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It's funny how modern audiences and filmmakers misunderstand the very concept of music in Star Wars. It's not meant to keep up with modern trends, it's supposed to offer counterpoint to all the technical advancements. It was old fashioned 45 years ago! Karol

I am so happy, that my favorite hardware store in Germany finally gets a theme by John Williams: https://www.obi.de

Jar Jar calls him Obi in Episode 2.

If you recall, last year I posted a rundown of the themes from the original Battlefront 2015 game. This year, I'll be covering Battlefront II. Enjoy! Hopefully this will help a listener to identify thematic material in Gordy Haab's games. A note here: when I talk about thematic material on this album there are two kinds: there's material that represents a certain game mode or certain cues within those modes and then there is stuff that is very clearly designed to work with a cutscene or a character or a location. It's very difficult to separate what is what, so keep that in mind. 1. Encounters on the Battlefront Our first track is an excellent track to begin our listen-through. It almost serves as an overture of sorts for the rest of the album, as we get some snapshots of a lot of major themes that we will hear again later. We begin with a rather mournful or tension filled rendition of the main Battlefront theme from the first game at 0:00, which eventually resolves into some more heroic material. We hear a very confident rendition of the Pillio theme at 1:34, and after that we descend into some dark material that is seemingly thematic. There is a motif that appears at 4:22 that is also heard at the tail end of the track Return to Vardos, and I’m sorry to report that I’m not sure what, if anything, it represents. But omce that part is over we get into some nicer, lighter music that closes out the track. 2. Iden Versio's Theme This one is pretty self-explanatory, so I won’t go too much into detail about it. This is Iden’s theme. You hear the first rendition of it in brass at 0:25, before it explodes into an all out Battle of the Heroes-esque epic choir at 0:48. This track is mostly a hodge-podge of various battle music for the game. We do manage to get a few thematic cameos. The Battlefront main theme makes an appearance at 2:35 and you can really tell here especially that it’s almost used in the score for these games as a Force Theme analogue. We get Gordy’s Imperial theme at 3:15 and at 3:52. We hear the Pillio theme at 4:24. We hear the bardo’s theme at 5 minutes 48 seconds and again throughout the next couple of minutes until the end of the piece. 3. Prologue and the Escape This track begins with some ominous music as we see Iden interrogated by the Rebels. Iden’s theme appears in low brass at 0:18. Ominous music continues, and we hear Iden’s theme again in woodwinds, then the main Battlefront theme follows at 0:45. Ominous music in hushed high strings and low brass and winds continues until we get a very resolute version of Iden’s theme again at 1:22, which launches us into the second part of the song—The Escape. Funnily enough, the music here is not used in the in game level where Iden is escaping from the Mon Calamari cruiser. Regardless, this is a nice little battle march that plays during moments of action in the multiplayer. After this march we are treated to a more hectic action cue complete with a nice choir. Keep the little part that appears at 4:02 in mind as it will come back in a different form in another game completely. 4. Smugglers Run This is one of my favorite pieces off of the album. This album as a whole is much broodier than I think a Star Wars score should typically be, as I really enjoy the moments of heroic scoring that accompanies some of the action in the main films (The Return of the Jedi or Sail Barge Assault is the biggest one that comes to mind—one of Johnny’s most triumphant moments in Star Wars scoring), so it’s nice to hear a little bit of heroics in this piece. The main Kessel theme appears after some nice buildup at 0:11. Cue a nice jolt into some absolute romp scoring, then we get a nice heroic horn blast of the Kessel theme at 1:03—very easy to picture a smuggler with a heart of gold leaping into action here. At 1:18 in particular we get some nice Errol Flynn-esque action instrumentation with the main theme played by strings and trumpets. The descending figures at around 1:30 are a nice touch as well. At 2:07 we enter FLUTTER MODE as we then launch into one more, slightly troubled rendition of the Kessel theme before we finish out with some soft triumph. The second half of this track is some more brooding music that represents the harsh life on the planet itself. The track does lighten up a bit around the 3:30 mark and we get some nice orchestration. Then, at 4:22, we get one final resolute play of the Kessel theme as the track comes to a close. 