Favorite Williams Instrumentations/Textures/Colors

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Instrumentations - either the ensemble used for a whole score, or the way a specific moment is orchestrated.

Textures - you know, big bold melodies, contrapuntal passages, dense figures weaving in and out of each other, parallel brass, and everything else!

Colors - individual sounds, like the classic 3 flutes+3 clarinets in unison, or the 2 clarinets+bass clarinet an octave down, or the whispy, magico alto flute/cor anglais/bassoon/vibraphone/harp tune of Hedwig's Theme, etc.

[Seth 67]

The woodwind choir at 2:17 of The People's House gets me every time. It's such a clean sound. I love the way the flutes color the reeds at that moment. The timpani writing in The Asteroid Field is probably my favorite Williams timpani passage. So many to choose from, though. I know Attack of the Clones doesn't get a lot of affection around here but I really like the more subdued orchestrations in that score (some days I actually like it more than the other two prequel scores ). It's a departure from the other SW scores, especially in the brass, where horns and trombones are on more equal footing with the trumpets. Speaking of prequels...the string setting of the main title in A New Hope from ROTS. I could go on.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Then go on!

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

One of my favourites is an old one - two woodwinds, doubling two octaves apart, used to depict the alien or exotic. You can hear it here in at The Emperor's Throne Room, with piccolo and bassoon (or horn - it's hard to tell). Delightfully eerie. Also love the imperceptibly high violin trills at 1:10.

Some more of the 2 octave WW split -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncssihpjgVc

5:04

1:42 and 4:07

0:25

[Faleel 5,349]

Those "medieval" instruments in Prisoner of Azkaban!

[Seth 67]

One of my favourites is an old one - two woodwinds, doubling two octaves apart, used to depict the alien or exotic. You can hear it here in at The Emperor's Throne Room, with piccolo and bassoon (or horn - it's hard to tell). Delightfully eerie. Also love the imperceptibly high violin trills at 1:10.

Some more of the 2 octave WW split -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncssihpjgVc

5:04

1:42 and 4:07

0:25

That's a technique I'm fond of as well. I especially like the example you gave from ESB, where it's piccolo and bass clarinet. Also from that score, I really like the rendition of Yoda's theme in violin harmonics at 2:55 of "City in the Clouds." That score is full of really interesting orchestrations. Whenever I listen to it from beginning to end I'm struck by how much interesting writing there is in between the action cues. Lots of colorful stuff for harp, synth, celeste (even electric piano, according to the sketches, which astonished me) and various mallet percussion instruments. In terms of texture, I really like the first movement of The Five Sacred Trees. It may be more form-related, but the way he gradually brings in the orchestra is very well-plotted. The movement unfolds in an organic way that's really lovely, and the trumpet-led climax is right where it needs to be. I feel that in the cello and viola concertos he gets to the first real tutti a bit soon, but that's not an issue here.

I've been playing The Phantom Menace a lot this week, and "Passage through the Planet Core" (for the female chorus but also for the monster music associated with the fish and such. which to me is a spiritual descendant of the the space slug music from ESB) and "Anakin defeats Sebulba" (for the strings (!) and the brass variation of Anakin's theme at the end) strike me as two particularly finely orchestrated cues.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Oh yeah! First movement of the bassoon concerto is a fantastic one, orchestrationally and formally.

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

Opening of Treesong deserves a mention too - not only for its crystalline orchestration but for some of the characteristic Williams harmonies we've been talking about.

[karelm 2,913]

I love his dissonant brass in Empire after Han's death. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRAxGWmzAxc. So unexpected harmonically and with gravity and the tension and quintessentially Star Wars. (on an unrelated note, if Lucas the director, he would have filled this scene with unnecessary dialogue like Luke saying: "Not good". Thank heavens for Kershner!)

[Jay 37,364]

I know Attack of the Clones doesn't get a lot of affection around here but I really like the more subdued orchestrations in that score (some days I actually like it more than the other two prequel scores ).

On the contrary, iI think most of us Love AOTC. I know I do!

[Ludwig 1,120]

The contrapuntal brass writing in A New Hope always sounds fresh to me no matter how physically old the score gets. Those passages in The Battle of Yavin are probably the best examples, like at 1:11 below, where we get staggered entries of the brass culminating in wonderfully dissonant major-minor chords when the brass all line up:

[karelm 2,913]

The contrapuntal brass writing in A New Hope always sounds fresh to me no matter how physically old the score gets. Those passages in The Battle of Yavin are probably the best examples, like at 1:11 below, where we get staggered entries of the brass culminating in wonderfully dissonant major-minor chords when the brass all line up:

Absolutely! Also excellent is this staggering brass fanfare at 2:36

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnQCSGsGwr8&feature=player_detailpage#t=156 (how do you get the youtube player in the post?)

Who else writes like this? Simply amazing.

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

The contrapuntal brass writing in A New Hope always sounds fresh to me no matter how physically old the score gets. Those passages in The Battle of Yavin are probably the best examples, like at 1:11 below, where we get staggered entries of the brass culminating in wonderfully dissonant major-minor chords when the brass all line up:

Absolutely! Also excellent is this staggering brass fanfare at 2:36

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnQCSGsGwr8&feature=player_detailpage#t=156 (how do you get the youtube player in the post?)

