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For anyone who has gone on Star Tours: The Adventure Continues, I have a guide that identifies exactly what cues score which sequences in the ride. John Williams expressed great interest in doing the music for the ride; the Disney Imagineers were very enthusiastic about the maestro being involved in the project (for obvious reasons). However, after evaluating the ride's sequences, he decided that a new musical score was not necessary. Instead, John Williams suggested that the music should be the original scores from the saga, with pre-recorded passages from the scores that he and his music editor found. So, John Williams hand selected the cues to be used for each sequence; all of the cues score each sequence perfectly, too. Takeoff sequence: 1.) Encountering Darth Vader and the Imperial Stormtroopers - The Imperial March (Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back), Bail's Escape (Episode III: Revenge of the Sith), The Clash of Lightsabers (Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back). Escaping the TIE Fighters and making the jump to light speed - The Death Star (Episode IV: A New Hope). 2.) Encountering Imperial Stormtroopers near the Millennium Falcon - Imperial Attack (Episode IV: A New Hope). Escaping and making the jump to light speed - TIE Fighter Attack (Episode IV: A New Hope). 3.) Encountering First Order Stormtroopers near the Millennium Falcon, escaping and making the jump to light speed - The Asteroid Field (Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back) 4.) Encountering Kylo Ren and the Stormtroopers - Kylo Ren's Theme (Episode VII: The Force Awakens) Escaping the TIE Fighters and making the jump to light speed - Torn Apart (Episode VII: The Force Awakens) First planet sequence: 1.) Hoth sequence - Attacking a Star Destroyer (Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back). 2.) Tatooine sequence - Sail Barge Assault (Alternate Version) (Episode VI: Return of the Jedi). 3.) Kashyyck sequence - The Forest Battle (Concert Suite) (Episode VI: Return of the Jedi). 4.) Jakuu sequence - The Falcon (Episode VII: The Force Awakens) Transmission sequence: 1.) Princess Leia - The Hologram (Episode IV: A New Hope). Jump to light speed - Shootout In the Cell Block (Episode IV: A New Hope). 2.) Admiral Ackbar - Learn About the Force (Episode IV: A New Hope). 3.) Yoda - Yoda Into Exile (Episode III: Revenge of the SIth). 4.) BB-8 - unused cue associated with BB-8 (Episode VII: The Force Awakens) 5.) Maz Kanata - unused section reprisal from March of the Resistance (Episode VII: The Force Awakens) 6.) Poe Dameron - March of the Resistance motif (Episode VII: The Force Awakens) Second planet sequence: 1.) Coruscant sequence - Get' Em R-2! (Episode III: Revenge of the SIth), Boys Into Battle (Episode III: Revenge of the Sith), Chasm Crossfire (Episode IV: A New Hope), Shootout In the Cell Block (Episode IV: A New Hope). 2.) Naboo sequence - Detention Block Ambush (Episode IV: A New Hope), Passage Through the Planet Core (Episode I: The Phantom Menace), Crash Landing (Episode I: The Phantom Menace), Sail Barge Assault (Episode VI: Return of the Jedi). 3.) Death Star orbiting Geonosis sequence - The Asteroid Field (Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back), The Death Star (Episode IV: A New Hope), End Title (Episode VI: Return of the Jedi), End Title (Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back). 4.) Crait sequence - Arrival At Takodana (Episode VII: The Force Awakens), Superstructure Chase (Episode VI: Return of the Jedi), Scherzo for X-Wing (Episode VII: The Force Awakens). Arrival at Batuu - alternate version of Farewell (Episode VII: The Force Awakens). Exit music - End Title (Episode VI: Return of the Jedi). If anyone would like to add on this by identifying the cues that play at the entrance outside as you wait in line, you are more than welcome.

Hi all, I've now completed a blog post analyzing the musical meaning of the themes from The Force Awakens. http://www.filmmusicnotes.com/themes-and-their-musical-meaning-in-star-wars-episode-vii-the-force-awakens/ Enjoy!

This! There is nothing 'gimmicky' about it. It's a wellcrafted score that uses its main 2-note motif in an ingenious way throughout all its variations and its "play" with narrative and audience expectations. And obviously also contains a great many other pieces and cues that are organically ingrained. There's rarely been a more welldeserved winner.

We need someone to pretend to be an employee to go in there and steal the file for "Yoda Farewell".

Spielberg died? Okay, a bit of bad taste there.

