It's a tough one.
I don't actually "do" John Williams, and I really don't want to "do" Bernard Herrman. I mean, they're them, and I write how I write, without trying to be somebody else. I learned a long time ago that my influences were clearly heard in my work (though honestly, they're Schuman/Barber/Prokofieff/Copland influences, which JW and I share an affinity for obviously).But every time I try to deliberately not do what my inner voice tells me; every time I deliberately ignore my sensibilities and choices and do something else just on principle, I generate confused and focusless work. It reminds me of a great percussion player who got his first chance to play on a Miles Davis record... after the first take, Miles said, "Okay, on the next one, every time you want to play, don't." The guy completely froze up. Who wouldn't? I've been hearing the JW comparison stuff since I was a kid first starting out, and at some point I just had to accept that was going to happen. There are worse things. Half the time, it's a compliment; half the time it's an insult. At some point, it comes down to me sitting at the piano writing music, and I write what I hear in my head, and what I like. I just don't know how to do anything else. Trying to be something other than I am feels to me like if I was deliberately putting on a british accent. It's fake; it's not who I am, and it isn't how I talk. I dunno. I hear just tons of stuff in my work harmonically that JW would never do, though admittedly not so much in this piece, so I don't think at my core I'm as much as a JW-Wannabe as the harshest critics will/would say. And in the end, I'm not sure I care, if the music is enjoyable, contributory, and well-written. If your wife even asks if it's a Williams piece, though, that is just a touch hard for me to be bothered by. It's at worst a back-handed compliment. Unless she hates JW. Oh, well. I'm curious to see how it all plays out. Thanks for the kind words :)
_Mike