Delorean90

Good music for the bad guys.
 
 
"I just wanted to write Archy a theme."

Love the fleeting use of organ later in the score in Water Ballet and Archimedes Tomb
Very distinct use in JW's filmography besides like E.T

Here is a bit of the centre channel for The Imperial March. THAT TIMPANI! 🤩
Imperial March Centre .mp3
The Battle In The Snow. Listen to that Contrabassoon! 🤩
The Battle In The Snow (Contrabassoon).mp3

Some cool sounding bits in there!

I made this little pet project as a sort of "companion" to phbart's discoveries in this thread: condensing the best, most unique parts of the Main Title recording sessions into two tracks for the Alternates Section: Main Title (Original), and Main Title (Alternate).
 
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I should probably start this post by clearly laying out what the recording sessions consist of and what my end goal here is:
 
Intro: The intro, as originally written, consists of a big Brass Buildup for when the Star Wars title first appears.  The original intro was recorded on Takes 16, 17, and 18.  Take 19 omitted the buildup, creating the Familiar Intro we know and love today.  Take 20 pared down the brass orchestration even further, creating a rather Weak Intro.
 
The Third Sentence: There's a minor orchestration difference in the strings when the third sentence of the crawl appears.  As originally written, the strings play in a High Register the entire time.  It was recorded this way on Takes 16 and 17.  On Take 18, this part was altered to have the strings start at a Low Register an octave below before switching to the higher register, and this change was kept for Takes 19 and 20 as well.  (IIRC, another user on this forum used the term "Divisi" for this change, meaning that half the strings play higher notes than the other half.  Since I don't have the sheets in front of me, I can't confirm this with any degree of self-confidence, so I'm just going to use "High Register Strings" and "Low Register Strings" to make things easier on myself.)
 
Tatooine Reveal: As originally written, there's a big Timpani and Cymbal hit when the planet comes into view.  Takes 16, 17, and 18 were recorded this way.  Takes 19 and 20 were recorded with a much softer accent for the reveal.  I'll be calling these the Strong Tatooine Reveal and Soft Tatooine Reveal, respectively.
 
-***-
 
Ignoring the parts used in the Film Version [Familiar Intro (Take 19), Low Register Strings on the Third Sentence (Take 20), Strong Tatooine Reveal (Take 18)], there are, in essence, two significant alternates to be culled from these sessions:
 
Original: Brass Buildup Intro (Takes 16, 17, and 18 Available), High Register Strings on the Third Sentence (Takes 16 and 17 Available), Strong Tatooine Reveal (Takes 16 and 17 Available)
Alternate: Weak Intro (Take 20), Low Register Strings on the Third Sentence (Takes 18 and 19 Available), Soft Tatooine Reveal (Takes 19 and 20 Available)
 
My goal is to create a "Main Title (Original)" track, and a "Main Title (Alternate)" track, each following its own structure which I detailed above, using the best remaining parts of the Main Title recording sessions that aren't used in the Film Version.
 
-***-
 
 
Before we begin, I'd like to share my most recent recreation of Main Title (Film Version), mainly to reference the two alternates against.  This uses Take 19 from 0:00-0:08, Take 18 from 0:08-0:41, Take 20 from 0:41-1:31, Take 18 from 1:31-1:43, and Take 20 from 1:43-end.
 
-***-
 
Moving on to my edits for the alternates, let's start with Main Title (Alternate), since that was by far the easier track to accomplish.

The Anthology used the entirety of Take 20 for this track (and the entirety of Take 19 for the main version), but since the vast majority of 0:41-end of Take 20 was used in the Film Version of the cue, I couldn't do that for this edit.
 
Instead, only 0:00-0:41 of this track is from Take 20, while 0:41-end is from Take 19, which, aside from the intro used in the Film Version, is pretty much identical to Take 20 in terms of content; particularly with the Soft Tatooine Reveal.  Admittedly, I toyed with the idea of cutting back to Take 20 for that part, since it wasn't used in the Film Version, but comparing the two takes, I actually think Take 19 was already the better performance of the Soft Tatooine Reveal, so I just left the edit there and called it a day.
 
Reverted the edit from v3 back to v2.  The v3 edit incorporated a small section from Take 18 to clean up a slightly sloppy performance at 1:52-1:56 of Take 19, but I realized recently that if Mike Matessino were doing these edits, he would probably treat this particular track as an homage to the Anthology release, and so Take 19 would play straight through to the end.
 
-***-
 
 
As for Main Title (Original), this one was a bit more complex.  The only possible candidates for this track were Takes 16, 17, and 18.  All three of these takes have some noticable performance flub or another in some places, 16 and 17 sometimes have technical issues, and the parts of 18 that don't have flubs or podium changes...  were used in the Film Version.  It took... a bit of work to sort this out.
 
0:00-0:08 was from Take 18.  Take 16 doesn't hold on the buildup note long enough to be distinctive, and Take 17 might have a small blip during that section.  But even putting those issues aside...  Take 18's intro is just absolutely beautiful.  It's almost a shame it wasn't used in the film version!  (Almost...)
 
0:08-1:10 was from Take 17.  Take 16 has a rough early mix, with the woodwind flourishes given more prominence than the other instruments.  The equivalent section from Take 18 is either already used in the Film Version, or doesn't feature the High Register Strings on the Third Sentence.  Not only that...  but just listen to Take 17's trumpets at 1:05!  Wonderful!
 
For v3, I replaced 0:27-0:41 with Take 16, with it's overbearing woodwinds solved by "remixing" the track by isolating the center from the sides.  Take 17 in general has wonderful brass, but is a little lacking in the string section compared to Take 16, and for the string-heavy Second Sentence this is especially noticeable.  That, plus the slight sloppiness of the snares in Take 17 just before 0:41 made Take 16 the clear winner for this section.
 
