POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF VALENCIA

GANDIA HIGHER POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL

Degree in Audiovisual Communication

UNIVERSITY
POLYTECHNICS
FROM VALENCIA POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL
SUPERIOR OF GANDIA

“Narrative elements of the

music by John Williams for the
movie of "E. T., the
alien"

FINAL DEGREE PROJECT

Author:
Rosa Adrià Llopis

Tutor:
Francisco de Zulueta

GANDIA, 2017

SUMMARY
-The work consists of analyzing, from a narrative point of view, the music composed by
John Williams for the film E. T (Steven Spielberg, 1982). Through it we will establish
connections with other works of the author, which, as a whole, represent a clear
exponent of current symphony and "Hollywood sound."
On the one hand we will describe the narrative (semiotic) aspects of John Williams' music
for ET On the other hand, we will locate the cadences, we will discover how the composer
creates the leitmotifs and main themes of the films, how it can make us feel like flying
through the musical modes or simply the description of the music itself.
Through this analysis we want to show how John Williams has become the sound of
Hollywood and has become one of the greatest composers of recent decades.
Williams has a characteristic stamp, with just four notes of one of his compositions we
know that the piece is his. Different techniques to be able to carry out this, such as the
type of instrumentation and orchestration used, the use of drones or clusters or making
the brass instruments shine with the fanfares.
-This work consists on the analyzing, from the narrative point of view, of the soundtrack
composed by John Williams for Steven Spielberg's ET The Extra-Terrestrial (1982).
Through this soundtrack, we'll be able to link that music with many other soundtracks
composed by him which, all together, represents a clear example of what we know as
"Hollywood Music".
First, we'll describe ET's soundtrack's narrative characteristics, composed by John
Williams. Then, we'll link all the musical trends, analyzing every leitmotif and main movie
soundtrack themes composed by him, and the ability to make us "fly" by making use of
every musical tool he has.
What we want to show is how John Williams has created the "Hollywood Music", while
becoming one of the best and most acclaimed soundtrack composer of the last decades.
Williams is the owner of a characteristic feature, which is the use of four specific musical
notes through which we can instantly point out, without knowing beforehand, that John
Williams is that soundtrack's composer. Different techniques make this possible, such as
the instrumentation type that he chooses, the use of drones among others, or the simple
fact of making every wind instrument shine with every fanfare.
KEYWORDS
-John Williams, Steven Spielberg, soundtrack, film music, narrative.
-John Williams, Steven Spielberg, soundtrack, film music, narrative.
Index
POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF VALENCIA............................................................1
1. INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................3
2. THE CUE SHEETS.................................................................................................4
3. A FEW NOTES ON JOHN WILLIAMS..............................................................18
4. THE BINOMIO DIRECTOR COMPOSER..........................................................19
5. SYNOPSIS OF THE ALIEN.................................................................................21
6. NARRATIVE ASPECTS......................................................................................23

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§ or........................................................................................................................................32
7. INSTRUMENTATION AND ORCHESTRATION.............................................34
8. THE SILENCE, IS IT INTENTIONAL OR NOT?..............................................38
9. MUSICAL BREAKDOWN OF THE MOST IMPORTANT SCENES WITH
MUSIC..........................................................................................................................39
10. CONCLUSIONS................................................................................................41
11. BIBILIOGRAPHY.............................................................................................42
1.

1. INTRODUCTION
Nobody doubts the importance of music for cinema: it has existed since its beginnings,
helping the viewer to get deeper into the story and feel like a participant in it. The viewer,
through the soundtrack of a film, undergoes an experience with innumerable samples of
feeling. Throughout a film, people can feel fear, joy, sadness, anger or despair. Showing
the same scene, from any film, with or without music offers completely different results
(because music directly influences both the semantic meaning of what we see and the
narrative development of the film itself).

Another aspect to take into account is the fact that film music has built its own language
that as such is understood, in an almost intuitive way, by countless audiences. However,
we must keep in mind that our experience is immersed in Western culture and that it is
born from the codes established by the tradition of North American and European
cinema. And as Philip Tagg points out, “within each culture music is structured in regularly
recurring ways, which equally regularly fulfill specific functions, and which suggest or
connote specific models of gesture, movement, feeling, etc.” 2 From a musical point of
view, some studies support the idea that certain cadences and musical effects function as
“words” that have culturally accepted meanings for the viewer.

The composer we are going to talk about in this work is John Williams, a musical virtuoso
who worked under the orders of the greatest composers in Hollywood to later become
one of the most recognized and prestigious in its history. He, better than anyone, has
been able to convey to us the sensation of being able to fly, of feeling adventurous and of
being guardians of a galaxy in danger.

2Philip Tagg, The Music Book Movie. About the need to rethink the ways of explaining musical meaning. Seventh
congress of the IASPM-AL, Havana, June 2006.

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Therefore, our work has as its main objective to analyze the music of John Williams
through his methods and style of composition. To do this, and after weighing several
options, we have chosen the soundtrack of the film ET the Extraterrestrial (Steven
Spielberg, 1982), not only because it is a film that won an Oscar, but also because its score
is one of the most complete. and perfect parts of his filmography, and because in it it is
easy to recognize his unmistakable symphonic style: the forcefulness of the brass against
the sweetness of the chromaticisms of a harmony with a certain romantic flavor. Our
intention is to describe the narrative (semiotic) aspects of John Williams' music for the
film ET the alien.

The specific objectives are: 1) locate the most significant fragments of John Williams'
score; 2) review the musical themes and leitmotifs that define the sound universe of the
film; 3) try to analyze and describe the way in which John Williams recreates the sound
(and dramatic) setting through his technique (such as drones, clusters, ostinatos, cadences
and modal progressions, the Lydian mode being the most significant).

