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To me, one of The Rise of Skywalker's most endearing qualities is the number of short, transient melodies and motifs that are heard just once or twice. These tend to be unrelated to the series's main catalogue of leitmotifs, and they aren't really set-piece themes either since they don't draw attention to themselves like "The Asteroid Field" or "Flag Parade" do. Nevertheless, I find these little one-offs quite essential to the overall warm, humane tone of this score as a whole. Here's a sample of what I'm talking about: Leia Trains Rey. Two distinct statements, at 0:10:33 and 0:13:24, neither on OST. Luke Trains Leia. Two distinct statements, one on OST (Track 6, 1:28) but cut from film, one in film (1:33:18) but cut from OST. Children's School. One statement, at 0:22:56, not on OST. Zorii's Farewell. One statement, on OST (Track 8, 0:24) and in film at 0:55:01. What do you all think? What other short, non-leitmotivic moments from Episode 9 caught your attention?

Since nobody seems to have posted any photos... I think it looks magnificent!

Here's my attempt at isolating the choir that plays in The Intersection Scene using the two tracks from the new release. This sounds so creepy!

I made a simple transcription that may be useful. This is definitely quite unlike the usual accompaniment heard with Leia’s theme, which I think helps strengthen the likelihood this is an intentional allusion to Kylo’s theme:

To celebrate this expanded release I sat down and arranged Ray And Rachel for solo piano. Can't find time to nurture my YouTube channel, so here you go. WotW_3m4.pdf

Bruce Marshall really isn't any good at humor, is he? No surprise there. He doesn't seem to be good at anything. He's easily one of the worst posters (*spammers) in the history of this forum, second only possibly to Sky38, but perhaps worse because he is still here. Endlessly spamming threads like an ass, making absolutely no friends here. Literally. No one likes him. Maybe Drax and I mostly have each other. I'll grant that. But it's something. Bruce has no one. It's why he'd never be in the JWFan movie aside from maybe a special features deleted scene in-joke where an annoying fly buzzing around a character's ear is swatted out of existence. Spoilers: the fly is Bruce.

This couldn't be more perfect.

This is really remarkable, @Ludwig, and strengthens my feeling that "Farewell" is one of the cues Williams pored the most effort and attention to. I'm also struck by how this semitonal figure is prefigured earlier in the score. I have to thank @BrotherSound for pointing out one particularly ingenious usage: as the counter-melody against Leia's theme during her elegy in "Healing Wounds" -- first following Kylo Ren's melodic contour, then inverting it, then combining both up and down forms at 2:10. Superb.

Here's mine, involving only those composers whose faces I recognized.

For me, one thing I love about this score is the way Williams develops not just the themes but melodic snippets that aren't necessarily leitmotifs. "Farewell" is a great demonstration of this. There, he introduces this tiny little rising semitone figure at the end of Kylo/Ben's leitmotif: 1:10-1:13: It seems like an unimportant detail at first, but then he uses it again and again (sometimes a rising whole tone instead of a semitone). I'd say it represents a kind of lamenting sound given we've just had the death of Rey and Ben coming over to grieve then try and revive her. It's one of these cues where Williams is sparing with the leitmotifs and instead relies on a musical motive that just sounds right for the scene - mournful, grieving, that sort of thing. I think it's better than it would have been to simply reiterate Rey and Ben's themes in various guises throughout this passage. Music as music rather than music as themes! Brilliant stuff. I repost the link so you can just click on it to get to the right timestamp: 1:46-1:49 1:52-1:55: 1:55-1:59 (in the inner voice): 2:11-2:17 (in the horns): 2:18-2:21: 2:24-2:31 - three times in a row, the last time becoming an altered start to Rey's theme:

JWFAN:

Fortunately, the longest Star Wars score is just 223 minutes long so he'll be fine. As for Black Sunday, it works well on the FSM album. The score has a clear structure and I love it gradually builds up tension. Not quite unlike Close Encounters. Yes, the scores shares some DNA with other more famous John Williams scores but it is also quite unique in his career. Karol

As befits the season: autumnal chilly moodiness

Henry V (Patrick Doyle) - Surely destined to remain one of the finest debut scores of all time, it remains one of his finest efforts. I've always been partial to the rapturous "Wooing of Katherine", which is a prototypical Doyle melody. Just a shame that the sound quality of the album leaves a bit to be desired, surprising given that it's conducted by a world class conductor (albeit Simon Rattle wasn't quite so famous in 1989). Maybe it'll get a remastering sometime. Is it me, or does the sudden increase in tempo during the orchestral interlude during "Non Nobis Domine" not feel quite right?

No. William H. Macy.

My copy arrived! Ripping and reading now!

He iz Veego! Yuu aer leik ze buzzink of flies to heem!

Thank you dearly, @Incanus. I'm so glad you're enjoying this. Check the latest episode with Mike Matessino discussing WAR OF THE WORLDS: https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2020/10/12/war-of-the-worlds-podcast/

John Williams > everyone else > Giacchino. You at least got this right on the most fundamental level.

That's the prince Harry biopic, right?

