The FABELMANS -Mother and Son -John Williams guitar

John Williams, currently the most important Hollywood film composer, has already been nominated
53 times for the coveted Oscar, - and despite his sprightly 90 years, it will not be the last time: he has
just written the music for the autobiographical film of his friend Steven Spielberg, who achieved
worldwide fame with films such as ET-the Extra-Terrestrial, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Schindler's
List and many other first-class Hollywood productions.
The piece "Mother and Son" is the leitmotif of the 2022 film drama The Fabelmans, which is an
autobiographically influenced work that takes up the director's childhood and his career path to
filmmaking.
Once again John Williams shows his greatness as one of the most important composers of our time.
The piece is as simple in structure as a Mozart sonatina, but comes up with surprises at crucial points,
be it the unconventional use of the orchestra or brief modulations that illuminate the simple
memorable theme in new timbres. In the original, the theme is introduced by the guitar in Bb major,
and after a colorful interlude in high tessitura, changes to the piano theme in G major.
In the present version by Walter Abt, the guitar part is in A major a semitone lower than the original because of
better playability as a solo piece, but this leads to the original key through a capo in the 1st fret.
The other versions are arranged for guitar solo with a more difficult middle part in harmonics, as well
as a pure C part for melody instruments, and a version for 2 guitars