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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 haven't time to read through 9 pages(!) but since people are still debating if it's Williams or not, I'm guessing no one has seen that it has been "confirmed" to be from the score. Apparently Variety confirmed it, but they mention no sources in their piece.

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Yes, posted and discussed here:

http://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=25767&p=1187082

It's funny how MakingStarWars.Net says "Variety confirms", when it's just a random journalist saying that the trailer "includes a portion from the film's score".

This journalist, to be precise:

https://twitter.com/@MaaneKhat

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Had Sandor mentioned before the trailer that a source mentioned we would get a snippet of the score would we still be in doubt to the degree we are? He seems to trust his source.

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Had Sandor mentioned before the trailer that a source mentioned we would get a snippet of the score would we still be in doubt to the degree we are? He seems to trust his source.

EDIT: That seems to be the case indeed.

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Had Sandor mentioned before the trailer that a source mentioned we would get a snippet of the score would we still be in doubt to the degree we are? He seems to trust his source.

At this point I've accepted it's JW unIess it's proven false either from a credible source or obviously the score itself. I think if he had mentioned his source beforehand there wouldn't have been as much questioning of its legitimacy but there still would have been a lot of disappointment and confusion around the sound quality and apparent "trailer-ization" of the music. And there would still be debates on the theme itself, albeit with possibly a few more people confident enough to join in with Marcus on the highly positive side.

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I am one of Gia's biggest fans and I love a lot of his scores but even I would say that Gia wishes he was even close to Williams. Williams is in another universe.

Gia's themes are trivial. They do not sustain interest. Most of his themes have no interludes. They just have a primary phrase. That's the reason there are next to no concert presentations of any of his themes. There simply isn't enough material for one.

Williams on the other hand is god gifted in that regard. He can write a melody for sure but the mileage he gets out of it is extraordinary. He makes it sing and soar through multiple interpretations in a concert suite. And it builds and builds and with each new statement you feel you are hearing some new development.

Take Tomorrowland. Atleast 3 or 4 good themes but not one concert theme presentation. Williams knows how to add orchestral color. No kidding his new theme from the teaser is already some of the most interesting work this year.

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Gia's themes are trivial. They do not sustain interest. Most of his themes have no interludes. They just have a primary phrase. That's the reason there are next to no concert presentations of any of his themes. There simply isn't enough material for one.

ddqgeVE.jpg

Williams on the other hand is god gifted in that regard. He can write a melody for sure but the mileage he gets out of it is extraordinary. He makes it sing and soar through multiple interpretations in a concert suite. And it builds and builds and with each new statement you feel you are hearing some new development.

ddqgeVE.jpgddqgeVE.jpg

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Gia's themes are trivial. They do not sustain interest. Most of his themes have no interludes. They just have a primary phrase. That's the reason there are next to no concert presentations of any of his themes. There simply isn't enough material for one.

ddqgeVE.jpg

Williams on the other hand is god gifted in that regard. He can write a melody for sure but the mileage he gets out of it is extraordinary. He makes it sing and soar through multiple interpretations in a concert suite. And it builds and builds and with each new statement you feel you are hearing some new development.

ddqgeVE.jpgddqgeVE.jpg

Indeed!

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The big secret is that Williams has lost it, and they don't want people to learn that before watching the film.

So they chose to use some of his score in a TV spot?

Yes, but without confirming it's his music! The sneaky devils!

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All this bloody speculation is killing me. I'm pretty sure if it was really Williams' more sources than Variety would have piped up by now. What online journal isn't going to milk Star Wars more than it should be without also mentioning it's really Williams? Maybe that's what Variety is doing?

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It's not Variety. It's journalist Maane Khatchatourian simply describing the spot, then saying "it includes a portion of the film’s score". As I said before, I don't trust some random journalist without apparent knowledge of the issue who doesn't cite any source at all.

I'll eat my words if I'm wrong of course.

