Jump to content

The Force Awakens begins recording at Sony in LA today


thx99

Recommended Posts

In this particular case of musical adaptation, I think a fair analogy is tailoring: Customizing a piece of pre-existing cloth to fit a slightly differently shaped figure, adding no new elements, but utilizing only what were parts of the original fabric.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you think the finale is a Ross adaptation you are wrong.

I have not changed my opinion on this score.

Ross did no 'Jurassic park III adaptation'. And i dont think he sat down and transcribed williams cues so they would fit the screen. He was told to use this or that cue, and that is what he worked with, without realsy orchestrating anything. And he did not created any music.

the quidditch music is 'classic' williams on autopilot working in a rush while writting AOTC. What is so unbelievable about it?

Ross has been chosen here (and then) because Williams likes him, he did the re-recordings of star tours 2 (for the same reason) and probably knows the orchestra well too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I was right afterall!

Your version, at least some time ago was that Williams composed the main new themes, and Ross created the rest of the music himself, creating a 2 hour score out of Williams new themes and existing material from HP1.

And that seems not to be the case.

Did I ever state that Ross was responsible for those cues?

no i was answering to other people.

But i know you secretly think it :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

he didnt conduct, i'll give you that. :P

But do you agree that 'Music composed by John Williams' is a correct statement to use?


Is it reasonable to assume that if Williams had been more involved, there would have been more original music and less re-purposed music from HP1?

Certainly.

I think the same.

But then Columbus+sequel = home alone 2 exists.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's a combination of original JW music specifically intended for the scenes Williams had time for and Ken Thorne Superman II-style adaptations of preexisting music for whatever scenes Williams didn't have time for.

(these are the discussions that make JWFan JWFan)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ideally, Spielberg would have let Catch Me If You Can be a summer 2003 or Winter 2003 release so Williams could have done all of COS. This is all his fault!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Spielberg constantly interfered with blockbuster franchise JW fantasy scores in those years. He made sure if there was a new Star Wars or Potter coming out, he had at least one or two films lined up for Williams to work on around the same time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think by now it's pretty clear: Williams wrote all the new themes and most or all of the actual new music (e.g., the action cues with the spiders and the basilisk), and he had Ross help him work in the material from the first film.

By the way, I finally did it - I figured out how much of COS is copied note-for-note from the first film. Going by running time, it's about 21.9%. Not quite as high as I expected, but I was also noticing how that 21.9% is scattered across the entire score, sometimes in snippets of 5-10 seconds. That's part of what makes it feel like such a cut-and-paste job at times, I think. (And then another 2% is cribbed from AOTC and Jurassic Park.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Really interesting insights into the COS/Ross situation. Huh! On a similar matter, can anyone give me some thoughts on how much the orchestrators will be doing on Episode VII? For that matter, how much do they do on any Williams score? Probably some elaboration on the basic material Williams presents, right?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I dunno, that discussion has been brought up many times over the years in various threads.

The final recording basically sounds like Williams wrote it on the sketches. Orchestrators might make a minor adjustment or whatever

There's something about it in the Superman re-recording liner notes where they only had Williams sketches to work with

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Williams sketches are already orchestrated, it's been said many times. The orchestrator just copy it

Where??? :conf:

TPG! Bill, Bert and Tom are waiting for you around the cauldron in Trollshaws. TPG! Bill, Bert and Tom are waiting for your around the cauldron in Trollshaws..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good morning!

Dawn take you all and be stone to you!

maxresdefault.jpg

;)

To be fair JWFanners react to these little jokes like trolls to roast mutton. They go after them hook, line and sinker.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Found this in the "starwars7news" boards. Some vague descriptions of possible themes. I'm doubtful, given the shady source but it's probably worth posting anyway.

From my private instructor, who is a good friend of one of the musicians in the orchestra which is recording the soundtrack next week, I have received some interesting info from the score.

Apparently, there is a theme (for a person, place or thing (think Force Theme, Leia's theme etc.)) that appears throughout the score in three different variations. One is very bold, brave and sort of heroic, one is very mild and careful, and one is dark and written in a minor scale, leaning towards the feeling of Imperial March.

UPDATE!
They are incredibly close to start recording, and some have recieved their parts. Of course, they only have codes for names, but my source recognizes much, including the main theme (duh), some of the attack music from the OT and (removed for possible spoiler)

http://thecantina.starwars7news.com/index.php?threads/soundtrack-names.2944/

I cut certain details from the posts due to major spoilers.

