“It’s almost cheating when you have John Williams…he writes feelings”   —JJ Abrams, Force Awakens Director (source)   Amongst the film music circle, it’s very well known that John Williams writes emotion better than most (if not all) composers in the film industry.  Whereas Hans Zimmer writes “sound worlds” and Michael Giacchino writes based off an essential chord, John Williams writes the emotional underpinning of the scene.  So this series of posts is going to explain the main three ways that he creates scores with tremendous feeling. We are going to look at his well-known use of leitmotifs as well as other, less popular techniques.  And to start off the exploration, let’s look at one of the historical precedences for why his work carries such emotional weight: Mickey Mousing.    Mickey Mousing    Guess where Mickey Mousing comes from?   Hint: they’re from the early Mickey Mouse cartoons.  Mickey Mousing is synchronizing the music to the actions that are on the screen. For instance, if there is a…