today show, about 10 seconds long.
incredible really !
As someone who’s never been too fond of the dominant 7th (as least when I compose) I’ve always loved seeing Williams use a V7sus4 but not resolve the 4-3, before he goes to the I…. the maestro is a treasure trove! Great video!
I love the sound of resolving the sus chord directly onto I (or even V-Vsus-I), maybe I got that idea from John Williams.
@@marcellkovacs5452 it’s a beautiful sound, made me compose V-I’s again
This video was uploaded 15 seconds ago. I think that's the fastest I've ever been to a video.
Anyway, let me watch it before commenting something actually useful 😅
Based on the thumbnail I thought this was a David Bennet video before I saw the name lol. Good observation, nice video!
That’s very interesting!
0:32 Why do you encode melodic movement in your chord symbols? The chord is E♭ throughout.
2:20 Yeah, sure you can do that. But then what you have is not a suspension but an appoggiatura.
You can see this in pop music too. U2’s songs Where the Streets Have No Name and Bad both take a sus4 to major, sus4 major thing and stretches it out to a six minute song
It's actually very common in pop music
I will just mention: Last movement of Tchaikovsky's 6th and last symphony. There’s almost nothing there that’s not suspensión based. But also some of his other great melodies like 5th symphony II movement, are based on this.
that chord in bar 2, in the woodwinds, 3:26... so beautiful. A diminished chord broken up. But the context is so perfect and the arrangement. God damnit John?!! Thanks for these videos Ryan.
Yes, stood out to me too. Wait a min, is that a diminished? Yup, and... it works pretty well.
Oh yeah a new video :D 🥳
Interesting. I have always written like that. Often with the violas or oboes. I just thought it was "orchestrating"... I guess I've listened to too much Williams.
What I learned from this is that I should try not doing suspensions as a contrast to using them.
Hey! This is a great video! I was wondering if you could do the same but with Beethoven? I think his orchestration is pretty underrated. But that could be because I can't get enough of anything by him. Lol What advice do you think Beethoven would giveto conposers, if he were alive today? (Aka Advice in general.) Thanks if you read)
So sick. Going to have to study up on this more. Subtle nuances really contribute to the overall sound and I wasn't even aware.
Film composing is on another level entirely. The final frontier
the courses are too expensive for brazilians people... i cant pay for it....
Very interesting video. I'm Italian I know. but why do you never talk about Ennio Morricone? His chords and his orchestration? Thank you. Greeting from Rome.
What was the music in your example at the end from?
Rito Village from Breath of the Wild
I'm so glad seeing youtube channels teaching about Williams' scoring. We need his level of the craft back, I'm so tired of all the modern hollywood "composers" who couldn't put a solid musical piece together if their life depended on it.
I know these things are just little details in the entire scope of scoring a movie like John Williams, but it's great to build up one's knowledge bit by bit.
Thank you!
To be fair, a lot of film directors want background music that doesn’t interfere with their movie. It’s a taste thing. And if the director asks you to compose one thing, and you compose something completely different, then you won’t be able to pay your rent.
@@zachary963It's not just a taste thing. Those guys couldn't put a 20 seconds of Williams-level music together even if you asked them to.
Lydian for days
Soild
Go check Brahms scores for it, he does this alot.....
I expected "suspension" to refer to sus chords, especially as half the chords in the parts shown are "sus4"
Yeah, I've never heard what he's talking about called a "suspension"
A suspended chord is when the 3rd is replaced with either the 2nd or 4th
Doing this too much is the quickest way to sound
"new age" and kitschy
It’s not a secret, it’s actually the basics to understand John Williams 😄
Summarize: use suspensions...
John Williams composes using counterpoint instead of chords. That’s what you’ve discovered.
No, this is not a John Willians truck. it existed before he was born.
I think you’ve misunderstood