DominicCobb

 
I do not agree. 
 
Star Wars is surely a great OST presentation, it flows very well even out of chronological order and I always loved some of the assemblies Williams chose to make, like "Rescue of the Princess", "Mouse Robot and Blasting Off" or "Inner City". This is how I learned to love this music for many years, when we only had the OST. Probably the overall style of the score lends itself better to this kind of presentation. That being said, I strongly believe the score truly shines in its complete and chronological format, as heard on the 1997 release. The music has already a very strong narrative in itself and really plays like a stirring symphonic poem when heard as it's written.
 
TESB is another beast. The score is bigger, thicker and more varied than the first one. The OST assembly is a nice (and overall well done) try to replicate the same format used in Star Wars, but imho the assemblies are not as successful. The edits in tracks like "The Heroics of Luke and Han" or "Rebels at Bay" are much more arbitrary and jarring. I can understand the reasoning behind such choices and of course it's still great music, no matter the presentation preferred. But TESB again has such a wonderful inner narrative structure that comes out perfectly when you listen in its complete/chronological format. And you can appreciate it also as music in itself much stronger in this format.
 
ROTJ is, well, pretty useless in its OST format. It's simply a short selection of highlights, but there's really too much great stuff missing to call it satisfactory, no matter which side you look at it. I partly agree that maybe ROTJ is even a tad too much when listened in its complete format, but how can you enjoy a severely truncated selection like the OST? So gimme the complete score any day this time as well.
 
I'm not a sound expert and I know there are several camps which are all very vocal about how these scores have to sound on disc. I like the John Neal mixes for SW and TESB, but those aren't how the scores were recorded and how they're supposed to sound. It's true that the soundtrack album is not the film, so choices must be made one way or another. So there are perfectly valid reason from both camps when it comes to preference to the OST mixes or the film mixes. Personally, I just love the Tomlinson film mixes, especially for the first one, but overall for TESB too.

JW has said in interviews that he likes Brahms...those trailer hits.

 
Listen, big deal, we have another problem. Women always recognize poorly written opening crawls. Always.

The music for the final duel is growing on me considerably. Far more-so than the prequels, it acts as the culmination of the thematic ideas of the movie, rather than just pulling a "BIG EPICK CHOIRE SONG!!!" out of nowhere to wow the audience. It's what something like the Yoda/Sidious should have had (rather than a note-for-note regurgitation of "Duel of the Fates").

Williams surprised me in a very positive way with that sequence. Rey's theme develops in some really thrilling and scary directions. Like the scene itself, it's less about the fighting than about the characters who are doing it.

That's something I have considered.  In the prequels, Williams was compensating.  Now he is supporting.

I'm expecting a new theme for Finn (partly because I'm skeptical as to whether what we've been calling his theme is really his theme at all). I do hope all the new themes return. If Rey's didn't come back it'd be a travesty (but I'd be surprised if it isn't back in full force). Kylo's two are pretty great and I'd love to hear them back, though I almost wouldn't be surprised if he had a new theme that was reminiscent of those two (though I'd probably just prefer her kept those and the First Order itself get a theme). Poe's theme is amazing, if hardly used, and it'd be a real missed opportunity if we didn't get more. The Resistance March is probably here to stay, I'd imagine, which is good (though all the more reason why the First Order needs a theme of its own). My biggest hope though is that we get some more of The Jedi Steps, maybe further developed into a full theme of its own for Luke.

 
At least we'll have a new love theme for Dameron/Finn.

Here's the right thread...
I hope Poe Dameron's theme returns.  It was the most underutilized theme in the score IMO.

Doesn't really matter, since STAR WARS was number ONE on AFI's Greatest Soundtracks of ALL TIME!

Concept is key here-

THE IMPERIAL MARCH alone does NOT a soundtrack make!

CANTINA BAND  was a "single" BEFORE!

 

The large majority of people who see the film will never even know that the piece was tracked. Fans included.
 
First time I saw it I recognized it immediately and took me out of it for half a sec, but was brought back in quickly because it's a powerful piece of music and a powerful scene. Didn't bother me the other two times I saw it because I knew it was coming.
 
Do I think it was a good idea? No, they obviously should have used an original piece or at least a new recording that fit in better. But, having heard what Williams originally intended on the OST, I can't honestly say that it would have had the same impact as Burning Homestead. Given the choice between the two, I'd probably go with Burning Homestead.