This would be true of many Williams films since Schindler's, though. He's been snubbed for 25 years because they feel he's already had won enough. Saving Private Ryan, Munich and Lincoln were all nominated for the trifecta (Original Score, Director & Picture). Williams lost all 3. War Horse was only nominated for Score + Picture and he lost again. Different era but even Raiders was nominated in all 3 categories and lost all 3. Long story short? Fuck the Academy!

Probably should be done that way.

Bass Flute maybe?

The thing about the Oscars is the Academy is made up of people who are established in the film industry, which I wouldn't say is necessarily the same thing as people who are interested in critiquing movies and seriously weighing their overall and individual artistic merits. Not all actors, musicians, studio executives, costume designers etc are rabid cinephiles. There might be a little more overlap with certain professions like directing, but overall it's gonna be a pretty eclectic mix of people with widely varying levels of knowledge, experience, and interest in any given category. In those anonymous ballots I posted, sometimes people abstain if they haven't seen all the films or don't know, say, the difference between sound mixing or editing, but as you can see there's nothing stopping them from voting if they want. In a sense, the nominations themselves are a little more credible because those are exclusively voted on by people within that profession (actors vote for acting, musicians for vote for score/song etc) and then people in miscellaneous branches like executives or public relations only nominate for Best Picture with everyone else. The winners are another story where everybody gets to vote on everything, so the result in any category is naturally more likely to include other factors besides sheer quality evaluation. Would be kind of interesting to know how many Oscars Williams would have if the music branch also exclusively chose the winners...

I only watched bits of this year's oscars because of the LLL/Moonlight thing. Did Jaws win because of the theme? I'm going to side with 'yes', simply because it makes the score easy to identify.

My opinion is that this glorious award shows how mediocre Williams really is, he have have 50 times possibility to compose good music to win but only few times he have succeed.

Saving Private Ryan and Lincoln were really his two big Oscar "gets" since Schindler's List, with more than 10 nominations and both perceived in the top 2-3 contenders for Best Picture (Saving Private Ryan surely was #2 that year). He lost to Life is Beautiful and Life of Pi, and probably what made the difference was the scores in those movies had more of a colorful role. A lot of people probably didn't recall Ryan or Lincoln even had scores when the D-Day scene and DDL's performance had everyone's attention. In that sense it also probably has to do with whether or not the music is a major talking point of the film e.g. the scores in Up and Avatar both had major roles, but for most people the "Married Life" sequence was the #1 most memorable aspect in Up, while Horner ended up kinda second fiddle to the visual scope and 3D effects, as far as watercooler discussions of the film would go. I think a lot of times one scene can make the difference. I can imagine people in their heads quickly ranking "Jack, I swear" vs "Becoming a Geisha" vs Munich's WTF sex scene and it makes sense that people went for Brokeback's score when you consider that. But it should also be noted that we also have absolutely no idea what the final vote tallies were. It's tempting to look for patterns but if Memoirs had won then it would just fit into another mold. The movie won 3 other technical categories -- including Cinematography where it beat Brokeback -- and Williams would just have been seen as the flashiest, most stylish choice. The other thing is it's easy to talk about "the Academy" as if it's just one brain making a single decision...in a sense it's kind of true when you consider herd mentality and how the wind just blows in a certain way toward certain movies around Oscar time with lots of different types of buzz, but ultimately it's thousands of people voting based on their own reasons, which are often arbitrary or quirky. Every year there are articles like these that get published that anonymously interview Oscar voters about their choices. Here's a response on the 2015 scores: Ultimately I think we take the Oscars more seriously than a lot of the voters do. It's presented like a national election but you imagine actually getting these ballots every year and realizing more and more of these people are your friends. It probably just starts becoming funny. Apparently the show is even more boring to sit through in person than it is for us at home. It's just showbiz gossip, but that's why it's fun!

I know everybody else does, but I said it just in case you didn't.

Jeff Bezos prevailed upon them. Free advertising to put his company as the title.

Yes, what I meant is that, maybe, given the precedent of "Dune Sea of Tatooine", JW made a sort of musical nod to that when introducing the new droid (just in line with the general tendency of the movie to make references to ANH), so Rite of Spring --> Dune Sea of Tatooine --> this theme in TFA. But of course, the mystery associated with that scene is underscored well by the minor chords device. The truth might be a combination of all the elements, only John knows.