2. THE CUE SHEETS

For this film we have created a decoupage from the official cue sheets , from which we
have eliminated the alternative pieces to leave those that appeared in the final cut of the
film. Following the usual production process in Hollywood, several versions of some of the
musical pieces were also made for the film. The reasons are several. Firstly, to adjust the
music to the demands of editing, planning changes, the final duration of the scenes or
discards. Secondly, for not adjusting to the aesthetic and narrative interests of the
director. Or due to situations such as the fact that Michael Jackson recorded a song for
the credits that was ultimately not included: John Williams had to create a new one. In
the words of John Williams, “I think in film music, the coloring really starts from the cue
sheet.” I am very sensitive to sound effects and dialogue. All the competition for my music
(this comes from experience and disappointments in the mixing room). You get a film
judgment after a while and learn to associate the signaled coloration with the total
hearing: you know you have to try to get horses trotting, therefore X is better than Y, etc.
You can't always write so brilliantly, you often have to put on the brakes. “It’s part of the

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art.” 2

To understand what "cue sheets" are, we will say that they are input lists which contain a
detailed reference of all the music composed for the film. These lists include the song
title, input timestamp, and duration.3 Traditionally they were marked indicating the reel
or roll number, and the number of the musical fragment of said reel (for example: R1M2).

1M1 The Forest (Revised) The film begins with a shot of the sky full of stars
and then we see a forest. The piece is called
forest since this scene all takes place in the
forest. ET and his companions land on earth.

1M2 Keyes Arrives (New Ending) Some agents appear, ET runs to reach the ship
but it takes off before him.
2
Roberto Aschieri (ed.), Over the Moon: John Williams' Music for Film . (Chile: Fierro & Ramírez, 1998), p. 42.

3 In silent cinema, "cue sheets" were booklets of scores with different effects that musicians used to accompany
films and transmit stereotyped emotions (fear, storm, kiss, fight, chase, etc.). Vine. Michel Chion, Music in cinema
(Barcelona: Grupo Planeta, 1997)

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 arrives and the alien stays on earth.

2M2 Looking for ET Elliot goes out with his bike to the forest to put a
bait the alien with candy so he does it

will continue to your house.

---- nm
1
1'

Edexüch
1
4
"and -as

MT
i "* HE
2M3 h
The First Meeting Elliot stays outside his house, in the yard
all night waiting for ET to follow the
candy road and get there. He
alien arrives and Elliot wakes up
hear strange sounds.

3M1
• ■ g-

Inside the House

m
Elliot makes a candy run to his
room that way the alien will arrive

until there. ET repeats the same gestures as

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 Elliot performs.

P 1 K) add
3M2 Meeting ET

3M3 ET and Elliot Elliot shows ET his toys and how they work.

My,
19 I 122==
1
«

4M1 In the Closet Elliot introduces his brothers to ET, they run into
the closet because their mother comes up to
look for them. Inside the closet the 3 promise
that they will not say anything.

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4M2 ET's Magic The three brothers try to find out if the alien is
a person, an animal or what it is. While trying
to discover him, they realize that he has
powers.

5M1 Mary Seaches the Closet Before leaving the house, Elliot's mother hears a
noise upstairs in the house and goes up to see what is happening. ET is still hiding in
the closet and pretends to be a stuffed animal.

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1J
5M2 E.T. Raids the Icebox The alien is hungry and decides to go down to
the kitchen to look for food in the refrigerator.
He starts drinking beer and Elliot gets drunk from
school while sitting in class because he is
mentally connected to ET.

AND
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"A m / {

506
AND. HA Ilk Ab” “E
5,
4a — mz
5M5 ETGets and Idea Elliot's sister Gertie realizes that ET can talk and
teaches him to say several words, this is how the
alien communicates with the well-known phrase
of “ET my home phone” so that the brothers

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 Get utensils and be able to communicate with
your loved ones.

6M3 Bed Time Stories Elliot's mom tells Gertie a bedtime story to help
her fall asleep, ET He hides in the closet
watching them. Elliot enters the closet through
which he is connected between the two rooms
(his sister's and his). He cuts himself with a saw
and ET lights up his finger and heals it instantly.

1
0
7M1 Halloween
)
The three brothers devise a plan to go to the
forest and with the device that ET has built trying
to communicate with his colleagues. They
disguise ET just like Gertie, with a sheet over him
as if he were a ghost, so when he leaves the
house his mother doesn't notice him and thinks
that ET is his daughter. Meanwhile Gertie waits
for them at the town viewpoint with the bicycle
so that Elliot and ET can They can go to the
forest.
-6 5242
7* 8i

kt

7M2- ET's Machine Elliot and E.T. They put the machine that the
8M1 alien has built to communicate with their people
to work and it works,

1
1
1
2
 works. They wait all night to see if the aliens
arrive but they don't arrive and E.T. Elliot fall ill.

8M2 Michael's Search Elliot's brother Michael goes in search of ET

because Elliot has come home without the
alien and asks her to go look for him. Michael
finds him and takes him home, that's when
they tell their mother what's going on because
Elliot and E.T. They are dying.

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3
9M1 Keyes Enters the House NASA agents, police officers and many more
invade the family's home to investigate the
alien and try to cure them.

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4
1
5
10M2 E.T. Phones Home Elliot decides to stay alone to say goodbye to the
alien and when he says goodbye and leaves the
room he looks at the flowers that his sister gave
to ET. and realizes that they are alive again and
observes that ET He has risen and tells him that
they are going to come for him.

“ 1 -------. - -
Il
I 1.: "and

11M1 The Rescue The two older brothers devise a plan to rescue
ET from the machine where they are freezing
him so they can take him to the forest so that his
people can pick him up so he can return to his
planet.

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6
 Michael
and
Elliot
steal
the van
where
11M3 The Bike Chase
ET is
inside the freezing machine. The older brother
asks his friends to take their bikes and head to
the hill so he can help them ET arrive in time
for the arrival of the spaceship.

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1
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3. A FEW NOTES ON JOHN WILLIAMS
In this section we will discuss the life of John Towner Williams, better known as John
Williams, since he is the composer of the soundtrack of the movie ET that we will later
analyze by aspects. How did the sound of Hollywood become?

Figure 1: John Williams, cover image of the book “John Williams Life and Work”.

Williams was born in New York on February 8, 1932. From the age of seven he began his
piano studies and from then on he has been composing soundtracks for films of all styles
for 6 decades. However, where John Williams learned the most was in jazz in the clubs
and studios of New York during the 1950s. He studied piano and composition at the
University of California and at various music schools.

