Page 25 - Imagination Comes To Life

video game music routinely erupt in shouts, wolf-whistles, and other disruptions. This
appears to be normal for the genre, just as an audience is expected to greet the first few
bars of a piece by, say, Def Leppard, with such a ruckus that the music can't be heard for
a few bars.

Tommy Tallarico is a major promoter of video game music. He has written more scores
for that genre than anyone in history, and, with his friends Jack Wall and Martin Leung,
has organized a travelling troupe known as Video Games Live. Their performances
include rock-concert staples such as multi-screen video projection, laser-light shows,
and fireworks. But the difference between Video Games Live and ordinary rock con-
certs is the use of full symphonic orchestras.

The Video Games Live Suite is a medley of pieces by a variety of composers, including
Martin O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori, Christopher Tin, Tommy Tellarico, Michael
Plowman, Emmanuel Fratianni, and Laurie Robinson. The word "committee" comes to
mind again. Relentless rhythms, dramatic marches, and etheral choral elements are
typical of this music.

Jurassic Park………………………………………………………….…..Williams/Custer
When one researches the list of movie soundtracks composed by John Williams, one almost
finds it easier to list the soundtracks which weren’t composed by John Williams, especially in
the category of blockbuster award-winning American movies scored since the mid1970s! Wil-
liams has composed some of the most popular film scores in cinematic history. He has enjoyed
a long association with director Steven Spielberg and has a staggering list of awards to his cred-
it.

Williams has won five Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, seven British Academy Film
Awards, and 22 Grammies. With 49 Academy Award nominations, Williams is the second-
most nominated individual in any category in the history of the Academy, following Walt Dis-
ney.

Born in Floral Park, New York, in 1932, as the son of a jazz percussionist, Williams moved
with his family to Los Angeles to attend North Hollywood High School and then UCLA. He
left UCLA after two years when he was drafted by the U.S. Air Force. He was assigned to The
U.S. Air Force Band, where he conducted and arranged music until his service
ended in 1955. From there he moved back to New York to the Julliard School and the
Eastman School of Music and then back to Los Angeles, where he began his prolific career of
composition.

The Jurassic Park series of movies stemmed from a novel and its sequel portraying the idea of
theme park which has living dinosaurs that had been cloned from fossilized DNA, which, of
course, got out of control. The novel, by Michael Crichton, was published in 1990.