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The Force Awakens - Complete Score Breakdown & Chronological Order (Film Spoilers Allowed)


Jay

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5 minutes ago, Jay said:

It looks like JW never wrote any music for Hux's speech, which is odd. 

To me, as it is in the film, it feels like the previous cue would want to continue but it's sneakily mixed down at a convenient low point after it already scored a full sentence.

 

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7 minutes ago, Holko said:

To me, as it is in the film, it feels like the previous cue would want to continue but it's sneakily mixed down at a convenient low point after it already scored a full sentence.

 

What is in the film is tracked from the opening of Kylo and His Sword (Droid Stole a Freighter).

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11 minutes ago, Holko said:

To me, as it is in the film, it feels like the previous cue would want to continue but it's sneakily mixed down at a convenient low point after it already scored a full sentence.

 

 

There's no instruction to overlap into another cue at the end of I Have To Get Back, so we have to assume Hux's Speech was unscored.

 

But who knows for sure. The score has many mysteries, with the film changing constantly during the 12 months JW was working on it. I haven't read the novelization but there's reference to lots of Leia material which never saw the light of day either (including a speech after the Starkiller destruction, where Leia informed the base that the Republic's entire fleet was destroyed in the attack... I wouldn't be surprised if Williams scored a lot of this early material, based on cue titles that have leaked).

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3 minutes ago, The River (Fal) said:

What is in the film is tracked from the opening of Kylo and His Sword (Droid Stole a Freighter).

 

Yes, that crossfade is particularly jarring in the isolated score.

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9 hours ago, Jay said:

The music that we thought was unused music for Hux's speech, this one:

 

 

It turns out it's actually 1M3AR The First Order Approaches, so it was written for the opening scene. It looks like JW never wrote any music for Hux's speech, which is odd. 

 

5M40 The Beam Is Released! was replaced by Sunbeam Strings, though JJ ended up tracking some of it into the opening scene, you can hear it in FYC track 1 from 2:17-2:34

 

WOW. I'm stunned because (as I first discovered like four years ago!) the cue (apparently 1M3AR) fits very well with the parade grounds scene:

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/btwgjw1zpy89crx/Parade Grounds (Score Restore).mp4?dl=0

 

My best guess now is that the cue was originally written for the opening scene, but was then tracked by Abrams into Hux's speech (in a microedited form), and then finally Abrams decided to remove it from the film altogether. @The River (Fal) discovered, I believe, that the version in the YouTube video you link above actually contained some edit points where material was cut out, which would support (or at least not contradict) my new theory that the cue was at one point supposed to play over the speech scene (even if that wasn't JW's intention). 

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26 minutes ago, Will said:

 

WOW. I'm stunned because (as I first discovered like four years ago!) the cue (apparently 1M3AR) fits very well with the parade grounds scene:

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/btwgjw1zpy89crx/Parade Grounds (Score Restore).mp4?dl=0

 

My best guess now is that the cue was originally written for the opening scene, but was then tracked by Abrams into Hux's speech (in a microedited form), and then finally Abrams decided to remove it from the film altogether. @The River (Fal) discovered, I believe, that the version in the YouTube video you link above actually contained some edit points where material was cut out, which would support (or at least not contradict) my new theory that the cue was at one point supposed to play over the speech scene (even if that wasn't JW's intention). 

 

Fun fact, you can hear the theme from this cue in Finn and Poe United at the 2:57-end

 

 

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2 hours ago, Will said:

My best guess now is that the cue was originally written for the opening scene, but was then tracked by Abrams into Hux's speech (in a microedited form), and then finally Abrams decided to remove it from the film altogether. @The River (Fal) discovered, I believe, that the version in the YouTube video you link above actually contained some edit points where material was cut out, which would support (or at least not contradict) my new theory that the cue was at one point supposed to play over the speech scene (even if that wasn't JW's intention). 


Yeah, I think there’s a pretty good chance this could be the case!
 

In support of this theory, we know ‘Sunbeam Strings’ / ‘The Starkiller’ was recorded towards the end of the sessions, and he chose the same key, F-sharp minor, which is not an especially common key, certainly not for Williams. So, perhaps he intentionally wrote the new cue to be able to segue smoothly from the end of 1M3AR, even though it wasn’t originally intended for this scene at all.

 

Even as wonderfully over-the-top as Domhnall Gleeson’s performance is here, the very strident brass tends to obscure his monologue (JW always pays expert attention to keeping out of the way of dialog, in terms of both the volume and register of the music), so perhaps that’s why it ultimately went unused.

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58 minutes ago, The River (Fal) said:

 

Fun fact, you can hear the theme from this cue in Finn and Poe United at the 2:57-end

 

 

 

And in several other cues, I believe (e.g. "The Bombing Run"). My conclusion a few years back was that was a First Order theme/motif -- perhaps originally intended by JW to have a larger role. 