At the end of 1950 he worked composing soundtracks for television series. His first steps
in cinema belong to the genre of comedy, catastrophe cinema among others. From here
he shot to fame with a number of awards won: 7 Grammys, 5 Oscars, Kennedy Award, 5
Golden Globes, BAFTA and many more.

John Williams explains that “Playing the piano for me was just a means to a purpose.
Composing has always been something subliminal. I never learned how to score films in a
formal way, but I gained a lot of knowledge just from being around people like Alfred
Newman and Franz Waxman. I absorbed his methods while playing Newman's
unsurpassed orchestra.” 4

4 Aschieri, Over the Moon , p. 54

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The musical style of John Williams' compositions, like that of many other Hollywood
composers (Miklós Rózsa, Max Steiner, Alfred Newman, Bernard Herrmann), is usually
neo-romantic. Indeed, many of John Williams' compositions have their origin in the
symphonic music of the late 19th century, in composers such as Gustav Mahler, Sergei
Rachmaninoff or Richard Strauss (especially for their marches and fanfares). But without
forgetting other more contemporary composers such as Vaughan Williams, Arthur Bliss,
Igor Stravinski or Gustav Holst.

“I received a good piano education when I was very young and, although I composed
music even as a teenager, I never thought I would become a film music composer. I think
when I started working in film studios in the mid-1950s, as a pianist in film orchestras and
studio orchestras, it started to occur to me that this could be something very exciting to
do and maybe I could do it too. . Actually, I started orchestrating other people's music.
That was also part of the process for me. ［ … ］ I tried to compose a piano sonata,
although I didn't finish it, but I tried. And I wasn't pushed by the teachers to do it, but it
was something that came to me naturally, for better or worse – just like any kid would –
without really thinking about it too much. ［…］5

As far as Williams' composition in the ET movie is concerned, it is one of the composer's

most perfect works. Proof of this is the well-deserved Oscar he won.

The musical pieces of the film where Williams knew how to create the perfect
atmosphere so that the viewer feels like they are flying when seeing Elliot and the alien
take flight with the bicycle over the moon or feel love when these two interact.

For him and many of his followers, the soundtrack of this film is the magic of cinema and
Hollywood.

4. THE BINOMIO DIRECTOR COMPOSER

Throughout the history of cinema there have been many pairs of film director and
soundtrack composer who have collaborated together in more than one film. The
combination of these two professions can create fantastic compositions for soundtracks
so that the result be a great movie. We find a variety of examples such as Fellini and Rota,
Danny Elfman and Tim Burton, Bernard Herrmann with Alfred Hitchcock or Ennio
Morricone with Sergio Leone.
5 Ibid. , p. 62

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The relationship between these two professionals is intimate, one on the part of director
and the other on the part of composer. Even before meeting Williams, film director
Spielberg already liked his compositions and works a lot. When he started with his first
film Loca Evasión (1974), he was clear from the beginning that his composer had to be
John Williams. From there an inseparable bond arose between them and every time
Spielberg makes a film his composer has to be John Williams.

They have made many films together such as Crazy Escape (1974), Jaws (1975), Hook
(1991), Schindler's List (1993), Jurassic Park (1993), Lincoln (2012) or Jurassic World (2015)
among others.

The latest work they have done together is the collection called John Williams & Steven
Spielberg: The Ultimate Collection , this is about the films in which John Williams has
composed for Steven Spielberg's films. A wide variety of pieces recorded by the Recording
Arts Orchestra of Los Angeles.

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1
 Figure 2 John Williams and Steven Spielberg

One of their big debates is choosing which scenes to put music in, once the scenes are
chosen to know when the music is going to start and where it is going to end. One of the
great challenges of the composer and the director is also to find the climax of the film, the
most exciting part, so that the main theme is heard at that moment in its maximum
splendor.

“The joint work of both of them is born from simple admiration, that of a young director
very aware of the importance of music in cinema. Consequently, the composer wanted to
reciprocate by creating great scores, especially when he saw to what extent his work was
appreciated.”6

5. SYNOPSIS OF THE ALIEN

Film directed by Steven Spielberg, released on December 6, 1982. When John Williams
first saw the film he compared himself to a doctor who has to diagnose a person's
physical condition.

For Williams it was a challenge to compose this soundtrack since what he and Spielberg
(director of the film) were trying to make the film not about horror but about love
between an alien, extraterrestrial and a child.

6 Andrés Valverde, John Williams Life and Work . (Córdoba: Editorial Almuzara, 2013) p. 51

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2
 Figure 3 “ET” movie poster The extra-Terrestral”.

ET is an extraterrestrial who arrives with more extraterrestrials and their ship in

California, when they are surprised by agents of the US government, they flee and leave
one of them (ET) abandoned. Elliot leaves the house to pick up a pizza and observes the
alien, in order to attract it he does so with caramel candies. Michael and Gertie, Elliot's
siblings, keep the secret of the alien hidden in their house, so that their mother or anyone
else finds out.

The three brothers begin to experiment on him, try to guess where he comes from and
discover that he has powers and that Elliot and ET have a Psychic connection. The two
older brothers, with the help of the alien, manage to build a device to call ET's house. 7

In order to get ET out of the house, they take advantage of Halloween and dress him up as
a ghost. Elliot and ET go to the forest to try to make the call and they make it correctly,
but the next morning Elliot wakes up alone and returns home without ET. and his mother
realizes that he is sick just as Michael finds ET dying in the woods. He moves him to his
house where scientists quarantine the house, the bond that ET and Elliot have disappears
when ET dies. The boy is left alone with the alien and he wakes up and announces that his
companions are back, Michael and Elliot with the help of their friends decide to escape
with their bicycles to bring ET back to the forest so that the aliens can pick him up and
7 From here comes the famous phrase known to everyone: “ET, my house… telephone”

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return to your planet.

6. NARRATIVE ASPECTS

6.1. Credit titles

The opening credits (main titles) are a fundamental and very important part of the film
since it is the first attraction towards the viewer through which the musical motifs that
will characterize the entire soundtrack are introduced. We are shown the director of the
film, the names of the main characters, the producer and the author of the soundtrack.

