Falstaft

I just learned from the Greek news that Vangelis has died!!
 
https://en.memesrandom.com/vangelis-dead-evangelos-odysseas-papathanassiou-cause-of-death-the-great-greek-composer/

The start and end are borrowed note-for-note from 1M4R The Arrival of Kylo Ren for the purposes of overlap, though. However, a fragment of 1M4A Introductions was used in a bonus feature, so this is one of the unused cues we can confirm was recorded.

The Force Awakens. This time the deleted scene.
 
Among the many deleted scenes in the film is one for which JW wrote a total of three versions.  It is the first appearance of Leia, who is informed in a scene that Jakku's village has been destroyed. The second half of the scene is a comic scene with C3PO trying to talk to a "sleeping" R2. 
The first half of the scene was officially released (for some reason as two separate scenes). And the second one we can apparently only judge from Foster's novelization. Of course, the C3PO lines can't be that extended in the real script, but the sync hint "Genius" at the end of 3M29 cue matches the last line of the droid ("R2, you're a genius!"). View Spoiler for novelization fragment:
 
1. 3M29 Leia, C3PO and R2 (written no later than March 3, 2015)
The scene was originally located right before Snoke's first appearance. The cue doesn't begin with the beginning of the scene, but with the officer's address to Leia. Cue underscores the scene in its fullest version. I also tried very conventionally to "reconstruct" the scene with C3PO .

 
2. 3M29R Leia, C3PO and R2 (no later than June 12)
The "revised" version is shorter than the original. The first half of the scene has been truncated (Leia's order to C3PO has been cut out), and the last dialogue has been shortened. But Leia's theme sounds in the fuller version. Interestingly, this part of the cue appears in the film during one of Han and Leia's dialogues. 
The second half of the cue is almost unchanged, except for the addition of a bass clarinet at 0:58-1:07, and changes to the last bars for a smoother transition to the next cue (apparently, the last "silent" shot was cut). 

 
3. 1M4A Introductions (no later than July 28)
The scene has been moved to a very different place, right after the First Order departs from the Jakku planet at the beginning of the movie. Nevertheless, this served as an excuse for JW to revisit the cue again. 
The Resistance theme (both A and B!) is now prominent in the first half of the scene, while Leia's theme gets a new "polyrhythmic" rendition. 
The second half of the cue is based on the old, but heavily "revised" material. A faster tempo prompted JW to "embellish" bassoon solo with many other instruments.  


Bonus: there is a fragment in the 1M4A cue sketch that Williams crossed out before the cue was even submitted (which is very rare). It's a fragment from the second half of the cue, but it's different in texture from the rest of the cue. I made a separate mockup of it for fun. 

 

ragoz350 · 1M4A - Old fragment

Bravo@ConorPower! I can't wait to read it (and cite it myself!).

Very very late follow up to this thread from last year. My presentation became a proper paper and I've now published my first academic article. It's on Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with a particular focus on how Irina and Mutt's musical depictions relate to gender.
It's open access so feel free to have a read. Its not too long. And I would welcome any feedback the JWFan community may have  
[reigniting my thanks to @Falstaft @crumbs]
 
https://revista.uclm.es/index.php/cuadernosdeinvestigacionmusical/article/view/2830
Swashbucklers and Femme Fatales - Gender Coding in John Williams's Score to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).pdf

Roger says
 
"we are announcing next week's release this Friday.
 
this has been a grail release for some time, especially to get that Daedalus cue released. Similar to Monsignor, different mixes existed. So as with that release, one disc features the complete score from Armin Steiner's spectacular film mix, with a second disc featuring Len Engel's album mix we've all come to know and love. Finally it's all here produced under the love and care of Mike Matessino."
 
http://www.intrada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8910
 

Of all the arrangements this is my favorite...
 
 

It's an interesting comparison -- the Debussy is certainly an influential piece, though there's so much from Williams that already sounds like this part of "The Rise of Skywalker" track, I hesitate to draw a direct linkage. More likely, aspects of Debussy's writing (planing, quasi-modality, woodwind chorales) were already long-integrated into JW's style. And in this particular case, you got the vague contours of Rey's Chimes also possibly serving as a reference-point for this theme.
 
Now, if you want an almost certainly accidental but nevertheless cool link between Nuages and Rey's Chimes, check out this passage from Myaskovsky's 6th Symphony (1923) -- for a long time best known of his 27!. Uncanny, right?
 
   
 
 
Whoa. That bit at 19:44 is certainly a more striking sound-alike to the Imperial Motif than a lot of other things I've heard it compared to (Tchaikovsky, "Arabian Dance" from Nutcracker for ex, pfff). Right down to the little grace-note figure before the final chord.
 
Agree it's harder to make a case that Williams had this to refer to than a lot of other purported cases of similarity -- though it's not out of the question. Seems Henze is channeling Stravinsky throughout this section anyway, so maybe that's the shared ancestor of both. Still, quite a remarkable resemblance! Thanks for introducing me to this piece, @Loert

I had never actually looked up what's onscreen when that bit plays, but if it isn't droids, I'm going to either A.) assume it was somehow tracked or microedited from a shot that did involve R2 or 3PO at one time, or B.) concede that it's a coincidence, the theme is in fact limited to TESB, and we've just deepened the sad depths of the Tragedy of Droid-Motifus the Wise, a melody so powerful he could influence the MIDI-chlorians to create life—until his composer murdered him in his sleep after just one movie.

