The Last Jedi - Catalog of Musical Themes

[Aaron Krerowicz 1]

Here's my catalog of themes for The Last Jedi. Anybody have ideas about what the sarabande, crying motive, desperation motive, or last-ditch fanfare might signify?

https://www.aaronkrerowicz.com/star-wars-blog/the-last-jedi-soundtrack-musical-analysis-catalog-of-themes

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,415]

Jason will doubtlessly move this thread to the correct subforum soon.

[leeallen01 2,175]

Sith theme? That's just Sidious, not Sith in general. Its use in TLJ doesn't make sense to the characters, just to the moment.

[Chen G. 4,620]

I dunno about those other motives, but in general I think treating the more long-lined ideas in Williams catalogue (or indeed any other composer) as a string of separate thematic ideas is a mistake. So, to refer to the different components of something like Rey's theme or Rose's, as if they were separate leitmotives, to me, is the wrong approach.

 

Its also true of themes from the past: The B-phrase of Luke's theme, the figure that closes the unabridged "Across the Stars" theme, the ostinato accompaniment to a lot of the themes (Battle of the Heroes, Imperial March). Can we really refer to them as separate thematic ideas? I say no. Williams certainly never indicated differently.

 

Its true of other composers, as well: The B-phrase of the Shire theme is very distinct from the A-phrase, and it often appears in isolation and certainly nowhere nearly as frequently in the score, and I would even argue its used for a very different effect in the score. So?

 

This kid of over-analysis is the last thing Williams would want: He conciously writes few themes and makes them stand-out.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,415]

1 minute ago, Chen G. said:

I dunno about those other motives, but in general I think treats the long-lined ideas in Williams catalogue (or indeed any other composer) as a string of separate thematic ideas is a mistake. So, to refer to the different components of something like Rey's theme or Rose's, as if they were separate leitmotives, to me, is the wrong approach.

 

It's the Doug Adams approach for Howard Shore scores.

[Chen G. 4,620]

Not really. The Shire, the Fellowship, Rohan, the Dwarf Lords, Minas Tirith etc - All have very distinct B-phrases, but Adams never treats those parts of the theme as separate leitmotives.

 

Interestingly, he does it with Luke's theme with his analysis of the first Star Wars trilogy - but I still think its a wrong approach to take.

[Tom 5,137]

2 hours ago, leeallen01 said:

Sith theme? That's just Sidious, not Sith in general. Its use in TLJ doesn't make sense to the characters, just to the moment.

It certainly started out as a theme for the Emperor, but I think it began expanding to a dark side theme, even in the prequels--similar to the Imperial March having a dual purpose.  

[gkgyver 1,647]

Complete and utter over-analysis. Williams has never been known to write these peculiar things on purpose.

 

To compare this to Doug Adams' analysis of Shore is pretty wild, since Doug has direct contact and discussion with Shore on these things; nobody talks to Williams about this. The only guy who talks to him about it is probably Rian Johnson, and he don't give no fucks.