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The Force Awakens - Complete Score Breakdown & Chronological Order (Film Spoilers Allowed)


Jay

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6 hours ago, crumbs said:

Don't forget, Shawn Murphy doesn't consider us completists as "normal people" !

 

:P

You're all "diseased maniacs". OCD junkies.

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The LOTR CR proved that people will buy complete scores to the point that it's sold out everywhere. I still haven't got my Two Towers CR! Which annoys the hell out of me. People WILL buy  7, soon to be 8 and 9 Complete Recordings of Star Wars. Make them damn you!

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Just got back from seeing the film for a third time, this time focusing on the music. I can confirm that at least most of the OST's "Snoke" is heard in the character's second scene. I don't think it was any sort of wild take or alternate or concert arrangement. I'm gonna include it in my edit before "The Bombing Run."

 

I'm really wondering which scene the cutesy/warmhearted droid music was written for - Rey meeting BB-8 or R2 showing the map. It plays in both and it fits wonderfully in both.

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9 hours ago, Datameister said:

I'm really wondering which scene the cutesy/warmhearted droid music was written for - Rey meeting BB-8 or R2 showing the map. It plays in both and it fits wonderfully in both.

 

A new droid motif perhaps for BB8 in general. 

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1 hour ago, leeallen01 said:

 

A new droid motif perhaps for BB8 in general. 

 

I listen to it more like a "discovery" motif. It has an opening character, and the delicate string tremolos almost seem like anticipation for something beautiful. Rey meeting BB-8 is actually the first connection between the main characters, and R2-D2 waking up with "much needed good news" is certainly a special and anticipated moment. It's just my impression anyways.

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35 minutes ago, Scarpia said:

 

 

I listen to it more like a "discovery" motif. It has an opening character, and the delicate string tremolos almost seem like anticipation for something beautiful. Rey meeting BB-8 is actually the first connection between the main characters, and R2-D2 waking up with "much needed good news" is certainly a special and anticipated moment. It's just my impression anyways.

 

 

Good point. Makes sense yeah as a 'Things to come' motif. Perhaps it appears in variations at other moments in the score when similar scenes of discovery occur.

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I'll put it here because it seems the most rightful place:

 

There's a very small moment in this score that gave me a huge grin on the face among others--the timpani roll just before the Falcon pops out of the forest trees and lands on the snow at lightspeed. An old fox trick perhaps, but still so effective and exciting.

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14 hours ago, TownerFan said:

I'll put it here because it seems the most rightful place:

 

There's a very small moment in this score that gave me a huge grin on the face among others--the timpani roll just before the Falcon pops out of the forest trees and lands on the snow at lightspeed. An old fox trick perhaps, but still so effective and exciting.

Ooooh, is it on the soundtrack or the FYC? I don't recall hearing it before. I guess it might be On the Inside but I'd appreciate if you could point out the time-signature.

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1 minute ago, DarthDementous said:

Ooooh, is it on the soundtrack or the FYC? I don't recall hearing it before. I guess it might be On the Inside but I'd appreciate if you could point out the time-signature.

I think it is only heard in the film. I can't recall that being on either the OST or the FYC album. And yes it was a terrific moment. :)

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OK, so the OST track Rey meets BB8:

 

First of all, it's clear that this OST track combines 2 cues from 2 different parts of the movie.

 

0:00-1:10 is the first and 1:10-end is the second.  Actually the final note of the first cue begins at 1:07 and fades out for a while, but at 1:10 the second cue begins while its fading.

 

The cue from 1:10-end is absolutely the cue I call "Informants".  It plays in the film in Maz's cantina, as a Resistance member and a First Order member each send a message out to their group that the droid has been spotted.  I am positive this isn't tracked, and this is the intended music for that scene, used properly in the film, and Williams chose to combine it with another cue for listening experience on the OST.

 

So, about the 0:00-1:10 part....  parts of it is used in both the scene where Rey and BB8 meet AND the scene at the very end of the movie when R2 wakes up and projects the map to the room.  Well after some careful analysis, I've decided its absolutely intended for that end scene, and was TRACKED into the Rey/BB8 meeting scene in the final cut of the film.

