kingpiranha

I agree @Chen G. But, I don't see a problem with making it seem more like a patchwork. Because that's more or less what the music to Star Wars was. In the interview with JW by Derek Elley from 1978, he explain the process like this: "After I've spotted the film and broken down the action on cue-sheets I then begin to write, first finding my thematic material for character and locales, etc, and proceeding from there. When I've got the material organised I then do specific sequences, not before. In the case of Star Wars, for example, I first had all the tunes (the Starship tune, the Leia theme, the march, the Little People, etc) laying on the piano; I then fitted them to individual sequences".

This is why I've never really looked at this theme as a second, or B-theme, for Luke. If anything, I find it reminiscent of the Princess Theme (Leia's Theme). The repeating of notes in succession, a leap up a sixth (although a minor and not a major sixth), and the overall sweeping and stepwise shape of the melody really reminds me of Leia's theme. (It also plays right when Leia is given the blaster and become the focus of the scene). Also, in the original LP liner notes JW says this about the track in which this cue is a part of: "This music is a kind of swashbuckling version of the Princess' theme. It is a little bit tongue-in-cheek in tone with a very strong 'Erroll Flynn' flavor, like the music from a late 1930s adventure film". It is though unclear exactly what part of the LP track he's refering to, but the way he describes it does, at least to me, really fit this part of the cue. This would also explain why JW says this about the Main Title: "Musically, it begins with Luke's Theme. The Princess' theme appears briefly". I know it could refer to the piccolo solo after the crawl (though I have another theory for that solo phrase), but I really think he could be refering to this B-theme.

Well yes, it's a half note roll with cresc. followed by a quarter note rest and a hit on beat 4. Usually a bass drum has only one pitch (or indefinite pitch), so here I just think that any changes in pitch on the staff is just a mistake or lack of consistency on Spencer's part.

Again, great post! Just want to add a few things regarding some changes done during the recording: Bars 1-12 and 31-53: The bass drum's part was changed to quarter notes to be played on just beats 2 and 4 in these bars. Bar 13: This was changed in the parts to a 2/4 time signature bar. Bar 30: The bass drum's part was changed from a roll to just a quarter note hit on beat 3. Bars 51-52: These bars was marked with a repeat sign in the parts. Bars 54-55: These were likely deleted during the recording session (or perhaps edited out during the music editing).

Exactly, that's how it was originally written and how it is in the leaked score. Very nicely edited btw

Great post as always! Just want to add a few things: Actually there is another thing added to the cue. When listening to the recording together with the leaked score one will notice that the bars around bar 12 and 13 doesn't add up. This is because they added a bar 12A between bar 12 and 13. Through my research I've found out that this added bar (called 12A) is apparently present on a second page of the separate revision score, but for some reason it is not included in the leaked file (only page 1 of the revision score was leaked). For me, if you listen really carefully, you can hear the characteristic deep resonance of the tam-tam in bar 11 in the recording. It can be quite hard to hear, but for me it's definitely there, very beautifully integrated into this ominous and gloomy orchestral timbre and texture. So I'm pretty sure it wasn't removed/changed during recording.

If I remember correctly they had already removed the Jabba scene for the first cut in November 1976.

Nice first attempt, but for me it doesn't really sound right. Here is my version of just the intro: More Little People_midi.mp3

@enderdrag64 feel free to copy my comments over here if you want to.

Hi there again As you can see I do also have an account on this forum. I have for many years now been researching and studying John Williams' music, mainly the score to Star Wars (1977), on my own. Looking through archives, articles, books, scores etc. to really understand and document the Star Wars score, its history and development, and the people involved. Being a critical editor and engraver of sheet music I also plan to do my own study score with a critical report for each cue of the score. Thanks to your wonderful articles I got really inspired and finally started to look through these forums more frequently, and hopefully I'll start taking part in the discussions here.