Best Star Wars score

[Willy 0]

May I have your votes please?

[Lurker 5]

Other

Neil - who would have voted for Star Wars, but didn't see it on there

[Trent B 354]

Revenge Of The Sith for me. ESB follows closely behind though.

[robthehand 3]

Episode V.

[Orson 1]

Boy that Neil is a real stickler, ain't he?

[DarkLord89 0]

At the moment, it is The Empire Strikes Back for me (not counting single themes like Across the Stars or the Emperor's Theme), but I'm waiting to see the full Revenge of the Sith...

[robthehand 3]

There'll be an entirely new generation of JWFans on this board by then.

[pixie_twinkle 60]

Empire!

[Incanus 5,890]

There is only one answer: The Empire Strikes Back!

[Romão 2,473]

Still, Return of the Jedi. Not very cohesive, but it contains the best musical moments of the entire saga.

All the 6 scores are brilliant, though.

[mcdaid72000 0]

Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is the Best Star Wars Score evehthough the Best Main Title is Episode III. I will tell you why. Episode V has the Imperial March(Original), The Battle of Hoth(Originial) and the Carbon Freeze...(Original). What does Episode III have: Main Title(Original/Remakes[Force Theme]), Battle of the Heroes(Original/Remake[imperial March]), General Grivious(Original). I am not sure, but I think General Grivious is the only song original make. The others he adds something he as arleady done.

[Jeshopk 8]

There are plenty of original motifs in ROTS, but not as many major ones as Williams had room for in the original movies. He had to limit his creation of major new themes in the prequels to make a smooth transition to Episodes IV-VI.

I really like the "Another Happy Landing" theme which seems to be a theme for the Old Republic's final days of grandeur. It is repeated at least 5 times throughout the score. That's more than Greivous' theme. It was left off the Album, though.

[Romão 2,473]

It is heard on Enter Lord Vader, isn't it?

[SturgisPodmore 0]

Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.

~Sturgis

[Kendal_Ozzel 36]

Empire

Neil - who would have voted for Star Wars, but didn't see it on there

I wish I would've been posting here a few years ago back when that was funny.

[Luke Skywalker 2,383]

Either ROTJ or ROTS...

But i think ROTJ wins.

[MrAsterisk 0]

The General Grievous theme is only in the Main Titles and General Grievous Speaks to Lord Sidious, right?

[King Mark 3,975]

1)Empire

2)RotS

3)Star Wars,Phantom,Jedi-TIE

4)AotC

I admit I was initially disappointed by the RotS release,especially because of the Empire duel music shoehorned in Anakin vs ObiWan and the Throne Room re-recording wasting space on the 70 minutes c.d.But now that the release is actually up to 90 minutes,those points don't matter one bit anymore.

K.M.

[Trumpeteer 304]

As soon as I saw the choices, I knew Neil would get into a tizzy.

Voted for ESB. Duh.

[batmanand 0]

If I remember correctly, a few years ago ESB was voted JW's best ever score on these boards.

[Mr. Breathmask 624]

Yes, it was.

[Romão 2,473]

The problem with this poles is ESB normally takes the prize, but wonderful scores like TPM or ROTS don't get all the votes they deserve because of this almost-monopoly.

[gkgyver 1,647]

Well, maybe because ESB is simply better than TPM or ROTS?

[Romão 2,473]

I'm not saying that, I'm only saying the votes should be more evenly distributed. It makes it look like ESB is brilliant and the rest of the score are crap.

[Jeshopk 8]

You're focusing on the negative. Empire may contain my favorite passages, but they're all brilliant scores in my book.

Part of Empire's strength is derived from the film, I'll conceed. But in pure musical terms, Empire is always interesting. From start to finish.

[Romão 2,473]

It is a brilliant score, I never said otherwise. I just don't think it is that superior to the others in order to get 80% of the votes.

[Jeshopk 8]

The poll doesn't indicate that Empire is much better than the others, just that it is better. Maybe it is only a little better, but that little bit is easy to perceive.

[JoeinAR 1,957]

Star Wars, but its not listed.

[Romão 2,473]

Sometimes by favorite is ESB. Other times is ROTJ...or ROTS...or TPM. But to me is not that flagrant that ESB is superior to ROTJ.

