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Gordy Haab's Star Wars: Battlefront (2015)


Jay

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That first cue at the top is the same as the cue when the ATST appears in the announcement trailer for the game. Which was released on April 17th.

https://youtu.be/ZwWLns7-xN8?t=37s

The recording sessions for SW TFA didn't start for few months after this. It's unlikely this is from TFA.

The second cue sounds like Star Wars Kinect Soundtrack

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Gordy Haab must be having fun when asked for the nth time to "compose something like John Williams but not quite like John Williams" for another game. Wasn't he the one who did the Indiana Jones pastische music for the Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings game?

Strangely enough he was not asked to compose JW emulation for any of the Harry Potter games. James Hannigan luckily didn't go all out JW imitation mode with his music.

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Didn't I somehow manage to do that with the OLD REPUBLIC game back when I was thirteen and plagueing the board with (slightly more) infantile posts? Might try it with this one as well.

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The idea that Williams' recent action music (perhaps post 1995?) is thematically anemic and lacking in form, a popular opinion here, is of course incorrect. There are less boisterous thematic statements, yes, but the music is still derived from thematic material in a more microscopic, quasi-serial fashion. It's often far more brilliant than the beloved ESB style.

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I think it's definately new JW music

Further down the ladder of respectability you go.

Any true John Williams fan knew this was a copy.

When we'll get samples from the actual score, KM will say it doesn't sound like Williams.

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I've grown to love his modern action writing actually. Chase Through Coruscant/General Grievous/Ants!/The Ferry Scene are all brilliant. There is so much information in those pieces that is still present in a concise coherent way. And it's also so unique to Williams. Arguably more stylistically distinctive than his older style (sorry folks but it's just a fact).

Karol

I agree, in a way. I love his golden era action style of course, but those cues you mentioned, particularly the War of the Worlds one, are most enjoyable.

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I've grown to love his modern action writing actually. Chase Through Coruscant/General Grievous/Ants!/The Ferry Scene are all brilliant. There is so much information in those pieces that is still present in a concise coherent way. And it's also so unique to Williams. Arguably more stylistically distinctive than his older style (sorry folks but it's just a fact).

Karol

While I've more "grown up" with Williams' modern action music than "grown into" it, I agree. I'd add "Anderson's Great Escape" (and many others I've probably forgotten for the time being) to that list too. That piece has such a wonderful sense of energy to it.

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Of course, his old style has a huge emotional punch. And it's operatic. And that is not to be underestimated. It's not really to say that I don't like it or anything. But Williams was methodically developing his own voice and, for better or worse, his action setpieces of today are very much a product of this process.

I was listening to The Whomping Willow track from POA and was amazed how much stuff is actually contained within that one minute. It's mind-boggling. And, better yet, you can hear every single section clearly. Nobody comes even close to that kind of technical proficiency.

Karol

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http://www.gordyhaab.com/ (music is "on" by default).

This is good work, similar to Bruce Broughton' JW imitation or the early games of Giacchino. He can formulate a "full" sound out of what probably is a smaller orchestra or a small budget. Does he has any album out?

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I've grown to love his modern action writing actually. Chase Through Coruscant/General Grievous/Ants!/The Ferry Scene are all brilliant. There is so much information in those pieces that is still present in a concise coherent way. And it's also so unique to Williams. Arguably more stylistically distinctive than his older style (sorry folks but it's just a fact).

Karol

I agree, in a way. I love his golden era action style of course, but those cues you mentioned, particularly the War of the Worlds one, are most enjoyable.

And Everybody Runs!. I love that one

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Of course, his old style has a huge emotional punch. And it's operatic. And that is not to be underestimated. It's not really to say that I don't like it or anything. But Williams was methodically developing his own voice and, for better or worse, his action setpieces of today are very much a product of this process.

I was listening to The Whomping Willow track from POA and was amazed how much stuff is actually contained within that one minute. It's mind-boggling. And, better yet, you can hear every single section clearly. Nobody comes even close to that kind of technical proficiency.

Karol

Indeed, again!

The Ferry Scene

I forgot what an Alex North throwback that cue is, and a lot of the rest of the score too. Fantastic!

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Shame about the awful LA performance, though.

Those same guys are performing the Force Awakens! Abandon all hope! :o

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Yea, exactly. Aping of old Williams scores doesn't make me want to follow anyone's careers - here's hoping he has his own voice as well.

And I'm not saying anything about about this kind of music within the games - I'm sure it's great for them.

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You all realise that Williams won't live forever? What better way to have a composer like Haab or the others working for videogames continuing that very sound in future films.

That is VERY exciting to me.

Because I don't want Giacchino to take his place. I do not particularly like the direction his latest scores have gone in.

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This guy is superb at emulating Williams action music only (from what I've heard on the website). So I guess he would be good for all those battle sequences in future Star Wars video games. Other than that he's an OK composer. But making a living out of emulating Williams Action MusicTM would be depressing!

I've always been particularly fond of Bajakian's work for Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb. Yes, he probably felt like he should emulate Williams, but he also managed to infuse plenty of his own personality as well, and his original themes were on par with Williams' IMO.

My favourite is probably The Kraken's Lair (36:37) or Opera Battle (42:29).

Anyway, back on topic...

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The Ferry Scene

I forgot what an Alex North throwback that cue is, and a lot of the rest of the score too. Fantastic!

Yeah. Those timpanis, man!

Karol

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By the way, going by the proper "definition" of the "next John Williams" - that is, someone with a real assuredness in their craft, a distinctive musical perspective, solid dramatic instinct, the ability to conjure memorable sounds, rather than someone who is just good at imitating Williams' particular sound or who will happen to be involved in many massive cultural cinematic events - we find that there are many "next John Williamses" writing right now, and there always will be. From now on, those of you who want the Williams sound perpetuated through imitators should refer to your messiahs as just that, "great imitators" rather than "the next John Williams." The whole idea is dumb anyway.

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By the way, going by the proper "definition" of the "next John Williams" - that is, someone with a real assuredness in their craft, a distinctive musical perspective, solid dramatic instinct, the ability to conjure memorable sounds, rather than someone who is just good at imitating Williams' particular sound or who will happen to be involved in many massive cultural cinematic events - we find that there are many "next John Williamses" writing right now, and there always will be. From now on, those of you who want the Williams sound perpetuated through imitators should refer to your messiahs as just that, "great imitators" rather than "the next John Williams." The whole idea is dumb anyway.

Beggars can't be choosers.

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I'm really hopeful War Horse was Williams experimenting with a new style of action writing, albeit only briefly, in No Man's Land. Kinetic and energetic, thematic with refreshingly streamlined orchestration. None of this jumping around to every section of the orchestra (irritating xylophone hits abound! And yes, I'm looking at you, Grievous and the Droids!)

To be honest, KOTCS did a better job aping the thematic scoring of 80's Williams than the prequels. Complete Jungle Chase is brimming with action renditions of Irina's, Indy's, Marion's and Mutt's themes while introducing sequence-specific themes that only appear in Jungle Chase.

Very little of the prequel action music has any clear or concise purpose, nor references to the themes JW established in each film. The only time he came close was the climax of ROTS and even that was victim of tracking. I think JW deserves the benefit of the doubt though; he was likely writing a score to a mess of animatics and, well, the prequels were just awful films. Across The Stars is a sensational piece but Williams was obviously channeling Out of Africa while writing it; no human is capable of writing a theme so beautiful while seeking inspiration from Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen rolling around in grassy meadows.

Please let this be a parody post.

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