Favorite Star Wars finale and end credits music?

[Schilkeman 957]

I will defend the prequels with my dying breath, but one place they fucked up for me is the end credits. ESB is the best one. I always loved the ending.

[Tallguy 3,381]

As with almost everything with Star Wars the answer is Star Wars and then The Empire Strikes Back. Or the other way around. Depends on the day. They're both perfect. But Empire cannot be as perfect as it is without Star Wars. But Star Wars is not as good as Empire. But Empire is only that good because it builds and perfects what came before with Star Wars. Flip. Flip. Flip.

 

Empire was the first film to codify "This is what the template is". I'm sure I've said elsewhere that one of the best Star Wars related experiences for me was waiting in line for Empire when the doors to the cinema opened to let out the previous show. And I heard the end titles for the first time. And I realized "Oh! There's a SYSTEM!"

 

Jedi actually took it a step further, taking it even more back to Star Wars with the pattern of "Star Wars themes, end credits suites, end of Star Wars end titles only with concert ending". Too far, IMHO. Appropriate for Jedi, I suppose. It always bugs me that the concert versions and the various subsequent end credits truncate the Luke's theme portion of the beginning of the credits. Look, play it all or don't play it. Empire sidestepped this by getting out after the Rebel Fanfare and going right into Yoda's theme. Star Wars and Empire are also unique in that they are the only two that don't just regurgitate a bunch of concert suites. Yes, Empire has the Imperial March but Yoda's theme and the Love Theme are unique on the album.

 

Every Star Wars film since has been disappointing in this regard. There have been some wonderful finales. Most of them, really. But the monumental leap that is Empire has never been attempted again, let alone equaled.

[Bellosh 3,398]

if Rebel Fleet/End Title did not have the slightly more sped up Yoda's theme, the other end credits might have a shot to take my number 1 spot.  But I just can't comfortably make that decision.

 

Another thing I LOVE about ESB's end titles, is how JW throws in that rebel fanfare right before the ending.  As to say, don't worry folks, we're gonna get back at these guys (the empire) in the next film.

 

Although the fanfare at the end of RotJ does makes that end titles come in at a close second place. It has to be the ABSOLUTE PERFECT WAY to end the trilogy.  Chills everytime.

 

 

[QuartalHarmony 542]

Just to mention a tiny transition in ESB’s end titles which I do like: the two extra bars at the end of the Imperial March just before Han and the Princess takes off. Lovely.

 

I’d also like to put on record my grumpiness at the way the original recordings were butchered in 1997 to make up for the SE credits. Jarring and unpleasant.

 

Mark

[Faleel 5,341]

4 hours ago, Tallguy said:

Star Wars and Empire are also unique in that they are the only two that don't just regurgitate a bunch of concert suites. Yes, Empire has the Imperial March but Yoda's theme and the Love Theme are unique on the album.

 

Every Star Wars film since has been disappointing in this regard. There have been some wonderful finales. Most of them, really. But the monumental leap that is Empire has never been attempted again, let alone equaled.

But in a way, it's actually the other way around, the concert suites regurgitate the credits.

[Tallguy 3,381]

31 minutes ago, Bellosh said:

if Rebel Fleet/End Title did not have the slightly more sped up Yoda's theme

 

It's such a joyous statement of a theme that had mostly been serene or maybe mischievous. Even compared to the adventurous settings that it goes through in Cloud City this is different from any other statement in the film.

 

32 minutes ago, Bellosh said:

Another thing I LOVE about ESB's end titles, is how JW throws in that rebel fanfare right before the ending.  As to say, don't worry folks, we're gonna get back at these guys (the empire) in the next film.

 

Followed by four big hits of notes from the Imperial March! How many trailers of subsequent films used that finale? Again: Unique in all the saga. The only end credits that end with a flourish and that do NOT just use Star Wars.

 

32 minutes ago, Bellosh said:

Although the fanfare at the end of RotJ does makes that end titles come in at a close second place. It has to be the ABSOLUTE PERFECT WAY to end the trilogy.  Chills everytime.

 

I'm thankful I never heard any of the concert recordings before I saw Return of the Jedi. So that was the first time I heard it. It was a glorious callback to the Throne Room (the original was too, of course, just in a more downbeat fashion) and the perfect way to end the series. If it had to end, that was the way to do it.