With regard to the opening credits of the film we are analyzing, the first thing we observe
(figure 4) , the sound of some very strident long notes is heard, so that they seem like
distant sounds from beyond. They last approximately 1 minute and have the same sound
throughout. We then see a night sky full of stars and a flute plays the main melody of the
film. John Williams presents himself in this way with the composition of a mysterious and
suspenseful piece of music called “The Forest/Keyes”. The darkness of this opening also
reminds us of the composition

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4
 made by Goldsmith for the film Allien, the Eighth Passenger (Ridley Scott, 1979), although
it does not intend to show us such a suffocating and terrifying atmosphere. This stealthy

M-11R
Slowly A lydian
Pífenlo E--------------- ”

PP Mister.

"The Wonder Theme"

This short Lydian motif is often used to portray the

mysterious and ambiguous nature of ET
Starry night sky faites into view

Figure 4: Brad Frey, FilmScoreAnalisis. The Forest Piece (1M1)

way of introducing us to the film is characteristic of Williams and can be found in other
titles such as Harry Potter or Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark.
6.2. The BSO Concept
To compose you have to know about cinema and use its language. As Aaron Copland
described,8 Unlike classical concert music, film music is irregular in its forms and very
eclectic; Any musical resource is worth it as long as it connects emotionally and
meaningfully with the viewer. Writing film music means entering the author's imagistic
universe and developing a whole repertoire of technical and expressive resources capable
of awakening in the viewer, as quickly as possible, the meaning of what is narrated, its
landscapes, characters and conflicts. As we previously indicated, the language used by the
composer can be defined in terms of “musema”, that is, as words that belong to a musical
dictionary that the viewer easily handles and understands.

8 Aaron Copland, How to Listen to Music (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Economía, 2008)

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6.3. Leitmotiv and main theme
The leitmotiv is a musical technique. Late comes from Latin and means guide, drive and
motiv means motive, it is a theme that is repeated so that the viewer can learn it, to
associate it with the characters, situations... and it is used narratively separately from
the character.

It is the central motif of a film, the first thing that is composed in film music because it
is the most special moment. In the ET movie we find the leitmotiv in the friendship and
union that arises between Elliot and ET Everything else is made up of the leitmotif.

“The leitmotiv does not simply characterize people, emotions or things, although it has
almost always been conceived in this way, but, in the sense of Wagner's own
conception, it must elevate the stage event to the sphere of the metaphysically
significant.” 9

We do not recognize the leitmotif not only because of the characters but it can be
heard in different ways: different tonality, different instrumentation, different rhythm,
time...

It develops according to the drama, it is heard throughout the film but in different ways
as we have explained previously.

“The leitmotiv does not simply characterize people, emotions or things, although it has
almost always been conceived in this way, but, in the sense of Wagner's own
conception, it must elevate the stage event to the sphere of the metaphysically
significant.” 10

Regarding the main theme, it is a musical fragment repeated insistently throughout the
film, and which functions as a “brand.” It usually plays during the opening, it does not
have to be only during the opening, it is the theme that identifies the film, linked to the
title, to the synopsis of the film. An example of an opening theme song would be the
STAR WARS episode opening theme, also composed by John Williams.

The main theme of this film appears in different ways, hints are given but until the end
we do not hear the main theme with all its radiance and climax.

The difference between these two musical techniques is that the leitmotif can appear

9
Aschieri, Over the Moon , p. 29
10 Adorno & Eisler, Cinema and Music . (Madrid: Fundamentos, 1976), p. twenty.

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in different tonalities, different instrumentation... and the musical theme is always the
same, it does not change, when it is included in the film, it is the same in all scenes.

6.4. Underline the action

Music can help us highlight certain actions due to the psychological effect of synchresis.
Likewise, music is part of the atmosphere of the story and serves to provoke emotional
and collective sensations in the viewer.

When we talk about the image in audiovisuals we are referring to the image projected
on a screen. In it, an infinite number of chained images converge and delimited by a
frame whose space can even remain empty for a few seconds. In contrast, sound does
not have a continent that delimits it. However, when sounds are superimposed on the
images on the screen, they are spatially redistributed in relation to what we see within
the visual frame, that is, relating what we see on the screen with what we hear. What
Michel Chion has called the synchresis effect is produced, a word that we forge by
combining <synchronism> and <synthesis>: "It is the irresistible and spontaneous
welding that occurs between a sound phenomenon and a momentary visual
phenomenon when they coincide in the same moment, independently of all rational
logic."11

There are times when the music tries to follow “ tiptoe ” the actions we see in the
image. For example, and as we saw in class, at the beginning of the movie Indiana
Jones and the Last Crusade where to the rhythm of a can-can all the actions of the
young Indiana are detailed in his effort to obtain the “ Cross of Coronado ”.

In cartoons the synchresis effect is so exaggerated that the music replaces the sound of
the action itself (FX). When this technique is used in cinema it is known as Mickey
Mouse Music or Mickey-Mousing, with Max Steiner being its most representative
composer (remember King Kong , 1933).

Bernard Herrmann said:

"The real justification for music is that a piece of film, by nature, lacks a certain ability
to communicate emotional nuances (...) I always believed that music in a film expresses
what the actor cannot show or tell. . Music essentially provides a series of unconscious

11 Michel Chion, The Audiovision . (Barcelona: Editorial Paidós, 1993), p. 65.

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anchors for the viewer. It's not always apparent and you don't need to know it, but it
does its job (...) a good score for a film should create the feeling that you don't know if
it's the music that makes the film move forward or if it's the film that drives it. that
pushes the music.”12

In the soundtracks composed by John Williams we observe how in many of his musical
pieces he uses musical synchresis.

