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Signature Piece of The Force Awakens?


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Gentlemen I think we have the tracklist now: http://filmmusicreporter.com/

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Music by John Williams

Conducted and orchestrated by Conrad Pope

01. Star Wars & The Phasma Menace

02. Rey Of Hope*

03. Jakkuse*

04. No Country For Old Tusken

05. Life Of Poe**

06. The Perfect Stormtrooper

07. How To Train Your Krayt Dragon*/**

08. Galaxy's Worst Cantina***

09. Mad Maz*

10. Some Like It Hoth*

11. Gone With The X-Wing**

12. Huxed From Orbit*

13. Finding Kylo*

14. The Snoke Sense**

15. The Fault In Our Death Stars**

16. Remembering Han

17. Finn'ale and End Credits*/**

Total running time: 44:26

* Includes "Rey's Theme" composed by William Ross

** Includes music by Conrad Pope

*** Source music by Plan 9

I think it's a fake. The track order isn't nearly jumbled enough.

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What crumbs meant by signature, was the big theme that is introduced in the new film, that everyone associates with it, and usually makes it into the End Credits, examples:

I think there's a lack of distinction between signature theme and signature piece. TPM and ROTS had their battle cues as the clear signature pieces. AOTC had Across the Stars, which is a theme, but to me feels more like a "piece", probably because most arrangements are similar, and because it dominates the end credits (perhaps Williams placing the same arrangement at the beginning of the album is also responsible for this).

The OT on the other hand didn't really have signature pieces. SW and ROTJ didn't even have signature themes (unless you count the main theme for SW), simply because there was such a well balanced wealth of themes. ESB, appropriately, had the Imperial March as the dominant theme. I think it qualifies as a signature theme, even though there's still Yoda's theme (and others) to balance it, and that also shows in the end credits. It's certainly no signature "piece", because every statement of the theme is very different (and the concert version showing up in the film was a late editing decision).

I'd rather have the new one not focus on one signature piece, ideally not even on one special theme. I think what SW needs after the PT is a sense of scope and characters, and the OT scores reflect that through their wide array of "recognisable" themes.

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I think it's a fake. The track order isn't nearly jumbled enough

The website posted an updated version of the tracklist

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Music by John Williams

Conducted and orchestrated by Conrad Pope

01. Star Wars & The Phasma Menace

02. Rey Of Hope*

03. The Fault In Our Death Stars**

04. Remembering Han

05. No Country For Old Tusken

06. Finding Kylo*

07. Life Of Poe**

08. Galaxy's Worst Cantina***

09. The Perfect Stormtrooper

10. How To Train Your Krayt Dragon*/**

11. You Are The Poe****

12. Mad Maz*

13. Finn'ale and End Credits*/**

14. Some Like It Hoth*

15. The Grand Bespin Hotel****

16. Huxed From Orbit*

17. Jakkuse*

18. The Snoke Sense**

19. Gone With The X-Wing**

20. Taxation Of Trade Routes Theme*****

Total running time: 47:54

* Includes "Rey's Theme" composed by William Ross

** Includes music by Conrad Pope

*** Source music by Plan 9

**** iTunes Exclusive Tracks

***** Amazon Exclusive Track

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I wonder if JW will finally give Han his own theme?

How I wish he'd written said theme as 1980's John Williams. The unknown quantity of Ford's portrayal of Solo in 2015 leaves me cautious about how Williams will interpret his character musically. Will Ford be tired old grandpa or charming rogue?

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The Adventures of Han scherzo is going to be a hit during many Boston Pops concerts to come.

Karol

Nah, the title will be Rocking The Rocking Chair.

That was clearly reserved for Indiana Jones and the Comfortable Rocking Chair movie!

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I wonder if JW will finally give Han his own theme?

Perhaps he'll surprise us by scoring each and every of his scenes with Han Solo and the Princess and then declaring in interviews that it never was a love theme in the first place.

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I wonder if JW will finally give Han his own theme?

Perhaps he'll surprise us by scoring each and every of his scenes with Han Solo and the Princess and then declaring in interviews that it never was a love theme in the first place.

So we were only hearing a "romanticised" rendition of Han's theme in ESB, which will finally receive the action oriented rendition Williams always intended in TFA.

The man is brilliant.

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I am hoping that the TFA OST will have more concert arrangement than any of the prequel scores. Hopefully something more like HPCOS or Crystal Skull in terms of concert arrangements

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Well, perhaps if Williams likes this film more than he liked Episode 1, maybe he'll be more inspired?

I also wonder if JJ Abrams would request concert arrangements from him?

Also, he began writing the score so much earlier than any other normal project, he theoretically has had more time in which he could have come up with arrangements....

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Hmmm, that may be true. JJ grew up a film score fan long before he got into the industry, for sure.

Though in the case of Star Trek ('09), he ended up massively re-editing and moving around alot of Giacchino's score in the final cut. Then again, the music was recorded when they thought the film was still coming out in December '08 instead of summer '09, so perhaps Giacchino wasn't available for rewrites after the film was re-edited.

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Also, I guess Abrams cares much more about the music in his films than Lucas did. Am I wrong?

IMHO Lucas always cared a lot about music in his films (just watch American Graffiti). Yes, Episode I was heavily re-edited after scoring sessions took place, but it's not because Lucas didn't like the music--he was trying to save his own movie from total debacle!

Also, Williams doesn't write concert arrangements on filmmakers' request. He always did and still does just by his own intention and initiative, for both his own concert performances and for the album release. If he has time at his disposal, he probably can do as much as he can.

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These Force Awakens threads are more heavily edited than Williams' scores.

Anyway, I'm not really expecting there to be any super memorable theme that'll knock everybody's socks off. More of a consistent general Williams sound that'll please fans but might be written off as "forgettable" by general audiences. That's how his recent scores have been received at least.

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Oh I am sure the score will have strong themes.

Just look at the strong themes in Lincoln and War Horse! Man's still got it in him!

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Oh I am sure the score will have strong themes.

Just look at the strong themes in Lincoln and War Horse! Man's still got it in him!

They'll definitely be good themes but they might not necessarily be "memorable" (for general audiences at least).

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Well, yea, there probably won't be anything on the level of The Imperial March or The Raiders March, but now often does that really happen anyway?

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I would say the Game of Thrones theme if we can include TV, but yeah, if film only then I guess Zimmer's Time from Inception would make the cut. The Pacific Rim theme is also very popular.

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When was the last time we had a score that blew the socks off the general audience or made a significant impression?

Pirates of the Caribbean in 2003.

In terms of a new theme that really becomes iconic and basically inescapable, I think that's right.

There have been some fairly popular scores but no real pop culture touchstones. I'm iffy on Inception...I see "Time" referenced a lot online and in movie trailers, there's an upload of it on YouTube that's up to 20 million views, but I don't know if you played it for most people that they would know exactly what it was. If we count sequel scores, I think I'd include Return of the King.

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