Star Wars Film Scores Discussion

[Coriolis]

despite the fact that I'm not much of a star wars fan myself (the man is... he decorated an entire room in star wars theme ), we've been to several concerts of orchestras playing the music of star wars... we're going again this year. the music is one of the best parts of the movies, but then again, John Williams tends to do a pretty good job.

As long as he sticks to composing. He was conductor of the Boston Pops for a few years and that wasn't a good fit at all.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

As long as he sticks to composing. He was conductor of the Boston Pops for a few years and that wasn't a good fit at all.

I seem to remember reading that he never got along well with the Pops. Makes sense. Being a concert conductor and a film composer/conductor are completely different worlds, and Williams came up in the latter, being mentored under guys like Bernard Herrmann and Jerry Goldsmith.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Apparently the next SW film will be Williams’ final score for the series. Definite end of an era and he will be missed. I wonder who will take over.

 

[The Cat]

I have much of John Williams music. Ive found I tend to find it a bit too brassy for my tastes as Ive grown. Not all of it, but enough of it, also, most of the albums, have split tracks. I loathe split tracks.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Apparently the next SW film will be Williams’ final score for the series. Definite end of an era and he will be missed. I wonder who will take over.

Michael Giacchino, possibly. He does brassy pretty well. Rogue one was interesting the way it incorporated so many motifs unique to the A New Hope soundtrack, including the little-known original Vader theme. I really dug that. And, the major theme is actually based off a melody that only occurs once in the original soundtrack once ( when Luke is telling Obi-wan he can't get involved. ), which was extremely clever. It's like the themes continue to be used in a movie that was made decades ago. And he did all this with very little time.

Although, I would have liked to have heard Alexander Desplat do Star Wars. I enjoy his Grand Budapest Hotel soundtrack.

I liked the soundtrack for the first Fantastic Beasts (I dug the introduction of more jazzy style motifs to fit a 1930s urban American setting), but I was a little underwhelmed by the stuff James Newton Howard did for Solo.

Ramin Dijawdi can be good, but I prefer his more offbeat work for Westworld than his more Williams-style Game of Thrones score.

Bear McCreary is also good, but I'm not sure that his style fits.

Uses original Vader theme (2:45):

Check out 3:39 in the second video.

Compare to this (

)

The first time I watched the movie, I didn't know what to make of this score, because I thought it was going to lead somewhere familiar, and then it didn't. Upon rewatches and relistens, though, I think it's a brilliant idea for a movie that take place adjacent to a story we all know well, containing characters who are not major players, but without their contributions, the main story would not be possible.

I would have liked a score for Solo more like this, working in stuff like Lando's beautiful ESB theme (which wasn't used nearly enough! Only two or three times!).

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Michael Giacchino, possibly. He does brassy pretty well. Rogue one was interesting the way it incorporated so many motifs unique to the A New Hope soundtrack, including the little-known original Vader theme. I really dug that. And, the ma3jor theme is actually based off a melody that only occurs once in the original soundtrack once ( when Luke is telling Obi-wan he can't get involved. ), which was extremely clever. It's like the themes continue to be used in a movie that was made decades ago. And he did all this with very little time.

Although, I would have liked to have heard Alexander Desplat do Star Wars. I enjoy his Grand Budapest Hotel soundtrack.

I liked the soundtrack for the first Fantastic Beasts (I dug the introduction of more jazzy style motifs to fit a 1930s urban American setting), but I was a little underwhelmed by the stuff James Newton Howard did for Solo.

Ramin Dijawdi can be good, but I prefer his more offbeat work for Westworld than his more Williams-style Game of Thrones score.

Bear McCreary is also good, but I'm not sure that his style fits.

Uses original Vader theme (2:45):

Check out 3:39 in the second video.

Compare to this (

)

The first time I watched the movie, I didn't know what to make of this score, because I thought it was going to lead somewhere familiar, and then it didn't. Upon rewatches and relistens, though, I think it's a brilliant idea for a movie that take place adjacent to a story we all know well, containing characters who are not major players, but without their contributions, the main story would not be possible.

I would have liked a score for Solo more like this, working in stuff like Lando's beautiful ESB theme (which wasn't used nearly enough! Only two or three times!).

Pretty great work by Giacchino there. I hope he’s the composer if they make additional trilogies. He really knows how to write in that style but brings his own style and themes. I’ve been a big fan of his since the score to Medal of Honor Frontline. One of the first games to utilize orchestral scores and even back then I could hear a lot of Williams’ influence

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Pretty great work by Giacchino there. I hope he’s the composer if they make additional trilogies. He really knows how to write in that style but brings his own style and themes. I’ve been a big fan of his since the score to Medal of Honor Frontline. One of the first games to utilize orchestral scores and even back then I could hear a lot of Williams’ influence

Yeah, and the amazing thing is, he had less time than usual to do that all in. Desplat was the original choice (which I would have liked to have heard, but oh well.)

