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Where is the music from in this second half? I know it's a pastiche of the Imperial March (Can hear that A minor - F Minor Chromatic Mediant at work). ADMIN NOTE: It's not Williams:

Here's my quick and dirty transcription of the melody. Lots and lots of Williams hallmarks here, though nothing that others haven't imitated in the past. I'm gonna remain agnostic.

Hope they’re planning to put this out as a promo clip. Fun memories of getting Williams desert chase music with TFA as the first listen, let’s go round 2 babes.

Perhaps it is, but in the here and now, John's music (as written for orchestra) sounds about as "dated" to me as Tchaikovsky's, or Walton's - which is to say that by and large it isn't dated much at all. Probably because the sound of a real orchestra will always be current. I disagree with this on a fundamental level because I'm of school of thought that believes aesthetics sit at the top of the hierarchical pecking order when thinking about the lasting impact of music. Hans Zimmer chooses to harness new technologies when producing his sound, which inherently places his music strictly in the here and now. In the short term it sounds cool and occasionally maverick, but in the end technology is replaced by technology - and obsolescence bleeds into the synths and samples that once made the harmonies and rhythms feel so resonant and exciting. In the end, productions turn into the quaint and the kitsch, soundtracking from bygone times. I think Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds is a good example of this. Still an enjoyable album, but very much a product of its time. We can listen along to it, quite patronisingly. Orchestral or symphonic music, while not completely immune to the pitfalls mentioned (Williams has written certain pieces which feel stylistically dated), fares far better than "pop scoring" simply by virtue of it being untethered from technology. Because pure accousic sound is intrinsically timeless. Anyway. I listened to the track in the OP. The only way I can describe it is epically generic. That's not to say I don't enjoy it, because I do. Guilty pleasure written all over it, I'd like to hear a fully orchestral version of the arrangement.

I love this score but if the defense against criticism is basically “If it works for people who don’t pay much attention who cares” that’s not a very good defense.

People these days even regard the premise as a spoiler, because they needlessly conflate that with plot points, and melodramatically declare they won't bother watching the movie because they know "too much" before seeing it. And I remember that leaked photo of Mark Hamill in costume before TFA was released and people almost went suicidal because they were ranting it was a spoiler - I mean, what?? That's how nuts things are now.

JWFan is a community so specifically obsessed with one man’s music, that it can become an endless series of driving wedges into thin cracks, if you know what I mean. Differences of opinion that aren’t really that far apart or meaningful tend to get exaggerated and factional. I guess it’s inevitable.

Bes, you mercenary bastard...I like it!

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Come on people, get it right.

People just need to get used to it.

It's not about the label it's about the producer. If Mike Matessino or Neil Bulk were producing it, it'd have everything. With whoever Varese hired to do this one, it did not. Shame really, it's such a great score.

Now might not be the correct time of year to listen to this sort of music (unless you're down under) but it certainly brightens the day...

A fair chunk of his work already does sound badly dated. I like Zimmer, I'm a big fan of his. But his design choices mean he'll only ever be a pop composer. My beloved Interstellar soundtrack, which at points sounds so awesomely state of the art, will in twenty years time diminish to quaint synth ditty status. Some here will remember how cutting edge Oxygène sounded forty years ago. Now it sounds like kitsch prog pop. This of course is why John Williams is timeless and Hans Zimmer isn't.

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I dislike the naming of this style of music "epic". Rózsa's was epic. LOTR was epic.This is just synth noisefest.

I noticed another cue they didn't include. 11m3 Zander and Carmen. That cue can be found on one of the boots for this score. Even though in the film it was dropped but it was definitely recorded. As I said I really wished that Varèse had released EVERYTHING for this score. I'm sure La-La Land would have made sure that happened.

Just to make you mad!

Although in general I really like the idea of pulling way back on the Force Theme on the island since Luke has cut himself off from it

I suppose that when Luke is explaining the Force to Rey, you could have opted to, instead of doing a copy-and-paste rendition of the Force theme, an entity Luke himself has cut himself off from, take it as an opportunity to give us a good rendition of Luke's theme, something that I think wasn't stated in the film as much as I would have liked. Chiefly, though, the theme most appropriate would be, as you said, the Force theme, so forget what I said haha. Ultimately I guess what I would have liked is a usage almost similar to the Bond theme in Casino Royale where Arnold hints at it throughout the film here and there but never really plays it until the very end when Bond is truly Bond. Similarly, you could have hinted at the Force theme, played maybe the first three or four notes here and there, but you never really hear it in full until the Force fully comes back to Luke at the end. I'm kinda spewing here but you get what I mean.

To me TLJ >>>> TFA . Most of the underscore in TFA is super boring I've said this before I'd like a standalone Rose's Theme yes, re-use of specific underscore segments is worse And we never actually heard segment of concert versions inserted into the score proper before

Most of us here would very much like to get a Williams autograph. I certainly would like to have one. Several thousand people will be attending these concerts, probably hundreds of them arriving from abroad. I'd wager you get at least a few hundred people in that crowd who would jump at the opportunity to get an autograph. Fortunately, most of us have the decency to accept and respect his privacy, so he won't be ambushed by hundreds of us but just those few selfish stalkers who honestly don't care, and as a result might actually enjoy his visit to Vienna.

I highly doubt that getting an autograph in the manner shown in Thor's picture, would qualify as "a nice memory of meeting him"

A spotting session

I don't know if I fully go along with all of that, as far as separating the "orchestra" from "technology". That seems like a bit of a fallacy to me...every instrument in the orchestra is a piece of technology, but one that's been perfected over centuries in concert with its neighbors. The difference with Zimmer is maybe that he's often dealing with introducing tech into the orchestra that's brand new, not time-tested. You never know what'll stick. Williams is usually a little more cautious about that...the "Hedwig's Theme" celesta and the Munich "pulse" are aging pretty nicely. Monsieur Desplat still has my favorite comments on this subject. I've posted this video a few times on here, worth watching to the end.

