Star Wars Main Title Alternates: Condensing the best remaining parts of the recording sessions into two playlist-friendly tracks

[ThePenitentMan1 744]

 I made this little pet project as a sort of "companion" to phbart's discoveries in this thread: condensing the best, most unique parts of the Main Title recording sessions into two tracks for the Alternates Section: Main Title (Original), and Main Title (Alternate).

 

-***-

 

I should probably start this post by clearly laying out what the recording sessions consist of and what my end goal here is:

 

Intro: The intro, as originally written, consists of a big Brass Buildup for when the Star Wars title first appears.  The original intro was recorded on Takes 16, 17, and 18.  Take 19 omitted the buildup, creating the Familiar Intro we know and love today.  Take 20 pared down the brass orchestration even further, creating a rather Weak Intro.

 

The Third Sentence: There's a minor orchestration difference in the strings when the third sentence of the crawl appears.  As originally written, the strings play in a High Register the entire time.  It was recorded this way on Takes 16 and 17.  On Take 18, this part was altered to have the strings start at a Low Register an octave below before switching to the higher register, and this change was kept for Takes 19 and 20 as well.  (IIRC, another user on this forum used the term "Divisi" for this change, meaning that half the strings play higher notes than the other half.  Since I don't have the sheets in front of me, I can't confirm this with any degree of self-confidence, so I'm just going to use "High Register Strings" and "Low Register Strings" to make things easier on myself.)

 

Tatooine Reveal: As originally written, there's a big Timpani and Cymbal hit when the planet comes into view.  Takes 16, 17, and 18 were recorded this way.  Takes 19 and 20 were recorded with a much softer accent for the reveal.  I'll be calling these the Strong Tatooine Reveal and Soft Tatooine Reveal, respectively.

 

-***-

 

Ignoring the parts used in the Film Version [Familiar Intro (Take 19), Low Register Strings on the Third Sentence (Take 20), Strong Tatooine Reveal (Take 18)], there are, in essence, two significant alternates to be culled from these sessions:

 

Original: Brass Buildup Intro (Takes 16, 17, and 18 Available), High Register Strings on the Third Sentence (Takes 16 and 17 Available), Strong Tatooine Reveal (Takes 16 and 17 Available)
Alternate: Weak Intro (Take 20), Low Register Strings on the Third Sentence (Takes 18 and 19 Available), Soft Tatooine Reveal (Takes 19 and 20 Available)

 

My goal is to create a "Main Title (Original)" track, and a "Main Title (Alternate)" track, each following its own structure which I detailed above, using the best remaining parts of the Main Title recording sessions that aren't used in the Film Version.

 

-***-

 

 

Before we begin, I'd like to share my most recent recreation of Main Title (Film Version), mainly to reference the two alternates against.  This uses Take 19 from 0:00-0:08, Take 18 from 0:08-0:41, Take 20 from 0:41-1:31, Take 18 from 1:31-1:43, and Take 20 from 1:43-end.

 

-***-

 

Moving on to my edits for the alternates, let's start with Main Title (Alternate), since that was by far the easier track to accomplish.

The Anthology used the entirety of Take 20 for this track (and the entirety of Take 19 for the main version), but since the vast majority of 0:41-end of Take 20 was used in the Film Version of the cue, I couldn't do that for this edit.

 

Instead, only 0:00-0:41 of this track is from Take 20, while 0:41-end is from Take 19, which, aside from the intro used in the Film Version, is pretty much identical to Take 20 in terms of content; particularly with the Soft Tatooine Reveal.  Admittedly, I toyed with the idea of cutting back to Take 20 for that part, since it wasn't used in the Film Version, but comparing the two takes, I actually think Take 19 was already the better performance of the Soft Tatooine Reveal, so I just left the edit there and called it a day.

 

Reverted the edit from v3 back to v2.  The v3 edit incorporated a small section from Take 18 to clean up a slightly sloppy performance at 1:52-1:56 of Take 19, but I realized recently that if Mike Matessino were doing these edits, he would probably treat this particular track as an homage to the Anthology release, and so Take 19 would play straight through to the end.

 

-***-

 

 

As for Main Title (Original), this one was a bit more complex.  The only possible candidates for this track were Takes 16, 17, and 18.  All three of these takes have some noticable performance flub or another in some places, 16 and 17 sometimes have technical issues, and the parts of 18 that don't have flubs or podium changes...  were used in the Film Version.  It took... a bit of work to sort this out.

