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On the latest episode of UnderScore, we sat down with Alan Snelling, assistant engineer to Eric Tomlinson on Star Wars (as well as Raiders, Superman and the rest of the original trilogy), who shared some wonderful recollections of the historic first recording of the Main Title. The remainder of the episode is a near hour-long musical exploration into the composition, orchestration and storytelling power of that infamous minute and a half of music. Enjoy! [This is the second episode in a six-part series on the score]

Karol

John Williams - The Accidental tourist.

I agree. Certain tracks—Imperial March, Asteroid Field, Han Solo and the Princess—have immediate appeal, but the complete score is a “grower.” Because ESB is such a serious and gloomy movie, there is a lot less variance in mood than you’ll find in SW, so, it takes many listens before one track starts to distinguish itself from another. Even now I can listen to SW and tell you beat for beat what is happening, but ESB is a bit of a haze.

I'd say its too heavily reliant on the Imperial March to be considered better than the original Star Wars. The inverse, I would say, is true of Return of the Jedi: it does not rely on any one overarching theme, because of the episodic structure of the film, and ends up feeling equally episodic as a result.

It's not inaccessible. It's just that the score is not as thematically based as Star Wars (Imperial March notwithstanding) and is decidedly heavier overall than ROTJ. The writing in Empire is dense and symphonic. The score overall resembles a Straussian tone poem more so than the other two.

I know it is not Broughton, but would absolutely love a mastered release of Horizons by George Wilkins. Probably the best ride attraction music ever composed. I have the foot warmer, but would love one with better sound.

Has anyone seen that? There is a new segment of building a crate. At around 3:57, coming into the new segment, it somehow transitioned into the current Powell's writing style (from Powell's 90s-00s old style). Idk if it is just me, but it feels different. Then there is a longer suite for Lando's Closet. I dont quite like it. the higher pitch kinda ruins in, sadly

Aah. What an absolutely lovely score, residing, currently, at #7 in my all-top-ten JW scores.

The Rocketeer by James Horner: Definitely among my top 3 Horner works. The whole score is such a joy to listen to, the exuberance and marvel of flight, positive energy, and swirl of big emotions sweeps you away. The themes, the action and the arc of the drama are all well-rounded, certainly a nod to a film scoring eras of the past but never so that it hinders the composer's own style or dramatic impulses. P.S. I love the little diegetic film scoring bit for the Laughing Bandit which underscores the filming of a swashbuckler in the movie. Hearing this little piece makes me wish Horner had written the rest of the score.

QUALITY POST RIGHT HERE. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts, I really, REALLY enjoyed reading this!

I think this has a potential to be really interesting. Karol - who remembers really enjoying the book

Here's what I want for the first scene. Indy: "Ants everywhere...Oxley...Marion...I have a son...interdimensional beings..." Henry Sr.: "Junior, Junior wake up!"

What an unlucky bastard.

No Koepp can only be a good thing. Hopefully Kasdan senior will lend Junior a hand writing this one.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY! 25% OFF FSM SOUNDTRACK CDs! USE CODE JULY2018 AT CHECKOUT. Sale ends Wednesday, July 4th at Midnight EDT! Sale applies to only new items, not the out of print or used titles. CLICK HERE http://www4.screenarchives.com/display_results.cfm/category/317/Film-Score-Monthly/ for the label listing.

Of course, on a 40+ degree day, it's not good to crank the AC to 20 degrees. Best to make it 25 or else you'll overwork the poor thing. It'll love you more and last longer.

The purpose of the thread to ridicule people who criticize Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Yeah but it's a dry heat.

Howard Goodall finally doing a high profile movie is more exciting news, I think (to the extent a JOHNNY ENGLISH movie can be considered high profile).

what we need is a remastered DRACULA on Vinyl!

Interstellar?

Oh, you think I'm not that bad, huh? Well, I recently edited the tracklist to Fallen Kingdom to include what are (to me) better puns! I couldn't replace all the titles though as I couldn't come up with replacements. No woman is desperate enough to gaze upon this and think "yeah, I totally want to snuggle with the guy that went out of his way to do THIS"...but I don't care, I'm still laughing my arse off looking at this stuff I came up with.

Ahhh brass counterpoint - one of many areas of expertise for Williams.

He's still alive? Get a medical capsule immediately!

My favorite part is the very beginning after the initial blast with the twinkly sound and the horns.

It's pretty disgusting here in Texas. What the hell am I doing here.

That's why I wished Jaws could be a Warner Bros production... or Columbia.

Thanks for the heads-up! Started in on it on my way home from work this evening.

Any particular tracks? This is very beautiful. Philip Sainton (whose Moby Dick has already been mentioned) also wrote this lovely tone poem, "The Island". Evocative and beautiful...Rimsky Korsakov's Tsarina adrift on the sea and of course this gem, Arnold Bax's Tintagel Though about the legend of a castle, Bax said, "music to offer images of cliffs and the castle of Tintagel and impressions of the sea on a sunny but not windless summer day."

Just a new HD transfer from a mint LP would do the job for me. I don't have it on CD.