 

It takes a bit of the specialness away that that is the only ending that is ever performed. I was so grateful that Giacchino ended Rogue One with the Star Wars ending.

 

6 minutes ago, QuartalHarmony said:

the two extra bars at the end of the Imperial March just before Han and the Princess takes off. Lovely.

 

And he never wrote that kind of transition for any other Star Wars film after. Arrrgh.

 

1 minute ago, Signals said:

But in a way, it's actually the other way around, the concert suites regurgitate the credits.

 

Whatever the order is, they both end up on the albums. Can you imagine having two versions of Luke and Leia as different as the concert suite of Princess Leia's Theme and the passage that is in the end credits of Star Wars? I know, I'm greedy.

 

[Faleel 5,341]

If you think about it, TPM sort of follows the Superman credits template: the big theme arrangement that flows from the finale, and then an arrangement of the soft theme that just plays after it with a small gap between.

[Chen G. 3,944]

The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones (to a lesser extent Revenge of the Sith) do have a unique Ahnung function, whereby the very end of the credits teases something that is yet to come. That's very good.

 

But yeah, it probably has to go to The Empire Strikes Back.

[artguy360 1,843]

I'm listening to the original Star Wars The Throne Room and End Credits and even with the sweeping heights of ESB's pre-credits finale music, I think ANH's is best. To get JW's Pomp and Circumstance is just so much fun!

[GerateWohl 4,343]

On 15/10/2018 at 12:21 PM, DrTenma said:

Revenge of the Sith was very nice but I never liked the Album version with the Throne Room insert... 

I didn't even  like to hear princess Leia's theme in there. I always don't like old themes reappearing in the end credits, like Here They Come and Yoda's Theme in TLJ.

[Chen G. 3,944]

4 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

always don't like old themes reappearing in the end credits, like Here They Come and Yoda's Theme in TLJ.

 

I think in Revenge of the Sith all that music is partially concieved of as a "Next time on Star Wars!" All the themes exposited in the end-credits suite are ones that play an important role in the original film, which is the next one up, as it were. The previous two prequel scores also "set up" something of the next entry with their end-credit suits, so it makes sense.

[Tallguy 3,381]

5 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

I didn't even  like to hear princess Leia's theme in there. I always don't like old themes reappearing in the end credits, like Here They Come and Yoda's Theme in TLJ.

 

I'm always uncomfortable about how much John Williams Star Wars music I don't know after ~22 years of knowing more than almost anybody else. (Present company probably excepted.) Did he reprise those themes in TLJ?

 

I LOVE Here They Come (TIE Fighter Attack) but I never need to hear it reprised ever again. Especially since he always needle-drops it. He never treated it like a theme that could be varied or developed.

 

49 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

 

I think in Revenge of the Sith all that music is partially concieved of as a "Next time on Star Wars!" All the themes exposited in the end-credits suite are ones that play an important role in the original film, which is the next one up, as it were. The previous two prequel scores also "set up" something of the next entry with their end-credit suits, so it makes sense.

 

It's also "Hey, it's the END OF STAR WARS!" It's partly a bridge to the "next" film, sure. But it's also an encore. Of course he did some encore's in Return of the Jedi because that was the "last film". Then he did it again (more) in RotS because THAT was the "last film". Then Rise of Skywalker comes along and NO SERIOUSLY THIS IS THE "last film"!

[Chen G. 3,944]

18 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

Then Rise of Skywalker comes along and NO SERIOUSLY THIS IS THE "last film"!

 

Well...I mean, you're not wrong. 

 

That's one of the funny things about the sequel trilogy: lovely scores and wonderful melodies, no doubt, but does it really add anything new to the overriding musical "argument" being made? I'm not so sure it does.

 

I mean, take a look at the climax of The Rise of Skywalker: we get a big apotheosis of the Emperor's music, and then Rey's music comes back and triumphs over it, there's a big statement of "The Force" theme... its all very dramatic, but its not exactly bringing this material to some sort of conclusive development of a kind that had not already been done in previous "concluding" entries. And, to speak to the subject of the thread, the end credit suite while lovely hardly functions like some nine-film summation that one would want it to be.

[Tallguy 3,381]

I don't know why, but there are some themes where I feel Williams is saying "Yeah, that probably should go here" and there are other themes where he seems to really be having fun using them again. With the Emperor's theme it felt like Williams was having as much fun as McDirarmid.

