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Croc is waxing Doug Adams-style prose for Giacchino where the merit doesn't necessarily exist.
 
 
Again, I'd buy that if most Gia villain themes didn't share that same quality

Can't decide on this one. One is a tragic love theme for the both "Armadildo" and "Anadin" and unfortunately it's tainted in the film by the bad performances and script, so it's unfair to judge it because no matter how hard you try and not think about the marriage of the two, it's there. I think it's an absolutely gorgeous theme and harkens back to the golden age of Hollywood yet it's still modern, and then you have Rey's theme which is like a female version of the force theme in it's structure and tonality. It has adventure written all over it, but yet feminine and has many different parts to it to be able to be used better narratively in the film. So really, Love them both equally for very different reasons.

The two are so different, it's hard to compare. Across the Stars is so grand and melodramatic. Its a huge theme for a great, tragic love story that never materialized on film. Rey's Theme seems smaller and leaner. Its various components have a kind of utility to them, like they are sewn closer to the film than the grandiose love theme that flies above the film. I don't know if any of that makes sense.

Rey's theme.
 
It's just so expertly constructed. You literally have 4 different sections that could amost be 4 separate themes in themselves perfectly jugled in a totally cohesive piece. I just love how the final phrase of the main section is accompanied by the jaunty first section of theme, as heard here:
 
 
 
It's seamless, it's musically, emotionally and intelectually satisfying.
Plus, as good as Across the Stars is, it still is pretty generic in its aspirations, meaning it could be aplied to any doomed love story.
 
As for Rey's theme, it is tailor-made for the character it was written for. Just a perfect marriage. It conveys and adds so much to the character

I love both of them, but Rey's Theme has just that feeling of extra depth and complexity, and sense of satisfaction upon it finishing. Across The Stars has a (deliberately of course) lush, romantic, almost Tchaikovsky-esque feel; but it simultaneously feels quite one dimensional and pretty much repeats the theme over and over (kind of like Luke and Leia's theme), with only that troubled, low string and brass ostinato for contrast, which I feel is slightly incongruous with the tone of the rest of the piece.
 
Rey's Theme feels a lot more fresh and transparent, and layers two different thematic ideas right from the beginning - playing around with the melodic ideas and developing them midway through. Personally I prefer that approach from purely a musical standpoint, although of course they both work excellently as written for the films.

Definitely not tracked from ANH. Probably a new recording.

Johnson is unaware that scoring has even started. He's still putting together same samples of his brother's work to show the producers.

So I don't have much to add on this that hasn't already been discussed to death, but I will reiterate a bunch of things that have already been said.
 
I thought the music was fine. I'm with you loert, I quite like that new Imperial theme. On a dramatic level it doesn't really convey much gravitas and it did take me out of the film at times and make it feel like a knock-off. One shot in particular, that big one of all the TIE Fighters flying out, I thought that actually did call for Williams. That was one of those moments where I agree (I think Jay said this) that the visuals were telling me it's Star Wars and the music wasn't. But it's a fun tune!
 
Not a fan of Jyn or Chirrut's themes, honestly, and I don't think they were that well-utilized either. Just don't think they really told much of a story or carried much meaning, and I could hear Giacchino straining to imitate Williams at times with those in kind of haphazard ways. There was one bit in Eadu where it showed Jyn and her theme played, then Chirrut and his theme, then back to Jyn and her theme, then Chirrut, and I just thought that felt a little forced, lacked that effortlessness. Reminded me of Sharky's comment awhile back about "rhetoric" vs "syntax". 
 
As far as the Williams quotes go, mostly I thought he did really well, minus a few missteps here and there. That Force theme statement early on, yeah, wtf is that? Rhythmically awkward, and it's funny that KK mentioned "Farewell and the Trip" earlier because that was the counterexample I was going to bring up too. But all the other Force theme statements I actually liked, and the Imperial motif, Imperial March, and Death Star were handled just fine.
 
The "Hope" theme, I think is okay as its own thing, but that title statement...yikes. I get that they were trying to go same but different, but the way I see it, the better decision would have been to go with something that sounded completely different like Jyn's theme, or just bite the bullet and do Luke's theme full stop. Everyone was already humming it anyway and it was sadly hilarious hearing everybody in the audience get all excited and whoo-ing with the first two notes, and then suddenly drop into this weird murmur. Going down the middle and having this cocktease thing that sounds like Luke's theme but isn't, and the title font looking like the Star Wars title but not looking like it, it was like the uncanny valley of Star Wars. Just weird and slightly embarrassing.
 
