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Samuel Kim - Star Wars Theme


DigitalfreakNYC

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I know I'm probably gonna get slaughtered for this but here it goes:

 

 

I think this is absolutely freakin' incredible.
I've been listening to it all day. 
It's based around the rendition from the Rise of Skywalker trailer and I just find it amazing.

I'm sure this will be considered heresy but it's a Williams/Zimmer mash-up that just hits me in the right place.  Modern and yet, not.  I'd love to hear an actual orchestral version of this. 

Thoughts?

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3 hours ago, DigitalfreakNYC said:

Modern and yet, not.  I'd love to hear an actual orchestral version of this. 


Thoughts?

 

I’m so ready for people to leave this style behind honestly. I get that it’s supposed to sound epic, but it’s just so tired at this point. Orchestral music the way Williams writes is timeless, and this stuff will sound so dated in less than a decade. 

 

This would also sound very bad with an actual orchestra. It’s not really written idiomatically for instruments at all. It’s a pop/rock arrangement of JW’s themes, using virtual orchestral instruments. But that’s the standard sound of this hybrid sort of style.

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6 hours ago, Bayesian said:

I look forward to the day when the Zimmer sound is considered as badly dated as the reverb-heavy ‘80s synth sound.

 

A fair chunk of his work already does sound badly dated. I like Zimmer, I'm a big fan of his. But his design choices mean he'll only ever be a pop composer. My beloved Interstellar soundtrack, which at points sounds so awesomely state of the art, will in twenty years time diminish to quaint synth ditty status.

 

Some here will remember how cutting edge Oxygène sounded forty years ago. Now it sounds like kitsch prog pop.

 

This of course is why John Williams is timeless and Hans Zimmer isn't.

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9 hours ago, Modest Expectations said:

I dislike the naming of this style of music "epic". Rózsa's was epic. LOTR was epic.This is just synth noisefest.

 

 

I agree fully! Those are epic in the real sense of the word. I would describe trailer music as “epic” (well, that’s what it’s going for at least) in the overused sense of the word, and also because there’s really no other purpose to that music beyond trying to hype people up. 

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10 hours ago, Quintus said:

This of course is why John Williams is timeless and Hans Zimmer isn't.

 

That's classic JWFan bullshit though.  The currency of John's compositional mannerisms is as subject to an expiration date as that of Hans' or any other composer and both have works that have now passed the date.  Music being timeless has nothing to do with its sound but its ability to communicate with the listener and in that regard I think both of them can feel secure about their ongoing legacy. 

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I know what you’re talking about but I just don’t think it’s theoretically that wild for certain electronic instruments to eventually become perfected and accepted as orchestral standards over many years.

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5 hours ago, Quintus said:

 

I disagree with this on a fundamental level because I'm of school of thought that believes aesthetics sit at the top of the hierarchical pecking order when  thinking about the lasting impact of music.

 

Aye we're looking at it very differently then.  On a brief timeline it may be fair to say that's true - though consider how many would disagree about the orchestra always sounding timeless, citing even recent Williams scores as being too classical or old fashioned, whatever you see in YouTube comments - but in the longer term I think style gets shaken off and what's actually underneath determines if it's still living in people's minds as vibrant and meaningful.  Oxygène may not sound cutting edge anymore but I would hardly reduce it to mere kitsch as a consequence. 

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  • 1 month later...

Sounds like gutter trash garbage. Here's the reason -

 

Besides the main theme on the piano, the rest is literally template library 'epic' major key nonsense.

 

You could literally replace the star wars theme on piano with almost any other theme on piano.

 

What's carrying the track is your power anthem backing. It is so reductive to melody because it denigrates it to just a 'front vocal' or something.

 

As if this is some kind of bullshit pop track produced in a the garage in 10 mins.

 

What Williams did was creating something beautiful and artful and complex with all the different parts working in harmony to elevate the melody to the status that we all love. 

 

This kind of reductive shit is insulting to Williams' art.

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  • 1 month later...

I just discovered Samuel Kim’s music and I think he has great potential. If you haven’t listened to his album The Rise of Skywalker-the Force Theme, I think you’re missing out. His music sounds a lot like Zimmer and Horner yes, but composers are supposed to have their own unique sound otherwise they would all sound the same. His music is a departure from John Williams classic orchestra which is why I love it. He blends the subtle main theme music over other melodies to create a rich complex piece of music. The song Across the Stars sounds particularly influenced by James Horner Braveheart soundtrack. You can tell he is influenced by many movie composers and he has a few great gems. I would love to hear his music in the Clone Wars or the Mandalorian. 
 

*I went back to listen to his scores again and do a quick comparison. The song I mentioned the Force Theme actually has a very similar melody to the track Time in Inception’s soundtrack and Across the Stars sounds very similar to the melody found in Secret Wedding of Braveheart. What It sounds like is an overlay to create a mashup of two composers melodies.

 

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  • 6 months later...
6 hours ago, Fabulin said:

Several unrelated people shared this recently with me, and it's quite nice actually...

 

 

I could not shut this off fast enough right at the 0:15 mark.

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  • 3 years later...
On 27/10/2019 at 1:16 AM, DigitalfreakNYC said:

I'm sure this will be considered heresy but it's a Williams/Zimmer mash-up that just hits me in the right place. 

 

Oh, if you want heresy, try this: in what way is the SW theme itself (not the orchestrations, just the basic melody itself of the main 'A' part) not a power anthem? It knocks you over the head with a simple, memorable melody. The difference is the orchestration where there's always more going on in the 'craftsmanship' world than with Williams than with Zimmer, et al.

 

I'd strongly argue that Zimmer (for example) has far more talent at melody than naysayers want to admit, but the difference is that most of the time he approaches the instrumentation in a completely different way to Williams, and that's where the difference lies.

 

On 13/11/2023 at 11:53 AM, TolkienSS said:

And not enough people are trying.

 

Imagine if someone entered the scene who was supremely gifted at composing amazing, evocative melodies, but couldn't understand classical orchestration to save their life. I'd rather hear what they had to offer, in a suitable project, instead of deciding their stuff was 'trash' because they can't write for a symphony orchestra. Or their circumstance doesn't allow them to write/record with a huge orchestra, so they use what they have instead.

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