Who do you think will score the new Disney+ Obi-Wan Kenobi TV series, using Williams' theme?

[Evanus 217]

Natalie Holt? Well, that would be underwhelming..

[Holko 9,526]

I listened to Loki today too and there's definitely some good stuff in there.

[Luka 242]

26 minutes ago, Holko said:

I listened to Loki today too and there's definitely some good stuff in there.

"Some" good stuff isn't enough. I want ALL good stuff. 

 

27 minutes ago, Evanus said:

Natalie Holt? Well, that would be underwhelming..

Therefore, underwhelming it is indeed. 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I am whelmed (potentially, if true)

[Tom 4,658]

Assuming the rumor is true, I think she will do well.  She has shown great potential.  She has the theme/s by Williams (and probably some general guidance from him as well--he seems to genuinely like to mentor).  While her resume is good, this could be a transformative assignment.  

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

Having an unknown is not as inherently exciting as it being an established name like John Powell or JNH but they avoided a minefield of potentially bad choices. 

 

Though with this, we'll have to wait until release to find out if it's good. 

[Edmilson 7,448]

Her Loki score was okay. I hope that, with JW's guidance, she'll do a fine job on the show.

 

She's the first woman to score a SW movie/TV Show in history, right?

[mstrox 6,651]

I really like her Loki score, and would not expect anything like it from Obi-Wan!  She’s worked on plenty of stuff that doesn’t sound like Loki.

[igger6 894]

If I'm reading this correctly, we have zero hard evidence for the Holt claim.  I await an announcement.

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

4 minutes ago, igger6 said:

If I'm reading this correctly, we have zero hard evidence for the Holt claim.  I await an announcement.

No, we have 2 evidence

[mrbellamy 6,286]

I've never heard Holt's music in action, sampled some stuff on her website which was just okay. I have no expectations for what her Obi-Wan score would be like, except my hope would be that it wouldn't be totally at odds with Williams's theme. Obviously it'd be a win for Star Wars, JWFan, film/TV music if she acquitted herself as well as Mr Powell. If not I'm still promised a JW original out of the deal.

[Docteur Qui 1,544]

If it is Natalie Holt...

 

[GerateWohl 4,368]

Meanwhile I think as well, it doesn't matter at all, who writes the score.

I am a John Williams fan and by that not automatically a fan of adapters of John Williams themes.

In the last years after The Rise of Skywalker there were some ok scores for Star Wars content and some urgh scores for that. Times are over, where I really expect something special, when it comes to new star wars music, except for the contributions of Williams himself of course, who always manages to deliver something remarkable.

I don't blame the composers. They deliver what they can and have been hired for what they can. 

It is just the way it works.

Happy to get surprised though.

 

[publicist 4,643]

Even The Rise of Skywalker itself wasn't that great, so lowered expectations all around.

[crocodile 8,012]

1 hour ago, publicist said:

Even The Rise of Skywalker itself wasn't that great, so lowered expectations all around.

I'm not sure how to judge this one based on the album and film. The latter especially is handled appallingly. There is still something like 2 hours we have not heard yet?

 

Karol

[Andy 4,127]

Sorry, Rise of Skywalker is great.  

 

I also think TV scoring by its sheer number of minutes is too much to get a tight, cohesive score that tells a musical story from start to finish.  There's an averaging effect when effort is spread out over hours of content.  I enjoyed the novelty of Goransson's music for the Mandoverse for a while, but now it has been spread over several hours of content, and has been diluted and diminished in its ability to dazzle or delight.

[Pawel P. 738]

7 minutes ago, Andy said:

Sorry, Rise of Skywalker is great.  

 

I second that. Easily the best score of 2019, IMHO.

[crumbs 14,315]

I find it too hard to judge TROS as a score because a) there's hours of recorded music we've never heard and b) what was used in the film is hacked to pieces.

 

And comparing the OST with the film makes the score seem rather disjointed.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I guess now is as good a time as ever to come out of the closet and admit I never got much into TROS.  Right now it's easily my least favorite Star Wars score.  I tried!  But really, do people actually find "Anthem of Evil" to be an effective theme?  Ignoring its use in the film, I find the theme itself very weak.