5. Betrayal This piece, like Prologue, accompanies a nice cutscene and affords us some interplay with Iden’s theme and a new theme that makes its debut here—Hask’s theme. At 0:11 we hear Iden’s theme, and compliments to Gordy for so well illustrating in his instrumentation Iden’s confusion and anger as Hask chooses to comply with their radical orders. Speaking of Hask, at 0:25 we get to hear his martial theme played in high brass. A nice, more confused version of Iden’s theme comes in around 0:41, followed immediately by a very confident version of Hask’s theme at 0:47. A few tragic renditions of Iden’s theme are heard between 1:00-1:20, then one final appearance of the Hask theme at 1:28 which is followed by Iden’s theme once again at its most strained, and the piece ends. 6. The Battle Unfolds This piece begins with a very nice marching rendition of Hask’s theme. This is one of Gordy’s better attempts at replicating Williams’ orchestration, as this one is played in the style of The Imperial March. At 1:13 we launch into some general battle music, but we get some fun interplay between some older themes. At 1:25, Gordy’s Imperial theme comes into play, followed by a nod to the Asteroid Field in some brass crescendos at 1:39 and the Battlefront main theme again at 1:44. At 1:54 we get some very Battle of Hoth-esque stuff which then launches into something that sounds closer to Chase through Coruscant from Episode II. At 2:23 we once again switch back to some Asteroid Field homage. At 2:54 the Battlefront main theme appears in action mode and again at 3:14 where you can almost swear that he’s going to play the Force theme. The next part of this piece begins at 3:48 and is Gordy replicating Follow Me and The Falcon from The Force Awakens—still, this is a very nice piece. Gordy manages to keep his ideas separate yet familiar enough to where it isn’t absolutely frustrating. At 6:10 we enter into what I call the March of the Resistance analogue. Very similar fugue-like scoring, and it stops being mildly similar and becomes somewhat pastiche at 6:39. Like I said before though, Gordy is good at giving you something that is familiar yet different enough. Now to a part I want to particularly highlight: at 7:23 we get to hear Admiral Versio’s theme. During the single player, a low brass version of this is used to accompany scenes where we see the Admiral and Iden interact. What follows this initial showing ends up in an action cue. At 8:09, there is a particularly malevolent version of the Admiral’s theme, and then the piece ends with a version of Iden’s theme that might be copy-pasted from Betrayal, I haven’t decided yet. 7. Across the Galaxy (Pt. 1) I won’t spend too much time on this one, as there isn’t too much thematically to say about these pieces, but I will list here what music accompanies which maps in-game. 0:00 Kamino Peace 1:05 Kashyyyk War 2:07 Kashyyyk Peace 3:10 Fondor War 4:21 Fondor Peace 5:33 Naboo Peace (cameo of Battlefront main theme at 6:14) 6:35 Naboo War 8. Hard Decisions and the Rescue Attempt We begin with a very Across the Stars-esque orchestral crescendo. A tragic rendition of Iden’s theme plays at 0:31 and 0:48. At 1:03 Iden’s theme becomes much more driven as she decides to take some sort of action. At 1:44, a variation of Iden’s theme draws this first part of the piece to a close. The second part of this piece has a recurring thematic idea that my brain keeps telling me I’ve heard on this soundtrack before but I can’t figure out where. Or maybe my brain is making that up. This idea shows up at 2:15 and repeats in various forms over the course of the next minute or so before we transition to part three of this piece, a pastiche of I Can Fly Anything from The Force Awakens at 3:05. There’s some good Poe sounding stuff that comes in at 4:02. Not much else to say about this one. 9. Pillio Wasteland and Skirmish Yet another favorite of mine. There’s something about this one that I feel captures the spirit of the original trilogy scoring. The track begins with some really interesting orchestral textures before launching into the Pillio theme at 0:42. The track quiets down again, we get a guarded statement of the Pillio theme before it returns in a bigger way at 1:38. Following this, we get a very ominous version of the Hask theme at 1:53 before we launch into a nice action variation on the Pillio theme, which makes up the rest of the track. The Pillio theme flows confidently in and out of the action scoring. I particularly enjoy the Hook-esque flourish at 3:09. 