[flytrumpet 0]

I think ESB is a better score,but one of the reasons is that George Lucas wasn't the director...Also,there are so many themes and motifs in this score that are incredibly well designed.

richard

[Adam 1]

Empire Strikes Back is my favorite. I thank the movie to some extent since it was the most music-friendly of the Star Wars movies in my mind. The right mix of ithe intimate and epic with the most compelling direction IMO. EDIT : as Richard more or less just said. ( :

- Adam

[flytrumpet 0]

You're right Adam,i think the direction helped JW make better music.And it seems the edits work a lot better...no need to mention how poor the prequels are doing on that aspect. :? I also think the orchestrations are more rich.All in all, i think it's an amazing piece of orchestral music.One could call it a 2 hour symphony...Mahler would be jealous...

Richard

[King Mark 3,975]

ESB,TPM and RotS are good listens from start to finish.Star Wars has moments that drag towards the middle,with all the underscore for the inside the Death Star.RotJ sometimes drags on too,a lot of the Jabba's Palace music is boring and so are the Endor cues(Land of the Ewoks).AotC has a lot of dull spots.

K.M.

[Lurker 5]

Star Wars has moments that drag towards the middle,with all the underscore for the inside the Death Star

The cues in the Death Star are:

The Death Star / The Stormtroopers

Wookie Prisoner / Detention Block Ambush

Shootout in the Cell Bay / Dianoga

The Trash Compactor

The Tractor Beam / Chasm Crossfire

Ben Kenobi's Death / TIE Fighter Attack (not on the Death Star)

Which part of that drags?

Neil

[Henry B 51]

I voted for "A New Hope." That is what the score Star Wars was renamed to.

[Romão 2,473]

I love Jabba's palace music. It is wonderfully evocative. Some of JW's very best underscore.

[fommes 165]

ESB. It's winning quite convincingly apparently.

[Jeshopk 8]

Here are reasons we might want to handicap the other scores when going up against Empire.

1) Empire was the 1st Vader's theme score. Everyone's favorite theme. If a martian found all 6 scores without titles or dates, would this matter to him? No, because the theme is also in other scores.

2) The ROTJ album suffered for years as a single LP. People didn't have as many years to get cozy with the score, to make it their own, since so little of it was represented for so many years. It is still "playing catch up"

3) Empire is the favorite movie, and this weighs heavily in people's perception of the power of the music.

------------

So Empire has a lot going for it that doesn't have a lot to do with the notes you're hearing, but its place in history, it's original album release was good, and the movie it was attached to.

In purely musical terms this would be a much closer competition.

[David Vincent 8]

I have chosen Star Wars as John Williams won an oscar for this without the Imperial March

[Ollie 1,375]

Star Wars is a great score that will stand the test of time but as far as quality and sheer scope The Empire Strikes back is the best in my opinion.

[Luke Skywalker 2,383]

You're right Adam,i think the direction helped JW make better music.And it seems the edits work a lot better...no need to mention how poor the prequels are doing on that aspect. :?  

Richard

It may just be me, but why do i sense that all the musical edits (and omissions in ESB case) have been always ''Lucas' made''?

The PT is just the evolution of that plus the adition of tight deadlines.

[Sixers 0]

The Empire Strikes Back score was excellent, and had a lot of power and meaning to it.

[Mr. Breathmask 624]

Yet a lot of it was removed from the picture (and in most cases, rightly so). But at least there weren't as many tracks and loops in it as with the prequels (although I find the use of Hyperspace early in the picture a bit jarring).

And hey, at least Lucas put some music back in when the SE came out.

[Sixers 0]

To tell you the truth, all I've seen is the SE versions of Star Wars, and not the original version with the orignial tunes.

[deimos 0]

It may just be me, but why do i sense that all the musical edits (and omissions in ESB case) have been always ''Lucas' made''?

The PT is just the evolution of that plus the adition of tight deadlines.

I feel exactly the same way. Probably because that's the kind of thing Lucas does. I can't understand how he can talk with such respect about Williams and his music and how his films are almost like silent movies and then chop the music like that.