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Having listened to the full Isolated Score, I still find some of the copy-pasted sections hard to listen to on their own: they sound jarring, and unnatural (I don't know how Williams was able to conduct some of these), and I find myself trying to identify every small segment before it jumps to another. 
I'm OK with taking an idea from a previous score and expanding it (Spiders from MR or The Duel from Tintin). I can even accept taking a big chunk from a previous score and copy-pasting it (Belly of the Steal Beast or On The Tank). But I just can't stand the almost-random usage of a couple of bars from a previous score pasted together with another couple of bars from another score (and on and on)... It doesn't sound good, it doesn't sound musical.
 
On the other hand, the score is wonderful in many other areas: the variations on Helena's theme, the new Nazi themes and, particularly, the Dial and Archimides themes are lovely, exotic and unique.
 
It's definitely a mixed bag, this one.

Having listened to the full Isolated Score, I still find some of the copy-pasted sections hard to listen to on their own: they sound jarring, and unnatural (I don't know how Williams was able to conduct some of these), and I find myself trying to identify every small segment before it jumps to another. 
I'm OK with taking an idea from a previous score and expanding it (Spiders from MR or The Duel from Tintin). I can even accept taking a big chunk from a previous score and copy-pasting it (Belly of the Steal Beast or On The Tank). But I just can't stand the almost-random usage of a couple of bars from a previous score pasted together with another couple of bars from another score (and on and on)... It doesn't sound good, it doesn't sound musical.
 
On the other hand, the score is wonderful in many other areas: the variations on Helena's theme, the new Nazi themes and, particularly, the Dial and Archimides themes are lovely, exotic and unique.
 
It's definitely a mixed bag, this one.

The second park of the tuk tuk chase (the part not on the OST) is such a jumble of music from previous scores I wouldn't be surprised at all if William Ross did that part which is why it isn't on the OST.

Having listened to the full Isolated Score, I still find some of the copy-pasted sections hard to listen to on their own: they sound jarring, and unnatural (I don't know how Williams was able to conduct some of these), and I find myself trying to identify every small segment before it jumps to another. 
I'm OK with taking an idea from a previous score and expanding it (Spiders from MR or The Duel from Tintin). I can even accept taking a big chunk from a previous score and copy-pasting it (Belly of the Steal Beast or On The Tank). But I just can't stand the almost-random usage of a couple of bars from a previous score pasted together with another couple of bars from another score (and on and on)... It doesn't sound good, it doesn't sound musical.
 
On the other hand, the score is wonderful in many other areas: the variations on Helena's theme, the new Nazi themes and, particularly, the Dial and Archimides themes are lovely, exotic and unique.
 
It's definitely a mixed bag, this one.

Having listened to the full Isolated Score, I still find some of the copy-pasted sections hard to listen to on their own: they sound jarring, and unnatural (I don't know how Williams was able to conduct some of these), and I find myself trying to identify every small segment before it jumps to another. 
I'm OK with taking an idea from a previous score and expanding it (Spiders from MR or The Duel from Tintin). I can even accept taking a big chunk from a previous score and copy-pasting it (Belly of the Steal Beast or On The Tank). But I just can't stand the almost-random usage of a couple of bars from a previous score pasted together with another couple of bars from another score (and on and on)... It doesn't sound good, it doesn't sound musical.
 
On the other hand, the score is wonderful in many other areas: the variations on Helena's theme, the new Nazi themes and, particularly, the Dial and Archimides themes are lovely, exotic and unique.
 
It's definitely a mixed bag, this one.

Having listened to the full Isolated Score, I still find some of the copy-pasted sections hard to listen to on their own: they sound jarring, and unnatural (I don't know how Williams was able to conduct some of these), and I find myself trying to identify every small segment before it jumps to another. 
I'm OK with taking an idea from a previous score and expanding it (Spiders from MR or The Duel from Tintin). I can even accept taking a big chunk from a previous score and copy-pasting it (Belly of the Steal Beast or On The Tank). But I just can't stand the almost-random usage of a couple of bars from a previous score pasted together with another couple of bars from another score (and on and on)... It doesn't sound good, it doesn't sound musical.
 
On the other hand, the score is wonderful in many other areas: the variations on Helena's theme, the new Nazi themes and, particularly, the Dial and Archimides themes are lovely, exotic and unique.
 
It's definitely a mixed bag, this one.

The album version is just an edited/cut-down version of what's on this new set. There's zero reason to include it.

I think it's a waste and a useless price bump to have another disc just for the same music copypasted in a worse order with bad edits. If the real program would overflow but just so that it still leaves space for the OST on the last disc and/or it's used to present unique pieces/alternates like WotW or ET or Eiger Sanction then cool.

I really need to update this video one of these days, with recent examples from The Post, TROS, Indy 5, some clear echoes in Nixon and Amistad, and a bunch of Ludlow variants from War Horse and WOTW I somehow missed the first time around.
 
