Molly Weasley

This is the correct, healthy attitude to have.
 
Yavar

I would rank JW's SW scores at "I love this" and JP's HTTYD scores at "I love this too!"

Just want to say, I'd like to echo the positive vibe in this thread has, because I'd normally expect a post like this to be torn apart in 5 seconds flat by angry villagers who can't believe you've ranked something/someone above Williams. But they haven't (yet) and it speaks to the mature tone of this thread that you can have a view that goes a bit against the JWFan grain but is nonetheless honest and driven by different tastes. I too love LotR and HTTYD as a whole more than anything in SW - they came along at the right time for me, just like SW came along at the similar point for others.

One of the main reasons why I love John Powell’s work is because his music has the same raw energy that the music of Williams and Goldsmith has. His melodies are great, but the sheer force he utilizes the orchestra with, that blows the world’s head off, is what truly captivates me. It’s this kind of music that makes me fall in love with film music and symphonic music in general over and over again.

ty.
I'm having a bad day. Everything feels personal. Good thing I still had some common sense left to ask.
Apologies@Molly Weasley

It's a type of eq curve, resulting in more high bite and sizzle, and bassier lows.

This is actually how I feel about Powell in general, and why I pretty much regard him as the modern Goldsmith. He's ALWAYS doing something interesting even in "throwaway cues" (i.e. those really just don't exist, for him). There's no tiresome repetition. He's always varying something.
 
Yavar

HTTYD 3 is mine. The choral writing, and overall more symphonic style really makes it feel like a fully matured series through the score alone. 

JWFan is better than everything!

Fucking hell it’s great reading so many positive comments in this thread and not just vacuous “they’re great” but plentiful reasons as to why they’re great and those details that make them great not just because they have good themes or are exciting or are beautiful or whatever, but an appreciation of all the craft that’s gone into them. 

I agree, and how many other scores (heck anything) these days have Celli sections that "sing" as much as the one in Flying with Mother?

It's kinda interesting how concertlike this one sounds in comparison the the first.

Thread title makes me think of the Twelfth Doctor's example of a 'bootstrap paradox' -
 
'So there's this man, he has a time machine. Up and down history he goes, zip, zip, zip, zip, zip, getting into scrapes. Another thing he has is a a passion for the works of Ludwig van Beethoven. And one day he thinks, 'What's the point of having a time machine if you don't get to meet your heroes?' So off he goes to 18th century Germany, but he can't find Beethoven anywhere. No one's heard of him. Not even his family have any idea who the time traveller is talking about. Beethoven literally... doesn't exist. This didn't happen by the way. I've met Beethoven. Nice chap, very intense - 
 
[holds up a bust of Beethoven and strikes a similar expression]
 
- loved an arm wrestle. No, this is called the 'bootstrap paradox'. Google it. The time traveller panics. He can't bear the thought of a world without the music of Beethoven. Luckily he brought all of his Beethoven sheet music for Ludwig to sign. So he copies out all the concertos and the symphonies, and he gets them published. He becomes Beethoven. And history continues with barely a feather ruffled. But my question is this - who put those notes and phrases together? Who really composed Beethoven's 5th?
[plays the first notes of Beethoven's 5th on his electric guitar]'.  

Yes, people mentioned hearing this 1941 lift when the film was in theaters. 
 
Surprisingly, there is no organized list of all these little repurposed bits yet, so specific timestamps for anything like this are welcome!

yeah they appear to be so proud of it by showing Williams conducting in the videos they could at least release the music as a single. Maybe they don't comprehend that anyone would listen to it outside of a sports montage with sound effects and people talking over it
 

Just watched the video shared a few posts ago with the opening for this year's game (which I did not see as I was flying). I have to say that the new edit this year worked so well with the music. Clearly the editor worked to the music and has respect for it. The lovely shots from the recording sessions emphasize this, and I appreciate how clear the piece starts: This is the anthem for the College Football Championship game and it was written by John Williams. Big text. On long enough to read. Damn straight!
 
And yes, sign me up for the physical album of "John Williams: The Sound of Sports."
 

