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GALAXY'S EDGE - New John Williams composition (2018)


tranders65

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Doesn't the article make pretty clear that JW only composed the 5 minute piece and other composers did other music for the theme park including William Ross adapting the Galaxy's Edge theme and other SW music for different attractions?

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2 hours ago, artguy360 said:

Doesn't the article make pretty clear that JW only composed the 5 minute piece and other composers did other music for the theme park including William Ross adapting the Galaxy's Edge theme and other SW music for different attractions?

 

Eh, there've been other reputable sources that made it sound like he did some actual scoring for the rides. Hard to say.

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There were a few new bits of music heard in the livestream of the dedication ceremony just now. Nothing too groundbreaking - a transition from my favorite fanfare to a final chord, plus an interesting variation on the theme as the "citizens" of Batuu made an appearance. Almost sounded like it might have been recorded with a smaller group just for the dedication.

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I'll also say that while it was a nice dedication, it certainly doesn't overwhelm the way the land itself does. Holy bantha poodoo, guys. Even without its biggest ride ready to go, this truly is immersive world-building at its most impressive. It's actually a little disorienting - maybe even a bit of a relief - to go back into the familiar, backwoodsy areas near the land's entrances. It actually surpasses Wizarding World in terms of sheer immersion. Once you're inside the land, there's barely anything to break theme. Just a few distant views of other Disney landmarks on the horizon, and the inevitable real-world descriptions of what the alien food items actually are.

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Hmm, I wonder how long it'll take before all those things are vandalized , have graffitis  and people steal parts from them

 

As for the different version of the Galaxy's Edge theme when they introduce the Baatu people or whatever, I think it sounds like adapted material

 

 

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1 hour ago, Fabulin said:

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is how Galaxy's Edge will become known to and beloved by millions of people. Thanks to its choppy structure, the editing and looping potential of the piece is basically infinite.

 

Excluding prices, I presume

 

I wasn't a huge fan of the editing (and the sheer overuse) of the material in the livestream. Choppy editing, yes; the piece itself doesn't sound choppy to me.

 

As for prices, yeah, they're high, like everywhere else in a theme park setting. Thanks, supply and demand. But then again, I don't know what the credits-to-USD exchange rate is right now...anyway, our jaws dropped at the prices but we still bought some stuff and didn't regret it. It's an experience. I figure my daily financial habits make a far bigger difference than the occasional micro-splurge.

 

The biggest thing I'm hoping for is more droids, aliens and characters roaming around. Maybe I caught the land at a bad time, but I was expecting more than the few (excellent) instances I saw.

 

As for KM's vandalism concerns...well, there are parts of the park that have been there for 64+ years and they're still in beautiful condition, so I'm not that worried. 😋

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Anyone go or going to the BPO John Williams (not conducting) concerts this week?  I thought perhaps they would premiere the GE suite. 

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Video of the entire ride, complete with music. Starts with fragments of Williams' Galaxy Edge suite, followed by fragments reminiscent of TFA (almost sound like alternates of the Finn/escape motif from TFA), into some fragments of Corellia Chase from Solo/Williams' Han Solo theme, then back to some celebratory renditions of the Galaxy's Edge theme. Cool stuff, just wish the music was easier to hear -- makes it hard to tell what's just ripped from the film scores and what could be a new recording.

 

Is 3:22 a microedited Leaving Coruscant from AOTC or a new recording?

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I can hear bits of Galaxy's Edge but I can't hear anything else due to the loud sound effects

 

ride looks cool

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9 hours ago, King Mark said:

do you get to keep the lightsaber?

 

Yep - the $200 (plus tax) gets you the experience, the lightsaber, and a cloth sheath to protect it. (Typically a friend or two can join you to watch for free.) I've never owned any other high-end lightsaber products, but I'm impressed. Removable blade, nice lighting and sound effects, and just a real feeling of quality. I wouldn't try to do stunt work with it, but it's how I imagine a real lightsaber feeling.

 

I did a little math, and I believe there are 512 different design combinations possible. With 14 builders at a time, the likelihood of any two builders creating the same saber is pretty low, so you really do feel like it's totally "yours."

 

The adjacent antiquities shop also sells Legacy lightsaber hilts that replicate iconic characters' designs, seemingly of similarly high construction quality, for more like $100. You also get a super cool box that you don't get when you build your own. I don't think those sabers have blades, lighting, or sound, though. (Could be wrong, I didn't buy one.)

 

Anyway, definitely a one-time experience...for that price, I don't ever need to do it again. But I'm glad I did it once! And not just because I enjoyed William Ross's take on all this classic music.

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32 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Does it work?

 

I haven't managed to actually slice through anything with it yet, so points off for that... ;) But yeah, if the blade is in place, you get a bright glow and nice (if slightly quiet) sound effects whenever it's on. The color is determined by the color of the kyber crystal you install inside the handle. (It glows while it's in place, too, even though you can't see that if you leave it in its fully constructed state.) Activation and deactivation have the appropriate growing/shrinking effects on the glow - the whole blade doesn't just illuminate simultaneously. In photos taken after dark, the glow is bright enough to look pretty much exactly like a real lightsaber.

 

The sound effects (which, I'm told, are slightly different for different kyber crystals) will change to match the blade's motion, and there are of course clashing sound effects when it detects a jerking motion. (The blade even changes to white for a split second.) The only downside is that there's just a bit of a delay, more than with the plastic extendable toy sabers I had as a kid, so you kinda strike and then wait a sec for the cool effect. Again, not sure how that latency compares to other options on the market.

