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I would say that Williams tends not to associate certain keys with certain moods. The idea of composers using certain keys for certain moods derived from the days when the 12-note chromatic system was not equally tempered, meaning that the same interval wasn't always exactly the same size. So each key did sound different and many tended to have common associations among composers. When equal temperament became the norm in the 19th century, those associations became more of a relic from the past and weren't used nearly as often. Beethoven was kind of the last big exponent of the idea, and it's not surprising that he spanned the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries. Anyway, with Williams, I don't see really strong connections between key and mood, but there are a couple of exceptions. Sometimes in his classic scores, it seems that he uses C major when there is a kind of purity in the character the theme represents in the theme's most prominent statement (main title / end credits): Superman fanfare and march (pure good), E.T. and Elliott (childhood innocence), Yoda (pure wisdom). This association of C major with purity is very traditional and mostly comes from C major having no sharps or flats in its key signature, so looks "pure" on the page. Other times, though, it just seems like C major is a convenient key to write in for Williams, like with the Raiders March. Williams also sometimes follows the 19th-century convention of using keys with lots of flats for slow, romantic pieces in major keys. This happens in Han Solo and the Princess, and Luke and Leia, both of which are in D-flat major, which has a whopping 5 flats in its key signature. The many flats are supposed to represent a very relaxed state in a musical way (whereas lots of sharps in a key signature are often associated with lots of energy). These are pretty much exceptions, though. Personally, I feel that Williams' choice of key for a theme probably depends on how he's going to orchestrate it. The use of B-flat major for the Star Wars main title not only allows the connection to the Fox fanfare that preceded it in the same key, but also the high B-flat in the trumpet, which is right near the very top of the instrument's range, as the theme's highest note. Or why the Jaws ostinato is on E - that's generally the lowest note in the double bass, so will be the darkest string colour he can achieve. The more I study Williams' writing, the more I find that his ideas seem very tied to orchestration, so that's why I'd lean more towards "not really" in answering your question despite the exceptions above.

I had an interview with Maestro eight years ago. Extremely nice man. During the interview, I asked, among other things, whether he was tempted to write something for a film himself, since his music was used by great directors, such as Kubrick, Scorsese or Wajda. "I don't want to waste time," he replied. "Besides, it would be a transition to the 'other side', which I don't want to do. "Other side?" I asked. "Look at John Williams. He composes very good music, various symphonies and concertos, he is comprehensively educated, he conducts, but everybody knows him only as a film composer. Similarly Ennio Morricone - even when he writes a mass, it's not as good and known as his film music. I think I'll stay on this side!" https://kultura.onet.pl/muzyka/gatunki/klasyka/szkoda-czasu-na-film/jn34jqn

I would support another trilogy ONLY if Rian Johnson writes and directs it.

Damn! In terms of classical music in the last 100 years, it doesn't come much bigger than Penderecki. I wrote a small obituary, in Norwegian, here: https://montages.no/nyheter/krzysztof-penderecki-1933-2020/ I remember sitting just 5 meters away from him in Krakow a few years ago, I believe the first time he visited the festival himself. Goldenthal, who was also a guest there and sitting next to him, was basically reduced to a fanboy all night. Alas, I never got to meet or interview Penderecki myself, but I was honoured just being in his presence.

So I updated the titles of the unreleased music I have hosted on google drive, to be more accurate to the cue list, based on info provided by those who have been able to get a hold of the partial sheet music leak: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1p9uTxtd8s6eM6_sw77x7__n2bnTJe07L https://drive.google.com/open?id=1E0mLeNoiWK7-3XohSd_byCGkcJRNhFbD https://drive.google.com/open?id=1QTP02C-XqvYEybBIl8AqZNa7zD0Z4rAl https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxQSwI5aPja9d0hlNXlzc0dKVU0 https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxQSwI5aPja9OXRoNnNxWE9uZGs https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxQSwI5aPja9bGxlejg1QUxsNlU https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxQSwI5aPja9aHNsYTFiOGVhT1E https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxQSwI5aPja9WlBmdjJiMU03a3c https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxQSwI5aPja9LWE1RXhPZi11Wmc

I think I put them where they belong

The context of Palpatine's speech was simply that the Sith could keep other people ("the ones he cared about") from dying. It was only a tease so Anakin could think he could save Padme. Plagueis couldn't stop himself from dying so why should we expect Palpatine to? Palpatine should have stayed dead. Him coming back in Episode 9 was stupid.

