Jaws with a Live Orchestra: An Interview with Maestro David Bernard
This is an Interview between writer Edward Kliszus and Maestro David Bernard about an exciting concert by the Massapequa Philharmonic on September 14, 2025, at Tilles Center for the Performing Arts at Long Island University.
Maestro David Bernard conducting the Massapequa Philharmonic. Courtesy Massapequa Philharmonic
EK: “Live to Screen” movie events have become a mainstream part of orchestra programming, and audiences love them. Why is this such a phenomenon?
DB: Movies in a theater are a spectacle on their own. Still, if you have a full symphony orchestra of 75 to 100 musicians performing the score live right in front of you, that spectacle is amplified significantly, which is a massive draw for audiences. But on top of this, no matter how advanced a movie theater’s soundtrack reproduction tech is—Dolby Surround, Digital, and Atmos—nothing beats a live orchestra for bringing the layering and sophistication of a great score to the experience of a movie. Theater sound reproduction often sounds flat in comparison, and with a live orchestra, the music can truly realize its full potential to shape the audience's experience.
EK: Of course, the quality of the score has to be a significant factor, and John Williams is one of the best, if not THE best, film composer. How does the “Live to Screen” format specifically impact John Williams' film scores?
DB: John Williams is a phenomenal composer, and his brilliance manifests itself in his film scores on multiple levels. On the surface level, he is a genius at writing melodies that captivate through their simplicity, which audiences love and remember. But on deeper levels, Williams brings an impressive level of sophistication through motivic development, contrapuntal integrity, and harmonic rhythm, all of which is brought alive by his approach to orchestration. While film scores are always integral to the overall dramatic and moment-to-moment experience, as every other aspect of the production, Williams takes that to the next level.
EK: Let’s get right to the music and how Williams takes that to the next level. From the very start, we get that two-note minor second theme that has become synonymous with sharks.
DB: Yes! We all thought Beethoven was brilliant for making the four-note theme iconic, but Williams outdid Beethoven by making a TWO-note theme iconic. Of all the possible intervals to use, the minor second, the smallest chromatic interval, is the most disorienting. Add to this how Williams infuses a sense of motion, which he tightly controls through pacing/tempo, as well as legato outbursts accompanied by ominous wind/brass doublings. This immediately conveys the central character of the movie in the first 45 seconds of the film.
John Williams 2006. Nationalparks, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
EK: That is brilliant, and it is only the beginning. While the most well-known and recognizable music from Jaws is that two-note motive, the score is much more than the “shark theme”-- how do you characterize William’s score?
DB: Williams is particularly effective in the use of leitmotifs, and even more broadly represents the characters of the drama distinctly in the music composed for them. The shark is actually the most important of these, as its voice is exclusively “spoken” through the orchestra, which is why the orchestra has so much more material in Act 2, where the shark takes center stage. The music of the town folks is generally quite upbeat and disconnected from what is actually happening. The first appearance of this music is in the cue named “Promenade”-sometimes called “Tourists on the Menu” – accompanying scenes of tourists arriving at Amity Island completely oblivious to the dangers lurking in the water. Williams employs a distinctly classical style and even incorporates a Harpsichord, which is intentionally distinct from all other motives and textures, to illustrate the town's disconnection. This reminds me of the music Lin Manuel Miranda wrote for King George in Hamilton, employing a British invasion pop aesthetic similar to the Beatles to represent the out-of-touch, antiquated monarchy.
EK: As we shift from the terror on the beaches to the high-seas hunt, how does John Williams’ score adapt?
DB: Well, the shift from the cognitive dissonance of the town leadership and the people of Amity Island to Brody, Hooper, and Quint’s quest on the Orca is a complete refocusing of the movie, with an equally distinct impact on the music. This is essentially the start of Act 2, where the drama is literally “Man against Beast” – actually, one of the cues in this music literally has this name. The music depicting the crew is in baroque style, but rather than being used in a disconnected way as the music for the town’s folk, it is written in a minor key and designed to evoke a fugal subject in a complex episode. This music clearly depicts the complex and challenging work the crew pushes through to attack the shark, maintain the boat, build the cage, and try to stay alive. This is Williams at his absolutely brilliant best.