I must stress again, to take this news (?) with several grains of salt.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I shall take these news with a pinch of cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg. Plus with a grain of salt.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dubious unverified news do not have to taste bad my friend! It is all about the seasoning!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's definitely suspicious. Though the angle is what seems convincing to me. It sounds like somebody unknowledgeable receiving information from someone who is knowledgeable if that makes sense.

Still a 99% chance it's BS though.

I'd take the news with several buckets of salt.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Williams sketches are already orchestrated, it's been said many times. The orchestrator just copy it

Why are they called orchestrators then? I thought the orchestrators job is to take the sketches and write out the parts for each individual instrument. Some orchestrators take on more of a more compositional approach if the composer is useless.

They're called orchestrators because of contractual obligations, I presume.

The thing is: it's a different process that changes almost for every single composer. People like JW (or even Goldsmith) usually sketches out on 8 or 10-staves score (sometimes even 12 or 16, it depends on how much dense the music is). Technically, it's not a sketch anymore (a sketch is usually 2-4 staves score), but it's a "compressed score", or "parcel", like the Germans called it. Prokofiev used to do the very same (and Shostakovich usually lambasted him for that saying "Your orchestrators write your music!" lol). It's a technique Williams and others learned when they studied composition. It saves time instead of writing everything on a 32-staves full score. All the orchestrations and colors are there, they're just compressed in terms of paper space. Sometimes a few details are left to the orchestrators in terms of doublings, transposed keys, etc., but JW of course double-check everything when he's delivered the full conductor score.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Found this in the "starwars7news" boards. Some vague descriptions of possible themes. I'm doubtful, given the shady source but it's probably worth posting anyway.

From my private instructor, who is a good friend of one of the musicians in the orchestra which is recording the soundtrack next week, I have received some interesting info from the score.

Apparently, there is a theme (for a person, place or thing (think Force Theme, Leia's theme etc.)) that appears throughout the score in three different variations. One is very bold, brave and sort of heroic, one is very mild and careful, and one is dark and written in a minor scale, leaning towards the feeling of Imperial March.

UPDATE!

They are incredibly close to start recording, and some have recieved their parts. Of course, they only have codes for names, but my source recognizes much, including the main theme (duh), some of the attack music from the OT and (removed for possible spoiler)

http://thecantina.starwars7news.com/index.php?threads/soundtrack-names.2944/

I cut certain details from the posts due to major spoilers.

I must stress again, to take this news (?) with several grains of salt.

Definitely take this with a grain of salt. I find it curious that the musician of the instructor of the person who posted it (definitely an unreliable chain right there) apparently knew the entire score and how it sounds a week before the scoring sessions and before individual parts were even given out. The claim of a theme throughout the score in several variations is just vague enough to be true.

Probably more trustworthy - but I still approach it with skepticism - is the update given after the musicians received their parts.

Now, I haven't been disappointed about any SW7 score news until this point (I don't even care about Ross conducting). But the presence of "some of the attack music from the OT" is a bit of a let down. I want certain themes from the OT to reappear as needed, but recycling "attack music" (a la ROTJ?) is kind of a let down for me. Action music is something I want to be fresh and new to fit the new action situations. If this rumor (and it is nothing more as far as evidence goes) is true, I really hope it's not *another* rehash of the TIE Fighter Attack cue used for the scenes we've seen in the two trailers of the Falcon being pursued by TIE fighters through a crashed ship (again, a la ROTJ).

Oh, and since the Imperial March is hinted at in the first rumor, I'm also hoping The First Order's theme (assuming there is one) is not too similar to the Imperial March, or worse yet a continuation of the Imperial March for this new entity. I always viewed the Imperial March as Vader's theme rather than a theme for the Empire as a whole. I think the theme was really misused in the prequels, especially at the end of Attack of the Clones.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

HELP! Can somebody tell me if the 5 pages of posts after the William Ross revelation have anything worth reading?

Thanks, I've missed this part!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Found this in the "starwars7news" boards. Some vague descriptions of possible themes. I'm doubtful, given the shady source but it's probably worth posting anyway.

From my private instructor, who is a good friend of one of the musicians in the orchestra which is recording the soundtrack next week, I have received some interesting info from the score.

