Obi-Wan Theme debuts at Star Wars Celebration, conducted by John Williams

[SourBork 8]

I could be alone in this, and don't kill me... but in small parts I get a slight Ode to Harrison vibe in parts, albeit slightly slower.

 

 

 

[Oozer 25]

1 hour ago, Bespin said:

I'm still watching the "Day 1" live broadcast, I guess they'll show JW conducts the new piece in HQ in it, no?

 

Do we know the program of this live? What time is this supposed to end?

 

It's not going to be shown during that stream. I think the performances were only for the people in the room. I don't expect them to ever be put up in full by Lucasfilm.

[Jaaaackified 81]

7 minutes ago, Oozer said:

 

It's not going to be shown during that stream. I think the performances were only for the people in the room. I don't expect them to ever be put up in full by Lucasfilm.

 

shame that they had camera rolling on the scene

[Bespin 8,472]

I'm sure they'll show it in full quality, what else to show just before midnight?

 

It's like Christmas Eve tonight!

[Edmilson 7,367]

Man, seeing (on the internet) 90-year-old John Williams completely healthy and making a surprise appearance to conduct a new piece, was the highlight of my week, specially after years of Covid. He surely spent very well the pandemic by writing new music.

 

John Williams is my hero! 

[blondheim 1,157]

The first chord sounds so much like the first notes of Mahler's 2nd or am I crazy?

 

I definitely hear Wagner in the melody, Bruckner in the arrangement but Mahler in that opening chord. What a fascinating thing this is

[Alex 2,833]

The first notes reminded me of John Paesano’s Spider-Man theme.

[stravinsky 203]

6 hours ago, BrotherSound said:

Strong Bruckner influence here, eh, @Falstaft? (A composer I hadn’t really thought of in connection with JW before, until Frank pointed out the influence on some other more recent Star Wars music.)

 

I'm a Bruckner fanatic. But I don't associate what I just heard with Bruckie at all. 

6 hours ago, Falstaft said:

Between Galaxy's Edge and this, I'm loving Williams's late-in-life turn to Bruckner!

It sounds nothing like Bruckner 

[Andy 4,070]

I had a crazy work day and am finishing with a headache, and so… I haven’t listened yet!  It’s killing me to wait, but I’ve always wanted my first time to be, you know… special.

 

This deserves a proper listen on decent speakers with a clear head, so I’ll come back tomorrow.
 

I will say, what an amazing treat for the lucky people attending.  I’m astonished he agreed to make that appearance.  Like no one near to him said, “You know John, you don’t really have to do this if you don’t want. “ The man is not slowing down, he’s speeding up!  Owes us nothing, and he’s giving us his all. 

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

1 minute ago, Andy said:

I had a crazy work day and am finishing with a headache, and so… I haven’t listened yet!  It’s killing me to wait, but I’ve always wanted my first time to be, you know… special.

 

This deserves a proper listen on decent speakers with a clear head, so I’ll come back tomorrow.
 

I will say, what an amazing treat for the lucky people attending.  I’m astonished he agreed to make that appearance.  Like no one near to him said, “You know John, you don’t really have to do this if you don’t want. “ The man is not slowing down, he’s speeding up!  Owes us nothing, and he’s giving us his all. 

It's crazy.  It's been said over and over but if somebody told me in 2012 that we'd be getting a John Williams Obi-Wan suite in 2022, I'd ask them to kill me

[Ludwig 1,120]

I love how the melody is basically all in C minor but when we finally get some tonic chords in the 2nd statement of the theme, they're C major chords. I hear it as a new take on the Force theme's major chord at the end of its first phrase, the "hope" that shines through the minor-key darkness.

[artguy360 1,842]

3 hours ago, Tom said:

There is a crazy-level epicness to this piece that I have not heard from Williams in a main theme presentation in a while.  In its own way, it reaches DotF-level gravitas.  I don't mean to piss people off, but the last two minutes have a (completely Williams-styled) Zimmer vibe to them.  

To me the "epicness" is very similar to how JW scored signature moments of TLJ like Lesson One, Holdo's Resolve, The Spark, and The Last Jedi. The ostinato and brass in the Obi Wan theme remind me of those moments. 

 

The melodic sense of burden reminds me of the Luke in Exile theme. 

 

All together it is a slow, heavy theme that seems to be about Obi Wan's state of mind.

