Falstaft

Williams is 91 years old, and action music is unbelievably strenuous to compose. What we're hearing here serves the scene expertly, it creates continuity with the other scores, and offers a bit of a reprieve for Williams (and/or Ross, who we can assume is involved in a similar way here as he was with the ST). And there's precedent in KOTCS anyway of this kind of thing, with the Gunpowder (ROTLA: Discovering the Seriph), Corpse/Betrayal (TLC: Kazim and the Rats!), and Warehouse Escape (ROTLA: Flight to Freedom) cues. The score to DoD is going to be absolutely marvelous, calm down folks.

Interesting! I refrained from looking up any existing sheet music because most of the fun for me is doing it by ear. Sounds like it's even more rhythmically ironed-out than what I transcribed. My initial pass really did try to reflect the nuances of Sting's performance, but I felt I was hitting diminishing returns pretty quickly. I find chord symbol nomenclature endlessly fascinating. You're quite right, the better symbol for that chord would be Dmaj9. Though listening more closely, I wonder if it might actually be a D6/9 chord instead.

Inspired by the gorgeous La La Land release of Sabrina, I put together a lead sheet of "Moonlight" that some of you may enjoy. The version I transcribed this from is the Sting one in A major. Initially, I attempted to precisely capture his melodic syncopations--which are pervasive, and essential to the effect of the song in that performance. But pretty quickly I decided for a very rhythmically simplified rendering, the kind typical of an actual lead sheet. The chord symbols and transcription of the intro vamp are true to what we hear in the recording though, I think. If anyone spots any errors, which I'm sure there are some, point them out. Enjoy!

Magnificent work, @ragoz350. Some things work quite well here, musically, perhaps even better than the ultimate version of TFA -- the big First Order theme and more aggressive martial quality in general for the troopers' arrival. But man do I miss that stunning reveal of Kylo's theme from the final score.

Emilio's book (specifically the second edition) should be your starting point, and his edited volume (if you or your library can afford it!). If it's specifically Star Wars you're interested in, I've got a pretty substantial and ever-growing bibliography in here: franklehman.com/starwars. I'd also plug Chloe Huvet's recent book, which is a tremendous milestone in JW studies, whether you speak French or not. There's plenty, plenty beyond this, but you should explore on your own, and put those growing musicological research skills to work! Chase up interesting sounding sources, see who gets cited more in order to gauge impact, and (importantly, because this is still a field in its infancy), figure out what hasn't been studied yet!

Awesome, thank you @Knight of Ren!

I think probably all these little motifs are of a kind, rhythmically and in terms of their pitch content. Transposing everything to C, the one from today's Mando is: G-F#-Ab-G-B, G-F#-Bb-Ab-D Snoke's chamber one is: G-Ab-Eb-D-B-Eb-D, G-Ab-Eb-D-B Palpatine's big pitch one is: Ab-G-Eb-B-Ab-Eb... That's what I'm feeling too. A nice, weird touch, whatever the cue was modeled on.

Not to mention a recollection of this motif from Snoke's boudoir in TLJ, around when Pershing decides to resume his work. So we have now, among other things, a diegetic calliope version of the March of the Resistance, another return to Snoke's low male chorus, and yet no nod to "Themes by JW" in the end credits! The odd background music during the not-mind-flayer rehab scene feels like a possible reference too; anyone hear it clearly enough?

Magnificent, thank you @Brando!

Felt like listening to this score and the gorgeous new release today in honor of JW's 91st, and felt compelled to transcribe what's always struck me as one of his most gorgeous piano parts, from the beginning of "Pete and Dorinda."

Tanglewood season is out! Here are the Williams-involving concerts. Film Night (Aug 5, Newman & Williams cond): https://www.bso.org/events/john-williams-film-night Tanglewood on Parade (Aug 8, Lockhart, Williams, Nelsons cond): https://www.bso.org/events/tanglewood-on-parade-2023 ASM/JW VC #2 (Aug 11, Nelsons cond): https://www.bso.org/events/bso-anne-sophie-mutter Harry Potter & the Sorceror's Stone LTP (Aug 26, Lockhart cond): https://www.bso.org/events/boston-pops-sorcerers-stone Star Wars: The Story in Music (Aug 27, Lockhart cond): https://www.bso.org/events/boston-pops-star-wars-music

This hits the nail on the head, I think, @Chen G. A fortuitous coincidence, which is not to say a meaningless one. The similarity here is another instance of within a long list of JW using a kind of personal "meta" motif of 1-3-2-5 in minor. It's the basis for the Ludlow Motif among many other things, including a plethora of materials in Star Wars, Disney-era ones in particular. The Tension, Desperation, Resistance in Trouble, Anthem of Evil, and Obi Wan leitmotifs are all structured around in some way or another. A nice example, strictly speaking non-leitmotivic, is in the finale from Attack of the Clones. Right before the strings start going all Games-of-Thronesy. Intervallically speaking, this is a dead-ringer for the "Advice" moment, though with a very different affect!

The best kind of post! Everyone, @DomSewell's work is amazing and if you haven't already checked out his videos, you owe it to yourself to do so. His analyses go into a level of detail and sophistication for JW's music that I'm not sure anyone else has. And that level of detail is, I feel, fully warranted by all the amazing things he keeps on discovering! It's a JW musical fingerprint, that's for sure, and not just of his film music. That (014) trichord is basically the motivic through-line of his Cello Concerto (at least the original version, who can keep track...). It becomes progressively more prominent from movement to movement, starting halfway through the first, I believe. Yes! Alien or Poltergeist would be amazing.

I think you'd still be safe in most cases, assuming the examples were partial, reduced, and analytically annotated in some way. Though it really depends on the publisher and how ardently they're willing to defend fair use. About 1,000 words longer than it was yesterday, I can say that!