Mr. K

...and she bore from her womb, the berry of her loins, the fruit of her loom- our lord and savior JW, and wrapped him in a swaddling black turtleneck and laid him in a manger.

...and she bore from her womb, the berry of her loins, the fruit of her loom- our lord and savior JW, and wrapped him in a swaddling black turtleneck and laid him in a manger.

Regardless of the delivery or interpretation, Spielberg is very much aware that his career is indebted immeasurably to JW's contribution. I wonder what alternate reality Spielberg films would be like without JW.... Jaws scored by Lalo Schifrin, Close Encounters by Goldsmith? Who knows...
Eat your Wheaties, Johnny! Can't wait to for 2015!
Mr. K

I really hope the Rebel Fanfare makes a return. It, more or less, served as a musical identity for the Millenium Falcon as well as the Rebels heroics. I was very pleased to hear it in ROTS, appropriately underscoring the heroics of R2D2. My favorite theme has always been the Han & Leia theme from ESB. Charles Gerhardt's recording of the concert arrangement is wonderful. Not so sure he'll use the Luke & Leia theme though. He had an ideal opportunity to use it in ROTS but chose to utilize the character's own individual themes instead.
I'm less interested in the substance JW applies (new/old themes) than the style he chooses. I really hope he makes a return to the swashbuckling romantic style that made the original trilogy so soaring. His prequel scores, although technically superior and more complex, didn't inhibit the sense of wonder and magic that the OT has in spades. Leitmotif-driven rousing adventure gave way to pastoral and operatic narrative. I'm an 1980's kid...toss me into nostalgia, JW.
Mr. K


Or if Ben Burtt decides to track old cues in lieu of new material. I could c-c-c-combo break that guy for his treatment of the prequel scores. Some truly inspired cues were terribly hacked apart or abandoned completely so he could paste 'Escape from Naboo' or 'Escaping the Trade Federation Ship' all over the place!
Go ahead and record your whiz-bang sound fx, Benny- and stay outta the editing bay. We should have let Ken Wannberg crucify him years ago.
Mr. K

Or you could be like me and just ghost for years...

Cowbell. You can never have enough.

Now that you mentioned Goldsmith, there is a parallel. Listen to the majestic beauty of Star Trek: The Motion Picture and compare that to the more matured, technically adept- but underwhelmingly less robust scores for his last two Star Trek efforts, Insurrection & Nemesis (which I consider his last complete effort). What we see in current JW is strikingly similar. Both composing titans had a sweeping, flourishing sound some 25-35 years ago- but their latter works just didn't energize with the same bombast like it used to.
It seems JW is almost afraid to use crescendo anymore when it was a trademark sound for many of his most successful scores in the years after SW/Jaws. I don't think he ever recovered that same sound since Jurassic. It's like Schindler was a turning point in his scoring style that evoked more in style than substance where technical accuism become a more dominant feature than flair & bombast. The last Indiana Jones and SW prequels could have been a return to his old style, but they just weren't. He's matured past the kind of writing I heard growing up in the '80s. It's okay. I'm still a fan. It's too bad that he doesn't write things like "TIE Fighter Attack (SW:ANH)" "Parade of the Slave Children (IJ:TOD)" "Asteroid Field(SW:ESB)" "Bicycle Chase (ET)" anymore.
His writing has evolved beyond that and has become something more than the films they are typically written for. As an artist, I can appreciate that and heartily respect the growth he has achieved...would be artistic stagnation if he hadn't. But as a fan of those great '80s scores- it's kind of disappointing knowing those days are indeed long gone.
Mr. K

Awesome! Can Gertie come out and play?

Should have replied, "No! Try not! Do or do not. There is no try."

Should have replied, "No! Try not! Do or do not. There is no try."

Should have replied, "No! Try not! Do or do not. There is no try."

seriously, though, how many of those black turtlenecks does he have? It is always the same one- a "lucky shirt"? Is it laundered or smell of the sweat of years- indeed decades- of toiled cinematic nectar- like the soft suckle on the bosom of symphonic verisimilitude. Does his wife go to wash it and he yells, "Nooooo! These woven threads mean more to me than your eternal soul, woman!" It belongs in the Smithsonian alongside the original studio model of the Starship Enterprise and Lincoln's Top Hat...or in my house- that would be sweeeeeeeeeeeet.
Hans Zimmer doesn't have a lucky black turtleneck, I guaran-damn-tee you.
Mr. K

Didn't JW play around with that idea? I don't think this idea even made it to the writing stage, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that he tinkered around with the idea, but GL talked him out of it due to continuity with the other SW movies. Probably read it here WAY BACK when Ricard called the site "starwarsmusic.com"!
The scores for the Original Trilogy are so different in tone and style than the prequels. I don't know if it's the maturity in JW's writing or a deliberate pastoral & operatic approach (maybe both), but both trilogies have a significantly different flavor from each other. If he DOES tackle Ep. VII-IX (which not only are we cautiously optimistic, but apparently he is as well), it will be interesting to see if he continues the "prequel" approach or goes back to the more romantic, sweeping style of the OT. Either way, it's some relief that he's at least considering it.
Mr. K