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

I have much of John Williams music. Ive found I tend to find it a bit too brassy for my tastes as Ive grown. Not all of it, but enough of it, also, most of the albums, have split tracks. I loathe split tracks.

I like longer suite tracks too. I also like the concert edit suites from the old soundtrack albums where he juxtaposed different parts and themes. I like the edit from the Episode IV album where the main title segues into the faster version of the theme used in the end credits

I don’t think that suite is on newer editions of the soundtrack but you still here it played live a lot. You can hear the segue into the end title at about 2:20

Then later in the end credit music, I always get goosebumps at the part where it segues from Princess Leia’s Theme back into the main theme

 

[The Cat]

I like longer suite tracks too. I also like the concert edit suites from the old soundtrack albums where he juxtaposed different parts and themes. I like the edit from the Episode IV album where the main title segues into the faster version of the theme used in the end credits

I don’t think that suite is on newer editions of the soundtrack but you still here it played live a lot. You can hear the segue into the end title at about 2:20

I really disliked on many of the sw albums especially that several suits were merged into one track, which to me feels like a burger slider mentality. Dont tell me you sold me all the music, when what you've actually done is sold me a box of dachshund length music tracks made of three different dog sections you've stitched together. If I want to listen to han and leia suite, I dont want it to wipe in the middle of the track back to the god damned asteroid field. If I wanted my mind to show me images of the god damned wipe scenes, I'd watch the actual movie. But I'm writing, and running table top games, I want a full track of the emperors theme, a full track of the love theme.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I really disliked on many of the sw albums especially that several suits were merged into one track, which to me feels like a burger slider mentality. Dont tell me you sold me all the music, when what you've actually done is sold me a box of dachshund length music tracks made of three different dog sections you've stitched together. If I want to listen to han and leia suite, I dont want it to wipe in the middle of the track back to the god damned asteroid field. If I wanted my mind to show me images of the god damned wipe scenes, I'd watch the actual movie. But I'm writing, and running table top games, I want a full track of the emperors theme, a full track of the love theme.

People have spliced together suites probably more like what you're looking for on Youtube.

I'm the opposite. I WANT ALL THE MUSIC, even stuff that wasn't used.

It's too bad the prequels never got the treatment the OT did in the 90s of having such a complete version. There's probably loads of unused material for 2 and 3, because so much of that music is copied and pasted from other scenes. Am I to believe that Williams never wrote original music for Anakin's attack on the Jedi Temple (which in the movie is the exact same music from the arena at the end of Episode II)?

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

In this one, I like how Williams plays the princess theme from the previous film around 4:41, before launching into the new love theme for Han and Leia at about 5:48. Both themes make great use of strings. The Princess theme captures Leia’s innocent beauty and hopeful idealism, while the love theme is both playful and tragic, simultaneously capturing the budding romance and foreshadowing the darker ending of Empire.

 

[The Cat]

People have spliced together suites probably more like what you're looking for on Youtube.

I'm the opposite. I WANT ALL THE MUSIC, even stuff that wasn't used.

It's too bad the prequels never got the treatment the OT did in the 90s of having such a complete version. There's probably loads of unused material for 2 and 3, because so much of that music is copied and pasted from other scenes.

I want all the music too, the stuff that wasnt used as well, but I want complete tracks worth of all of it. I'm one of those psycho paths who would buy an album of MAx Rebo's greatest hits if they had made it. But dont give me stairway to heaven and stick since I been loving you on the same track. I wont feel like I got a fun little bonus song for the price of one. I'll assume someone was asleep at the wheel at best, or trying to scam me at worst.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

I really disliked on many of the sw albums especially that several suits were merged into one track, which to me feels like a burger slider mentality. Dont tell me you sold me all the music, when what you've actually done is sold me a box of dachshund length music tracks made of three different dog sections you've stitched together. If I want to listen to han and leia suite, I dont want it to wipe in the middle of the track back to the god damned asteroid field. If I wanted my mind to show me images of the god damned wipe scenes, I'd watch the actual movie. But I'm writing, and running table top games, I want a full track of the emperors theme, a full track of the love theme.

The old LPs did a better job in my opinion, of presenting the themes rather than the exact musical film order. But I like that a lot of soundtrack reissues these days will offer bothe the complete film version along with original album suite versions. A lot of the Star Trek score reissues have done this. I wish the original SW album edits would be remastered and rereleased alongside the complete film scores, so listeners can at least choose the experience they want to hear.

