BrotherSound

No mention of any involvement with the music, but J.W. Rinzler's book on Return of the Jedi has this: “The creator of Hardware Wars (1978), the first Star Wars parody/homage, Ernie Fosselius did the voices of the two rancor keepers. Per Burtt’s direction, he channeled Laurel and Hardy.” Excerpt From: J.W. Rinzler. “The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (Enhanced Edition).” Random House Publishing Group, 2013. Apple Books. https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-making-of-star-wars-return-of-the-jedi-enhanced-edition/id669041848 For what it's worth, Fosselius doesn't have any official credit for composing any of the source cues: Looks like this is the source of this particular rumor, but in the same article it also credits "Jedi Rocks" to both John Williams and Jerry Hey: https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/star-wars-the-changing-face-of-sy-snootles-the-max-rebo-band/ But I did find a reference to him working on arranging something for RotJ in this article https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-hardware-wars-creator-doesnt-love-that-last-jedi-tribute_n_5a673fdce4b0e56300739166: "Fosselius said he wound up rearranging a John Williams piece in “Return of the Jedi,” too." Then I found this WorldCat entry, which credits John Williams, Joseph Williams, and Ernie Fosselius as arrangers for Lapti Nek: https://www.worldcat.org/title/special-extended-dance-remix-of-lapti-nek-from-original-soundtrack-recording-of-star-wars-return-of-the-jedi/oclc/61464506

I did a rough mock of the original 5M6 a while back, or at least the part that’s different (all the rest of the cue was identical):

Worth noting that Williams wrote both versions for the film itself: the loud version is an insert that replaces the quiet ending called 'Finale Tag', but it's not yet known if it got recorded. As for why: pops concert selections tend to go for flashy endings over subtle ones, so a lot of conductors will appreciate the option, especially for outdoor venues where a quiet ending like that can easily get swallowed up.

Somewhere around 70 minutes, I'd say. One CD is probably enough, unless there's a significant amount of material missing from the sheets. I also just realized 'Levitation', though it oddly has no cue number attached, appears to be an insert for 'The Destruction of Daryl' and accounts for that alternate version. The OST has 11m4 as written, and the film version has a middle section replaced with 'Levitation'.

There's a few things missing from that cue list, including some hints at possible alternates: 1m1 The Township of Eastwick 2m2 It's Raining 2m3 Darryl's Entrance 2m4 Must Have Been Dreaming 3m1 Dropped Flower Pot 3m2 Shop Lady Forgets 3m4 What's In a Name 4m1 The Seduction of Alex [4m2] Dvorák No. 1 4m2b Felicia in Hospital 4m3a Suki Buys Flowers [4m4] Dvorák No. 2 6m2 The Tennis Game 7m2 The Seduction of Suki 7m2 New Ending 7m3 The Balloon Scene 7m3 New Ending 7m2a Felicia Flips 8m3 Have A Cherry! 9m1 Have Another Cherry! 8m3 The Earth Erupts 9m1 New - Darryl in the Rain 10m2 The Reconciliation 11m1 Maleficio 10m2 Inflicting Pain 10m1 Relief for Suki 10m4 New - Playing in the Kitchen 10m4-11m1 Sticking Pins 11mAX New Start 11m2 Darryl Chokes 11mX "I Wish I Knew" The Wild Ride Home 11m4 The Destruction of Darryl [11m4 Insert] Levitation [12m1] The Baby's Carousel [12mY] End Credits Also, the City of Prague recording of the Balloon Scene matches the original 7M3, without the revised ending that's on the OST and used for the Boston Pops recording. Additionally, there's also an optional alternate extended coda included in the score of the original 7M3, so there's potentially two alternates for this cue, depending on what actually got recorded. 10m4 New - Playing in the Kitchen has previously been identified as the second half of the OST track 'Darryl Arrives', but it's much, much shorter than what's heard there, which doesn't seem to be in the sheets at all. I wonder if this was something recorded specifically for the album, especially with the splashy "concert ending". The bootleg track 'Voodoo Witches' matches the written 10m4 New.

Thanks! I’m not 100% sure about the AOTC tracking, but it’s certainly the same material, and to my ears it sounds like the same recording. Unfortunately, like a lot of music in this film, it’s mixed very quietly. Anyone else care to chime in on whether or not they think it’s the same recording?

The GEMA database just has cue titles and work codes that seem to match the order each cue is first used in the film (though many, many cues appear more than once). It doesn’t have the cues that are tracked from other Star Wars films as well as some that happen to re-use cue titles previously used by Williams (such as ‘Return to Tatooine’). It also has no indication of timings. Between GEMA and the November 11th spreadsheet, it’s possible to work out a rough idea of what’s heard in the film, but there’s some educated guesses required, plus a few bits that are simply impossible to know without more information.

