Enderdrag64's Complete ESB Analysis paper

[enderdrag64 624]

I've been waiting to post this for a while, I worked on this as my final project for a film music class I took this semester, I figured I might as well share it here now that it's graded.

 

I'm sure none of this information is new for anyone here - and I don't think my music analysis skills are the absolute greatest - but I tried to document everything known about the score as best as I could.

 

Hopefully it's a valuable resource for somebody.

 

Please let me know if I made any mistakes or anything so I can fix them.

film music class final paper - redacted jwfan version.pdf

[Smeltington 1,440]

Thanks for sharing! Quite a few JWFan links in your references list... is JWFan considered a valid academic resource? 

[Richard Penna 3,684]

Your analysis of releases at the start is actually quite an educational read for someone like myself, with very little knowledge of the details of the individual releases.

 

I think it also highlights the challenge of getting proper expansions of these 3 scores - it takes some rather technical explaining to understand what the problems are.

 

Somewhere I've got the 2-CD set of ESB, purchased cheaply while at uni as a rather optimisic attempt to get into the score (it didn't work).

[ThePenitentMan1 743]

Quote

The reason the 1993 set is incomplete is because it uses 9m6-10m1 Insert as a replacement instead of an extension, meaning the original music for that part is not included. The 1997 set uses the Eric Tomlinson film mix. This cue was orchestrated by Herbert Spencer.

• 9m6-10m1 Insert – This insert was written to replace the athematic dissonance for Leia looking at the now frozen Han, it is instead a somber rendition of the Love Theme.

 

IIRC, it was the other way around; the 1993 set uses the unedited cue and the 1997 set adds in the insert.  The athematic dissonance is the insert.

[stravinsky 206]

Just read this handy little guide. I pray that if a new release of the OT scores ever happens again we will be treated to clean endings and openings for every cue. Each and every cue separated as they were recorded. It would be transformative and definitive. Also there is a Flute Solo in one of the Bespin cues (I can't exactly remember the exact cue title) that was prominent on the old RSO Double LP, but appears to have been buried in every other mix released after. I hope this will be rectified in the future. 

[enderdrag64 624]

2 hours ago, ThePenitentMan1 said:

 

IIRC, it was the other way around; the 1993 set uses the unedited cue and the 1997 set adds in the insert.  The athematic dissonance is the insert.

I had believed this too until I was researching for this paper:

 

 

Unless I really can't read music this looks to me like the love theme is in the insert

[ThePenitentMan1 743]

33 minutes ago, enderdrag64 said:

I had believed this too until I was researching for this paper:

 

 

Unless I really can't read music this looks to me like the love theme is in the insert

 

Wow, you actually have that?!

 

How does the insert begin?  How does it end?

[enderdrag64 624]

4 hours ago, ThePenitentMan1 said:

 

Wow, you actually have that?!

 

How does the insert begin?  How does it end?

The insert starts with this fanfare (you can actually sort of hear the edit when the brass switches from both ears to just the left):

 

 

These notes exist in the original cue too, but were copied over for the insert and presumably re-recorded. Listening again to the 1993 and 1997 releases back to back it does sound like this section is a different recording.

 

The insert ends with the love theme trailing off on the strings, right before the low woodwinds statement. The low woodwinds are part of the original cue but the strings are part of the insert, they're crossfaded/overlayed quite well on the two albums:

 

 

It's possible that clean openings or endings for this might be audible on the Radio Drama or on the Crimson Empire audiobook but I'd have to go back and check

 

 

 

[ThePenitentMan1 743]

Thanks!  I had a feeling the horns were the start of the insert, seeing as they're clearly different takes between the Anthology and the SE.

 

Admittedly, I was thinking the end of the insert might've been the brass note at 4:17 of this video (from the film version of the cue), but it looks like that isn't the case after all:

 

Great to know exactly where the insert really ends, though!

[Brando 1,863]

Just got done reading it, amazing work! I hope you get a good grade on this. I didn't realize you were discussing the theatrical version of the film until I saw you put 'the ending of Yoda Raises The Ship was tracked with the concert suite' and I was like what are you talking about? And then I remembered about that tracking being done 4 or 5 times. Also, this is what 6M4 would've scored, right?

 

Quote

JWFAN thread complaining about the 2018 remasters:

This was hilarious 

[enderdrag64 624]

53 minutes ago, ThePenitentMan1 said:

Thanks!  I had a feeling the horns were the start of the insert, seeing as they're clearly different takes between the Anthology and the SE.

 

Admittedly, I was thinking the end of the insert might've been the brass note at 4:17 of this video (from the film version of the cue), but it looks like that isn't the case after all:

 

Wait a second you might be onto something, perhaps I read the sheets wrong let me check again to be sure.

 

Edit: yeah you're correct I saw the end of the strings section and must've forgotten to scroll up to check the rest of the orchestra. A rather silly mistake. Thanks.

 

Edit again: that's actually really interesting, solves a mystery because I've always wondered where that extra note in the film version came from, turns out the albums just cut the insert off early
 

43 minutes ago, Brando said:

Just got done reading it, amazing work! I hope you get a good grade on this.

 

Thanks!

 

43 minutes ago, Brando said:

I didn't realize you were discussing the theatrical version of the film until I saw you put 'the ending of Yoda Raises The Ship was tracked with the concert suite' and I was like what are you talking about?

Oh yeah I forgot the Special Edition changed around the music a bit lol, perhaps I should have clarified that in the paper. That's actually probably one of the best changes made by the SE, the original analog edit sounds terrible.

