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The Force Awakens ALBUM Discussion (No Film Spoilers)


rebekahnoelleparker

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I created my own 'listening experience' playlist, trimming the fat, as follows:

1. Main Title & The Attack on Jakku Village

2. The Scavenger

3. Rey Meets BB-8

4. March of the Resistance

5. Rey's Theme

6. Finn's Confession

7. Han and Leia

8. Kylo Ren Arrives at the Battle

9. The Abduction

10. On the Inside

11. Torn Apart

12. Scherzo for X-Wings

13.The Ways of the Force

14. Farewell & The Trip

15. The Jedi Steps & Finale

(Representing the film, it really just misses a sense of the action music accompanying the various Falcon detours that get us to Takodana, but personally I don't think it's strong enough. I'm also annoyed that the flutes fade out at the end of the "Falcon" track.)

It's funny but looking at the tracklist reminds me of the type of OST I was expecting, i.e. loads of action cues omitted.

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I created my own 'listening experience' playlist, trimming the fat, as follows:

1. Main Title & The Attack on Jakku Village

2. The Scavenger

3. Rey Meets BB-8

4. March of the Resistance

5. Rey's Theme

6. Finn's Confession

7. Han and Leia

8. Kylo Ren Arrives at the Battle

9. The Abduction

10. On the Inside

11. Torn Apart

12. Scherzo for X-Wings

13.The Ways of the Force

14. Farewell & The Trip

15. The Jedi Steps & Finale

(Representing the film, it really just misses a sense of the action music accompanying the various Falcon detours that get us to Takodana, but personally I don't think it's strong enough. I'm also annoyed that the flutes fade out at the end of the "Falcon" track.)

It's funny but looking at the tracklist reminds me of the type of OST I was expecting, i.e. loads of action cues omitted.
Well, yeah. They're "good" but a bit listless. Would be good to maybe microedit a few of them into one longer "Falcon" track (and fix up the fading flutes).
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Most people are disappointed, but I think, after seeing the film, Williams was simply accommodating the jumpy style of the film's action, which was occasionally chaotic. While it's less memorable, I appreciate the action music a lot and am glad Williams put so much on the album.

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So even the JWFan crowd aren't particularly enamoured with the action material in this?

It's very dense so hard to penetrate at first. But there is some very strong stuff there.

But obviously no The Asteroid Field or Into The Trap.

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So even the JWFan crowd aren't particularly enamoured with the action material in this?

The flightier stuff, not really but I love the more dramatic ROTS/War Horse-like action music like the opening sequence and the trio of cues around "The Abduction".

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I was only thinking yesterday that the forgettable Rathars sequence was let down by the score, actually. John should have gone for something more thematic and fun there, a little incidental melody line similar to how he handled the escape from inside the meteorite worm in TESB or the Basket Chase in Raiders running throughout the scene would have really raised it.

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Only one listen for me so far. I am humming. Yes, humming. :)

This one will grow with time. It's a stunning piece of beauty. Taken as a whole, it feels less chaotic and more focused... there is no Whirl Through Academe.

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Does anyone think March of the Resistance has a similar quality to the end of Journey to the Island from JP? Thr bit where they arrive at the visitor center?

I was thinking that very thing earlier tonight. And also that it has similiar instrumentation and feel to the militaristic music in Close Encounters and Raiders. The track is really growing on me.

there seem to be more music post-crawl in the 60 minutes video...

It's completely different, isn't it?

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As I said I was slightly underwhelmed after hearing the music in the film the first time. But after seeing it again on thursday, I did enjoy the music more, and I just finished listening to the album all the way through twice, and it is a classic 'grower' indeed. It grows with every listen. Of course most scores do, but this one more so than his previous SW scores I think.

The evolution of Rey's theme throughout is marvellous, and I am confidently humming both hers, Finn's and the Resistance March. But perhaps my favourite has to be Poe's theme heard in 'I Can Fly Anything' at 1:18, 'Farewell and The Trip' at 0:31, and at 5:23 in 'Jedi Steps and Finale'

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The flute passage from the ABC commercial that's also in the final track of the CD is one of my favorite things Williams has done in years. Its mesmerizing.

I agree. It is stunning, which makes at all the more bizarre that it isn't a fully fledged theme but rather a once off melody.

Having seen the movie and the significance of the scene that melody scores, I can understand why Williams put so much effort into it to make it extra special. One of my biggest anticipations for episode 8 is if that melody will return.

