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THE LAST JEDI - OST Album MUSIC Discussion (No Movie Spoilers)


Jay

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That moment begins with rising strings, pauses, then into a very quiet, heartbreaking rendition of Leia's theme before a very short quote of the Force theme on strings straight into a sweeping rendition of Leia's theme. Yes it is a direct quote of the concert arrangement but it is not "from nothing directly into the Princess Leia concert suite." The preceding material is important to building up to that moment and it resolves with the Force theme into a gentle statement of Rey's theme. The before and after of that quote are important to the whole track. To me that moment is very effective and the lacing of multiple themes back to back is indicative of how JW treats new and old themes throughout the entire score. 

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The a lot more contemporary sound of Williams' original score in the track doesn't mix well at all with the Golden Age-y sound of the 40 year old concert arrangement. Williams proves in other parts of the score that he can bring both together, but that instance smells of temping.

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I love the rendition of Yoda's theme in the end credits. JW makes sure to clear the air with near silence before Yoda's theme starts and just as the main melody repeats the violins come in just a hair higher than you expect to really give the rendition some lift. Beautiful. 

 

This whole end credits medley is growing on me, especially the way it goes from Rose's theme, to the new militaristic material, to March of the Resistance back to Rose's theme then into Rey's theme with some pretty active and unexpected repeated string figures in the background. There is hanging lack of resolve, but at the same time it's all super interesting. 

 

 

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First listen through, I loved it! Not all the best material is on this, but it's a pretty well-rounded experience with many highlights. It's sure to get a lot of play.

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7 hours ago, artguy360 said:

I love the rendition of Yoda's theme in the end credits. JW makes sure to clear the air with near silence before Yoda's theme starts and just as the main melody repeats the violins come in just a hair higher than you expect to really give the rendition some lift. Beautiful. 

 

This whole end credits medley is growing on me, especially the way it goes from Rose's theme, to the new militaristic material, to March of the Resistance back to Rose's theme then into Rey's theme with some pretty active and unexpected repeated string figures in the background. There is hanging lack of resolve, but at the same time it's all super interesting. 

 

In the theatre it was hard to follow, but on repeat listens the end credit suite is just excellent. Love how it jumps between motifs, I don't think he's ever done that before?

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If you don't consider hearing a unique piece of standalone score and source music before seeing the movie a spoiler, Canto Bight would be an excellent sample.

 

I didn't mind the End Credits in the cinema, but now on the OST, I absolutely loved it.

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22 minutes ago, RadJ said:

In the theatre it was hard to follow, but on repeat listens the end credit suite is just excellent. Love how it jumps between motifs, I don't think he's ever done that before?

 

Is the OST End Credits identical to the one in the theatre?

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26 minutes ago, RadJ said:

In the theatre it was hard to follow, but on repeat listens the end credit suite is just excellent. Love how it jumps between motifs, I don't think he's ever done that before?

I don't think he has every spaced short quotes of different themes so closely together in a Star Wars end credits medley like this before. Certainly not with this much back and forth. I think the closest we got previously would be the tail end of the end credits of TFA where Rey's theme and the Force theme interweave before the Force theme takes over and develops into other material that eventually leads to the final soft twinkly statement of Luke's theme.

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6 hours ago, Romão said:

I love the fanfare theme heard at the end of track 2 and throughout track 7

 

It's so simple but I'm finding it kinda addictive.

 

The thing I've actually been going around humming is the related motif at around 1:30 of "Rebellion is Reborn". I really like that the rhythm makes it something of a cousin of the Rebel fanfare as well as hearing a similarity to March of the Resistance's B theme which are both neat connections, and brings more of a melancholy, uncertain tone to it. I like the way it hushes everything, has this cool, covert quality. Maybe I'm off track, haven't seen the film yet but just makes me wonder what it might contribute to the film's mood or whatever the story of the Rebellion/Resistance is.

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I've yet to encounter the, shall we say, "recycled" material. And I don't think I'd approve of it. But damn, the new thematic material sounds beautiful!

 

Its nowhere near top-tier Williams, but still.

 

The Canto Bight diegetic material is too out-there, for me, though.

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Is The Rebellion is Reborn really a concert arrangement? If it is, I don't like the structure of the piece at all. The discrete musical motifs are fine and used effectively throughout the OST but this particular track seems too disjointed to be a concert arrangement. I hope this is in-film music scored to an extended sequence but it does bear many of the markings of a concert arrangement, particularly the ending. I don't think it compares well to Rey's Theme or March of the Resistance.

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I think its a concert arrangement edited from material from the score (a-la Battle of the Heroes) compared to something that was recorded as a suite (Imperial March).

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Maybe JW's music editor is not so good at doing so. I remember the ROTS OST had a lot of obvious edits that many people here noticed on first listen. This OST doesn't seem so bad in that regard outside of the first track and The Rebellion is Reborn. 

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5 hours ago, Stefancos said:

Didn't people say Rey's theme sounded like a Harry Potter theme about two years ago?

 

Rose's Theme reminds me of Anakin's.

 

 

If if they did I missed those quotes. 

 

I loved Rey’s theme from the beginning. It sounds nothing like HP.

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2 hours ago, mrbellamy said:

 

It's so simple but I'm finding it kinda addictive.

 

The thing I've actually been going around humming is the related motif at around 1:30 of "Rebellion is Reborn". I really like that the rhythm makes it something of a cousin of the Rebel fanfare as well as hearing a similarity to March of the Resistance's B theme which are both neat connections, and brings more of a melancholy, uncertain tone to it. I like the way it hushes everything, has this cool, covert quality. Maybe I'm off track, haven't seen the film yet but just makes me wonder what it might contribute to the film's mood or whatever the story of the Rebellion/Resistance is.

