Score

Exactly my thoughts (including the rest of your review). At the end, it's enjoyable, in part because it literally assaults your attention on the first viewing. There are so many things happening in the span of few seconds, that you are entertained just by the fact that you try to keep track of everything. But then, if one thinks a moment about the story... it's total nonsense! I was particularly surprised by the extremely limited and basic-level treatment of the secondary characters and the secondary story lines. The secondary characters include a few new ones (Zorii Bliss, Jannah, and the First Order general who is loyal to Palpatine), some who were in the previous two movies (Rose, Maz Kanata, and some other irrelevant ones) but have zero role in this one, and Lando. There was absolutely no reason to bring back Lando for just 2 minutes (I estimate) of screen time and three or four lines. All the new characters only have a few lines and few minutes or seconds of screen time. Palpatine is back just because it is written in the title crawl, and there is no explanation of where he got his fleet and army from (including star destroyers that can wipe out a planet with a single cannon). The huge good-guys fleet arrives in full force at the right moment just because Lando and Chewie asked nicely to "good friends". And when this happens, one doesn't feel anything, because it's an inexplicable army that appears from nothing, just to defeat another inexplicable army that had also appeared from nothing. Stuff like the interest of Rose for Finn and of Finn for Rey is totally wiped out. The only thing that works dramatically is the dynamics between Rey and Kylo. I think their acting was especially remarkable, and I hope to see Daisy soon in other, more rewarding roles. And fortunately, we got a very good score by John Williams, with many highlights. I will apply the good old strategy that I already used with the prequels: listen to the scores, forget the movies. No. In the span of a couple of seconds, there would not be enough time!

I'll wait to see the result, before thanking you!

8 times It's truly a beautiful piece. Easily my favourite concert cue from the SW sequels so far (I am avoiding listening to the rest of the OST before I've seen the movie, so I don't know if there are other concert pieces). It reminds me a bit of Anakin's Theme, which is one of my favourite concert pieces from the prequels. Waiting for the Signature Edition of this!

It's the way Morricone plays his music in concert. He always conducts suites with titles similar to those of the CDs, e.g., "Cinema dell'impegno", featuring the main themes from movies he has scored that fall under that category. It is probably the way he thinks his music works best as a listening experience, so I wouldn't be surprised if he decided to present it analogously on the CDs.

After completing his epoch-defining magnum opus, I heard he's switching to compose rap. He has already written this piece for Daisy Ridley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx2jIjv5g-M

Prequels, without any doubt!

I didn't read the original title. I guess it didn't include "Will it ever happen?", right?

The concerto for guitar and marimba is on youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrzNQti2rxc There are also a few other things. If you are interested in his dodecaphonic side, here is his extremely dramatic rendition of "Se questo è un uomo", for strings, solo violin, soprano, and a speaker (based on a poem by Primo Levi, a Holocaust survivor): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oetbAnjmDXE Another piece that I find interesting is the set of three pieces for children voices titled "Il silenzio, il gioco, la memoria": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f14ExkmxlM The first one is a hommage to John Cage: it is based on various versions of the sequence of notes C - A - G - E, sometimes unaltered, sometimes with accidentals. For example, the final chord is formed by the notes C flat, A, G flat, E. I especially like the second piece, starting at 7:17, where he evokes the atmosphere of a group of children playing, and incorporates a sort of canon for 25 individual voices to create an "organized noise" (this section starts at 8:42). The third piece starts at 11:30. There are other pieces on youtube, but not many. It would be nice to have more recordings of his concert works...

Hey, cool down, man. Were you the author of the survey? Anyway, as I said, I simply totally disagree with the way data are presented. And your assumption (a) sounds arbitrary to me (although I was making the top-10 example not to suggest a survey procedure, but just to say that a top-50 list based on that would have given different results and would have been questionable anyway). However, I don't care enough about this topic to enter a long debate about it. Enjoy the music!

