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Marion's theme vs Princess Leia's theme


Edmilson

Marion vs Leia  

56 members have voted

  1. 1. Which theme do you prefer?

    • Princess Leia's theme from Star Wars: A New Hope
      45
    • Marion's theme from Raiders of the Lost Ark
      11


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Princess Leia's Theme but just because of its sentimental value (not that I don't have for Marion's Theme but a bit less)

 

I agree with JS: Rey's Theme is the best female character's theme Williams ever wrote.

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Princess Leia's Theme is one of Williams' most complete compositions ever. The climax is second to none. Incredible piece that never gets boring (at least for me). 

 

Marion's Theme, even though I like it a lot, always felt like the "little sister" of Leia's Theme. It's a great composition too, but lacks the incredible climax that Leia's Theme has.

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1 hour ago, Jurassic Shark said:

I'd say both are great, but to me Leia's theme has been played to death.

 

I understand what you mean, theoretically. I can't play the Indy scores too often anymore, and I usually take long breaks from the Star Wars scores (at least the SEs and albums). But I don't think I could ever tire of Leia's theme. When the Mutter album came out, its new recording of the theme with the brilliantly balanced climax was one of the highlights for me.

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I always rather compared Marion's Theme to Han Solo and the Princess. First because of the ovious similarities. At the first two notes you don't know which of the two it is going to be. Second they came out at about the same time, 1980 and 1981. And at the time both didn't have a dedicated suite of the theme on the OST, even though they are quite prominent in the movie (apart from the version on the Gerhardt album, that I didn't know at that time).

In both cases (Leia and Han and Princess) the Star Wars theme wins for me.

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Went with Princess Leia's theme, though it's a hard call. Ultimately, it's the concert arrangement for Leia that clinches it, that thing is without peer.

 

2 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

It's certainly a refreshing arrangement, possibly exactly because someone else did it.

 

I mean, not to minimize Pope's contribution, but it's still 90% Williams, right? The only part that would be "original" Conrad Pope is the lovely introduction, especially in the way it hints at Han Solo & the Princess in the horn part. After that, it follows the form of the original concert arrangement exactly, with (presumably Pope's) solo  writing for ASM and some other slight reorchestrations here and there, all to good effect.

 

 

2 hours ago, Datameister said:

Both of them are much better at broadly evoking the old-fashioned adventures these films emulate than they are at specifically representing these characters. Leia's theme just pushes it a little further, in a good way.

 

My feeling too. Especially in ANH, Leia's Theme is really more a kind of "Archetypal Mythic Romance" theme, or even more specifically "Luke's Idea of Leia" than a real portrait of the character as portrayed by Carrie Fisher. Ditto for Marion. Very, very different approach than, say, Rey's Theme.

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8 minutes ago, Falstaft said:

I mean, not to minimize Pope's contribution, but it's still 90% Williams, right? The only part that would be "original" Conrad Pope is the lovely introduction, especially in the way it hints at Han Solo & the Princess in the horn part. After that, it follows the form of the original concert arrangement exactly, with (presumably Pope's) solo  writing for ASM and some other slight reorchestrations here and there, all to good effect.

 

Listen closer towards the end of the piece. ;)

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1 hour ago, Falstaft said:

 

My feeling too. Especially in ANH, Leia's Theme is really more a kind of "Archetypal Mythic Romance" theme, or even more specifically "Luke's Idea of Leia" than a real portrait of the character as portrayed by Carrie Fisher. Ditto for Marion. Very, very different approach than, say, Rey's Theme.

 

That's why the theme is mostly heard when Luke watches Leia's hologram, not when he shares scenes with the actual Leia. 

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On 4/10/2021 at 7:58 PM, Jurassic Shark said:

Hey @Marc, have you released any CD album of your film music covers?

 

Do you mean physical CDs ?

If so I haven't, but some of my works are available digitally like this album : https://didiermartini.com/1m1/

 

 

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As some have said, Princess Leia's Theme is one of JW's great works.  It has a complete emotional arc that plays out magnificently detached from any context, though I can't help but feeling that JW was working through personal emotions consciously or unconsciously in his music during this period.  

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Both themes are absolutely played and recorded to death over the years. Leia moreso than Marion. But there's no doubt Leia is the better piece. That they've become such "evergreens" is not the themes' fault. Vivaldi's "Four Seasons", Orff's "O Fortuna" or Barber's "Adagio for Strings" are still amazing pieces, even if they've long since become over-saturated on the market.

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  • 9 months later...

Is there a thread with more info or discussion on Pope’s contribution to this piece? I find it kind of appalling that he contributed his talent to this album with no credit. It seems to run entirely counter to the generosity and humility with which JW conducts himself by nearly universal report, as well as shattering my cherished image of Williams himself returning to all these themes decades later to reinvent them. Who else got asked to arrange for this album, and why does everyone act as though it was all Williams? It’s frankly Zimmeresque, but without the credit Zimmer always lavishes on his collaborators. I’m assuming the summer workshop Pope refers to in his Facebook post never happened because of COVID, but has he discussed the details anywhere else?
 

I haven’t been this upset since I heard those distinctive violin sounds in the temp track for the climax of E.T….

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1 hour ago, igger6 said:

Is there a thread with more info or discussion on Pope’s contribution to this piece? I find it kind of appalling that he contributed his talent to this album with no credit. It seems to run entirely counter to the generosity and humility with which JW conducts himself by nearly universal report, as well as shattering my cherished image of Williams himself returning to all these themes decades later to reinvent them. Who else got asked to arrange for this album, and why does everyone act as though it was all Williams? It’s frankly Zimmeresque, but without the credit Zimmer always lavishes on his collaborators. I’m assuming the summer workshop Pope refers to in his Facebook post never happened because of COVID, but has he discussed the details anywhere else?
 

I haven’t been this upset since I heard those distinctive violin sounds in the temp track for the climax of E.T….

 

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