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31 minutes ago, Romão said:

You can also hear it here (in a passage that sounds pure Star Wars to me):


And one more (tracked?) instance, in 6M55R Council Meeting:

 

 

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That's definitely the First Order theme, I didn't realize that was something still up for debate 

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39 minutes ago, Jay said:

That's definitely the First Order theme, I didn't realize that was something still up for debate 


Right, @Falstaft has had this identified as motif for the First Order in the Catalogue of Star Wars themes for a long time now. It’s worth noting that many of the minor themes and motifs like this have no official names, but it’s  still possible to make an educated guess at their meaning solely from usage.

 

image.png

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7 minutes ago, BrotherSound said:


Right, @Falstaft has had this identified as motif for the First Order in the Star Wars Catalogue of themes for a long time now. It’s worth noting that many of the minor themes and motifs like this have no official names, but still possible to make an educated guess at their meaning solely from usage.

 

image.png

What does he call that other bouncy motif heard in the same cue (First Order Approaches) and others? Tension?

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On 5/11/2020 at 11:15 AM, Jay said:

1M1

Main Title

 

1M1A
1M1A v2 (Longer)
1M1A v3
1M1A (Free Version)
Starry Night

 

1M2R

1M2R (New Ending)
'Hand' Opening

 

1M2A

Fix

 

1M2B

(untitled)

 

1M3A
1M3AR 
The First Order Approaches

 

1M3B
1M3BR
The Attack on the Village

 

1M3C
I’ve Seen Too Much

 

1M3D
The Attack on the Village

 

1M4
1M4R
The Arrival of Kylo Ren

 

1M4A
Introductions or Introduction

 

1M4B
Landing

 

1M4D
Fix on Fix

 

1M5
1M5 Alt New Intro
1M5 Alt 2 
1M5 Alt 2 Insert
1M5 Alt 2R
The Scavenger

 

1M6
1M6 Alt
Seeing A Mother and Getting Rations

 

1M6 AltR
One Quarter Portion

 

1M7
1M7 Flute Version
Lunchtime with Rey or Lunchtime

 

1M8
Breakfast

 

2M11
Don’t Follow Me

 

2M11R
2M11R Alt
BB + Rey or BB & Rey or BB and Rey

 

2M12
Poe Under Torture

 

2M12A (Old)
2M12A (Preferred) 
BB & Rey Cont.

 

2M13 

2M13R
The Droid Is Not For Sale or This Droid Is Not For Sale

 

2M14R Alt Intro
2M14R Alt Intro v2 
Finn Helps Poe

 

2M14
2M14R 
I Can Fly Anything

 

2M15
2M15R
2M15R Insert
The First Escape

 

2M16 
I Don't Know What To Do

 

2M17
2M17R
Kylo Ren

 

2M17A
2M17AR
Finn's Trek

 

2M17B
Kylo And Hux On The Bridge

 

2M18A
That Lady with the Stick

 

2M18B
Who's Luke Skywalker

 

2M18C
2M18CR
2M18C Insert
2M18C Insert II
Follow Me

 

3M20
3M20R
The Falcon Still Flies!

 

3M21
3M21R
What's Your Name

 

3M22
3M22R
Kylo and His Sword

 

3M23
3M23R
No, No...No!

 

3M24
3M24R
Hiding Under the Grate

 

3M26
3M26R
You're Han Solo?

 

3M27
Rathars Appear

 

3M28
The Rathars Attack or The Rathtar Attack

 

3M28A
3M28AR
Old Falcon to the Rescue

 

3M29
3M29R
Leia, C3P0 and R2

 

4M30
4M30R
Snoke

 

4M30A
Starkiller

 

Reading the Map
4M31R
4M31RR 
The Map Scene

 

4M31A
4M31A (New Ending)
Talking With Grandfather

 

4M32
4M32R
Green Planet or The Green Planet

 

4M33
4M33R

You Gotta Name? or You Got A Name?

 

4M33R Insert
Gotta Name?

 

4M35R
Maz on the Table

 

4M36R 
I Ran Into You

 

4M37 
I’ve Found the Droid

 

4M38
4M38R
Into the Cellar

 

4M38A
4M38AR
Rey’s Dream

 

4M39 R
I Have to Get Back

 

5M40
5M40 (New Ending)
The Beam is Released

 

5M41
Leia’s Condolence Speech

 

5M43R (Fix)
Find Rey!