Can someone help me figure out what the hell 'On The Inside' (FYC) From 1:00 - 1:25 reminds me of? haha. It's driving me crazy. I think it's from Episode 2, but it could be 3. It sounds like it fits a scene perhaps with Yoda and Windu or on Kamino or something. I can't pin it down.

Saw the film again and this is definitely the case. After 0:45 the film cuts from Rey vs. Ren to the X-Wings and there's a piece that I couldn't put my finger to (sounds like mostly strings, kind of like Ways of the Force at 2:19 but don't know if that's actually it) and then when Poe goes into the trench the Scherzo finally comes in.
 
I'm pretty sure the OST Snoke is used in his second scene. If it's the same recoding on the OST, it's truncated in the film, but I definitely noticed some of that ominous chanting and more importantly the string thing that starts at 1:23 is for certain in that scene which is telling. 
 
Don't remember for sure but I think the second scene with Snoke comes right after he and Rey have the mind duel (or whatever you want to call it). Which, yes, takes before The Bombing Run. I can't remember the complete order of scenes when it comes to the intercutting of Rey/Ren and the Resistance crew, but I think there's a good deal of unreleased stuff in that portion, between Finn and Poe, United and The Bombing Run. Han and Leia is a combination of a couple different cues - Han and Leia meet up on Takodona through Poe and Finn meet up, then Han and Leia talk about Ben which happens a good deal later. What's missing in-between is all the other stuff at the Resistance base (the map room, R2, forming the plan to attack Starkiller) and everything with Rey that in that portion (I don't know for sure how much of this stuff is actually backed with music though). After Han and Leia but before the Bombing Run is the Falcon landing on Starkiller and anything else that was scored up till the shields going down and the X-Wings arriving at Starkiller. 

 
Yeah just saw the film again and noticed the first part of Girl With the Staff is when Rey refuses to sell BB-8 (recognized the bit that sounds like Luke and Leia) and I think you're right about chasing down in the marketplace, but it's also used again later on in the film after the Falcon escapes Jakku and Rey and Finn talk. The end bit is when the First Order officer is telling Kylo Ren they escaped. Pretty sure anyway. 

Hey all,
 
I've lurked a bit here on and off and decided to join in (specifically for TFA discussion). I should just say right away I'm a total noob when it comes to music (don't know the difference between a fugal structure and a feudal structure or a cantinela and a cantina, etc.), and I can only vaguely read music but I definitely love music and am interested in it. I'm a casual fan of soundtracks and the only ones I listen to regularly are Star Wars ones (Star Wars 77 is the best film score of all time, hands down), so obviously I've already listened to TFA a bunch and am taking a pretty deep look into it musically (more so than normal).
 
When I first saw the film I'll admit it was sort of hard to latch on to the new themes. Partly because there's a lot in the movie to absorb, music aside (so much of which is new), but also perhaps because of this "hummable" issue that people are complaining about. However, I still really enjoyed the music and loved how on the whole it had a more swashbuckling adventure feel to it (rather than the bombastic and "epic" music of the prequels, which is what I think some people were looking for). Since then I've been listening to the soundtrack again and again to the point of obsession. It's REALLY good. Rey's theme is just the best and holds the key to all, but the other new themes and motifs kill too. When I saw the film again, after familiarizing myself with the soundtrack, it was like a whole new experience. The way Williams has crafted this score is simply exemplary, I found myself getting quite emotional in the theater due to the beauty of some of his compositions and how they resonate with what's on screen. Also, contrary to what people are saying, it IS hummable.
 
If there's one criticism, it's that there aren't very many moments in the score where it really takes over and drives the film. I suppose part of the blame for this blames on JJ. But while in the original trilogy we had a number of these moments, TFA has very few. In fact, probably the biggest moment in the film that's driven by music is when Rey grabs the lightsaber - a moment powered by music taken from the original film of course. It's a huge emotional moment that the music really sells, but the fact that that music is just "Burning Homestead" is a little irksome. Why not something new? Well, if you look at the OST, the music for that moment I think just would not have had nearly the same power. So while on the whole I think TFA is a fantastic score, and I appreciate its restraint in comparison to something like ROTS, it probably pulls too many punches. I think I like it better than the prequel scores, but it's not quite on the same level as any of the originals.
 
Can't wait to see what Williams does with these themes in VIII.