17 replies to this topic

[karelm]

I was curious if I could find a vintage 1977 review of Star Wars music online (one of those things that talked about "up and coming young composer, John Williams, and how people might be talking about this music for decades to come") because I think it is very interesting to read how it was viewed back then and compare it to now. I know it was recognized as great, great music but it would be interesting to read it in their words because sometimes they really get it wrong too.

“We find Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony to be precisely one hour and five minutes long; a frightful period indeed, which puts the muscles and lungs of the band, and the patience of the audience to a severe trial…” –The Harmonicon, London, April 1825

Perhaps it is possible that no vintage review exists because scores weren't reviewed as such until Star Wars came on the scene??

The closest original review I could find is this from 1978 but it is of the Zubin Mehta recording:

STAR WARS (Williams). Music from the original film soundtrack. London Symphony Or- chestra conducted by John Williams. Pye 20th Century BTD541 (two records, nas, £5-50). STAR WARS. Williams: Star Wars—Suite. R. Stratuss: Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30— Openine. Hoist: The Planets, H125t—Jupiter; Mars. Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta. Decca SXL6880 (£3.99). *From SXL6379 (3/69), tfrom 5XL6529 (11/71).

The makers of Star Wars have openly acknowledged its debts to traditional genres: Flash Gordon, John Ford's The Searchers and the Tarzan series are only a few of its avowed prototypes and its tone and spirit are fundamentally those of the great Warners adventure films of the late 1930s and early 1940s—superb entertainment but basically two-dimensional and without any pretensions to profundity or to the ideals of High Art. Complementarily the music, too, is firmly and intentionally anchored in tradition; stylistically it's located somewhere between Korngold and Prokofiev and contains little that falls outside a romantically-oriented frame of film music reference.

Derivative though it may be the music is composed with immense professionalism and panache and makes a highly enjoyable listening experience; its popularity is well deserved. In the case of the two versions under review (the recording of a brand new film score by a named orchestra under an internationally renowned conductor before it has had time to jell into a classic is surely a landmark in film music history) the soundtrack version (two records comprising 74 minutes of the If-hourlong score) is the one to have. The music is sufficiently colourful and diversified to hold one's attention throughout, even in the 12minute-long "Last Battle" (wrongly located in the notes, incidentally: it is actually track 1, not 2, of Side 4, the advertised track 1 being found as the last track on Side 3); and to follow it through with an analytical ear is to note many subtleties of development, variation and even counterpoint which fail to register on the actual soundtrack. The set comes with exemplary notes on film and score (by Charles Lippincott and the composer) and with a rather murky full-sized colour poster. The composer draws lusty, brawny playing from the LSO and the recorded sound is vividly realistic.

Decca's engineers produce for Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic a much glossier, more glamorous sound, but to my mind this is a distinct drawback: not only does it make them sound like a movie orchestra (and presumably Williams chose the LSO because that was precisely the kind of sound he didn't want) but it also takes the edge off the excitement. I must except from this criticism the "Princess Leia" movement which is so beautifully played and luxuriously recorded that to listen to it is like wallowing in a Badedas bath. Nor am I persuaded that this suite as it stands is altogether satisfactory: the battle-scene when chopped down from 12 minutes to five tends to sound more, not less, episodic, and the finale contains some gratuitous recapitulation. Still I am glad that the marvellous "Cantina" movement—a kind of surrealistic recreation of the Benny Goodman swing sound of the 1930s—was not shirked, since by reason of its unorthodox instrumental demands it is unlikely to be heard in the concert hall. Mehta's fill-ups are rather too obvious; I would be inclined to wait for the promised new RCA recording of the Suite (Gerhardt and the National Philharmonic) which will be coupled with Williams's much less eclectic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, although it would seem most likely that Decca will recouple their Star Wars in the near future— the Suite has already been issued in the United States in harness with Close Encounters. Meanwhile the Decca disc can be recommended as a sampler. CHRISTOPHER PALMER .