 

5M43A (Fix)
Maz's Treasure Chest

 

5M44
5M44 Alt Intro v1
5M44 Alt Intro v2
Kylo Arrives at the Battle

 

5M45R v1
Back to Battle

 

5M45R Alt

Finn Fight Alt

 

5M45 Fix
Finn and Trooper Fight

 

5M46R
Kylo Stalks Rey

 

5M47
5M47 v2
5M47 Possible Insert
Good Guys Shooting

 

5M48
We’ve Got What We Need

 

5M49
5M49R
5M49A Fix 11-5-15
The Abduction of Rey

 

6M50R
6M50R v2
Han & Leia Reunion

 

6M51
6M51R
Finn and Poe, United

 

6M52
R2 in Hibernation

 

6M53R
Parental Discussion

 

6M53A
We See Rey

 

6M54
6M54R
Rey vs. Ren

 

6M54A New
6M54A R
Bring Her to Me

 

6M54B
You Will Remove These Restraints

 

6M55R
Council Meeting

 

6M56
6M56R
Preparing for the Mission

 

6M56BR v1 (new ending)
Kylo’s Rage!

 

6M56C Fixed
To Lightspeed

 

6M56D
Ice Landing

 

6M56E
Ren In Cockpit

 

6M56F
Hey!

 

6M57
6M57R
Rey’s Rope Climb

 

6M57R Alt Ending
Rey On Wall

 

6M58
The Bombing Run

 

7M60
Hug Later

 

7M61
Guns A’blaze

 

7M62
I Can Get Us In

 

7M62A

7M62A Insert
On the Inside

 

7M62B
Shootout

 

7M65
Father and Son

 

7M65A
Leia’s Grief

 

7M65B
Father and Son

 

7M65C
Leia Fix

 

7M66
The Control Room and Ren in the Forest

 

7M67
Rey Vs Ren

 

7M67R
It Is You

 

7M67A
Rey vs. Ren

 

7M67B

Rey Gets the Saber

 

7M67BF

Rey Catches Sword

 

7M67C
Blowing Up The Oscillator

 

7M68
Flying Home

 

7M68A
Light In The Snow and Flying Home

 

8M72
Finding the Map

 

8M73
The Complete Map

 

8M74
Climbing the Mountain

 

8M74A
8M74A v2
To Ending

 

8M75
End Credits Part 1
End Credits Part 2
Finale (9-23-15)
Finale (11-11-15)
Finale Tag

 

8M77 
The Resistance Theme

 

8M78
Snoke

 

8M79
Rey's Theme
Rey's Theme (6-6-15)
Rey's Theme (Piano Version 9-14-15)
Rey’s Theme (10-7-15 longer version)

 

8M80
8M80A (First Ending)
8M80A (Second Ending)
Scherzo for X-Wings

 

8M81
Sunbeam Strings

 

That's really cool!

 

On 5/16/2020 at 8:44 AM, Jay said:

The music that we thought was unused music for Hux's speech, this one:

 

 

It turns out it's actually 1M3AR The First Order Approaches, so it was written for the opening scene. It looks like JW never wrote any music for Hux's speech, which is odd. 

 

5M40 The Beam Is Released! was replaced by Sunbeam Strings, though JJ ended up tracking some of it into the opening scene, you can hear it in FYC track 1 from 2:17-2:34

 

Really? Wow. How do you know that? I'm just curious.

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I thought up a fitting nickname today for the little First Order ditty that plays throughout this film. As opposed to just calling it the "First Order" motif, I think it rather represents a more abstract idea of a new evil power rising in the galaxy. Indeed, the theme kind of has a quality of resurrection about it as the melody ascends upwards, only to curl down with the last note, as if a wraith had risen from it's resting place to haunt the galaxy once more.

 

Therefore, I christen the First Order theme as, "Rising Power". It's not a bombastic march like the Imperial March because I don't think that's the impression that we are supposed to have of the First Order. This is an evil that has "risen from the ashes of the empire" as the opening crawl puts it. It's an inevitable, funeral-marching machine of death. Much more doom-like than it's more bombastic predecessor, the Imperial March. And it even evolves slightly in the guise of the Anthem of Evil, an equally lumbering, zombi-fied yet more fully formed evil theme that still gets to be more bombastic when appropriate.

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  • 3 weeks later...

How have I been completely unaware of the more complete edit lurking around out there?

 

Of course I'm not scouring Google. No sir...

 

An official expanded release can not come fast enough!

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On 5/21/2020 at 3:45 PM, TheAvengerButton said:

I thought up a fitting nickname today for the little First Order ditty that plays throughout this film. As opposed to just calling it the "First Order" motif, I think it rather represents a more abstract idea of a new evil power rising in the galaxy. Indeed, the theme kind of has a quality of resurrection about it as the melody ascends upwards, only to curl down with the last note, as if a wraith had risen from it's resting place to haunt the galaxy once more.

 

Therefore, I christen the First Order theme as, "Rising Power". It's not a bombastic march like the Imperial March because I don't think that's the impression that we are supposed to have of the First Order. This is an evil that has "risen from the ashes of the empire" as the opening crawl puts it. It's an inevitable, funeral-marching machine of death. Much more doom-like than it's more bombastic predecessor, the Imperial March. And it even evolves slightly in the guise of the Anthem of Evil, an equally lumbering, zombi-fied yet more fully formed evil theme that still gets to be more bombastic when appropriate.