In musical synchresis we hear the sound in accordance with the images, for example at
the beginning of the movie “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” or in the ET movie the
final scene of the bicycles when the police chase the young people who try Returning
the alien to his planet, the bicycles carry the movement of the woodwind instruments,
this effect usually gives the image agility. The soundtracks are included in the film once
they are finished, in the last scene (the one with the bicycle chase) for John Williams it
was impossible to match the music with the images, they tried several times and finally
Spielberg told them to turn off the screen and let the teacher direct as best he could
without any visual reference. And so it was, the director of the film had to redo that
scene so that the music was perfect with the images of the scene.

6.5. Atmosphere, how it creates the atmosphere.

John Williams often works on the piano, breaking up the action with the cue-sheet to
discern where the music will go. The composer is the first person to see the film, that is
the previous step before starting to compose. This first projection is viewed together
with the most important ones: director of the film, editor... to know which scenes will
contain music and with what musical duration each of them. This process is musically
called spotting.13 .

All composers start with a musical idea, John Williams too, it doesn't have to be a
melody but simply an idea about where to continue composing. Sometimes the

12
Ted Gilling, "The Color of the music. An Interview with Bernard Herrmann." Journal Sight and Sound
41. Winter 1971-72, p. 37.
13 “Determine where the music is needed, how long the cue will last, and what function it will perform.
Decisions about the function of the music are reflected in the temp track, which in many cases includes the
music of all the moments that the director desires.

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composer does not hear the melody, only sounds, he first composes for the characters
in the film.

John Williams has a lot of resources to make the atmosphere he creates unique and the
viewer feel like they are inside the film, one more character. To create atmosphere,
mystery... this is also one of its great virtues and to do so it uses different techniques
such as the Cluster and drones.

Drones are notes or chords that are held for a long time. It is called drones because it is
the translation of pedal in English and one of the three pedals of the piano serves to
lengthen the note, to keep it playing. Some of the examples of drones that we find in
the ET movie are firstly in minute 20 when Elliot sees ET for the first time, then at
minute 45 and 27 seconds, when Elliot's mother hears a noise on the first floor of the
house, the drones begin and until she comes down again to supervise if something
happens, the long notes do not end.

On the other hand, the Cluster, a technique widely used by the composer, consists of a
group of notes that are very close to each other, producing a somewhat disturbing,
strange, poorly defined sound effect. With them you can produce in the viewer a
sonorous sensation of mystery, dissonance,14 like mist, like something that is in the
environment and that can hardly be described. For composers like Jerry Goldsmith, this
resource applied to the lower sections of the brass (trombones, tubas, bassoons, bass
clarinets, etc.) together with the percussions allows him to create the disturbing sounds
of films like Alien, the Prophecy or Planet of the Earth. the Apes.

As far as the modes part is concerned, these are different notes placed in different
positions and different organization. A mode can come from another scale since modes
themselves are scales.

6.6. Modalism
Recent psycho-musicological studies and tests confirm that the transmission of musical
emotion is not only closely related to the sonority of the major and minor keys, but also
to the diatonic modes (Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian).
According to a study by Temperley and Tan, listeners respond "quite consistently to the
14 On the contrary, if these notes are separated into octaves they would not sound unpleasant or dissonant,
they have to be very close together to produce that effect. It's a chord within chords.

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emotional connotations of diatonic modes."15 Therefore, we are not surprised to find
that "the three major modes (Lydian, Ionic and Mixolydian) are strongly associated with
more positive sensations than the four minor modes." For their part, Straehley and
Loebach point out that "the Phrygian mode is strongly identified as the expression of
fear, fear and sadness; the Major mode with joy and serenity; and the mixolydian with
admiration, joy or serenity."16

The modes arise in Ancient Greece and are reorganized in the Middle Ages creating the
ecclesiastical or Gregorian modal system (figure 5). Compared to the modern tonal
system, modalism aims to influence the emotional color of each of the degrees of the
scale (and its chords). Modalism was taken up by romantic music and the
impressionists, but its most widespread use is in folk and popular music. To understand
it in an easy way, the first mode is the Ionic and is made up of the seven notes of the
major natural scale ( do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, do ) and its sound would be happy and
bright. From there, the next mode would be the Doric mode, which would be formed
by the progression of notes re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, do, re , whose sound is sweet and
melancholic.

Currently the modes are:

Figure 5 Current music modes

In major keys, Williams frequently replaces minor diatonic chords and diminished
chords with major triads taken from the Aeolian, Mixolydian, Lydian, or Phrygian
modes. Cadences such as the bVI-bVII-I of the Aeolian, the bVII-I of the Mixolydian, the
IIm-bII-I of the Phrygian or the I-#II/I of the Lydian mode are very frequent and

15 David Temperley & Daphne Tan, “Emotional Connotations of Diatonic Modes,” Music Perception 30, no. 3
(2013), p.255.
16 IAN C. STRAEHLEY & JEREMY L. LOEBACH, “THE INFLUENCE OF MODE AND MUSICAL EXPERIENCE ON THE ATTRIBUTION OF
EMOTIONS TO MELODIC SEQUENCES,” Psychomusicology: Music, Mind, and Brain 24, NO. 1, (2014), P.31.

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characteristic in the music of John Williams.17

6.7. The Lydian way: “ Being able to fly ”

In Superman , Lois Lane "falls" in love when they rise into the sky in Superman's arms,
under the strains of the love theme (while floating above the clouds). In The Empire
Strikes Back , Yoda restores Luke's trust with " the force " by telekinetically lifting the
airship that is submerged in the swamp, ( Yoda 's theme). At E.T., Elliott and E.T. They
take off into the night sky during their famous bike ride to the strains of what Williams
called the " Flying Theme ."

Figure 6 Transcript by Tom Schneller (Ithaca College, NY, USA), 2013

Given these magical and levitating associations, it should be no coincidence or mere

coincidence that all three themes use the same harmonic components ( figure 6 ). 18

§ or
(1,)ii

Figure 7 Harmonic components used by John Williams.

