Jurassic Park (film score)

Composition

John Williams started composing the music for Jurassic Park in late February 1993, with the recording sessions happening about a month later. A back injury Williams suffered during these sessions meant that Artie Kane took over conducting for several musical cues. Kane does not appear in the film's credits, but the 1993 soundtrack album thanks him specially, and the La-La Land Records release lists him as a conductor. The orchestration was handled by Alexander Courage, John Neufeld, Conrad Pope, Aimee Vereecke, and Dennis Dreith.

Williams worked on the score at Skywalker Ranch at the same time the sound editors were doing their work, which allowed him to get ideas from Gary Rydstrom's dinosaur sound effects. Williams called the whole process a rough, noisy undertaking, comparing it to a huge exercise in symphonic cartooning. He also mentioned that his attempts to keep up with the dinosaurs' rhythmic movements resulted in what he described as funny little ballets. Much like his work on Close Encounters of the Third Kind, another Spielberg film, Williams aimed to create music that expressed awe and wonder, since the movie was about the sheer joy and excitement of seeing living dinosaurs.

For scarier moments, like the Tyrannosaurus rex attack, he wrote more frightening themes. For the first time, Spielberg could not attend the recording sessions for one of his own movies because he was in Poland making Schindler's List. Before leaving, Williams gave the director piano demo tapes of the main themes, and Spielberg listened to them every day on his way to the film set. The score calls for a large orchestra, which often includes lots of percussion, two harps, baritone horns, and a choir.

Some parts also use unusual woodwinds like the shakuhachi and the E-flat piccolo oboe. Williams also incorporated synthesizers throughout much of the music. In cues like "Dennis Steals the Embryos," the synthesizers are very prominent, but in many other passages they are mixed much lower, often doubling the woodwinds or filling out the lower harmonies. Several notable celeste solos, such as the one in "Remembering Petticoat Lane," are actually played on synthesizers. The score is built around two main melodic ideas.