 

In that end scene, the bulk of the cue is used before it segues to "Rey's Trip", with some small changes.  What appears in the OST track from 0:29-0:34 is gone, replaced by different music that's a little longer.  If you grab the FYC track "Farewell and the Trip", you'll see 0:00-0:29 of each match each other, then 0:29-0:38 is the weird new music that replaced the OST section I just mentioned.  I say "weird" because it doesn't sound like a natural edit to me; I think this might not be a proper Williams Insert, but actually TRACKED music from somewhere else (ie some unreleased cue or unreleased version of some cue that we don't have).  It just sounds so weird on the FYC here (Of course, it could be a proper insert that just got edited weirdly, no way to really be sure).

 

Now, the scene where Rey meets BB8, well in that scene 0:24-1:00 of the OST track is used, before it segues to something else entirely (unreleased) as the movie transitions from Jakku back up to Ren's Star Destroyer.  WELL, I'm pretty sure that that ending music is the only remnant left of Williams' intended music for the scene, the rest of it having been replaced by that chunk of "R2 Shows The Map".  I think the filmmakers just really liked that Map music and felt it worked in the Rey/BB8 scene and that was that.

 

Now, as for why the track has that name on the OST:  Well, I think Williams liked the cue, but didn't like having it at the end of the album - as much as the music works in the film there, it really disrupts the generally somber and serious nature of the rest of the end of the score.  I think he combined it with the "Informants" music because it sounds good like that.  Perhaps the combined track originally had a different name, and appeared elsewhere in the program, but once the majority of the cue ended up tracked into the earlier scene, "Rey Meets BB8" was the name assigned to the OST track and it was placed roughly chronologically where that scene goes.  Who knows.

 

That's what I think, though.

 

The only thing I haven't figured out is 2:05-2:13 of the OST track "Farewell and the Trip".  It's clear that 0:00-2:05 is that track is one cue, what the FYC calls "The Journey Home", covering Chewie picking up Ren, them all leaving The Starkiller, it turning into a star, and them all arriving back at the Resistance base.  And that 2:13-end is "Farewell and the Trip", covering everything that happens in the final moments of the movie after the map scene (Rey and Chewie leaving the Resistance base and traveling to Luke's planet).  But the music from 2:05-2:13 isn't used in the film at all.  I definitely don't think its an unused ending of "The Journey Home"; That FYC seems to definitely have the true clean ending of that.  It could be an unused opening of "Rey's Trip".  Listening to the way the FYC track segues "R2 Shows The Map" to "Rey's Trip", it almost sounds like they looped a bit of the ending of the former, arriving later into the latter than originally intended.  Not sure.

 

 

 

That's all I got for now!

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You don't think it's possible that the cue was actually meant for Rey meeting BB-8 and the two unknown bits from Farewell and the Trip (:29-:38 FYC/2:05-2:13 OST) are part of some larger unreleased originally intended cue for R2 waking up? 

 

Is there any reasoning for thinking it was intended for the map scene beyond the cue for transitioning to the Star Destroyer in the earlier scene?

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My reasoning is careful examination of the OST track, FYC track, and the film itself.

 

The opening of the cue, which doesn't appear at all in the Rey meeting BB8 scene, perfectly scores the footage of R2's awakening and the beginning of that scene. It's clear the scene was extended just a bit, hence the odd music at 0:29-0:38 of FYC (9 seconds long) that replaces the original intention at 0:29-0:34 of OST (5 seconds long).  That specific moment covers a shot of 3PO and R2 approaching Leia; perhaps they extended the dialogue there.  And then if you keep listening to the FYC, the entire rest of the cue is used, all the way up until the "Rey's Trip" cue begins, just with a weird kind of smothered editing to connect the two.

 

The Rey Meets BB8 scene only used HALF of the cue in question.  To me, it was clearly tracked in there, replacing something we don't have.

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4 hours ago, Red said:

I just wanted to say thanks for this breakdown. It helped a lot when I acquired the FYC release. 

Ditto! Thanks Jay!

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Just got back from seeing it again. I can also confirm that the OST Snoke is used in the Second Scene. However, it is VERY much shortened and book-ended with unreleased score, mostly brassy pieces.