 

I think the motif at 1.30 you mention is the same I'm talking about :)

I'm also really loving the various renditions and workouts that the low strings figures that precedes Kylo Ren's "Hesitant theme" rendition at TFA End Credits. This motif:

 

 

Which in TFA I think it's only heard again when Rey uses the mind trick on the stormtrooper. This motif was heard in the recording of an unreleased track in the 60 minutes score video for TFA and I was expecting a stronger presence in that score, So I'm happy it hasn't been abandoned

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I find it hard to say something in detail about the music at this point already, even though my initial reaction is extremely positive.

 

But I will say that I’m SO happy that Shawn Murphy abandoned TFA’s ridiculously dry mix. There’s so much more resonance to the orchestra this time around, and it sounds spectacular. In the movie it is also mixed much louder than TFA, which was just great.

 

I haven’t heard much Williams scores in cinema because of my age (I can only imagine how it was to experience ‘Journey to the Island’ back in ‘93, for instance!), but this is one that really made an impact on me. 

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1 hour ago, El Jefe said:

It sounds nothing like HP.

 

Its mostly the lilting nature of the theme, and some of the instrumentation choices such as celesta.

 

And yes, Rose's theme does remind me (for fleeting moments) of Anakin's theme. I don't think it goes depper than the two of them being "youthful" themes. There are also moments in it that remind me of The Force theme. Its really neat.

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7 minutes ago, Remco said:

I find it hard to say something in detail about the music at this point already, even though my initial reaction is extremely positive.

 

But I will say that I’m SO happy that Shawn Murphy abandoned TFA’s ridiculously dry mix. There’s so much more resonance to the orchestra this time around, and it sounds spectacular. In the movie it is also mixed much louder than TFA, which was just great.

 

I haven’t heard much Williams scores in cinema because of my age (I can only imagine how it was to experience ‘Journey to the Island’ back in ‘93, for instance!), but this is one that really made an impact on me. 

 

Journey to the Island was indeed fantastic to experience for the first time in the cinema! That perfect film/score experience is what got me hooked on JW. Maybe you'll get a chance to see it in cinema in 2018, when the film celebrates its 25th anniversary?

 

I think the dry mix in TFA works well with JW's "busy" action writing, bringing out all the details clearly.

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1 hour ago, El Jefe said:

 

 

If if they did I missed those quotes. 

 

I loved Rey’s theme from the beginning. It sounds nothing like HP.

 

Harry Potter was the first thing I thought of when I first heard Ray's theme.

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4 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

What an idiot.

 

Nah, it's cute man. Why not use themes from John Williams and have fun and do your own thing with it. To me it's the ultimate compliment and it made me laugh, love it, hahaha

 

At least he's starting with samples from Williams rather than some other hip hop/rap thing. He's having fun :)

 

 

 

3 hours ago, Denise Bryson said:

Harry Potter was the first thing I thought of when I first heard Ray's theme.

 

First time I hear Rey's theme, I pickup the phone to another Star Wars geek and said, mark my words, this is the force user not Finn. This is his feminine interpretation of the Force Theme musically (chord wise). It didn't make me think of Potter, but it did make me think of Dvorak New World Symphony.

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8 minutes ago, ocelot said:

Nah, it's cute man. Why not use themes from John Williams and have fun and do your own thing with it. To me it's the ultimate compliment and it made me laugh, love it, hahaha

 

I wasn't referring to his music - I just found the guy extremely annoying. :D

 

What do you mean by Rey's theme being a feminine interpretation chord wise of the Force theme?

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2 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

The transitions are no good. The music is.

Quite.

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I'm also starting to wonder if the end Credits are just bits of score edited together. Someone pointed out there's a bit that not elsewhere on the album

 

i mean the editor is Ramiro Belgart and he did Crystal Skull and Irina;s Theme is an edit job

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3 minutes ago, BloodBoal said:

 

Haven't listened to the OST yet, so my post may be totally off, but based on many comments here and there, I would say it's possible this time around Williams didn't write a composition for the end credits, rather they could be an edit job combining various cues from the score, which would explain the awkward transitions (this is reinforced by something artguy360 said regarding a particular bit that appears in the end credits (this is spoiler material, so I won't go into detail)). With possibly the very end of the credits written specifically by Williams to bring a satisfying conclusion to it all.

 

Or maybe the version of the end credits found on the album is an edited down version of the original composition (which once again, would explain the awkward transitions).

 

Or maybe JW's transitions here are too bold for some people to handle.

 

:P

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3 minutes ago, king mark said:

I bet once we look into it further we'll find that almost all the tracks on the album have weird microedits , like RotS

 

While I'm sure there are microedits, since they appear in virtually every JW OST, I doubt they are the reason it sounds so frantic. 

 

It actually plays very much like I remember it in the film. 

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34 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

I wasn't referring to his music - I just found the guy extremely annoying. :D

 

What do you mean by Rey's theme being a feminine interpretation chord wise of the Force theme?

Listen to the landing. The last chord of the first line of both, and the chord that precedes it and starts the theme. Lets for an example start with D minor, both land on G Major. In The Force theme it hits it more strongly or more Masculine with the tune landing on the tonic (G), of the G major chord. In Rey's theme, the tune has a slightly more gentler landing in the G chord by landing on D, the 5th. It just hit me the first time I heard it. I hadn't seen the film yet. I heard that, went "What?!" went to the piano and said "F***er just gave us a female force user in the theme" :) 

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