So odd that they'd be so indecisive about such non-descript titles. Wonder what prompted the flip-flopping.

It's entirely possible. I just can't get past the eerieness of the harmony. Parallel minor chords are Williams' go-to for mystery or evil, and those are really opposite to BB8's bubbly personality. The Dune Sea originated with the temp track's placing of Stravinsky's Rite at that point, so I'd sooner think that the justification for it than an association with the droids.

Back to The Post.

He isn't talking of people but generally about movies made in this century. Incanus says he doesn't give any examples but that's not true at all. Koray says he's pretentious and that's not true either. To me it's like someone is finally telling the truth about today's cinema. It feels good that I'm not alone with my feelings.

Yes, I thought about that and it's certainly possible. I suppose I went only with the map as the association because of a few subtleties in the way the motif is used. The opening version we hear is not quite the same motif - it goes up instead of down. One could say that's trivial, but I think up vs. down is an important distinction when recognizing a motif. It's true that this motif is based more on harmony than melody, but there is still a sense of contour that is preserved with its other statements. The other thing is that BB8 may have a couple of other related motifs. The first is one we hear when BB8 is asking to come with Rey, then later when he is about to and actually joins his piece of the map with R2's - this seems to be the very same music for a short stretch. You'll notice that what we're calling the map motif is in these places sandwiched between this other music that may be a motif for BB8. Musically, the characteristic bit is a rising fourth (like the first two notes of the Force theme, for example). This sandwiched map motif makes more sense in the later scene, when the map is about to be shown, but here it seems out of place, which makes me wonder if it was first composed for the later scene then copied to the earlier one. There is also a related and recurring bit of music when Rey refuses to sell BB8 and when she later tells BB8 that Finn is with the Resistance (just after evading the TIE fighters). This also has a rising fourth but is followed by a stepwise falling line instead of a leap down, so it doesn't sound the same, but could perhaps be related. I find it fascinating/strange/frustrating that there are these half-associated, subtly used bits of music in this film and in the prequels (ROTS being the richest in this respect, as the "obscure motifs" thread would seem to prove). It's such a different approach from the OT!

Great work Ludwig! As for the Map motif it is debatable if it is actually a motif for BB-8 as it also appears out of the context of the map, e.g. in the opening of the film where we first see BB-8 as the droid spots the incoming First Order troops and rolls off to warn Poe. But of course as the robot is carrying the map the motif always coincides with both.

I see what you did there, Muad'Dib Cooper!

Had the chance of re-watching Dr. Strangelove after many years but this time on the big screen and I think I liked it even more than the first time. The public responded really well to the comedy as well, particularly to Sellers. Damn fine movie.

Hey fellow musicians and composers, A while back I did several live recordings with the Budapest Scoring Orchestra. They had just around 25 minutes to record each piece, but pretty much nailed all of them ( for instance the runs in the middle part of "Spaghetti Con Brio" and those in "Kitchen Fiasco" should be extremely hard). Also, feel free to visit my homepage for recording session videos, more info about me etc: http://fredericbernardmusic.com/ I've also decided to put the full orchestral PDF scores up there (for free at this time) - just in case you'd like to study these works! Feedback on the music, or just anything else is always welcome and much appreciated. All the best, Frederic

It's certainly a fine "throwback" film. I would have liked to have seen more from Conran, but sadly the film "tanked", and he hasn't been able to recover since then. A shame really, because I'm sure he could done a decent follow-up if given the chance.

But it was that controversial movie that made hordes of good towns folk gasp in unison.

Blame Olivia de Havilland! Her lawsuit against Warner Bros is the official "beginning of the end" of the old Hollywood Dream Factory.

Interesting indeed! The film they made was a fine one indeed and they sound like actual, genuine people too. I like these guys; I like them a lot.

cc @Will

It's also why the general audience still remembers and recognises the score today, Oscar or not.

Caaam down! Caaam down! Are yer sayin' our nan's better than our gran?

It's been literally 7 or 8 years since I last saw Revenge of the Sith, and I just stumbled across this. This scene is really rather ridiculous and a bit cringeworthy... Except for the music. The music gives me goosebumps. The music occupies 70% of my attention. What would I give to have this clean, on CD, in perfect sound quality! (And no, no bootleg for me!)