FWIW I don't think any of the music that flagrantly sounds like other JW in Dial (namely the stuff from AOTC, MR, WOTW, and obviously all the other IJ music) is possibly  the result of unconscious stylistic consistency on Williams's part. It's either temp-track emulation or Williams farming it out to Ross ala COS. Makes sizable stretches of the score-as-heard-in-film difficult for me to listen to, to be perfectly honest, the Tuk Tuk Chase in particular.

I love that motif and am always happy whenever it shows up in any of his scores! But a 5(ish)-note motif being used similarly (often in triplets on strings or brass) from score to score isn’t quite the same as this, imo. It doesn’t really matter whether he was intentionally using that motif again and again in all those different spots, or not, because that’s all it is: a motif.
 
The reason I feel this is different is that this isn’t just a motif, but rather this is a specific, unique chunk of music that starts and ends basically the same way in both cues, both melodically and orchestration-wise. It’s not just any one thing: it’s the tempo, the trombones, the trumpets, the horns, the woodwinds, the cymbal crash on the first note, the percussion hits at exactly the same spots, etc.
 
We’re not talking about just a few notes being referenced; this is multiple bars in a row where it’s like they got copy-pasted, and then some small things were tinkered with to make it different. Sort of like how the Quidditch music in COS is obviously taken from the AOTC Coruscant chase music.
 
A good comparison would be Horner; what you’re talking about with the “Ludlow” motif is akin to someone pointing out Horner’s 4-note “danger” motif. He used that motif all over the place, but it’s not the same thing as almost literally copy-pasting segments from one score to another (which I believe he was also known to do). You could have an otherwise highly original Horner score that happened to use the danger motif, because that motif was just part of his musical DNA the way the Ludlow motif may be for Williams. Which seems to be what you’re talking about. But the thing is, in addition to those cases, there would also be Horner scores where much more than the danger motif was copied/reused. Like for instance, how “Cafe Swing” from Batteries Not Included = “Basketball Swing” from Cocoon: The Return.
 
I also think it’s entirely possible that Williams is conscious of his “Ludlow” motif, and intentionally uses it just because it is something he likes. I don’t necessarily think he just coincidentally comes up with that same order of notes again and again. But even so, that’s not really the same as copy-pasting a whole chunk of AOTC music and then tinkering with the notes/rhythms to make it ever-so-slightly different, which I think is pretty obviously what happened here.
 
 
I actually wondered if this could be the case too. Didn’t someone say this sequence also features a piano motif from Ross’ “Pulse in the City”…? I seem to recall that.

I’m sorry, but I genuinely don’t understand how someone could not think that the “Conveyor Belt” bit is an intentional lift. The orchestration is virtually identical, with the tune in the trombone, the trumpet repeated eighth-notes (or sixteenths?) in the background, the horn offbeat interjections, and then the horns joining in on the tune at around the exact same spot they do in AOTC. It’s about as obvious as can be. Even my brother, who is not a massive film music fan like me but who does enjoy it, immediately recognized it as being an AOTC reference when I played it for him.
 
(Not saying I’m sure that Ross did it, btw; it’s entirely possible Williams did it, just like how we seem pretty sure he did the Tintin bit in “Hotel L’Atlantique.”)

I can’t believe that we have to come in here and defend John Williams on a goddamned John Williams fan forum.
 
The man owes us nothing. Every score is a gift. This is not an athlete past his prime refusing to say no. Music doesn’t work that way. There is still intelligence and beauty to be found in his work, and I’m thankful that I know enough to recognize it. 

These are direct lifts.  I really cannot see Williams's remembering them with that level of detail or going back and studying the earlier scores (though maybe, but various comments over the years by him indicate otherwise).  So, it seems to be likely that either they were part of the temp-track and Williams just decided to use them or Ross did it.  

Yeah.
 
People always cite the editing thing, but they forget to cite that it was Lucas' call to get rid of Jympson, and that as far as we know every decision made in the editing by Marcia, Chew and Hirsch passed through Lucas.
 
Some of them were things that he wasn't necessarily sold on from the outset, but the point is accepting somebody's suggestion (which, again, also happened in the prequel trilogy) is not the same as somebody saying no: "Saying no" implies someone just went rogue on him. That never happened.
 
A film production, certainly one on the scale of Star Wars and most definitely one on the scale of Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, is an artistic enterprise but its also a high-efficiency corporate enterprise (in the sense that it takes a concerted effort from a huge crew of people). If you say "no" to the person in charge...you get fired. You can't make a film with naysayers onboard.

Bumping this because I've just re-watched all of this stuff recently, and who doesn't love pointless debate?
 
Star Wars, Star Wars all the way down. Shore's use of harmony is always compelling, and he's good for a memorable theme. The whole-cloth, narratively nuanced nature of his work makes it enjoyable to analyze, but as always, the lack of texture, rhythmic banality, and, occasionally, amateurish orchestration bring the whole enterprise down. 
 
Williams is Shore's equal in themes, but develops them better, or, at least to my ears, in a more interesting way. He plays with them in a way Haydn or Beethoven would have. A kind of worked improvisation, or thematic development in the classical sense.
 
