Star Wars Composer Showdown: Episode I - Williams vs Powell vs Giacchino vs McNeely vs Göransson

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Just a mixed bag of random Star Wars polls, pitting Williams' sequel trilogy scores against 4 other major musical contributions to Star Wars: Joel McNeely's Shadows of the Empire, Michael Giacchino's Rogue One, John Powell's Solo and Ludwig Göransson's The Mandalorian.

The questions were designed to be relatively evenly matched, so I've avoided predictable winners like Rey's Theme, Jedi Steps and Finale, etc. Apologies to Kiner, Haab and all the other Star Wars composers working on various projects, but I decided to leave it as the modern Disney scores + SOTE, as they are the most well known.

 

Video examples below, for anyone who needs a refresher.

 

Spoiler

 

Question 1: Best Speeder Chase

 

 

 

 

 

Question 2: Best Villain Suite/Theme

 

 

 

 

 

 

Question 3: Best Non-Williams Finale

 

 

 

 

 

 

Question 4: Best Emotional Climax

 

 

 

 

 

Question 5: Best Climactic Action Cue

 

 

 

 

 

Question 6: Best Heroine Theme

 

 

 

 

Question 7: Best Main on End Performance/Recording (Luke's Theme Fanfare)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Question 8: Best Williams OST Opening Track

 

 

 

 

 

Question 9: Best Standalone Action Cue

 

 

 

 

 

 

Question 10: Best Dramatic/Tragic Climax of Film's Primary Theme

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Thor 7,490]

I'm terrible at remembering individual tracks, so I would need to some serious time to reacquaint myself with the cues in question, and I'm not sure I have that time at my disposal at the moment. Generally, however, I would say I prefer SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE over all the others. SOLO and TFA are a tight, split second. Then TLJ and TROS after that, but considerably down. And then -- way, way down, in the depths of Moria, you'll find MANDO and ROGUE (love the show/film, absolutely detest the scores).

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Understandable. I put reference clips of every answer to every question (timecoded where relevant) so hopefully that helps anyone who needs to jog their memory! 

[Smeltington 1,436]

Epic poll dude! You must be very proud.

 

The hierarchy is always Williams > Powell > Göransson. Though Parting Ways vs Open the Door was tough. Listening to Open the Door again, it struck me that Göransson fundamentally understands the Force theme, as opposed to other people I could mention.

[Fabulin 3,510]

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9 minutes ago, Smeltington said:

Listening to Open the Door again, it struck me that Göransson fundamentally understands the Force theme, as opposed to other people I could mention.

 

Don't worry, that question is coming in the sequel poll

 

 

5 minutes ago, Fabulin said:

TROS fanfare (JW)  is quite nice. Without a high quality recording of the TLJ version I cannot judge if that one is better.

 

That question might have been poorly worded. It's the end credits fanfare, not 1M1 Main Title (which wasn't used for the spinoffs). 

[Fabulin 3,510]

10 minutes ago, crumbs said:

You might have misread or the poll question wasn't worded clearly. It's the end credits fanfare used for all the live action films, not 1m1 Main Title (which wasn't used for the spinoffs). 

Greenway it is then. Amazing one.

[SilverTrumpet 638]

I'm kinda surprised I voted for so few Williams tracks.

 

I'm not surprised I voted for no Mandalorian tracks. 

 

Also, Shadows of the Empire is still underrated. Doesn't matter what the rumors say about Williams's opinion of it.

[Fabulin 3,510]

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[SilverTrumpet 638]

1 minute ago, Fabulin said:

Shadows of the Empire is generic media music. How can it be underrated?

 

Because it's much better than generic media music? 

[Jay 37,336]

Yikes, I put all the videos in a spoiler block so it's easy to scroll down to the discussion (and so they don't load if you don't want them to)

 

Any poll involving Star Wars music without Falcon Flight is suspect  

 

In general I picked a lot of Williams and Powell and I think one Goransson.  Nothing from Shadows of the Empire is as good as any of the best Disney era Star Wars scoring.  Picked absolutely nothing from Rogue One and continue to be surprised by how well that score is liked around here

[Smeltington 1,436]

Rogue One vs. Williams poll results are what separates the JWMen from the JWBoys.

 

58 minutes ago, Fabulin said:

The rebel fanfare and solo theme sound here like "John Williams - The Energy Drink"

 

lol

[blondheim 1,157]

Cool kids vote for Xizor's Theme

[mstrox 6,649]

I'm honestly not super familiar with TROS's score (and I'm 0% familiar with anything not on the OST) but I did my darnedest to answer.

[Jay 37,336]

Doesn't "Farewell" count as the "emotional climax" of TROS?

[SilverTrumpet 638]

11 minutes ago, Jay said:

Doesn't "Farewell" count as the "emotional climax" or TROS?

 

I think the scene itself is what hurts it. At least that's the case for me. 

[Jay 37,336]

I don't remember all the footage it covers from start to finish of the track, but doesn't the glorious climactic rendition of the Victory Theme cover all the enemy ships blowing up and our heroes flying away after saving the day?

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7 hours ago, Jay said:

Doesn't "Farewell" count as the "emotional climax" or TROS?

