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Using one word, how would you describe Williams ST action style?


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For instance, if his original trilogy action compositions were Thematic, and his prequel cues were Cacophonic, then what would his ST cues be?

 

They are really all over the place for me. Some action cues are carried by a shredding string section (Battle of Crait, Kylo Ren Arrives At The Battle, The Supremacy) some are carried by their melodies more (Battle of the Resistance, The Speeder Chase, The Resistance, I Can Fly Anything). But I think the majority of tracks are very rhythmic. The melodic content is often focused on a rhythmic idea (Follow Me and The Falcon, The Battle of Crait, Chrome Dome, the beginning of On the Inside FYC) or otherwise based on shorter, punchier melodies. I'm not sure how I would describe this sound using one term--but I'm leaning toward Rhythmic.

 

I'm working on a little project about William's evolving writing style, so I thought I'd get second opinions.

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His action music is now very complex. He has adapted very well to the frenetic editing of modern movies, despite his age I would say, without making any compromises to the melodic aspect. 

 

We know it, the new "thing" of modern composers seems to write more atmospheric or rhytmed actions cues, which are, at the end... pretty interchangeable between them.

 

But the action cues of John Williams remain structured and strong, thematically consistent, and altough we "hear" all the scene changes in his action music, it remains surprisingly substantial.

 

Sorry, more than one word! :P

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ST = Star Trek?  If so, nonexistent.   His Sequel Trilogy action music is Neo-classical.  Like the fugato for March of the Resistance.  Which to me draws a wonderful parallel to his early action music like his Shark Cage fugue from Jaws.  With JW, the beginning is the end.  He is the Alpha and the Omega.  His late style draws back to his earlier style beautifully but in a more complex way.  Through ST we understand the composer better.

 

To quote T.S. Elliot, “We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know this place for the first time.
Through the unknown, remembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;

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Modular

 

With a few exceptions, like Follow Me and the Falcon, the ST action music seems to be a series of very short musical statements, whether motivic, melodic, or rhythmic, that can be switched around in any order and re-arranged like modular furniture. It's almost like Lego blocks that can be reconfigured to make new objects out of.

 

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Heavier.

 

It has way less of the bells and whistles and speed that the prequels had, and a lot more hanging onto big brass notes, and the speed of the tracks in a lot of cases aren't as fast as the previous trilogies.

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7 hours ago, artguy360 said:

Modular

 

With a few exceptions, like Follow Me and the Falcon, the ST action music seems to be a series of very short musical statements, whether motivic, melodic, or rhythmic, that can be switched around in any order and re-arranged like modular furniture. It's almost like Lego blocks that can be reconfigured to make new objects out of.

 

Ah, that is great. This is exactly what I was looking for in a response. Modular is a fantastic word to describe the Sequel scores.

 

Williams has several different tricks that he uses here and you broke it down exactly how I would have. Motivic, melodic (or thematic), and rhythmic. The Tension music you hear in some of the action scenes is very motivic. The Battle of Crait is reliant on a very rhythmic musical idea, as is Follow Me and the Falcon. He has so many different ways here of conposing action music that are a lot less uniform than his previous trilogy scores. And then you have thematixlc, melodic material like The Fathiers and Speeder Chase that rely on thematic material to carry the song.

 

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