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So, the opening was last night - John looked in fine form and conducted quite a bit more music than he did in Orlando! Odd orchestral setup with the strings on the left and brass/winds on the right, but it was impressive from a visual perspective. And he played a new arrangement of themes synced with projection mapping on the castle...and then proceeded to serenade people as they entered with the end of HWW. Quite amazing really! Watch from 1hr 48min.

It was a fantastic show again by Hans Zimmer and his pals at Wembley Arena this evening. If you are able to get to any of the shows on this tour I highly recommend it. The program was similar to the concert at the Hammersmith Apollo a couple of years back but finished with music from Interstellar and seemed to have been fine tuned elsewhere. The encore was music from Inception. All in all I thought it was even better than the Hammersmith show. While I am not usually a big fan of large arenas for film music concerts, I thought that Wembley Arena was the perfect venue for Hans Zimmer's music (and is much nicer than the awful O2 I might add, where they do not let you take even a bottle of water into the place). His music is far better suited to a large arena than, for example, Ennio Morricone's, IMHO. The lighting effects that accompanied most of the selections were amazing. I have no doubt that lots of YouTube videos will appear in due course, but the lighting effects during Interstellar are definitely worth seeing, with huge organ pipes suspended above the stage.

My first Williams album was this one: My first "Williams soundtrack" album was this one: (the Concord Indiana Jones set) I only download digitally though, it is much more convenient for me. I simply don't have the storage space to store lots of physical CDs.

The first time Kylo Ren's theme plays over the theater speakers as his shuttle lands on Jakku is nothing short of amazing to me. I love how strong and clear his theme is. I get major ANH vibes from it.

Pablo Hidalgo from the Lucasfilm story group has an ongoing Twitter joke, that Kylo Ren put the helmet down in General Hux's cat Millicent's litter box. Search for Millicent on Tumblr and you'll find all sorts of Star Wars fan art.

And here it is!! Force Awakens concert suite by the US Marine Band

Peluche sounds like it should be the name of a delicious dessert.

There are several travel (giants running) scenes in the book which could make for some montages. Especially excited to hear how Williams tackles the climactic scene. The book is quite short, but from watching the trailers with the book still fresh in my mind, I'd say Williams had plenty to sink his musical teeth in to. I just can't believe there's a new score so soon after The Force Awakens^.

Wishful thinking but I don't think he'd make a comment like that if he'd already decided he wasn't scoring VIII or beyond; in that case we would've had the usual, "I feel so privileged to have been part of this series for so many years," etc. It sounds like he wants and hopes to continue but he's being mindful of his age and 2015's health issues. With Kennedy in charge, Williams will always have first right of refusal with Star Wars Episode films, but he probably doesn't feel comfortable or see any point agreeing to score a film over a year before he'd start working on it.

I think maybe some of the fault must be attributed to the microphone set-up. It also sounded like the audience consisted of three people!

More positively, nothing seems to indicate this is Williams' fond farewell to the saga.

Idiot!

Keep writing! Letting puzzles like this trigger your musical imagination is a wonderful exercise! Williams "Kylo Ren" motifs are pretty tough to take on, though, as they're imbued with such an expert take on who that character is, and what he's about. There's a very good reason why there's no fully fledged "big bad" Kylo Ren villain's march: Kylo Ren is a young, very conflicted character. The two motifs for him reflect both his ominous presence and the underlying tragedy of his transformation. The way we end up musically portraying characters and human characteristics has everything to do with our own sense of empathy, and our personal response, based on personal experience. Being a young composer, Kylo Ren very likely comes across as both "big" and "bad" to your mind, whereas Williams scores him the way he perceives him.

Ok

Thank you! I'll try to muster up energy to write one for DoS ASAP. Hopefully I'll manage before Doug releases his book.

Me too. It's tied with Poe's Theme as my favourite from TFA. Nothing "lacking" about it whatsoever.

I prefer Kylo Ren's theme/motif.

Because there have been no American characters speaking dialogue to date. Just as there have been no Australian, Canadian, Afghani, Japanese, Chinese, Iranian, Egyptian etc. characters, so we don't know what they call Muggles in their own communities. These characters are separate to the fans who exist in those places the real world. I think you are confusing the two. This is an incredibly simple concept and you are clutching at straws in your responses. Fun fact: in different parts of the world the term "clutching at straws" is sometimes expressed as "grasping at straws". This is a phenomenon known as localised language.

