Search the Community

Ford vs Ford Nice try Lao Che.

Mentioned it in the other thread but decided to create a thread of its own. Just because I can. I wrote a two-part feature on Star Wars themes that John Williams composed for both trilogies. It is not intended to be a complete academical analysis of any sort. It's mostly aimed at complete film music laymen (so might not be much of a point sharing it here). I can certainly not even approach the kind of detail that Incanus and Ludwig are able to inject into their articles/posts, nor am I educated as TGP, Sharky and other esteemed members to make sophisticated technical connections. So is just my own personal view on the matter, written mostly for fun (and really quickly). I would have shared the entire thing on here. But it's 8,000 words altogether, so... The Themes of Star Wars - Episode 1 - The Original Trilogy The Themes of Star Wars - Episode 2 - The Prequel Trilogy EDIT: Thanks to Inky for adding his 3 cents! Karol

Daisy Ridley and John Boyega also comment on the score (at the 2:10 and 7:09 mark respectively)

OK let's assume for the sake of this poll/thread that Williams is scoring the film - which themes do you think are most likely to appear in Episode 7's score? Obiviously Luke's Theme and The Force Theme will re-appear, there is NO question about that. I think after that, Princess Leia's Theme and Han and Leia's Love Theme are most likely to reappear. Williams used Princess Leia's Theme in Episode III and seems to be fond of it. He seems to have forgotten Han Solo and Leia's Love Theme entirely over the years, but I think it will finally return now. I do wonder if he will use The Rebel Fanfare as the theme for The New Republic or will write a new one. And I wonder if Duel of the Fates will have any reason to reappear. You'd think with Anakin/Vader, The Emperor, Yoda, Jabba, Boba Fett, Darth Maul, Qui-Gonn Jinn, Shmi, and Greivious all dead their themes won't reappear, but you never know - they might be re-purposed for new characters who embody their spirit. I expect a ton of new themes actually, with only minor references to the older themes. Except The Force Theme, which I'm sure will appear about as often as it did in ROTS.

This is most likely a stupid assumption, but do you guys reckon the music heard in this video is from the TFA score? I'm not sure, but you never know http://bcove.me/jqren2sx

Wow, I just got back from the Star Wars premiere in Hollywood (no, I didn't see the film, just the red carpet) and saw Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, JJ Abrams, Max von Sydow, Andy Serkis, George Lucas, John Williams, Frank Oz, Daisy Ridley​!! JJ Abrams and Andy Serkis came up to our little area for selfies and autographs. It was very exciting to see so many stars. It was very cool and so exciting! Woohoo!

enjoy ! (or not)

New music on starwars.com? Scroll back and listen.

There's a great disturbance... in my bowel. And the state of modern journalism. http://www.theage.com.au/national/health/doctors-use-star-wars-to-detect-disturbances-in-the-bowel-20151215-glnpux.html Nice to hear Battle of the Heroes is having such a positive effect on people. Not so nice to see the "journalist" not mention the composer of said music once in the entire article.

Here is part 4 of my blog series on celebrating Star Wars themes, this one on The Phantom Menace (oh come on - you can stomach it!): http://www.filmmusicnotes.com/celebrating-star-wars-themes-part-4-of-6-duel-of-the-fates/ Enjoy!

From 10:35 onwards JJ Abrams discusses hearing the new themes from john williams, in particular the end credits

There's some music in this Spanish TV spot we haven't heard before. It's not much, so it's hard to tell, but does anyone here think it's Williams? I'm not really sure. We hear that flute melody that has been confirmed to be from a Williams-composed film cue; but is the little bit of new material simply by a trailer music house to act as a "continuation" of Williams' composition, or is it more of Williams' score?

Here is part 2 of my Celebrating Star Wars series: http://www.filmmusicnotes.com/celebrating-star-wars-films-part-2-of-6-uses-of-darth-vaders-theme/ Enjoy!

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-film-starwars-secrecy-idUSKBN0TQ1I020151207#BCbpjLy3KWiIBg3q.9%209#BPeyTrv78EzGCTKT.97 Kylo Ren has his own theme song! I'm guessing that Lin-Manuel wrote the lyrics.