 

After listening to the isolated-score version of The Last Jedi for the first time this weekend, I realized for the first time how often that motif recurs in the second film.  I probably heard it three or four times at least.  Does it show up in its original form in TROS as well?  If not, what an odd choice.

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22 hours ago, igger6 said:

 

After listening to the isolated-score version of The Last Jedi for the first time this weekend, I realized for the first time how often that motif recurs in the second film.  I probably heard it three or four times at least.  Does it show up in its original form in TROS as well?  If not, what an odd choice.

 

Are you referring to this tune:

 

 

Or this ditty:

 

 

because to my understanding, the latter plays pretty frequently throughout The Last Jedi AND shows up in a select few moments in TROS.

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On 6/10/2020 at 4:18 PM, Remco said:

Especially considering the actual first statement of the long melody of the theme is stupidly covered by sound effects.


Sound effects have gotten absurdly overcooked. Listen to when Rey puts her staff in the net in that scene. Unfortunately the problem will never be solved unless you get knowledgeable directors who really understand how everything should work together. 

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1 hour ago, TheAvengerButton said:

 

Are you referring to this tune:

 

 

Or this ditty:

 

 

because to my understanding, the latter plays pretty frequently throughout The Last Jedi AND shows up in a select few moments in TROS.

And The Post ;)

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@TheAvengerButton I meant the former, actually, the one you called "Rising Power."  To be honest, in my mind, the latter one never really rose above the formless masses of Williams "musical action figures," so to speak―those little four- and five-note motifs that he'll fixate on from time to time, especially in The Last Jedi

 

I don't think @Falstaft has included any of those in his catalogue, since they all seem to signify nothing more or less than "wars are happening amid stars!"  If I recall, though, folks around here classified one of them as the "Quidditch" melody back in 2017, based on its similarity to "Quidditch, Third Year."

 

But back to the First Order motif.  It pops up here and there in TLJ, almost always in fragmented but recognizable form.  If you have access to the iso score on Disney+, there's a moment at exactly 20:00 when Rey is filling Luke in on the current war, and when she says soon the First Order will control everything, we get the first half of the theme (a rise and a half, if you will).  It shows up again right after Leia's "death," when Hux is discussing continuing the bombardment around 31:07 on the iso score.  I don't know if either of these moments appears on any of the OST or FYC tracks.  There are more, but those are the first two I noticed listening to it as I type this.

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On 6/10/2020 at 2:47 PM, Alan said:

How have I been completely unaware of the more complete edit lurking around out there?

 

Of course I'm not scouring Google. No sir...

 

An official expanded release can not come fast enough!

 

What do you mean? There's no way to know if a recording of it will ever be released, or if it was even recorded.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hearing these different versions of The Scavenger remind me of HP3 and how several scenes were re-scored until they found their way to A Window to the Past. Sounds like a similar thing happened with this scene and Rey's theme.

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On 6/24/2020 at 6:53 PM, Ludwig said:

And hey, even the first three notes of the theme are the same notes in a different rhythm.

 

The first 3 notes also match the original Batman theme :)

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22 hours ago, Pando said:

An even earlier, completely different version of 1M5 that was eventually discarded. Kind of interesting to hear Vader's theme all over it.

 

 


While I think they definitely made the right call here, I really like this Harry Potter-ish cue, too. Thank you @Pandofor a great mock up! 
 

Shame this theme didn’t get recycled for The BFG the following year. Seems like it would have fit perfectly!

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@Ludwig, you never disappoint! Love that you're able to offer this fascinating and high-level analysis so quickly! 

 

12 hours ago, Ludwig said:


Funny thing is, I don't hear any of Rey's theme in this alternate. There are, however, some slight similarities to March of the Resistance.

 

Yeah, I've failed to find any resemblances to Rey's theme in this tune either, either obvious or obscure either. It truly does sound like an entirely different musical "angle" on her character.

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It's really fascinating to learn that Rey's Theme, one of JW's best and most memorable themes in recent years, didn't even exist until a completely other idea for her was completely fleshed out and then replaced.  I wonder what JJ said about it as JW demoed the cue on his piano (or would he have heard it via JKMS mockup?)

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What's also interesting is that no trace of this theme exists in the rest of the soundtrack, in any form. The current Rey's theme is found in quite a few cues. So not only was this a complete rewrite of The Scavenger cue, it must have been a bigger project to rewrite all others as well. Or perhaps this was done early enough before the rest of the cues weren't yet written.

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Are you sure the ideas from this version don't crop up again in 1M6 Seeing A Mother and Getting Rations?

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