I just think this franchise deserves more than a David Yates/JK Rowling Director/Screenwriter combo.

I'd be happy for a fourth trilogy, just so long as JJ Abrams stays far, far away from it. I can't imagine Williams having anything to do with it, unless it happens in the next 3-4 years.

I wouldn't say that Rey's Theme resolves gorgeously in A New Home. The dark-sounding cello cadence resolves - but rather open-ended with those repeating notes in the fore, just like the concert version of Rey's Theme. The 6-note figure is a variation of the first bars of her theme, which modulates (upwardly) throughout, also similar to Rey's Theme. John Williams is trying to tell us something with cellos at 0:16. Removing the second-to-last note of the phrase reveals the major triad of The Imperial March. Emperor Palpatine wanted Rey to "Make the sacrifice", and by killing him in anger, "all the Sith" in his spirit would pass into her, resulting in Empress Palpatine. Rey refused, but later chose to push his Force lightning back at him... with quite an angry face. So, in my view, Emperor Palpatine's plan succeeded. Anyone assuming that Rey's story has ended, with nothing significant to reveal, I think, is sorely mistaken. Based on the events of Episode IX, the Saga cannot end in that manner. I'm calling it right now: A Final Trilogy will be made, and it will happen sooner rather than later. Its climax will feature the final showdown between the Sith and the Jedi. Palpatine will return with a vengeance like no other villain in cinematic history. But he will be defeated... conclusively this time. (Third time's the charm!)

That leap of logic about Hammond is absolutely genius. To celebrate it, I created something special: For those who are not real JWFans: 1. Krzysztof Penderecki, a classical composer born in 1933, also a friend of ASM 2. Dumbledore takes memories out of his head and puts them into the pensieve so that he does not have to remember 3. Did you know that John Williams stole from Holst? 4. Sony Classical put the photo of Guitar Williams in their Twitter post celebrating JW's 88th birthsday 5. Don Williams said that John has always been interested only in girls and music 6. Telling stories at Tanglewood! Edit: I noticed that some of my explanations already require a measure of fan knowledge. So advanced is this meme!

I put this together. This might and could very well be the full opening, including the Mustafar sequence, the journey to Exegol, the encounter with Palpatine and the reveal of the Final Order. If nothing else, I put it together just for fun. Enjoy! Share your reactions. 01_Main_Title_and_Journey_to_Exegol.m4a

Social distancing means more time to work on score videos! Walter Piston - Capriccio for Harp and String Orchestra (1963)

Anyone except grandpa.

His impact on film scoring was just as great as his impact on 20th century composers. His music was used effectively in Kubrick's The Shining, Children of Men, Shutter Island, Twin Peaks, and much else. His early concert work, Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, practically invented its own notation system and that approach to composing was very influential in the 50's and 60's. He abandoned the avant-garde around mid-1970's and turned to Neo-romantacism around that time. For a jarring stylistic listening experience, listen to his Symphony No. 1 from 1973 and Symphony No. 2 from 1980, the former being of his earlier style and the latter being from his Neo-romantic style. Sweet photo that represents the breadth of his reach - Penderecki with Goldenthal.

A common, and right, criticism of the current school of American blockbuster directors is exactly that: lots of technique, but no POV or interesting insights, whatsoever.

I've studied film for the past six years, and aside from the colour grading, I can't fault the cinematography, the storyboarding or the visual direction of OOTP or HBP. DH and FBs have some wonky direction going on, but that to me all stems from a lack of a strong visual storytelling perspective guided by the story.

I suppose he likes those old school skeleton keys and those nice brass-coloured Lockwood sets. He might not be much for new biometric key technology though.

