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The Force Awakens ALBUM Discussion (No Film Spoilers)


rebekahnoelleparker

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The best way I can describe it is the music has a sunset-y quality about it. Everything has a tinge of gentle sadness about it. Which is actually a bit odd in the context of a movie that's supposed to launch a new Star Wars trilogy.

Not if you view the score as a whole from the ageing perspectives of Han, Leia, Luke and Chewie. They've been facing remnants of the Empire and the the First Order 30 years, It's of no surprise they'd be nostalgic for their youth, and look to these young upstarts with a certain world-weariness.

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The flute passage from the ABC commercial that's also in the final track of the CD is one of my favorite things Williams has done in years. Its mesmerizing.

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The flute passage from the ABC commercial that's also in the final track of the CD is one of my favorite things Williams has done in years. Its mesmerizing.

I agree. It is stunning, which makes at all the more bizarre that it isn't a fully fledged theme but rather a once off melody.

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I already want to listen to it again

Hey, I wonder what pieces from this score Williams will perform in concerts in 2016?

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Maybe both. But definitely Star Wars.

The best way I can describe it is the music has a sunset-y quality about it. Everything has a tinge of gentle sadness about it. Which is actually a bit odd in the context of a movie that's supposed to launch a new Star Wars trilogy.

Yes. The "sunset" quality, it sounds like something passing into history, if you know what I mean. I've been hearing this for a while, notably the ends of Lincoln and War Horse.

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The Resistance march makes me think enough on Last Crusade that it sounds to me like bad guys music.

Also, is it me, or there is no villain themes in this score besides Kylo Ren's motif and the Snoke cue? I expected, like... more of that.

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Maybe both. But definitely Star Wars.

The best way I can describe it is the music has a sunset-y quality about it. Everything has a tinge of gentle sadness about it. Which is actually a bit odd in the context of a movie that's supposed to launch a new Star Wars trilogy.

Yes. The "sunset" quality, it sounds like something passing into history, if you know what I mean. I've been hearing this for a while, notably the ends of Lincoln and War Horse.

I totally agree that War Horse and Lincoln have this quality. Book Thief too, but not as much.

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For people who have seen the film: is the cool heroic music playing when

Poe is shooting all the Stormtroopers with his X-Wing (as Finn is cheering) during the attack on Takodana

on the album? I guess it should be in Kylo Ren Arrives At The Battle (or possibly The Abduction)...

No. Unreleased! Part of it was reworked for March of the Resistance, but the orchestration is different.

Sorry for the delay in working on my analysis :(. Editing in Audacity just gave me a major headache.

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Don't you die on me Faline!

Is the brass fanfare at 1:02 in I Can Fly Anything associated with any particular character/s? I adore that bit.

Based on the title and thus the sequence the music comes fom, should be either (not a major spoiler but, hey, better be safe than sorry)

Poe or Finn or both.

Cool! But I haven't been able to hear it anywhere else on the score.

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Also, is it me, or there is no villain themes in this score besides Kylo Ren's motif and the Snoke cue? I expected, like... more of that.

Well There is the motif at 0:13 of The Abduction

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Maybe both. But definitely Star Wars.

The best way I can describe it is the music has a sunset-y quality about it. Everything has a tinge of gentle sadness about it. Which is actually a bit odd in the context of a movie that's supposed to launch a new Star Wars trilogy.

Yes. The "sunset" quality, it sounds like something passing into history, if you know what I mean. I've been hearing this for a while, notably the ends of Lincoln and War Horse.
I totally agree that War Horse and Lincoln have this quality. Book Thief too, but not as much.

Weirdly I think it has to do with pentatonic writing. That's the common thing between all of the moments I have in mind. Whatever emotion or state of mind or idea Williams is communicating there, if he even is doing so purposefully, that's apparently the musical translation.

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Isn't that Kylo's motif?

I thought that was 0:45 of the same cue, could just be different sections of the same theme.

I just realized, the rhythm in "Scherzo for X-wings" is pretty much the same as in "Scherzo for Today" (duh).

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Maybe it's because ive seen the film, but I vastly prefer the TFA action scoring

AOTC definitely has better action scoring.

Maybe both. But definitely Star Wars.

The best way I can describe it is the music has a sunset-y quality about it. Everything has a tinge of gentle sadness about it. Which is actually a bit odd in the context of a movie that's supposed to launch a new Star Wars trilogy.

Yes. The "sunset" quality, it sounds like something passing into history, if you know what I mean. I've been hearing this for a while, notably the ends of Lincoln and War Horse.