 

0:00-0:08 was from Take 18.  Take 16 doesn't hold on the buildup note long enough to be distinctive, and Take 17 might have a small blip during that section.  But even putting those issues aside...  Take 18's intro is just absolutely beautiful.  It's almost a shame it wasn't used in the film version!  (Almost...)

 

0:08-1:10 was from Take 17.  Take 16 has a rough early mix, with the woodwind flourishes given more prominence than the other instruments.  The equivalent section from Take 18 is either already used in the Film Version, or doesn't feature the High Register Strings on the Third Sentence.  Not only that...  but just listen to Take 17's trumpets at 1:05!  Wonderful!

 

For v3, I replaced 0:27-0:41 with Take 16, with it's overbearing woodwinds solved by "remixing" the track by isolating the center from the sides.  Take 17 in general has wonderful brass, but is a little lacking in the string section compared to Take 16, and for the string-heavy Second Sentence this is especially noticeable.  That, plus the slight sloppiness of the snares in Take 17 just before 0:41 made Take 16 the clear winner for this section.

 

1:10-1:31 was from Take 16.  Take 17 has an accidental stage noise, and Take 18 had a small performance flub close to the 1:31 transition.  Plus, I liked how the Take 16 trombones at 1:10 nicely follow up the Take 17 trumpets at 1:05.

 

1:31-1:47 was from Take 17.  Of the three takes, this one had unquestionably the best my favorite performance of the Strong Tatooine Reveal.  (To say nothing about the fact that Take 18 was already used in the Film Version)  Take 16 mixes the Timpani a little too high, and there's a performance flub shortly before the Star Destroyer reveal as well.

1:47-end was from Take 16.  The brass section was tripping over themselves in Take 18.  Take 17 really slows down the performance here; I'd guess the intent was to highlight how big the Star Destroyer was, but it throws off the sync way too much.  Splicing Take 16 into this spot really helped bring the whole thing closer to the timing of the later takes.  (About as close as you can get with these early takes, anyway...)

 

For v3, I added in a small section of Take 17 from 1:53-1:56, to shorten the final brass chords so that they more closely match the Film Version's Take 20.

 

-***-

 

Another addendum: While I was doing this writeup, I started rethinking one of the bits from Take 17 that I left off of what I had for Main Title (Original).  The slower performance of 1:47-1:54 of Take 17 is definitely a deliberate creative choice and not a performance flub, and it's a creative choice that's exclusive to this take and no others...  But at the same time you could also argue it probably isn't what was originally intended, since the intention was—obviously—to synch up with the footage, and the equivalent portion of Take 16 is closer to that ideal, albeit not exactly fulfilling it.

 

Then again, I wrote off everything I didn't use as being either redundant, or "flawed listening material", and both takes are well performed in this spot.  You could definitely make a solid argument for this portion of Take 16 being more redundant than the same portion of Take 17 being flawed listening material.

 

To cover all of my bases, I decided to make a separate alternate edit of Main Title (Original) that uses Take 17 from 1:31-1:54 and Take 16 from 1:54-end:

 

As of v3, I'm mothballing the alternate slower performance edit of the Original; instead I've added all of my older edits to this playlist.  At this point, I've decided the most important thing is maintaining consistent timing with the Film Version as much as possible.

 

-***-

 

Between the Film Version, and the Alternate and Original edits I present here, all three major compositional variations of the Main Title are accounted for, with no overlap between tracks, and all five takes from the recording sessions get featured in a substantial capacity as well.

 

Any bits that have been left out are either redundant at best, or flawed listening material at worst.

[Jay 37,369]

....

 

Amazing.

 

I love JWFan!

[JTN 2,030]

22 minutes ago, ThePenitentMan1 said:

To cover all of my bases, I decided to make a separate alternate edit of Main Title (Original) that uses Take 17 from 1:31-1:54 and Take 16 from 1:54-end:

Aren’t you Mike Matessino by any chance?  

 

Great job btw.

[ThePenitentMan1 744]

1 minute ago, JTW said:

Aren’t you Mike Matessino by any chance?  

 

Great job btw.

 

Nah.  Mike doesn't reveal the timecodes.