The alternation of degrees I and major II on a tonic pedal is one of the most popular
formulas for harmonizing a melody in the Lydian mode. The structure is closed by
17 AS COMPOSER TOM SCHNELLER POINTS OUT, JOHN WILLIAMS DOES NOT NORMALLY TREAT THE BII AS A NEAPOLITAN 6TH
CHORD, NOR THE #II AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE DOMINANT OF THE DOMINANT. “BOTH SONORITIES TEND TO BE "COLOR" CHORDS
PHRYGIAN OR LYDIAN MODES IN A DIATONIC SETTING. TOM SCHNELLER, ”MODAL
THAT FLEETINGLY IMPORT THE FLAVOR OF THE
INTERCHANGE AND SEMANTIC RESONANCE IN THEMES BY JOHN WILLIAMS”, IN Journal of Film Music , V.6, 2013
18
Although in the theme " Flying Theme ", the II# acts as a secondary dominant (since when resolving to the V
degree it can be interpreted as a conventional V/V), however, there is a connection with the Lydian mode,
since the theme is unequivocally derived from the original Lydian motif of ET

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darkening the mode through a minor II.

The Lydian mode is one of the most used modes by the composer and its use in current
and film music. This mode sounds very archaic and cinema uses it a lot, among other
reasons, to create very emotional environments.

In this case it consists of two six-note figures on the flute.

Figure 8 Note layout in Lydian mode

“We could say that these notes contain the structural germ of almost all the thematic
material. The tritone interval between the first and fourth degrees of his scale suggests
that we are dealing with a characteristic Lydian mode in Williams from his early
works.”19 (figure 8)

Figure 9 Main flute theme in the piece The Forest (1M1).

One of the many ways to create atmosphere for John Williams is the fanfare, a
technique widely used by the composer in the 80s onwards, such as in the film Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone . He not only used fanfares for soundtracks, but also in
other compositions, such as in the composition of the music for the 1984 Los Angeles
Olympic Games called “Olympic Fanfare and Theme.” The fanfare is characteristic for
being made up of metal instruments and sometimes accompanied by percussion. The
composer usually introduces the fanfares at the climax of the film, in the ET We watch
the fanfare at the end of the film as the spaceship takes flight leaving a rainbow of
bright colors.

6.8. descriptive music

Through the soundtracks of many composers, different feelings can be felt, fear, joy,

19
Aschieri, Over the Moon , p. 256
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sadness, sorrow or even hope. In many movie scenes that contain music, it is attached
to the movie, that is, the feeling that in this case the character in the movie is
experiencing.

6.9. Themes for the characters.

As we already explained when talking about the leitmotif, one of John Williams' virtues
is drawing the character with a theme. In this way, the viewer associates the music with
the character, as for example in the Indiana Jones saga, so that when the viewer listens
to it they quickly identify it with the protagonist. In any film in the Star Wars Saga Darth
Vader has his own particular imperial march, when the character appears or even when
the piece is playing, the viewer knows that the character will enter the scene at any
moment or simply speak. of the.

It is a widely used and very effective Williams resource, another example would be in
the Superman movie, both in the opening credits and in the scenes in which the
character transforms into Superman, the character's characteristic theme plays.

An example from the ET movie Regarding themes dedicated to the characters, it would
be in the 16th minute of the film that we hear again a few bars from cue 1M2, The
Forest/Keyes , where we see how an agent from the beginning of the film is observing
the candies that Elliot is throwing to mark a path for ET We know that it is the same
character not because of his face, because at no time do we see his face but because of
the song that is playing and because of the sound of the keys.

At minute 39 and 12 seconds, the theme of the agents from the beginning of the film
comes up again. The piece enters the scene without having any character in the shot, in
this way we recognize the character, through the piece. This theme appears repeatedly,
every time the agents introduce themselves or we simply observe some data about
them.

7. INSTRUMENTATION AND ORCHESTRATION

“On many occasions, creating a good melody is as important as the instrument
assigned to play it. The characteristic color of atmospheres. John Williams knows this
perfectly, capable of creating memorable melodies for multiple solo instruments.

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To orchestrate and instrument a soundtrack, you must write a score for each
instrument, knowing how many instruments are going to make up the final
orchestration.”20

Orchestration is either composing all the pieces for a soundtrack or adapting musical
pieces, scores for an orchestra. To orchestrate a soundtrack, different techniques must
be taken into account, such as rhythm, melody that serves as the guiding thread of the
film for viewers, timbres or harmony, among others.

The orchestras remain the same as before, with an identical design, each orchestra is
grouped by families: wind, brass, percussion, strings and if the musical piece also
requires the human voice, the choir.

The style of instrumentation that Williams has was not invented by him, he collects it
from the greatest and knows how to direct it for its usefulness. The combination of
flute and horn widely used by the composer may have been inspired by Tchaikovsky's
Fifth Symphony, Second Movement since it contains a very similar horn and flute solo.

Every composer has his favorite instruments, such as John Williams placing 4 horns and
a trumpet in most of his compositions. To create a good melody, good instrumentation
and orchestration are also essential for the piece to shine.

In the main piece of the film we hear a flute solo, it is the first thing heard in the song
and in the film.

“Williams has treated the flutes vigorously to add brilliance to the orchestration. He has
also used his bright high-end and velvety low-end sound to create great solos. All
fabulously used in both his film and concert work.” 21

In each of the musical pieces that John Williams composes, different instruments are
required, but in most of them they are the following, such as for the ET movie

FLUTE 1

FLUTE 2

PICCOLO (Flute)

Regarding the oboe “Its penetrating sound is ideal for interpreting rhythmic passages
that can be played with great clarity. Resource used by the composer in some solos and
20 Andrés Valverde, John Williams Vida y Obra (Córdoba: Editorial Almuzara, 2013), p: 177.
21 Ibid. , p: 178

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passages written in his work. The instrument also has a softness and warmth that has
been used with great success in cinema."22

The oboe also appears in films such as The Book Thief or Star Wars, among others.