[Richard Penna 3,688]

I really like the Skywalker theme - I remember playing it during a journey in the American West in 2019 and the sweeping melody was captivating.

 

But yeah, Anthem of Evil I can't get into either. Similar for me to Snoke's material - nothing melodically or texturally grabs me at all.

 

But all three ST albums have to work as concept albums for me as I have zero interest in the films. I'm finding roughly 20-25 mins from each one does it for me.

[igger6 894]

11 hours ago, Not Mr. Big said:

No, we have 2 evidence

 

All I've seen is a petition from a year ago and one anonymous person claiming 80 and 95 percent certainty.  Am I missing something?

[Disco Stu 15,495]

6 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

I really like the Skywalker theme - I remember playing it during a journey in the American West in 2019 and the sweeping melody was captivating.

 

I do love the title concert arrangement track, really great themes and a wonderful arrangement.

 

The biggest disappointment is the climax of the album, the final few tracks that have always been such a triumph on previous Star Wars soundtracks, are just not very interesting to me here.

[Jay 37,363]

He really should have put the cues for Kylo fighting the guards and Lando showing up with the fleet on the OST album, that would have tremendously improved its climax

[GerateWohl 4,368]

Both, The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker have very week OST albums.

For both I prefer the FYC albums and I am confident that both scores will bloom as soon as there will be the expansions (probably far in the future, about a week after I will drop dead old and tired).

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I could only bear the movie once, so it's true that the OST is my only real experience of the score as I don't remember much about what's missing.  I look forward to one day getting an expansion and hopefully being completely turned around... but I dunno, there are so many reprises of old themes that go over like a lead balloon in this score.

[publicist 4,643]

2 hours ago, crocodile said:

I'm not sure how to judge this one based on the album and film. The latter especially is handled appallingly. There is still something like 2 hours we have not heard yet?

 

I'm not suggesting that Williams' abilities have declined, certainly not. But it's a pipe dream to think there's a cohesive masterpiece buried in the Disney vaults.

 

There's an incredible amount of film-dependent writing here, i guess when you load the cues in Audition you will see many start/stop sections, slow build up's without resolution, sudden jolts to accentuate a character turning around etc. that don't necessarily have a musical reason and certainly do not sound very musical.

 

And the whole thing moves like that, apart from a few through-composed pieces.

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

I like Anthem of Evil's performances throughout the score.  It reminds me of the more long-lined Voldemort from Harry Potter 1. 

 

Mainly the amount of new themes and motifs was a breath of fresh air after TLJ, where the only new recurring theme was one that I didn't really care for. 

 

Rose's Theme is too jolly to headline a film about the Resistance getting annihilated over and over again.  A more apt title for its concert arrangement would have been "The Spirit of Fun" or something. 

 

The Exile theme is just there. Holdo's Theme is the best of the lot but that only fully appears once (and two very short foreshadowing moments early on) and never gets any kind of satisfying album arrangement.

 

I will say that TLJ's action finale has more beef. 

[publicist 4,643]

1 minute ago, Not Mr. Big said:

A more apt title for the concert arrangement would have been "The Spirit of Fun" or something. 

 

That concert piece is eternally underrated by most fans. It's the most musically complicated - how JW weds and builds the disparate ideas into one piece moving towards a big resolution: that's great 'musical' writing, not the tons of murky underscore.

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

1 minute ago, publicist said:

 

That concert piece is eternally underrated by most fans. It's the most musically complicated - how JW weds and builds the disparate ideas into one piece moving towards a big resolution: that's great 'musical' writing, not the tons of murky underscore.

The idea of combining them is cool but neither thematic ideas hold much weight to me.  

[publicist 4,643]

The Rise of Skywalker concert cue certainly doesn't sound weighty, either (also like something out of the Potter trilogy).

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

Just now, publicist said:

The Rise of Skywalker concert cue certainly doesn't sound weighty, either (also like something out of the Potter trilogy).

Both themes in that concert arrangement have a lot of emotional weight.  The "We Go Together" portion is one of JW's most heartstring-tugging cues of the last few years for me.  

[Luka 242]

Oh personally I found the Anthem of Evil quite good!