Not that I've noticed, though it'd be interesting to crunch the numbers. I suppose his marches and fanfares do tend toward C, Bb, Eb, F, or G, but those tendencies certainly aren't unique to JW.

Half Blood Prince is dreadful, gets worse and worse every time I watch it. The grading, the omission of most of Tom Riddle’s memories in favour of more Lavender Brown, Harry and Ginny having literally no chemistry at all, The Burrow burning down. It’s a shame because I think the book is the best of the series. Alan Rickman is great though, as always.

The Draughtman's Contract A cheeky little whodunnit designed by man with an apparent fondness for classical painting and framing. The pieces are always moving in this puzzle, and its characters are always preaching but underneath the elegant opulence of its imagery is its sheer absurdity driving the whole thing. Who needs Knives Out when you've got this! Nyman's score does its job well, though as was common with high concept scores of the time, it's often mishandled.

To elaborate on the Starry Night being labeled "(Edited incorrectly)" 0:00-0:11 should have gone into the Kylo Theme at 0:32 and 0:11-0:00 should have gone after 1:02 for the "Free version" 1:03-1:13 almost seems to be layered from 7M66 The Control Room and Ren in the Forest

And then, wait, did the tower exploding explode the main ship? Did it explode the rest? If yes, why? If no, why did the rest explode? Even above those other planets, was that "people rising up all over the Galaxy"? Wait a minute, how did they even get to Endor and Bespin and Jakku when the rest of the kajingamazillions of the SDs were still in the cloud, why didn't those go out? Is this army just so ludicrously big that they sent out one for each planet then still kept that many over Exegol? But then they wouldn't need the beacons if they weren't planning to go out... I have a headache. I've put more thought into it in these 2x10 minutes today than they did in the whole year plus of production. Every planet celebrating and rioting to Victory Celebration immediately after the Empire loses a big battle is the most self-explanatory thing in the world in comparison.

After reading a very enlightening reply to a topic I posted earlier today, it occurred to me that many members on this forum would make a wonderful group that, in another world, would all live close enough to gather every weekend for intelligent conversation and discussion — à la Gertrude Stein and her famous Paris salons a century ago. So, imagine you wanted to host a regular get-together where the object was to talk and share earnestly and intelligently — with good wine/beer/pick your poison and in comfy chairs— about all things film music. JW mostly, to be sure, but it’d all be fair game. Who would you hope would attend? (Assume there’s no coronavirus or social distancing.) My own very incomplete list would include, in no particular order: @Ludwig and @Falstaft as music scholars, @Disco Stu (obviously), @Miguel Andrade and @Romão for their crazy deep expertise about JW, @Jay for his knowledge about the film music industry and his ties to/knowledge about people on the inside, @Thor for his film music expertise... I know I’m missing a bunch of people and I’ll come back to update this when those names pop into my head. Others who definitely would be welcome at my salon include @crumbs and @Chewy, who never made a post I didn’t enjoy reading. And @Bryant Burnettewhose survey through Stephen King on his blog or website or whatever was a real fun read some months back. I feel you can tell a lot about what someone will be like IRL by what and how they write on the internet, where you never know who’s reading. Who am I missing?? I know it’s more than few. Who would you bring along?

Hopefully these concerts will remain set once the COVID-19 crisis is over.

Oh, I thought I was in the Minority Report thread.

I put this together. This might and could very well be the full opening, including the Mustafar sequence, the journey to Exegol, the encounter with Palpatine and the reveal of the Final Order. If nothing else, I put it together just for fun. Enjoy! Share your reactions. 01_Main_Title_and_Journey_to_Exegol.m4a

Its said that Luke will become a Jedi when he confronts Vader, which he does; and Yoda also orders him to "pass on what you have learned." That Luke will re-establish the Jedi order is implicit in all of these moments. The intention there is to use the force to elongate one's lifespan, and therefore avoided natural causes of death - age, sickness or, in the case of Anakin and Padme, childbirth. Its also consistent with "I will even learn to stop people from dying." Clearly, this cannot protect one from being thrown down a shaft, being blown up, slain with a saber, etcetra. If it did, Darth Plagueis would have lived to tell the tale, which he did not: he was slain. There's no logic in introducing a power that prevents death regardless of cause, because it makes the storytelling meaningless since no-one can ever really die. At best, you can say this passage exists to explain why the emperor didn't die of old age by the time of Return of the Jedi. At worst, he's just lying. Ergo it should never have been made. Even if it didn't revive the Emperor, its very existence takes away from Return of the Jedi.

