The Rise of Skywalker New article: Williams "has so far written about 25 minutes of score in about a month" for The Rise of Skywalker

[Not Mr. Big 4,719]

Saw this posted on the Jedi Council Boards

Quote

Williams beams when he talks about watching an early cut of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which will bring the nine-film space saga to an end this Christmas. He likes what he has seen “very much” and has so far written about 25 minutes of score in about a month.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/times2/john-williams-the-best-film-composer-in-the-galaxy-l7jx0f8gq (the article is behind a paywall apparently)

 

 

[mrbellamy 6,632]

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,357]

Fingers crossed for a whizz-bang of a Rey's Theme variation when she hops over Kylo's ship!

[Ii2 210]

12 minutes ago, The Illustrious Jerry said:

Fingers crossed for a whizz-bang of a Rey's Theme variation when she hops over Kylo's ship!

Amazing part of Ep. 9 that is.

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,357]

And a full fledged Kylo Ren March when he clotheslines that dude in the red forest!

[mrbellamy 6,632]

25 minutes of John Williams’s Star Wars: Episode IX exists on paper. That is just a cool thing to say.

[Chen G. 4,395]

which isn't the same as saying that 25 minutes of film are scored or that 25 minutes of score are locked to picture.

[Jurassic Shark 12,775]

That would be the main title (2 min.), all occurences of the force theme (15 min.) and of course an extended throne room suite in the end credits (8 min.).

[Chen G. 4,395]

2 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

all occurences of the force theme (15 min.)

 

As if! Try more like an hour and a half...

[Jurassic Shark 12,775]

5 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

 

As if! Try more like an hour and a half...

 

Oh, I forgot a zero!

[mrbellamy 6,632]

39 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

which isn't the same as saying that 25 minutes of film are scored or that 25 minutes of score are locked to picture.

 

Right but the fact that an 87 year old John Williams has music inspired by a third Star Wars finale currently rolling around on his piano is crazy.

[Alex 2,866]

This was a nice little insight into his writing process. 

 

“Oxygen is a wonderful thing”

- John Williams

 

[mrbellamy 6,632]

"I don't write any better than I did 30 years ago. Maybe not as well."

 

Uh oh has he been reading JWFan?

[Jurassic Shark 12,775]

"I probably know more than I did 30 years ago"

 

Well, now he doesn't know that he did read HP.

[SteveMc 2,675]

Did he read it, or did he just read it to his grandkids or something?

[Luke Skywalker 1,925]

didnt he had backache problems? i donw think golf swings are good for him...

[Balahkay 629]

Twenty five minutes of score? What about the concert suites?

[Chen G. 4,395]

Just now, Balahkay said:

What about the concert suites?

 

What's Williams process of writing those, anyway? Does he start with them as soon as he got the themes down? Does he save them to later in the process?

[mrbellamy 6,632]

I think he once gave an answer to that but I can’t remember. I feel like the actual pieces would be written at the end, though...deadlines and stuff plus it would better reflect the score to do them after?

 

It’s not a direct quote anyway. He could have said 25 minutes of “score” or “music” or “material” for all we know. There’ll be a concert piece. 

[crumbs 14,584]

He's said he likes writing backwards, often starting with the end credits first.

 

I think Jedi Steps and Finale (Early Version) was one of the first cues recorded for TFA, which was then revised and re-recorded much later, as he wasn't satisfied with a few things.

[Disco Stu 15,501]

So is no one going to post this article in full?

[crumbs 14,584]

Guess not.

 

Great to hear he's already written so much score though! I wasn't expecting anything before June after MM's comments. Maybe he was referring to the recording sessions rather than the writing schedule?

[JohnnyD 1,272]

18 hours ago, Not Mr. Big said:

Saw this posted on the Jedi Council Boards

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/times2/john-williams-the-best-film-composer-in-the-galaxy-l7jx0f8gq (the article is behind a paywall apparently)

 

 

 

I wish I was able to read the full article, but I am unable to subscribe to the Sunday Times. Is there anyway that a copy of the article can be sent? I really want to read it.

[Unlucky Bastard 8,459]

1 hour ago, JohnnyD said:

 

I wish I was able to read the full article, but I don't want to subscribe to the Sunday Times. Is there anyway that a copy of the article can be sent? I really want to read it.

 

Thief!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,361]

Information should be completely free and unlimited!

[Balahkay 629]

6 hours ago, mrbellamy said:

There’ll be a concert piece. 

 

A concert piece? I want ten original concert pieces this time around.  I mean, he needs to make up for TLJ.

[Tom 4,944]

RotJ had a full suite, while Rots only had one piece.  I could see Williams going either way with this one. 

 

Pure speculation: one new big theme and associated concert piece, and an end credits piece similar to TFA but encompassing the whole saga. 

[Pawel P. 738]

5 hours ago, Stefancos said:

Information should be completely free and unlimited!

 

Information - yes (although press agencies, which usually provide information, don't work for free), but this is not information or news, it's a press interview  that appears in a newspaper that's not an online service or web portal – The Sunday Times draws a large part of its profits from sales. Therefore, it is perfectly understandable that most of their exclusive content is available online for additional payment. Why would it be different? If we want the press to survive, let's keep paying the journalists and publishers for the content they prepare for us.

