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John Powell's SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY (2018) - Deluxe Edition 2020 / Intrada 2-CD edition October 31, 2023


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Reminiscence Therapy is awesome, but I find the transition at 0:28 between the ANH and ESB material extremely jarring and awkward. Not sure why they thought that was acceptable. Sounds like a classic, terrible JW album edit, but I assume it’s not actually an edit but the way the music was performed. 

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I love the 'marching band-esque' percussion for Here they Come, a welcome little sprinkle of change from Powell!

 

Flying with Chewie is sublime, Powell letting his hair down and just doing what he does!

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7 hours ago, Chen G. said:

 

Stuff like Battle of Crait would probably be the result of temp-track emulation because it has no bearing on this fiilm. But we knew going in that the Asteroid Field was going to be a thing: was it used anywhere near asteroids, though?

 

The obvious Asteroid Field melody is used briefly during, yes, a bit with asteroids, but other parts of the cue are used too (as well as maybe “Attacking a Star Destroyer” if I remember correctly?). It’s all during one big action set piece sequence which make me think there was some temp music editing involved.

 

Interested what other people heard and if this stuff is on the OST.

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I kept thinking what did the descending phrase of Lando's Closet reminded me of and I remembered!

 

It's Stravinsky's Firebird. Particularly when the horn plays it.

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Okay so I'm streaming the score right now. 

The Adventures of Han is great. It's adventurous. It's another great Williams composition.

I can here that part I love from The Battle of Crait in there. I'm overjoyed for that to be expanded on!!!!!!

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4 minutes ago, MikeH said:

I really wish they included the small quote from a previous score that accompanies you-know-what. That was great!

It feels like the equivalent of Vader's theme making a cameo in TFA not appearing on the album.

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11 minutes ago, MikeH said:

I really wish they included the small quote from a previous score that accompanies you-know-what. That was great!

 

 

Fuuuuu* Why did I read this? haha It probably confirms a theory I heard online x) Anyways I'll see it in a couple hours haha.

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Reminiscence Therapy actually tho! My life is complete! Awesome Rebel Fanfare (but with the amount of use of it in Solo I think my thought of it also being for the Falcon makes a lot of sense), awesome Here They Come variation, the Asteroid Field :o, Chewie's theme, then The Adventures of Han usage. Then the use of that awesome Battle of Crait hurried strings, more Rebel Fanfare, even the SW Main Theme a little. I mean THIS REALLY IS Reminiscence Therapy!!! 

 

Ohmigosh, Ohmigosh, Ohmigosh!!!!

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7 hours ago, leeallen01 said:

Powell's had his turn. I say a new composer for each spinoff. JNH for Kenobi, as he was the first choice of the filmmakers and Williams for Solo but couldn't do it.

 

Much as I love this and Powell in general, I'm totally down for a JNH Star Wars!

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2 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

 

Well @Breadstick Basilisk I jinxed myself.  For the first time that I can remember I've had a preordered soundtrack CD delayed from Amazon.  Just got an email.

 

I'm not seeing the movie until Sunday and I'm still going to wait to listen to even a note of the score until I get the CD, which might be Monday now.  I'm a patient man.

I actually cancelled my order yesterday morning once I realized it hadn't shipped yet. I figured it would be faster to just take a 5 minute drive to Walmart than wait another week.

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1 minute ago, Manakin Skywalker said:

I actually cancelled my order yesterday morning once I realized it hadn't shipped yet. I figured it would be faster to just take a 5 minute drive to Walmart than wait another week.

 

The shipping notices can be weird from Amazon sometimes.  I've definitely gotten shipping notices from them on the day the order arrives before

 

1 minute ago, mrbellamy said:

 

I think this is a weird and bifurcated way to look at it, like there's Powell's stuff and then any use of the Williams theme at all is just lip service and ass kissing. The whole point is that it's the theme for the main character. "The Good Guy" is a typical film score cue that passes through a handful of themes in a few minutes. The Williams is in there as fleetingly as any of the others. I don't see how that's so intrusive to you.