No, no, no, no! (times a hundred) Film series need an ENDING, which Star Wars has: its called Return of the Jedi. The more movies pile-on that are set after Return of the Jedi, the more it cheapens the enterprise as a whole. Seeing The Rise of Skywalker only reaffirms my belief that there should never have been a sequel trilogy to begin with. All that it accomplished - by sheer dint of existing - is to invalidate the original films, because it shows that balance wasn't really achieved, the Empire wasn't really defeated, and (as it turns out) neither was the Emperor. All the characters did and achieved in the original three/six films (take your pick) is reduced to naught at the start of The Force Awakens, and they all live the rest of their lives as sad old people, before dying one by one. Pathetic. A fourth trilogy would be a fucking joke at this point. Out of a greedy, childish desire for "more Star Wars", people are bear-hugging this franchise to death. Just accept that it was good while it lasted and say goodbye. Temperance is important.

The more trilogies, the bigger the funeral pyre. With Williams gone, the magic will be gone, too.

I decided to watch this scene on mute, just so I could properly study the camera movement and direction. I recommend others try the same, you might understand why some people can't stand Yates and his total lack of vision/creativity. Talk about an unimaginably dull, pedestrian sequence for a "whimsical" store nestled in the middle of miserable Diagon Alley. Visually uninteresting, drained of colour, an endless succession of 5-6 second long flat/medium shots with the same camera movement repeated (every shot starts wide then slowly moves towards a focal object). Sometimes he gets really experimental and does a pan from a character to something they're looking at out-of-frame. To be blunt, this is amateur-level filmmaking. An illiterate first year film student could do better with the same basic challenge (create an exciting, minute-long sequence in a magical wizarding store) and this is the best Yates can conjure. And people still don't understand why he's considered the wrong filmmaker for this series? The only thing telling viewers this is a fun, happy place is the music -- which feels like a total misnomer given the dreary events on-screen (and gives me some solace about Williams never touching these lifeless Yates films). Frankly the terrible colour grading makes this unnoticeable. The point is that this "vibrant" shop contrasts with the rest of Diagon Alley, so why is the shop taking up 85% of the frame in the establishing shot? From the very beginning, this contrast isn't made clear. And I'd question the so-called vibrancy of this shop anyway, because even the "colourful" sets just look washed out/sepia with the piss-yellow filter smeared across the entire frame. The closing shot is mildly better, with 4/5 of the frame grey and 1/5 "colourful" to establish that contrast, but it's still barely noticeable due to the overall grading and is totally pointless for the final shot in the sequence (when it's meant to be established that way).

Here's some cool scores released throughout the last 10 years that I really liked at some point on the decade: Jack the Giant Slayer - John Ottman The movie is dreadful, and directed by a truly disgusting, vile person, but the score is certainly the best of Ottman's career. It really should have more fans. Libertador - Gustavo Dudamel An epic orchestral score, the likes of which are pretty rare these days. Dudamel is a talented composer and, with Williams' blessing, should've been scoring more movies. The Monkey King - Christopher Young China gave Chris Young the greatest opportunity he was not afforded to by Hollywood. I'm not a fan of OSTs whose tracklist is just a set of suites (actually, movies cues from all over the movie combined) centered around characters, but the material is wonderful. Field of the Lost Shoes - Frederik Wiedmann Beautiful American Civil War score. It would've been the successor of James Horner's Glory if it was more well known. For some reason, it's not on Spotify or YouTube, but if you can find it, it will worth it. Stalingrad - Angelo Badalamenti Another foreign country that gave a great opportunity for a Hollywood composer, Badalamenti wrote a wonderful score for this Russian film. Capture the Flag - Diego Navarro The finest James Horner impersonation I've ever heard is the track I just posted above. Maurizio Malagnini - Peter and Wendy Wonderful score. A serious case could be made about this being the best Peter Pan score of all time, surpassing even JNH's effort and Williams' Hook. Many thanks to Jon Broxton. It was thanks to him that I discovered all of these great scores.

