Many qualities combine to make Williams a natural. Ideas just pour out of him, with an exuberance that make other big-league film composers like Hans Zimmer seem a bit costive. Who could match the sheer exuberance of the Star Wars theme or the Indian Jones theme? Listen to these themes closely, though, and you discover another even more important factor that makes Williams a natural; his love of his craft. John Williams says his favourite composer is Joseph Haydn, who is well-known for being a ‘composer’s composer’, and the strategic cunning of Haydn often shines through William’s music.

Take that Star Wars theme, for example. It isn’t just an outpouring, it’s cunningly designed to wrong-foot our sense of where the down-beat comes. That gives a kick of rhythmic excitement to the tune, pumped up still further by the irregular bass rhythms underneath. Replace that bass with a straight four-in-a-bar march, as a lesser composer would have done, and the famous tune would lose half its force. Another common ploy of Williams is to come up with a new harmonisation of a tune’s opening phrase, when it comes round the second time. This gives a sense of new horizons constantly opening up, which is why Williams is so adept at scoring big adventure-filled blockbusters.