[E.T. & Elliott]

I would be inclined to wait for the promised new RCA recording of the Suite (Gerhardt and the National Philharmonic) which will be coupled with Williams's much less eclectic Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Yes, I'll do that.

[Luke Skywalker]

ummm, i had the impression that the mehta recording of the suite was the one composed by williams, and the gerhardt recording was embellished with Gerhardt suggestions (approved by john williams)

this article seems to imply that the episodic final battle and throne room repetition was mehta's wokings...

[Joey]

Perhaps it is possible that no vintage review exists because scores weren't reviewed as such until Star Wars came on the scene??

this is a false assumption on your part.

film music has been reviewed long before Star Wars.

[karelm]

ummm, i had the impression that the mehta recording of the suite was the one composed by williams, and the gerhardt recording was embellished with Gerhardt suggestions (approved by john williams)

this article seems to imply that the episodic final battle and throne room repetition was mehta's wokings...

My thought is the final suite took some time to settle and these recordings were made to capitalize at the time where lunch boxes, toys, play doe, etc, were "official star wars". I like this understatement: "The music is sufficiently colourful and diversified to hold one's attention throughout..."

[indy4]

Good idea. It would be very cool to read a review from 1977, especially from an advance screening, of the music.

[Ren]

If I had nothing to do today I'd absolutely go to my university and start in their music archives.

[Alexcremers]

Seems like a job for Andrade.

[Faleel]

On a somewhat related note, I think there were vintage reviews of Raiders, complaining about the tracked music in the Indy Rides The Statue sequence.

[Joey]

There was a magazine called Films in Review and they featured a critic named Page Cook. He was IMHO a terrible critic, helped in no part of his dismissal of John Willaims. I do wish he were still alive to hear the scores of this time periods greats.

[E.T. & Elliott]

"A string of memorable symphonic scores for motion pictures shows promise for John Towner Williams. He got our attention on television with the quirky fantasy series Lost in Space. Then he moved onto film with dramatic scores to The Reivers, The Poseidon Adventure and his adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof, for which he won an Oscar. Recent years have brought memorable thrillers such as The Towering Inferno, Jaws (his second Oscar-winning score), Alfred Hitchcock's Family Plot and Black Sunday. Now, Star Wars is taking the world by storm and record stores are unable to keep enough supply of the soundtrack LP to meet demand. He's said to be working on a new film about a super hero, the sequel to Jaws and surely the sequel to Star Wars. The future looks very bright indeed for Mr. Williams."

[BloodBoal]

You forgot the last sentence: "Could he be the next Korngold?"

[king mark]

I hate when reviews say about his music. Though derivative...

his music is great in it's own right, and often is superior to whatever he was supposed to get his inspiration from

[Wojo]

And you're welcome to that opinion, just as they are welcome to theirs. The key difference is that they get paid to publish their opinions in a periodical, while your opinion isn't financially worth the keyboard you used to type it with.

A lot of reviewers hold in higher esteem that which came first. If Beethoven and Mozart set the bar for high quality symphonic music, then Tchaikovsky and Wagner are derivative based on that, and then Korngold and Prokofiev are derivative of that sound, making Williams even more generations removed from being the first.

Williams made high quality symphonic music popular? Sure. He made it accessible to the common man and hummable and memorable? Sure. He wrote he "soundtrack" to an entire generation or two of adoring fans? Sure. But he was superior to who he came after? Even he won't admit that, the man is very humble and gracious and knows his place in the pantheon of music. But if you need to believe that, please, go right ahead.

~*~

karelm, thanks for posting the review. It's always fascinating to read articles and opinions from yesteryear.

[Chaac]

Why are we to believe those who came first are superior by default?

[BloodBoal]

Let me answer you with another question: "what is superior: the egg or the chicken?"

[Wojo]

Chaac, you believe what you want to. There's a good lad.

Let me answer you with another question: "what is superior: the egg or the chicken?"

The egg. It won't shit all over your yard and if you happen to eat it raw, it won't make you as sick.

[Chaac]

Chaac, you believe what you want to. There's a good lad.

I actually don't know what to believe on this regard.