 

[The Cat]

The old LPs did a better job in my opinion, of presenting the themes rather than the exact musical film order. But I like that a lot of soundtrack reissues these days will offer bothe the complete film version along with original album suite versions. A lot of the Star Trek score reissues have done this. I wish the original SW album edits would be remastered and rereleased alongside the complete film scores, so listeners can at least choose the experience they want to hear.

totally, I dont begrudge the style for its own stake, but the lack of the choice, when a, it would be more of my monies they would just have to shut up and take, but I KNOW they have it. Not providing the opion is just...baffling. Like, we're you just too busy driving thumb tacks into your forehead that you just didnt think?

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

For The Mysterious Stranger

Here's a suite for The Senate.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

People have spliced together suites probably more like what you're looking for on Youtube.

I'm the opposite. I WANT ALL THE MUSIC, even stuff that wasn't used.

It's too bad the prequels never got the treatment the OT did in the 90s of having such a complete version. There's probably loads of unused material for 2 and 3, because so much of that music is copied and pasted from other scenes. Am I to believe that Williams never wrote original music for Anakin's attack on the Jedi Temple (which in the movie is the exact same music from the arena at the end of Episode II)?

There’s many bootleg versions of the Prequel scores that attempt to present the complete scores, but unfortunately they often feature lower quality sound where it’s obvious the tracks had to be ripped from the audio channels of the DVDs. Sometimes you can hear faint traces of sfx from the film.

There’s been a big push in recent years to rerelease complete versions of older scores, so I think it’s only a matter of time until the prequel scores get proper complete editions including unused music.

I wish the Indy scores would get the deluxe treatment. There was a box set about 10 years ago but they still left off some music. I want the complete version of the Temple of Doom ending titles music and still the best is a bootleg version on YouTube

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

There’s many bootleg versions of the Prequel scores that attempt to present the complete scores, but unfortunately they often feature lower quality sound where it’s obvious the tracks had to be ripped from the audio channels of the DVDs. Sometimes you can hear faint traces of sfx from the film.

There’s been a big push in recent years to rerelease complete versions of older scores, so I think it’s only a matter of time until the prequel scores get proper complete editions including unused music.

I wish the Indy scores would get the deluxe treatment. There was a box set about 10 years ago but they still left off some music. I want the complete version of the Temple of Doom ending titles music and still the best is a bootleg version on YouTube

Maybe... the prequels are no longer the WORST MOVIES EVAR now (I think that's Last Jedi these days, which is hilarious, because it actually dealt with some of the things Jedi and force-related things complaining about in the prequels as opposed to just ignoring almost anything that might remind people of them (looking at you TFA)), so they might see at as a profitable venture.

Personally I think even the worst Disney-era but that's not really a popular opinion.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

This is Indy related but same composer and there’s always been connections between the two franchises so I thought it worth sharing here. Fan made reconstruction of Temple of Doom music with sound effects audible around 3:15:

But otherwise a pretty faithful reconstruction using album material spliced with audio from the DVD

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Maybe... the prequels are no longer the WORST MOVIES EVAR now (I think that's Last Jedi these days, which is hilarious, because it actually dealt with some of the things Jedi and force-related things complaining about in the prequels as opposed to just ignoring almost anything that might remind people of them (looking at you TFA)), so they might see at as a profitable venture.

Personally I think even the worst Disney-era (either Solo or TFA... I lean towards towards TFA on this just because I think it was worse when it came to unnecessarily overdoing OT nostalgia) is movie is better than the prequels (which were never as bad as their reputation), but that's not really a popular opinion.

I agree. TFA felt more like a Greatest Hits film. Personally Rogue One is my favorite Disney era film. It does the nostalgia fan service stuff far better. While also feeling like its own movie.

 

[The Cat]

Maybe... the prequels are no longer the WORST MOVIES EVAR now (I think that's Last Jedi these days, which is hilarious, because it actually dealt with some of the things Jedi and force-related things complaining about in the prequels as opposed to just ignoring almost anything that might remind people of them (looking at you TFA)), so they might see at as a profitable venture.

Personally I think even the worst Disney-era (either Solo or TFA... I lean towards towards TFA on this just because I think it was worse when it came to unnecessarily overdoing OT nostalgia) is movie is better than the prequels (which were never as bad as their reputation), but that's not really a popular opinion.

The Force Awakens took me out of the franchise hard. The Last Jedi, I liked better. I sort of felt like, This is the Luke Skywalker I can finally relate to. I also liked that little aside with Finn and the hacker. Poe's story was good too. I would have gladly set through three different movies, to get the full story, but that tendency to try to merge too much into one thing, is growing. That works better in books than audio visual media imo.