When I hear the term 'magnum opus', I think of scores like: The Empire Strikes Back E.T. The Philosopher's Stone A.I. The Lost World Close Encounters Conan the Barbarian QB VII The Wind and the Lion Lionheart Massive, long-running orchestral scores that are full of diverse themes, emotions and allow you to enter another world. Therefore especially Empire and Conan somehow epitomize this term, in my opinion.

Yes, but your son at least fails upwards! Karol

Wasn’t someone complaining about Texas summers? It’s 101 today with 30% humidity.

Small Soldiers by . My first ever listen to this score. It's pretty good actually. What I like about it the most is that, despite all its (hilarious) musical references, the score never seems to treats itself as a joke. There is a deliberate and assured sense to this score and solid core of musical storytelling. Think I might be revisiting it soon. Typing of which, since it's from 1998...do you think we'll get the expanded Mulan from Disney this year? 20th anniversary seems like a fitting occasion. Karol

The military motif itself comprises two phrase halves that are each a variation on the Dies Irae motif (Obsession), suggesting the military as a further extension of the red herring / paranoia, and is presented at one point in a fugal treatment (a la Jaws, Black Sunday, etc.) that contrasts the hyperrational, "advanced" counterpoint in The Conversation. I can see that, but I have also thought of them as occupying a hazy tonal space around the fracture point the Main Title big bang provides, and setting up the paranoia subject matter. Navy Planes presents an embryonic military motif, notes flipped for the objects from an earlier era on screen. Lost Squadron is a bit Scriabinesque, i.e. referencing the real world-meets-diegetic connection to the synaesthetic colour and pitch concept. More importantly, it hints at the Mountain theme in variation at the end; notes 2 and 3 intact, but 1 substituted by another note from the chord it belongs to. I would say the narrative begins somewhere here.

Superman.

Dracula The Witches of Eastwick Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Born on the Fourth of July

Now @Holko, you finally realise why CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND is the best fucking thing that JW has ever done.

So, now after living with this set for 6 months, my thoughts are finally starting to take coherent form beside "this is very great". Please do correct me if I make mistakes or false assuptions in my effort to speak magnitudes about this score and release. If I copy others' thoughts, it's completely accidental, I made this all up here on the spot, my intent is not to plagiarise. Williams not only wrote some iconic motifs and setpieces to combine into a magnificent whole like with most of his other scores - here, he played around with and pushed the borders of (maybe reinvented?) how the orchestra can be used to tell a story. The motifs and their structure is actually quite simple and apparent, what's more interesting is how and when they're used in what surrounding soundscapes, but I'll list all my thoughts. Let's ignore Navy Planes and Lost Squadron, they're an introduction, a hook, not really a part of the main narrative. Music is only used in the movie when the visitors or their influence are directly or indirectly present. Williams uses both motivic and atmospheric writing, and both tonal and atonal music. The way I see it, tonal music and motifs represent knowledge, understanding, even the vaguest forms of them, or the active pursuit of them. Atonal is the unknown, the unsure, the non-understandable. A brilliant choice, since understanding and relating to tonal music comes much more easily to even those of us who are not exactly experts on the subject, less so with atonal. The score starts with atonality at the aliens' first appearance, then motifs start appearing as Roy knows he has to understand this and get to the bottom of it. The most famous atonal example could be Barry's Kidnapping - Jillian doesn't understand anything that's going on. The Mothership starts atonal, as it's a surprise and could still go both ways, but turns calming and tonal at the end, because they didn't come to fry us, they're peaceful and want to communicate. Also fitting into this is how the first understandable in-universe thing about the aliens is a little 5-tone musical motif - eventually the very important key in communication, the basis of understanding. Out of universe, in the score, another motif is the first bit of knowledge the aliens implant - the simple two-note Vision motif, nice, but not satisfying, incomplete. It develops in two ways: the first is the Obsession motif, which inverts the Vision and uses it in a Dies Irae-like rythm, signalling that this is not the main intended development, but Roy's frustration at not understanding The Vision at first, then his drive of getting there once he does (this has an accompaniment or two, sometimes giving the rythm, other times leading it in or enhancing it). Interestingly, Obsession appears much before the Vision - Roy is already entranced before he even realises what he witnessed. Interestingly, the removed first half of the cue (and scene) "Stars and Trucks" connects Roy and Lacombe in their vision and obsession, like the later cue "Dark Side of the Moon (also removed from the final film?). This is not exactly the place for my usual nitpicky bitchy side, but why the hell were those quick shots removed and why are they not present in any of the three goddnam versions? It's short but nice, and we already know Lacombe's not a bad guy, it's not spoiling anything. The main development of The Vision is, of course, the Mountain motif, which takes the two notes and makes them into three, and adds a winding down figure to make it complete. It already tries to break out in "Forming the Mountain", but ironically, it can't form fully and properly. Even TV Reveals doesn't present it completely, only when seeing it in person is the revelation complete. Another way to look at this is that The Vision is basically a stripped-down, basic, slightly incorrect version of The Mountain. Ever get an earworm you couldn't identify, it drove you mad, you tried to twist it to make sense of it and see where it's from, then it finally all made sense when you realised what it is? These 3 are exactly like that. The military also get a little motif related to Obsession, but only right after they understand the alien message - and since what they decide to do with it is to mislead and frighten the population, it's slightly sinister. Once the landing site is reached, Roy's Obsession, the irritating false lead disappears entirely and gives way to what's more a wink than a motif - his childlike wonder coming back through When You Wish Upon a Star. The Conversation is an ingenious realisation of an ingenious idea. The visitors gave us multiple clues, and have successfully led us to Devil's Tower, now comes the communication. They try to find out whether we're truly worthy of going interplanetary, but are frustrated at first with how we only seem to repeat the 5 tones, the "hello" motif, with seemingly no individual thought or understanding how it's kind of a language. They take a step back, and start teaching us the basics, and are surprised when we teach them something back. At the first sign of truly independent and intelligent life - a successful attempt at cooperation - , they start freaking out with excitement, repeating variants of their "hello" motif, then give a base rythm on which to variate and improvise together, creating the first interspecies jamming session, and deciding humanity is worth keeping around and being friends with. ALL THIS understandable just through 4 and a half minutes of instrumental music, as outright dialogue between two instruments (with a third one entering later to give a rythm as the common grounds). The finale, reaching its hight in the credits, pits all remaining motifs together in a joyous buildup - The Vision has turned into The Mountain, The Obsession has given way to When You Wish Upon a Star, the Military is not a factor anymore, but the Five Tones have entered as the key and proof of successful communication and mutual understanding. This was possibly the best purchase of my life, and if forced to choose only one set to keep from the expanded Williams releases I own so far (E.T, Jaws, this and soon Jurassic Park), there's absolutely no question this is the one I'd want to keep around forever. As much as I'm (mostly was, but still am) a C&C nut, this score has no Mickey Mousing or character-and-place-specific motifs, the narrative devices run deeper than that, so I have no problem with a little rearranging as long as the finale and the general shape is intact. With the LLL set, I can listen through both discs in one sitting, which sadly cannot be said for Jaws or E.T.- for them, both are good on their own (first disc is usually preferable), but overbearing and repetitive when listened consecutively. These discs are both fantastic on their own, and are fantastic together. Everyone involved has every right to be incredibly proud. OK, just to allow myself one teeny-tiny nitpick to make it through the day: Roy's face looks a little iffy on the first disc. A bit bigger problem is how the booklet refuses to tell you what is actually on the discs, what's what. That's it, now I'll survive.

