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THE LAST JEDI - OST Album MUSIC Discussion (No Movie Spoilers)


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26 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

As much as I do think that Williams stuck to the temp-track on those "Battle of the Heroes" near-quotes, it should be said that its a very simple sequence of notes, so the possibility of it being entirely random isn't completely unreasonable.

 

I gotta agree with this. And also, that BOTH quote isn't even a "near quote". It's not even a half quote to me. I'm not buying it. But I'm secretly hoping I'm wrong so my mind can be blown. 

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Does the brief horn fanfare that appears at 3:35 in Main Title and Escape and 1:33 in The Battle of Crait have a proper name? It's quite obviously related to the heroes in the film, so perhaps it's an extension of the main Resistance theme, or maybe an entirely new "heroic" motif in general.

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I don't think that horn passage has been labeled as a motif. I personally don't think it's a motif. And I don't believe it's an extension to the Resistance theme. If it turns out to be a motif, then that's news to me. 

 

Edit: Actually it could be a motif. I just don't remember what's happening on screen when it plays. I do remember liking it a lot when I was making my personal edit of "Escape". 

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I think there are valid points from both sides.

 

As a musician, I've "quoted" myself before by inadvertently using the first few notes of a previous melody or a short basic rhythmic passage from a previous work. Very much like the BOTH "quote". I didn't even know it happened until someone pointed it out to me. And I say to that person that it wasn't intentional and it just felt natural during that point in the music. I was not thinking about quoting anything.

 

As a fan, I just want to admire JW's manipulation of motifs from previous works as well as his implementation of new motifs. If there's even an ounce of a hint of a previous/new motif being used, it'll be documented and noted.

 

I've got both sides in me and they're at war with each other.

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Listening to the OST more, there are parts I'm growing fond of and others I'm already skipping.

 

One persistent issue I have with the score is how jumbled it is. Many tracks remind me of Enter Lord Vader from ROTS in that there are multiple themes used, there are some really cool musical highlights, but everything is in a rush transitioning from one quote to another with a series of brass flourishes in between. Unfortunately the music has no time to breath or settle or create it's own identity. 

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I there's plenty of good original music in the score, the problem for me is more that the edit of the film also more or less dictates the form the music takes and influences the construction of the tracks on the OST. To me, the concert track and Canto Bight are the two most "whole" tracks on the OST with The Spark a distant third.

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23 hours ago, p0llux said:

 

I gotta agree with this. And also, that BOTH quote isn't even a "near quote". It's not even a half quote to me. I'm not buying it. But I'm secretly hoping I'm wrong so my mind can be blown. 

 

It's not the notes, it's the deliberate melody and harmonization.

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2 hours ago, gkgyver said:

 

It's not the notes, it's the deliberate melody and harmonization.

 

It’s not the same notes, melody or harmonization. They do share intervallic contours and rythm. 

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On 12/13/2017 at 6:41 AM, curlytoot said:

 

Huh? I’m not talking about politics at all... Not everyone who is against stupid political correctness is a Republican or agrees with their policies. (Assuming that’s your implication.) Thanks for stereotyping, though!

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21 minutes ago, BillyBardsTootCurls said:

But you are a republican. I’ve seen you on The_Donald and you are a complete asshole. 

 

Who are you? And did you actually make an account just to respond to an over 2-week-old post?

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19 hours ago, king mark said:

If I had to make a compilation of the best Star Wars themes from the 8 movies and had to fit it on 1 c.d. only ,I think I would include Rebellion is Reborn

 

1. Star Wars Main Title and Rebel Blockade 2:14

2. The Hologram and Binary Sunset  4:09

3. Princess Leia's Theme 4:28

4. Ben's Death and TIE Fighter Attack 3:52

5. Throne Room/End Title 5:38

 

6. The Asteroid Field 4:16

7. The Imperial March 3:04

8. Rescue From Cloud City/Hyperspace 9:09

9. The Rebel Fleet/End Title

 

10. Parade Of The Ewoks 3:29

11. Emperor's Throne Room 3:26

12. The Dark Side Beckons/Battle Of Endor III  ~10:00

13. Light Of The Force 3:21

 

14. Main Title and Arrival At Naboo 2:55

15. Anakin's Theme 3:08

16. Anakin Is Free 5:05

17. Duel Of The Fates 4:14

 

18. Love Pledge and The Arena 8:29

19. Confrontation with Count Dooku/Finale 10:43

 

20. Battle Of The Heroes 3:42

21. Anakin's Betrayal 4:03

 

22. Rey's Theme 3:11

 

That's over a whopping 105 minutes, and it doesn't include numerous concert suites, like Yoda or Luke & Leia, it doesn't include Clash Of Lightsabers, nothing of Lando's theme, not any Jabba stuff, not Sail Barge Assault, nothing from Hoth, nothing from Dagobah, almost nothing from Forest Battle, no iconic source music, and it pains me to leave out Flag Parade and Across The Stars. 

 

The Rebellion Is Reborn is a nice piece, and it's fresh in your memory because nobody listened to it to death yet, but it's a cookie cutter John Williams piece, and doesn't fit on a single disc of Star Wars highlights in the slightest. Unless you WANT a piece from each film, then it's obviously the best choice from TLJ.

But going by quality, as you can see, it would be on the bottom of a list of choices, even for 2 CDs.

 

Unless it's the concert suites only, in which case it would fit on 1 CD anyway.

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It wouldn't surprise me if he was.