Our friend and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra trombonist, @jimnova, posted this charming account of hanging out with Johnny the past few days.  

What an absolutely amazing time it was to have John Williams in town with the PSO these past few days… My heart is bursting, especially since I had the chance to sit and visit with him one on one after a rehearsal. Some highlights from our conversation: He warmly scolded me for asking if he remembered me Confirmed he was a trombone player as a kid Said he loves the trombone and wants a score (if I have one lying around ) to my Star Wars album (which he never received) to look at while he listens to it He congratulated me on finishing such a big project And finally, despite being booked out for 3 years, would consider writing a trombone choir piece… I’m over the moon! I can’t believe it’s been 25 years since I first had the pleasure of sharing a stage with this amazing man.  

Just discovered this on YouTube today -- hadn't heard this particular, pleasingly bombastic arrangement of "Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas" before.
 
 

I would say that you need a better audience for an Alderaan joke, but, you know, they are all dead.  

Curious what y'all have in mind? There's this section of Battle of Endor 1 that resembles the Droid Motif, but accompanies Ewoks running from Stormtroopers, not R2 or Threepio:
 
 

**Edit for even more context: Hi, this is Ben Pawlak - we usually post over on the New Project: John Williams Potter Scoring thread. This account is shared between me and Molly Sanford as a composing/music editing team. We are also both professional pianists in graduate programs, hence the pictures!**

Yesterday after the Carnegie concert, the Maestro himself came to Juilliard for a conducting session where we played the Superman March, theme from Jurassic Park, and Adventures on Earth. Here's our post from the Potter thread about it:

I was lucky enough to play piano/celesta, and Molly (who was in town to see his Carnegie concert the night before) was turning pages for me. So the short version is: both of us were in the room with JW and it was thrilling! And yes we did give him a flash drive with GOF, OOTP, and HBP on it. 
 
- BP
 

 

 
More context - Several months ago I saw that our April 22nd orchestra read was going to be a John Williams day, so I went to ask my orchestra director if he’d invite JW to the school since he’ll be in town for the Carnegie concert the night before. He said he’d talk to the dean and reach out to see if it were possible. We finally got confirmation about ten days ago that he’d be able and willing to visit the session. 
 
It all spun into something much bigger as camera crews set up microphones and the Juilliard president, provost, dean of the music division, and president emeritus arrived. We had only about an hour to rehearse everything and were all super excited. John showed up in the late morning, and brought Anne-Sophie Mutter with him, so all of the violins were suddenly panicked which was fun. 
 
He was not planning to conduct us while he was here, only to guide the rehearsal which was led by our grad student conductors. He gave them feedback and spoke to the group about certain aspects of the pieces that he finds particularly difficult to work on with an orchestra. At the end, he was talking about bar 8 of the Jurassic Park theme (where it goes into the main tempo) and how it’s always difficult to get together. The conductor who was on the podium at the time asked if he wanted to fix it. He then stood up and took over to much applause. His efficiency in fixing it was incredible. It was an amazing couple minutes that we’ll never forget. 
 
Afterwards he got a photo op at the aforementioned John Williams Orchestra Library. With the amount of cameras that were in the room, I’m sure it will be thrown on Juilliard’s YouTube page at some point in the coming months once they edit it. 
 
Side Note: After we played E.T., Juilliard’s President Damian Woetzel interrupted to say that he had filmed part of it on his phone and sent it to Steven Spielberg who had responded with kind words and a warm hello to John. 
 
View from the piano:



BP

"thank you, you'll be hearing from my lawyers." ~ JW

We don't know! We basically gave it to him in an envelope that said "Thank you, Mr. Williams" and a letter inside that would explain everything once he was back from being bombarded by people. 
 
Regardless, we are just so happy knowing he (hopefully) knows it exists now. 
 
MS 

This is not a DH update, but we were able to meet the maestro himself yesterday! He came to Juilliard for a conducting session where we played Superman March, theme from Jurassic Park, and Adventures on Earth. I was lucky enough to play piano/celesta, and Molly (who was in town to see his Carnegie concert the night before) was turning pages for me. So the short version is: both of us were in the room with JW and it was thrilling! And yes we did give him a flash drive with GOF, OOTP, and HBP on it.

Basically we wrote him a thank-you letter for everything his music means to us, and presented highlights from the project as a fan gift (along with the knit JW). The project content was in an envelope so we don't know what he thinks or if he's heard it but we're just happy to have expressed our appreciation in some way!

-BP
 


 

The Adventures of Benny on Tatooine or Scherzo for Benny and Orchestra

He plans to bookend his career with perfect symmetry. For his final work, he will be working with Canadian officials in Newfoundland for a promo video. 
 
 

I just hope JW grabs this golden opportunity to write the first ever love theme of the saga.

Indeed, though I found the inclusion of a giant choir of 30 bagpipes to be an unexpected choice. 

Indeed, though I found the inclusion of a giant choir of 30 bagpipes to be an unexpected choice. 

Indeed, though I found the inclusion of a giant choir of 30 bagpipes to be an unexpected choice. 

Indeed, though I found the inclusion of a giant choir of 30 bagpipes to be an unexpected choice.