Ludwig

I heartily second this. @DomSewell has done analysis videos on every cue in The Phantom Menace, and has been working through The Empire Strikes Back up to now. His work is on a forensic level of detail, so you can find commentary on practically every moment of these cues. Fine work, Dom, and keep it up! Absolutely! I'm working on concepts right now for the next action course that tackles some of his more difficult harmonies to label. Not atonal, but not fully tonal either. So hopefully more people will add their voice to discussing these kinds of chords, because many of them are at the heart of much of Williams' film writing.

In this form, it's a lot like the "ancestral" theme from Far and Away, which has the very same kind of large AABA form, where B is a variation of A, and funnily enough, that theme has very similar pitches and melodic shape as well, and is even in the same key of D minor: Coincidence?

I have the Holman and find it a superb resource. I use it mainly to look up leitmotifs quickly and with good information like where they first occur according to the Schrimer vocal score, how they relate to other motifs, what's happening in the drama when heard, etc. And there's the concordance, if you're interested in learning more about the story and how it all fits together, it cites all references in the translated libretti to each keyword they give there. The Donington is just ok IMHO. I love the Holman, though. And actually, if you're looking for something to learn from while listening, I highly recommend The Ring Disc. Yes, it's old now, but so good! It gives you the vocal score and running analytical commentary while playing the Solti recordings of all four operas. Great for learning the leitmotifs in an in-time way. And it's on the Internet Archive as well: https://archive.org/details/the_ring_disc

Here's my transcription of the sample for "Reflections", the first four bars of which also return in "The Letter".

Yes! The one in Helena is more in what @Falstaft labels the A portion of the theme in his transcription back in that thread (the kind of introductory-sounding statement we get before the full-fledged version he labels A'). Though there he stretches the notes of second cell out to double the length. I even think there's a hint if it in Rey's theme, where the cell is 3 notes in the first bar and only 2 in the second. The technique probably warrants even more study. But it was something I first noticed in the 3 themes I discuss.

In this video, I explore how John Williams adds memorability and interest to some of his most famous themes with a rhythmic technique I call "Cell Repetition with Divider". Enjoy! Edit: Video updated!

Went to see this today at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra played so well throughout, it was a pure delight. It was great to hear different details come through the score than what I've heard on the OST or in the film recording. This was especially the case in the quieter moments, when I could hear, for example, the piano when BB-8 runs away from the battle at the start of the film, or the oboe solo when Maz tells Rey the people she's waiting for aren't coming back. Things like that really added more humanity to these scenes. Act One ended with the big statement of the First Order theme they use near the start of the film when we cut back to the First Order ships, and Act Two began with a very abbreviated form of the concert version of Rey's Theme. I think the best thing about this performance was that I got to hear the score louder than I've ever heard with the film before, as though with a better mix in a recorded film. And the live element, as I say, just gave it more humanity and warmth. Top notch performance. If you get the chance to go, it's really worth it!

I think when we feel that Williams reaches a kind of perfection with a scene or theme, then it always seems to be a great example of his talent for aligning many musical parameters toward similar or compatible sorts of expressions. In other words, it is the melody's aching leaps and steps, it is the gorgeous harmony, it is the warm scoring, the sturdy bass pedal point, the simple major scale, the yearning countermelody, and so on. It would be hard enough to come up with a great solution in just one of these parameters, but when they all coordinate? Perfection indeed! This is golden-age Williams at his finest and it never ceases to boggle my mind how simple it sounds but how complex it can be to unpack.

Yes, it's a bit like the Obi-Wan intro, where the theme hasn't yet solidified into it's final form until the whole orchestra gets going. He seems to like these provisional intros to his themes in these later scores. Even the Victory theme opening "The Rise of Skywalker" track has that provisional quality even if it's a bit more formed in that case. Could be! I'm hearing several places where it also sounds a bit like Marion's theme (as others have noted above), so those sequences can sound a bit like the 6th and 7th notes of Marion's theme, if only in rhythm and contour, not so much interval.

I think we match! You're probably right about the rhythm of the triplet being changed to quarter-eighth-eighth in the 2nd bar of your 2nd-last line. There's just so much rubato in the piece, I went for the straight rhythms instead. And bravo for including the harmony! Will make a fine addition to your Indy catalogue! EDIT: After listening again, I changed the triplet I had in my m. 10 to the quarter-plus-eighths. Williams loves little changes like that, so I could see that being the case.

Beautiful theme! Just so we can get a sense of what the actual melody of the theme is, I did a transcription of the theme proper (minus the intro, middle section, and coda) . There are two statements - the first in the strings at 0:29, the second in the horn at 2:33 (I reposted the great-sounding video from @crumbs):

It really depends on what you're looking to do. If you actually want to perform some written music, probably a full 88 keys is better. Then you can hear the pitches as written and never have to leave out or rearrange any notes. But it's totally possible to just learn to read music on a small instrument. You might also think of what space you have for it and whether that's a factor as well.

Great. The main thing is, you can practice with it as much as you like with all the interactive elements. I hope you find it to have everything you're looking for!

Film Music Notes is happy to announce the launch of a new course, Fundamentals of Reading Music. Customize your learning of reading music with this comprehensive course, which covers all essential aspects of musical notation, scales, and chords. With nearly 3 hours of video lessons, 750 flashcards, and 220 quiz questions, you can focus on the skills that you want to develop. Get this course for just $29 on its own, or absolutely free when you enroll in Diatonic Harmony which is at the launch-sale price of $59 for only two weeks until July 4th. Visit the course pages using the links above to watch a preview, see the course contents, and enroll in the course. https://filmmusicnotes.com/fundamentals-of-reading-music/

Film Music Notes is happy to announce the launch of a new course, Diatonic Harmony in Classical and Film Music. Learn how to write diatonic harmony in both a classical “strict style” and a more film-oriented “free style”, and see how the two are combined in cues from well-known film scores. Plus, get the course Fundamentals of Reading Music absolutely free when you enroll in Diatonic Harmony which is at the launch-sale price of $59 for only two weeks until July 4th. Or get Fundamentals on its own for just $29. Visit the course pages using the links above to watch a preview, see the course contents, and enroll in the course. Course 1 - Diatonic Harmony Learn how to write diatonic harmony in both a classical “strict style” and a more film-oriented “free style”, and see how the two are combined in cues from well-known film scores. Plus, get the course Fundamentals of Reading Music absolutely free when you enroll in Diatonic Harmony! Course 2 - Fundamentals of Reading Music Customize your learning of reading music with this comprehensive course, which covers all essential aspects of musical notation, scales, and chords. With nearly 3 hours of video lessons, 750 flashcards, and 220 quiz questions, you can focus on the skills that you want to develop.