 

By the way, it's great that Williams has already started writing music for TROS!  TFA and TLJ are fantastic and I have no doubt that the last episode will also be at the highest level.

[Chen G. 4,395]

20 minutes ago, Tom said:

an end credits piece similar to TFA but encompassing the whole saga. 

 

That's a tall order. You really see Williams going back to, say, the Droid Army March?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,361]

No.

[Alex 2,866]

Here’s your damn full article ya cheapskates! 

 

[King Mark 3,666]

I'm puzzled why  he keeps saying he doesn't like movies yet has scored them for decades and is always  thrilled to see the rough cut of whatever he's scoring

[Jurassic Shark 12,775]

He's a complex man.

 

"numerous symphonies" LOL

[Chen G. 4,395]

1 hour ago, King Mark said:

he keeps saying he doesn't like movies yet has scored them for decades and is always  thrilled to see the rough cut of whatever he's scoring

 

Seeing a film which you are to work on (as a composer/editor/effects supervisor/etc) is a very different experience to seeing a film in the theater. You're seeing it through a different, more professional lens, as it were.

 

Williams always seems to experience the films he scores - certainly the more popular of those films - through some kind of buffer. For instance, in order to take the silly duel at the end of The Phantom Menace with the amount of seriousness needed to come up with Duel of the Fates, Williams imagined it as though it was a ritual or a ballet, instead.

[Disco Stu 15,501]

Love the tidbit at the end about how he enjoys reading Beethoven scores.  He rarely talks about (or isn’t often asked about) how he enjoys music for the pleasure of it.

[Chen G. 4,395]

And really, in general, part of the reason I love to read/watch interviews with Williams isn't that they are particularly informative (about the music or the composer himself) but because - in talking about his work, he's always so enthusiastic, and not an egotistical way.

 

His almost giddy demeanor is downright infectious.

[mrbellamy 6,632]

I don’t think it’s not that he doesn’t like movies, it’s just not a hobby for him. He’s not a film buff who goes to the cinema every weekend, has a bunch of Criterion Blurays etc. 

[JohnnyD 1,272]

On 5/12/2019 at 4:54 AM, Alex said:

Here’s your damn full article ya cheapskates! 

 

 

Um, thank you (?).

[pete 942]

He forgot to mention he's completely retiring at the end of the year.

[Bayesian 1,418]

3 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

Love the tidbit at the end about how he enjoys reading Beethoven scores.  He rarely talks about (or isn’t often asked about) how he enjoys music for the pleasure of it.

Yes! Me too! To read that my second-favorite composer ever studies the work of my favorite composer is just really awesome for me.

[pete 942]

He made a similiar comment years ago about reading the Beethoven piano sonatas or string quartets and pieces by Handel ... or was it Haydn? Something along the lines of "the read like novels", and I recall he said he has the scores on a nightstand by his bed. One of the Richard Dyer articles.

[Tom 4,944]

6 hours ago, Chen G. said:

 

That's a tall order. You really see Williams going back to, say, the Droid Army March?

He mentioned toying with the idea for the end credits of the last Indiana Jones movie (obviously Indy themes in that case).  Why on earth would the Droid Army theme be essential to such a project?  Obviously the themes for which there are concert versions commonly performed would come to mind and obviously not all of them. 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,361]

So it would be like the ridiculous ROTS end credits?

[Chen G. 4,395]

Given that Williams reminisced the Throne Room music in this very interview (he was always especially proud of that piece, as well he should be) it doesn't seem unlikely.

 

Although in Revenge of the Sith it was more of a "next time, on Star Wars..."

[Jurassic Shark 12,775]

1 minute ago, Chen G. said:

Although in Revenge of the Sith it was more of a "next time, on Star Wars..."

 

I'm not sure what you mean by that.

[crumbs 14,584]

I think he's too enamored by Daisy to just regurgitate old music like that again. I think he'd rather do a reinvention of her theme and intertwine it with something else rather than do the Throne Room again.

[toothless 970]

1 minute ago, crumbs said:

 I think he'd rather do a reinvention of her theme and intertwine it with something else rather than do the Throne Room again.

 

He’ll do what JJ asks and that’s all ! 😛

[Jurassic Shark 12,775]

15 minutes ago, crumbs said:

I think he's too enamored by Daisy to just regurgitate old music like that again. I think he'd rather do a reinvention of her theme and intertwine it with something else rather than do the Throne Room again.

 

Binary Sunset.

 

[TheUlyssesian 2,538]

There will be a concert suite. What as the last Williams score without a concert suite?

[SteveMc 2,675]

1 hour ago, pete said:

He made a similiar comment years ago about reading the Beethoven piano sonatas or string quartets and pieces by Handel ... or was it Haydn? Something along the lines of "the read like novels", and I recall he said he has the scores on a nightstand by his bed. One of the Richard Dyer articles.

I do recall this.  It was the Beethoven sonatas.