There is perhaps no living composer less in need of an introduction than John Williams. Any moviegoer of the past quarter-century is sure to recognize his signature themes from some of the most popular films of all time.

Despite his long association with film scoring and his 15-year tenure as conductor of the Boston Pops (he now holds the position of Conductor Laureate), Williams has throughout his career written serious-minded music for the concert stage, including a well-crafted Essay for Strings (1965), a dissonant Sinfonietta for wind ensemble (1968), and a 1966 symphony performed by André Previn in Houston and London. After an early, experimental flute concerto (1969) he composed a more conventional violin concerto, which has been performed around the country and has most recently been taken up and recorded by Gil Shaham. In the past decade and a half Williams has turned out many more works in this form, including a 1985 tuba concerto, a 1991 clarinet concerto, a 1994 cello concerto for Yo-Yo Ma (recently recorded for Sony Classical along with several other pieces Williams has written for the eminent cellist), a 1995 bassoon concerto (The Five Sacred Trees) commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, and a 1996 trumpet concerto for the Cleveland Orchestra. His most recent concert works include a ravishing song cycle for soprano and orchestra, Seven for Luck, set to the poetry of Rita Dove, and for Seji!, a 25th anniversary present for Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony. Yet, as Williams is quick to point out, more people will hear his music to the latest blockbuster film on opening day than will ever hear any of his more abstract music for the concert hall.

The son of a jazz drummer, John Williams was born in New York and moved to Los Angeles with his family in 1948, when his father took a job as a percussionist at Columbia Studios. There he attended UCLA and studied composition privately with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. After service in the Air Force, Williams returned to New York to attend the Juilliard School, where he studied piano with Madame Rosina Lhevinne, before again moving to Los Angeles, where he began his career in the film studios as a pianist. He went on to write music for many television programs in the 1960s, winning two Emmys, and broke into films scoring low-budget dramas and silly comedy films. After breakthrough dramatic scores for movies such as The Reivers (1969) and Images (1972), he scored The Sugarland Express (1974), the first feature film by a young director named Steven Spielberg; the following year they scared an entire nation with Jaws, and Williams has gone on to score all but one of Spielberg's films, including Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T. (1982), Schindler's List (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998), A.I. (2001), Minority Report (2002) and the forthcoming Catch Me If You Can. Spielberg in turn introduced Williams to George Lucas, who asked him to score Star Wars in 1977; he has since composed music for all of the sequels: The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Return of the Jedi (1983), The Phantom Menace (1999) and Attack of the Clones (2002).

Williams has also forged a working relationship with another director, Chris Columbus, and they have collaborated on the first two Home Alone films (1990 and 1992), as well as the Julia Roberts-Susan Sarandon vehicle Stepmom (1998). So when Columbus was offered the opportunity to bring the first Harry Potter novel to the screen, there was only one logical choice for a composer.

Much of John Williams' film music has had a life outside of the movie theater and ever since Star Wars in 1977 he has adapted cues from many of his film scores for concert hall performance. Yet in the instance of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Williams has gone a step further, creating what can rightly be considered a 21st-century analogue of Benjamin Britten's A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. The composer explains the genesis of his "Children's Suite" in a preface to the conductor's score:

"When I wrote the full orchestral score for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, I hadn't planned to write the eight miniatures presented here. The film's score did not require them, and our production schedule, usually very difficult in the film world, made no provision for their arrival.

"However, if I can be permitted to put it a bit colorfully, each piece seemed to insist on being 'hatched' out of the larger body of the full score.

"I began writing Hedwig's little piece, and each of the others followed quickly as they seemed to arrive all clamoring for their individual identities. I selected a combination of instruments that suited each theme, and this suite of pieces if the result."Hedwig, the beautiful owl who magically and mysteriously delivers mail to Harry Potter at Hogwarts School, is musically portrayed in the first miniature by the celesta, a luminous little instrument which is capable of producing pearly, crystalline tones at dazzling speeds. The celesta begins its flight alone, but is quickly joined by the violins, possibly the only other instrument capable of attaining the dizzying pace needed to defy gravity and achieve flight.

"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, that august institution that has trained and taught young wizards for centuries, is probably best described by the French horn section of the orchestra. No other instrument seems so perfectly suited to capturing the scholarly atmosphere of Hogwarts than the noble and stately French horn.

"In the third miniature we meet Harry Potter's arch enemy, the evil Lord Voldemort, who is portrayed here by two bassoons and a contrabassoon sounding their mysteriously deep and sonorous tones.

"The Nimbus 2000 is Harry Potter's own personal broomstick. To musically depict this ingenious mode of transportation we have the woodwind section, with its flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons, all capable of extraordinary leaps and astonishing agility, forming a perfect match for the nimble Nimbus 2000.

"On the third floor of the Hogwarts School we find Fluffy, the huge three-headed guard dog. Fluffy is a music lover who can only be made to fall asleep to the sound of music. Here the contrabassoon represents the snoozing Fluffy, while his music is provided by the beautiful…and in this case…soporific harp.

"In the Harry Potter books, Quidditch is a form of intramural competition played on flying broomsticks. The games are conducted every year at the Hogwarts School with great pageantry, featuring colorful flags and cheering crowds. In the sixth miniature, the pomp and ceremony of these Quidditch games is best represented by the blazing brass section of the orchestra, with its tuba, French horns, trombones and heraldic trumpets.

"In the seventh miniature, 'Family Portrait,' the clarinet introduces themes that relate to the disparate parts of Harry Potter's emotional life, and here it is accompanied by the cello section of the orchestra, which produces a wonderfully warm and beautiful sound.

"Diagon Alley is a sort of shopping mall of the wizard world. Along with the wondrous things to be seen in the Alley, we are also transported by the sounds of antique recorders, hand drums, and percussion instruments of all kinds. There is even an elaborate solo part for the violin, cast in the role of the witch's fiddle.

"With all of the miniatures presented, the suite concludes with the entire orchestra as it explores many of the themes heard throughout 'Harry's Wondrous World.'

"My fondest hope is that instrumentalists and listeners alike might share in some of the joy that I have felt in writing music for this delightful story."