[Amer 2,078]

A perfect music for a “Strange old Hermit…”

[Madmartigan JC 85]

A quite irrelevant detail that made me laugh is that, for some reason, people kept congratulating Williams on his 90th birthday throughout his performance.
And one of the presenters even said his birthday had been yesterday (here it is, together with some Williams anecdotes from Ian McDiarmid):

 

 

[Docteur Qui 1,544]

There's a real sense of dignity to this piece; the slower tempo really makes the emotional implications of the character very clear. There's energy here but it's powerful; conflicted but not frantic; wise, and very unlike the more lively character themes from this universe. 

 

Adore the gorgeous final theme rendition at 4:48 of the video, classic uplifting and hopeful orchestrations in the style of Rey's Theme, Fawkes, E.T. etc (but with much more restraint and earthy harmonies), culminating in the most Star-Warsy of chords at 5:33, the horns accenting the flat 6. Sublime!

 

4 hours ago, ymenard said:

There's a piano in the last portion doing ostinatos, but something else twingly too, no?  

 

I can hear the piano and harp doing that lovely arpeggio figure, and the budding Williams score scholar in me predicts that they're being doubled by the clarinets.

 

Can't wait to hear the studio recording of this, I expect the orchestra he used in LA was much bigger than the one here!

[p0llux 392]

 

Release time moved up. I guess i'll hear it in the show first. LETS GO.

[Docteur Qui 1,544]

Whaaat, that's like, in 30 seconds?

 

EDIT:

 

It's live! I skipped to the end credits to hear.... It's glorious. I have to leave the house now so I can't watch the ep but can't wait.

[Toillion 212]

I was heading to bed. But now I'm going to watch this. Glad it dropped earlier!

[Potterhead 42]

Nothing on streaming so far …

[BB-8 3,456]

2 hours ago, blondheim said:

The first chord sounds so much like the first notes of Mahler's 2nd or am I crazy?

 

I definitely hear Wagner in the melody, Bruckner in the arrangement but Mahler in that opening chord. What a fascinating thing this is

His visits to Vienna could have inspired this.

[King Mark 3,624]

nobody ripped it yet...?

[aviazn 273]

It reminds me most of the Desperation theme from TLJ, which also uses those 1-3-2-5 opening notes. I like the rhyme there — between when the Resistance was nearly wiped out and needed a disillusioned Luke to step up, and when the Jedi are nearly wiped out and need a disillusioned Obi-Wan.

6 hours ago, Chen G. said:

 

Well, that's the whole point of this kind of leitmotif writing, isn't it? No just the themes themselves, but the various, shared musical building blocks that connect them.

 

Its inevitable that, with so much musical water under the Star Wars bridge, we hear a lot of things in this theme.

Yeah, exactly. It reminds me of that quote from some interview (can't find which one, but I'm sure it's linked here) where, when asked about what makes Star Wars music sound like Star Wars music, he basically responded by saying something like, "Without getting too technical about it, it's a set of intervals and their order and relationship to one another." If that's how he thinks about it, it's no wonder that when he gets asked to write more Star Wars music, he keeps coming back to these intervals. At this point, Star Wars music is almost like a raga.

[Demondm810 397]

William Ross gets credit for theme adaptation. 

[artguy360 1,842]

The credits are weird. It seems like Holt wrote the entire score and then JW delivered his theme so they hired William Ross to record new material adapting the theme into the show itself? 

 

Also, the theme is used everywhere, I think we hear it more in episode 1 than we heard the Force theme in A New Hope. 

 

Lastly, is the end credits something JW recorded? It starts differently than what he conducted today.

[BB-8 3,456]

I want a golden vinyl of this!

[King Mark 3,624]

oh dear,I have a bad feeling we won't get the studio recording of what he conducted today

[mrbellamy 6,270]

Ok this theme rocks in adventure mode, end credits is so fun, very "Saturday morning" energy to it. Gonna assume that's William Ross' handiwork, good on him if so.

[Jay 37,249]

Of course they drop it early when I'm not home and can't listen. 

 

End credits go, in this order:

 

 

Obi-Wan Theme by JOHN WILLIAMS

 

Score Composed by NATALIE HOLT

 

Obi-Wan Theme Adapted By WILLIAM ROSS

[Demondm810 397]

End credits doesn’t sound like a Williams recording to me. 

[King Mark 3,624]

here's a much better sounding YT video but missing opening

 

 

[artguy360 1,842]

Here's the end credits music:

 

https://youtu.be/HTxk5TT4Nds

[King Mark 3,624]

what's with the crappy subdued ending .And the whole thing doesn't have the majesty of the William's conducted one.

 

Oh please give us the version Williams recorded

[Demondm810 397]

Yeah, I think the entire end credits are adapted. 