10. Go. Survive. Live! This is a nice, more mellow piece in the vein of The Starkiller or Torn Apart. Iden’s theme floats sadly in an out in various variations, but the string work on this piece in particular is very nice. If you’re a fan of Williams’ more quietly scored stuff then this will go a little ways to scratch that itch for you. Gordy’s scoring starts sounding a little more familiar again at 3:35 but I think this is still original material, but I swear there is some stuff on this soundtrack that is scored in a very similar way. The version of Iden’s theme that plays at 4:12 is the self same version that plays when you boot up the game. Just wanted to point that out, but other than that it’s a particularly nice rendition. The Battlefront main theme comes back semi-triumphantly at 4:46, before a very finale sounding version of Iden’s theme plays, followed by a very finale-esque variation of the Battlefront theme shortly thereafter and the piece is finished. 11. Return to Vardos This is another absolutely fantastic piece on this soundtrack. We begin with an apocalyptic choir singing the main Vardos theme accompanied by some brass. The little moment of buildup at 0:22-0:28 reminds me of some of the choral stuff from Shadows of the Empire, for some reason. At 0:29 we hear the Vardos theme again but like the planet itself it seems to have been thrown into a raging storm. At 1:02 some delightful bass singers and high strings come in to provide some atmosphere. The low bass voices get to sing the absolute best rendition of Gordy’s Imperial theme at around 1:48. A rather distressed rendition of Iden’s theme appears at 2:32, followed by a punctuation of the Vardos theme again. The mysterious theme that plays in Encounters in the Battlefront plays here in this piece again at 3:06 and the piece is finished. 12. Iden and Dell I will tell you right now that in no way, shape, or form does this piece play in the game itself, which is a disappointment, but at least Gordy gets a chance to show us that he can do Star Wars romance scoring here. This piece is mostly pastiche of Princess Leia’s Theme and Han and the Princess. Not too much to say about it, it’s a rather beautiful track. A major key version of Iden’s theme begins the track and then it transitions into its main idea at 0:36. The theme here is very classic Star Wars. Listen if you want to be nostalgic. 13. Across the Galaxy (Pt. 2) Here I will do what I did for Part 1: 0:00 Geonosis Peace 1:00 Geonosis War 2:08 Starkiller Peace 4:25 Starkiller War 5:25 Takodana War 6:30 Takodana Peace 14. Iden Reborn We begin the piece with some nice brass chorale and hear a great heroic rendition of Iden’s theme come in at 0:10. This piece is very reflective and hopeful in its scoring. Some very innocent scoring ala Harry Potter, before 1:29 signals the Iden theme’s most heroic, triumphant variant as the track ends. 15. The Dreadnought The last piece of orchestra on the album, and yet another enigma. I don’t think this plays anywhere in the game itself. It’s a wonderful oddity, though. The idea fixee comes in at 0:05, and this little ditty will repeat throughout the track. Is that the Emperor’s theme I hear at 0:25? That’s weird. I can almost imagine this as a theme for the First Order. A nice apocalyptic variation of the track theme comes in at 1:06 played in brass and also some bells to give it that end of the world feel. The variation at 2:22 is also really nice. The low male voices compliment the low brass. At 3:15 the track begins to sound like the fight sequence in Williams’ Chrome Dome from The Last Jedi, which is not unwelcome. Very sudden end on this track that sticks out. 16. Ma Kapar (Bonus Track) This is the crowning achievement of this whole score. I can’t begin to put into words what a triumph this track is. I’m serious, any attempt to try to paint a picture of this piece is futile. Give it a listen yourself and become immersed in the magic. All in all, the impression I get with this album is what I’ve said before, which is broody. Gordy does action scoring well, I just wish he would give us a little bit of triumph and heroism as opposed to the prequel cacophonic action scoring he seems to lean on. The moments where this album truly shines are when he allows in that more wondrous, beautiful scoring or some of the more Errol Flynn stuff. But all in all, this album is more thematically consistent than that of the first Battlefront. Whole ideas show up in other tracks and the already established themes get a good work out. I apologize that this isn’t as polished as my first editorial, but I’m afraid this is probably going to be a reflection of this series going forward, as Gordy has a lot of subtle orchestrations and ideas that repeat that aren’t generally tied to any fixed ideas so it’s particularly hard to identify solid thematic material. That’s not to say that what is there is bad or unpolished, just more difficult to distinguish without any other associations that one would usually get with a soundtrack. The next two big game scores are Jedi: Fallen Order (of which I’m still figuring out the logistics of how I’m going to write out that game’s many themes) and Squadrons which is kind of a mess of a soundtrack in all the best ways.