 

Although I feel like Williams' composition and orchestration has become a bit more simple in recent years compared to his earlier work. Probably due to his age… 😕

[DangerMotif 1,037]

1 hour ago, igger6 said:

 

All I've seen is a petition from a year ago and one anonymous person claiming 80 and 95 percent certainty.  Am I missing something?

it is her

[publicist 4,643]

23 minutes ago, Not Mr. Big said:

Both themes in that concert arrangement have a lot of emotional weight.  The "We Go Together" portion is one of JW's most heartstring-tugging cues of the last few years for me.  

 

Yeah well, cues that he conceived obviously without having seen the film.

 

As i was pointing out, my beef is not that the themes are weak or the scores, but that the nature of the writing tends to be fragmented and heavily wedded to picture. I can't remember a Spielberg picture with so many dead spots that could be easily edited out without complaint. So it's probably a matter of modern editing and filmmaking in general.

[Faleel 5,348]

25 minutes ago, Luka said:

Oh personally I found the Anthem of Evil quite good!

 

Although I feel like Williams' composition and orchestration has become a bit more simple in recent years compared to his earlier work. Probably due to his age… 😕

Simple is easier to hear over all the explosions.

[Jay 37,363]

Added some more options to the poll if anyone wants to change their vote

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,433]

Changed to William Ross to score it (although it's really tight with Holt) but maintain that John Williams should score it completely

[Jay 37,363]

Anyone else remember when Natalie Holt threw eggs at Simon Cowell?

 

 

[Thor 7,504]

Am I missing something in this super-busy thread that I can't keep up with, or has Natalie Holt been confirmed as the composer?

[GerateWohl 4,368]

2 hours ago, Luka said:

Oh personally I found the Anthem of Evil quite good!

 

Although I feel like Williams' composition and orchestration has become a bit more simple in recent years compared to his earlier work. Probably due to his age… 😕

Has nothing to do with age. Has simply to do with the way blockbuster movies are made in recent years. Frequently changing fast paced editing of the movie with permanent firework of sound efects that leave little room for longer themes.

 

But I wished, Williams had written something dedicatedly for Lando's and Jannah's scene instead of playing Luke and Leia as they meet.

[Jay 37,363]

2 minutes ago, Thor said:

Am I missing something in this super-busy thread that I can't keep up with,

 

You can if you try.

 

2 minutes ago, Thor said:

has Natalie Holt been confirmed as the composer?

 

No.

[GerateWohl 4,368]

I miss the "I don't care anymore" option in the poll.

[KK 3,307]

4 hours ago, Stu said:

I guess now is as good a time as ever to come out of the closet and admit I never got much into TROS.  Right now it's easily my least favorite Star Wars score.  I tried!  But really, do people actually find "Anthem of Evil" to be an effective theme?  Ignoring its use in the film, I find the theme itself very weak.

 

Finally!! Someone speaketh the truth!

[Jurassic Shark 12,075]

43 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

Has nothing to do with age.

 

Yeah. After all, he's 90 years young.

[Faleel 5,348]

Add me in as someone who hasnt really clicked with TROS. (Like I have with TFA and TLJ)

[Van_Etten 111]

7 hours ago, Gibster said:

it is her

 

Is your source someone involved with the score?

[Fabulin 3,511]

Some context for the hiring of Natalie Holt:

 

Apparently it's a result of a meeting between Williams and Kathleen Kennedy. They happened to have been watching Britain's Got Talent, and the show was getting really boring, when suddenly a violist stood up and begun to toss eggs at a music critic. Kennedy chuckled, but the GOAT only looked at her pensievely and remarked: "you may laugh Katie, but I think I would rather have that woman score my Star Wars, than hear about another... Italian job from you". The Lucasfilm exec knew better than to cross the infamous Decomposer, so first she assigned that random young English person a low-key score to avoid suspicion, then immediately hired her for Kenobi.

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

Williams just fucking hates Simon Cowell, after he got rejected in American Idol

[Tom 4,658]

6 hours ago, Jay said:

Anyone else remember when Natalie Holt threw eggs at Simon Cowell?

 

 

Who among us has not thrown eggs at a person during the middle of an act that has nothing to do with us?  Let him without sin cast the first egg.  

[Fabulin 3,511]

12 minutes ago, Not Mr. Big said:

Williams just fucking hates Simon Cowell, after he got rejected in American Idol

They didn't like him singing Raiders' March?