OBOE 1

OBOE 2

As for the clarinet, it is not one of the most used instruments for the soundtrack but
“Years ago it was used masterfully by Williams in the main theme of The Fury (1978). In
Brian de Palma's film he uses his sound in a mysterious and suggestive way, creating
one of the most important solos in the 70s.”23

Bb CLARINET 1

Bb CLARINET 2

On the other hand, the basson (bassoon) “also offers a different sound aspect.
Sometimes called “the clown of the orchestra”, due to the comical sound it can
produce, this has been very useful in some passages during his filmography. Williams
has used it more in conjunction with the rest of the woodwinds than as a soloist.” 24

BASSON 1

BASSON 2

BASSON 3

“The brass is one of the sections most used by Williams and responsible for his
unmistakable epic stamp. Fast and syncopated phrasings are “the trademark of the
house”, both in his multiple fanfares and in his film scores.” 25

The horn instrument is used by the composer for love or action scenes, such as in ET
(love between two friends) or in Darth Vader's imperial march in the Star Wars movie
(action).

“Its sound can be melodious and soft or even majestic and of great power. “This
instrument blends well in its own section and also with the woodwinds, serving to add

22 Ibid. , p.178
23Ibid. , p.179
24 Ibid. , p.180
25 Ditto .

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volume to certain orchestral passages.”26

We find the trunk with these characteristics in films such as Jurassic Park.

F HORN 1

F HORN 2

F HORN 3

F HORN 4

On the other hand, the trumpet is one of the instruments most used by the composer,
“both in his concert work and in cinema. Whether as a soloist or in ensemble, the
trumpets are a marked characteristic of the composer.”27

It is an instrument that Williams uses a lot to highlight American patriotism, such as in

the film Lincoln.

Bb TRUMPET 1

Bb TRUMPET 2

Bb TRUMPET 3

“The composer – faithful to tradition – usually uses three trombones and a bass
trombone in many of his orchestrations.”28

TROMBONE 1

TROMBONE 2

BASS TROMBONE

TUBA

Unlike other families of instruments with percussion “the teacher performs different
treatments of these instruments. The epic music and action scenes have spectacular
moments, both of tuned percussion (vibraphone, xylophone, timpani...) and untuned
(cymbals, suspended cymbal, military snare drum, bass drum...). For other types of
pieces, use this section, offering shine to the orchestration.”29

TYMPANI

26 Ibid., p.181
27 Idem.
28 Ibid. , p.182
29 Ibid. , p.185

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PERCUSSION SCORE

PERCUSSION 1

PERCUSSION 2

The harp is “treated in cinema and concert halls as a soloist or with great importance in
orchestration. An example of the latter is its relevant use in the piece Across the Stars ,
belonging to the second episode of Star Wars.”30

HARP

The piano is the instrument most used by John Williams and by any composer, it is his
working tool with which he develops all his works because it is the most complete
instrument. “There are abundant piano reductions of his soundtracks, which is a real
enjoyment for those who are pianists and followers of his work.”31

Regarding the film we are analyzing, the composer created the credits piece for piano.

PIANO/CELESTA

“If we talk about violins in Williamsian orchestrations, there is wide versatility and
profound use both in concert works and in cinema.”32

The composer's best-known piece for violin is Schindler's List.

VIOLIN 1

VIOLIN 2

VIOLA

VIOLONCELLO

CONTRABASS

Not all of John Williams' pieces use the same instrumentation, depending on the plot of
the film and the script it contains, one instrumentation or another. As I have explained
previously, if American patriotism is referred to, the composer uses the brass as the
trumpet or clarinet as we see in the Lincoln film. There are instruments that are
included in all his works such as string instruments.

30 Ibid. , p.188
31 Ibid. , p.190
32 Ibid. , p.185

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8. THE SILENCE, IS IT INTENTIONAL OR NOT?
Silence in a soundtrack is as important as the music or sound, there are even times
when silence is much more important than sound or music. Silence can be used as a
narrative element, it has the power to draw the viewer into the film.

“Silence in a soundtrack can be a disturbing or anticipatory element of something that

is going to happen. It also serves to create rhythmic contrasts or moods. In some works
it is a dominant element, used with full expressive intention.”33

Silence must be analyzed within a sound context, as something necessary to

understand what we hear. As Michel Chion states, “the impression of silence in a film
scene is not the simple effect of an absence of noise: it is only produced when it is
introduced through a context and a preparation, which consists, in the simplest of
cases, to precede it with an especially noisy sequence.”

Regarding the silence of the film, in the second scene we already find silence, when
Elliot leaves the house to pick up the pizza that his brother's friend has ordered, only
the sound of crickets and the night can be heard. It is an intentional silence in some
way to create suspense and fear in the viewer since they already know that an alien is
in the city and a child is alone on the street waiting for the pizza delivery man. One of
the quietest moments in the film is when Elliot hears noises at the back of the house, in
the yard, he starts shouting his brother's name because he thinks it's him, he
approaches the shed to discover what it is and The only thing we hear are the crickets,
in this entire scene and the next, until Elliot meets ET we don't hear the soundtrack,
just some shrill sounds.

Another scene where we would find silence would be the scene where Elliot wakes up
after spending the whole night in the forest to see if the ship will appear to pick up ET.
but he wakes up and sees that the alien is not there. Only the sounds of dawn can be
heard.

Williams has very enriched the use of silence, as for example in the movie Jaws , the
soundtrack (composed by John Williams) as soon as the movie begins has silence
between the minor seconds (notes), he plays with silence.

33 Ministry of education, culture and sports, “cinema as a teaching resource”

http://www.ite.educacion.es/formacion/materiales/24/cd/m3_2/el_silencio.html (Last Consultation 9-6 2017)

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Another example would be in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind when
humans try to interact with the spaceship through sounds, we find a few seconds of
silence between the humans' notes and the spaceship's responses. With this silence the
composer and director try to create an atmosphere of expectation and suspense in the
viewer.

When a film wants to represent loneliness, calm or the stillness of the night, the best
resource is silence because without music it is reinforced more. Another response in
the choice of not including sound in some scenes would be found in silence as
preparation for the scene that we will see later. The silences serve to give a lot of
strength to the music that will play next. In this case, silence gives the sensation that
time is going slower, which lengthens the character's wait.

9. MUSICAL BREAKDOWN OF THE MOST IMPORTANT

SCENES WITH MUSIC
The film begins with the musical piece 1M1 The Forest.