You'll get your 29.95 when you fix this DAMN SOUND QUALITY!

Youtube overload! The Bounty has spurred some great scores. Love Kaper's for MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY -- especially the 'setting out to sea' cue that is not only rousing, but also has cymbal crashes mimicking the waves splashing on to the surface of the ship. And Vangelis' BOUNTY is a spectacular score that captures the sweltering, boiling (both psychologically and physically) heat onboard the ship. The opening cue, in particular, over those red-tinted shots is absolutely stunning. A shame only a couple of tracks have been released on the (IMO must-have) compilation THEMES.

"This show called Curb Your Enthusiasm." Lmao planet Cremers sounds like a helluva sheltered world.

After a bit of research I've decided on this Bluetooth transmitter/reciever. Aventree Oasis Possible a bit of an overkill for just headphones, but its very versatile has low latency and has great range of up to 50 meters. And for bluetooth headphones I've decided on the Sennheiser HD 4.40 BT . Playing it a bit safe I guess, but I've never had a pair of Sennheisers that didn't sound excellent for its price. Its over the ear, open backed so quite suitable for orchestral music.

Thanks so much, Fancyarcher! Do you have a favorite episode of ours so far? Strengths/weaknesses to comment on? I quite agree that there should be more composer-dedicated podcasts like this, both in classical and film music. (Are we the first film music podcast dedicated to a single composer? I think so...and definitely the first chronological journey like this. What about classical composers? Is anyone out there going comprehensive in covering Beethoven or Silbelius, I wonder?) We're definitely excited to be tackling ALL of Goldsmith's output that we can find, no matter what he wrote for. We only decided to put off the bulk of his radio work for later because we thought that would make it take far too long to get to his film scores that people are much more familiar with. But we'll definitely circle back at the end for an Appendix covering everything we skipped. Yavar

Well, as JWFan it is our duty to recommend any good starting point to a wanna-be fan. So we must know what are the best compilations.... they usually are the entry point to someone who wants to discover an artist. Don't say "I for one already own every single individual JW release", rather say "What can I do for all the earth population becomes a JWfan like me".

Great news! And the concerts being on Saturdays and Sunday are likely to be broadcast.

When it first became possible to have custom ringtones on phones, I knew exactly the ones to use and have kept them the same ever since. Calls, 0:07 - 0:12: All other alerts, 0:00 - 0:04: Mrs. Pilgrim gets a custom one though, and it is Williams. 0:39 - 0:46:

So I actually went ahead and made the "Rescuing Sarah" ringtone. Made an 80 second loop that I think sounds pretty smooth. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6T5vTBhM2zmblpHVmtWLUJYNFE