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What direction do you think Williams will take with the Force Awakens score?


natedog

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Of course nobody knows as of yet but if you had to hazard a guess, what direction do you think Williams will take with the Force Awakens score? From the footage so far of the film, it looks more like the originals. Do you think Williams therefore may return to his writing style that he did for the originals or do you think we will hear something more akin to the prequels and his more modern style?

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It's hard to tell but I think it will have the prequel sound but with more of a flair harkening back to the OT. IIRC TPM is a close amalgamation of that sound.

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Of course nobody knows as of yet but if you had to hazard a guess, what direction do you think Williams will take with the Force Awakens score? From the footage so far of the film, it looks more like the originals. Do you think Williams therefore may return to his writing style that he did for the originals or do you think we will hear something more akin to the prequels and his more modern style?

Based on the most equivalent example, Indiana Jones 4, he'll attempt to ape his old style (much like Spielberg himself) but it won't quite hit the mark.

Be it recording quality, youth or simply nostalgia, no new Star Wars score will be capable of matching the original trilogy.

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Maybe we should just pretend KOTCS never happened. As far as these blockbuster/fantasy/Spielberg/Lucas scores go, it's like the worst-case scenario. Hopefully, TFA and any potential future Williams score in that style won't be on that level. Actually, I'm not sure which was worse: KOTCS or Tintin. KOTCS was boring and lacking any enthusiasm and Tintin was boring because it was Williams on autopilot. The same old shit we've heard before without any soul. I don't want to say it was like he didn't care...more like he doesn't have it in him anymore.

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Out of the six existing Star Wars scores, I'm expecting this score to sound closest to The Phantom Menace in sound. I certainly think it will be more like the OT scores than his modern action writing style (as heard in AOTC and ROTS)

JJ seems to be purposely making a film as close to the look and feel of the OT as possible, and I'm expecting him to want Williams to follow in kind.

My only fear is that as the release date draws nearer, the studio execs will want re-writes that makes things TOO close to his old scores. If that happens I hope the OSTs will showcase his original versions.

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I wouldn't be so sure of that. It's not necessarily something he's done consciously. If his action music has evolved, it's evolved, and he won't try to backpedal.

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So you'll think we'll hear stuff more like The Jungle Chase than The Asteroid Field?

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Thanks for your valuable contribution to this thread.

It's not like you are a exactly a well of eloquence in writing, y'know...

At least someone feels my pain!

Will you resist, then?

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While the score might contain some of the older themes I predict that Williams will prefer to strike into a new direction in the same sonic universe.

I am sure the fans who hope for return to the 1980s sound will be disappointed (again!) and some of us fanatics wearing rose colored JW glasses will declare it the best thing since the Harp Concerto.

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That would be quite a feat, because The Book Thief was mindblowing.

It was epic! Like all of JW's career had been building to that one score!

He is a late bloomer!

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He might surprise us. JJ seems more enthusiastic about working with JW than anything else in the TFA production. JJ has no problem letting his opinions fly, especially about the prequels. There's was an article where JJ said that he simply showed JW the film and just told him to "do his thing". Despite that statement, I figure he has given JW plenty of instruction, opinion, and suggestions of tone, style, and flavor for the score.

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I have no idea. I'll take what comes. But I suspect it to be coloured by some of his 2000s sound, at the very least, more than his more 'outrovert' 70s sound.

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I hope he goes back to his original Star Wars mode (Star Wars, not TESB) but I don't think the world is waiting for that. Heck, Williams probably even forgot how to compose like that.

Alex

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I hope he goes back to his original Star Wars mode (Star Wars, not TESB) but I don't think the world is waiting for that. Heck, Williams probably even forgot how to compose like that.

Alex

You mean a melange of Stravinsky, Holst, and Walton? Pass! I want slick Third-Stream Master 21st Century John Williams!

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I would love an Interstellar-like score for Episode VII, though I'm not sure if Williams has the chops to write something like that.

He would definitely struggle with the breadth of memorable themes and use of motivic thematic identity.

Williams should probably beg Pope to help with the orchestration, too. He'll likely struggle deciding which sections of the orchestra should contribute to the First Order March.

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I would love an Interstellar-like score for Episode VII, though I'm not sure if Williams has the chops to write something like that.

He would definitely struggle with the breadth of memorable themes and use of motivic thematic identity.

If your implication is that Zimmer's score lacks these qualities, you should read some of the excellent analyses on the subject to educate yourself.

I would love an Interstellar-like score for Episode VII, though I'm not sure if Williams has the chops to write something like that.

The answer to your joking speculation is that he doesn't. Too far removed from his aesthetic. Williams couldn't write a Zimmer score any more than Zimmer could write a Williams score. To think otherwise is fanboyish ignorance.

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Star Wars is the best score of them all, though. But they'd need Abbey Road, the LSO and that rough as sandpaper analogue brass again to stand any chance of recapturing that 70s Previn instrumental fidelity and acoustic sparsity. So no chance, then.

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