Episode 3: Jurassic Park

For our third episode, we look at another great Williams-Spielberg collaboration with the 1993 score to Jurassic Park. This landmark film redefined special effects and Hollywood itself, but what did it do for film music? Join us as we take a look at the main themes for the score and the hidden gems – and go from gospel, to jazz, to hymns along the way.

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Episode Notes:

2:30 – Notes on Jurassic Park as a Spielberg film and its place in film history
7:10 – Theme From Jurassic Park
10:00 – The main theme as a hymn
15:00 – The structure of the main theme
17:20 – The end credits version of the theme
21:00 – The ‘Journey to the Island’ theme
23:30 – Comparison with ‘Summon the Heroes’
26:00 – The ‘sheen’ to the thematic orchestration
29:56 – The ‘panic’ theme
31:45 – Comparison with Dies Irae
41:10 – Comparison with later John Williams ‘suspense’ music
43:45 – Petticoat Lane
47:00 – Comparison with other John Williams celeste writing
49:00 – Triceratops music
53:32 – Dennis’s music and comparison with JFK
55:40 – Williams’ jazz influences
57:15 – The development of the action music
1:00:25 – The raptor motif
1:01:00 – The animation jazz and comparison with Gershwin
1:03:30 – Williams’ use of synth
1:08:50 – ‘Incident at Isla Nublar’
1:12:00 – Comparison with 1990s synth action music

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