aj_vader

Boring answers here, sorry in advanced. Gold - The Imperial March Silver - Main Titles/Luke's Theme Bronze - The Force Theme Gold - The Imperial March I don't really know what I can say here that hasn't been said many times, but has there ever been music (in film) more iconic and a more characteristically successful theme in portraying a character, vision or affiliation? If there is, it's probably something else by the Maestro himself (likely from Star Wars). The speed in which Darth Vader and The Empire are conveyed and delivered in the statements of this theme are truly spectacular in it's use and musical design. The problem here is I struggle to look at this and most of Star Wars objectively (especially The Imperial March). I am far too obsessed with this music too not be blinded by bias. Silver - Main Titles/Luke's Theme Almost the same reasons as above, it encapsulates all the excitement I associate with all the Star Wars films and manages to achieve this very quickly when it’s stated. Would I feel the same if this was a piece of concert music without any film association? Hard to say, but I’d like to think so. I think the Main Titles probably receives most of its positive praise due to its melody, I think the orchestration becomes overlooked. If you listen to the music without the trumpets, you can see the point I’m trying to make. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FISl_GaFwMIAxSYf55CEjiU4MCKeV7Tj/view?usp=sharing Bronze - The Force Theme One of the most beautiful pieces of music written for me, a ridiculous thing to claim considering how much beautiful music there is (even in the Star Wars scores alone), however this piece moves me emotionally unlike much else. There has to be honourable mentions as this list was very difficult to choose after the gold and silver awards (Across the Stars, Rey’s Theme, Leia’s Theme etc). It works in every textural iteration that Williams employs through its various uses. From the Solo Horn in Binary Sunset to the Trumpet section of The Throne Room it always conveys that sense of mystery, hope and subtle heroism. A very difficult exercise to take part in, but more than welcome. Thank you artguy360.

Hopefully one day they cycle through the original trilogy again. I'd go see them all again, fantastic experiences. So sad we won't see/hear the prequels. Yeah I always refer to them as the London Philharmonia Orchestra, bad force of habit.

They are the same people, they just swap instruments.

I know I was there. I'll change it to PO 👍, they aren't actually called the London Philharmonia Orchestra, didn't know that.

I've only seen 3 live to pictures and they are; A New Hope, LSO, Royal Albert Hall (2018) Empire, PO, Royal Albert Hall (2019) Jedi, LSO, Royal Albert Hall (2022) If I were to rate them i'd say 1. A New Hope 2. Jedi 3. Empire The performance of A New Hope by the LSO was incredible. Empire suffered because the sound of the film was far too loud and badly mixed against the music. I think I saw one audience member go talk to the sound team, I assume to ask to turn the sound down at the interval. The PO were very good of course but the brass suffered compared to both LSO performances. Jedi was also a fantastic performance, but it's just the editing on jedi is awful, the jump between the cue from Empire to Jedi during the Destruction of the second Death Star was very distracting, maybe because I knew it was coming perhaps? But moments like that took me out of it. They were all fantastic of course and moments i'll treasure forever. Here's a little of 'The Emperor Arrives' from Jedi. Sorry it's only a mono recording on my phone in the pocket, you can imagine the sound in the hall! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N_Pio9nEPTKMxq4Lszii6VqPC0BecIt7/view?usp=sharing I'm going to see The Halle Orchestra do E.T this month in Manchester, really looking forward to crying in front of many people again.

It's the version they used for the laser show after the interval in Star Wars A Musical Journey/Star Wars In Concert.

The score is wrong, the players performed correctly.

It is the original film version, it's just when the 'Imperial March' ostinato appears theres a horrible clunky edit that loops, i'm guessing the original scene was longer? The main melody when we are in the hangar was meant to be played by 4 Trumpets, 4 Trombones and 2 Horns (the other 4 horns doing the syncopated part). However all 6 horns were doing the syncopated part in the live to picture, which resulted in the melody not having that large stereo/left & right spread across the stage (like the original recording does). It was still a fantastic performance though, the trombones were stand out and much better than the trombones in the Empire Strikes Back performance at Albert Hall back in 2019. Maybe these differences are what you were hearing?

I'm sure some of you have heard the VuVu Land story where on the original Star Wars soundtrack recording, Williams used to go in to listen to the take in the control room and asked Eric Tomlinson (Recording/Mixing Engineer) to move the levels into the VuVu Land, meaning push the gain up into the higher levels, which then resulted in a much 'cruchier' and 'agressive' sound. This is also known as 'going into the red', it creates something called harmonic distortion/saturation and that is "the sound" of the original trilogy (Specifically Star Wars and Empire). This would affect the sound of the brass the most (I suspect) due to the dynamic nature of the instruments. The prequel trilogy is much cleaner and i'm not sure who dictated the sound, but I vauguely remember Shawn Murphy saying he doesn't change that much from the capture on the day to the final mix, which I speculate is because Williams had 'approved' of the take during the recording sessions.

Well I do know that for the albums they add more (artificial) reverb than they do for the film mix [from Shawn Murphy]. I think the film mixes generally are just what's present on the stage through the various microphones. Abbey Road is much more reverberant than the HW stages yes, could be the height of the ceiling?

My instinct says it's the players, but I can't be sure. How could you? I was hoping Williams would programme some Star Wars Sequel music in the 2018 LSO Programme so I could hear 'London' trumpets/brass. How you feel about the trumpets is how i feel about the trombones as well. Disclaimer, i'm not trying to 'bash' anyone, i'm just interested in the differences.

This is very good! Must have taken a long time and you must have had a blast making it! The orchestration in this score is sublime. Nicholas nailed it!

Glad I am not the only one.