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Original STAR WARS-trilogy love themes.


Josh500

Which do you like most?  

23 members have voted

  1. 1.

    • Princess Leia's Theme.
      5
    • Han Solo and the Princess.
      13
    • Luke and Leia.
      5


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I always feared this poll might show up sometime....

I can't choose a favorite among those three themes! To me they're about equally good and a favorite changes from day to day.

I guess Leia's Theme has the most simple melody, but I love the way Williams employs a counter-melodic effect for wind-instruments at the end to give power to the melody then dominated by strings (almost John Barry-like).

Han Solo and the Princess is a long-lined melody that Williams doesn't write that often. He prefers shorter melodies that can easily be used as motifs throughout his scores. Han Solo and the Princess is gorgeous (especially during the final scene of The Empire Strikes Back).

Luke and Leia may be the most complex of all three and has a great string-driven bridge that always moves me. The build-up of the piece, although critisized, is amazing IMHO.

Roald

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Han Solo and the Princess, and it's best in ESB. I really love it played on the strings. In RotJ it moved to the winds for some reason, and I really don't like it that way. I love how soft and gentle it is. Rivals Love Theme from Superman easily.

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A tie between the last two. Leia's Theme is not one of my favorites. I like it, but it's a bit too similar to Marion's theme, which I like that one much more (even though this came first).

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Strange, I've always found Marion's Theme very similar to Han Solo And The Princess, although when I play both pieces on the piano, I find them completely different...

Roald

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How long will it take for the "there are no love themes in the original trilogy" wisecrack show up?

I voted for "Luke and Leia". Hauntingly heartbreaking, and yet so beautiful. And so coherent with the other themes, it's truly an achievement.

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Princess Leia's theme is simple untouchable, the others are nice and ok, but they do not even begin to match the majesty and glory of Princess Leia's theme, one of John's great works of all time.

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It's tough to choose between Luke and Leia and Han Solo and the Princess. I'll go with Han Solo & the Princess only because of it's fabulous use in ESB.

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Gotta go with Princess Leia's theme - unmatchable. However, I would say Han Solo & the Princess is the most important and effective within the movie its used. And Luke & Leia, despite its lack of use in ROTJ, has a fabulous concert arrangement. (Fingers crossed it'll get used in ROTS!)

There are definitely similarities across all three (and Marion's theme & Can You Read My Mind), though they strike me as mostly superficial - instrumentation, melodic contour and all that, esp w/ the beginnings of Marion and Han Solo & The Princess. However, I think there is a significance in their harmonic similarity (technical-speak alert) in their reliance on the flatted 6th scale degree and on traveling up from tonic to the flatted II chord for strong emotional impact. I wonder whether this is an intentionally unifying element of JW's SW love themes, or merely a product of Williams' standard sweeping-romantic style. I suspect the latter, but dont deny that these similarities add a good deal of coherence to the SW thematic-canon.

I'm not sure where I want to place Across the Stars in this catalogue -- certainly its concert arrangement doesnt compare to the above 3 -- but I think its use in the movie is nearly as good as Han Solo & The Princess and has *gasp* equal merits as a theme.

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None of those themes were ever used in TPM or AotC, were they? I think (hope) that JW will somehow incorporate them into the score to RotS . . .

What other themes do you think will be in RotS??? The Imperial March, obviously, perhaps Anakin's Theme and Across the Stars as well, but other than that . . .

ROTFLMAO

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Pretty much a tie between "Princess Leia" and "Han Solo and the Princess." I never muched liked "Luke and Leia," seems to me like a mindless stacking of themes. Yoda's Theme, Leia's Theme, and Luke's Theme...erg, thematic overload!

Well, that's an exaggeration, I mean, I sorta like it, but certainly not as much as the other two.

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Mindless stacking of themes?? Where does everyone hear this stuff in Luke & Leia? All I hear is a snippet of Leia's theme at the very beginning. A mere occurence of triplet doesnt make it Luke's theme. I think after all these years, I would have noticed...

I also don't detect any intentional references to other Star Wars themes in Across the Stars either, but that's a whole 'nother can of worms isnt it.

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Mindless stacking of themes?? Where does everyone hear this stuff in Luke & Leia? All I hear is a snippet of Leia's theme at the very beginning. A mere occurence of triplet doesnt make it Luke's theme. I think after all these years, I would have noticed...

Nothing to do with a triplet. It's the first four-five notes of the Luke and Leia theme (I'm not talking about the intro bit, but the main melody) that are actually the same as Luke's theme, though with a very different feel, practically unrecognizable.

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I voted Luke and Leia which I don't consider to be a love theme. I do however hope that it makes an appearance in ROTS.

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