Who else writes like this? Simply amazing.

Anyone ever tried working out the chords from 0:25-44?

[Ludwig 1,120]

The contrapuntal brass writing in A New Hope always sounds fresh to me no matter how physically old the score gets. Those passages in The Battle of Yavin are probably the best examples, like at 1:11 below, where we get staggered entries of the brass culminating in wonderfully dissonant major-minor chords when the brass all line up:

Absolutely! Also excellent is this staggering brass fanfare at 2:36

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnQCSGsGwr8&feature=player_detailpage#t=156 (how do you get the youtube player in the post?)

Who else writes like this? Simply amazing.

Anyone ever tried working out the chords from 0:25-44?

They're all polytonal chords, with a full triad above and a dissonant single note below. Simply put, the triads above all have roots on "black keys" and the single notes on "white keys". From 0:18, the progression is:

C#m/C – Eb/A

C#m/C – Eb/A

C#m/C – Gb/G

Gb/G – Ab/E

Gb/G – Ab/E

Gb/G – Ab/E

Gb/G

Ab/A – A/F

Ab/A – A/F

C#m/C

A nice detail is that the C#m/C we started with returns at the climax of the buildup to round off the whole short passage. (One might even say that chord is "prolonged" through the passage.)

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Love the two tuba solos in The Dune Sea of Tatooine/Jawa Sandcrawler, the first in a strained high register, the second down in the sweet spot. Goofy.

Also something intriguing in The Mission Theme: during the first repeat of the theme, what's going on under the melody? It sounds similar to the middle string portion of the Star Wars theme, with a number of woodwind/keyboard/percussion lines weaving in and out in lieu of repeating the more static chordal harmonies that underpin the first statement of the theme. Anyone have the score? I think it's mostly scalar patterns or outlined triads with added 2nds and 6ths. Really love the kind of rippling harmony it creates.

[Ludwig 1,120]

The contrapuntal brass writing in A New Hope always sounds fresh to me no matter how physically old the score gets. Those passages in The Battle of Yavin are probably the best examples, like at 1:11 below, where we get staggered entries of the brass culminating in wonderfully dissonant major-minor chords when the brass all line up:

Absolutely! Also excellent is this staggering brass fanfare at 2:36

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnQCSGsGwr8&feature=player_detailpage#t=156 (how do you get the youtube player in the post?)

Who else writes like this? Simply amazing.

Anyone ever tried working out the chords from 0:25-44?

They're all polytonal chords, with a full triad above and a dissonant single note below. Simply put, the triads above all have roots on "black keys" and the single notes on "white keys". From 0:18, the progression is:

C#m/C – Eb/A

C#m/C – Eb/A

C#m/C – Gb/G

Gb/G – Ab/E

Gb/G – Ab/E

Gb/G – Ab/E

Gb/G

Ab/A – A/F

Ab/A – A/F

C#m/C

A nice detail is that the C#m/C we started with returns at the climax of the buildup to round off the whole short passage. (One might even say that chord is "prolonged" through the passage.)

Just to be clear, I'm talking about the Battle of Yavin cue here rather than the Clash of Lightsabers. Sorry for any confusion.

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

No problem, I got that.

Many thanks for that transcription. It's ingenious how Williams uses the the Death Star motif (Bm -> Cm/B) in that passage with the C#m/C chord, which moves to those Stravinskian parallel major triads with a dissonant pedal at a b6, #4 or b9. It's like the Rebel Fanfare meets the Death Star, which is a perfect musical illustration of the sequence.

[tedfud 38]

Very interesting . So to qualify as a polychord only one note dissonace required ?

so is the bass note the other polychord ? ( route )

t

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

It depends on the particular dissonance and the context of the chord. A dissonant pedal is often just a product of voice leading in the bass line (such as Eb - Eb/Db in the chorus of 'Ready or Not Here I Come (Can't Hide from Love)' by the Delfonics).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkXQWfYih6k

In 'The Battle of Yavin', with the pedal having a non-traditional harmonic function and the accents being where they are, it's clearly a polychord.

[tedfud 38]

oh what a song....such awesome chords....

yup makes sense...context is everything.

t

[Ludwig 1,120]

Very interesting . So to qualify as a polychord only one note dissonace required ?

so is the bass note the other polychord ? ( route )

Myself, I call something a polychord only when there are literally two chords present. If there's a chord and just a dissonant bass, I call it polytonal (the bass suggesting the other tonality all on its own). It's all the same family of concepts, I just prefer to be very precise in applying terms.

It depends on the particular dissonance and the context of the chord. A dissonant pedal is often just a product of voice leading in the bass line (such as Eb - Eb/Db in the chorus of 'Ready or Not Here I Come (Can't Hide from Love)' by the Delfonics).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkXQWfYih6k

One could even call the Eb/Db a V4/2 of IV that resolves in an unorthodox manner, the bass Db not going to C but Ab, probably to harmonize the melody's C with the sweetness of a 3rd rather than a bare octave on C, as would have happened had it resolved normally.