 

 

People get so hung up on whose melodies are whose and I'm like, "It's how you use them!"  Some of the best compositions in music history are composers working with melodies they didn't write.

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Having almost finished the album, it is quite comprehensive but still missing some interesting bits. WWII-like statements of The Imperial March early on in the film and the source music version of it as well. Think we need a promo of some sort already. ;)

 

Karol

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Think it features most of the major beats, definitely. But I think it could use a few more quieter cues to balance out all the steroid-fuelled action. I mean, it's quite loud.

 

Karol

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3 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

 

Well @Breadstick Basilisk I jinxed myself.  For the first time that I can remember I've had a preordered soundtrack CD delayed from Amazon.  Just got an email.

 

I'm not seeing the movie until Sunday and I'm still going to wait to listen to even a note of the score until I get the CD, which might be Monday now.  I'm a patient man.

 

Sorry to hear! I think I'm going to reserve an in-store pick-up at a local Barnes & Noble.

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59 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

People get so hung up on whose melodies are whose and I'm like, "It's how you use them!"  Some of the best compositions in music history are composers working with melodies they didn't write.

 

It's the Chris Clemmensen Cult of the Melody. Film music fans who place an unreasonably high premium on hummable thematic material (and by extension its author/s) at the expense of other considerations, like texture/orchestration, harmony, diegetic role, rhythm, form,  development of said thematic material.

 

Talking about variations development, I love this little motive that Powell derives from Williams's Searching Theme. He takes its characteristic semitonal trill figure, and then sets its standard A minor harmony through David Lewin's SLIDE operation, arriving on an uncanny Ab major. In a SLIDE, the fifth (A-E) literally 'slides' down a semitone to Ab-Eb, while the third (C) is sustained. It's a distinctly un-Williams device (I associate it more with composers like Horner, JNH, Goldenthal and Zimmer) but it's a welcome (and perhaps overdue) addition to Star Wars' harmonic landscape. 

 

Another occurrence slightly later in the same cue:

 

 

Am - F/A - F#m

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Yeah! I didn't realize until today that that was derived from the Searching theme, and the low strings playing the Hero theme. I didn't really pick up on it in the album but found it surprisingly distinctive and moody in the film, cool example of the Powell/Williams hybrid and Powell not being too precious about the theme.

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2 hours ago, Sharky said:

 

It sounds fine to me, and the voiceleading checks out.

 

In Am:

                 6   V6/iv    iv6      It6           Vsus (implied)      V (implied)      ->  6       iv      VII6      i

                 F   A/C#   Dm/F  F7(no5)   Esus (implied)     E (octaves)     ->  F      Dm   G/B     Am

                    [Secondary Dominant]     [Italian Sixth]                                                                   [Deceptive Half-Cadence]     [Subtonic Cadence]                                                                                                                                                          

 

You've got a deceptive half-cadence that resolves to the submediant (or an elided deceptive cadence), and an octave unison on the dominant (although the string figuration and harp glissando sort of 'fill in' the missing harmony). Beyond that, there's nothing particularly radical here in its phrasal structure or harmonic syntax, and you can find considerably more daring in many of Williams' cadences (see Frank Lehman's genus of chromatically modulating cadential resolutions).

 

I agree. It's also more "classical" a progression than Williams usually writes, one that, after the first chord, follows a typical pathway for harmonizing a lament bass (stepwise down from the tonic to dominant note). Haven't seen the film yet, but makes me think there's some kind of imminent threat (represented by the lament bass) Han maneuvers out of (represented by the triumphant entry of his hero theme.

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1 hour ago, Manakin Skywalker said:

I actually cancelled my order yesterday morning once I realized it hadn't shipped yet. I figured it would be faster to just take a 5 minute drive to Walmart than wait another week.

I can't seem to find a site where it says it's available in store. Anyone? 

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That wonderful lyrical - and again, effortless - stuff in Flying With Chewie starting at 2:11 is the best film music I've heard in a while.  You can hear his MV heritage in that great harmonic motion and interesting bass.  Beautiful, moving stuff.  No idea what it might be scoring - it probably doesn't live up to the music.

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