John Williams' father was a musician. He no doubt inspired, supported, and motivated his son in becoming a musician. In fact, Williams started taking piano lessons at a very young age because his father wanted him to learn, understand, and appreciate music. Just like many other creatives, we learned about how his father nurtured his love for music in his childhood, paving the way for him to accomplish great things.
John Williams has done music mainly because he loves what he does. He is certainly intrinsically motivated. Ever since he was a child he chased after his goal of becoming a concert pianist. After serving in the military for three years, he returned to New York and worked as a jazz pianist because he knew and loved music. The sheer fact that John Williams is 87 years old and is still writing and
composing music illustrates his intense intrinsic motivation. Even after all of his accomplishments he does not take complete pleasure in anything he has made because, like Frank Gehry, he always sees things that can improve. This shows his love and respect for what he does. Those feelings motivate him towards perfecting his craft.
I would also like to quickly talk about the field's thoughts on his work. I think famous director Steven Spielberg explains this relationship perfectly when he says, "I have to say, without question, John Williams has been the single most significant contributor to my success as a filmmaker". This shows how highly the people in the field view Williams' scores and composition. That quote also suggests that his work also has a profound positive influence in storytelling done in movies. But if you don't want to take Spielberg's word for it just look at his AFI Lifetime Achievement Award, 5 Academy Awards, 51 Academy Award Nominations, 20 Grammy Awards, and 64 Grammy Award Nominations.
John Williams is truly a creative genius and I am humbled and inspired by doing research on him. I strongly recommend that you watch the interview (link bellow) it gave me chills.
It is very interesting that Williams never experiences writer's block in the conventional sense and that he just pushes through it. It makes me wonder how much of the "nonsense" that he puts down just to get through it becomes part of the polished work. The bit about him working with "ancient tools" is another interesting note. The concept of tangibility and actually holding something and making the paper dirty makes sense. It almost seems like a way to track progression. The extra bit of effort can add to the overall experience as well. Personally, that's one of the reasons I like vinyl records is due to the tangibility and the process of putting it on the player. All in all, very well done dive into the man behind a great deal of our childhood soundtracks.
ReplyDeleteWilliams has definitely made his mark in the music industry, for he has composed music for countless films. His intrinsic motivation is the level of motivation I strive to reach.
ReplyDeleteLike Williams, I had piano lessons as a child with my father. I also always had the passion to become a professional pianist/musician. However, there are obstacles in my life which prevent me from achieving that goal. Every day, I get busier with school, and the amount of time I typically spend practicing the piano every day had decreased -- the importance of music in my life began to lessen. After reading your post and understanding how quickly Williams returned to music as soon as he finished serving in the military for three years, though, I've regained hope that I can make my musical aspirations come true if I just try hard enough.
Thanks for the interesting read.