"So Melange, we shall go to Boston together and have bloody adventures. And the great whore will suckle us until we are fat and happy and can suckle no more. And then, when enough collectors have died, perhaps you will have your autograph." "Maestro! I told you to move those bullroarers foreward. They're out of range. "Range is good. A danger to the audience..." "Is acceptable. Agreed"

Man, this thread has gotten off-topic but I gotta post my favorite "we gotta build a wall" joke:

Listen, I think scruples are great, I employ many scruples myself and I love them, but look, we have got to get this scruple problem under control, there's just too many. There's gotta be a scruple wall, it'll be great, I'm really excited about it. No one is going to mess with us when they see this wall, let me tell you. And we are going to take such good care of our veterans, because our military will be so strong, so strong. And we won't have to pay for a dime of it, we're going to stop letting other countries treat us like suckers, I know how to negotiate and make deals, and listen, we have made some bad deals with the rest of the world that I'm gonna fix. I'm gonna get the best people, I know the best people, and I'm gonna get them on these deals to make sure that we don't get taken advantage of. Scruples. ** does not constitute an endorsement nor criticism of Donald Trump **

Since no one has pointed it out yet, the David Collins observation that stuttersteps referenced is that I don't remember Collins' thematic justification for this, but it satisfied me at the time.

"You oughta see my scruples. I got yuuuuge scruples." - Donald Trump, misunderstanding a question about his ethics

Star Wars fans are weird. Boba Fett has been a hugely popular "character" since 1980 despite getting eaten alive by a hole in the ground after only like two minutes of screen time (until 2002's Attack of the Clones). Ackbar probably had equal screen time and dialogue. His role was much bigger in Expanded Universe material - as the military leader of the New Republic. So fans may like him because of that. Maz has a much larger role in TFA than either of those characters, and she's apparently coming back for the next one. Between novels, comics, roleplaying games, video games, etc., every background alien has a name and a story. Everyone can be a fan favorite. Want to know about the bartender in the cantina? He hates droids, until he found one who could grind Greedo's charred corpse into a delicious drink. Want to know more about the blue Twi'Lek Jedi who was onscreen for maybe five shots in Episodes II and III? Her name is Aayla Secura, and there is a summary of thousands of words on Wookiepedia which tells you all about her adventures.

It may be a WALL of sound...but what a WALL of sound it is!

"Luke and Leia" is a wonderful theme that is poorly incorporated into the score and into the saga. I'm fond of the concert version, but outside of, what, two moments it just never showed up anywhere else. One of my absolute favorite Williams themes from one of my absolute favorite cues. Gorgeous is right.

(•_•) <) )╯ The Blu-ray / \ \(•_•) ( (> Is on / \ (•_•) <) )> My porch / \

That's nothing. Today I saw one site describe Maz Kanata as a 'fan favourite'.

Your characteristically overly cautious yet simultaneously 'direct' style of leadership for the Rebellion will never be forgotten, Sir. We salute you!

It's Music time! Here is a Pizzicato version of the Action theme from Follow Me, The Falcon, and The Rathtars, I think this might be the music for Reys manuever with the Falcon that was tracked over with part of Kylo Ren Arrives at the Battle. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxQSwI5aPja9c3JzYmhsd25aanc/view?usp=sharing Here is part of that BIG Alternate I posted earlier, but with some extra music that was edited out of the rip I posted edited back in. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxQSwI5aPja9MWZLV1p2anN0RVE/view?usp=sharing Here is that unknown march that Crumbs called "Unremarkable": https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxQSwI5aPja9di1wODhVOWwwS00/view?usp=sharing Here is an unknown quiet cue that uses flute and clarinet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxQSwI5aPja9ZG41dVRqaVlhLWs/view?usp=sharing Here is the End Credits clean opening: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxQSwI5aPja9Y01Cbm8zbUJTMUU/view?usp=sharing Here is an alternate section of The Rathtars! https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxQSwI5aPja9ZXA2ZUhYd2RDcG8/view?usp=sharing

Star Wars fans. despite his meme-status he's a very well-liked Star Wars character, been the subject of many parodies and praised for his charming performance in ROTJ. he was also brought back in for TFA so clearly there's some love going on with ol' fish-face.

Not a film score, but it's Bernstein so I think I get a pass here. Been stuck in my head for 3 days straight. I can't get it out!

<serious> I've never understood that line. Why does Maximus think it's so funny or ridiculous that Proximo knew Marcus Aurelius? I get the feeling this screenplay takes many viewings to fully appreciate. I last saw the film live to orchestra 2 years ago. </serious> "At my signal.... unleash leitmotif."

I think he knows what JWFan is. JWFan is the mob. Conjure magic for them and they'll be distracted. Take away their freedom and still they'll roar.

Terrible scores. You need more Zimmer in your aural diet.

It most certainly does, it just takes some studying/repeated listens to appreciate it.