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

That first note was from when it was still called The Star Wars

[ThePenitentMan1 744]

On 07/06/2023 at 7:04 AM, ThePenitentMan1 said:

 

 

-***-

 

Another addendum: While I was doing this writeup, I started rethinking one of the bits from Take 17 that I left off of what I had for Main Title (Original).

...

To cover all of my bases, I decided to make a separate alternate edit of Main Title (Original) that uses Take 17 from 1:31-1:54 and Take 16 from 1:54-end:

 

 

What do you guys think?  Which version of "Main Title (Original)" is better?  If one of these edits had to be thrown out, which would you keep?  Would you be able to decide?

 

Well, for my own fanedits, I've ultimately decided that maintaining consistency with the Film Version and Alternate was more important than preserving this particular alternate performance decision in Take 17.  I'll keep both versions up for the public, but for my own playlists I'll only be using the first edit with the faster Star Destroyer bit from Take 16.

[ThePenitentMan1 744]

  

On 04/02/2023 at 5:22 AM, stravinsky said:

It would amazing if the early  unrecorded versions of cues from ANH were somehow tracked down and recorded anew. I guess this will never happen though. Do the full scores exist somewhere? 

 

The Princess Theme	2-01	Princess Leia's Theme	4:28	1-14	Princess Leia's Theme	4:23	03	Princess Leia's Theme	4:24
	Early, never-recorded versions
		2M2	The Little People										Shorter opening, ends without the Imperial Motif
		2M3	More Little People										Shorter opening and other minor differences
		3M1	The Princess Appears										Sme additional passages and different orchestration
		3M2	Lost R2										Ending features Imperial Motif
		3M3	The Sand Speeder										Shorter cue before scene was re-edited
		3M4/4M1	The Sandman Attacks										Shorter cue before scene was re-edited, Force Theme at end used woodwinds instead of horns
		4M4	A Home Destroyed
		5M1	A Hive of Villainy										Unleaked, but leaked sheets indicate bars 25-42 were replaced by new bars 25-43
		5M6	The Inner City										Bars 24-35 have a "sinister" timpani and drum passage for the Vader and Chief Bast scene shown in the Holiday special
		7M1	The Hatch Opens										Harp and woodwind passage around 1:30 is slightly different
		8M2	The Rescue										First 5 bars replaced by 8M2 Rev New Introduction To The Rescue
		8M3	The Water Snake
		11M2	Approaching the Target

 

(I started typing this in the thread this post originally came from, but since I felt it was getting a little off-topic for that thread, I copied it over to this one)

 

Well, since I've been on a "Episode IV Alternates" kick ever since Jay shared that mockup of the original End Credits opening, I have to say my curiosity about the rest of these leaked sheets is piqued.

 

I could be wrong, but the impression I get from some of these cues—The Sand Speeder and The Return Home, in particular—is that we'd really only need "edit guides" for what's already been recorded, with no mockups needed except perhaps to smooth over some sketchy transitions.

 

Although I have to say I'm a little puzzled about the transition between the ending of the "torture chamber" section of A Home Destroyed and the start of the "destroyed sandcrawler" section...  Actually, I think I may have come across a solution to that particular puzzle:

 

 

0:00-0:46 - Learn About The Force

0:46-1:28 - Burning Homestead (Torture Chamber section)

1:28-1:42 - Learn About The Force ending overlapped with Burning Homestead opening

1:42-3:19 - Burning Homestead (continued)

3:19-end - Burning Homestead (Death Star transition+Reverb overlapped with Burning Homestead ending)

 

Is this accurate?  I can take it down if it isn't.

[Tallguy 3,398]

Interesting project. Wow. I do love the names you've given for everything.

 

I'm always torn on the Main Title between the film version and the Album Edit from the LP. (I don't recall, is there a list of what takes made up that edit someplace?)

 

The strings at ~0:50 kind of sound like one of the arrangements from Solo. IMHO.

[ThePenitentMan1 744]

26 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

Interesting project. Wow. I do love the names you've given for everything.

 

Thanks!   (Do you mean the names I gave the specific altered elements in the Main Title?)

 

26 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

I'm always torn on the Main Title between the film version and the Album Edit from the LP. (I don't recall, is there a list of what takes made up that edit someplace?)