In this first scene we find a suspense composition. The scene begins with a general shot
of the sky full of stars and we hear a flute playing what will be the leitmotif of the film,
then to contrast we perceive a horn echoing the flute's melody. The composer is not
the first time that he uses these two instruments together, in Princess Leia's theme in
the Star Wars movie we also hear the flute and the horn combining and echoing each
other.

The viewer does not know why there is a spaceship there, the suspenseful music helps
to focus the viewer and ask questions.

At the moment of the arrival of the humans we move on to the musical piece 1M2
Keyes arrives, this continues with the suspense but shortly the sixteenth notes begin to
give movement to the scene and begin for the viewer to draw conclusions from the
sequence.

Bass instruments are combined with treble to echo each other. The flute is used by the
composer because it gives shine and when an instrument has to make a brilliant solo
the flute is the one chosen by John Williams. The magnificent contrast between the
flute and the horn, chosen by the composer to contrast in this musical theme.

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When humans notice a strange presence among the plants, they focus their flashlights
and the alien starts running to escape, that is where we find the emphasis of the
second piece. The alien runs towards the ship but it abandons him, the alien manages
to escape from the agents. At no point in the scene are the faces of the humans or the
alien seen, only their legs and a red light illuminated on their chest.

Next, one of the most important scenes with music (3M1 Into the House) of the film
arises when ET and Elliot interact for the first time.

With this piece of music we first feel a few seconds of fear but then ET begins to imitate
the gestures that Elliot makes and here the piece takes a musical turn, we hear a harp.

Another important scene is the one named 11M3 The Bike Chase, one of the final
scenes where Elliot loads ET on his bicycle and with his friends decide to escape to
return the alien to his people who have returned to take him.

A piece that begins with violins marking time with an ostinato 34 , meanwhile the brass
instruments carry the melody of the piece. The chase by the townspeople and the
police continues while the music grows in crescendo until finally the bikes take flight
guided by Elliot's bike with ET and the film's theme song begins.

In this scene, when John Williams was recording with the orchestra, he could not match
the sound with the film, because the music is always recorded when the film is already
edited, but in this case Spielberg told Williams to do it without a screen, to do it. they
will turn off. Spielberg knew that both the composer and the musicians would get all
their feeling out of nothing and so it was, the director of the film after having recorded
the musical piece for the last scene had to redo this scene so that the image fit the
music.

10. CONCLUSIONS
the movie ET The Extraterrestrial is one of the films that I have seen and enjoyed the
most in my life, and this is one of the reasons why I chose it to develop the TFG: the
analysis of a soundtrack by John Williams (and in the opinion of many experts , possibly
the best of his filmography). I felt more motivated to analyze this soundtrack than any
34 Ostinato: instant repetition of a musical phrase during a long musical fragment, in cinema it is used to mark
actions, especially in action scenes.

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other by John Williams.

At this point we see that John Williams uses techniques to create music in such a way
that everyone recognizes it, he has his characteristic stamp summarized in the sound of
classic Hollywood music. Characteristics such as, for example, the intentional use of the
modes, especially the Lydian mode (characteristic for the sonority produced by its
augmented eleventh) and these chords pressed on a pedal note (I-II/I-III/I), the bVII in
the mixolydian way (typical of North American pop music), the dark and sinister metal
clusters, or the brilliant horns supported by the trumpet to fill their melodies with
vitality, among others.

After this analysis of the soundtrack of the movie ET In Williams's extraterrestrial we

observe that his musical resources, already widely used by romantic composers, are
updated and acquire a very personal stamp with great impact on the public. Williams
not only recovers the repertoire of the 19th century, but offers it to us through a
spectacular orchestration capable of hitting us with the forcefulness of the brass and
the delicacy of glokenspiel. He has the privilege of knowing how to provide each
character with a musical theme so that it is instantly recognizable, such as Superman,
Indiana Jones or Harry Potter. His melodies, like those of other great film composers,
are short and simple to the ear (two to four measures, closing them with semi-
cadences). Furthermore, John Williams is one of the composers, along with Max
Steiner, who have most exploited the resource of the leitmotif.

In my opinion, I think that this Final Degree Project has helped me to confirm that John
Williams represents like no one else the current sound of Hollywood, inheritor of the
tradition of the most classic American cinema. It is impossible to listen to one of his
soundtracks and not know that it is about him, John Williams.

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11. BIBILIOGRAPHY

• Adorno & Eisler: Cinema and music . (Madrid: Editorial Fundamentos, 1976).
• Aschieri, R.: Over the Moon: John Williams' Music for Film . (Chile: Fierro &
Ramírez, 1998)
• Cellary, W. & Walczak, K.: Interactive 3D Multimedia Content: Models for
Creation , 2012
• Copland, A.: How to listen to music (Mexico: FCE, 2008)
• John Williams Fans: http://www.jwfan.com/?p=3282
• Management, Search and Presentation. London: Springer. < http://
link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4471-2497-9/page/1 >
• Tagg, P.: “WHAT IS A MUSEMA FOR? Antidepressants and the musical
management of anxiety” in V Congress of IASPM-LA, 2004.
• Valverde, A.: John Williams Life and Work . (Córdoba: Editorial Almuzara, 2013).

ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS:
• TCM Spain. 2014-12-16. Discovering John Williams .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD28ThHKV4I
• FilmScoreAnalysis. 2017-03-06. [2/4] "Meeting ET" - ET the Extra-Terrestrial
(Score Reduction & Analysis) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV5El8gUtqE
• DocumentariesFilm. 2012-12-2 How It Was Made: ET Subtitled in Spanish
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMOpktDuc70
• Indie Film Academy. 2014-10-19. Steven Spielberg with John Williams talk about
the soundtracks for ET and Jaws .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_8RTDbDVTU
• Suatrilha. 2009-01-07. John Williams scoring ET .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx7NiJHIlGs&t=26s
• Elizabeth Grayson. 2015-12-02. John Williams ET Score Video .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ5vfcCL_4o
• MasterSanaboti. 2011-11-04. John Williams World premiere of ET 20th
anniversary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3wnk3Ek6Gk
• Retrocade Podcast. 2015-11-13. The Making of ET The Extra-Terrestrial (1996)
Part ½. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHsCTJOdNjk

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