Williams's love of Brahms and the Russian masters is apparent in his use of rhythm. He's great at using syncopation to generate energy, and of using cadential extension, harmonic rhythm, and rhythmic counterpoint. He has few equals in orchestration, or polyphonic writing, in the history of western music. The prequel scores overfloweth with this sort of mastery, and it's not exclusive to the action music; the underscore is rarely uninteresting. 
 
The Hobbit films are...fine. I've come around on them a bit, but BoFA is vehemently anti-Tolkien. The first two are enjoyable. To me, the prequels are pop-art masterpieces. 

I agree with Mangold that Helena's theme isn't the right fit for her character - she's more of asshole than a heroine - but the theme is so gorgeous and Williams' ability to adapt it and use it in different modes is what makes it work. 

The amount of Across the Stars that shows up in the ost is a common criticism, and I feel is a bit over stated. Not counting the concert arrangement and the end credits, It has 7 full statements (the Force Theme has almost as many), and a handful of fragmentary statements. Surely this is on par for the Imperial March in ESB.
I think it’s the most focused of all the Star Wars scores, in terms of thematic development and use of new material. The movie has basically two plot lines that come together at the end. There’s music for each of them. 
 
Yeah, I feel like I live in Bizarro land around here, sometimes. The reaction to any JW score as “meh” is beyond me. 

That becomes more and more true with each passing trilogy. ANH and ESB introduce roughly the same number of themes … TPM has a more noticable edge over AOTC … and TFA introduces waaaaaaay more themes than TLJ.
 
On the topic of AOTC, I've never been able to understand how so many JW fans are so dismissive of the score. I love it. And the OST is the only one in the prequel trilogy that doesn't jump around in the film so wildly that it becomes a distraction.

On any given day, AotC is my favorite Star Wars score. 
 
The courtly love theme (if it has a name, I don’t know what it is) is lovely in all the Anakin/Padme scenes. 
 
Yoda and the Younglings is always a nice surprise when the choir comes in
 
This whole score contains some of the finest French horn playing you’ll hear anywhere.
 
Zam and the Chase having an almost pathological refusal of melody, but with a solid and discernible structure. The end of the chase is the kind of organized chaos Stravinsky would be a fan of.
 
The sour quality of the harmony in Tusken Camp tells you everything you need to know about what will happen there.
 
The reprisals of old themes feel almost intrusive at times. Like the music is shouting “It doesn’t need to be this way. Make better decisions, everyone!”
 
It is, as always, a wonder or orchestration and color, counterpoint and thematic development.
 
In a year packed with amazing work, this is his shiny, polished jewel. A lean and efficient score, which, of the lot, is the one I return to most. 
 
 

Agreed. Even if a reworking/combination of different cues would probably be the most effective way to tell the whole story, you could  select 3-4 cues from each film to represent the different sections of the story.
 
For example, if I had to choose a handful of cues from Empire Strikes Back, I would select:
-The Asteroid Chase (which features both the Imperial March and the Love Theme, and reflects the action of the first act of the film)
-Yoda and the Force (which features Luke's theme in minor mode, The Force theme, Yoda's theme and the Imperial March, and represents the more introspective middle act of the film)
-The Clash of Lightsabers (which features a brutal rendition of the Imperial March, an action driven Yoda's theme, the Cloud City March and a dramatic version of the Love Theme, and represents the dramatic third act)
-The Rebel Fleet & End Credits
 
There you have it: a 19-minute selection of cues representing the story of the film, which feature different variations of the main themes.

I'm shocked how negative of a reception this show seems to have on the wider internet, even in the comments of the post you linked. I thought it was maybe a bit long but I enjoyed it for what it was.
 
I get how people might not have liked it because it strayed too far from the source material or made choices they didn't like or whatever, but I don't understand the vocal group that wants to shit on it as much as possible, especially a *year* after it stopped airing. Why spend so much mental energy thinking about something you hate?
 
Hopefully the show keeps getting renewed so we can get even more of Bear McCreary's score 

Its in the end credits and only in the end-credits that we hear how young Anakin's music morphs into the Imperial March.

I think in Revenge of the Sith all that music is partially concieved of as a "Next time on Star Wars!" All the themes exposited in the end-credits suite are ones that play an important role in the original film, which is the next one up, as it were. The previous two prequel scores also "set up" something of the next entry with their end-credit suits, so it makes sense.

But in a way, it's actually the other way around, the concert suites regurgitate the credits.

I got curious how a visual breakdown of COS's original and less-than-original passages would look, and I came up with this image.
Green (62%) = new material Yellow (9%) = transitions/adaptations Red (27%) = direct HP1 quotes Purple (2%) = adapted from other scores This is based off of the score proper (no concert suites, tracked music, or alternates) as heard on the LLL set. My criteria were slightly different from Holko's. The "transitions/adaptations" category comprises passages where there's still a strong, clear, direct influence from HP1 material, but noticeable changes have been made - instruments added/changed/removed, chord progressions altered, tempo dramatically changed, new countermelodies, etc. It doesn't include new statements of HP1 themes - if it's a new variation, I've counted it as new.