Natalie Holt's OBI-WAN KENOBI (2022)

[A. A. Ron 1,740]

48 minutes ago, Not Mr. Big said:

Better than Black Panther and the Silvestri scores??

 

*Edit* one

 

I mean, I like the score for Loki at least as much as Black Panther. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Tom 4,640]

29 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

That's what I want to know. Why keep her name a secret for weeks? 

 

Maybe Disney doesn't care about scores and just forgot to tell the press who the composer will be?

They might have wanted to hear the finished product first.  If Disney ended up rejecting it and going a different route, they would have looked bad had they officially announced her.  

[dylanskie 104]

It sounds like she's been approaching scoring the show very thoughtfully. I'm excited to hear what she's done!

[artguy360 1,843]

I'm excited to hear what she comes up with or came up with as it's probably all done by now. Even though I have not loved any non-JW movie or TV score so far, I have enjoyed them to varying degrees. There is a genuine curiosity and excitement to major new SW music I feel. 

 

It's also got a pretty good feeling to land a SW composing gig. I think it's a big moment for a composer's career.

[Matt C 452]

It’s an unexpected but wonderful pick. Holt is very talented.

 

 I am confused about the scoring for the series. Variety said that the episodes would be recorded in London (prior to announcing Holt’s involvement) and yet Holt said they’ve recorded in LA using JW’s principal session musicians.

[Groovygoth666 650]

My only experience of Natalie Holt is Big Fat Quiz of The Year 2013

 

And of course Loki, which was a really enjoyable score within the show. Looking forward to what she'll bring to Star Wars.

[publicist 4,643]

Quote

There are some Latin influences in one of the planets. There’s some Thai, Hong Kong, some sounds that are more Eastern. Definitely you take flavors from around the world, and then try and turn them into something…otherworldly. 

 

Combined with the mention of synth and percussion a few beats before that you can pretty much guess that the grandfatherly Williams orchestral approach will be a faint memory on this show at best. Not that i care much either way, i just hope she is better at musical structure than her other contemporaries.

[Docteur Qui 1,544]

52 minutes ago, publicist said:

 

Combined with the mention of synth and percussion a few beats before that you can pretty much guess that the grandfatherly Williams orchestral approach will be a faint memory on this show at best. Not that i care much either way, i just hope she is better at musical structure than her other contemporaries.

 

 

There's always room to combine JW's classic sound and modern scoring approaches IMO. I for one was glad to see Holt talk about using instruments from around the world, it's a technique that adds so much flavour especially when supported by a traditional orchestral. Her comments saying that the sound is more in line with the classic approach than The Mandalorian is interesting, I wonder how much more?

[publicist 4,643]

29 minutes ago, Docteur Qui said:

I for one was glad to see Holt talk about using instruments from around the world, it's a technique that adds so much flavour especially when supported by a traditional orchestral.

 

Begs the question what 'traditional orchestral' is. If you apply this label to any occurence of an instrumental group within an orchestra, fair enough. If you hope for musical development in a compositional sense, which means not just having the score react to movie cuts just because, but by having an overarching sense of musical architecture...well, i hope for it but the last 10-15 years let me doubt it very much. 

 

Also, using instruments from around the world is not a 'technique'. If it were, and there would be standards to it, film music would be better than it is.

[mrbellamy 6,272]

4 hours ago, Matt C said:

It’s an unexpected but wonderful pick. Holt is very talented.

 

I am confused about the scoring for the series. Variety said that the episodes would be recorded in London (prior to announcing Holt’s involvement) and yet Holt said they’ve recorded in LA using JW’s principal session musicians.

 

Jay discovered earlier this month that the article was updated to remove the part about recording in London 

 

 

[Luke Skywalker 1,793]

Im not thrilled about this news, but ill give her the benefit of the doubt as her comments look good enough

[LSH 968]

You know what... fucking good on her. She's having a break-out budding media composers can only dream about and this will only boost that. I literally didn't know who she was a few weeks ago and now she's scoring the biggest TV show of the year.

 

I'm looking forward to hearing it.