SInce the video is quite long, I copy-pasted a list of contents from the YouTube page: 01:16 Lack of economic pacing 02:10 Over-editing 03:19 OCD cinematography 05:14 OCD lighting 07:12 Over-choreographed action 09:10 Improper use of CGI 11:41 Boring musical scores 14:03 Over compartmentalization of personnel 15:27 Terrible casting 16:23 Recycled symbols and metaphors 19:13 Dumb heroes 22:03 Mumbled dialogue 23:26 Ever-increasing spectacle 26:11 Blank canvas "art" movies 29:04 The uncinematic world of I.T. communication 31:49 Over-reliance on exposition 34:23 Illegal downloading 35:35 Blitz marketing instead of word of mouth 36:52 Dependence on commercial and political adver 39:03 Brand based film making 39:53 Fake reviews 41:37 Expensive technical standards 44:33 Ideological conformity 47:05 Socially motivated viewing 48:22 Redundancy of art in the face of mass commun 51:35 Lack of visionary film makers

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets by Alexandre Desplat: From technical point of view excellent with wonderful orchestrations but on the whole I can't after several listens connect with this score. It has some nifty action passages, colorful quirkiness where it needs it and some musical tropes of sci-fi awe and wonder and a couple of central musical ideas peppered throughout so it has all those bases covered but it lacks something, some intangible spark, to make it truly memorable or singular in my book. The musical dramaturgy is not half bad in the first half of the album (I excised the source songs from the listening experience) but the score doesn't seem to form a fully satisfying arc from start to finish on the disc and is sorely missing a proper finale as the score just sort of peters out at the end of Final Combat. It is a bit disappointing that one of my favourite contemporary film composers didn't hit it out of the park with such a grandiose sci-fi concept. But oh well, onward and upward to new musical adventures! The Iron Giant by Michael Kamen

I don't understand how many of the scores mentioned are "gimmicky." Brokeback won on the strength of the film. The movie has like 13 minutes of original music but I don't consider the solo guitar work to be gimmicky. The Artist has a score that matches the fact that the movie is a silent film throwback. No other score would make sense for that film. It's stylized but I don't see how that makes it gimmicky. Grand Budapest is a classic Wes Anderson score. Desplat wrote great music to fit the tone and locale and period. It's a highly varied and fun score. I suppose Jaws could be considered "gimmicky" because it relies on 1 trick, one simple motif, but that motif is what makes the movie scary.

Now the First Order can join flattened "slice destroyers" into a full circle and create a gigantic "Pie Destroyer". With several of those ventral cannons pointing every which way! Sure the thing couldn't move but boy would it be worth seeing!

And apparently the first Brachiosaurus scene was tracked with this: Then there's this: Close Encounters seems to be a direct influence in the Raptor kitchen scene, although we could argue that's more Williams style for writing suspense music And I'm pretty sure the Backdraft march was a influence in the "mission" theme of Jurassic -it was heavily used in the trailer for both the original movie and the sequel And for TLW That's all I can remember right now

Hey guys! I think this: was temped with this: thoughts?

3 posts in and I'm already depressed as fuck about the state of modern film music. Cherish every new John Williams score from here on folks, is all I'll say.

Oh absolutely. As with all of these gestures, it serves a dual function: one rhetorical/dramaturgic (intensification) and the other formal (a quasi-cadence - like Grey outlined above). What I'm really look at is the etymology of the technique itself. The Debussy excerpt sounds closer to the mark than the Rebel as the notes are held as it ascends the scale. From Henry Cowell's New Musical Resources (brilliant book BTW): One way is to play the tones of a cluster in quick succession, holding them as they are played. This is a a cluster of essentially a different kind from one fixed, for although it is possible to regard he movement simply as a means of arriving at a fixed cluster of a larger interval, it is also possible, and specially interesting, to regard the cluster as one of changing size, like an angle who sides are projected to greater length. There are three way of thus spreading a cluster: to begin with the lowest tone and go up; another to begin with the highest tone and go down; and the third to begin with the middle of the cluster and spread it in both directions at once. This work is from two decades later, and I think I've posted it before in the classical recommendation thread, but what about Schnittke? The resemblance to what Whitacre and Shore would later write is uncanny. Not just the clusters but confluence of other things--the parallel fourths in the tenors and basses could be straight out of Khazad-dûm, and the austere minor triads bring to mind The End of All Things. Not choral, but these two early New Simplicity works from Gorecki and Kilar are worth bringing to the table.