F to F sharp. With those two notes, composer John Williams ensured that venturing into water would never feel safe again.
With some films, the score plays an absolutely integral role. Some recent films that come to mind are Maniac, It Follows, Gravity, and Starry Eyes, among others. These are films where the music is not a background character, one that lurks in the shadows. Rather, the score is at the forefront, telling you how you should feel and guiding you on a journey of terror and exhilaration.
The score for Jaws is one such iconic score, a collection of music that haunts viewers for years after they’ve seen the film. Hearing those two notes immediately calls to mind rows upon rows of razor sharp teeth, soulless white eyes, and a sharp fin cutting through crystalline blue water. It’s a terrifying score that rightfully earned the Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score, a Grammy, a BAFTA for Best Film Music, and a Golden Globe.
However, in an interview with director Steven Spielberg, he recounts that he first thought the score was a joke!
When [John Williams] finally played the music for me on the piano, he previewed the main ‘Jaws’ theme, I expected to hear something weird and melodic, you know? Kind of tonal but eerie, of another world, almost like outer space inside…inner space, under the water. What he played me instead with two fingers on the lower keys was [miming the theme].
And at first, I began to laugh! I thought he was…he had a great sense of humor. I thought he was putting me on! And he said, “No! That’s the theme to ‘Jaws’!”
I said, “Play it again.” He played it again, and he played it again, and it suddenly seemed right. And John found a signature for the entire movie.
Not only did Jaws create the summer blockbuster, it also showed the legitimacy of horror music as being powerful, moving, and incredibly important to creating a mood. To this day, it is considered one of the most memorable film scores by the American Film Institute.
Forty years after its release, Jaws still terrifies and traumatizes viewers the world over and, in my opinion, the music has a great deal to do with that. Spielberg himself stated, “I think the score was clearly responsible for half of the success of that movie.“