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Star Wars Prequel Music Resource (part 2)


John Crichton

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I wonder why "Get' Em R-2!" was mostly unused. It fits the entire sequence, and is intended to segue right into The Elevator Scene.

As a matter a fact, I wonder why The Elevator Scene was unused all together, except for the beginning with the entrance of General Grievous.

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Although I enjoy both cues, I think it was a smart decision. Music can start to hurt a film if there's too much of it, even if it's great stuff. Same thing happened with Empire - LOTS of unused music there, most of which is utterly brilliant. But the film needs time to breathe without the emotions being dictated by the music.

I have no problem with them spotting the films with too much music, mind you - it makes for more material to listen to outside of the film!

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Right; that makes sense.

I remember that there was unused music in Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.

With all of the phenomenal work that John Williams does, at least it gives him the opportunity to score a particular scene that could potentially be driven by music, even if the cue ends up being unused for good reason.

Better thing too, a lot of what is unused ends up being released by the Maestro himself, which makes the listening experience more phenomenal

(Love Pledge / The Arena, The Elevator Scene, Grievous and the Droids, Main Title / The Planet Hoth, Luke's Nocturnal Visitor (Yoda's Entrance), Keeping Up With the Jones, Hook's Entrance, Goat Bait, The Hunt, Ludlow's Demise, etc.).

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I wonder why "Get' Em R-2!" was mostly unused. It fits the entire sequence, and is intended to segue right into The Elevator Scene.

As a matter a fact, I wonder why The Elevator Scene was unused all together, except for the beginning with the entrance of General Grievous.

As Data said probably they felt it was to much but personally I felt it would have helped those scenes and probably have made them seem gone a bit faster and not drag on. To me it was just way to much silence for that long of a time.

They should have kept ALL the music in for "Entrance Of The Monsters". Ben Burtt's so called music that was replaced sucks.

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I am curious about something. Why was the electric guitar in The Chase Through Coruscant edited out in the finished film (or was it)?

It gives the location an urban feel, not to mention it blends in very well with the London Symphony Orchestra.

When I watch that scene, I can't help but here the guitar in that one section (the other section in which it is heard again was unused).

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I love the guitar there, I think it was an inspired idea. I wish it wasn't dialed out of the final film. Who knows why it was.

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I love the guitar there, I think it was an inspired idea. I wish it wasn't dialed out of the final film. Who knows why it was.

I think it is shown in one of the music documentaries of Episode II how Lucas and Williams are in process of deciding whether to use the guitar or not. I guess in the end Lucas didn't like the sound. "Usable or loseable" as Lucas puts it in jest.

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Was the guitar recorded separately? Every time I see the film, I can swear that I hear the guitar as part of the music in the finished film.

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I thought so. I always seem to here the guitar playing along with the orchestra as recorded, but during the scene in which the cue scores.

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The guitar was a nice touch in that track, although it was so quick it's hard to believe there needed to be much discussion about whether to use it. It adds a nice flavor, though, and would have gone well with the futuristic hot rod concept and the angsty teenage Anakin.

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Let's discuss the cue from Episode III: Revenge of the Sith - I Am the Senate.



Does anybody want to talk about

I Am the Senate?

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Let's talk the possibility of new Star Wars Prequel music being included in Star Wars Battlefront, given DICE has just announced it. Given that we got a truckload of stuff in TOR, any possibility of us being listened to again? :D

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Except this is a public forum. I won't stop other people commenting on your post, of course, but I am free to say what I want to say, unless it breaks the rules.

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Huh? I am not stopping you from saying what you want. I was just trying to invite other people into discussing this cue. That is all.

Do you want to discuss it?

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Let's talk the possibility of new Star Wars Prequel music being included in Star Wars Battlefront, given DICE has just announced it. Given that we got a truckload of stuff in TOR, any possibility of us being listened to again? :D

We'll get the missing 5 minutes from RotS, and the day our edits we slaved a decade over are finished, they'll announce the complete c.d. release

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We'll get the missing 5 minutes from RotS, and the day our edits we slaved a decade over are finished, they'll announce the complete c.d. release

That has yet to happen with The Phantom Menace. :P

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Not just the complete release to Episode III: Revenge of the Sith,

but the complete release for

Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Episode II: Attack of the Clones, and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

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The guitarist probably played along with the rest of the orchestra I would think

Yes. It's dialed out, but you can still hear its echo in the rear channels of the sound track.

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If you're talking about "Zam Chase" then yup...even the The Old Republic game files which came from the music only portion of the film stems has that. The guitar is still there but dialed down WAY low. I actually preferred it that way compared to the guitar being up front and center.

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Now, what about the climax to Episode I: The Phantom Menace?

Could someone explain how the scenes originally were in

sequence before being re-edited?

The Battle of Naboo (Forest Mist / The Armies Face Off /

Battle Part 2 C / Laser Fight March / Take To Your Ships /

The Big Army / The Droid Battle / Up the Wire / T

he Great Duel / The Duel Continues /

Crash Landing / Qui-Gon's Noble End)

What scores what? Some cues I already know what they portray, but I want reassurrance.

Why was most of the musical sequence unused?

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I still say that the only way to know for sure (short of a complete release with detailed liner notes on the original intentions) would be if Williams' sketches leak. Those would contain references to the sync points in the film, and we'd know what was supposed to go where.

For now, we have a lot of clever speculation, most of which is probably correct, but there are no firm answers.