Thing is, when I heard the theme in that clip of Jyn's speech, I picked up on the Luke's theme similarities and actually appreciated it, but now I'm just not sure in general how successful that was to have something that sounded like the main title but wasn't. Especially because they never really connected. That was my expectation was that he would bring the two together at some point, or relate them to each other...there was a point late in the film where I thought he was going to go into Luke's theme instead. Just the idea of him conditioning us to hear this other "not quite right" theme all the time and then finally building into Luke's. I think that could have been interesting.
 
But you know, these gripes aside, hats off to MG. This was a less than ideal way for him to get his dream project and he gave it his all. You can tell he loves these scores, loves Williams, and as last-minute pastiche goes, he manages to convince well enough and keep the engine running with some entertaining highlights. Would have preferred to hear Desplat get his full swing at it, but what can you do? Thankfully he's got Valerian coming up.
 
And strangely find myself pretty indifferent about wondering what a Williams R1 would have been like. Just glad we've still got him on VIII. For the record, though, he would have destroyed that Jedha escape sequence!

I don't think "Disney" said anything about what themr to use where. This is a Lucasfilm movie and I'm sure no one outside of Gia and possibly Edwards cared about the exact placement of which musical quote. I think Gia was just having fun with it because he is a huge SW and JW fan. For example I'm sure no one at Disney said "you should quote the original death star theme now because its such a fan favorite." 

It's one of the very few instances I liked the use of Williams' themes. The other was the first use of the imperial motif from ANH. I think MG messed up all the others

Alright, having watched the movie and listened to the soundtrack I think my impressions are pretty firmed up though I will revisit the OST again simply for academic purposes. This is a Gia score through and through with some very pastiche Star Wars/JW flourishes that are mostly poorly executed. Overall the small use of the Imperial March and original Vader/Death Star theme was more fitting and effective than the overuse of the Force Theme which sounded off quite a few times in the film. Beyond the actual quotes, Gia just isn't up to the task of emulating JW and he really shouldn't try. The new Imperial Theme is so close to the actual Imperial March, it's like he was tasked with writing a facsimile of it without breaking copyright law or something.
 
Jyn's Theme is completely forgettable and has the same Gia quality of trying to say too much too quickly. Most of the major musical moments in the film had that quality of being fast, busy, and loud without a clear direction and not really saying much of anything at all. I'm hardly one to criticize heavy handed music in films but it did seem like Gia was overdoing it throughout the film. One of the worst moments was the shot leading up to the reveal of 
But the absolutely worst musical moment in the entire film is near the beginning
I stayed all the way through the end credits to hear the music again and it did nothing for me. The film itself was solid though. I left satisfied but also without any desire to watch it again. 

How anyone can think the frenzy of strings and brass in Rogue One whenever X-Wings take off/fly is better than March of the Resistance in TFA is beyond me. The Resistance March has an instantly recognizable, kickass melody while Gia's music is a jumbled mess. 

The best parts of the score, and the most Star Wars like, were the tense underscore moments. A could times he used woodwinds (clarinets especially) and brass to recall that militaristic underscore sound of the OT. But as soon as his hectic strings got started with their military vibe it all got to be too much. The simpler musical moments were good. The loud or thematic moments were all meh to bad.

Alright, having watched the movie and listened to the soundtrack I think my impressions are pretty firmed up though I will revisit the OST again simply for academic purposes. This is a Gia score through and through with some very pastiche Star Wars/JW flourishes that are mostly poorly executed. Overall the small use of the Imperial March and original Vader/Death Star theme was more fitting and effective than the overuse of the Force Theme which sounded off quite a few times in the film. Beyond the actual quotes, Gia just isn't up to the task of emulating JW and he really shouldn't try. The new Imperial Theme is so close to the actual Imperial March, it's like he was tasked with writing a facsimile of it without breaking copyright law or something.
 
