Manakin Skywalker

No jokes today, just an unfortunate apparent reality.

No jokes today, just an unfortunate apparent reality.

No jokes today, just an unfortunate apparent reality.

No jokes today, just an unfortunate apparent reality.

No jokes today, just an unfortunate apparent reality.

No jokes today, just an unfortunate apparent reality.

Just another day.

No jokes today, just an unfortunate apparent reality.

No jokes today, just an unfortunate apparent reality.

Wow, thanks everyone!  Obviously, the most important question to address is how I got those italics. Simple! https://lingojam.com/FacebookFonts 

As for the timeframe: I have over a year to hand in the finished manuscript, but my goal is to have it completed well before that. It's a big book, and publishing is a very slow process. But everything so far is proceeding as I have forseen...
 
It's not a guide to the scores really, but something more holistic, with each chapter looking at cues from all three trilogies from some angle: musical referentiality, thematic transformation, concert arrangements, and so on. There will be a ton of music examples (all my own annotated transcriptions as usu.), hopefully presented in an accessible way that draws in people who can't read sheet music. I know notation and music-theory jargon can be intimidating, and I'm hyper-aware of the potential gatekeeping effect it could on an already niche readership. But at the same time, I think we can all agree this music warrants deep and serious analysis! It's a balancing act for sure... 
 
Alas, I don't have special access to recordings, and can't speak to official expanded album releases, as amazing as they would be! 
 
Incidentally: I don't see it trumpeted nearly enough on these boards but Chloé Huvet came out with a book on SW music (mainly the OT and PT) a couple years ago that is absolutely brilliant and similarly synthetic in approach. The book is in French, which limits the audience, but it's worth getting your hands on if only for the fantastic music examples and charts.  The amount of insight in her prose is incredible too, and it's been a major source of inspriation to me. 

https://attractionsmagazine.com/2024-disney-legends-include-joe-rohde-john-williams-angela-bassett-and-harrison-ford/
 
Among a few other names like Harrison Ford & Angela Bassett, John Williams will become a Disney Legend on August 11.

The happy news I cryptically alluded to last week is now something I can make official: I just signed a book contract with OUP for 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘬𝘺𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘦𝘳 𝘚𝘺𝘮𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘴: 𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳 𝘞𝘢𝘳𝘴!   It's a book it feels like I've been writing in my head for a long, long time -- since middle school, kinda? And unless Williams somehow returns to write another entry in the series, I'm treating it a chance to provide a properly 𝘴𝘺𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤 investigation into these scores, all nine of them.   Even Rise of Skywalker?? 𝘌𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 Rise of Skywalker!   My hope is this book does some justice to the complexity, challenge, and sheer magic of this music.   Now, back to the grindstone!   https://www.facebook.com/Falstaft/posts/pfbid0L6wUjeDDxj6AmhwHh1f9obrVMJfYbPx4GJM8YaEWiZtqxwp37A88monPFVDxBQ26l  
Congratulations, @Falstaft!

Just for clarification, that's the actual trumpet section that was meant to be there. The 1999 OST section is tracked from later in the cue, for some reason.
 
EDIT: I see Crumbs already mentioned it. 👍

Just for clarification, that's the actual trumpet section that was meant to be there. The 1999 OST section is tracked from later in the cue, for some reason.
 
EDIT: I see Crumbs already mentioned it. 👍

Just for clarification, that's the actual trumpet section that was meant to be there. The 1999 OST section is tracked from later in the cue, for some reason.
 
EDIT: I see Crumbs already mentioned it. 👍

Just for clarification, that's the actual trumpet section that was meant to be there. The 1999 OST section is tracked from later in the cue, for some reason.
 
EDIT: I see Crumbs already mentioned it. 👍

Confusingly, I believe the film and Demaster actually present the cue as it was recorded.
 
The OST tracked music from elsewhere in the cue (or possible another cue, I forget) to replace it.

When people feel that a forum rule has been broken, they frequently report it to the admins or voice their concerns publicly.
 

He actually did.
 

You were attacking him and therefore breaking the forum rules.

Also:
 

 

All members are protected by the forum rules. You're not the one being attacked.
 

Decided to start a thread to list all of these since I've started documenting them. There are a surprising number of these available to the public.
 
From ANH, everyone knows about takes 16-20 of 1m2 Star Wars on the 1997 set, and the alternate takes throughout the 1993 album are pretty well known as well (though not necessarily documented). But I was surprised to find that the 1997 and 2018 albums actually have alternate takes too! Here's a few that I've found already:
 
1M3 The War has an alternate take on the 1993 set from 2:15-2:58, the 1997/2018 sets have the correct one.
 
2M3 The Little People has an alternate take in a couple spots. The 1993 and 1997 sets both have the wrong take from 3:12-3:16, where the 2018 has the right one. However, the 1993 and 2018 sets have the wrong take for the ending Imperial statement, where the 1997 set has the correct one.
 
2M5 More Little People has an alternate mix for 1:25-end on the 1993 and 1997 sets, where the 2018 has the correct mix. I thought this was a different take originally but @Manakin Skywalker noticed that the 1997 and 2018 versions do indeed phase, so it must be a different mix and not a different take.

I'll keep updating this thread as I find more. Feel free to include ones from other Star Wars scores, they don't have to just be ANH

It's the exact same recording as the one in the End Credits, just without the timpani hit at the end (and obviously not trailing off into the rest of the Credits recording).

Yes, for music you intend to listen to, it's best for either removal of very simple elements or to make an already polluted soundscape a bit more bearable, but the more it's got to do, the more distorted the result will be. I've come across a few instances where a speciality release presents a cue with its intended mix, and these models can almost entirely remove a synth or solo element that the film removed, but those are solo or frequency distinct elements.
 
It doesn't seem to me to be at that point (yet) where a polluted rip with effects and dialogue can be magically rescued to just isolated music.

This is a hard one! My first thought was something from the Essay for Strings -- the rising octatonic sixteenth run and extremely chromatic, disjunct melody that follows is something that happens a lot in that piece, but never in exactly this way. Then I remembered that a certain cue starts with rising octatonic lines in several instrumental groups. Very tricky for not giving us the primary melodic line, @Manakin Skywalker!
 
 

I've used AI very sparingly on my YouTube edits. However I prefer not to use it for the most part because it adds a shit load of distortion, and in some cases removes instruments. It's important not to overdo it.

I've used AI very sparingly on my YouTube edits. However I prefer not to use it for the most part because it adds a shit load of distortion, and in some cases removes instruments. It's important not to overdo it.

I've used AI very sparingly on my YouTube edits. However I prefer not to use it for the most part because it adds a shit load of distortion, and in some cases removes instruments. It's important not to overdo it.