I don't like the movie Order of the Phoenix. I loved the book as a kid, and the movie was a great disappointment when I first watched it. It's like @TSMefford said, it looks like a low budget TV movie that plays bureaucratically all the main beats of the wonderful book, and makes its powerful story limp and pathetic, with an equally dreadful score. Half Blood Prince is a little better, and has some nice touches to the book. It's not brilliant, but it... kinda works? Deathly Hallows Part 1, on the other hand, is a genuinely good movie, but DH2 is just kinda there. Generally, I'm no Yates fan, but I like some scenes he does that don't exist in the book, like the attack on the Burrow on HBP and Harry and Hermione dancing to Nick Cave on DH1. It's cool to see another vision for the characters and for that world that differs from JK's. Which is too bad, if wasn't for her being so overprotective over the franchise, it could've grown to the size of a Star Wars or a Star Trek. I'd love a prequel show Clone Wars-style centered around the rise of Voldemort and the first wizarding war, which was just alluded to on the main books/movies.

Of the live-action Disney remakes, this is definitely the one that the realistic, naturalistic look most befits.

Great way to put it. I really did not like the final battle (with the exception of a couple moments like Lando's arrival with the ships). It's so dark and gloomy in the cinematography that it feels a little like Yates' Deathly Hallows or something. And I didn't feel like any of it had very much moral gravity to it.

You are using the second worst Yates film to criticize his direction though. It's films like HBP, DH1, and FB1 that show he CAN do good things. Almost everything in Order feels cold and almost like a cheap imitation. I don't have those same problems with his other films. That is quite perplexing to me. I find 5 and 6 to be near opposites. Order of the Phoenix I find to be a rushed and soulless impersonation of the source material. Somehow everything feels stilted. Suddenly actors that seemed to be falling nicely in their roles in previous films felt like they didn't know what they were doing (with a few exceptions: Umbridge and Luna). The budget also feels dramatically lower and not in a good way. I found the cinematography bland and boring, the music is also the worst of the series (in my opinion). It just felt like everything and everyone was uncomfortable and not clicking. And sure, the climax we got was fine, but it could've been phenomenal if they hadn't cut so much out of it. For a place called the "Department of Mysteries" it was oddly boring wasn't it? It's not just the writing, but just how the whole film "feels". Yates was a TV guy and Order of the Phoenix has an older TV quality to it. The lighting and the shot composition just don't always feel natural or the most sensible of choices, but rather the most logical or the easiest shot to take. Not asking this to be a jerk, but am legitimately curious: What is it that I am missing about Order of the Phoenix? Then you've got Half-Blood Prince. Damn. It feels like it was made by a totally different crew, Direction included. The cinematography is gorgeous. Every shot feels like a painting and like it has something to say, with it's own story. I know many here hate the color palette, but paintings don't have to be full or bright colors to be great works of art. Not saying the film is an amazing work of art, but it certainly is compared to 5 for me. Then, instead of rushing through every scene, it feels like we can breath and experience the world and the characters. I even think Yates succeeded it bringing some of that magic back into the series for a moment. Plus, now everyone feels comfortable in their roles again. The awkwardness I felt in 5 is gone. Even the music I find to be more interesting in 6 than in 5. Not to mention it takes all the best moments of music from 5 and includes them along with better music than the rest of 5's score, so it just elevates the score as a whole. I actually remember 6's score, but besides the highlights from 5 that are in 6, I don't remember anything about 5's score. I just adore six. Even the over the top comedic elements. Not sure what it is fully, but I enjoy the heck out of it. It's one of those movies that works for me. It's not perfect though. For a film called "The Half-Blood Prince" that story-line has basically no focus and no explanation. That bit was quite botched. There's the whole shortening of the memories thing that's an issue too, though somehow that doesn't feel as rushed as anything in film 5. I also go back and forth on the whole "wand tribute" thing at the end. Some days I wish we'd gotten the way the book did it. Other days I feel like it would've felt out of place in the world of the films. But yeah. I could go on. I've got strong positive feelings about DH1 and FB1 as well. DH2 is more of an eye-roller. FB2 is...utter garbage.

