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The Rise of Skywalker - COMPLETE SCORE Discussion - SPOILERS ALLOWED!


Jay

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The current prologue with Kylo meeting Palps and the SDs rising out of the planet and everything was originally much later, the film opened with a longer Luke/Leia training flashback. I guess they figured they'd just get it out of the way, no need to build up or explain Palps, people already know he's in it from the trailers.

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Right... but the music in OST track 01 doesn't sound like it would fit a Luke/Leia training sequence, so I think if JW scored that prologue we still haven't heard it, and what we have in OST track 01 is from some version of a Kylo Ren prologue... or something

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Thanks! Easily one of my favorite parts of the sequel scores. What a shame that it was left off the OST; as far as Ren/Rey team-up music goes, I'd take this over TLJ's "A New Alliance" any day. I especially love that light-side Kylo theme at 0:45. It seems like almost all of his post-redemption material was left off the OST, another real shame. "Parents" at the very least would have been a great inclusion.

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On 12/21/2019 at 5:42 PM, Jay said:

Here's Rey exploring the Death Star II.  Can we tell from this if the "Darth Vader's Death" part at the end is tracked in from ROTJ or new?

This definitely sounds tracked to me. I was disappointed by how much tracking there was in the film. I am curious about the thinking behind certain music choices like the music from AOTC.

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1 hour ago, Jay said:

I think out of any cue in the film that isn't on the OST, this is the one that most SHOULD HAVE BEEN.  It's not only the narrative and emotional climax of the movie, but the entire sequel trilogy, and the entire saga.  And it features a glorious new rendition and reworking of what has been used as the main title theme for all 9 episodes.  What was he thinking skipping over this one?

 

JW album logic. Why put a lengthy cue on there featuring something you hear at length both in the main and end titles, when you can use the space for more original music? 

 

But this is the kind of scoring that should have taken place in many instances of the films, instead of the relentless mickey mousing. 

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17 hours ago, Jay said:

Are you guys talking about the quote at the end of this unreleased cue?

 

Yes, that's what I was referring to. It does sound like it's tracked from "Betrayal at Bespin":
 

 

Is that the only reference of the theme in Rise of Skywalker? I don't recall hearing it anywhere else.

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14 hours ago, Jay said:

I think out of any cue in the film that isn't on the OST, this is the one that most SHOULD HAVE BEEN.  It's not only the narrative and emotional climax of the movie, but the entire sequel trilogy, and the entire saga.  And it features a glorious new rendition and reworking of what has been used as the main title theme for all 9 episodes.  What was he thinking skipping over this one?

 it's the new Dark Side Beckons .I still remember how crushed I was it wasn't on the RotJ OST

 

I pray it's at least somewhere in a Blu Ray menu

 

Oh and it's the kind of cue that will bring Oscar voters attention even if they don't remember the rest of the score

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I had a huge grin on my face when that music came in, plus the moment later on with the big Rebel Fanfare moment (and it was a really fresh take on it, not just another tired rehash). 

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14 minutes ago, King Mark said:

how do you save these Clyps. I want to make a playlist of unreleased music

 

Yeah, I don't understand where you're getting unreleased music unless you recorded the movie. 

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2 hours ago, Brundlefly said:

Just came back from the theatre. The score in context with the film is so dull!

 

It's just... there. Like Williams going through the motions. 

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33 minutes ago, King Mark said:

 it's the new Dark Side Beckons .I still remember how crushed I was it wasn't on the RotJ OST

 

I pray it's at least somewhere in a Blu Ray menu

 

Oh and it's the kind of cue that will bring Oscar voters attention even if they don't remember the rest of the score

 

It's more than the sum of its parts.  One one hand, you can say it's just "The Star Wars Theme" played during the scene.  On the other hand, you can say that it's Williams saying *choke* goodbye to the galaxy far, far away by coming back to home base where it all began.  Truly, truly beautiful.  We are blessed to be gifted this moment of film scoring.

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We almost need a thread for the amount of tracked music in the film. I noticed no less than 8 instances of tracked music from ROTJ, ROTS, TFA and TLJ.

  • Peace and Purpose tracked into General Pryde's death
  • Starry Night poorly tracked into the post-crawl tilt down
  • Finn's Confession sounded tracked for that chat with Jannah
  • A Home for the Twins tracked into a chat between Poe and Lando (I think)
  • Darth Vader's Death tracked into the Death Star II Emperor's Throne Room reveal
  • Lesson Two (or whatever you call the cue that follows Rey's lightsaber training cue in TLJ) tracked somewhere, can't remember where
  • A fragment of Attack on the Jakku Village tracked somewhere else
  • A fragment of The Abduction (the part where Kylo swings his saber into Rey's face while she's frozen)

 

I was a little taken aback, considering how much new music Williams recorded (over 3 hours, possibly the most of any sequel). Clearly these were all in the temp track and JJ just preferred them to whatever Williams scored anew. Or they just had to bandaid over last-minute edits? Who knows.

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Yes possibly. I just listened again to Han Solo and the General. I'd forgotten that arrangement is basically the same as Betrayal at Bespin. I still think the Rise of Skywalker quote sounds more like Betrayal at Bespin, but that could just be because I've been listening to that for far longer. I'll hand the decision off to someone with better ears!

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Is there any word as to whether or not we'll be getting any sort of special edition or full soundtrack for the sequel trilogy soon? I really want to have all of that music, and Rise of Skywalker definitely has a lot of awesome unreleased music.

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2 hours ago, Bayesian said:

I saw the film last night and I couldn’t keep track of all the moments where I heard music I loved but not found on the OST or FYC.

 

To be fair to yourself, with as frenzied and breathless as the film is, it's kinda hard trying to focus on any one thing in particular about it, even the music that's buried heavily in most of the mix. 

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4 minutes ago, ImaginariumStudios Music said:

Is there any word as to whether or not we'll be getting any sort of special edition or full soundtrack for the sequel trilogy soon? I really want to have all of that music, and Rise of Skywalker definitely has a lot of awesome unreleased music.

 

I read a comment on Facebook by someone - I forget who - who said they heard a longer set is due next year. I didn't put much stock in that though. If I find the comment - it was somewhere in the "Soundings: The John Williams Appreciation Society" FB group, I'll ask where he heard it. My gut feeling is that if one is in the works, it would still be a secretive project.

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Fingers crossed but could just be someone extrapolating from Mike's comments on the Disaster podcast. 

 

If I had to extrapolate from his more recent comment warning against an isolated score petition, that implies expansions are still a long way off (unless he's working on them but they're still at risk of being cancelled).

 

Maybe iso tracks were floated for the 4K releases and he argued against it, out of concern some executive would question why they're spending money on soundtrack releases when the home video release has isolated scores (the bean counters wouldn't understand the difference, let's be honest). 

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5 hours ago, crumbs said:

 

Are we assuming JW just scored a different version of the film where these two sequences were separate and he included both on the album? Or perhaps Journey to Exogol belongs much later in the film but was replaced by a revised cue?

 


I vividly remember the amazing quote of the Emperor’s theme in Prologue (ost at 3:39) actually occurs when Rey is in Exegol. I may be misremembering but I also vaguely recall the opening brass and timpani from “Journey to Exegol”  scoring her arrival to the planet in the film. I’m sure someone will correct me on that though. 
 

 

Also anyone else think that descending horn followed by cello at 1:10 in “A New Home” is a subtle quote of Rey’s theme? Specifically the “false” ending of the melody (0:48 of Rey’s Theme concert arrangement). It’s also hinted at on the cellos at 0:16 of “A New Home”.

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Yes, the score is brilliant in the film, but moreso out of it, it's just that it's chopped up and relegated to a lower mix and drowned out by sound fx in the film. Whoever agreed to the mixes was a heartless coward who didn't have faith in the narrative power of music. It's a disgrace to Williams' legacy in all honesty.

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3 minutes ago, Arpy said:

Yes, the score is brilliant in the film, but moreso out of it, it's just that it's chopped up and relegated to a lower mix and drowned out by sound fx in the film. Whoever agreed to the mixes was a heartless coward who didn't have faith in the narrative power of music. It's a disgrace to Williams' legacy in all honesty.

 

It was originally Ben Burtt. But now it is his apprentice, Matt Wood. Always two there are... no more, no less.

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The voice of Grievous, no less. George Lucas's cough might've had a better role in mixing it all together than the fucking noise storm that betrays the score.

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3 minutes ago, Manakin Skywalker said:

 

It was originally Ben Burtt. But now it is his apprentice, Matt Wood. Always two there are... no more, no less.

 

JJ is the one who signed off on it though. He's responsible.

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13 minutes ago, Arpy said:

Yes, the score is brilliant in the film, but moreso out of it, it's just that it's chopped up and relegated to a lower mix and drowned out by sound fx in the film. Whoever agreed to the mixes was a heartless coward who didn't have faith in the narrative power of music. It's a disgrace to Williams' legacy in all honesty.


I genuinely think that’s been hard to quantify. I’ve read just as many people here saying the music was mixed super loud as super low. When I saw it it was fine. Of course it’s impossible to get the same consistently in tens/hundreds of thousands of theatres. I’m going to see it in IMAX second time round, it’ll be interesting to hear how it is there.

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Pretty great the variation on Luke's Theme when Lando arrives. But still, I dunno... JW did the best he could with the idiotic mess he had ahead of him, but his score was so hacked and edited that it felt... weird on the movie. It's more like great little cues stitched together than a coherent score carrying the movie, at least that's what I felt. On TLJ JW at least scored a more final version of the movie, but here Abrams kept changing the cut until the last minute, so there were lots of tracking, hacking, slashing...

 

It's not a musical journey created by the greatest living film composer, but a collection of little snippets of music put at the will of Abrams and his music editors.

 

Don't get me wrong, there were a lot of great musical moments, specially at the end (Farewell, Reunion and A New Home seemed they were mostly left untouched), but overall... It was very odd.

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