Reviews
BOOKS
John Williams: A Composer’s Life Tim Greiving
640PP ISBN 9780197620885 OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS £31.99
It’s hard to fathom that one of the most recognisable composers on this planet has yet to have a full-scale biography written about him. After six decades composing music for some of the world’s most beloved movies, as well as an ever-expanding catalogue of pieces for the concert hall, famed composer John Williams finally has a book worthy of his legacy. Against all odds, owing to the fact that Williams never wanted a biography written about himself, through a series of serendipitous moments author Tim Greiving gained access to the composer and was allowed into the inner sanctum, interviewing him over a range of a year and a half. What follows is a fairly straightforward presentation of his life and career, amplified by commentary from Williams throughout. This is as close to a memoir as we will likely ever get from the composer, and it’s something very special indeed.
Greiving didn’t just interview Williams: he interviewed numerous individuals associated with the composer throughout Hollywood and the classical music world. The book begins with information on his family, his own start on the piano, and how he had aimed to be a concertising virtuoso, eventually studying with the great piano pedagogue Rosina Lhévinne at Juilliard, where his classmates were Van Cliburn and André Previn, the latter becoming one of his closest friends. We learn about his time in the US Air Force, his first steps into orchestration, and eventually moving into composing for television and films. Greiving goes through each of Williams’s film projects, giving an analysis of the film and the score, and not shying away from personal opinion. As we go through Williams’s history, ending at the present day, the book presents a wealth of background information, and reads like a who’s who of Hollywood, history and pop culture. For a man who supposedly hasn’t had interesting life, describing himself as ‘a simple musician’, he has crossed paths with a staggering number of luminaries.