It is a totally flawed concept, instead, because they are asking a question ("What are your favourite 5 composers?") and using the results to answer a very different question ("What are your favourite 50 composers?" - at least, this is what is implied by the very fact that they compiled a top-50 list). If they had asked "What are your favourite 10 composers?" instead, and made a top-50 list out of the result (which would have been similarly wrong anyway), the results would surely have been different. This is because composers that almost no one would put in their top 5 (and therefore, are totally absent from the above list) would likely show up in most top-10 lists, and so get enough votes to appear there. In other words, if you analyze the answers to a poll in a way that is not consistent with the posed question, the results cannot be robust. They progressively lose meaning the more you deviate from the posed question, i.e., the more you go below the first positions. The absence of pivotal composers such as Puccini and Liszt from the list above, should say enough. As a disclaimer, I don't really care about this and other similar lists, as they have zero influence on my opinions about music. I just wanted to point out that it is one of the many flawed ways in which data are presented nowadays. It's a bit worrying when similar mistakes are made on more important topics.

It's a statistical mistake to ask to vote 5 composers, and then make a list of 50. If composer X were at place number 6 in the list of all voters, he would not show up at all in such a list, while it should definitely be at place n.6. In fact, the list kind-of makes sense close to the top spots, and then progressively becomes total nonsense scrolling down.

The Beethoven example does not really fit. In that numerical notation, it would be 555 3 444 2 (it's in C minor, and starts on the note G, which is the 5th note of the scale). So, the Beethoven example has nothing to do with the Dies Irae, except that they are both in a minor key. In my opinion, there is indeed a similarity between the Shore example and the Dies Irae, which is partially due to a similar rhythm (just in the beginning, then the Dies Irae melody goes on quite differently), and partially due to the modal melody (in both cases, in D minor). However, it's definitely not a "quote", and it's the kind of similarity that can happen by chance, or by a kind of subconscious choice by the composer. If Shore said that it was not done intentionally, I surely believe him (not that there would be anything wrong otherwise). Another interesting example that might recall of the Dies Irae, because of the rhythm and, again, a modal melody in D minor, is from Mike Oldfield's instrumental piece "Tubular Bells", at 6:56 in this video:

My answers to both questions can be logically deduced from my post.

The evidence to that, or to the contrary, will be found in the movie, just wait a couple of months! There is absolutely no logical way to know it beforehand, because none of us witnessed the meetings between the creators of the movies. You know, I read your "theory" because I find parts of this thread quite funny, and I would even agree that some of the development lines that you suggest would not be out of place, and I might even like them, if they are appropriately realized. Does your theory constitute a plausible conclusion of the story? It is possible, why not, but this is a fantasy tale, and basically anything else can be done and justified within the context of the story. If magic (= Force) is possible, then anything can happen, there is no "logic" that you can decipher with absolute certainty: what you might find to be logical might be changed at will (therefore, it is not "logic"). For the same reason, the authors can literally do whatever they want and find a way to make it plausible (...or not) within the context of the story. If you expect them to do exactly what you think (or what anyone else thinks) because "logic dictates it", well, you'd better prepare yourself to be disappointed.

Logic is an interesting topic. I suggest you to have a look at this list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies Particularly interesting are the items under "Relevance fallacies", such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_ignorance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_incredulity

If your real message is your signature, that was clever!

Did you also check the rest of Tchaikovsky's 6th symphony? It's truly one of the most beautiful symphonies of all times. The second theme of the first movement might be the grandfather of all the most lyrical love themes written for movie scores!

One of the best pieces ever written for an opera! It's a beautiful performance, although I prefer a slightly faster tempo for the first part.

Cool news! It was surely one of my most wanted JW scores, among those which had not received an expansion yet.

During a concert in 2016, while introducing Rey's theme, JW said something along these lines (sorry if it is not the exact quote): "I am wondering, like you all, who Rey's parents are... I think she must be Luke's daughter! But I don't really know, my guess is as good as yours". Ah, that adorable old man and his cunning plans to deceive us!!

Almost sounds like a mash-up of the Resistance March and the Imperial March.

Nah, he obviously took it from Puccini: (5:05) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FffRC1pgZ7Y

A wonderful episode, Maurizio! Congratulations!

But Rey's origins have not been revealed yet, so everything is still possible. In a Universe where Force (that is, magic) exists, her abilities can easily find an explanation that is coherent with the internal logic of the Universe, depending on what the writers have imagined. I think it's too early to say that there is no logic in Rey's abilities without training: let's first hear and see how the story ends in Episode IX. The reason why she has those abilities might well be the crucial point of the trilogy. Of course, if it turns out that there is no explanation, that would be lazy writing.