I can’t imagine much of this was planned, but what’s so puzzling is the changes go far beyond even what was necessary to match an edit that kept changing enormously up to the last minute. For instance, the music of the Speeder Chase seems to have been largely intact in the November 11th cut, with similar timings, but was almost entirely tracked over before release.

I’ve attempted to piece together what’s actually heard in the final cut, which is—believe it or not—even more convoluted than the November 11th version, with considerably more tracking and micro-editing of cues. The GEMA database reveals the order each cue initially appears in the film, but there’s so much tracking even that information isn’t as helpful as it might seem.

Oh, good catch! I’ll update my OST breakdown. Actually, the spectrogram makes it seem that passage was edited in, so it’s likely to actually be sourced from 1M8. Unusually for a Williams OST track, ‘Anthem of Evil’ seems to contain a lot of short edits of sections of multiple cues and even pitch-shifting.

The full score of 5M6/6M1 Hook's Entrance references a playback version ("See P.B."), which almost certainly means a version of 'Low Below' was recorded.

So, I've seen just enough of the sheet music now to see that it appears 'Rey and Ben' is identical to 'Farewell' as heard from 0:00-3:55, but then goes off in a different direction at that point. That makes sense given the ending material of 'Farewell' was just heard in the previous movement ('The Rise of Skywalker'). All I know is there's a rallentando marked there, so it's definitely not the jaunty fanfare material.

Specifically, the second and third lines appear to be 1:44-2:31 from ‘Join Me’, and the last line 2:08-2:20 in the track ‘Anthem of Evil’. I haven’t been able to place that version of the Kylo B-theme in any known material.

Seems most likely to me, too, especially because ‘Rey and Ren’ is a cue title for some portion of ‘Farewell’. But there’s a lengthy section of material repeated between ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ and ‘Farewell’, which would be odd to have in two consecutive movements. Hmm…

Hey, @Falstaft: no idea what exactly it is yet, but the first movement is titled ‘Psalm of the Sith’!

Nice work! It’s a fun variation of the Finn/chase material, and when an expansion finally comes out, I’m sure our great-great-grandchildren will enjoy it very much. 🤷‍♂️ Just wanted to link to the bit of the cue that’s leaked:

The album score includes the other insert, which probably would have been used here and may have helped smooth that out. It’s never been made available, but it seems it was recorded, because it has a take number written in on the sketch, just like the other cues. @Jay I suppose you could add that to the list of unreleased ESB music.

I suspect this may be a reference to Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. The fourth movement, 'March to the Scaffold', ends with a musically depicted execution by guillotine. Though it's not specified in the score, by tradition the drum roll is usually performed on a large field drum with the snares turned off. I think that's what JW is going for here. See also Prisoner of Azkaban, where he calls instead for a "scaffold drum":

Sounds about right: all three ST films would definitely need 3 discs to fit all the recorded material (174, 184, and 216 minutes). RotJ and TPM might be questionable, especially if all the missing RotJ material were to turn up.

I'm pretty sure 15M2 The End of Hook and 15M2 Insert Bar 28 were combined and recorded as one cue. @Jay, can you confirm that? I'm still waiting for someone talented with mockups to do this one! The original hasn't been mocked up yet, right?

So, the original version of the insert happens to read "Thursday AM" at the top, and only the later date (1/24) was a Thursday: The revised insert was most likely written in or dictated, since it's fundamentally the same notes, just slightly tweaked.

Fortunately, the recording log is out there. It doesn’t account for the revised insert, but 6M5 was recorded 1/18/2002 and 6M5 Insert 1/24/2002. So it’s not a case like Hook where an insert was incorporated prior to recording, so we should definitely be able to hear the original…someday.

I’ve heard it was rushed out quickly because stores simply could not keep the LSO double LP in stock for a long time. I think they were even forced to change the cover so it wouldn’t be mistaken for the original. Here’s a truly random fact: the conductor of this recording played the ocarina solo on The Troggs’ 1966 hit ‘Wild Thing’.

I wonder if this is only here because of confusion about the London Symphony vs. London Philharmonic. It’s a rather—umm—unique recording.

Ooh, I think you’re onto something there! I was biased by how the cue appears in the film, so I assumed something was added onto the end, but this feels like a more satisfying ending to the scene to me. It would also allow time for a shot or two of Kylo walking to the castle, rather than him just suddenly appearing there.