Jaws - Creating a legendary film Pt 6

The Soundtrack of Jaws

The director of Jaws , Steven Spielberg asked from his first film “Sugarland Express” music composer John Williams to compose the music of Jaws. The main sharl attack theme is a simple alternating pattern of two notes. The music pattern was performed by tuba music rather than a french horn - because composer wanted the music to be more threatening.

The Academy Award for Jaws score

The Jaws soundtrack earn for the composer John Williams an Academy Award and later the American Film Institute ranked Jaws score sixth on the list of American greatest scores.

I need also to mention that Steven Spielberg wanted to avoid Jaws to became a dark horror / thriller / adventure film. He added jokes to script and the composer John Williams incorporated “pirate music” in film in an effort to be the film more entertaining and more fun.

The special relationship between pictures and sounds in Jaws

Also, the use of shark music theme introduction of the giant shark attack.  Director - Steven Spielberg built up a special relationship between the silence and music theme, because he wanted the audience to associate the music theme with the shark and danger. This special connection of shark as creature in film and the shark music theme was broken only in the last scene where shark appears without music.

The Jaws soundtrack and John William’s career

The soundtrack of Jaws is stunning, exceptional and amazing. John Williams work added value to Jaws film and actually a part of it’s success is the result of the music score. Jaws is a milestone film for John William’s career and established a special relationship and collaboration with Steven Spielberg almost in all his films.

The original Jaws soundtrack was released in 1975 (by MCA Records) and it was re-released in 1992 (CD) and in 2000.

Elias Stoikos

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