[King Mark 3,624]

it sounds nowhere like the Williams conducted one

[artguy360 1,842]

I'm just happy to know William Ross is still out here doing his JW stand in thing. No one does it better.

[Demondm810 397]

The guy is so talented, the Obi Wan theme stuff that is incorporated into the episodes clearly mimic Holt’s sound. Pretty wild 

[Ricard 2,242]

Here's a better sounding version of the full concert:

 

 

[Snowster 23]

How about this?

[Jim Ware 525]

1 hour ago, Jay said:

Of course they drop it early when I'm not home and can't listen. 

 

End credits go, in this order:

 

 

Obi-Wan Theme by JOHN WILLIAMS

 

Score Composed by NATALIE HOLT

 

Obi-Wan Theme Adapted By WILLIAM ROSS

Additional music by PETER NICKALLS, JON OPSTAD, MAX ARUJ

[BB-8 3,456]

 

[Obi 404]

 

 

Sometimes dreams and Twitter petitions do come true… John Williams and me at the Kenobi premiere

 

 

 

[Manakin Skywalker 4,889]

Wasn't Bill Ross one of the top choices for scoring the show? So in that case it kind of came true in a way. 

[Mattris 416]

On 26/05/2022 at 6:44 PM, Fabulin said:

I would never have thought that Star Wars makers would give Williams an opportunity to write a concert piece on a topic of tragedy and focus on the psychology of a traumatized character. This is the kind of unconditional dramatic seriousness that Williams's blockbuster scores has often been accused of lacking in contrast to operas or, say, Herrmann's scores. But even with that being the case in this assignment, the choice of Wagnerian/Brucknerian tonality and rhythm is not something I expected from Williams, certainly not to that extent. Always a step ahead of us he is.

 

I have good reason to suspect that Williams will deliver more Star Wars music along these lines. 

[Manakin Skywalker 4,889]

Oh flog off.

[Jurassic Shark 12,008]

I like the new theme, except for the Trekkie vibe the first few seconds. 

 

 

6 hours ago, stravinsky said:

I'm a Bruckner fanatic. But I don't associate what I just heard with Bruckie at all. 

 

The string accompaniment starting at around 1:25 definitely sounds Brucknerian. I guess you're more of a Stravinsky expert.

[Mattris 416]

Glad to see so much happiness and excitement in this thread. There certainly is good reason for it!

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but no JWFans expected John Williams to compose the theme for this Obi-Wan Kenobi TV series... or for the Han Solo film... or for the Star Wars park.

 

A relative few Star Wars fans expected there to be another Star Wars Trilogy, one that started just 10 years after the completion of the previous one, another trilogy of which John Williams composed all three scores.

 

I'd say those who don't expect further Star Wars surprises from John Williams are either hopeless or naïve.

[Jurassic Shark 12,008]

12 hours ago, Stu said:

When the piano arpeggio comes in.... that's the stuff.

 

Pianos are tight!

 

11 hours ago, Will said:

Not the biggest fan of the actual theme melody (might grow on me), but the piece is great! (I felt the same way about Galaxy's Edge.)

 

One of JW's greatest talents is to make a very convincing final product even when the melodic material isn't on the same level.

 

8 hours ago, Fabulin said:

I would never have thought that Star Wars makers would give Williams an opportunity to write a concert piece on a topic of tragedy and focus on the psychology of a traumatized character. This is the kind of unconditional dramatic seriousness that Williams's blockbuster scores has often been accused of lacking in contrast to operas or, say, Herrmann's scores. But even with that being the case in this assignment, the choice of Wagnerian/Brucknerian tonality and rhythm is not something I expected from Williams, certainly not to that extent. Always a step ahead of us he is.

 

I bet Zimmer is furious that JW gets these kinds of assignments, while he's stuck with stuff like Top Gun 2.

[BB-8 3,456]

2 hours ago, Obi said:

 

 

Sometimes dreams and Twitter petitions do come true… John Williams and me at the Kenobi premiere

Are you an angel?

 

 

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,008]

1 hour ago, Mattris said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but no JWFans expected John Williams to compose the theme for this Obi-Wan Kenobi TV series

 

I did, I just kept it a secret.

 

1 minute ago, BB-8 said:

 

 

Sometimes dreams and Twitter petitions do come true… John Williams and me at the Kenobi premiere

Are you an angle?

 

Or perhaps an angel.

[Fabulin 3,506]

Call me crazy, but I am more and more convinced that the Sword / Siegfried connection is deliberate, a result of multiple interviewers planting the idea of being connected to Wagner in Williams's head.