LP: "Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini...all dead!" JW: "Hang on...so Steven wasn't just joking."

I bet you the minute you point out to them that Holkenborg himself abandoned the Batman theme in BvS for a new one in ZSJL, they'll just say that you shouldn't criticize it because it had purpose to the story (which seems to also be the case for Elfman transitioning from Gia's to his own in MoM). You just never win with these people.

Hey, I've been on a record that's sold to gold too (it's right here on my wall)! That means Williams and I are now of equal stature.

My prediction. The "Main Title" will be released on the album but we'll never hear the " suite". There's ALWAYS something that goes wrong when something JW is released

I apologize if this video has already been posted before, but it is new to me as far as I can remember

Here's hoping the (one of the?) OST albums has the suite included

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/obi-wan-kenobi-composer-creating-score-disney-star-wars-series-1235140180/

Finally got around to listen to this one. My soul has ascended out of my body and achieved nirvana.

OK I added a No Preference option to each question

Just a heads up about the current 25% off sale over at La-La Land Records (good thru 5/17). I was waiting forever for this title to come back in stock and the timing for the sale is perfect!

There'll be golden discs on May 4th 2023 for "The Berlin Concert" (best selling record in 2022), on May 4th 2024 for "John Williams returns to Vienna" and on May 4th 2025 for "Film Night at La Scala".

You mean the store where Hans Zimmer finds inspiration?

Oh, I've listened to them. They got great casts for 'em. It amuses that Stephens has been both a Bond villain and Bond himself.

Happy Star Wars Day! I just realized that scoring Star Wars now officially marks the exact midpoint of Williams’ life!!

The harpsichord sound being missing stays the one complaint I find legitimate (especially when Elfman wasn't afraid to get weird at points, so it's an odd exclusion), but otherwise I'd say you could explain away a lot of the "critiques."

I remember every piece of action music, especially from the first Spider-Man. His clever uses of the different sections of the Spider-Man theme, the way he contrasts it with the Goblin and Doc Ock themes, the set-piece motifs he creates for tracks like "The Fire". Honestly him and Young are often neck and neck in terms of action music for me, as Elfman's is stronger thematically, but Young's is more bombastic and heart-pounding. I realize it's all opinions, but the entirety of Elfman's scores for the first two Spider-Man movies are awesome to me (minus the thankfully scrapped montage pieces from the second movie, and Elfman's versions of the "Peter's Turmoil"/"Cake Girl" and "Pizza Man" cues.

Sure I can, but they're all dead.

Several reasons for me for why I collect, most of them shared by others earlier in the thread. I will add here, though, that one thing about film scores I greatly admire and cherish beyond what classical music from the common practice period offers is their color. There is no other genre of music where so many varied and eclectic instruments/sounds are brought together on a regular basis. From taiko drums and anvils to kenas and synths, from wordless choirs to electric guitars and drum kits, film music is where the modern symphony orchestra and the rest of the human music-making world hook up and make beautiful musical babies. It's no surprise to me that the some of the best talent in recording and mixing film scores has also done classical work (or vice versa). Or that the musicians in L.A. are equally as talented as any member in an elite orchestra or philharmonic. Or that the best film composers are formally (classically) trained (Elfman being an astounding exception to the rule). So I continue to collect film music, even when no one else I know (outside this forum) can usually be bothered to even pretend to care about my obsession. It's an important part of who I am.

I like it. It is sort of way of saying May the 4th is really about John Williams--the true force.

Hu—freakin'—zzah!! Bring it on! Also this: Theme and suite!

Since that article is largely about Holt's score, here's the relevant parts about John Williams: Now on her second major Disney project, the British composer, classically trained violinist and “huge fan of John Williams” will share space in the canon of one of Hollywood’s most enduring franchises. And she’ll do it alongside the man who is “basically the reason why I noticed music in film as a child.” “John signed the Obi theme for me. I’ve got a printed Obi theme that he recorded and I’ve had it framed,” she told THR, excitedly. “It’s my pride and joy. I’m super happy to have his signature because he’s literally my hero.” The two didn’t directly collaborate for the show, but Holt says his work on the series’ main character theme helped give her the foundation she needed to musically access one of TV’s most anticipated 2022 series. Did you have a chance to work directly with Williams for this? We didn’t collaborate, but I did get to use his theme. He didn’t have very long and it was quite last minute whether he’d have time or not. But he really wanted to write that theme because he was the one character that he didn’t write the theme for in the original movie. So I think he had this feeling that he wanted to complete the challenge. I think he had two weeks and he came on board and wrote the Obi theme and a suite, which is the main title, and then a few variations of how the Obi theme can work. That was what he had time to give the project, and it was just a gift. It’s so perfect and in a way, once I had that Obi theme, it set the tentpoles up for the project.