1:10-1:31 was from Take 16.  Take 17 has an accidental stage noise, and Take 18 had a small performance flub close to the 1:31 transition.  Plus, I liked how the Take 16 trombones at 1:10 nicely follow up the Take 17 trumpets at 1:05.
 
1:31-1:47 was from Take 17.  Of the three takes, this one had unquestionably the best my favorite performance of the Strong Tatooine Reveal.  (To say nothing about the fact that Take 18 was already used in the Film Version)  Take 16 mixes the Timpani a little too high, and there's a performance flub shortly before the Star Destroyer reveal as well.

1:47-end was from Take 16.  The brass section was tripping over themselves in Take 18.  Take 17 really slows down the performance here; I'd guess the intent was to highlight how big the Star Destroyer was, but it throws off the sync way too much.  Splicing Take 16 into this spot really helped bring the whole thing closer to the timing of the later takes.  (About as close as you can get with these early takes, anyway...)
 
For v3, I added in a small section of Take 17 from 1:53-1:56, to shorten the final brass chords so that they more closely match the Film Version's Take 20.
 
-***-
 
Another addendum: While I was doing this writeup, I started rethinking one of the bits from Take 17 that I left off of what I had for Main Title (Original).  The slower performance of 1:47-1:54 of Take 17 is definitely a deliberate creative choice and not a performance flub, and it's a creative choice that's exclusive to this take and no others...  But at the same time you could also argue it probably isn't what was originally intended, since the intention was—obviously—to synch up with the footage, and the equivalent portion of Take 16 is closer to that ideal, albeit not exactly fulfilling it.
 
Then again, I wrote off everything I didn't use as being either redundant, or "flawed listening material", and both takes are well performed in this spot.  You could definitely make a solid argument for this portion of Take 16 being more redundant than the same portion of Take 17 being flawed listening material.
 
To cover all of my bases, I decided to make a separate alternate edit of Main Title (Original) that uses Take 17 from 1:31-1:54 and Take 16 from 1:54-end:
 
As of v3, I'm mothballing the alternate slower performance edit of the Original; instead I've added all of my older edits to this playlist.  At this point, I've decided the most important thing is maintaining consistent timing with the Film Version as much as possible.
 
-***-
 
Between the Film Version, and the Alternate and Original edits I present here, all three major compositional variations of the Main Title are accounted for, with no overlap between tracks, and all five takes from the recording sessions get featured in a substantial capacity as well.
 
Any bits that have been left out are either redundant at best, or flawed listening material at worst.

Relatively few actors have had the experience of John Williams writing a theme for their character.
 
It must be incredible, like Daisy R. and Rey's Theme or Ford and Indy's theme.
The actress who plays Helena was asked about this in an interview:
 
https://www.gamesradar.com/indiana-jones-dial-of-destiny-phoebe-waller-bridge-mysterious-helena/

71 minutes
Raider's March (classic version) +Reprise at the end of Album
Best Version of all time of the Raider's March in the underscore not on the album(aka Indy Arrives)
Finale with interpolation of the Raiders March and Helena's Theme unreleased
 
Expanded Release in 20 years(I might be dead by then)

Yeah that one and Carbon Freeze/Darth Vader's Trap/Departure of Boba Fett are two of the best segued together cues of Williams' scores

THE BATTLE OF HOTH.
15 minutes or so, of pure listening bliss.

You mean this?
 
 

Doesn't it introduce the Dark Side motif?
 
It's also a flippin' awesome cue, with that moment when Williams scores the pad lighting up, and sort of adding to the ambient sound design of the room.

I still want that big xylophone-accented variation of the Imperial March one way or another though.

Han and Leia/The Emperor's Message
 
Solo and the Princess/The Hologram Scene
 
5m4-6m1

That sounds unwieldy as fuck.

It's all one cue though, so it would have had to have been edited. Which would probably have sounded off in 1980.

I like combining Start Your Engines with The Race Begins in a specific way so that the snare drum roll at the end of Engines ends at the same point as the snare drum rolls after the start of Race Begins.
3m10 - Start Your Engines~The Race Begins.mp3

Reassuring tweet from Mangold about the music's treatment in the sound mix!
 

The clean opening of Through Chinatown would be available on the expansion as well, if a rebuild of the OST were also included.

I don't see this being a problem.
 
A theoretical TOD expansion produced by Mike would have two versions of 1M6 Once In A Vial regardless: the "film version" (with Dance Orchestra overlay) and the "original version" (without overlay, as heard on the Concord).
 
Even if he overlaps 1M6 with 1M7 in the film score presentation, a clean ending would be available in the alternate (meaning you could append that to the film version, if you desired).
 
Everyone wins!

Yeah, killing the momentum and making a buildup payoffless is great!

6M02 Rey Climbs Pipes into 2M04 The Emperor Lives into 8M14 Ben to Rey into 1M15 Vader's Castle into 7M03 The Birth Of The Twins (from ROTS) into 4M02 Rey's Incredible Hand into 8M08 On Their Knees into 4M36v9 Alt. Rey Meets BB8 (from TFA) into 2m4 Lapti Nek (from ROTJ).

Oh wait! Saving Willie to Slave Children’s Crusade to Short Round Helps. Long track but they are satisfying. 

"Destruction of Krypton" and "The Kryptonquake." It is nice to be able to hear the fanfare at the start on its own, but when I'm listening through, it's so much more satisfying with that ending build-up paying off with the theme.