 

IIRC for the OST, it's actually still the Film Version combined with the End Title.  For the Anthology it's an unedited Take 19 combined with the End Title.

[Tallguy 3,398]

16 minutes ago, ThePenitentMan1 said:

(Do you mean the names I gave the specific altered elements in the Main Title?)

 

Yes.

 

16 minutes ago, ThePenitentMan1 said:

 

IIRC for the OST, it's actually still the Film Version combined with the End Title.  For the Anthology it's an unedited Take 19 combined with the End Title.

 

Hmmm. I could have sworn they were different but doing a quick AB I'm not hearing it. I assume that by " For the Anthology" you're referring to disc 4?

[ThePenitentMan1 744]

21 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

 

Yes.

 

Cool.

 

21 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

Hmmm. I could have sworn they were different but doing a quick AB I'm not hearing it. I assume that by " For the Anthology" you're referring to disc 4?

 

I'm referring to Disc 1, Track 2.  Before the End Title cuts in, it's all Take 19.  The one on Disc 4 is all Take 20.

[Tallguy 3,398]

45 minutes ago, ThePenitentMan1 said:

 

Cool.

 

 

I'm referring to Disc 1, Track 2.  Before the End Title cuts in, it's all Take 19.  The one on Disc 4 is all Take 20.

 

OK. So if I'm following (let me catch up) you're calling the OST the RCA 1997 discs, which is the film version (I knew that one, actually). Then the LP / Anthology disc 1 track 2 is take 19 (before the end title, of course). And the "alternate" on disc 4 is 20. The film edit is 19, 20, and 18

 

On 07/06/2023 at 10:04 AM, ThePenitentMan1 said:

the parts used in the Film Version [Familiar Intro (Take 19), Low Register Strings on the Third Sentence (Take 20), Strong Tatooine Reveal (Take 18)]

 

as you spelled out. Does anyone else think that being a fan sometimes feels like homework?

[ThePenitentMan1 744]

34 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

OK. So if I'm following (let me catch up) you're calling the OST the RCA 1997 discs, which is the film version (I knew that one, actually).

 

For what it's worth, I just double-checked (my recreation of) the film edit against the version on the Demaster, and it appears to be more or less the same edit there.

 

34 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

Then the LP / Anthology disc 1 track 2 is take 19 (before the end title, of course). And the "alternate" on disc 4 is 20. The film edit is 19, 20, and 18 as you spelled out.

 

Yes, yes, and kinda yes. (Technically the film order is 19, 18, 20, 18, 20; but the specific elements I pointed out there were taken from those listed takes in that order, yes)

 

34 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

Does anyone else think that being a fan sometimes feels like homework?

 

It's fun homework...  with no deadlines!

[ragoz350 450]

21 hours ago, ThePenitentMan1 said:

  

 

(I started typing this in the thread this post originally came from, but since I felt it was getting a little off-topic for that thread, I copied it over to this one)

 

Well, since I've been on a "Episode IV Alternates" kick ever since Jay shared that mockup of the original End Credits opening, I have to say my curiosity about the rest of these leaked sheets is piqued.

 

I could be wrong, but the impression I get from some of these cues—The Sand Speeder and The Return Home, in particular—is that we'd really only need "edit guides" for what's already been recorded, with no mockups needed except perhaps to smooth over some sketchy transitions.

 

Although I have to say I'm a little puzzled about the transition between the ending of the "torture chamber" section of A Home Destroyed and the start of the "destroyed sandcrawler" section...  Actually, I think I may have come across a solution to that particular puzzle:

 

 

0:00-0:46 - Learn About The Force

0:46-1:28 - Burning Homestead (Torture Chamber section)

1:28-1:42 - Learn About The Force ending overlapped with Burning Homestead opening

1:42-3:19 - Burning Homestead (continued)

3:19-end - Burning Homestead (Death Star transition+Reverb overlapped with Burning Homestead ending)

 

Is this accurate?  I can take it down if it isn't.

Pretty accurate (as much as possible with existing material, probably), but it's necessary to delete the bit on 2:15-2:22/23, because these bars were added in the revised version (there was nothing in their place). Also the last chord was twice as long, and the cue ended with a note (in cellos and basses) half a tone lower.  

Another bar at 1:09-1:12 in the sheets looks different, but this change was made during recording, most likely.

