The film composer John Williams needs no introduction. I first heard his music on the visionary sci-fi series of Irwin Allen: Lost in Space (1965), The Time Tunnel (1966) and Land of the Giants (1968). When I first heard the music for Star Wars in 1977, I was bowled over and remember coming out of the cinema thinking where have I been for the last 10 years? Cinema had stretched in time to take stock of itself again: back to Korngold's King's Row (1942) and forward to 'a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away'.

To get a grip on Williams's style I listened and listened again to his cues to find that he based his work on a great fluidity with key changes, spectacularly good orchestration (see Herbert Spencer), by keeping at least three lines of counterpoint going simultaneously at most times and by changing what he was doing (and how he was doing it) at least every 4-8 bars. This is a crude description, but gives some insight into the professionalism of Prof. Williams. What work!