Yes, this score has plenty of shades of that. It's probably what I find most appealing about his latest work.

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So I made a rough list of what themes appear where in TFA, obviously because I only listened to the full score only once, I probably missed some things.

http://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=25879#entry1201923

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I know everyone's been raving about Rey's Theme, which is lovely, but I'm really digging Finn's theme (if it is indeed his theme)!

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I know everyone's been raving about Rey's Theme, which is lovely, but I'm really digging Finn's theme (if it is indeed his theme)!

BadababadabaBadababadabaBadababadaba

tss tss

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The flute passage from the ABC commercial that's also in the final track of the CD is one of my favorite things Williams has done in years. Its mesmerizing.

It's definitely shown me even more the dangers of speculating too much. My problem with it was only ever that the discussion instantly formed around it as being Rey's theme, because while the connections to other saga themes that people pointed out were interesting, I just couldn't get over its lack of propulsive energy that could allow it to work in a variety of different settings, particularly action/heroism. Whereas what he actually wrote for Rey does have that sweeping forward momentum (though I haven't heard its action moments yet) along with sharing similar reflective qualities.

It was totally unfair to this piece because it's indeed lovely, but because it was our very first Williams tune from TFA, of course we threw these massive expectations on top of it and I'll admit that I honestly started feeling negative about it, purely because I couldn't see the potential in it as a big, malleable hero theme for three movies. My imagination started going to lightsaber fights and space battles and I couldn't help but wonder how this was supposed to work. Lesson learned there, I guess.

I'll say it's amazing to hear the quality difference now in the actual score version of the melody, the ambience of the recording and the way the orchestra actually sounds vs how it was in the commercial. For exactly what it is, it's indeed beautiful and although I haven't seen the film, may be more special for simply leading the film into its finale. Themes are always great, but I've also always loved having those melodies -- especially in Williams scores -- that are there solely to fulfill a crucial role for fleeting moments...and then they're gone.

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The music works really well in that last scene. One of the best moments in the film.

Save for that horrible helicopter shot that looks like it's out of a 1980s music video (or an unused shot from Highlander).

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The flute passage from the ABC commercial that's also in the final track of the CD is one of my favorite things Williams has done in years. Its mesmerizing.

It's definitely shown me even more the dangers of speculating too much. My problem with it was only ever that the discussion instantly formed around it as being Rey's theme, because while the connections to other saga themes that people pointed out were interesting, I just couldn't get over its lack of propulsive energy that could allow it to work in a variety of different settings, particularly action/heroism. Whereas what he actually wrote for Rey does have that sweeping forward momentum (though I haven't heard its action moments yet) along with sharing similar reflective qualities.

It was totally unfair to this piece because it's indeed lovely, but because it was our very first Williams tune from TFA, of course we threw these massive expectations on top of it and I'll admit that I honestly started feeling negative about it, purely because I couldn't see the potential in it as a big, malleable hero theme for three movies. My imagination started going to lightsaber fights and space battles and I couldn't help but wonder how this was supposed to work. Lesson learned there, I guess.

I'll say it's amazing to hear the quality difference now in the actual score version of the melody, the ambience of the recording and the way the orchestra actually sounds vs how it was in the commercial. For exactly what it is, it's indeed beautiful and although I haven't seen the film, may be more special for simply leading the film into its finale. Themes are always great, but I've also always loved having those melodies -- especially in Williams scores -- that are there solely to fulfill a crucial role for fleeting moments...and then they're gone.

So basically its idiotic to judge a score of 15 second clips!

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The music works really well in that last scene. One of the best moments in the film.

Save for that horrible helicopter shot that looks like it's out of a 1980s music video (or an unused shot from Highlander).

What's wrong with '80s music videos? Or Highlander, for that matter?

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The music works really well in that last scene. One of the best moments in the film.

Save for that horrible helicopter shot that looks like it's out of a 1980s music video (or an unused shot from Highlander).

What's wrong with '80s music videos? Or Highlander, for that matter?

Everything!!

But that comment was bullshit ofcourse.

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The music works really well in that last scene. One of the best moments in the film.

Save for that horrible helicopter shot that looks like it's out of a 1980s music video (or an unused shot from Highlander).

What's wrong with '80s music videos? Or Highlander, for that matter?

It's wrong when it sticks out like a sore thumb in a Star Wars movie.

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The music works really well in that last scene. One of the best moments in the film.

Save for that horrible helicopter shot that looks like it's out of a 1980s music video (or an unused shot from Highlander).

What's wrong with '80s music videos? Or Highlander, for that matter?

Thats a really cool film!

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