Tydirium

Seems like for much of the viewership, Holt will get all of the credit. 
 
From Avclub Review
 
 

Hearing Ross scramble to replace the unusable Holt score is more entertaining than the show itself 

That's because William Ross scored almost the whole thing, lol.
 
 
It's absolutely fair when the treatment of the theme sounds like... William Ross/John Williams. I remember maybe one instance of the theme in the first or second episode that sounded like Holt did it. All these juicy renditions, though, are clearly Ross.

Pretty bad episode aside from Ross' contributions. And just think, it's now basically going to become canon that the whole reason Vader thought to let the Millennium Falcon escape to track it in ANH, is because he got the idea from Reva in this episode. Absolute garbage. This is just yet another example of Disney crapping on a classic character just to prop up one of their inferior new ones. We don't need Darth Vader saying he underestimated this character, of all people.

Pretty bad episode aside from Ross' contributions. And just think, it's now basically going to become canon that the whole reason Vader thought to let the Millennium Falcon escape to track it in ANH, is because he got the idea from Reva in this episode. Absolute garbage. This is just yet another example of Disney crapping on a classic character just to prop up one of their inferior new ones. We don't need Darth Vader saying he underestimated this character, of all people.

I can’t wrap my head around how much of a misfire this show is. Music cringe worthy, acting horrible and the way they handle Vader just feels so off. Wow.

I was able to get relatively clean versions of these two Ross cues from episode 4.
 
Lots of nice little Star Wars-ian flourishes throughout; he really nails the classic Williams orchestration.
 
SPOILERY if you haven't seen episode 4, obviously.
 

 


 
Note at 1:49 in the first clip, the same motif from the new Lucasfilm/Star Wars logo. 2:17 is reminiscent of the unused Rey Runs cue from The Last Jedi (deleted scene).
 
I suspect the first ~50 seconds of the second clip is actually Holt material; there's an awkward crossfade at 0:50.
 
Overall his writing seems like a natural continuation of the sequel trilogy, which makes sense (given he worked on all 3).

Is the prevailing thought therefore that perhaps the director and LFL/Disney weren't agreeing on the musical direction and they were therefore trying to decide whether (or to what extent) to replace Holt's score? It would tally with the unusual delay in announcing the composer.
 
I mean, if the suits were really not happy with Holt's music, they'd have shelled out whatever cash to have it completelyrescored at the 11th hour.

There probably wasn't enough time, but it does seem like most of the big moments have been totally rescored by Ross. For example, the big climax escape from the hanger at the end of this episode was clearly all Ross.
 
All the suspense/action music when Obi was escaping with Leia must have been Ross too, and that comprised almost half the episode.
 
And boy was it obvious when it went back to Holt material a few moments later, when Vader chokes the Third Sister.

It's like a whole new composer was in charge of the score this episode! What a huge improvement that was... it finally felt and sounded like Star Wars!
 
Lots of fun variations of the Obi theme throughout, in fresh and interesting guises, so I assume 85% of the score in this episode was actually Bill Ross? Holt's thoroughly uninteresting, synth-sounding underscore stood out like a sore thumb after the thrilling escape cue in the hanger bay. What a thrill to hear the Obi theme in action/tension mode. 
 
It's increasingly clear to me that JW (and Ross) were brought in to fix a score that wasn't working. This wasn't a Solo situation. 

What do you mean? You don’t think it’s strange that they waited so abnormally long to announce her? (They even announced the Andor composer before her, and that show comes out even later.) You don’t think it’s strange that her Obi-Wan theme was replaced at the last minute with a theme by John Williams? You don’t think it’s strange that she wasn’t allowed to adapt JW’s theme in her score, and instead one of his decades-long collaborators Bill Ross was hired? You don’t think it’s strange that Bill Ross apparently ended up doing way more than simply integrating JW’s theme, to the point that he even scored big sequences like the Obi-Wan vs. Vader duel? You don’t think it’s strange that Ross gets a big listing all to himself in the credits, right after Holt’s name, rather than appearing later with the additional music composers? You don’t think it’s strange that this is a show full of legacy characters set between the PT and OT, and yet not a single JW legacy theme has shown up yet?
 
Come on, there are way too many things out of the ordinary here. Frankly I find it ridiculous that you could think the desire to make sense of all this, is rooted in sexism. We would be just as curious (and upset at the problems with this score) if this were a male composer.

I guess it makes sense now why they waited so long to announce her as the composer: they were waiting to see if Bill Ross was able to write enough music, fast enough, to give him the main credit. 😆😩
 
Seriously though, here's my best guess at what happened: Holt gets hired, writes and records much if not all of her score. Either test audiences or someone high up is not happy, and realizes they've got a problem on their hands. They don't want to announce her and then have to later announce that she's been replaced (partly because of the optics in 2022 of potentially replacing "the first female Star Wars composer" with an old white male), so they hold off and see what can be done about it.
 
Kathleen Kennedy reaches out to John Williams and asks if he can do it, but he responds "I only want to write a theme for Benny" (lol, part of me really does wonder if that was the context of that quote, but they spun it for their own PR purposes), but he suggests William Ross to help "fix" the score. JW writes his Obi-Wan theme in two weeks, effectively replacing Holt's Obi-Wan theme. Ross takes JW's theme and starts arranging and adapting it for various scenes in the show. He also tackles bigger moments like the Vader/Obi-Wan duel (and likely, more scenes in future episodes), that the higher ups feel absolutely do not work with Holt's score.
 