 

It does, but as I mentioned:

 

10 hours ago, crumbs said:

The questions were designed to be relatively evenly matched, so I've avoided predictable winners like Rey's Theme, Jedi Steps and Finale, etc.

 

Farewell would have won easily, same as if I added Rey's Theme to best heroine theme.

[Jay 37,336]

I don't think that's true for emotional climax.  A lot of people here really like the other 3 tracks you put for that options, and I don't really see people talk about Farewell as much as most other tracks on the TROS OST

 

Totally right about Rey's Theme though, of course.

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Good call with the spoiler tag btw, didn't even occur to me last night

 

So far I'm most unsurprised by this result:

 

That Rogue One performance is indeed terrible. Sounds like a first take! Didn't expect TFA to be leading though; to my ears Solo is practically unmatched in this category.

[Tom Guernsey 2,282]

20 hours ago, Fabulin said:

Shadows of the Empire is generic media music. How can it be underrated?

I really enjoyed Shadows of the Empire, but not sure it can be described as such, more early 20th century classical. Much of it is heavily borrowed from Prokofiev and Walton mixed with the bits of Williams' music. Xizor's Theme is lots of Romeo & Juliet (variations on the Dance of the Knights) by Prokofiev and a fair bit of the rest (notably some of the climactic action music) is from a somewhat obscure Walton work (either The Quest or The Wise Virgins, they are on the same Naxos album I have of those works but I can't remember which it is).

 

I understand McNeely didn't have a lot of time to write the music, so maybe not surprising he leaned so heavily on other works.

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

"Farewell" isn't an emotional climax??

 

*Nm saw the posts about it

[Jay 37,336]

8 minutes ago, Not Mr. Big said:

"Farewell" isn't an emotional climax??

 

On 2/3/2021 at 10:36 AM, Jay said:

Doesn't "Farewell" count as the "emotional climax" of TROS?

 

[GerateWohl 4,350]

The emotional climax of TROS is your own dissapointment after watching the movie. 

[TheAvengerButton 175]

7 hours ago, Tom Guernsey said:

I really enjoyed Shadows of the Empire, but not sure it can be described as such, more early 20th century classical. Much of it is heavily borrowed from Prokofiev and Walton mixed with the bits of Williams' music. Xizor's Theme is lots of Romeo & Juliet (variations on the Dance of the Knights) by Prokofiev and a fair bit of the rest (notably some of the climactic action music) is from a somewhat obscure Walton work (either The Quest or The Wise Virgins, they are on the same Naxos album I have of those works but I can't remember which it is).

 

I understand McNeely didn't have a lot of time to write the music, so maybe not surprising he leaned so heavily on other works.

Not to mention straight up taking a whole bit from Holst's Venus in Imperial City. Like, he didn't even try to disguise it.

 

Still, I LOVE Shadows of the Empire. I always call it my favorite Star Wars score.

[Joni Wiljami 1,206]

Can't vote cause there are few no-Williams questions. 🤮🤮🤮

[Fabulin 3,510]

On 2/4/2021 at 12:40 AM, crumbs said:

Good call with the spoiler tag btw, didn't even occur to me last night

 

So far I'm most unsurprised by this result:

 

That Rogue One performance is indeed terrible. Sounds like a first take! Didn't expect TFA to be leading though; to my ears Solo is practically unmatched in this category.

Related to this question (and maybe inspiring a new one) I think I have my new favourite lead-up to the end credits fanfare (2:12-2:25)

 

[karelm 2,911]

Weird poll.  Doesn't include Rey for Heroin's theme.  Or Leia for that matter.  Best Villain Suite/Theme doesn't include imperial march.  This poll should be added to the worst "JWFAN poll" poll. 

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22 minutes ago, karelm said:

Weird poll.  Doesn't include Rey for Heroin's theme.  Or Leia for that matter.  Best Villain Suite/Theme doesn't include imperial march.  This poll should be added to the worst "JWFAN poll" poll. 

 

Should probably read the actual post before criticising:

 

On 2/4/2021 at 12:08 AM, crumbs said:

The questions were designed to be relatively evenly matched, so I've avoided predictable winners like Rey's Theme, Jedi Steps and Finale, etc.

 

Never ceases to amaze me all the armchair experts who complain about polls not having certain options they think should've been included.

 

You're welcome to start your own damn poll with whatever options you want, rather than complain and point out all the "issues" with mine.

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,433]

Great poll! I find that the question three and four where to me the only one really tight. Hard to choose between Powell and Giacchino (easy to throw away Göransson though). Elsewhere that's just always Williams for me and TFA if possible.

 

[aviazn 273]

On 2/3/2021 at 8:17 AM, Fabulin said:

Greenway it is then. Amazing one.

 

On 2/3/2021 at 5:40 PM, crumbs said:

So far I'm most unsurprised by this result:

 

That Rogue One performance is indeed terrible. Sounds like a first take! Didn't expect TFA to be leading though; to my ears Solo is practically unmatched in this category.

 

Same, Greenaway (and that LSO brass) win it going away, for me.

 

Is it confirmed that To Tatooine is Powell and not Williams? I remember there was some discussion about whether that was one of the cues JW contributed. (If it was Powell, he had me fooled.)

[Jay 37,336]

Yes, Powell posted on Instagram exactly which cues had JW origins and that cue was not one of them