I recently watched the new documentary called the Music of John Williams on Disney +. What an incredible, serendipitous and creative career story. John is currently active in his work at 92 years of age.  

Johnny (as he was called during his youth and early professional career) was born in Flushing, New York and came from a musical family. His father was a professional drummer working in New York and Hollywood in radio, films and as a recording musician. His mother, Esther raised John and three siblings and was a professional dancer.  

John’s father encouraged him to learn, practice and play the piano at an early age. The family moved to Hollywood when John was 14 as work opportunities for his father became available. In high school Johnny performed in the school bands and orchestras and opportunities came up for him to conduct and compose. He jumped right into them. Living in Hollywood with his prolific,  performing father, Johnny started playing piano and performing in the film music industry. Opportunities started opening up and soon John was performing, and composing for television and film. The list of films he composed and conducted music for is incredibly extensive. The more he played the more opportunities opened up and soon John was composing film music. His earlier film compositions included You are Welcome from 1954, to the Valley of the Dolls, Goodbye Mr. Chips and the Cowboys, in the late 1960’s.  

John’s first wife, Barbara Ruick, who was an actress and a singer, died unexpectedly of a brain aneurysm, leaving him grieving and with three teenage children to be responsible for. This was in 1974. His daughter took on much of the parenting duties as she shares in the documentary. After this period, where John did little work, he began a great creative surge which included meeting and working with Stephen Spielberg. Their relationship endured and includes almost all of John’s great film scores including Jaws, most of the Star Wars series, E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, Superman, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Indian Jones, Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan and Schindler’s List. And not to leave out my son-in-law’s favorite Christmas film: Home Alone. Without Speilberg  

Williams composed and conducted for the first three Harry Potter films, the Book Thief, and the Adventures of Tin Tin among others. John has also composed music for four Olympic Games, and was director/conductor of the Boston Pops for a period of time. 

John still writes down all his compositions by hand, a time consuming process.  Not only does John compose and direct orchestral film music, he also composes orchestral pieces and concertos. John’s most recent film composition was for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. He is currently working on a new concerto piece.  

What struck me when watching this documentary was two things. First, when being interviewed on his career John commented that it was not planned, it unfolded as he took advantage of opportunities as they arose. This is an excellent example of the Planned Happenstance theory of career development. John followed his curiosity and went through open doors when they presented themselves, to see where they led and then acted on them as new possibilities. 

The other thing that struck me was John’s comment on his first wife. John mentioned that shortly after she died he could feel her presence and she was always behind him while he was working and encouraging him as a creative force guiding him. And, at 92, John is still learning, growing and contributing to make the world a better place through music.   

Sources: The Music of John Williams, Apple+, Wikipedia.org, photo from Creative Commons (Chris Deavers) along with  my own observations