artguy360

I don't see how it would hurt JW's SW legacy. More people playing in his musical galaxy, with varying degrees of imitation and success only further highlights how great JW's SW music is. I know I enjoyed the hell out of the Shadows of the Empire OST and even some of the music from Clone Wars and Rebels. It's always fun to see what other composers do with SW music, even if they don't always succeed.

Its weird that the closest thing to peeks into the Ep 8 scoring sessions are photos of Kobe Bryant in casual clothes sitting around with old white men. Someone needs to leak some session tapes or just ask Kobe what he remembers from the new music!

Even as I wrap up my time listening to the Rogue One OST, I don't find the music enjoyable enough for me to listen to as I do other scores, I keep reminding myself not to expect from this score the complete mastery of the orchestra that JW routinely displays in his own scores. I think to start with that expectation does a disservice to the music of Rogue One, much of which is effective and appropriate for the film. 
 
I remember a short podcast segment somewhere that broke down all the different voicings in Harry's Wondrous World. The orchestration was incredibly complex. There is just so many parts playing behind the main melody, all contributing to a musical tapestry and enhanced the emotion and communication of the piece. JW's music has a complexity and nuance that is pretty much unmatched by other composers who write for orchestra. 

I thought it was a noticeably inferior performance, it sounded jarring to me (and the transition from Hope was clunky as all get out).

Lol, the whole interview sounds like he's lamenting. "its too hard, working alone all day, holding this pencil, my fingers ache, I never get it right..."

This interview is hilarious! It's all things we've heard JW say before but presented with so little context or tone that it makes him sound like the post negative, depressed composer in the world. 

Lol, the whole interview sounds like he's lamenting. "its too hard, working alone all day, holding this pencil, my fingers ache, I never get it right..."

I don't think anyone is saying this music would be better suited for Rogue One. We can't really compare the 2 scores equally anyways. The demands on and expectations for the music are totally different. Gordy Haab just does a good JW SW imitation is all and it works well for Battle Front. 

Across the Stars in classic Williams fashion comes slowly together in the course of the film, the different parts emerging from different aspects of the romance. The pure love theme (the A part), the troubled darker forbidden aspect (the B part) and the turbulent menacing section, the grim horns and the repeating weaving string figures, that ties into Anakin's fall, the love being one of the prime movers in this (the C part). While Lucas deals with this in a way akin to a cheap romance novel in the film, Williams distills these three elements into his theme in a very succint way. He has spoken of Lucas writing archetypes that he finds inspirational or easy to relate to and I think in this case he really outdid the director and composed an archetypical tortured love theme.

One thing that's really encouraging to me is the prospect of a theme like Rey's, to which Williams gave several different sections, phrases and iterations being the centerpiece of the this sequel trilogy

I don't think anyone is saying this music would be better suited for Rogue One. We can't really compare the 2 scores equally anyways. The demands on and expectations for the music are totally different. Gordy Haab just does a good JW SW imitation is all and it works well for Battle Front. 

let me just say that I infinitely prefer Michael Giacchino's work on Star Wars to everything done by Kevin Kiner.

This cue is definitely the most SW like of all the music on the OST. It reminds me a lot of the Star Wars Rebels main theme, in its strings and progression, although much better. It's got a "This is how John Williams does things, right?" vibe to it. Here's the SWR theme:
 

The orchestrations in TFA are leaner and slightly more streamlined yes.

Here you can have a listen to some of the music composed by Haab to Battlefront's DLC called Rogue One: Scarif.
http://starwars.ea.com/starwars/battlefront/rogue-one
 
 
Hot or not? I invite you all to post your thoughts.

This comment suddenly made me think of the score JW wrote for episode 1 and how amazing it is that he was able to return to the Star Wars galaxy and write a brand new score (with all its complexities) that expanded what Star Wars music could sound like without alienating old-school Star Wars fans. Far as I recall the score was an instant success with everyone loving Duel of the Fates and fans generally liking the score and remarking that it was the only part of the film that wasn't a let down. JW did what George Lucas couldn't and thinking about his score for TFA (which did have a more old school OT sound to it) and Gia's score for Rogue One makes me appreciate the score for episode 1 all the more.

Leave Nino Rota out of this!

I remember when I first heard that theme I thought it had such a brilliant "inevitability" to its contour. 

I cant believe nobody mentioned Memoirs of a Geisha yet. That is my choice.
 
THere must be many variations with Yo-Yo Ma and Perlman performances.

Listening again to the music in Krennic's Aspirations, specifically the big build up to Vader's castle, I'm not sure the film was poorly spotted so much as Gia just missed the mark tonally or just his usual lack of command of the full orchestra. This scene does call for BIG music, dark, evil sounding stuff. He just overshoots the mark a bit.

Yeah sounds pretty accurate. The Nazis theme is better though. 

As I said before, it reminds me of the nazi material from The Last Crusade which has a much lighter tone than R1. That's why it sounds wrong to me.

The problem with Giacchino's imperial theme is that it sounds...bumbling. 
 
Like LOL look at us oh we are such goofy evil villains! 
 
The Jabba the Hut Boom-boom of orchestration really ruins it.