It's a tv movie. It's not cinema. Do you honestly think that the only movies are the ones listed in your stupid comments. Do you really think a Birdbox is as cinematic as The Quiet Place? What about a film on Lifetime. It's a movie just like a movie on Netflix or a movie at the theatre just as worthy. Next you'll tell us a burrito at Taco Hell is the same as a burrito La Hacienda's. Distinguish between levels for a change. I bet you were that kid that said Duel was a real movie like JAWS, not a tv movie.

If you act like a troll on our forum, it's not entirely unexpected that people are going to respond negatively to your posts If you call someone a dick out of the blue, that's a completely different thing How about trying to be friendly and on topic, instead of constantly trying to push everyone's buttons? Do you expect anyone to believe that?

Yeah, we need more grown-up dick jokes around here.

Bruce, you're in a desert, walking along in the sand, when all of a sudden you look down and see a Blu Ray disc of Prometheus. You reach down and flip the disc on its other side. The disc lays on this side, its cinematic mastery baking in the hot sun, trying to let the world know of its masterpiece status, but it can't. Not without your help. But you're not helping. Why is that, Bruce?

John Williams - Far and Away (La la land) Nice score Jerry Goldsmith - The Swarm (LP via LLL disc 2) You know what, I'm starting to warm up to this score! Basil Poledouris - Starship Troopers (Complete) One of my favorite scores of all time - one of those scores where I love every second of every cue, no need to change a thing John Williams - War of the Worlds (Intrada complete) Good stuff, I really like the Epilogue cue. Love the new sound quality of the Intrada release Revo - Bravely Default: Flying Fairy I love this score Mark Mancina - Assassins (boot) Yeesh I dunno why I used to consider this a high priority for the labels. A lot of nondescript noodling only occsionally peppered with haunting vocals, acoustic guitar, speed-esque percussion, and some other old Mancina-isms. At 70 minutes it wore out its welcome quickly

My copy arrived, but the postman passed by in the 30 minutes i was away from home....so its at the post office. Pretty quickly. Karol, Between the 10th and 15th i did not get any tracking updates. Literally it leaved the US and then appeared at the local post office

They probably found it too embarassing to write CPPO. After all, this is from the days when this ensemble was highly variable in quality...

Then phew, no one's forcing you to buy eventual expansions. Stop moaning about others wanting them.

I believe out of print means they've printed and sold the maximum number of copies they had a licence on, while sold out means that they didn't manage to print and/or sell all the copies they had a licence on before the license expired.

If it's any consolation, JAWS2 and FURY osts can probably be had for decent prices. The former is a very good listen!

Don't deny us our Force Awakens and Rise of Skywalker alternate scores!

There's no excuse for moments like this! (not mentioning the mickey mouse moment like 15 seconds before this) Get the hell outta here, John! I've come to terms, after years of fighting it, that The Last Jedi is one of my least favorite John Williams scores, ever. All the Escapes and Canto Bights just can't redeem it in the end. The Post roasts this score alive like a porg......And after listening to BFG for the first time these past few days, it kicks Force Awakens' ass, too. What happened on these first two sequel scores?

For me, it's the melody. SUPE uses an upward, stepping styled melody with wonderful chord changes ( major seventh iirc). The E.T. theme uses the leap of a sixth , also present in the much warmer " E.T and Me " cue. But, it's a good, not great melody. It works better in quiet moments like when the flower comes back to life. God, i love that film ( and score)😍!

Baldie headed old bastard

Paging Mr. Marshall! Mr. Marshall, you have a telephone call at the front desk.

I started Ori and the Blind Forest. Holy hell, it's good

Pete Hegseth or Dean Cain.

Tom Hanks will play me. He doesn’t look like me but he’ll capture my essence.

Well, the way things are going, all performing Arts groups willl soon be ' baroque'.😰

Got mine yesterday and listened through. Love the sound quality and the new programme really enhanced the score for me.

Watched it yesterday and there definitely were Dementoresque strings!

I always used to think of WOTW as a brother to ROTS but there are so many cues that are very similar to PoA actually! Regarding mood/atmosphere, instrumentation, sound...

They probably made an error and shipped the order to Drax.

SLEEPERS - " Reliving the Past"

Live action is a dumb idea. Spielberg proved CGI works great but hand drawn would be fantastic

Worst part is, I doubt these new people behind the new movie will call JW to score it.

Low energy is not how I would describe the score to TLJ at all. The music is full of propulsive energy and surprising, strong musical moments than neither TFA or ROS produced. From the bombing sequence in the opening to Lesson One, the action music of The Supremacy, A New Alliance, Holdo's Sacrifice, and of course, The Spark, low energy is completely the wrong phrase to summarize this score regardless of how closely a temp track was followed or how lacking it is in a strong central theme. The music is full of energy.

Probably a good time to re-post this very generous scoring featurette on the film: Williams discusses several things of note here, including the low male chorus and the high-pitched female 'scream' in the Intersection Scene (that I think was absent from the OST version of that cue, but is included on the Intrada version).

You guys constantly criticize OSTs, but I am a true believer that a lot of thought goes into their creation. I frequently opt for the album as it's the way the composer intended it to be experienced apart from the film and I tend to agree with them in many cases. Certain cues simply don't work when you detach them from the film. This is the case with many short tracks on these expanded releases or film versions that were edited to make more sense musically on album, such as the ending of Incident at Isla Nublar. With Potter, you're dealing with so much music it's basically overwhelming. I'm not sure I could salvage a listening experience to my liking from it.