[King Mark 3,626]

who cares about the music, it's the first woman composer to score a Star Wars project! That's the only important thing

[LSH 968]

25 minutes ago, King Mark said:

who cares about the music, it's the first woman composer to score a Star Wars project! That's the only important thing

 

Is it?

[GerateWohl 4,343]

21 minutes ago, LSH said:

Is it?

No. Why would it? She is a pro in filmmusic like my guy in that business. I find it great, that a talented woman at last gets a share in that area. But now that she has got the job, all that matters is the score that she deliveres.

[LSH 968]

5 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

No. Why would it? She is a pro in filmmusic like my guy in that business. I find it great, that a talented woman at last gets a share in that area. But now that she has got the job, all that matters is the score that she deliveres.

 

That's exactly what I was implying.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

6 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

She is a pro in filmmusic like my guy in that business.

 

You've got your own guy in the business? Who are you?

[GerateWohl 4,343]

Damn auto-correction. When I typed it, it was still "any", not "my".

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

For a moment there I feared you were HanZ...

[GerateWohl 4,343]

You mean, because I let the auto-correction do my writing?

That wasn’t on purpose.

[Mephariel 451]

On 22/04/2022 at 1:28 PM, crocodile said:

Because scoring a SW property is hard enough. Having one where you have to adapt JW's theme is an extremely difficult task for any musician. Even people as well versed as, say, Don Davis stumble in that department. At least Ludwig didn't have to do that and went in a completely different direction.

 

Karol

 

What makes scoring a SW property harder than any other franchises? 

[Muad'Dib 1,801]

8 minutes ago, Mephariel said:

 

What makes scoring a SW property harder than any other franchises? 

 

The fans.

[Richard Penna 3,676]

Yep. If fans had their way, Williams would score everything, and we'd have about 300 themes for the SW universe by now  

 

He can't of course, but it doesn't stop fans holding newer composers up to the impossible challenge of sounding like Williams.

 

We wouldn't even be talking about this assignment if JW hadn't written the theme. It's time, once again, to see what she's come up with, and dare I say it, to take the scoring process a little less seriously?

[Docteur Qui 1,544]

25 minutes ago, Muad'Dib said:

 

The fans.

And fans that are traditionally so warm and welcoming to the contributions of women to their preciousssssss franchissssssee

[King Mark 3,626]

7 hours ago, LSH said:

 

That's exactly what I was implying.

I was just being cynical, because nowadays gender, sexual orientation and race matters more in choosing someone for a television or film project than the person with the most talent.

 

If she writes good music then great...I didn't like Mandalorian and Book of Boba Fett so anything is an improvement

[crocodile 7,990]

8 hours ago, Mephariel said:

 

What makes scoring a SW property harder than any other franchises? 

John Williams.

 

Karol

[Mephariel 451]

18 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

Yep. If fans had their way, Williams would score everything, and we'd have about 300 themes for the SW universe by now  

 

He can't of course, but it doesn't stop fans holding newer composers up to the impossible challenge of sounding like Williams.

 

We wouldn't even be talking about this assignment if JW hadn't written the theme. It's time, once again, to see what she's come up with, and dare I say it, to take the scoring process a little less seriously?

 

That doesn't make Star Wars more difficult to score. That just means the composer is making it hard on himself/herself by trying to do other people's music. It is not different than Bond/Mission Impossible. You adapt some themes than you do your own shit. Ludwig Göransson for example, has already done this. 

 

10 hours ago, crocodile said:

John Williams.

 

Karol

 

If you try to make a score to sound like John Williams, then you are making it hard on yourself, not that the franchise is hard to score.

[crocodile 7,990]

 

9 hours ago, Mephariel said:

If you try to make a score to sound like John Williams, then you are making it hard on yourself, not that the franchise is hard to score.

Not sure I understand. Of course, you could make it easier for yourself but that would be lowering the standards, wouldn't it? I don't necessarily want people to emulate John Williams verbatim. That isn't interesting either. But it would be nice to have someone who can at least understand the DNA of his work and can move within that world. Especially if JW is directly involved in the project.

 

Karol

[DarthDementous 1,059]

Anyone know of any Natalie Holt cues that sound Star Wars-y?