Apparently, there is a theme (for a person, place or thing (think Force Theme, Leia's theme etc.)) that appears throughout the score in three different variations. One is very bold, brave and sort of heroic, one is very mild and careful, and one is dark and written in a minor scale, leaning towards the feeling of Imperial March.

UPDATE!

They are incredibly close to start recording, and some have recieved their parts. Of course, they only have codes for names, but my source recognizes much, including the main theme (duh), some of the attack music from the OT and (removed for possible spoiler)

http://thecantina.starwars7news.com/index.php?threads/soundtrack-names.2944/

I cut certain details from the posts due to major spoilers.

I must stress again, to take this news (?) with several grains of salt.

Definitely take this with a grain of salt. I find it curious that the musician of the instructor of the person who posted it (definitely an unreliable chain right there) apparently knew the entire score and how it sounds a week before the scoring sessions and before individual parts were even given out. The claim of a theme throughout the score in several variations is just vague enough to be true.

Probably more trustworthy - but I still approach it with skepticism - is the update given after the musicians received their parts.

Now, I haven't been disappointed about any SW7 score news until this point (I don't even care about Ross conducting). But the presence of "some of the attack music from the OT" is a bit of a let down. I want certain themes from the OT to reappear as needed, but recycling "attack music" (a la ROTJ?) is kind of a let down for me. Action music is something I want to be fresh and new to fit the new action situations. If this rumor (and it is nothing more as far as evidence goes) is true, I really hope it's not *another* rehash of the TIE Fighter Attack cue used for the scenes we've seen in the two trailers of the Falcon being pursued by TIE fighters through a crashed ship (again, a la ROTJ).

Even if the rumor is true (and by that, I mean some musician involved in recording did say this), why would anybody think it is a pure cut and paste job. It is probably just music in the style of OT attack music (and, again, the same "style" in the mind of the musician in question).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Found this in the "starwars7news" boards. Some vague descriptions of possible themes. I'm doubtful, given the shady source but it's probably worth posting anyway.

From my private instructor, who is a good friend of one of the musicians in the orchestra which is recording the soundtrack next week, I have received some interesting info from the score.

Apparently, there is a theme (for a person, place or thing (think Force Theme, Leia's theme etc.)) that appears throughout the score in three different variations. One is very bold, brave and sort of heroic, one is very mild and careful, and one is dark and written in a minor scale, leaning towards the feeling of Imperial March.

UPDATE!

They are incredibly close to start recording, and some have recieved their parts. Of course, they only have codes for names, but my source recognizes much, including the main theme (duh), some of the attack music from the OT and (removed for possible spoiler)

http://thecantina.starwars7news.com/index.php?threads/soundtrack-names.2944/

I cut certain details from the posts due to major spoilers.

I must stress again, to take this news (?) with several grains of salt.

Definitely take this with a grain of salt. I find it curious that the musician of the instructor of the person who posted it (definitely an unreliable chain right there) apparently knew the entire score and how it sounds a week before the scoring sessions and before individual parts were even given out. The claim of a theme throughout the score in several variations is just vague enough to be true.

Probably more trustworthy - but I still approach it with skepticism - is the update given after the musicians received their parts.

Now, I haven't been disappointed about any SW7 score news until this point (I don't even care about Ross conducting). But the presence of "some of the attack music from the OT" is a bit of a let down. I want certain themes from the OT to reappear as needed, but recycling "attack music" (a la ROTJ?) is kind of a let down for me. Action music is something I want to be fresh and new to fit the new action situations. If this rumor (and it is nothing more as far as evidence goes) is true, I really hope it's not *another* rehash of the TIE Fighter Attack cue used for the scenes we've seen in the two trailers of the Falcon being pursued by TIE fighters through a crashed ship (again, a la ROTJ).

Oh, and since the Imperial March is hinted at in the first rumor, I'm also hoping The First Order's theme (assuming there is one) is not too similar to the Imperial March, or worse yet a continuation of the Imperial March for this new entity. I always viewed the Imperial March as Vader's theme rather than a theme for the Empire as a whole. I think the theme was really misused in the prequels, especially at the end of Attack of the Clones.

I think the spoiler part is more concerning... As much as I love that theme.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All of this is speculation, but John Williams has perfectly the right to parody himself if he wants to, the greatest composers like Bach did it.

Parody in music is not a sign of laziness or lack of creativity. It is rather the opposite, it's the evidence of creativity.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.