Yet, when people heard the theme for the first time in the ABC spot, everyone here -except Marcus- claimed that Williams 'had lost it'..,,

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Yet, when people heard the theme for the first time in the ABC spot, everyone here -except Marcus- claimed that Williams 'had lost it'..,,

Things like that is why I took a break from the MB. People coming to conclusions about the score based on 10 second snippets from promo video's is something I no longer have the patience for.

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After listening to some of the score again, I have some new thoughts. It ranks right up there with Images and Rosewood as one of Williams's most unusual scores. With Rey's Theme and the Jedi Steps, he breaks entirely new ground. The comment made by a contemporary musician about Beethoven's last quartets, that "we know that there is something there, but we do not know what it is" may very well apply here. Even in the rather dull and loud action sequences, there is a great energy. Williams seems to have found he has something new to say and is eager to say it. We should expect great things from this new period in his work.

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After listening to some of the score again, I have some new thoughts. It ranks right up there with Images and Rosewood as one of Williams's most unusual scores. With Rey's Theme and the Jedi Steps, he breaks entirely new ground. The comment made by a contemporary musician about Beethoven's last quartets, that "we know that there is something there, but we do not know what it is" may very well apply here. Even in the rather dull and loud action sequences, there is a great energy. Williams seems to have found he has something new to say and is eager to say it. We should expect great things from this new period in his work.

Exactly how I feel about it.

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After listening to some of the score again, I have some new thoughts. It ranks right up there with Images and Rosewood as one of Williams's most unusual scores. With Rey's Theme and the Jedi Steps, he breaks entirely new ground.

IMAGES? I mean...seriously.

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The flute passage from the ABC commercial that's also in the final track of the CD is one of my favorite things Williams has done in years. Its mesmerizing.

I agree. It is stunning, which makes at all the more bizarre that it isn't a fully fledged theme but rather a once off melody.

Having seen the movie and the significance of the scene that melody scores, I can understand why Williams put so much effort into it to make it extra special. One of my biggest anticipations for episode 8 is if that melody will return.

Yet, when people heard the theme for the first time in the ABC spot, everyone here -except Marcus- claimed that Williams 'had lost it'..,,

I remember liking and feeling weird when lots didn't.

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I like Poe's heroic theme. :)

Karol

Me too, but I also gotta say that I love the stuff building up to it in "I Can Fly Anything" as well. Especially 0:54-1:06.

Just pure awesomeness. It stood out to me in the film too, really upped the ante.

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No new ground is broken with this score. It's Williams of the later years through and through, but done with excellent execution, making it a score to appreciate.

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KK, would you agree with me that not only does the action material feature a lot less woodwinds then is usual for Williams, he only uses percussion a lot less then you would expect.

For instance The Resistance March has no snare drum at all! And very little timpani. It's mostly strings and brass.

The prequels were full of percussion of every kind. Traditional and eclectic. The Force Wakens isnt, and it achieves pretty much the same.

In many ways this is the most sparse blockbuster score from Williams in decades.

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I agree Steef, though I might be one of the few here who liked some of the eclectic elements of the prequels.

It's a very bare-bones SW score, but a fully functional one nonetheless, much like the later Goldsmith output, as Chaac mentioned.

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Hmm, there's the usual ensemble of 3 field/snare drum players here (often accentuated by gran cassa hits for an even heavier sound), perhaps even a tad more prominent than it was in the previous Star Wars scores (except for the 'Main Title' recording, featuring only 1 snare, if I'm correct?), as well as timpani, exotic percussion in 'The Rathtars!', lots of cymbal crashes ('Follow Me'), a whip, somewhere ('The Falcon'?) and xylophone and piano accenting the woodwinds as usual.

EDIT: Oh, and there's the tambourine in 'Scherzo for X-Wings', of course. And occasional triangle hits.

In other words, I don't think this score is sparse in a way unusual for Williams.

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The Rathtars has some cool bits in there for sure. But the level of colour experimentation is definitely toned down in comparison to the prequels.

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Williams' action Music doesn't need to be thematic if it's good. There are plenty of examples throughout his career.

T-Rex Rescue and Finale will always spring to mind first in a certain kind of JWFaner.

WHAT? The raptors' theme is all over that track!

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It's a very bare-bones SW score, but a fully functional one nonetheless, much like the later Goldsmith output, as Chaac mentioned.

In a way it actually reminds me of Star Wars (1977) which also didnt quite have all the bells and whistles that TESB, ROTJ and the Prequels had. Both scores have somewhat less flourishes.

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T-Rex Rescue and Finale is basically an entire action track build around the carnivore motif.

A lot of the action cues from The Lost World aren't thematic or only contain fleeting theme quotes yet it is all great stuff including the complete Rescuing Sarah / Truck Stop

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