 

43 minutes ago, Brando said:

Also, this is what 6M4 would've scored, right?

 

No actually, 6m4 would've scored the scene with Luke running around with Yoda on his back right before the dark side cave scene. All of the footage it would've scored is still in the final film.

[Brando 1,863]

8 minutes ago, enderdrag64 said:

That's actually probably one of the best changes made by the SE, the original analog edit sounds terrible.

And 10m3 Chewie Chokes Lando! I have no idea how they thought that was a good idea.

 

10 minutes ago, enderdrag64 said:

No actually, 6m4 would've scored the scene with Luke running around with Yoda on his back right before the dark side cave scene. All of the footage it would've scored is still in the final film.

Ohhhh interesting, for some reason I thought it scored this deleted scene.

[ThePenitentMan1 743]

15 minutes ago, enderdrag64 said:

Wait a second you might be onto something, perhaps I read the sheets wrong let me check again to be sure.

 

Edit: yeah you're correct I saw the end of the strings section and must've forgotten to scroll up to check the rest of the orchestra. A rather silly mistake. Thanks.

 

Edit again: that's actually really interesting, solves a mystery because I've always wondered where that extra note in the film version came from, turns out the albums just cut the insert off early

 

Now all we need is a mockup of both the ending of the insert and the (presumably) small portion of the original that didn't make it to the SE.

[Manakin Skywalker 4,891]

54 minutes ago, enderdrag64 said:

Edit: yeah you're correct I saw the end of the strings section and must've forgotten to scroll up to check the rest of the orchestra. A rather silly mistake. Thanks.

 

Edit again: that's actually really interesting, solves a mystery because I've always wondered where that extra note in the film version came from, turns out the albums just cut the insert off early

 

So... my edits are correct and I don't need to reupload them for the 20th time? 

[Andy 4,119]

Better re-up them anyway, @Manakin Skywalker  

 

Talk about a labor of love!  I tried to get my daughter to take a film music class at her university, but no dice.  What was the assignment exactly? Did your professor give you parameters, or was it just to analyze a film score?  I’m curious what scores your classmates chose also. 

[enderdrag64 624]

27 minutes ago, Andy said:

Talk about a labor of love!  I tried to get my daughter to take a film music class at her university, but no dice.  What was the assignment exactly? Did your professor give you parameters, or was it just to analyze a film score?  I’m curious what scores your classmates chose also. 

Well the assignment was to write a "1500 word paper analyzing the music of one complete feature film of my choice".

The guidelines said I should include some terms we had learned about (like mickey-mousing) and mentioned a couple other minor things to talk about, but other than that I was basically free to structure it however I wanted.

 

I did go a little overboard on the length, although to be fair the instructions said it could be more than 1500 words if we wanted.

 

I have really no idea what any of my classmates wrote about because I never saw any of their papers. Unfortunately, I did sort of get the impression that most people taking the class were simply there for the humanities requirement and not because they were interested in the material.

[Andy 4,119]

I will hopefully get some time to dive in in the coming days. Looks like a great read. 

[Brando 1,863]

10 minutes ago, enderdrag64 said:

I did go a little overboard on the length, although to be fair the instructions said it could be more than 1500 words if we wanted.

The best assignments are the ones where you fully understand what you have to do and you enjoy it so going 'overboard' just happens. Whole lot better than struggling to meet the word count writing about something that doesn't interest you

[Tallguy 3,383]

6 hours ago, Brando said:

The best assignments are the ones where you fully understand what you have to do and you enjoy it so going 'overboard' just happens. Whole lot better than struggling to meet the word count writing about something that doesn't interest you

 

The worst are where someone ELSE gets the material that you know really well.

[ThePenitentMan1 743]

@enderdrag64

How do these edits match up with the sheet music for Carbon Freeze?

 

 

^This should roughly be equivalent to what's in the film.  The bit from the original cue is no longer present and the horn intro for the insert is spliced in from the Anthology.

 

 

^This was edited to place the ending of the full cue in line with the film version after the end of the extended brass note.  I'm fairly certain those strings at 1:03 aren't supposed to be there. :P

[enderdrag64 624]

29 minutes ago, ThePenitentMan1 said:

@enderdrag64

How do these edits match up with the sheet music for Carbon Freeze?

 

^This should roughly be equivalent to what's in the film.  The bit from the original cue is no longer present and the horn intro for the insert is spliced in from the Anthology.

 

^This was edited to place the ending of the full cue in line with the film version after the end of the extended brass note.  I'm fairly certain those strings at 1:03 aren't supposed to be there. :P

 

I actually just made some discoveries yesterday that are related to this:

 

We don't actually have to speculate about what the full unedited cue would sound like at all: it's available in the 1983 Radio Drama, as is the clean ending of the insert.

 

9m6-10m1 Carbon Freeze:

9m6-10m1 Insert Bar 57:

 

Sorry for the dialogue and SFX, you can remove the dialogue from the insert with phase inversion but then it's of course mono. The actual cue has dialogue that isn't mixed center so doing that isn't possible. 

 

[ThePenitentMan1 743]

39 minutes ago, enderdrag64 said:

 

I actually just made some discoveries yesterday that are related to this:

 

We don't actually have to speculate about what the full unedited cue would sound like at all: it's available in the 1983 Radio Drama, as is the clean ending of the insert.

 

9m6-10m1 Carbon Freeze:

9m6-10m1 Insert Bar 57:

 

Sorry for the dialogue and SFX, you can remove the dialogue from the insert with phase inversion but then it's of course mono. The actual cue has dialogue that isn't mixed center so doing that isn't possible.