Lol. Full disclaimer: I am not a sports guy, but am I the only one who finds it kind of tacky and laughable seeing football players (and college ones!) compared to NASA astronauts…? I’m a musician, but I would find it just as cringey seeing a video comparing musicians to astronauts. Anyways, love hearing the theme again, but sometimes I don’t mind forgetting what it was written for. 

Well, this gives me hope that this will become the standard ESPN championship theme going forward.  Count me as pleased. 

@Chewy and @crumbs, great teamwork on finding this gem of a cue and bringing it to our attention.
 
@Falstaft, quick work on the musical analysis!
 
@BrotherSound, thanks for trying to make sure we all know which cue is what and where
 
The J-Team in full effect!

TROS soundtrack album is missing music like this that flows and tells a story. I think including more of these musical moments and stuff like all the redeemed Ben renditions would dramatically improve the album.

What a treat. Only strengthens my opinion that TROS is the best musical entry in the sequel Trilogy. Not just the thematic variants (though those are great too). It's all about the transitions!:
 
*The way the Force theme in Dm is flanked, first by that beautiful dissonant texture that seems to coalesce on a E♭-maj pandiatonic cluster, then a post half-cadential sustain on the ♭II(ma7) chord (also E♭). Both bookending sections have a nice rising line [G3-C4-D4-G4 before, G3-A3-D4-Eb4 after]. Kind of Mountain Motif from CE3K-esque.
 
*The little idea starting at 0:28 in B-major. That quick progression, B to Bdim7 back to B, is a crucial harmonic ingredient in the Friendship Theme that comes a few minutes later.
 
*The interstitial material after Rey's theme gives us, for the first time I think in a long while in Star Wars, that wonderful Waltonian harmonic sensibility. Chords are Bma7/A♯ <=> D♭/G♭ => E♭ma7/B♭ => D♭ma7/B♭ => C/G. There are a few other patches where Williams re-channels Walton in TROS and it's just so satisfying to hear that sound return.

Amazingly, no less than THREE different cues were written for this one short scene: 1M3 Nothing is Impossible, 1M9 Rey Wakes Up and 1M24 Meditation.
 
The final cut uses a combination of two (1M24 and 1M9).
 

 
The timings in the November 11 spreadsheet seem to match the final cut, so only 18 seconds of this cue ever got used. What a shame... and really makes one wonder how much other gold is sitting on a hard drive in Disney's vault gathering, er, dust.
 

 
1M24 Meditation ultimately scored the shot of Rey meditating, before the film transitions back into 1M9. Who knows if 1M24 originally went longer and covered the rest of the dialogue with Leia, considering two other cues were already recorded to cover that dialogue.
 
As for the earliest version of the cue, 1M3 Nothing Is Impossible? Well, fortuitously, it appears we can hear a snippet of that in the making-of doco!
 
It's wild that such a simple scene could end up with 3 different cues but it seems reel 1 was heavily restructured throughout post-production, constantly moving scenes around. Probably made JW's task all the more difficult, when so much of his Star Wars writing is transitional music between cues.
 
At various points in post-production, this scene followed the Luke and Leia flashback, then Kylo's first meeting with the Emperor, then finally the lightspeed skipping sequence.

Great discovery of the weekend!
While remembering the Blu-Ray menu gave us the clean version of the "Rey Training" cue which is unreleased, I wanted to see what the DVD menus had since those usually contain additional screens for the "Scene Selection" and "Language/Subtitles".
 
The amazing @crumbs found a complete DVD rip and we were able to find another previously unreleased cue, not featured on the Blu-Ray!!
 
It is the "Meditation" cue, featured in the "Scene Selection" menu:
 
tros-amp.mp3
 
 
Another DVD exclusive menu for the language setup comes with the section of "Reunion" that contains Rey & Yoda's Theme, which is on the OST, so no other unreleased music there.
 
This is all new information, right?

This is such a pretty cue! I need more!

Went back to listen to POA for the first time in a while. I’ve got to say, the part of the album that goes from Chasing Scabbers to Lupin’s Transformation contains what I’d say to be some of the best action music JW has ever written. Some absolutely incredible brass writing in there.