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THE ADVENTURES OF HAN - 2018 John Williams theme for Solo: A Star Wars Story


Obi

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I’ve grown to really enjoy The Rebellion Is Reborn but it’s still a bit jarring in the way it segues between ideas. Adventures of Han definitely feels more coherent, at least to me. 

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6 minutes ago, Incanus said:

The Adventures of Han feels to me like a collection of ideas associated with Han Solo, the A- and B-themes with different dramatic purposes and swashbuckling exciting sounding action music to characterize his often dangerous exploits. In a way a sort of thematic manual for Powell to use in his score in ways he saw fit. And as such a composite composition it feels akin to the Rebellion Is Reborn suite from the Last Jedi which combined Rose's Theme and Ahch-To/Luke in Exile Theme in a similar economic fashion.

 

Though that's a much better cue, overall. 

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6 minutes ago, publicist said:

 

Though that's a much better cue, overall. 

Well I agree.

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14 minutes ago, Incanus said:

The Adventures of Han feels to me like a collection of ideas associated with Han Solo, the A- and B-themes with different dramatic purposes and swashbuckling exciting sounding action music to characterize his often dangerous exploits. In a way a sort of thematic manual for Powell to use in his score in ways he saw fit. And as such a composite composition it feels akin to the Rebellion Is Reborn suite from the Last Jedi which combined Rose's Theme and Ahch-To/Luke in Exile Theme in a similar economic fashion.

That's how I feel about the track too. It's like "here's how you might use this theme in different permutations." 

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JW's track is sonically very different than the rest of the OST. You can hear that it was recorded by a different orchestra in a different studio. I wish Powell recorded and slightly reorchestrated JW's arrangement to meld it better with the rest of the score. As is, the first track sounds like a demo. It really reminds me of Joe Hisaishi's image albums for each Ghibli score compared to the actual OSTs.

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http://variety.com/2018/music/news/solo-a-star-wars-story-john-powell-score-john-williams-1202821271/

 

This new piece confirms 2 things

 

1. William did infact write multiple (more than one = 2) themes and he wrote them as distinct ideas. I think somewhere along the line it was decided that they should be presented in one cue.

 

2. Powell does indeed call JW's track a demo. So maybe it is that - a sketch or template rather than a properly constructed concert piece though it is being played in concerts.

 

So I think we should consider the A and B parts as 2 seperate themes and the adventures track to be a suite of two themes rather than a single theme track.

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"Williams actually wrote several short pieces, and the “Adventures of Han” theme that debuted in Boston (and which opens the soundtrack album) is a combination of two of them "

 

It says Adventures of Han is 2 themes of several Williams wrote....

 

Again that Jurassic Park Jeep-like  theme seems like another Williams theme to me

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So it is Han Hero Theme and Han Searching Theme as Powell puts it in the Variety article:

Quote

Williams actually wrote several short pieces, and the “Adventures of Han” theme that debuted in Boston (and which opens the soundtrack album) is a combination of two of them. Powell calls them the “Han hero theme” and “Han searching theme” and utilized them throughout his two-hour score for “Solo.”

 

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2 hours ago, King Mark said:

did i mention i like Lando's Closet a lot.

 

it's not impossible Williams helped out, i'm more and more certain of it. Like Powell handed the theme to Williams and Williams scribbled better notes over it

 

 

 

The sole fact that there’s an oboe playing a melody and not a god damn trumpet like the rest of the score shows that Williams had something to do with this. 

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well if the Williams recording is like a demo, and not even in the film, I guess were pretty lucky they included it on the c.d.

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The piece has grown on me and I was humming it all the way while i was out now.

I think it's better than anything written for The Last Jedi.

 

Syntactically speaking, this is one of the rare instances in the whole Williams ouvre where both themes are stated with the same/varied thematic idea 4 times in a row, like the Irish theme from Far and Away I had mentioned in my chapter in Contemporary FIlm Music:

387097_1_En_15_Fig6_HTML.gif

 

Some other examples are the Book thief theme and Sayuri's theme.

 

 

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35 minutes ago, rough cut said:

I’m sure it was more than a demo.

 

Given the sloppy performance, and that Powell basically needed it to do the score, I'd say no. It's a courtesy work done in an afternoon. Next.

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17 minutes ago, Jack said:

 

Given the sloppy performance, and that Powell basically needed it to do the score, I'd say no. It's a courtesy work done in an afternoon. Next.

I didn't find anything wrong with the performance. :huh:

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2 hours ago, filmmusic said:

The piece has grown on me and I was humming it all the way while i was out now.

I think it's better than anything written for The Last Jedi.

 

 

I agree. It's a good theme and I like it more than, say, Rebellion is Reborn. Although it sounds (to me) quite different from a standard SW theme for a character, and more like an action setpiece. I have a sort of sense of defamiliarization about that, as it really would not fit the character of Han as I know it from the previous movies, but I guess it would be right for this one (that I have not seen yet). The only thing I don't like about that track is the false ending trick, which makes the ending sound a bit like trailer music.  

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14 minutes ago, Tom said:

The man has been obsessed with false endings for 30 years now.  I think its inclusion sells it a as a Williams's concert piece. 

 

Yes, this is true. The first one is probably (?) the Forest Battle, so it's 35 years!

 

(This made me realize that today is exactly the 35th anniversary of ROTJ!)

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They're both interesting and engaging pieces, with a very nice sense of development and dramatic arc. Curiously, they also both feature classical dance-like episodes (a sarabande in "Rebellion is Reborn" and a galop in "Adventures of Han").

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It certainly puts itself up there. It's actually quite awesome that Williams did something like this at his age, like @Muad'Dib has said. This sounds a lot like a younger Williams.

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1 hour ago, Muad'Dib said:

I think what Williams was striving the most with this piece is to have fun with the orchestra players instead of the usual concert arrangement people expect from him. 

 

And also, considering he's 86, this piece has the energy of a 20-year old! It's amazing the sheer energy the whole thing has.

That is a good assessment.  I plays a bit like his recent Music for Brass, the Military band piece, and Just Down West Street--little moments for different sections of the orchestra to shine. 

 

ps.  this piece has been around for like 24 hours by now. Why is there no poll regarding it place among something? 

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11 hours ago, Incanus said:

I have to say that Williams still has the knack for writing the catchiest of melodies. This Han tune has been playing in my head ever since I first heard it. Hummable, quite hummable I say.

I picked it up quite instantly while watching the film last night. Haven't heard Williams' suite beforehand.

 

Karol

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I've been humming it since those piano mockups first showed up, and haven't gone an hour without doing it since.

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48 minutes ago, Loert said:

Its statement towards the beginning of "Break Out" is a highlight of the score.


Love the "Mine Mission" one too.

 

He did the Wookiee proud!

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Heard the album version of the theme/suite a couple of times now.  Quite nice, the B- theme especially.  Am listening to the whole soundtrack, and, so far, it appears alright.  Powell integrates the Williams themes quite well. 

 

Williams' contribution does have a sort of exciting energy that was missing from the more polished and restrained TLJ score, but this is a consequence of the respective movies more than anything.

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Yeah I was going to say that, pretty sure it's all jammed live.  What makes it sound a little synthetic, and the rest of the mix actually, is the damn smiley EQing that happens with a lot of Powell's scores.  Could do without that.

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