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Dang, @bruce marshall, you had me hoping for "The Flag Parade" for a second there before I clicked the link.

Ahem... I for one think the instrumental versions of "Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas!" are possibly the most festive music JW has ever composed, while the version with lyrics is utterly insipid. Seriously, have you ever just read the lyrics? Nothing could more obviously have been set to a tune after the fact than those whoppers. "SAAANta is HEERugenn, YESSS!" It makes the only somewhat insipid lyrics to "Somewhere in My Memory" sound like a theological masterpiece by comparison.

Fun fact about the violinist on "Schindler": I taught two of his sons as high school sophomores. In an email exchange two years ago, I noticed "U.S. Marine Band" in his signature and started asking nerdy questions about JW. He responded gamely and sent me an old YouTube clip of his 2003 performance. We were in discussions about bringing a few musicians to my school, but the pandemic and then his retirement intervened. Cool guy!

I'm so glad this guy exists and have been beating his drum forever (just see the top of this page!), but yeah, I wish he had more of a focus on listenability than comprehensiveness. Not every cue works well in reduction. I still Google him every few months to see where his JW fixation will lead him next, though.

The new logo is fine, although I think it looks too modern, while the aesthetic of Star Wars has always leaned more toward nostalgic and deliberately old-timey design, nothing slick or shiny. This looks like an animated logo for the company that designed the Naboo starfighter (always the most incongruous-looking Star Wars ship in my book). The logo's music, though, fails to echo either the melody or texture of any familiar Star Wars sound. I admit that I don't really know the Blake Neely sound, but I used him because his Flash theme is a prominent recent member of the fast-minor

And yet, both of these hack jobs sound better than the Blake Neely-esque blob of arpeggiated anonymity that's currently sliming the opening of every Mandalorian episode. I was sure JW would find time to fart out some fantastic ten-second Lucasfilm fanfare during the TFA sessions, but I've pretty much given up. If it didn't happen for the dawn of the new era when he was already rounding up an orchestra, it won't happen now.

The real question is, was Batu an uncredited co-composer on JW's theme for Batuu?

What's amazing about this score is that many of its best moments (revealed even more clearly in this expansion) are instances of Powell doing something interesting with some element of Williams' Solo theme. It's like the entire composition was Matrix-uploaded into Powell's brain, as second-nature to his thinking as anything he'd written for the film himself. Almost every cue has an example of this somewhere. Heck, even the transformation of the Imperial March for "Mimban" is a great example. I really really hope we get another John Powell Star Wars score―preferably with another Williams co

The opening notes of the main melody sounded a little too reminiscent of one of his Jurassic World themes to me at first, but as it goes on, it's lovely, patriotic, and emotional. I'll be curious to hear the theme stretch its legs in an action-music context elsewhere in the score. Great to have this franchise honoring its roots like this!

OK, I figured out what I want JW to compose next: a suite of concert arrangements of Powell's themes from Solo. The circle will be complete!

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/1dd615d9-dbcb-4eb5-a220-3821b6529447

Is "Extra Deluxe Mine Mission" just "Mine Mission" plus "Break Out"? Or is there something new in there?

The whole existence of this edition is a eucatastrophe in my book, and I'm particularly thrilled to know which cues were JW's, in whole or in part. It does make the plot thicken in my head, though. Did JW and JP sit down and spot the movie together? Did JW do it alone and just "claim" certain scenes (or even, apparently, segments of scenes) for himself? Did that serve as stylistic inspiration for Powell's approach elsewhere, in a more specific way than just imitating Williams' general Star Wars style? For the cues that were partially composed by Williams, was this because of later changes

Oh, yeah, I definitely hear it. For that matter, the opening percussion of "Lions Reign" is very similar to the percussion that kicks off "The Egg Travels." Again, it's more textural than anything. Cool!

Thanks for the thread on one of my most favorite Special Topics in Film Music! I voted for Treasure Planet just because it's such a criminally underrated film, and the score is one more well-oiled cog in the machine. The production design in that movie is freaking visionary―honestly, I defy you to find a major-studio animated film from the past 30 years that's as bold and original in its designs as that one. They had a concept and committed to it 1,000 percent. And the score is just a fantastic seafaring adventure score. Minus the theremins for Martin Short's B.E.N. and the guitars for Ji

The more I think about it, the more I think this was a smart way to approach the sensitive subject of when and where to use Williams, particularly given that the easiest theme to justify using in Season 1 would have been the Force theme, which has been exceptionally well-worn in recent years. I'm just as glad we didn't get a "Binary Sunset" quote to accompany the floating mudhorn, for example. (And Giacchino emphasized the potential pitfalls of putting that theme in another composer's hands.) This Easter egg may have been specific and nerdy enough to open the door to other not-s

I heard that MOTR quote instantly, too. What an odd choice. That’s not even close to being the Resistance. Those guys would maybe have kids in the Resistance. It’d be just as appropriate or more to reference the Rebel fanfare. Oh well. It was fun. Actually, I say do more of this. It’s a better tune than anything else in this series, and this kind of referencing would manifest musically what every other aspect of the series does: traffic in Star Wars iconography and tropes without really creating any cohesive new vision as yet.

@The Big Man, can you elaborate on your adulation for those waveforms? I'm a waveform neophyte, and I'm curious what makes those indicative of particularly good...mixing? Mastering? I don't even know enough to know which term to use.

Hahaha, thanks, @gkgyver and @Arpy. Good point. That makes me feel better

Wow, as a Giacchino fan, I find that both crushingly disappointing and utterly perplexing. He doesn't sound like any of those scores to me, and I thought (think?!) of him as a champion of melodic tonality in the face of currents that favor the likes of Joker and Arrival.

The "Across the Stars" single confirms visually what we already knew: that ASM is now the sole fixation of JW's brain. She has taken root like an extra lobe and is now sprouting poofy purple synapses of her own.

I realize this thread is destined to become a cesspool of political sniping, but doggone it, someone must tell the story of JW's music usage, and I will fall on my sword! It's in the opening three minutes of the clip if you're ideologically inimical to watching the personages involved. Interesting to hear this piece for a small band ensemble! I assume this the Marine Band? It

@Jay, what's the Contact connection you mentioned? I don't know that score well beyond the end credits suite, but it seems a million miles from The Witches stylistically.

Unrelated: I just threw together a Potter On-the-Go playlist (yep, on my iPod Classic!) to underscore the Halloween decorating process in my classroom, and at 0:33 in "The Rescue of Sirius," I swear I heard a fleeting, transformed reference to the old "Family Portrait" theme in the buildup to Buckbeak's theme. What say you? Is there one more SS theme in POA? And another thought: "Hogsmeade Candy Box" would have made a great Alan Silvestri '90s comedy theme. Imagine it done by a full orchestra at a decent tempo. What a hidden gem of a melody!

@thx99 There's totally a concert suite of "Growing Up in Whittier." It's called "Dobby the House-Elf." B-) Personally, I wish "The Birth of the Twins" had had at least some nod toward any of the three character themes that existed for Luke and/or Leia by that point. I don't know if I would ultimately want it used, but I'm desperately curious to know what Williams would have proffered to Lucas as an alternate main title for the prequel trilogy. Things being how they are, though, it's just as well that all nine movies got the same fanfare. I think it the constant retu