 

Of course in The Empire Strikes Back it felt like that for ALL of the themes.

[GerateWohl 4,343]

2 hours ago, Chen G. said:

 

I think in Revenge of the Sith all that music is partially concieved of as a "Next time on Star Wars!" All the themes exposited in the end-credits suite are ones that play an important role in the original film, which is the next one up, as it were. The previous two prequel scores also "set up" something of the next entry with their end-credit suits, so it makes sense.

What did the end credits suite of episode 1 setup for the next movie? Was there Across the Stars already played? Did I miss there something?

For me the end credits suite was always kind of a medley of the new themes from the current movie. 

And the movies in the with the least New material of elaborated character themes are episode 2, 3 and 8. So, these have as well the weakest end credit suites and are recycling old themes. Ok. And episode 9 end credits are just like the movie, a screwed up greatest hits. 

[mrbellamy 6,272]

8 has the great Rey's Theme ending, though...that alone would keep me from putting it last. 

[Chen G. 3,944]

47 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

What did the end credits suite of episode 1 setup for the next movie? Was there Across the Stars already played? Did I miss there something?

 

Its in the end credits and only in the end-credits that we hear how young Anakin's music morphs into the Imperial March.

[GerateWohl 4,343]

32 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

Its in the end credits and only in the end-credits that we hear how young Anakin's music morphs into the Imperial March.

Well, comparing that tiny reference with the blank repetition of Leia's theme in episode 3 end credits makes little sense to me. 

[Chen G. 3,944]

5 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

comparing that tiny reference with the blank repetition of Leia's theme in episode 3 end credits makes little sense to me. 

 

I'm saying episode I's credits end on an ahnung of Darth Vader's music. Episode II's end with an ahnung of the tragic end of Anakin and Pamde's love affair. And Episode III's is an ahnung of practically all the music of the original film, which in this context is Episode IV.

 

Not saying its as effective, but I think that's definitely the intent there.

[Faleel 5,341]

According to session reports, there was a version of the ROTS credits that ended on a soft version of Leia's Theme, in accordance with the prior two scores.

6 hours ago, Chen G. said:

 

Its in the end credits and only in the end-credits that we hear how young Anakin's music morphs into the Imperial March.

Not entirely true, the ending of 3m2 Are You a Jedi.

[Chen G. 3,944]

25 minutes ago, Signals said:

Not entirely true, the ending of 3m2 Are You a Jedi.

 

The melody line, yes.

 

And of course we hear the Imperial March in its complete guise (although very softly) towards the end of the film. But the connection is not really made clear until the end-credits, and in the movie it comes replete with a sound effect of Vader's breathing.

[Faleel 5,341]

1 hour ago, Chen G. said:

 

The melody line, yes.

 

And of course we hear the Imperial March in its complete guise (although very softly) towards the end of the film. But the connection is not really made clear until the end-credits, and in the movie it comes replete with a sound effect of Vader's breathing.

There is also of course the secondary droid army/finale Motif that kinda sounds Imperial March related

[GerateWohl 4,343]

Anyway, Revenge of the Sith was the first movie in the series not having a dedicated new soft emotional theme. ANH had force and Leia's, TESB had Han Solo and the Princess and Yoda's, ROTJ had Luke and Leia, TPM had Anakin's Theme,  AOTC had Across the Stars. All of them played in the end credits. So, I was terribly disappointed hearing suddenly just Leia's theme again at ROTS end titles. I rather would have heard something like Anakin's Betrayel at that point. 

[Chen G. 3,944]

9 hours ago, Signals said:

There is also of course the secondary droid army/finale Motif that kinda sounds Imperial March related

 

Well yeah, and the Duel of the Fates has the same chords (The "Tarnhelm" progression).

[Faleel 5,341]

8 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

Anyway, Revenge of the Sith was the first movie in the series not having a dedicated new soft emotional theme. ANH had force and Leia's, TESB had Han Solo and the Princess and Yoda's, ROTJ had Luke and Leia, TPM had Anakin's Theme,  AOTC had Across the Stars. All of them played in the end credits. So, I was terribly disappointed hearing suddenly just Leia's theme again at ROTS end titles. I rather would have heard something like Anakin's Betrayel at that point. 

The Another Happy Landing/Arrival At Utupau Motif, or/and the horn Motif best heard at the end of Grievous Speaks to Palpatine, could have been nice.