Please, no expanded/C&C/"Deluxe" (sic.) releases! Crossing fingers and toes for a premiere release of something, preferably a score and composer I connect to.

That's awesome! Very prequel-esque, reminds me of the Grievous material. It's such a shame we can't get soundtrack releases in full 7.1 sound, considering they're mastered that way. A stereo 2.0 downmix of all those channels is so archaic by modern audio standards.

I'm about 200 pages into the book but I still feel like the story hasn't really gotten going yet. I'm not bored by it but it doesn't feel like anything special so far.

I have been hearing from a lot of people about my lack of discussion about the commercial soundtrack releases. I bring up such things only if it feels like something historic happened with the soundtrack release. Other times, I do record something but take it out in the interest of time and flow of the episode. Besides, my plan since the beginning has been to focus mainly on the music as heard in the film, and the composition itself. But, I will take your comment into consideration going forward. That was the goal that Erik and I made for this episode. We knew there were lots of people who did not like this score, and we wanted to "convert" them. I'm glad you are enjoying the score now.

It's a new theme derived from another theme. Like Anakin's theme. Funny thing about Rey's Theme is that, whether Williams intended any of this as such, every single musical connection and/or theory that appeared over the past four years in regards to this theme is valid. All the connections to Dies Irae, the devil's tritone, Force theme, Kylo Ren, Palpatine... all of these hold water. This is either the biggest set of coincidences in the history of film scoring or an absolute stroke of genius. Karol

What if...? No, no, surely it won't. Well, let's check anyway. ... Holy shit

Mostly it just sounds fuller, larger, with a more balanced mix of instruments. The brass also sounds less "tight" if that makes sense, especially on the opening note. Just comparing the first 2 seconds of both versions gives a pretty good indication of the difference, the TROS version clearly "breathes" more and the recording sounds like a much bigger space, while the TFA recording sounds small and constrained. The microphones were incredibly close to the instruments on TFA's recording, which contributed to this sound. It's a shame we don't have a clear version of TLJ's opening note to compare further, considering that score's wetter mix (we do have the tail end of the crawl in pristine quality and it sounds great). David Collins did an excellent analysis of the TFA recording back during the Rebel Force Radio podcasts and analysed why he thought that version sounded so off.

Can anyone confirm the ostinato is of Rey's Theme, because to me it sounded more reminscent of Imperial March, i.e. an allusion to Anakin. It occured to me that the second phrase of Rey's Main theme may have been initially constructed to allude to the concluding notes of Vader's theme.

I can confirm the theater your in makes a HUGE difference First 2 viewings I saw it in "Super AVX" and the sound was so-so .A lot of the music came out of the side speakers and sounded tinny and harsh like it was just mids and highs .That was immediately apparent in the Main Title Crawl and all the string pieces that didn't sound lush (like Farewell theme) I saw it a third time in IMAX and the sound system was spectacular .All the music sounded full range and had bass frequencies and had a better presence in the mix

Ya know, this has got to be one of the best scores to a bad film that I've heard in some time. So much so that the movie almost hurts the score, hahahah. Almost! And I know I'm DEFINITELY in the minority on this one...but I didn't like the theme of the Speeder Chase track. I was initially glad that wasn't in the movie, but given the end result, it didn't really matter. Still, it felt like there was A LOT of material missing and I look forward to listening to it!

Just love this little part of the Catamaran Race from Jaws 2: 1:20 - 2:00. Honestly Jaws 2 is such a fantastic score. I guess I'd be remiss not to mention this too: Gorgeous fanfare and I love the way it resolves.