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Force Awakens ABC TV Spot - CONFIRMED premiere of Williams' score!


Tom

The Music In The Spot  

59 members have voted

  1. 1. Is the music from 0:03-0:38 in this TV spot written by John Williams?

    • Definitely John Williams - probably written a while back for potential trailer use
    • Definitely John WIlliams - It's gotta be from the Force Awakens score!
    • Definitely John WIlliams, but redone / remixed to sound more "trailery"
    • Definitely not John Williams!

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I can hear Williams in some of the orchestrations, but that melodic content is painfully boring.

How so? What about it bores you?

Those intervals and their motion strike me as dull, uninspired and mechanical even. The kind of writing I might expect from the likes of lesser composers like Giacchino.

Listening to it now, the only thing that gives me doubt are the running string ostinati under the melody, which is very Williams-esque.

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I can hear Williams in some of the orchestrations, but that melodic content is painfully boring.

How so? What about it bores you?

Those intervals and their motion strike me as dull, uninspired and mechanical even. The kind of writing I might expect from the likes of lesser composers like Giacchino.

Listening to it now, the only thing that gives me doubt are the running string ostinati under the melody, which is very Williams-esque.

Huh... To my ears, it's a very elegantly constructed theme, with a sense of balance I don't often hear from living composers other than Williams.

It's lyrical, poetic and immediate, but there's also something clever about it, something artificial (in the best sense); it feels like the work of a craftsman. It feels sculpted, and not the result of happenstance while noodling away at the keyboard.

I think the simplicity is a matter of purposeful design (much like Luke's theme almost 40 years ago). There's also an emotional quality to it that feels refreshingly austere. It's a very solitary theme. Ruminative and desolate. I find it very interesting. It has me intrigued. It's not a broadly romantic theme, there's nothing lush or really otherworldly about it. Still, it's completely star wars-ian, and sits comfortably among the other themes in the glossary, while at the same time offering something we haven't quite heard before.

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I like your signature Alexander! ;)

But I have a feeling that the 3rd-4th beats of bar 3 are Cmin6. And bar 4 goes like this:

1 2 3 4

Cmin6 Gmin Gmin Cmin6

It depends. Given your description, I'd say the final note of bar 4 would be F# (the raised leading-note instead of the lowered tonic). In the following bit, however, Williams uses a vi -> I progression, meaning the F# would be a Gb there.

It sounds rather messy with the added synth percussion.

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I like your signature Alexander! ;)

But I have a feeling that the 3rd-4th beats of bar 3 are Cmin6. And bar 4 goes like this:

1 2 3 4

Cmin6 Gmin Gmin Cmin6

It depends. Given your description, I'd say the final note of bar 4 would be F# (the raised leading-note instead of the lowered tonic). In the following bit, however, Williams uses a vi -> I progression, meaning the F# would be a Gb there.

It sounds rather messy with the added synth percussion.

What depends? How is the progression I gave related? Sorry I'm just a bit confused. :unsure:

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Since we've started applying this thing to specific moods and characters now, I don't think we should rule out the earlier mention of Maz Kanata, especially considering her voice has been a fixture in all the trailers. She seems like a mysterious, magical, foreboding character and this could be a melody that accompanies her.

We'll see, if we're gonna say this is Williams, I don't think we should put all this weight on it just yet as though it's automatically the theme of the movie. It doesn't really strike me as something that could anchor the entire film, I'm not sure it's distinctive enough to stick out in a variety of settings. An incidental melody for a particular character/scene, though, sure.

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Huh... To my ears, it's a very elegantly constructed theme, with a sense of balance I don't often hear from living composers other than Williams.

It's lyrical, poetic and immediate, but there's also something clever about it, something artificial (in the best sense); it feels like the work of a craftsman. It feels sculpted, and not the result of happenstance while noodling away at the keyboard.

I think the simplicity is a matter of purposeful design (much like Luke's theme almost 40 years ago). There's also an emotional quality to it that feels refreshingly austere. It's a very solitary theme. Ruminative and desolate. I find it very interesting. It has me intrigued. It's not a broadly romantic theme, there's nothing lush or really otherworldly about it. Still, it's completely star wars-ian, and sits comfortably among the other themes in the glossary, while at the same time offering something we haven't quite heard before.

I don't hear all the lyricism and emotional qualities in that you do. You use the word artificial, where I might argue it is too much so. It sounds competent enough to fit into the SW universe, but that's all I'd use to describe it. Competent. Something about the way those opening phrases return to the root strike me as lazy. And the chord progression isn't very inspired to my ears either. I don't need high romance, but I like some intrigue in my themes. The second half of the statement offers more promise.

If this is Williams, it's probably too early to make any grand statements, good or bad, without hearing the whole thing, or its application in context. But so far...meh.

How would you describe the melody at 1:22 here:

https://youtu.be/Ssnb-eiehoo?t=1m22s

Beautifully broad, like the old-school tunes of high romance. And it has a gorgeous chord progression to carry it.

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Anything with a trumpet, really. They're loud and cheesy!

Well, I do have to admit I think the SUPERMAN main theme is rather cheesy, but quite brilliantly so.

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Hm. Anyone else struck by the prominence of leaps of a major third (and its inversion of a minor sixth) in a minor key melody? (m2 beats 1/2, beat 4; m4 beats 2/3, 3/4). Almost half the melody is dominated by these intervals (m2, m4).

I think it's noteworthy (ugh, no pun intended) in a theme of such economy.

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I sincerely believe it may be a new Williams theme, but like a Magic Box version. Williams has been in his autopilot cookie cutter mode for years now. KOTCS and Tintin's themes sounded like someone imitating Williams. I have long feared that TFA's score would be just as unremarkable.

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I don't get these 'auto-pilot' comments concerning Williams' more recent output. To me it's a more refined methodology he's employed where simply put, it's modernized, yet still Williams' through and through.

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