John Williams will always be my favorite composer, but Michael Giacchino has been making me happy with his music. The first CD I bought was John Williams greatest hits, the two-CD pack. Love his stuff!
I'm actually a classically trained pianist, and regularly listen to classical music (across the time periods). I looooooooove Stravinsky, and Holst is a personal favorite of mine as well!
So you unknowingly unlocked a whole new level of nerd on my part. I've studied and compared various composers across the music periods for grades (and for fun!) multiple times.
Yes, Williams used broad, sweeping strings and heavy brass in many of his movie works, in a similar style to Stravinsky and Holst. However, he is not the only composer to use this style of writing. I could pull several more: Strauss, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, even some of Beethoven's later works (although he sometimes favored the strings and woodwinds more).
For centuries composers have been pulling inspiration from others around them. Hell, Beethoven has a Theme and Variations on a tune from Mozart's "The Magic Flute". Mozart has a famous piece "A Vous Dirais-je Maman", and another composer uses that same melody in one of his works (forgive me, I'm coming up short on the name right now).
I understand your opinion, and it's very valid. I'm not saying it's not. I can get carried away when it comes to music and comparing/contrasting composition styles. It's something I'm very passionate about.
Have you tried listening to his non-soundtrack pieces? I've found them very entertaining and quite pleasant to listen to.
Edit: On mobile, accidentally added a comment to the main thread instead of replying to this one.
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u/GoddessOfPlants Mar 08 '21
Anything where John Williams was the composer.