MikeH

People just want the big famous themes from him no matter what. They (even composers who should know better) don’t see how much his orchestration and application has become better and better over the decades. When “Book Thief” came out Conrad Pope talked about how transparent JW’s orchestrations have become and the clarity in which he expresses his ideas. Today, if they can’t hum the theme after hearing it the first time they bitch and moan. Memorable themes are a crapshoot no matter how much of a legend you are.

Agreed so much. I’m a member on the vi-control forum for composers and anyone there who is underwhelmed by the new Obi-Wan piece is convinced that he’s past his prime and obviously experiencing ‘cognitive decline’ since his writing is different than it was 40 years ago. Can you imagine? I could only wish to be as good as JW is this year or any year. Haters gonna hate.

That interview was fabulous! Loved it.

Regarding why there’s not an abundance of legacy themes in what is essentially Star Wars Ep 3.5…Maybe @ocelot can chime in as I know he’s had some insight in the past as to how protective Williams can be over the use and execution of his themes by other composers. See Rogue One and then Williams’ subsequent heavy involvement in Solo. I’m just speculating, but using Bill Ross to specifically adapt his new theme for several cues and the end credits probably means Williams wants control over how his themes are presented in this context. Otherwise why not just give the new theme over to the four other composers involved for those cues?

We need a “Which Obi Wan thread is your favorite?” thread!

@eitam I’ve had that phrase stuck in my head all weekend and made the connection too. It’s great!

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.

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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!

Yes, if I remember correctly it’s why they cut to the shower head and then back to her to pan up to the house. If she hadn’t blinked I’m sure it would have been one continuous shot from her eye to the pan up to the house.

Do it Will! Years from now you’ll always remember seeing this concert, and you’ll never remember what you did that week in school.

This unedited footage from the Back to Titanic sessions just popped up a few weeks ago:

JAWS 2 (1978) is a fantastic album with great sequencing and flow. When I finally listened to the expanded edition it was quite off-putting. The OST feels like a complete work whereas the expanded score is very cue-y and disjointed.