MikeH

Just watched the third episode...
 
 

You lose the right to ignore that stuff when Darth Vader shows up.

This show is testing my patience, musically. 

Wow. You know exactly what I mean. John Williams defined a sound for the main saga over the course of multiple decades; there is definitely a traditional "Star Wars" sound. That's what I'm talking about here, but again, you know that.
 
 
I don't mind the soundscape changing and evolving either. That's why I have no problem with Goransson's Mando, or the Kiners' Bad Batch, etc. I'm excited to see what Britell will do for Andor, and I don't expect him to sound like JW. I appreciate new contributions to the universe.
 
 
"DNA" isn't good enough in this case. There is not a single statement of the Imperial March in the entire episode! Including the Vader scenes. Also, Giacchino's Imperial theme was one of my least favorite things about that score. It should have just been the Imperial March.
 
 
I wouldn't count on it. Even if we get it later on, there's still no excuse for its absence from this episode.
 
 
No, I enjoy those. I and others have addressed previously in this thread why this particular show is different. I'm not sure what is so hard to understand about the fact that this show is essentially Episode 3.5 (and has been marketed as being directly tied to the prequels, baiting us with Duel of the Fates and Battle of the Heroes in the trailers), and features the return of Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen, Joel Edgerton, Jimmy Smitts, etc.
 
This isn't just any old Disney+ Star Wars show; this is supposed to be the biggest one yet, and the fact that it's a limited series rather than a multi-season affair, just goes to highlight that it's special. Why wouldn't you want/expect a continuation of the JW sound in this particular show? I don't care what kind of music they use for the other shows; all I wanted was this one show to sound like JW's Star Wars. The fact that you are assuming I am against other styles or other composers—when I have no problem with them—makes it seem like you really don't understand my point of view.

I haven't watched episode 3 yet, but this is astonishing news.  I'm mystified.  I hope someone asks Holt about this, since she has decided to engage with online commentary on the score on social media.  I mean, divorce it from any other context and present it as a hypothetical: you're creating a Star Wars show and Darth Vader is to appear on screen.  Would you use the Imperial March or not?  I imagine that a random poll of regular people or of devoted film score fans would both have answered overwhelmingly the same way at any point in the past 42 years.  This is probably the most famous melody in cinema at this point.  What can possibly explain the omission?
 
If she's withholding the melody for some greater moment, it's hard to see what it could be.  The March has always been Vader's "reveal" music as much as it's been anything else.  It even scores the arrival of troops and ships on Vader's team in the movies and video games.  (I'm one of the few who wished it had been used for Imperial establishing shots in Rogue One.)
 
See, I was really hoping for a little of Luke's theme on piccolo or something.

I thought this was a really well scored scene. This has to be either Williams or Ross, given how closely related it is to the Williams theme.  
I hear a bit of the descending b section of Across the Stars though it's likely coincidental.  
 
 

A gay man who lived a married life with a wife and kids - I’m interested in this because it was more common than we might think.
 
My grandfather on my dad's side had a respectable job in government and was a gay man. He was married for over 50 years to the same wife, with whom he had 4 children.
 
During a time when people lived to "maintain appearances," they might have been preserving appearances outwardly, but at what personal cost? My grandmother once asked my father to hide her husband’s shoes so he wouldn't go out at night. Sometimes he would return home drunk and accompanied – it was a challenging childhood.
 
Certainly, Leonard Bernstein was far more multifaceted than merely being a gay man who got married.
 
In any case, it's an intriguing topic, and I hope that today, people are able to live their lives authentically without concealing their true selves or resorting to deception with their loved ones.

I listened to the live performance, the single, and then the End Credits version on my way to work this morning.

Well, I like the theme a lot!  It's poignant, fun, and catchy.  I really like the ostinato part.

The end credits version might be my favorite of the 3 options.  Looking forward to hearing the OST album to hear more Ross arrangements of it

I like the turbulent ostinato in the middle of the piece.  It reminds me of the interludes in classic 2000s JW pieces (Across the Stars, Fawkes the Phoenix, Window to the Past)

Can't stop, won't stop 

Apologies if this has already been posted somewhere, but we are apparently just days away from the premiere of a new Williams piece!!! 
 
https://www.hollywoodbowl.com/events/performances/1938/2022-06-03/opening-night-at-the-bowl
 

 
So exciting -- JW in celebratory fanfare mode is my favorite style of his!!