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It's not Variety. It's journalist Maane Khatchatourian simply describing the spot, then saying "it includes a portion of the film’s score". As I said before, I don't trust some random journalist without apparent knowledge of the issue who doesn't cite any source at all.

I'll eat my words if I'm wrong of course.

And she didn't provide a source for her information. That's just bad journalism. :nono:

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Not to mention every other trailer or commercial since the original teaser (including the latest, which came after the alleged premiere of, what, like 10 seconds of Williams music?) has not used original Williams music, but RCP-sounding renditions of the Star Wars themes. It doesn't really make any sense that a new theme that sounds like multiple Giacchino themes/motifs/pieces of shit would be inserted out of nowhere amid the dreck? I mean, who would have pushed for a tiny snippet of a new Williams theme to be in a commercial? Even the people involved don't know what it is.

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Not to mention every other trailer or commercial since the original teaser (including the latest, which came after the alleged premiere of, what, like 10 seconds of Williams music?) has not used original Williams music, but RCP-sounding renditions of the Star Wars themes. It doesn't really make any sense that a new theme that sounds like multiple Giacchino themes/motifs/pieces of shit would be inserted out of nowhere amid the dreck? I mean, who would have pushed for a tiny snippet of a new Williams theme to be in a commercial? Even the people involved don't know what it is.

This!

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I'm just sick of waiting around for a real answer on this. I figure I might as well get used to it now in case it's legit. If not, so much the better, I guess. I feel like an idiot playing this tune in my head over and over trying to imagine John turning it into something great. I'm sure he will.

 

What I want to know is if this Variety lady actually confirmed anything or if she just threw it in there to segue into their John Williams Oscar article. Also want to know what the nature of Sandor's source is. Is it somebody who would have legitimately heard the score and recognized music from it, or just some friend at ABC/Disney who saw the spot early and said "Dude this is totally new John Williams music!"

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The New Age TestTM:

If a melody can be rendered in the form of a sappy piano tune, it's a good melody.

Another example:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18637418/williamstheme2.flac

EDIT: But seriously, I was just wondering, in what context that theme can sound good...

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It's a shame you didn't complete the melody with rising up a minor sixth from the G# to the E. That final leap is what balances the last phrase so perfectly...

Beautiful theme. And entirely Williams(-esque) from beginning to end. Even when trivialized by a kitschy harmonic progression.

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I hate not knowing.

But if it isn't Williams wouldn't Disney or Lucasfilm officially come out and refute the journalistic claim that it is?

Not a lot of people in the mainstream media care whether it's Williams' music, I'm going to guess.

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I completely believe the main stream media doesn't care but someone at either Disney or Lucasfilm was quick to reveal the trailer wasn't John Williams so I can't figure out why they aren't doing that this time unless it is John Williams.

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I completely believe the main stream media doesn't care but someone at either Disney or Lucasfilm was quick to reveal the trailer wasn't John Williams so I can't figure out why they aren't doing that this time unless it is John Williams.

Maybe it's a fragment of a theme. So in the movie it will feel familiar but new...sort of like the Imperial March end cadence at the end of Attack of the Clone https://youtu.be/MLlS8i3sFWs?t=623

...it's not the theme - but how the theme ends and is so identifiable. If that was all we heard, it would feel incomplete. Maybe what we are hearing now is a fragment so it is Williams...from a point of view.

33624.jpg

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If this spot really features the premiere of a snippet of Williams music for TFA, then why isn't Disney/Lucasfilm making a formal announcement? That guy said he may not be able to publicly say so? What's the big secret!?

This level of secrecy seems odd, but for TFA it's not unusual. While Williams' involvement in the first teaser was confirmed quickly by the Star Wars Twitter account, his involvement in the second was never confirmed by Star Wars (as far as I know), and while it was rumored Williams was involved in the second, that was not confirmed until a couple months after the second teaser's release (by a couple orchestra members who were quoted in an AFM article saying they played at Williams' recording sessions for the two teasers). So to me it seems entirely plausible that this could be Williams music in the TV spot and there would be no official announcement (yet).

