MikeH

What’s the consensus so far…glad it’s a series or would you rather have had a feature film?

For me, every score JW has written since WAR HORSE has been a victory lap. We lost Goldsmith at 75, Barry at 77, Horner at 61, it’s been a blessing that JW has been able to continue as long as he has.

Do the synth-haters know that most of JW’s “symphonic” scores contain synth parts, or are you talking about synths as a separate color to the orchestra alá Goldsmith?

Similarly, I wonder if all of this was a result of JW coming in at the last minute saying, “I want to write a Kenobi theme” vs Lucasfilm coming to him saying, “Can you write us a Kenobi theme?” And not to open a can of worms, but re: Holt’s interview where she said the director pushed her to go more modern and away from being “old-fashioned”, this “old-fashioned” piece by JW is obviously now the showpiece for the entire show. If you’re making a show that sits squarely between Episode III and Episode IV, why significantly change the musical direction? If you’re keeping continuity visually and storytelling-wise, why not keep the music in the same language?

@Jay Just my opinion, Adventures of Han feels like a fuller musical expression with the contrasting “adventure” A section and the “searching” B section, whereas Obi-Wan seems to occupy just one emotional space. I still love it, though, especially the ostinato which makes the piece for me.

I think JW feels (rightfully so) protective over characters like Han and Obi which pushes him to be more involved in those projects. Although I don’t want to put my tin-foil hat on… depending on how things went down behind the scenes with Rogue One, I’m sure that also had something to do with JW being more directly involved in these spin-offs. It seems like his contribution to Obi-Wan was a rather late addition but I’m sure if he’d been involved since the beginning he’d have written a more substantial piece like he did for SOLO.

@Falstaft, granted I’m at dinner with friends and a little buzzed, but I’d notate the second note in the ostinato starting at m. 18 as a dotted eighth instead of an eighth + sixteenth rest. Purely from a musician/composer standpoint, it makes the phrase more visually friendly. I’d be inclined to use articulations to denote a shorter duration if that note requires a lighter touch. Someone tell me if I’m wrong. I listened to a bunch of prequel music before listening to this and I got a lot of Anakin’s Theme vibes in the harmony. Apart from a few sections that sound more like the sequel trilogy, I felt more TPM influences interestingly enough.

.

.

That first clip feels weird with the writing, directing and overly polished ADR.

re: TROS…after TFA, I don’t know how JW actually sat down and spent his time working out timings and sync points…hours of work a day… to footage he knew would be changing daily up until the release date. Exhausting.

These continue to be such wonderful listens, can’t wait for what’s next! I hope you’ll be able to get Ramiro Belgardt onboard someday. It’d be great to hear about the nuts and bolts of JW’s daily process when it comes to timings and the music editing/dubbing process.

I don’t know. Didn’t JW record some full orchestral “demos” for SOLO that were adapted by Powell into cues but can’t be released on their own for contract/legal reasons?

He wears those turtlenecks in the summer heat I’m not sure!