Jyn's Theme is completely forgettable and has the same Gia quality of trying to say too much too quickly. Most of the major musical moments in the film had that quality of being fast, busy, and loud without a clear direction and not really saying much of anything at all. I'm hardly one to criticize heavy handed music in films but it did seem like Gia was overdoing it throughout the film. One of the worst moments was the shot leading up to the reveal of 
But the absolutely worst musical moment in the entire film is near the beginning
I stayed all the way through the end credits to hear the music again and it did nothing for me. The film itself was solid though. I left satisfied but also without any desire to watch it again. 

How anyone can think the frenzy of strings and brass in Rogue One whenever X-Wings take off/fly is better than March of the Resistance in TFA is beyond me. The Resistance March has an instantly recognizable, kickass melody while Gia's music is a jumbled mess. 

I so wish Desplat's score was used for this film. I'm still more interested in that than I am in what we got. 

I wish I enjoyed Jyn's Theme. To me it sounds overwrought and its concert arrangement is particularly notable for how much its trying to sound grand and emotional. And the orchestration is a bit all over the place. I feel like Gia still doesn't understand how to write for the full orchestra. In one moment he has Jyn's theme playing on an aching string solo then fluidly by the whole string section backed by an over the top brass repeating phrase. The textures are all over the place and feel unconnected. Its just an non-cohesive piece of music with a melody that doesn't say much.

While the score contains pastiche of Williamsisms it does mostly sound like Giacchino for good or for worse. For me who hasn't really enjoyed any of his past four or five efforts this was more of the same, which sadly means it is largely forgettable fare. Might be that John Williams is so indelibly ingrained in my mind as the voice of the galaxy far far away it is jarring to hear someone else's interpretation but on the other hand the problems I had with the score here flow from other issues.
 
The themes are serviceable at best, the Imperial/Krennic theme downright awkward (Giacchino has done this type of overbearing bad guy music far better in the past) with its attempt to be a half-way point to Imperial March but coming off far too cartoony. Jyn's theme is mostly just there, same old chord progressions we have heard from Giacchino a million times. It is the composer's "thing" but I don't have affinity and thus no stomach for them.
 
And what the heck is with the recording in Giacchino's scores? What ever they do to them it seems to suck all life from his music.
 

Not going to find many disagreements there. It's a huge factor I reckon.
 
His mastery of the entire orchestra is unchallenged. Every time you hear a pastiche it becomes quickly apparent that they just can't work out how to balance the ingredients like JW can (and record it so it doesn't sound like a muddy mess).

After listening to this album all day I'm now listening to the full Battle Over Coruscant cue from ROTS and had some thoughts.  I've always had a feeling that JW's ability to create these sorts of chaotic action cues and have them not sound like random crap comes from his jazz background.  Amid all the flourishes and changes, there's still an internal logic in structure and feel, almost like a jazz improvisation.  Perhaps that's why it can be easy to differentiate between a true JW action cue and pastiche. Any thoughts? 

Exciting! I wonder if they are recording new trailer music?

I'm seeing this on Thursday and my ears will be tuned to listen to the music. I always pay attention to scores while watching a film anyways but I think this film's score will draw even more attention from me. Despite my caution with Gia's music in general, I'm really looking forward to this. The end credits in particular will be great/telling to listen to. I thought Dr. Strange was a hugely uninspired effort that sounded like a psychedelic remix of the BBC Sherlock theme. But the clips and sneak peak music featurette have me pretty excited. I think Gia is going to do a good job because his whole career has been building to this moment. 

Long time lurker and of course huge fan of JW. I absolutely love the new collection, as it's something I've been longing for since 1997. TLW score has been severely underrated and of course given a shortened 14 track OST originally... but now we can all rejoice. TLW extras have given renewed life to the score and I hope this gives it exposure to those who haven't gotten into it before. So far the "Corporate Helicopters" is my favorite addition. Amazing work by JW.
 
I don't want this to seem like a flat out plug, but I interviewed Mike Matessino this past weekend about this collection and figured I'd give you all a heads up. Take a look if you want to: http://www.jurassicparkpodcast.com/home/2016/12/12/interview-w-mike-matessino-produced-edited-mastered-the-la-la-land-records-jurassic-park-collection-episode-77
 
I'll try not to lurk anymore and actually be an active participant. I've always liked coming around here. 

I feel like that's gonna be the major signature of the score. It's Gia doing his version of Star Wars action music. It sounds good but could also get annoying if over used.