[King Mark 3,626]

Why don't they get that Mark Griskey guy who scored The Force Unleashed, he had the best  Williams-like SW music so far

[bored 306]

I would also love it if Jeremy Soule was able to score Star Wars with a full orchestra this time, but that option is impossible as it was long ago signed, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighters. 

[Manakin Skywalker 4,891]

11 minutes ago, superultramegaa said:

I would also love it if Jeremy Soule was able to score Star Wars with a full orchestra this time, but that option is impossible as it was long ago signed, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighters. 

 

Plus the rape allegation/s, meaning he will probably never have any composition jobs ever again.

[bored 306]

Yeah, that's what I was referring to.

[GerateWohl 4,343]

5 hours ago, DarthDementous said:

Anyone know of any Natalie Holt cues that sound Star Wars-y?

No. Listening through her stuff on Spotify I would say, she even seems to never have written anything for a grand symphony orchestra.

[JNHFan2000 2,944]

Some of the tracks from Loki are with a big orchestra. There is synths as well but the orchestra is very present.

 

Tracks like, Goodbyes, Living Storm, Classic Builds, He Who Remains.

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

2 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

No. Listening through her stuff on Spotify I would say, she even seems to never have written anything for a grand symphony orchestra.

 

That's what you've got orchestrators for.

[publicist 4,643]

36 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

That's what you've got orchestrators for.

 

Ghostwriters!

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

9 minutes ago, publicist said:

 

Ghost Writer

 

One of the few Desplat scores I find worth owning on CD, but it's going for extorsionate prices on the second-hand market.

[GerateWohl 4,343]

1 hour ago, Jurassic Shark said:

That's what you've got orchestrators for.

Or let me put it this way: I doubt that she ever (at least for a soundtrack composition job) wrote an eight voice composition sheet just for classical instruments, which would be pretty much the input for an orchestrator.

At least that's my impression after hearing her scores.

But I might be wrong.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

1 hour ago, GerateWohl said:

which would be pretty much the input for an orchestrator.

 

Of course, you could also just hand them a melody line.

[GerateWohl 4,343]

23 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

Of course, you could also just hand them a melody line.

Like Charlie Chaplin.

[Yavar Moradi 2,592]

15 hours ago, DarthDementous said:

Anyone know of any Natalie Holt cues that sound Star Wars-y?

 

No, but none of her previous stuff I've heard sounded much like LOKI or Marvel either (and I think that scoring was excellent and unique), so let's be optimistic.

 

Yavar

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

1 minute ago, Yavar Moradi said:

I think that scoring was excellent and unique

 

I agree it's not bad, but it sounds too sound designey for my taste.

[Yavar Moradi 2,592]

You're going to have to define "sound designey" for me, in this context. It has a unique sound world for sure (which I appreciate -- too many Marvel scores are interchangeable) but I hear themes and motifs which get developed, not what I'd call a "sound design" score.

 

Yavar

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

56 minutes ago, Yavar Moradi said:

You're going to have to define "sound designey" for me, in this context. It has a unique sound world for sure (which I appreciate -- too many Marvel scores are interchangeable) but I hear themes and motifs which get developed, not what I'd call a "sound design" score.

 

Yavar

 

That's not what I meant. I was referring to real instruments being tweaked too much with digitally.

[StrWrsNrd 0]

Haven’t listened to any of hers… what does she do? I mean what genre?

[Jay 37,322]

You think of film composers in terms of them each only working in one genre?

[GerateWohl 4,343]

Her themes are ok. What I meant is, I heard in her scores basically three types of music:

• Some elegic chamber music style with mainly strings piano and few other solo instruments
• Some quite authentic instrumental pop/rock music styled pieces or
• Electronics Interwoven with orchestral elements, which is pretty much the Loki score.

None of that is classical Star Wars.

But let's see.

[Holko 9,499]

Who said it has to be a JW clone and why?

[Jay 37,322]

I guess out of all the Star Wars shows Disney is cooking up, this is literally the one that probably MOST deserves to have a score closest to Williams' OT and PT sound, since it's about a main character from those 6 films, taking place in between 2 of them