And while the use of the shark motives is as expected from Act 1, in Act 2, it is the musical episodes of conflict—where the crew battles the shark—that literally make the movie. Here, Williams evokes Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring in a brilliant fusion of rhythmic and tonal complexity that amplifies the audience's experience.
The music almost becomes a character in itself, with buoyant orchestrations that capture their camaraderie, the physicality of the hunt, and the sense of adventure. But of course, Williams never lets us forget the lurking threat—the shark’s two-note motif keeps cutting back in, undercutting the crew’s confidence. The interplay between those two musical worlds—the jaunty, human side and the elemental, predatory force of the shark—is what makes the second act so gripping.
Jaws Book Cover, 1975, Roger Kastel, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
EK: John Williams has often spoken of his debt to the great symphonic tradition—from Wagner's leitmotifs to Stravinsky's rhythmic innovations. How do you perceive Williams positioning himself within this lineage, particularly in a score as deceptively profound yet straightforward as Jaws?
DB: The Jaws score is complex and sophisticated, and this sophistication was undoubtedly inspired by the most vivid works by classical composers. It is not a secret that Williams leaned heavily on Gustav Holst's The Planets for Star Wars. Still, Jaws expands that palette with explicit references to Debussy's La Mer, Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, and music by Prokofiev. What I hear is an extraordinary musician infusing the most effective textures from across a broad repertoire, with an eye/ear that goes deep below the surface. For example, when Williams quotes La Mer in Jaws, he is depicting the sea musically with high resolution. Why not evoke a similar soundworld to Debussy’s “De l'aube à midi sur la mer?” Williams’ infusion of leitmotifs through his scores is his way of infusing the music into the drama on a granular level, character by character, interaction by interaction. I don’t think John Williams would see himself in the lineage of Wagner, Stravinsky, Debussy, and Prokofiev—but his work so clearly reflects his love, respect, knowledge, and appreciation for the great composers, and the craft he has honed, amplifying the experience of listeners through his composition and realization through brilliant orchestration.
EK: What are some of the challenges in performing “live to screen”? Synchronization with the film presumably allows for no interpretive freedom in tempo. Yet surely there are moments where your musical instincts might suggest a different approach. How do you reconcile this?
DB: There is always a tension between perfect synchronization and musical expression. The technology—click tracks, visual streamers—keeps everyone aligned with the film’s timing, but my job is to make sure the orchestra doesn’t sound mechanical. Williams’s music demands flexibility: tiny shifts in phrasing, pacing, and color that give the score its heartbeat. The challenge is to find those opportunities within the grid—to let the music breathe in ways that enhance, rather than interfere with, the film's dramatic timing. When it works, the orchestra feels as alive and responsive as if we were playing a Mahler symphony, and yet every note lands exactly where Spielberg and Williams intended it to. That balance is both the challenge and the thrill of conducting live-to-screen.
EK: How does performing a score like Jaws change the musicians’ relationship to the film itself? DB: Many musicians come in knowing the movie but not the full score. Once they play it, they realize just how integral the orchestra is to the film’s identity. Suddenly, the shark is not just a cinematic villain but a musical one, living in their own instruments. I think it deepens their appreciation for both the craft of Williams and the impact that orchestral music has on storytelling.
EK: What do you think younger audiences—many of whom weren’t even born when Jaws premiered—gain from experiencing this score live? DB: They gain the realization that orchestral music isn’t abstract or academic—it’s visceral. When they hear 75 musicians conjuring terror, suspense, and exhilaration in real time, they experience the orchestra as a living, breathing force. It’s thrilling, and it makes classical music feel immediately relevant.
EK: If you had to distill Williams’s achievement in Jaws into one idea, what would it be? DB: He proved that music could embody fear itself. Not just accompany it, not just illustrate it—but become it. That’s why the two-note motif is instantly recognizable across generations: because Williams didn’t just write for a film, he tapped into something universal and primal.
For tickets and information about this concert on September 14, 2025, go to: https://www.tillescenter.org/event/jaws-in-concert.
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