It's my birthday so just wanted to share.
 
Enjoy xox
 
https://music.apple.com/us/album/earth-plunder-wound-renewal-hope/1626106061?i=1626106064

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

I can understand the argument for different music styles when there are new characters, locations and stories  (The Mandolarian etc) but JW defined the sound for THESE characters and locations (Obi-Wan, Leia, Tatooine) and in my opinion that must be respected.
 
As someone has already mentioned, this is effectively Episode 3.5, and follows characters with various themes and motifs connected to them as well as an established orchestral palette. I don’t care about Holt’s gender or her previous work, I care about the music she produces for a franchise I care about, and quite frankly I find her and her co-composers’ handling of this unacceptable.
 
Sure, it might not be a big deal to some people, but it is to me. Film and TV music is dying a slow death and Star Wars was one of the few things I thought was sacred in terms of its sound. To hear RCP-style action music and the abandonment of previously established themes in a Star Wars production is yet another nail in the coffin.
 
Of course, maybe it is not her fault, maybe she was just following the orders of the director, but still, it really bothers me.

Watched the second episode last night.
 
The music for the final scene with [spoiler]'s appearance was embarrassingly bad, just some Inception horn of dooms. Why they didn't use the
 
 

it sounds as if you wanted to freeze him in carbonite

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

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

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

It must be a terribly frustrating for musicians to work in Hollywood these days. So many notes and points of reference, short deadlines and lack if any sort of structure. No wonder nothing seems to have any narrative spine or direction. It's a miracle anything works at all.
 
Karol

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

I'm particularly fond of the 3 notes build-up at the end of the theme (especially the string-heavy arrangement at 3:30 in the single). It's so simple and effective, both tragic and hopeful. It reminds me musically and spiritually of the last phrase of Rey's Theme, which in a way makes sense given that Obi-Wan and Rey are pretty much in the same situation when we meet them: alone in the desert, eating instant meal while watching the sun...
 
 
 
 

I really really really want Palpatine to show up in this series.

I love Obi-wan’s new theme. And while it took me several listens, I think I now understand why the suite is put together the way it is. The first half of the piece is the “accessible” part, with the haunting theme/melody in poignant horns and ending with a gorgeous “action-y” ostinato. But then it segues into the second half, which Is slower, broader, more elegiac, and requires more effort to follow and integrate into the larger whole.
 
Some folks have mentioned the lack of a B-theme as a detriment, but I see now why this isn’t a problem. In fact, I think what JW has done with the A-theme is (as usual) considerably more sophisticated than what any other film composer today could hope to achieve under a similar ambit. During the Ep. III-to-Ep. IV interregnum, Obi-wan needs to go from “top-of-his-game Jedi knight devastated at his supposed failure towards Anakin” to “ascetic recluse despairing at the near-extermination of his kind and forlornly watching over a kid whose guardian wants nothing to do with the Jedi.” There’s nothing happy that happens to him here. It’s perfectly appropriate, then, that JW gives Obi-wan the melancholy theme he does. But it’s fucking genius that he gives that theme a workout that goes into a brief state of driven purpose (the ostinato, likely representing his soon-to-seen showdown with Vader) only to lapse back into an even deeper and more complicated melancholy tinged with the slightest shade of hope. After all, that’s where we pick up on old Ben in ‘77 SW.
 
This new theme isn’t JW on the decline. This is him continuing to ride the peak of  his storytelling ability, undimmed in the least, with full and sensitive recall of the trajectory of a character he hadn’t had to think about since Bush was president. No B-theme was written because none was needed to convey what needed to be conveyed.
 
Good lord, what are we music-lovers going to do when we finally lose this man?

THIS
 
You all realise he's freaking 90 right. We're all happy he's working on Indy 5 right now , but we could also visit this site tomorrow and find out he passed away.
 
ObiWan is a perfectly good theme that has it's place in any SW theme compilation.