John Williams Addresses His Retirement Plans, Won’t Rule Out Composing Again

Summary

• John Williams isn’t retiring just yet, especially if the right project presents itself.
• Williams recognizes the evolving value in both the commercial and artistic worlds, and looks forward to seeing how cinema contributes to the development of new music.
• Williams has been nominated for over 50 Academy Awards, winning a total of five Oscars.

Fans may have thought they heard John Williams’ career decrescendo, but the A-list composer isn’t done making music. True, 91-year-old Williams was supposed to retire after scoring Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, but he said back in January: “A day without music is a mistake.” And now, in an interview with The Times newspaper, Williams is reaffirming that Indy 5 and The Fabelmans may not be his last two works of art. Williams said:

“I don’t care much for grand pronunciamentos, statements that are firm and finished and surrounded by closed doors. If I made one without putting it in context then I withdraw it […] If a film came along that I was greatly interested in, with a schedule that I could cope with, then I wouldn’t want to rule anything out. Everything is possible. All is before us. Only our limitations are holding us back. Or, to put it more simply: I like to keep an open mind.”

When the opportunity presented itself for Williams to work with Spielberg again on The Fabelmans, for which the legendary composer was once again nominated for an Oscar, Williams couldn’t refuse his colleague. Williams said, “Steven isn’t a man you can say no to.” Check out a featurette from The Fabelmans below, which touches on Spielberg and Williams’ unique 50-year collaboration in Hollywood:

Related: John Williams’ Best Musical Scores, Ranked

John Williams Is Likely to Score Again

John Williams’ stirring score in Superman: The Movie (1978) helped director Richard Donner convince an entire generation of superhero fans that a man can fly. And for those who may never have heard the iconic composition, which accompanies Christopher Reeve’s Man of Steel through the skies over Metropolis, check out the unforgettable theme below:

And Williams made sure that horror enthusiasts became weary of water every time his musical score for Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975) began to crescendo on the Silver Screen. But even with Williams composing some of cinema’s biggest blockbusters in a career spanning 65 years, he still realizes the value of music both commercially and artistically. Williams said in the same interview with The Times newspaper:

“Thirty or 40 years ago, when I would take a programme of film music to one of our big orchestras, there might be condescension. I understood it; I understand the value of things made in the commercial world and their place in the art world. But now things are different. I’d love to come back in 50 years’ time and see what cinema is contributing to the development of new music, because I think young composers will want to work across both.”

Williams’ eclectic compositions have served as the musical scores for projects and memorable moments in time as varied as the television series Gilligan’s Island to Universal Pictures’ remake of Dracula in 1979 to the biggest twist ever captured in a motion picture: the “I am your father” reveal from Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back. And Williams discussed his range as a composer in the same interview:

“Film requires you to adapt your style to every project that comes along: Home Alone can’t be in the same idiom as Saving Private Ryan or Jurassic Park, but perhaps we all have many parts to our characters. Somewhere in all of my film scores there must be some kind of ‘me.’ But I leave that to others to identify.”

Over the course of his illustrious career, Williams has been nominated for over 50 Oscars and won a total of five Academy Awards for his musical mastery in Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Jaws (1975), Star Wars (1977), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and Schindler’s List (1993). And as this story comes to a close, be sure to listen to one of Williams’ masterpieces, The Imperial March, aka Darth Vader’s theme, below:

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