Eventually, they do decide to announce Holt as the composer (likely because there's simply not enough time for Ross to replace virtually everything), but Ross still gets a high-level listing in the end credits, purportedly just for adapting the Obi-Wan theme... even though in truth he obviously did much more than just that, and ended up replacing multiple other big cues that were originally written by Holt/her team.
 
What do you think? I don't think it's an unreasonable theory, given what we know.
 
 
Ohhh, my bad. Sorry!
 
EDIT: It’s also possible that the Vader/Obi duel was originally scored with Holt’s Kenobi theme, and that that’s why Ross scored that cue… But I’m still leaning more towards my theory that they were considering replacing her completely, due to how long they waited to announce her.

Why not give Bill Ross the whole show, then? I think everybody would have been happy if he was the main guy.

I'd take Haab's work over Holt's, any day.

I'd take Haab's work over Holt's, any day.

Man, nice job integrating Obi-Wan’s theme into the latter part of the Force theme!!!

What do you mean? You don’t think it’s strange that they waited so abnormally long to announce her? (They even announced the Andor composer before her, and that show comes out even later.) You don’t think it’s strange that her Obi-Wan theme was replaced at the last minute with a theme by John Williams? You don’t think it’s strange that she wasn’t allowed to adapt JW’s theme in her score, and instead one of his decades-long collaborators Bill Ross was hired? You don’t think it’s strange that Bill Ross apparently ended up doing way more than simply integrating JW’s theme, to the point that he even scored big sequences like the Obi-Wan vs. Vader duel? You don’t think it’s strange that Ross gets a big listing all to himself in the credits, right after Holt’s name, rather than appearing later with the additional music composers? You don’t think it’s strange that this is a show full of legacy characters set between the PT and OT, and yet not a single JW legacy theme has shown up yet?
 
Come on, there are way too many things out of the ordinary here. Frankly I find it ridiculous that you could think the desire to make sense of all this, is rooted in sexism. We would be just as curious (and upset at the problems with this score) if this were a male composer.

I'd take Haab's work over Holt's, any day.

I'd take Haab's work over Holt's, any day.

I'd take Haab's work over Holt's, any day.

I guess it makes sense now why they waited so long to announce her as the composer: they were waiting to see if Bill Ross was able to write enough music, fast enough, to give him the main credit. 😆😩
 
Seriously though, here's my best guess at what happened: Holt gets hired, writes and records much if not all of her score. Either test audiences or someone high up is not happy, and realizes they've got a problem on their hands. They don't want to announce her and then have to later announce that she's been replaced (partly because of the optics in 2022 of potentially replacing "the first female Star Wars composer" with an old white male), so they hold off and see what can be done about it.
 
Kathleen Kennedy reaches out to John Williams and asks if he can do it, but he responds "I only want to write a theme for Benny" (lol, part of me really does wonder if that was the context of that quote, but they spun it for their own PR purposes), but he suggests William Ross to help "fix" the score. JW writes his Obi-Wan theme in two weeks, effectively replacing Holt's Obi-Wan theme. Ross takes JW's theme and starts arranging and adapting it for various scenes in the show. He also tackles bigger moments like the Vader/Obi-Wan duel (and likely, more scenes in future episodes), that the higher ups feel absolutely do not work with Holt's score.
 
Eventually, they do decide to announce Holt as the composer (likely because there's simply not enough time for Ross to replace virtually everything), but Ross still gets a high-level listing in the end credits, purportedly just for adapting the Obi-Wan theme... even though in truth he obviously did much more than just that, and ended up replacing multiple other big cues that were originally written by Holt/her team.
 
What do you think? I don't think it's an unreasonable theory, given what we know.
 
 
Ohhh, my bad. Sorry!
 
EDIT: It’s also possible that the Vader/Obi duel was originally scored with Holt’s Kenobi theme, and that that’s why Ross scored that cue… But I’m still leaning more towards my theory that they were considering replacing her completely, due to how long they waited to announce her.

I'd take Haab's work over Holt's, any day.

My cancer has cancer.
 
 
No leia's theme, no force theme, no vader motif, no imperial march, no luke's theme. No talent.
 
The music that played while cosplay Vader just let Kenobi escape, for some reason, was the most generic, trailer-house trash you could possibly use.
 
Not an ounce of creativity or care went into this show from anyone.

What do you mean? You don’t think it’s strange that they waited so abnormally long to announce her? (They even announced the Andor composer before her, and that show comes out even later.) You don’t think it’s strange that her Obi-Wan theme was replaced at the last minute with a theme by John Williams? You don’t think it’s strange that she wasn’t allowed to adapt JW’s theme in her score, and instead one of his decades-long collaborators Bill Ross was hired? You don’t think it’s strange that Bill Ross apparently ended up doing way more than simply integrating JW’s theme, to the point that he even scored big sequences like the Obi-Wan vs. Vader duel? You don’t think it’s strange that Ross gets a big listing all to himself in the credits, right after Holt’s name, rather than appearing later with the additional music composers? You don’t think it’s strange that this is a show full of legacy characters set between the PT and OT, and yet not a single JW legacy theme has shown up yet?
 
Come on, there are way too many things out of the ordinary here. Frankly I find it ridiculous that you could think the desire to make sense of all this, is rooted in sexism. We would be just as curious (and upset at the problems with this score) if this were a male composer.

I'd take Haab's work over Holt's, any day.