 

ALSO. Has anyone noticed/mentioned that in the climax of the film when we finally see the Starkiller being charged (most noticeable during the wide shot where we see the power being drained from the sun, with both the sun and the planet in the shot) that they Tracked (or copied the sheet music from) "The Attack on Jakku Village" specifically at least 1:44-2:05-ish on the OST01 (or 0:24-44-ish on FYC01)?

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The cue used when Rey gets the lightsaber is the same cue played in Episode IV, when Luke returns to the Lars Homestead to find his aunt and uncle *spoilers* dead. That cue is different from the one used in the beginning of 'The Ways of the Force' (OST), and is not included on either the OST or the FYC.

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I don't have it in front of me, but if I remember correctly, they contain the same material but at different speeds. One has been slowed down or sped up - not sure which is correct. In any case, pitch was left the same.

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1 hour ago, Nemesis said:

Is it solved already why The Jedi Steps is 1:49 on the FYC and 2:12 on the OST?

It's not a speed problem. The OST has an extended version of the Resistance March, on the FYC half of it is edited out.

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Actually it's the reverse. The FYC track contains the entire march while the OST contains a different performance that's been cut down.

 

But that's irrelevant to Nemesis's question, which is about the Jedi Steps part of the track.

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21 hours ago, Nemesis said:

Is it solved already why The Jedi Steps is 1:49 on the FYC and 2:12 on the OST?

 

There is almost no difference. They contain the same music and have almost same time length, except for the part with sustained strings right before the Force Theme horn solo, that is one second or less longer in the OST version.

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I thought the OST version was microedited (because the concert suite appears earlier) and the FYC version was complete as Williams intended?

 

Are they different recordings?

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I'm curious if Williams gets a duration for his end credits suites when he's writing, or if he just does it with the OST in mind and delegates to his music editor to chop it down for the film (though in this instance it appears they needed it lengthened). A chicken or the egg sort of situation.

 

I'd guess the credits are probably the last element of a film to be finalised, timed and rendered, so they'd determine the text roll speed from the music if it's recorded first (and considering JW said he wrote the end titles first, it would seem to be the case.)

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In TFA's case the end credits suite was on of the last things recorded, so by then JW would have known the exact time of the end credits and composed to that length. This is in line with JJs other films for the most part.

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Finally I came around to mix the OST and FYC. I closely followed Jay´s list (without edits), but put the Scherzo behind Ways of the Force and took the OST End Credits because of their alternate rendering of the March. Great listening!

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9 hours ago, Stefancos said:

They seem to be different recordings. I haven't been able to line both versions up in a wave editor.

 

The OST concert track and the FYC end credits cue line up perfectly.

 

This.

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12 hours ago, Stefancos said:

They seem to be different recordings. I haven't been able to line both versions up in a wave editor.

 

The OST concert track and the FYC end credits cue line up perfectly.

 

They're definitely different recordings. If you listen for the orchestra noise, it is an instant tell. Great way to figure out if something has been re-timed, re-recorded, etc.

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Orchestra noise can be mixed out though. The original Jurassic Park OST had some noticeable chair creaks that were mixed out for the 20th anniversary release.

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For ages, I was trying to figure out what the wandering and vaguely threatening motif when Han, Chewie, and Finn make their way across the Starkiller planet reminded me of (I think it's "51 - Group Enters Base"); I figured it was something from the prequels but couldn't place it. But then today I realized it was from Memoirs of a Geisha instead.

 

Anybody remember what this motif represents in Memoirs?

 

 

 

 

 

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This is great stuff! Thanks, Jay and everyone! Can't wait to get the movie on disc. How are you all dealing with the annoying fact that the FYC is so much quieter than the OST? I am going to mess with the FYC in Sound Forge's graphic equalizer and see if I can get it close to OST levels.

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Don't know if this has been mentioned, but I'm fairly sure 01:22-29 of Torn Apart isn't heard in the film. Instead there's a solemn, plaintchant-like phrase in F#m (reminds me of Goldenthal's Suffering Theme from Alien 3).

 

 

 

This gently leads into silence, followed by the blast of the lightsaber igniting. Under this, in the film there's an open fifth of G#-D# in the low strings instead of just a lone G#, and the minor third motif enters more forcefully. This was all probably an insert.

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