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'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' SCORE speculation


Ricard

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If anything sets the overall tone in this trailer, it's the music.

Some thoughts:

0:06 - Interesting EMPIRE STRIKES BACK-like "gloomy" celesta figure.

You are probably thinking of "Clash of Lightsabers".

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I'm confused. Was Williams not involved, then... aside from the rehash material?

Williams' involvement was probably limited to his old and feeble hand, gently but firmly guided by Felix Erskine, signing off on allowing this newcomer to take over his material, with Kathleen Kennedy reassuring him.

"It's ok John, this nice man is going to give you some help!"

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10577162_10153243138302990_4378291552923

John: "(...) and then J.J. said "Don't worry, John, we'll have this promising new composer take care of the rest of the score and the trailer cues!" Boy, saved me some work!"

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"Now I can focus on writing my new concerto for piccolo, dedicated to JWFan's King Mark, a poster that I have a very deep respect and admiration for. In fact, it's the first time that I've actually asked someone to let me compose a piece for them!"

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The concerto will be titled, "Footpad" in honor of King Cat, sources close to Maestro say, "It'll be a spiritual successor to Heartwood."

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"Now I can focus on writing my new concerto for piccolo, dedicated to JWFan's King Mark, a poster that I have a very deep respect and admiration for.  In fact, it's the first time that I've actually asked someone to let me compose a piece for them!"

I'd love to play that.
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So getting back to seriousness once more.

Assuming the trailer music is by Johnny-Dubs...

It's very..."broad stroke" music for him!


The section that starts once we see Vader's Helmet is eerily devoid of ornamentation and a billion twisty notes leading you from chord to chord!

To get back to facetiousness...is he going the way of Jerry Goldsmith? Less is more in old age? Signs of health problems? WHAT COULD IT MEAN?!

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Involvement with the production of this teaser is confirmed by Mr. Erskine himself on his Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/felix.erskine?fref=ts

FYI, you can link directly to specific Facebook posts

https://www.facebook.com/felix.erskine/posts/10155417665820176

Just click the part that tells you how long ago it was posted to get the link.

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After the low drone-like double bass ostinato in TINTIN, this doesn't come unexpected.

Williams is slowly exploring RCP territory. The end is near!

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So getting back to seriousness once more.

Assuming the trailer music is by Johnny-Dubs...

It's very..."broad stroke" music for him!

The section that starts once we see Vader's Helmet is eerily devoid of ornamentation and a billion twisty notes leading you from chord to chord!

To get back to facetiousness...is he going the way of Jerry Goldsmith? Less is more in old age? Signs of health problems? WHAT COULD IT MEAN?!

I for one appreciate this less adorned approach!

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Oh...I completely agree.

But assuming it's Williams writing that, what is it about old age that makes composers so...SPARTAN!?

Duller minds, arthritis, general malaise. Impending death will make minimalists of us all.

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Other thoughts:

LONE HIGH PIANO IN STAR WARS?! (0:32)

The beginning of Jedi Master Revealed from ESB, is that a piano or a glockenspiel?

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Oh...I completely agree.

But assuming it's Williams writing that, what is it about old age that makes composers so...SPARTAN!?

Duller minds, arthritis, general malaise. Impending death will make minimalists of us all.

All early onset in the case of Hans Zimmer, I presume? ;)

Other thoughts:

LONE HIGH PIANO IN STAR WARS?! (0:32)

The beginning of Jedi Master Revealed from ESB, is that a piano or a glockenspiel?

I'm not sure about the ESB track. It doesn't sound like a piano to me, doesn't have that piano woody click sound to it that you get on the high-end.

But in the trailer, it's a piano, paired with some kind of low-end instrument to give that submarine/sonar-like effect. A curiously modern effect. Makes me wonder if it's added after.

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Oh...I completely agree.

But assuming it's Williams writing that, what is it about old age that makes composers so...SPARTAN!?

Duller minds, arthritis, general malaise. Impending death will make minimalists of us all.

All early onset in the case of Hans Zimmer, I presume? ;)

Other thoughts:

LONE HIGH PIANO IN STAR WARS?! (0:32)

The beginning of Jedi Master Revealed from ESB, is that a piano or a glockenspiel?

I'm not sure about the ESB track. It doesn't sound like a piano to me, doesn't have that piano woody click sound to it that you get on the high-end.

