Excerpts from Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Deluxe Score
Deluxe Score
By John Williams

"Excerpts from Close Encounters of the Third Kind" as heard on "By Request: The Best of John Williams and the Boston Pops" is my absolute favorite piece of John Williams music. It may the most creative and descriptive piece he has ever written. It combines modern contemporary techniques (e.g...

. tone clusters, string and brass glissandi that creep you out) with beautiful, lush romantic style themes that give you goosebumps. Like the majority of reviewers, the only reason I give this score 4/5 is because of the missing 2 min. with the female chorus and quotation of "When You Wish Upon a Star." Some day I will hunt down John Williams and/or the publisher and demand that this section be published with the present score. The music that IS present deserves a 5/5 because of its beauty, originality, and accuracy of transcription.

This has got to be one of John Williams' finer works. The opening sections are fascinating to look over, with bizarre glissandi in the strings, and weird, spacey woodwinds playing over them. The latter sections are simply gorgeous, and flow very beautifully and gracefully over each other. I loved just...

sitting at the piano and playing the chord processions. I did rate this score only 4/5 because the section with "When You Wish Upon a Star" and a little bit before that is missing. (I'm guessing for copyright reasons...) So the score itself gets a 4, but don't let that deter you. The remaining music in it is still a 5/5! I would recommend this score in a heart-beat. The score itself is good quality, the music is easy to read, and like I said, the music is pure genius.

This music is by far some of the most beautiful and descriptive written by Williams. However, like someone else said, the loveliest section (the part with the female choir) has been left out. If this were included I would have ranked this 5 stars. Besides this letdown, the music is...

still stunning, and the score is beautifully presented.

This is a must have for someone, who truly adores the work of art of the Maestro, the greatest film music composer ever born.

Compared to the recording, "By Request: The Best of John Williams and the Boston Pops" this score is a faithful recreation. There is a good 2 min section missing though. Missing,in my opinion, is some of the most beatiful music in this work. It is the female chorus and...

the section that includes "When You Wish Upon a Star." It probably was deleted due to either copyright reasons and the added problem for an orchestra to have female chorus as well. Other than that. . it is still a great piece.