Star Wars Main Titles - Orchestral Reduction

[Loert 2,511]

Hello fellow JW fans,

I've just posted an orchestral reduction of the Star Wars main titles suite on Youtube, with audio and scrolling score (created by me). Dunno if any of you are interested in this sort of thing, but if you are, please check it out!

The encircled numbers refer to voicings I did of individual chords in a separate document (because they were too big and complex to label on the reduction itself). This document can be viewed and downloaded here:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18637418/star%20wars%20voicings.pdf

Enjoy!

[aj_vader 534]

Thank you very much this is brilliant, must have taken you a while! good effort!

[Loert 2,511]

Thank you! I think it took about two weeks with 3 hours work a day, and the voicings filled my entire evening yesterday, so enough to keep me busy!

[tedfud 38]

fantastic....thank you so much...hours of study

t

[Balahkay 627]

This is very interesting! Too bad I don't know how to read it.

[cheul 0]

Hey Loert,

Really amazing work.

I'm trying to make a cut of the video syncing it to a lossless version of the suite, but screen captures from the 1080p version are still not sharp enough for small text.

What notation software did you use for that reduction ? I use Sibelius but have no idea how to get this result.

Just a remark: in the full score I think the 1st harp gliss has a D flat and not natural.

This make me wonder why it is like that, since the chord spelled in the intro is a Bb major. Someone can explain that ?

[Thor 7,495]

I have no idea what I'm looking at, but nice music!

I'm a bit confused, though -- isn't this just like a regular score sheet of the cue that is commonly available? Or am I missing something?

[Loert 2,511]

I used Finale 2014.

You are right about the Db! I put it in the main orchestra but forgot to put it in the harp!

This scale that leads to the main theme is not Bb major, nor F major (whch is its dominant and the chord that is actually spelled out the beat before the entrance of Luke's theme). It can probably best be described as a hybrid of F major and Ab major. The chord progression Ab major to F major is IIIb - I. All these chord progressions like IIIb - I, I - IIIb, iiib - I, i - iiib.... etc. are quite common in film music because:

• They can be extended easily to form full "cycles", since the distance between an I and IIIb is 3 semitones, which is a factor of 12, the number of semitones in an octave. So you can go C - Eb - F# - A - C. For similar reasons, III - I and so on is quite popular because the distance between those chords is 4 semitons, another factor of 12.
• Luckily, in terms of voice leading it sounds good.

And, actually, VIIb - V - I (or IIIb/V - V - I) also works, because the voices all achieve a sense of "going up". Let's take I to be Bb major. If you play VIIb - V - I (Ab major - F major - Bb major) you get voices like:

Ab -> A -> Bb
and
Eb -> F -> F/Bb (the Eb here also features prominently in the little fanfare just before)

And all other voices are shared.

So rather than just have a plain F major scale, Williams infuses it with a bit of Ab (i.e. by transforming the D into a Db) to give it a sort of "darker tang" which makes the eventual Bb major chord sound even more...well, awesome.

Williams also uses IIIb - I as a motif in Star Wars. E.g 3:43 and 4:57.

Sorry I didn't mean to get sidetracked into a lecture like that but thought that I would offer some more explanation if anyone's interested.

Here's another curiosity: At 1:02, you get a D natural in the ascending bass, but in the next bar there's a Db in the treble. Shouldn't they both be Db since the chord spelled out is Gb major?

I'm a bit confused, though -- isn't this just like a regular score sheet of the cue that is commonly available? Or am I missing something?

The regular score sheet is 28 separate lines of music and it can be difficult to look at the score and know immediately what's going on. The purpose of an orchestral reduction (or, perhaps more properly, "condensed score") is to take the instruments that are playing the same thing and put them on one line of music, to make the score easier to read.

[Thor 7,495]

I'm a bit confused, though -- isn't this just like a regular score sheet of the cue that is commonly available? Or am I missing something?

The regular score sheet is 28 separate lines of music and it can be difficult to look at the score and know immediately what's going on. The purpose of an orchestral reduction (or, perhaps more properly, "condensed score") is to take the instruments that are playing the same thing and put them on one line of music, to make the score easier to read.

Ah, OK. Thanks for the explanation.

[cheul 0]

I used Finale 2014.

You are right about the Db! I put it in the main orchestra but forgot to put it in the harp!

This scale that leads to the main theme is not Bb major, nor F major (whch is its dominant and the chord that is actually spelled out the beat before the entrance of Luke's theme). It can probably best be described as a hybrid of F major and Ab major.

Sorry I didn't mean to get sidetracked into a lecture like that but thought that I would offer some more explanation if anyone's interested.

Here's another curiosity: At 1:02, you get a D natural in the ascending bass, but in the next bar there's a Db in the treble. Shouldn't they both be Db since the chord spelled out is Gb major.

No problem with the lecture, I love such discussions, like the thread about williamisms, where people were trying to figure out the flourishes and runs. He will sometimes throw some quirky stuff in places where it's hard to hear it as quirky, for lack of a better word.

If we count the flats, shouldn't be the scale you're talking about Eb major plain and simple ? (Bb, Eb, Db)

I do know about chromatic mediant relationships, but I failed to see the Ab major in there.

Looked at 1:02 in my version of your video, no ascending bass. Can you give a measure number please ?

Thanks again for your work.

If you ever want to tackle the analysis for part of the piece, I'm willing to help in any way I can.

What would be interesting would be to extract the global structure, and see how a given theme is presented at each iteration (what underlying harmony and orchestral textures is it accompanied by for instance).