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It's a mystery! It's a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma! The fucking Manager of Digital Content and Community Relations at Lucasfilm don't even know! Don't you get it?!

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If this spot really features the premiere of a snippet of Williams music for TFA, then why isn't Disney/Lucasfilm making a formal announcement? That guy said he may not be able to publicly say so? What's the big secret!?

This level of secrecy seems odd, but for TFA it's not unusual. While Williams' involvement in the first teaser was confirmed quickly by the Star Wars Twitter account, his involvement in the second was never confirmed by Star Wars (as far as I know), and while it was rumored Williams was involved in the second, that was not confirmed until a couple months after the second teaser's release (by a couple orchestra members who were quoted in an AFM article saying they played at Williams' recording sessions for the two teasers). So to me it seems entirely plausible that this could be Williams music in the TV spot and there would be no official announcement (yet).

I guess there's also the point that the first teaser is the only one that was "pure" Williams whereas the others have had extra music by trailer people or been heavily processed.

Funny how we've been clamoring for new music, and now that we potentially have some, we need additional material now more than ever for confirmation :P

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I know it's Star Wars and John Williams...but why would they issue any statements about a few seconds of music used for a TV spot? I highly doubt that much thought was even given to this being the first public reveal of score. Some Disney trailer editor was probably just given material to work with, threw it together and pushed it out.

They've got the soundtrack coming and there will probably be exclusive reveals linked to that to deliberately introduce and get people excited for the music.

My opinion since first hearing this was that it was unquestionably Williams edited for the TV spot. I just don't understand what all the fuss/panic is about surround the music used for TFA trailers. After all, Disney is a company that is 1) famed and proud of it's music and 2) still uses generic trailer music to advertise re-issues of their classics, which have iconic music. Relax, read and listen to what Abrams is saying about the music and enjoy the excitement of knowing that a new John Williams Star Wars score is only a month away! :)

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Part of me thinks it's just something put together by the folks responsible for the majority of the music we've heard in this marketing campaign: anyone but John Williams. People were gushing over the music in the second teaser that sounded nothing like Williams to me. Maybe these Magic Box types emulated Giacchino's Star Trek Into Darkness motif or whatever, somehow came up with a little piece of music in the style of the Maestro.

But another part of me thinks it is a new Williams theme. Its similarity to Giacchino, indeed, Giacchino music composed for a recent Abrams film (!) would seem to indicate that Abrams temp tracked the film. Not that temp tracking hasn't historically resulted in great Williams music. We know this isn't the case. Someday, we might look back on this and decide that temp tracking The Force Awakens with Giacchino music was the one decent thing we were able to pull out of this whole godawful, shitty mess.

Wait, what?

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Part of me thinks it's just something put together by the folks responsible for the majority of the music we've heard in this ad campaign: anyone but John Williams. People were gushing over the music in the second teaser that sounded nothing like Williams to me. Maybe these Magic Box types emulated Giacchino's Star Trek Into Darkness motif or whatever, somehow came up with a little piece of music in the style of the Maestro.

But another part of me thinks it is a new Williams theme. Its similarity to Giacchino would seem to indicate that Abrams temp tracked the film with Giacchino music. Not that temp tracking hasn't historically resulted in great Williams music. We know this isn't the case. Someday, we might look back on this and decide that temp tracking The Force Awakens with Giacchino music was the one decent thing we were able to pull out of this whole godawful, shitty mess.

Wait, what?

From a Making Star Wars article published March 12 (http://makingstarwars.net/2015/03/star-wars-the-force-awakens-editorial-process-broken-down/):

Bad Robot used John Williams’ music editor and Williams’ old music for the temp music since the score has not yet been recorded.

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I think it's JW music. To be clear I have zero inside information, just a guess based on the style. Not a very interesting theme but hard to judge in 1 minute

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