The First-Ever John Williams Biography Wins an ASCAP Foundation Book Award
The 77th annual ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Awards, chosen by a four-member ASCAP committee, recognize books, articles, liner notes, and broadcast programs about music.
Among the concert-music book winners is Tim Greiving’s “John Williams: A Composer’s Life,” which Variety describes as the first-ever biography of Hollywood’s most successful living composer.
Steven C. Smith’s “Hitchcock and Herrmann: The Friendship and Film Scores that Changed Cinema” received a special recognition award in the concert-music book category; Variety notes it is his second book about Herrmann and doubles as the story of his collaboration with Hitchcock.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
A first biography is its own kind of award: it turns a composer Variety calls Hollywood’s most successful living composer into a subject with a life apart from the credits.
The Herrmann book may be the sharper pick. A second book on Herrmann that doubles as a Hitchcock story is not just a composer biography; it is an argument about how much of a score lives in its collaboration.