But in the trailer, it's a piano, paired with some kind of low-end instrument to give that submarine/sonar-like effect. A curiously modern effect. Makes me wonder if it's added after.

Zimmer, like me, is merely more keenly aware of our ultimate fate than most!

The ESB cue starts with celesta chords. In the trailer it's a piano and bass drum - a very deep, and yes, possibly added one.

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I don't think Williams is consciously writing in a more modern style - he may subconsciously adapt himself to the current aesthetics, but I think he's more focused on exploring his own world of compositional ideas, and what you're hearing might just happen to be part of that world.

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Thank you very much for this!

Anyone else find it kinda funny that it ends with a similar edit to the new Lucasfilm logo music on the digital releases of the films?

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Music is fantastic! Worked great in the teaser.

Involvement with the production of this teaser is confirmed by Mr. Erskine himself on his Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/felix.erskine?fref=ts

Can someone ask him about his involvement?

I did. He hasn't replied yet.

I'm pretty sure it's more of a "processing" role than any actual writing. If you listen carefully, you'll hear a couple of big "trailer-booms", EPIC synth drums, and small details that "modernize" the music to fit the trailer. For instance, if you go by Fal's vid, that downward gliss followed by that heavy reverb piano note is kind of unlike Williams, so that might be something this guy added to the music.

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Unless they molded the new teaser around the music, that's highly unlikely.


Disney should sell these trailer cues on iTunes for $1.29 each. But they are not smart enough to ever do that.

I was thinking the exact same thing.


Now that I think of it, I really, really hope the album will present a large chunk of the score. I don't want another case of tons of missing material.

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Unless they molded the new teaser around the music, that's highly unlikely.

How do we know the teasers weren't cut in advance?

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Music is fantastic! Worked great in the teaser.

Involvement with the production of this teaser is confirmed by Mr. Erskine himself on his Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/felix.erskine?fref=ts

Can someone ask him about his involvement?

I did. He hasn't replied yet.

I'm pretty sure it's more of a "processing" role than any actual writing. If you listen carefully, you'll hear a couple of big "trailer-booms", EPIC synth drums, and small details that "modernize" the music to fit the trailer. For instance, if you go by Fal's vid, that downward gliss followed by that heavy reverb piano note is kind of unlike Williams, so that might be something this guy added to the music.

It sounds to me like he remixed previous John Williams tracks and added some extra material (with nothing new by Williams).

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I hope the 'new material' is Williams. It's fucking amazing. Love that Lydian supertonic over the tonic pedal. Reminds me of Elfman's HULK Theme (same key I think).


If anything sets the overall tone in this trailer, it's the music.

Some thoughts:

0:06 - Interesting EMPIRE STRIKES BACK-like "gloomy" celesta figure.

You are probably thinking of "Clash of Lightsabers".

Yes, it's a similar chromatic cluster. Also reminds me of the moment when the emperor's hologram appears in ESB.

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I hope the 'new material' is Williams. It's fucking amazing. Love that Lydian supertonic over the tonic pedal. Reminds me of Elfman's HULK Theme (same key I think).

The part that accompanied Vader's helmet sounded like Williams but the second part did not (after the statement of the force theme).

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I'd be surprised if it wasn't. It's the superimposed !!!!!EPIC!!! synth percussion that makes it sound as if it's otherwise.

 

I'd actually like it if Williams wrote something like that into the score. It worked for THE PATRIOT.

 

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/m86mrCiZU5A?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

 

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I'd be surprised if it wasn't. It's the superimposed !!!!!EPIC!!! synth percussion that makes it sound as if it's otherwise.

I'd actually like it if Williams wrote something like that into the score. It worked for THE PATRIOT.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/m86mrCiZU5A?rel=0"frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Great track!

This Felix guy also claims to have done the music for the first teaser, which was confirmed by the Star Wars twitter to have been done by Williams.

Insanely existed to have helped shape the music for Star Wars Ep VII for the last 11 weeks !!!!
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From what I understand out of his replies to my question regarding his role in the musical design of both teasers, he designed the synthesizer sound doubling the french horns in the first teaser and designed the synthesized percussion overlays in the second teaser.

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From what I understand out of his replies to my question regarding his role in the musical design of both teasers, he designed the synthesizer sound doubling the french horns in the first teaser and designed the synthesized percussion overlays in the second teaser.

Okay, that's a relief.

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