[ThePenitentMan1 744]

3 hours ago, ragoz350 said:

Pretty accurate (as much as possible with existing material, probably), but it's necessary to delete the bit on 2:15-2:22/23, because these bars were added in the revised version (there was nothing in their place).

 

Done.

 

 

 

3 hours ago, ragoz350 said:

Also the last chord was twice as long, and the cue ended with a note (in cellos and basses) half a tone lower.

 

I interpreted this instruction in two ways.  At 3:14 of both videos, Option A was my first guess and Option B was my second.  (Both done via editing)

 

3 hours ago, ragoz350 said:

Another bar at 1:09-1:12 in the sheets looks different, but this change was made during recording, most likely.

 

Is this a minor difference?

[ragoz350 450]

40 minutes ago, ThePenitentMan1 said:

I interpreted this instruction in two ways.  At 3:14 of both videos, Option A was my first guess and Option B was my second.  (Both done via editing)

Option A is closer to the truth.

40 minutes ago, ThePenitentMan1 said:

Is this a minor difference?

On the recording it's crescendo and a beat [boooomBOM], in the score there are two such beats plus a quick passage by six horns (as in the next measure), i.e. [BOMdudududududududum    BOM]. At first the horns were crossed out in the sheets, and the resulting gap had to be filled in somehow. (Excuse me)

[ThePenitentMan1 744]

 First post has been updated!

 

The first version of the edit for Main Title (Alternate) was based primarily on information from phbart's timecodes and edit.  However, just last night I checked against the actual film edit from the SE album and discovered that the first cut from Take 18 to Take 20 actually occurs at 0:41, right at the start of the brass figure, not at 0:43, after that figure pauses to give way to the strings.  Upon discovering this, I realized my Main Title (Alternate) track had 2 seconds of the film-used portion of the take in it!

 

In light of this new information, I've created a new V2 edit for Main Title (Alternate) that places the edit point just a tiny bit before the cut in the Film Version.  I have updated the first post to replace the old, incorrect edit with this new one:

 

 

And below is my recreation of the Film Version based on this new information (I replicated the edit points here, but not the speed differences; I made the first cut and the two cuts at the end first, then realigned the track to do the 0:41 cut):

 

 

[phbart 609]

This is amazing!

 

God, I could barely remember that I once tackled with this. Can't believe it's been that long! I sure miss those days when I had more time to "play" with such things like creating my own edits and stuff like that.

 

Anyway, those unedited takes still sound superior not only to the 97 edition itself but the 2018 dismasters as well. I wish the whole thing could sound like this.

 

Thanks for bringing back such fond memories from those days... and, of course, congratulations for your excellent and hard work!

[ThePenitentMan1 744]

On 30/06/2023 at 3:58 PM, phbart said:

This is amazing!

 

God, I could barely remember that I once tackled with this. Can't believe it's been that long! I sure miss those days when I had more time to "play" with such things like creating my own edits and stuff like that.

 

Anyway, those unedited takes still sound superior not only to the 97 edition itself but the 2018 dismasters as well. I wish the whole thing could sound like this.

 

Thanks for bringing back such fond memories from those days... and, of course, congratulations for your excellent and hard work!

 

Thank you for your hard work!   Without your research into the makeup of the Film Version I wouldn't have taken an interest creating Original and Alternate tracks that danced around the take portions used in the Film Version in the first place.

 

The timing of your post is also pretty funny...  because I've just finished updating these edits again!

 

Original v3:

 

Alternate v3:

 

For the Original, I solved the issue of a lackluster performance from 0:27-0:41 by splicing in a "remixed" Take 16 that pulls back the too-hot woodwinds behind the strings.

 

And, for both tracks, I added in a small section of Take 17 to the Original from 1:53-1:56, and a small section of Take 18 to the Alternate from 1:52-1:56.

 

Why did I do this?  Because the more drawn-out performance at that point of Takes 16 and 19 made the Film Version sound like it was way too short.  Obviously, we cannot have the Film Version sound wrong in any way.  Fortunately, the two remaining take portions at this point were both shorter than 16 and 19, and Take 18 being better-performed than Take 19 at this spot was another happy accident.  Another nice thing is that Take 18 now appears in all three edits.

 

I would say that these edits are just about definitive now...  but I know myself too well to say that for absolute certain.