John Williams, now 93, has long been recognized as an American treasure. Composer, arranger, pianist, conductor, and one of the most honored of contemporary music-makers, he is beloved the world over for his many popular compositions for film.

One of his less talked-about accomplishments has been the gradual acceptance of film music in the orchestral repertoire. Once frowned upon as “commercial” material lacking the sophistication of music written for the concert hall, film music is now welcomed everywhere—from New York to Vienna to Berlin as well as Los Angeles—largely due to Williams’ compositional and orchestrational skills, which are as admired by fellow composers as by the fans who simply love his memorable themes.

In Steven Spielberg’s 1991 film Hook, conceived initially as an elaborate song-and-dance movie musical (with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse, only three of whose songs survived the final cut), John Williams created a score to accompany the onscreen frolicking of another famous Williams, Robin, in the role of a grownup Peter Pan, fighting the nasty villain of his youth. The sheer joy of The Flight to Neverland—with its atmospheric opening winds, harp, and strings yielding to a soaring figure for the brass—sets the proper mood of anticipation as the three Darling children fly from their nursery window on a chilly London night.

The suite from Ron Howard’s 1992 film Far and Away follows. Here, Williams uses imaginative touches of Irish folk music in his score for Howard’s epic about Irish immigrants in late-19th-century America.

The mysterious and evocative Sayuri’s Theme is from Rob Marshall’s set-in-Japan period drama Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), with cello solos originally written for the composer’s friend and frequent musical collaborator Yo-Yo Ma.

Jaws celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. Released in 1975, it was only the second of the 29 films that Williams and Spielberg have made together. The Shark Cage Fugue/Out to Sea, surprisingly, does not feature the famous shark theme; rather, it combines the fun nautical-adventure music for the departure from port of Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss, with the classically styled score from later in the film as they assemble a metal cage for Dreyfuss’ dangerous underwater observation of the predator.

From E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) comes Three Million Light Years from Home, Stargazers, and The Flying Theme. “Steven Spielberg’s film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial has always held a special place in my heart,” Williams said.  “I personally think it’s his masterpiece. In looking at it today, it’s as fresh and new as when it was made in 1982. Cars may change, along with hairstyles and clothes...but the performances, particularly by the children and by E.T. himself, are so honest, timeless, and true.” Perhaps the most emotional music of the many Williams-Spielberg collaborations, this score won the composer his fourth of five Oscars.

Fanfares have long been a Williams specialty. Among his most memorable is the opening music for the greatest comic-book adventure ever filmed: Superman (1978) starring Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel and Margot Kidder as intrepid Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane. Williams’ march, with its heroic feel and soaring melody, is reprised throughout this summer’s latest cinematic version of the DC superhero story starring David Corenswet.

Spielberg and Lucas joined forces to make Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), the first of five films featuring Harrison Ford as globe-trotting archeologist Indiana Jones and introducing the Raiders March that is now better known as Indy’s theme. Helena’s Theme, from Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, premiered at the Hollywood Bowl in 2022 prior to the film’s 2023 debut; it serves as a leitmotif for Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s character. The exciting Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra was for Indy and his dad (a memorable turn by Sean Connery as Henry Jones, Sr.) outrunning Nazis in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).

Dear Basketball (2017) came from veteran Disney animator Glen Keane’s five-minute short film based on basketball great Kobe Bryant’s farewell poem to his beloved sport. Bryant, a longtime fan, asked Williams to compose the score (his first for a hand-drawn animated short). Keane considers it “a visual poem. This was not about the glory of Kobe Bryant; this was more about the fulfillment of a 6-year-old boy’s dream.” Bryant made sure to thank the composer when accepting the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film a few months later.

Two of Williams’ record 54 Oscar nominations were earned in the same year, 1977, for a pair of very different science-fiction films: George Lucas’ Star Wars and Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Williams saw the Lucas film as a fun romp that would probably play kiddie matinees and be quickly forgotten. Little did he, or anyone, realize that Lucas’ imaginative “space opera” with a young adventurer, a princess, a hotshot pilot, and two amusing robots would spawn a multibillion-dollar franchise lasting more than four decades.

Williams’ swashbuckling symphonic score included Princess Leia’s Theme, a warm signature for Carrie Fisher’s character; Throne Room and Finale, for the closing ceremony honoring the victorious Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Chewbacca; and the end titles reprising several of the original themes. This was the score that won the Oscar. The Adventures of Han is the energetic signature that Williams created for Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), the Ron Howard–directed film about the pre–A New Hope adventures of Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) and his new Wookiee pal Chewbacca.

—Adapted from notes by Jon Burlingame and the Los Angeles Philharmonic archive