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TROS Track Appreciation Series - Join Me


Fabulin

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Thanks for your analysis, I'll listen later while reading. I LOVE this track, it's one of the ones I listen to most on its own, apart from the rest of the score. I especially like the Anthem of Evil stuff early on, and I love the buildup to the shot of Rey in the film reacting to the news. The music gives you a feeling of horror, that SOMETHING'S WRONG! in that moment.

 

Also the mention of prominent harp as a TROS trademark is spot on, that's another thing I love about this entire score.

 

When will Sith lords stop saying to join them though  :P  it never works... already didn't work in the last movie! I guess Kylo didn't watch that one.

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1 hour ago, Albus Percival Wulfric said:

- 1:30-1:45 brooding aftermath of the turnmoil, with some wave-like motion of the strings and the harp, pulsation of figures, and the entrance of strings hinting at encroaching madness in the Psycho language.

1:45-2:05 a dominating brass statement of the Anthem of Evil, with a combined accompaniment of the "boiling" and the "pulsation" ideas.

2:05-2:38 This is tough. Unless I am missing something big, it sounds like a melodic combination of a  suffocated semitonal March of the Resistance(?) with a dark and regal spelling of Jedi Steps, and then 2:19-2:22 the Force Theme trying to get through. Then 2:22-2:38 is a prolonged reprise of this composite melody. In this section I am especially impressed by the playing of the LA musicians. Marvelous.

2:39-2:50 Rey's Theme rising in an ambiguous fanfare full of tension. The decision to embrace the Dark Side in the air.

2:54-2:58 Whether it's a bass trombone, a contrabass trombone, or just a plain old tuba, it's playing a part of the Anthem of Evil


Fantastic stuff, and a true highlight of a score with many wonderful moments! (Wish I could say the same of the film…)
 

Interestingly, 1:30–2:58 was either tracked or repurposed and written into this cue from music originally meant for much later in the film, 8M4 Psalm of the Sith.
 

He did something similar in The Force Awakens, where those tense, repeating, oscillating string figures that accompany Han’s death were originally written for the firing of Starkiller base, in 5M40 (New Ending) The Beam Is Released, before Sunbeam Strings (‘The Starkiller’) was written to take its place.

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2 minutes ago, BrotherSound said:


Fantastic stuff, and a true highlight of a score with many wonderful moments! (Wish I could say the same of the film…)
 

Interestingly, 1:30–2:58 was either tracked or repurposed and written into this cue from music originally meant for much later in the film, 8M4 Psalm of the Sith.
 

He did something similar in The Force Awakens, where those tense, repeating, oscillating string figures that accompany Han’s death were originally written for the firing of Starkiller base, in 5M40 (New Ending) The Beam Is Released, before Sunbeam Strings (‘The Starkiller’) was written to take its place.

 

What I did not mention in the OP was that thematically this track made me immediately think of Ian McDiarmid saying "Empress Palpatine" and pointing towards the throne. I even gave a nickname to this track - "Empress Palpatine". How little did I know!

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Two notes about this track:

 

The section at 2:05 I don't think is supposed to be anything. It's meant to sound like it's going to end up being something but isn't, like the characters are thinking all these partial thoughts but unable to form anything complete. It's just emotions flying all over the place.

 

Rey's theme not long after that? Every time I hear it in the track, it sounds like it's going to be Palpy's theme instead. Brilliant use of the similarities. 

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Well done, @Albus Percival Wulfric! I'm 100% with you in hearing shards of the Force Theme in that interesting composite melody at 2:19 and 2:28 -- very similar to a comparable pair of moments in TFA's "Torn Apart" at 2:32 and especially 3:02 of that track.

 

 

Williams really knows how to nail these moments of shattering realization, doesn't he? -- the most obvious counterpart being "Losing a Hand" from ESB, of course. 

 

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7 hours ago, Albus Percival Wulfric said:

2:05-2:38 This is tough. Unless I am missing something big, it sounds like a melodic combination of a  suffocated semitonal March of the Resistance(?) with a dark and regal spelling of Jedi Steps, and then 2:19-2:22 the Force Theme trying to get through. Then 2:22-2:38 is a prolonged reprise of this composite melody. In this section I am especially impressed by the playing of the LA musicians. Marvelous.

 

Isn't this Williams' beloved Ludlow Motif, or what @Falstaft in his catalogue calls "Tension"? There, @Falstaft notes another instance of it in "Hallway Shooting" from TROS, so it's elsewhere in the score. It's kind of cool how at 2:05 and 2:22, it appears over a single chord like usual, but then at 2:32, it appears a third time, now each note of the motif harmonized with a different chord, sounding twisted and forced into a new mould.

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9 hours ago, Bellosh said:

Next to Rey's Theme, it's my favorite cue from the sequel trilogy.

 

wow I responded to this on mobile earlier, and thought it was for the title track, TROS, not Join Me.

 

I take back what I said, I like 'Join Me'.  Just not that much.

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9 hours ago, Ludwig said:

 

Isn't this Williams' beloved Ludlow Motif, or what @Falstaft in his catalogue calls "Tension"? There, @Falstaft notes another instance of it in "Hallway Shooting" from TROS, so it's elsewhere in the score. It's kind of cool how at 2:05 and 2:22, it appears over a single chord like usual, but then at 2:32, it appears a third time, now each note of the motif harmonized with a different chord, sounding twisted and forced into a new mould.

So it's actually Ludlow's Motif, but super slow mo? Wow... sounds much better than the annoying buzzsaw it usually is.

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47 minutes ago, Albus Percival Wulfric said:

So it's actually Ludlow's Motif, but super slow mo? Wow... sounds much better than the annoying buzzsaw it usually is.

 

The Ludlow motif is different from other themes because it lacks an explicit association. It's more of a basic outline, something like Horner's danger motif, that can be hammered into different but closely-related shapes for a generalized feeling of tension.

 

Call this one a different name if you like. The point is that its notes follow the same outline as the other things we call the Ludlow motif. This one, being slower, is like the Desperation motif from TLJ, which is also Ludlow-based. And even with that theme, the association is much more vague than with other themes, following the pattern of Ludlow motifs throughout Williams' scores.

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16 hours ago, Obi said:

This track is a highlight in the Star Wars history, i love every seconds of it.

 

Yes! It gives me huge The Fury vibes, and is an amazing example of how Williams developed Rey's Theme and matured it over the course of the trilogy.

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