 

Anyways, guy said themes from 8 movies. So gotta add at least 1 track from TLJ regardless of quality. Rebellion is reborn is a pretty safe bet.

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Three random questions now that I've put away my Christmas music and am digging into this score in earnest for the first time since the day I saw the movie:

  1. Is this the in-film debut of that slithery, rising low-strings melody that introduces Kylo Ren's theme in the TFA End Titles?  It appears in "Revisiting Snoke" at least once, but I'm not sure it appeared at all in the body of the TFA score.
  2. Has the piccolo/flute solo they lifted from the opening of ANH (hard to imagine that being Williams' idea) now been grandfathered in as a required part of every opening cue?  I guess we only have one more score in which to find out!
  3. I agree that the movie didn't afford that many opportunities for new themes, but I still think DJ and neo-Luke were missed opportunities (the island theme hardly qualifies as a character theme, given how it's used).  Even BB-9E or Hux could have gotten a little nod, and Holdo's theme is loud but almost studiously unmemorable.  Think there's any chance that, in keeping with his modus operandi of thumbing his nose at the existing conventions of Star Wars, Rian Johnson actually instructed Williams to keep new themes to a minimum?  Useless speculation, I know, but there's no "bad feeling about this," no limb loss (Snoke doesn't count), no proper corporeal lightsaber duel, no Jedi mind trick.  Maybe Johnson's bold new vision for the franchise has less room for bold new melodies.  If so, I say, "Ptooey!" as I do to most of the tediously repetitive "gotcha" innovations of this film.  (Reading back over that, I realize I'm probably just venting frustration at the movie, but it sure felt good.  Doing the opposite of what is expected, after the third or fourth instance, just turns into doing what's now expected.)
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9 minutes ago, igger6 said:

Is this the in-film debut of that slithery, rising low-strings melody that introduces Kylo Ren's theme in the TFA End Titles?  It appears in "Revisiting Snoke" at least once, but I'm not sure it appeared at all in the body of the TFA score.

 

No.  It appears somewhere around when Rey is escaping from Kylo on the Starkiller as an unreleased cue, and, again, very subtly, underneath Kylo's hesitant theme at 1:12 in "The Ways of the Force."  You can even hear a similar use of it in the final statement of that same hesitant theme in "Peace and Purpose."  And then of course it is hinted at early on in "Main Title and Escape" in TLJ.

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Yeah I was certain it appeared in the TFA score proper in some unreleased cues. I feel like there's another cue when he's torturing Rey where it appears as well ("You'll never be as strong as Darth Vader.")

 

19 minutes ago, igger6 said:

Has the piccolo/flute solo they lifted from the opening of ANH (hard to imagine that being Williams' idea) now been grandfathered in as a required part of every opening cue?  I guess we only have one more score in which to find out!

 

I don't understand this question. It was just a one-off cameo and the first time in 7 sequels where he's lifted a previous opening right after the Main Title, probably as a tip of the hat for the 40th Anniversary of the original score. It'll be something new for IX.

 

No guarantees on Binary Sunset not closing the fourth film in a row though (would've been really nice if it was the ONLY film in the sequel trilogy to get that honour; they've really overdone that track).

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On second thought, I misused the word "grandfathered" and forced into the form of a disingenuous question what should have been a simple criticism of that lift.  As someone on the SoundCast said recently, that flute line felt like a part of ANH, and it didn't seem right to suddenly quote it at the opening of the eighth film when there was no precedent for callbacks in that spot.  ("Gotcha!" —Rian Johnson)  If this were the final film (as Johnson occasionally seemed to think he was writing), it would have been awesome, but sticking it in randomly in the middle of the saga didn't make sense to me.

 

Also, I haven't read every single page of the discussion, but has anyone pointed out that there's just enough original, memorable melodic material in "The Fathiers" for it to qualify as a one-off setpiece a la "Into the Trap" or "TIE Fighter Attack"?  I'd love to see that expanded into a TLJ concert suite, and I don't think it would take much doing.

 

I. The Rebellion is Reborn

II. Canto Bight

III. The Fathiers (Concert Version)

IV. The Spark/The Last Jedi (Concert Version)

 

We can dream!

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21 hours ago, artguy360 said:

As far as I can recall JW has never reused post-crawl intro music before. I find the quote of the ANH flute line completely baffling and not a good way to start the score.

 

Yep, I'm with you on this. That piccolo was unnecessary. The first few bars of the post crawl music are important to me personally, because it's usually completely original. By using that piccolo again, it cheapened the score. And of course to some, the score was already super cheap due to the numerous "quotes" and lack of a defining theme. Unfortunately, this only adds more fuel to the fire.

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36 minutes ago, p0llux said:

 

Yep, I'm with you on this. That piccolo was unnecessary. The first few bars of the post crawl music are important to me personally, because it's usually completely original. By using that piccolo again, it cheapened score. And of course to some, the score was already super cheap due to the numerous "quotes" and lack of a defining theme. Unfortunately, this only adds more fuel to the fire.

 

I couldn't disagree more. I loved all the little callbacks and nods to the past in the score. I smiled in the theater after the crawl when I heard that pic lick. And when TIE Fighter Battle appeared during the battle on Crait, I was grinning from ear-to-ear.

 

My only criticism of this score echoes some others who have lamented that JW is leaning too heavily on the Force Theme. I do agree that it seems somewhat overused, especially in light of JW's inexplicable snub of Luke's Theme in the one film in this latter trilogy in which Luke is most dominant. (The opening march and end credits excepted, of course, but they don't really count in this context.)

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