 

If the blade is removed, you can still hit the activation plate; it just makes sort of a lightsaber-y sparking sound for a sec. I think it makes the same sound when installing or removing the kyber crystal too, as I recall.

 

Ultimately, owning the lightsaber is cool (much more so than I expected, since I've been trying to get rid of stuff rather than accumulate more), but I was really in it for the whole experience. The "show" side of it is handled very well. Other than the FCC label on the chassis of the lightsaber (soon covered up by the parts you choose), it's not hard to suspend your disbelief and imagine that you're actually in some secret, hidden den on a faraway planet, learning how to construct your own laser sword. I didn't get as emotional as I did walking through the Falcon for the first time, but I still couldn't help grinning like a maniac.

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The Legacy Sabers come in a special box, however you have to buy the blade separately, which is probably something one should consider as the internals of the replicas accommodate the battery and port for a blade, so you'd be missing out!

 

 

disneyland-star-wars-galaxys-edge-dok-ondars-19-32-469x625.jpg

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1 hour ago, King Mark said:

How does it look compared to the Force FX lightsabers?

 

I know of these but I've never seen one, so I couldn't really say. The only real improvements I could imagine would involve improving the volume and latency of the sound effects, and perhaps offering some other (dare I say cooler?) part options. The feel and look of the physical product is very realistic.

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This place could have had a significant amount of background music composed for it but instead they opted for no music except for the theme on a speaker at the entrance. People are saying this is for "immersion" to make it seem more "realistic", like there shouldn't be music playing. I call bullshit because the Star Wars movies have almost wall-to-wall background music and so does the rest of Disneyland.

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2 hours ago, Dieter Stark said:

This place could have had a significant amount of background music composed for it but instead they opted for no music except for the theme on a speaker at the entrance. People are saying this is for "immersion" to make it seem more "realistic", like there shouldn't be music playing. I call bullshit because the Star Wars movies have almost wall-to-wall background music and so does the rest of Disneyland.

 

Galaxy's Edge exists in a different medium than the films, and it's hugely different from the rest of Disneyland, so I'm not convinced by those comparisons.

 

That being said, I'm of two minds with it. On the one hand, I was worried early on that the experience would involve constant recognizable orchestral Star Wars music. That would have been awful. Area BGM is most effective when it's made up of music you'd be likely to hear in the environment being depicted. (Jazz in New Orleans Square, medieval instruments in Fantasyland, guitar and banjo in Frontierland, etc.) It's source music, in film terms. Because as silly as it sounds...the scores of Star Wars don't exist in the universe of Star Wars. Luke doesn't know the Force theme. Jabba doesn't ask his palace band to bring out the tuba and play his theme. And even a musical genius like Figrin D'an has never heard of an oboe or a violin. These are filmic devices for giving emotional context to specific moments. Perfectly suited to attractions, shows, and other settings where specific events or moments are being staged, but not appropriate for when you're just walking around Batuu on your own adventure. So I'm super glad that there's not a hint of orchestral score in the area BGM.

 

On the other hand, indigenous source music is featured in just about every SW film. In keeping with that, I imagined/hoped that you'd wander in and out of earshot of the music enjoyed by the denizens of Black Spire. They could have even snuck some fun references to the iconic themes into this alien soundscape. The fact that most of the land is completely devoid of any music is surprising and a little disappointing to me. The animal sounds and the roars of ships overhead are enough for some areas, but the very few spots that have music work really well, and the land would benefit from more of that. I'm thinking especially of areas like the marketplace. Imagine something in the vein of the Most Espa music in that area. It'd be perfect!

 

At least we aren't being constantly bombarded with a "greatest hits" playlist of Star Wars music throughout the land, though. That would be waaayyyy too much of a good thing.

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Imperial March is in Solo/Rebels as source music.

 

And The Long Goodbye piano in Last Jedi.

 

So orchestral music is possible as source music in canon.

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I considered bringing those up, @Faleel J.M.. Both of those examples - while amusing - last only for a couple of seconds, and even then they still feel a little out-of-place to me after 40 years without that sort of thing. That part is pretty subjective, though, I suppose.

 

Wizarding World is a perfect example of what I'd want to avoid with Star Wars, @Dieter Stark. It works a bit better with the Potterverse since orchestral instruments exist there, and there's a decent amount of non-thematic underscore that roughly fits the magical tone they're going for. Hell, Hagrid even knows Hedwig's theme, and that dates right back to the very first film. The music has never been as far removed from the characters' experience as it is with Star Wars.

 

Even so, I always get a bit annoyed after spending some time in Wizarding World, because the music is pervasive, repetitive, and very familiar. (Part of that is just Universal's penchant for short loops, I know.) I also have a lot of moments when I'm like, "Why is Umbridge's theme playing? I don't see her?"

 

The biggest reason I was worried was because there's plenty of precedent for orchestral Star Wars loops at Disney: the Star Tours extended queue, Launch Bay, the Tomorrowland BGM for Season of the Force, etc. All of these fall a little flat for me. And those aren't even from environments that aim for that ultra-immersive you're-not-in-a-Disney-park feeling.

 

It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, of course.

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22 hours ago, Datameister said:

On a purely musical note, this video has a clean, high-quality version of an alternate ending we've heard here and there - the one that goes directly from the fanfare into a final bright major chord.

 

 

I think I like this ending better than the one with the suite, though it does seem a bit abrupt. 

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Seems to confirm that Ross adapted Williams' piece(s) for the ride and specific attractions. It's a shame it isn't blaring throughout the park like other areas in Disney, seems that the best way to hear it is on the shitter, or in the restaurants...

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