You mean the one that used The Spark and few here believed it to be Williams but I was convinced it was the instant I heard how badass the ostinato was?

It reminds me of the music in that commercial everyone thought was Williams during TLJ days.

I think each of the three prequel scores hit consistently greater heights of melody, emotion, invention etc than TFA or TLJ and so they’re more entertaining to listen to on a track-by-track basis, but I am overall preferring how he’s treating the thematic material in these latest two. Like I feel pretty good that this score will showcase Rey’s Theme in a way that didn’t happen with Ep 3, beyond isolated straight reprisals of things like DotF and the funeral music and a couple novel variations on Across the Stars. I imagine Kylo Ren’s motifs and the Resistance March will continue to play their roles as well and basically get their curtain calls. Whether or not it’s like the most amazing thing ever or ends up making the superior standalone listen, it’s still an itch that doesn’t often get scratched in film scores so I am excited for that.

I've not heard A HIDDEN LIFE, but SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS is a f***ing brilliant score, from a criminally underrated film. SFOC is up there with The very best, of JNH's very best. I can't rate score or film, too highly.

HFR is awful. It only really works for massive nature vista shots, or to compliment CGI sequences. It should stick to nature documentaries.

I'm quite ruthless about clearing out material possessions, so it made sense to me at the time to let the DVDs go (they'd been well used) with the aim to upgrading to the blu-rays, which I eventually did. I only own the theatrical cuts though, and I'm dissatisfied with the image quality (and the colour grading), so I'm hoping the upcoming 4K releases will see the theatricals included and with the vague hope that the colour tones will be corrected.

@Loert, when you live where I live, no time is a good time, to listen to this . Having said that, it's a lovely, and, imo, an atypical, Steiner piece. It's also very, very sexy.

ROTS may not be my favorite SW score, but the movie’s opening sequence blows every other SW entry out of the water. The ominous drums leading to the badass rendition of the force theme... glorious. The camera chasing Obi-Wan and Anakin over the edge of the ship and revealing a massive battle taking place at like half a dozen different altitudes in the upper atmosphere... miraculous. Seeing that reveal on the big screen in 2005 was astonishing. It was a blissful visual overload and one of my fondest moviegoing memories.

I'll give him props for using the other section of the main title that's rarely used, however it was just plain, vanilla trailer music.

The problem is he kinda re(-re-re-re)purposed it as Luke’s Theme in TLJ and so it shows up everywhere, but it’s just white noise because it also serves its usual functions for the Force and whatever else. Everybody points out the back-to-back reprisals at the end but the Yoda sequence is another where he specifically overdoes it. It shows up when Luke watches Rey take off on the Falcon, when Yoda lights the tree on fire, and “Skywalker, still looking to the horizon.” The first two could have been something different to at least make the third more effective. Do the ESB-style minor key Luke’s Theme for the first and a badass Yoda’s Theme for the second, easy.

I think he should just play the regular concert versions not the violin ones

I certainly agree with the Aliens part. Although not completely with his T2 comments, since I've always had a fondness for the lo-fi original over the big spectacular sequel.

While I love the score to TLJ, I got the impression that Williams heart wasn’t in this one as much as TFA. I mean, combining unrelated themes into a single concert arrangement, a copy/paste end credits suite, less new themes/motifs and the reuse of existing music. I’m guessing the reuse of existing music wasn’t Williams idea, so I’ll give him a pass for that. Disney is all about nostalgia nowadays and understand that fans go crazy when they hear the original music verbatim.

Because this is JWFan, not JWAutograph, and we do care about his well-being.

Yeah, it is true that it is different from Williams’ typical approach. All I wanted to say is that he probably doesn’t have people like us, a very small percentage of fans, in his mind when writing a score and making these choices. Personally I think that’s good to keep in mind when criticizing a huge score like this. :-)

@Quintus It's not a unique look for Uncharted either...

The one thing I'm dreading with The Rise of Skywalker is the possible return of The Force Awakens' sound mix. The music was nigh inaudible. Say what you will of the contents of the score, but least you could hear the music in The Last Jedi! If you can't hear the music, it makes little difference how good it is or isn't.

Yes. As I recall, Rian Johnson said he gave JW a temp track made primarily of existing Star Wars music. The change of process and director produced some very noticeable changes in the approach to the score, IMO. I'm guessing TROS will be more similar to TFA overall. I'm expecting a much smaller amount of new thematic material than that score, obviously, but I'm also expecting a return to Williams' usual approach.

Yes. It's not like you can't have a score that uses the theme a lot...but offhand, I can't think of a single statement of it in TLJ that really does anything new with the theme. Not that it needs to be completely reinvented every time or anything, but ROTS provides some really great examples of taking it new directions. As do all the other films, really.

Goodbye Old Friend and Arrival on Utapau feature some amazing Force Theme variations!

At least it means another gigantic JW score.

At multiple concerts, before playing Scherzo for X-Wings, he lamented the fact you could barely hear the music in the film because the "sound effects were a little bit loud." He knew exactly what he was doing pointing that out so publicly.

The Jedi Steps Theme will play a central role in the showdown. Or at least it should.

Hubris by John Powell. The best thing he's ever done. Absolutely love this album. People who doubt Powell is capable of writing some passages in Solo should give this a listen for it is even better. Karol

"What did HGW ever do to you?" "That's narnia business!"