I just borrowed a CD with John Williams Star Wars Suite and Close
Encounters Suite on it.  Expected to find that it was bad, but I was
pleasantly surprised.  Structurally it seemed rather unsatisfying (too
few ideas, too muc bombast mostly) but he is clearly a good writer for the
orchestra.  The Star Wars had a distinct taste of pot-boiling about it but
the Close Encounters really was quite interesting.  It did seem at times
like an exercise in plagarism - there was a definite Elgar influence in
there, Holst irrefutably, (with the Planets being an obvious target), some
Waltonish tunes and some bits reminiscent of Brahms (but that is probably
true of most composers after Brahms).

Is there any 'serious' music that he has written which would deserve any
special attention.

David Stewart
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