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We will get a complete release of Episode I: The Phantom Menace,

Episode II: Attack of the Clones, and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

in the near future. I have full confidence in that.

It has happened with other works of the Maestro.

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Won't happen until Sony loses the rights to release them and Disney feels like licensing re-issues out to a label

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Won't happen until Sony loses the rights to release them and Disney feels like licensing re-issues out to a label

Bingo. Who knows if Sony has the rights for the music in perpuity like Varese does with a lot of their titles.

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I believe Sony still has the rights for at least another five years, if not longer.

2018....gah. Damn you Sony!

Yes, I think they bought the rights in 1999 for 20 years.

Which is bullshit...

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I knew it had to do with company ownership.

In my view, the Maestro wrote his music for the public to enjoy, as well as to tell the story.

It belongs not only to him, but to all of us.

Sony Classical really should release a complete set for Episode I, II, and III.

They would make quite a profit on that.

Why won't they do this?

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Sony Classical really should release a complete set for Episode I, II, and III.

Yes, they should!

They would make quite a profit on that.

I think they would, yes!

Why won't they do this?

God only knows

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In my view, the Maestro wrote his music for the public to enjoy

You might want to rethink that when we get the next "John Williams decided that only 50 minutes of the score will result in a better listening experience"-relase.

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Hey who knows, when Star Wars 7 comes out in May 2015 maybe it will get a double-disc release like AUJ and MOS

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Hey who knows, when Star Wars 7 comes out in May 2015 maybe it will get a double-disc release like AUJ and MOS

We can only hope. Hopefully around that time Sony will get their heads out of their asses and release the proper version of TPM and for the others too.

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Sorry, JanBing, but whatever point you are trying to make, I completely disagree.

I completely respect and admire the working process of John Williams, and the listening experience is excellent.



It has to do with cost, material, and limited resources available. You cannot possibly release

ALL the music packed on one CD. John Williams provides an excellent listening experience

by presenting some of the highlights of the scores,

presenting the program in the form of a concert performance.

I enjoy it greatly. Quit complaining.

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No actually - The labels JW's modern scores are released on would let him release them in any length he wanted. He chooses exactly what cues are included, how they are combined, and what bits are removed from the cues all by himself. He does this, of course, because he feels it makes for the best listening experience. Some fans agree with his choices, some fans don't and wish they were longer and without bits removed from cues.

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I knew that, though. I only stated what you just stated, only in the general sense (without being too detailed).

Anyway, I enjoy it. It is like a suite of some of the pivotal points in the story.

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We're in an age when people want all the music from a movie they can get. There's nothing stopping Williams from putting together a list of what people should listen to and what order in a playlist they can make for themselves on the computer, but at this point to purposefully not put music on a CD when there is nothing preventing it is annoying.

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It is not the Maestro's fault. His albums are of excellent quality.

Sony just cannot seem to come to terms

with the fact that having a complete release of music to

three chapters of a cinematic saga done by the greatest composer

of the 20th / 21st would make for a great profit.

What was the deal with TPM "Ultimate Edition."

From what I have heard, it does not give a good

presentation of the Maestro's score. What happened?

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And - far worse - it was explicitly marketed as presenting "every note of music" that was recorded for the film, which was simply false, no matter how you look at it.

Well, I guess that's not true. Technically, there are only twelve notes that get recorded for most films, and I'm sure all of them are included in the UE...damn, those marketing fiends are geniuses.

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And - far worse - it was explicitly marketed as presenting "every note of music" that was recorded for the film, which was simply false, no matter how you look at it.

Well, I guess that's not true. Technically, there are only twelve notes that get recorded for most films, and I'm sure all of them are included in the UE...damn, those marketing fiends are geniuses.

The TPM:UE made me so angry. I even entered Sony's stupid giveaway contest and won a copy...only to receive it nearly two months after the album's release! So here I am with 2 copies of "every single note" of TPM teetering between anguish and white-hot beligerence. Even the track supposedly "unused" was indeed in the film. "Desert Winds" or something like that. Source music wasn't unused, it's in the damn film at the exact placement in the album. Ohhhhh...I'm getting all worked up about it all over again!

Mr. K

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It really was pretty preposterous. It wouldn't have been nearly so bad if they'd marketed it as what it actually was. It's the deception that turns the disappointment into anger.

Granted, I was younger, stupider, and less perceptive, so at first, I was just super excited about all the excellent music to which I now had access. I didn't notice the flaws until I got a little better at understanding the distinction between a composer's intentions for a film and their score's final use in the film - which, in cases like TPM, can be quite a huge distinction indeed. As I've said before, I'd still take the UE+OST over just the OST...but it sucks that they didn't spend a comparable amount of money, effort, and risk on just releasing the score the way they pretended they were doing.

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The TPM:UE made me so angry. I even entered Sony's stupid giveaway contest and won a copy...only to receive it nearly two months after the album's release!

Hahahaha, me too!

I ended up selling it on ebay eventually, because I had already bought it the day it came out and opened that one even though I knew my free copy was coming.

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Wow... why would Sony market that product as "every note recorded" when that is far from the truth?

A soundtrack is suppose to give a quality listening experience,

as the Maestro does for his works. While an isolated score gives good

insight into how the music flows in the finished film, it does not

provide quality listening experience.

The least Sony could've done was market this "Ultimate Edition"

as an isolated score release, instead of falsely

marketing the product as containing the complete score.

The Maestro would not have approved of this.

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