(The Asteroid field, on the other hand, lots of part I can't wrap my mind around how he came up with some of the parts, highly chromatic)

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

More evidence, as these threads often provide, that it's vital as a composer to keep most of your mental space reserved for improvisation and experimentation rather than familiar scales or devices or whatever. While we puzzle over "why" Williams or any other good composer does what they do, they're out there just doing it because it sounds right.

[Loert 2,511]

No problem with the lecture, I love such discussions, like the thread about williamisms, where people were trying to figure out the flourishes and runs. He will sometimes throw some quirky stuff in places where it's hard to hear it as quirky, for lack of a better word.

If we count the flats, shouldn't be the scale you're talking about Eb major plain and simple ? (Bb, Eb, Db)

I do know about chromatic mediant relationships, but I failed to see the Ab major in there.

Looked at 1:02 in my version of your video, no ascending bass. Can you give a measure number please ?

Thanks again for your work.

If you ever want to tackle the analysis for part of the piece, I'm willing to help in any way I can.

What would be interesting would be to extract the global structure, and see how a given theme is presented at each iteration (what underlying harmony and orchestral textures is it accompanied by for instance).

(The Asteroid field, on the other hand, lots of part I can't wrap my mind around how he came up with some of the parts, highly chromatic)

You're welcome!

Eb major has an Ab instead of a Db.

I'm referring to measure 32.

It would be interesting to analyse indeed! I didn't know there was a thread about "williamisms".

More evidence, as these threads often provide, that it's vital as a composer to keep most of your mental space reserved for improvisation and experimentation rather than familiar scales or devices or whatever. While we puzzle over "why" Williams or any other good composer does what they do, they're out there just doing it because it sounds right.

It definitely won't hurt to have a solid grounding in theory when composing, but I agree with your overall point. I think for Williams a lot of this comes down to experience. After playing in orchestras and composing whatever you can every day for many years, you start to get an intuitive feel of where and when to put the notes so they sound good.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Some of the most valuable stuff I was taught about composition has to do with being able to quiet the inner "theoretician" and relegating its role to mere proofreading/editing of what the purely creative part of the mind thinks up. That's the great secret among composers... anything you do can sound right and good so long as its fluent. Learning to think this way was the most freeing musical experience I've ever had.

Of course that's not suggesting that you shouldn't understand theory or that it's not fun to analyze music. It's just that some people get trapped in that mindset (often due to awful academic programs) and that's not how you write music.

[cheul 0]

Damn, I meant Eb mixolydian, but in the end it's based on the fifth degree of A major.

TheGreyPilgrim : I agree but even of it's not theory based, there might be reoccurring uses of the same devices in Williams writing, and runs are definitely one of them. So it's about learning William's theory in some way. If he had some techniques generalized in his writing over time, they ought to appear on score. It takes reading a lot of cues.

[Jilal 569]

I'd say that when composing, music theory (and certainly score study, per extension) has to be held in mind as some form of musical intuition, guiding you through the process of composing without having to actually reflect over the theory itself. The more theory and scores you've understood, apprehended, mastered, the more intuition you have to rely upon.

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

The bVII-V-I cadence is the subtonic cadence, found a lot in Copland, westerns and even surf rock.

Mixolydian cadence (V-bVII-I) at 0:09 to the dominant, G, with the D being the dominant of the dominant (V/V). Genuine subtonic cadence at 0:19 to C, and a Hollywood cadence (iv-I) at 0:38, with a deceptive resolution to the mediant (Em).

BTW, what does compositional fluency mean? How does one even begin to judge that?

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

I just mean that you're not throwing random shit down. It's the difference between saying you can do whatever you want after you learn all the ins and outs and whys and why nots or saying that you can do whatever you want without knowing any of that. I guess "fluency" means that you can come up with something freely but still justify it from a technical perspective, or contextualize it so that it makes perfect sense. Another way of looking at it is being able to recognize when something really just doesn't work and edit accordingly. I dunno, this is usual TGP pointless mental gymnastics. I blame my teachers!

[skyy38 21]

On 9/7/2015 at 3:30 PM, loert423 said:

Hello fellow JW fans,

I've just posted an orchestral reduction of the Star Wars main titles suite on Youtube, with audio and scrolling score (created by me). Dunno if any of you are interested in this sort of thing, but if you are, please check it out!

 

The encircled numbers refer to voicings I did of individual chords in a separate document (because they were too big and complex to label on the reduction itself). This document can be viewed and downloaded here:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18637418/star%20wars%20voicings.pdf

Enjoy!

 

I myself, am VERY interested in your work here, because I could use a bit of help, in trying to figure out the more difficult aspects of the STAR WARS scores, particularly E4.

I am following you on this, for more than a few reasons! Keep up the good work!

[Loert 2,511]

In light of Halloween arriving soon, I made another orchestral reduction of a Williams track, "The Face of Voldemort" from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. I always thought this track excellently captured that ghostly, haunted yet magical vibe associated with Halloween. And the JW Harry Potter scores are notorious for their use of orchestral colour, which makes them perfect for a reduction.

 

Anyway, I hope you enjoy watching. Even if you're not totally familiar with musical notation it might be fun just following along and seeing Williams pushing the orchestra in weird and magical ways!

 

 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,516]

3:22, to 3:45 is heartbreaking!

Thanks for the sheet-music.

[LongTimeJWFan 11]

Thank you, Loert for making my day today! 

[cheul 0]

Thanks a lot for your ongoing efforts Loert, these vids are an invaluable ressource !

[Loert 2,511]

Here's the next installment; "Journey to the Island" from Jurassic Park: