2. -John Towner Williams was born on February 8, 1932 in Flushing Queens, NY. He is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. -He composed many famous films in Hollywood including, Star Wars, Superman, Home Alone, the first 3 Harry Potter movies, all but 2 Steven Spielberg’s films including Indiana Jones series, Schindler’s List, E.T., Jurassic Park, and Jaws. -He has composed theme music for 4 Olympic Games, the NBC Nightly News, and more. Williams is a 5-time Academy Award winner. He also won 4 Golden Globe Awards, 7 BAFTA Awards, and 21 Grammy Awards. With 45 Academy Awards nominations -He is tied at the second most nominated person after Walt Disney. - He also was introduced to the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame in 2000. and a receiver of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004.

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4. Some events which occurred in 1977  Elvis Presley died August 16, 1977 in Memphis, TN due to Health problems, prescription drug dependence, and other factors.  Jimmy Carter was inaugurated as the 39 th President of the United States.  The Son of Sam murders swept through New York City.  Three members of the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd died in a charter plane crash outside Gillsburg, Mississippi. On the recommendation of his friend Steven Spielberg, George Lucas hired composer John Willams, who had worked with Spielberg on the film Jaws, for which he won an Academy Award. Lucas felt that the film would portray visually foreign worlds, but that the musical score would give the audience an emotional familiarity. In March 1977, Williams conducted the London Symphony Orchestra to record the Star Wars soundtrack in twelve days. Lucas wanted a grand musical sound for Star Wars, with lietmotifs to provide distinction. Therefore, he brought together his favorite orchestral pieces for the soundtrack, but then John Williams convinced him that an original score would be unique and more unified. However, a few of Williams' pieces were influenced by the tracks Lucas gave him. The "Main Title Theme" was inspired by the theme from the 1942 film Kings Row, by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and the track "Dune Sea of Tatooine" drew from the soundtrack from Bicycle Thieves, by Alessandro Cicognini. Williams's technique is called lietmotiv, which is most famously associated with the operas of Richard Wagner and in film scores, with Steiner. A "leitmotif" is a phrase or melodic cell that signifies a character, place, plot element, mood, idea, relationship or other specific part of the film. The most important for a leitmotif is that it must be strong enough for a listener to handle while being flexible enough to undergo variation and development..

5. Star Wars main theme and King ‘s Row by Erich Korngold. Similarities have been noticed between the Star Wars main theme and the main theme from Korngold's score to the Golden Age film, "King's Row," -Both sharing similar melodic structures and orchestration. The first eight notes are the same, although the last three of those eight are played more slowly in the Korngold piece. After that the two melodies go in different directions. -To a lesser extent, the Star Wars Main Theme resembles many "heroic" melodies, such as the "Siegfried Horn Call" from Wagner's Ring Cycle; many conventions (brass instrumentation, use of perfect intervals) exist for composing music for male heroes and Williams clearly taps into them in the Star Wars films. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjMNNpIksaI