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The Rise of Skywalker OST Album Discussion


Jay

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13 hours ago, Not Mr. Big said:

The album presentation is excellent though.  Maybe the best of the ST yet

 

I disagree, I think it's the worst of the three Sequel Trilogy albums.  It's missing the more highlights from the whole score than either previous OST was from their whole scores.

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I think this album is the second best of the sequel trilogy just in terms of presentation. The Last Jedi is almost impossible to sit through as the force theme is relied on so heavily in almost every track in the first half. I think that important music IS missing from the album, but just in terms of the listening experience of the three, I'd say this is right behind the force awakens

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I think the album is as good as could reasonably have been expected considering how massive this score is. The reality is that this is just not a score that could ever be satisfactorily covered by one disc. As is, its not as bad a representation as I feared. There’s a coherent narrative on the album, which is better than I could say of the prequels.

 

The absence of the Lando cue is a real head scratcher though. I don’t even like the cue as much as others here, but it’s probably the most immediately memorable piece of the score.

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14 hours ago, crumbs said:

So I'm late to the party here but what's the deal with the first two tracks of the OST? In the film itself, the prologue and journey to Exogol seem like the same thing, so why are they two separate tracks? And the opening flight to Exogol is scored totally differently in the film, per the FYC. 

 

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?

 

Apologies if this has already been covered. I'm still catching up.

 

14 hours ago, pete said:

 

I don't think anyone here knows for sure. Safe to assume at least that Williams wrote some different versions as the film changed and went with his own preferences for the CD. Beyond that, I think it's all guess work unless someone involved with the process ever chimes in. Wouldn't a book that details all this be great?!

 

We've been discussing this in the Complete Score thread; current thinking is that "Journey To Exegol" was actually written for REY'S journey there later in the film, and was then TRACKED into the prologue late in the game, and so Williams placed it early in the OST album as a consequence.  See here (final post on page 10):

 

https://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?/topic/31031-the-rise-of-skywalker-complete-score-as-heard-in-the-film-discussion-spoilers-allowed/page/10

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On 12/21/2019 at 10:27 PM, lairdo said:

 

Yep. And Gloria led me to believe that on TFA, it was a live instrument. But I could have misunderstood.


We actually have a score leak of the TFA end credits, which indicate synth celesta:

 

DA7F3DA6-DC21-4549-B40D-C51E40FB1670.jpeg

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1 hour ago, Edmilson said:

Jon Broxton's review of the OST contains a pretty detailed analysis of the themes:

 

https://moviemusicuk.us/2019/12/23/star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker-john-williams/

What is the "Dark Force" motif this person is referring to?

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Just now, TheAvengerButton said:

What is the "Dark Force" motif this person is referring to?

 

Probably this one: https://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?/topic/25318-jj-abrams-on-working-with-john-williams/&do=findComment&comment=1124783

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So I can't be the only person hearing shades of Dracula at the start of Journey to Exogol? The descending horns at 0:13 remind me of something in that score, I just can't find the track. 

 

What a deliciously dark and momentum-filled cue. 

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44 minutes ago, crumbs said:

So I can't be the only person hearing shades of Dracula at the start of Journey to Exogol? The descending horns at 0:13 remind me of something in that score, I just can't find the track. 

 

What a deliciously dark and momentum-filled cue. 

 

Dracula sure does seem to saturate that track!


Here's the moment it most closely resembles to me, but the gothic musical effects are elsewhere in the track, and others too (I also hear Chamber of Secrets touches here and there for Exegol.)

 

 

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3 minutes ago, Falstaft (hiatus til TROS) said:

 

Dracula sure does seem to saturate that track!


Here's the moment it most closely resembles to me, but the gothic musical effects are elsewhere in the track, and others too (I also hear Chamber of Secrets touches here and there for Exegol.)

 

 

 

You nailed it, that was the exact segment I was thinking about. 

 

It's amazing how varied the score is overall, probably the most tonally diverse SW score since TPM, especially with the celebratory versions of Luke's Theme and the Rebel Fanfare in the last act to counteract the pervasive darkness elsewhere (unlike most of the renditions of those themes in TFA/TLJ, which were generally tinged with melancholy). 

 

But the score is absolutely dripping with gothic, dark textures I haven't heard him experiment with since the days of COS/TLW/Dracula. Wonder if those recent expansions played any part in revisiting that style?

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5 hours ago, crumbs said:

So I can't be the only person hearing shades of Dracula at the start of Journey to Exogol? The descending horns at 0:13 remind me of something in that score, I just can't find the track. 

 

What a deliciously dark and momentum-filled cue. 


Yes, I mentioned this earlier! I wish that theme appeared more than just the one time; it practically deserves to have its own concert arrangement.

 

4 hours ago, Falstaft (hiatus til TROS) said:

 

Dracula sure does seem to saturate that track!


Here's the moment it most closely resembles to me, but the gothic musical effects are elsewhere in the track, and others too (I also hear Chamber of Secrets touches here and there for Exegol.)

 

 


This is the bit that it reminded me of as well!

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I've only just began really getting stuck into the score, so forgive me for repeating anything said previously, but does anyone get a John Carter or at least a Giacchino vibe from Williams new 'Rise of Skywalker' theme?

 

1:13 - 1:34

 

 

It makes me think of this theme, and Giacchino's overall dramatic LOST themes.

 

2:30 - 

 

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People have mentioned Yorktown as well. 

 

I get that vibe but of course who is Gia homaging in the first place. Dejah’s Theme has always felt like a SW audition, I always thought it was one of his more successfully Williamsy themes.

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John Carter was probably inspired from the same "romantic space music" Williams wrote (Ananakin's Theme, Princess Leia's Theme, Luke and Leia, Across the Stars), which later informed the TROS theme.

 

I still think The Rise of Skywalker has also something in common with Williams' more optimistic music from the late 80s/early 90s (Jurassic Park "reverent" theme, Hook, Grail Theme from TLC).

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Yeah, that one chord though in TROS at 1:27 does sound like something Giacchino would do. None of the rest of it does to me, though.

 

Dejah’s theme doesn’t sound like Williams at all to me, either. It sounds directly pulled from his endless well of LOST love themes.

 

 

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After many listenings I just adore this score. Is slightly less epic than (I think) it should, but even more memorable than I hoped to be. I don't know precisely why, but A New Home is probably my favourite track. I can't overstate how much I like the simple theme combined with Rey's theme. At the beginning "Finale" was a little bit underwhelming but after my last listen a couple of minutes ago I'm feeling very positive. I would have gone with a different music than the "Main Title" but I love the previous part of the suite.

 

 

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22 hours ago, aviazn said:

Yeah, that one chord though in TROS at 1:27 does sound like something Giacchino would do. None of the rest of it does to me, though.

 

Dejah’s theme doesn’t sound like Williams at all to me, either. It sounds directly pulled from his endless well of LOST love themes.

 

 

Bingo!  I was going to say the exact thing. 1:27 note has that saccharine gia feel, rest does not. Honestly the rest orchestrally is more complex compared to gia's usual standard.

 

For what's it with John Carter is one of Gia's absolutely best and Dejah might be one of his most fleshed out themes. I think a lot of his themes don't have an interlude or b part. But Dejah is a pretty good theme. And it is used well in the score.

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Still only at the OST with no film viewing/score hearing for me. I'm unable to stay composed during Farewell, musically there is great warmth and feeling among the most bittersweet-ecstatic passages to date in his output. I kind of mused about all the callbacks toward the end, while being so service-y, they also feel like these massive structural links in time, motifs time stretched to the point of feeling like a gigantic repetitive structure that has been emerging gradually since the middle of chronological scoring, in almost a palindromic manner. But where are the prequel themes even here? Perhaps they only exist in the middle? I don't know, but they are missed on some level.

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11 hours ago, MattyO said:

The Rise of Skywalker theme makes me sad Williams never got to close out the Harry Potter films.

 

I've always imagined a dark fanfare for choir and orchestra like Grievous' Theme for the Death Eaters and the fear they inspire on the Wizarding World:

 

 

Or some creepy suspense music like Palpatine's Seduction for the investigation about the Horcruxes:

 

 

Williams could have provided Deathly Hallows 1 and 2 with another dark, menacing, brooding and LOTR-like score, which would've been much more interesting than Hooper's and Desplat's duller efforts for the Yates movies. Unfortunately ROTS was the last time he had the opportunity to write something like this.

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22 hours ago, A Ghost From Highwood said:

for the Reylo scene? Do people seriously want that? Do we still live on Earth? makes no sense! :pat:

 

I will say the fact that they did Reylo makes it more unfortunate than ever that JW didn't create a "Rey and Kylo" theme for TLJ (and TROS by extension).

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On 12/23/2019 at 4:14 PM, Jay said:

When JW sat down to write this film score, he took Rey's theme and developed in in many new ways throughout, as she's the main character of this film and the one with the biggest journey.

 

He also took Kylo Ren's theme to many new places, as he also goes through a major arc and as he turns from the dark to the light, he theme changes with it

 

He also builds to a final moment of catharsis when things seem bleakest for our heroes until the tide turns and we get the biggest, grandest version of the main theme of this saga yet.

 

None of this is represented on the album.  There's barely any Rey's theme.  The narrative conclusion of Kylo's theme is completely absent.  And the final triumphant moment is just not there.

 

And as an album is doesn't flow particularly well, or have much of a feeling of a narrative.

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1 hour ago, DominicCobb said:

 

I will say the fact that they did Reylo makes it more unfortunate than ever that JW didn't create a "Rey and Kylo" theme for TLJ (and TROS by extension).

Reylo was such a shock. Maybe Williams didn’t want people to dwell on that and just move on. 

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1 hour ago, A Ghost From Highwood said:

Reylo was such a shock. Maybe Williams didn’t want people to dwell on that and just move on. 

 

Personally I didn't think so at all. Regardless, their relationship and their connection ended up being central to this trilogy in a big way, romance or not. Williams's biggest missed opportunity on these films if you ask me.

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