Here is part 3 of my Star Wars theme analyses, this one on the Emperor's theme: http://www.filmmusicnotes.com/celebrating-star-wars-themes-part-3-of-6-the-emperors-theme/ Enjoy!

Thanks in advance...have purposefully been avoiding the buzz to avoid spoilers.

Has anyone discussed the fact that 20th Century Fox is not involved in this movie? Doesn't that mean there will be no Fanfare? Will it be Disney's castle and the Bad Robot? What music goes there? I hope Disney's castle gets Randy Newman's Toy Story opener! ~Conor

It's true that most of the music in the Star Wars saga is intended to fit like a glove to the film, but there are some cases where they simply cannot coexist. For a long time I wanted to share this particular example with the community. At the beginning of A New Hope, when the escape pod with C-3PO and R2-D2 is launched, Williams achieves an extremely lyrical melody doubled in strings in a very lush fashion, with augmented chords in the trombones and horns. It was so inspiring for me when I listened to this isolated in the soundtrack CD for the first time, like an announcement of a big adventure yet to come. But in the film, the music barely begins before is immediately silenced to make some not really necessary dialogue, in my opinion, audible. I think this little sequence would have worked perfectly as a silent one, with the music as the only highlight, because the reason the imperials had for not shooting down the pod are anyways explained to Darth Vader a moment later. The dialogue of the droids is not relevant either, so it was a perfect oportunity for this beautiful music to shine. Having seen this movie hundreds of times, I still can't get accustomed. I wonder why Williams would compose something this big for a sequence like that, considering all that dialogue. Do you feel this way about other parts of the Star Wars films? I'm very interested to know. 6:57 to the end.

https://www.facebook.com/scoringsessions/posts/1137108402981716

Very insightful interview with JJ Abrams He does mention John Williams: So: John Williams! Oh my God! First of all, forget his talent and his achievement. As a person, hes the guy you want to know more than anyone. He is the sweetest soul Ive ever met. Hes like this jazzman who became one of the greatest composers of all time. He literally calls you baby! Like, Hey, baby. He calls me J.J. Baby. I waited all my life to meet someone who would call me that! He works in pencil. You go to his home and listen to him play notes on the piano, and while youre listening, you extrapolate what it will be like when you hear the melody with an orchestra. It is unforgettable, a truly miraculous thing to behold. He has every one of his scores leather-bound. I was like, Do you mind if I ? He goes, No, go ahead! So I pulled out the Jaws score, and sure enough, there it is, in pencil on paper: baaaa-bum, baaaa-bum. Youre like, Well, thats what he wrote! Its as if youre hanging out with Mozart, who happened to score your favorite movies. I know everybody knows this, but when you actually think about what hes composed, it is as important as any work ever done on any of those movies. When you think about Superman and Raiders and Jawsand Close Encounterswhich came out the same year as Star Warsand then the Harry Potter movies? He is just superhuman. Its unbelievable that he is as brilliant and yet as modest as he is. Its just an amazing thing to get to know that guy.

As a way of celebrating the Star Wars saga in honor of the upcoming Episode VII, I have begun a series of six posts on my blog that will analyze one prominent theme from each of the six films in turn. The first is on uses of the Force theme (I had an analysis of the Force theme's structure before). http://www.filmmusicnotes.com/celebrating-star-wars-part-1-of-6-uses-of-the-force-theme/ Enjoy!

Long-time JWFan contributor Frank Lehman writes about the music in the three trailers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens in a special article for the American Musicology Society: Full article: Trailers, Tonality, and the Force of Nostalgia, by Frank Lehman

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/07/06/star-wars-comic-con-panel Trailer (and presumably more Williams music) expected this fall. Almost 5 months before the film's release and I really haven't seen much promotion. I guess we'll see more when the toys are released and the trailer is debuted.

http://makingstarwars.net/2015/06/details-on-a-few-unique-tracks-from-star-wars-the-force-awakens-score/