I think this is a short term question and we should be so lucky to still be here in 5 years annoyed that John Williams is going "This Jabba the Hutt show really afforded me the great good fortune of writing the old slug his first theme. I just want to write a theme for Jabby!"

Stranger Things Will Happen at 1:20 has what appears to be a reworked version of Elfman’s Flash theme from Justice League which is nice. That was a good theme and I’m happy Elfman found another place for it.

My order arrived, today. Vaughan Williams' A LONDON SYMPHONY - the Roger Norrington recording - and the Chandos Dutilleux LE DOUBLE. I'm in music heaven

Streaming. Thats what I meant to say lol

Some nice pics from BCS's social media

JW: "Guess what! I've asked Williams Ross to arrange Jar Jar Binks' Theme for cello." ASM: "You mean for Yo Yo Binks?"

But it's silly and French! Is it newer? From the 90s or 2000s?

1991! Gotta include Fried Green Tomatoes, his first capital G Great Score imho

Following on from the John Williams 90th birthday concert, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra played music from all nine Star Wars films under Stephen Bell (who played for JW on AotC and RoS), in full Vader regalia, to celebrate May the Fourth. A welcomed return of what had nearly become an annual event at the national concert hall until Covid cancellations in 2020/21. Apparently this was a world first programme containing music from all nine films [?], although I've no way of verifying this. The concert was recorded and should be available on RTÉ Lyric FM at some stage. Programme included: 20th Century Fox Fanfare + Main Title TPM - The Flag Parade, Anakins Theme, Duel of the Fates [without a choir sadly] AotC - Across the Stars RoS - Battle of the Heroes ANH - Here They Come, Princess Leia's Theme ESB - Imperial March, Yoda's Theme, Asteroid Field RotJ -Luke and Leia, Parade of the Ewoks TFA - Rey's Theme, Scherzo for X-Wings, The Jedi Steps (some concert arrangement which I'd never heard before, I'm used to it leading into the credits) TLJ - Rebellion is Reborn TRoS - The Rise of Skywalker Throne Room and Finale

About 2.17, under where it says Imelda... clapping.

Watched the last episode which was really good (although the fifth is still my favourite). The music was really a strong point for the whole show, really hope to hear more of Nazih in the future

#...huge fan of John Williams..."? Bet she doesn't like IMAGES

Interesting. They had a photo session for it when he was in Vienna this March and kept it under wraps for two months just for May the 4th?

Imagine what a better composer could have delivered.

Here's exactly what MV said: https://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?/topic/26196-the-towering-inferno-jfk-coming-from-lll/&do=findComment&comment=1233105

Cue No. 12 "At Irontown" is out! Check it out here: https://sites.google.com/view/forestmusic/home?authuser=0 Have a nice day! A very interesting question! As for me, I did actually take some thematic material of the original as inspiration! For example, at one point, the Ashitaka Theme uses the same melodic contour as the Princess Mononoke Main Theme! Yet, I have distanced myself from the general tone and approach of the original quite a bit. There is less focus on setting up a handful of themes and instead focusing a lot more on texture and timbre. My focus is to write a score with a lot of "micky-mousing" and more usage of Themes! (Kind of like Williams with SW or Shore with LOTR). As for your question about the theme, I think that the theme is just the extention of the Princess Mononoke Main Theme in the original. For me, it represents the entire conflict of Nature vs Humans. Basically, for me at least, it represents the overarching themes of the story, while "The Legend Of Ashitaka" represents the individual characters. (Beware that this is my own subjective intrepretation and you can have a completely different view of these Themes as me haha)

Something tells me questions from diehard film score afficionados would be just as awkward. Karol

When I read the credit "Music Composed By John Williams", I can be satisfied that all the music that I hear has been composed by John Williams. In this day-and-age of throwaway, lazy writing, and ghost composers, that, to these ears, at least, means a lot.

From what we’ve seen so far from both I’m more excited for this than Rings of Power

This guy is:

what are you amateurs talking about? because your keyboard trumpet plays instant to your midi click track you think that's relevant for real musicians? LOL Sorry Vienna Phil is no match to your Casio keyboards.

THE WHOLE WEEK IS NOW RUINED!!!!