John Williams' Love Themes

After listening to the love themes from AOTC and Superman back-to-back, I started thinking about all the other love themes Williams has composed. I thought it would be nice to have a thread to discuss them in, as I think Williams does romantic music quite well.

I also wanted to post a big list of all the themes he has composed that can be considered love themes. Here goes:

• Two Lovers Theme, How To Steal A Million (1966)

• Penelope Love Theme, Penelope (1966)

• Main Title, Jane Eyre (1971)

• The Love Montage, Images (1972)

• Cinderella Liberty Love Theme, Cinderella Liberty (1973)

• Love Theme from The Paper Chase, The Paper Chase (1973)

• Love Scene, Earthquake (1974)

• Love Theme, The Towering Inferno (1974)

• Love Theme from The Missouri Breaks, The Missouri Breaks (1976)

• Leia's Theme, Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope

• Love Theme from Superman, Superman: The Movie (1978)

• The Love Scene, Dracula (1979)

• Han Solo and the Princess, Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

• Marion's Theme, Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

• Main Title, Heartbeeps (1981)

• Theme from Monsignor, Monsignor (1982)

• Willie's Theme, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

• Love Theme from The River, The River (1984)

• The Ballroom Scene, The Witches of Eastwick (1987)

• Main Title, The Accidental Tourist (1988)

• Pete and Dorinda, Always (1989)

• Stanley and Iris, Stanley and Iris (1989)

• Joseph and Shannon, Far and Away (1992)

• Theme from Sabrina, Sabrina (1995)

• Ann and Gabriel, The Patriot (2000)

• Monica's Theme, A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

• Love Theme from Star Wars Episode II, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)

This is by no means a complete list, and if you know of one that I left off or if one of these doesn't fit in the list, please let me know.

Now, feel free to discuss these themes and tell us your favorites.

 

My favorite would have to be the themes from TESB, ROTLA, and AOTC. Beautiful stuff there.

And what about Luke and Leia? Could that be considered a love theme?

 

I thought about listing "Luke and Leia", but I tried to stick to themes that represent the romantic love between two people. Now, I know Monica's Theme from A.I. may look out of place using that criteria. But given the film's portrayal of David's quest for Monica's love, it seems more like a love theme than "Luke and Leia" does.

 

Okay, cool.

 

I love "Marion's Theme" from Raiders. There's something about how Williams scores some of his love themes, such as this one, beginning with a major sixth pickup... well, seeing how it worked in Leia's Theme in ANH (and further developed into "Han and the Princess" in ESB), it didn't hurt to reuse it once more.

I can't say which one I think is the best, because they all capture different emotions, albeit variations on the concept of love. For example, "Across The Stars" is built around a certain sadness, an inevitable tragedy. And it works spectacularly, hauntingly well in that respect. But something like "Marion's Theme" is one of a rediscovered love, and has a lyricism in direct contrast to riproaring adventure. And "Han and the Princess", certainly one of the legendary love themes in film scoring, works very well in exemplifying the cosmic, sweeping scale of the romance, as evidenced by its final rendition in ESB's finale.

 

Speaking only about his most well known, big, bombastic scores, the love themes are often overlooked because of an overpowering main theme. With the CD releases, it's easier for us to dissect and catch other themes, but most of us probably still remember movie themes disproportionately. Listening to the CD, I'm often surprised to find the Raiders March no more dominant a theme than Marion's or the Ark's. But because everyone knows the Raiders March so well, we tend to think it towers above everything; it doesn't. And it's the success of Williams that he makes these big scores (ANH, Raiders, Superman, etc) so balanced within the film's context that is astonishing, even if people don't remember so.

 

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to be boring here, and predictably go for Monica's Theme from A.I. The others are brilliant, but that theme really does play with my emotions. I think, and again it's very predictable of me to say this, that the soundtrack for A.I, as well as the film itself, is very underrated.

 

My favourites are Marion's Theme from Raiders, Across The Stars and the Superman love theme.

I've noticed that Princess Leia's Theme (from ANH), Marion's Theme, Han Solo & The Princess and Across The Stars ALL BEGIN with a double note phrase that's identical (except for pitch). Actually with ATS the first note is 1 semitone higher. But this is rather obscure isn't it.

 

Any other comments?

 

You listened to the love themes from AOTC and Superman back to back? Heh, so did I.

 

Across the Stars. I know that's not the actual title anymore, but I still call it that for ease.

It's such a beautiful theme. I can listen to it over and over again.

ST

 

Across the Stars is the title damnit. Sony just made a mistake on the U.S. CD. The UK and European CDs and possibly Aussie and other countries ALL CALL IT ACROSS THE STARS! That's the title already.

That having been said, I would say Leia's theme has always been one that struck me as awesome. I think Across the Stars is one of the most amazing and moving pieces of music Williams has ever composed. Also Monica's theme from A.I. also is very poignent, emotional and beautiful.

 

Of the themes listed, there are four that I have enough familiarity with that I can play them in my head right now: "Leia's Theme," "Han Solo and the Princess," "Marion's Theme," and "Across the Stars." I remember that when I first listened to "Marion's Theme," I thought it sounded kind of like a combination of the first two themes I listed. These three themes all start out on one note, and then go up the same amount in pitch to the next different note (I hope I explained that well). In "Across the Stars" it goes up slightly less in pitch to the second note. AtS stands out from the others due to its melancholy nature, but I also love the sweeping grandeur of "Han Solo and the Princess" so I would rank those two about evenly as my favorites.

 

I would give $100 to anyone who can compose a song of "Across the Stars" using lyrics and sound better than the music itself!

Impossible?

 

Huh? ?

 

I love Across The Stars, but my vote for most beautiful love theme would be:

Princess Leia's Theme

 

My favorite of John Williams's love themes would have to be Across the Stars , just because of its beauty and emotion.

JM22, what did you mean in your last post-that you would want to see what lyrics someone could write for AtS?

 

Across The Stars Deserves more than music, it deserves Beautiful SINGING!!!

 

I just downloaded the whole score to Earthquake and listened to its love theme. Besides "Love Scene" as cited above, track 7 is straight up called "Love Theme." It's quite different from other Williams' love themes. It's got a steady rythm/beat to it, and though it's pretty good sounding, I wouldn't categorize it as evoking strong romantic emotions. Not having seen the movie, I can only guess that it's fitting to its disastrous nature.

 

The BRAVO CHANNEL had a show this week about movie love themes. They covered TITANIC, LOVE STORY, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, THE ENGLISH PATIENT, even EMMA. Do you think if the program had been produced more recently they would have covered JW's love theme in AOTC? I think it's good enough to qualify.

 

Um, no way, JM22.

Bravo's film score series is interesting, but they have completely ignored Williams. I doubt they'd talk about AOTC.

 

I was listening to the theme of Jane Eyre again and it suddenly hit me, the orchestration and they way the track moves reminds me very much of the love theme in AOTC. The melody is completely different, and just as beautiful, but there's definitly a similar feel to them. Has anyone listened to the entire soundtrack?