The music of the Star Wars franchise is composed and produced in conjunction with the development of the feature films, television series, and other merchandise within the epic space opera franchise created by George Lucas. The music for the primary feature films (which serves as the basis for the rest of the related media) was written by John Williams.
Released between 1977 and 2017, the music for the primary feature films was, in the case of the first two trilogies, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and, in select passages, by the London Voices chorus. Williams also scored the seventh and eighth episodes in the franchise's sequel trilogy, and he is currently slated to score the ninth (and last) episode as well. The sequel trilogy was largely orchestrated and conducted by William Ross, and it was performed by a freelance Hollywood orchestra and (in a few passages) by the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Williams' scores for the eight saga films count among the most widely known and popular contributions to modern film music.
Additionally, music for several animated television series spinoffs has been written by Kevin Kiner and Ryan Shore. Music for the spin-off films, other television programs, and video games, as well as the trailers of the various installments, were created by various other composers, with this material occasionally revisiting some of Williams' principal themes, and - with the latest spin-off film, with Williams actually writing a new theme for the composer to use. Michael Giacchino was the composer of the first Anthology film, Rogue One, while John Powell will score the Star Wars film Solo.
The scores are primarily performed by a symphony orchestra of varying size joined, in several sections, by a choir of varying size. They each make extensive use of the leitmotif, or a series of musical themes that represents the various characters, objects and events in the films. Throughout all of the franchise, which consists of a total of over 16 hours of music, Williams has written approximately 52 themes in one of the largest, richest collection of themes in the history of film music.
Video Music of Star Wars
Overview
Films
Television
Kevin Kiner composed the score to the film Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008), the predecessor to the animated TV series of the same name. Both properties loosely use some of the original themes and music by John Williams. Kiner's own material for the film includes a theme for Anakin Skywalker's Padawan learner, Ahsoka Tano, as well as a theme for Jabba the Hutt's uncle Ziro. Kiner went on to score the TV series' entire six seasons, which concluded in 2014. A soundtrack album was released that same year by Walt Disney Records.
Kiner continued his work with the franchise for the animated series Star Wars Rebels (2014), which also incorporates Williams' themes.
Ryan Shore serves as the composer for Star Wars: Forces of Destiny (2017-present).
Video games
Maps Music of Star Wars
Style
Inspiration
The scores utilize an eclectic variety of musical styles, many culled from the Late Romantic idiom of Richard Strauss and his contemporaries that itself was incorporated into the Golden Age Hollywood scores of Erich Korngold and Max Steiner. The reasons for this are known to involve George Lucas's desire to allude to the underlying fantasy element of the narrative rather than the science-fiction setting, as well as to ground the otherwise strange and fantastic setting in well-known, audience-accessible music. Indeed, Lucas maintains that much of the original trilogy's success relies not on advanced visual effects, but on the simple, direct emotional appeal of its plot, characters and, importantly, music.
Lucas originally wanted to use tracked orchestral and film music in a similar manner to 2001: A Space Odyssey, itself a major inspiration for Star Wars. Williams, however, advised to form a soundtrack with recurring musical themes to augment the story, while Lucas's choice of music could be used as a temporary track for Williams to base his musical choices on. This resulted in several nods or homages to the music of Gustav Holst, William Walton, Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky in the score to Star Wars. Williams relied less and less on references to existing music in the latter seven scores, incorporating more strains of modernist orchestral writing with each progressive score, although occasional nods continue to permeate the music. The love theme from Empire Strikes Back is closely related to Williams' composition for Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. The score to Revenge of the Sith has clear resemblances to the successful scores of other contemporary composers of the time, namely Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings, Hans Zimmer's Gladiator and Tan Dun's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, with which the movie was most likely scored temporarily. In Williams's score to The Last Jedi he, for the first time in the series, went so as far as to incorporate direct quotes of "Aquarela Do Brasil" by Ary Barroso (in a nod to the 1985 Terry Gilliam film Brazil) and from his own theme for The Long Goodbye (co-composed by Johnny Mercer). Nevertheless, Williams also started to develop his style throughout the various films, incorporating other instruments, unusual orchestral set-ups (as well as various choral ensembles) and even electronic or electronically-attenuated music as the films progressed. Williams often composed the music in a heroic but tongue-in-cheek style.
Structure
Star Wars was one of the film scores that heralded the revival of grand symphonic scores in the late 1970s. One technique that particularly influenced these scores is Williams' use of the leitmotif, which was most famously associated with the operas of Richard Wagner and, in early film scores, with Steiner. A leitmotif is a phrase or melodic cell that signifies a character, place, plot element, mood, idea, relationship or other specific part of the film. It is commonly used in modern film scoring as a device for mentally anchoring certain parts of a film to the soundtrack. Of chief importance for a leitmotif is that it must be strong enough for a listener to latch onto while being flexible enough to undergo variation and development along the progression of the story. The more varied and nuanced the use of leitmotif is, the more memorable it typically becomes. For example, Williams subtly conceals the intervals of "The Imperial March" within Anakin's Theme in The Phantom Menace, implying his dark future to come.
Also important is the density in which leitmotifs are used: the more leitmotifs are used in a piece of a given length, the more thematically rich it is considered to be. Film music, however, typically needs to strike a balance between leitmotifs and underscoring so as to not become too dense for the audience to follow. John Williams' music of Star Wars is unique in that it is relatively dense for film scoring, with approximately 11 themes used in each two-hour film and Williams' musical contributions totaling about 90% of each film's length.
Performance
Williams re-recorded some of his suites from the first trilogy with the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra as an album, and later released a collection of suites from the six films as a compilation that played to a series of clips from the films, with sparse dialogue and sound effects. These became the basis for a series of hour-long concerts which featured Star Wars music to images from the films, Star Wars: In Concert, which took place in 2009 and 2010. First performed in London, it went on to tour across the United States and Canada, last playing in London, Ontario, Canada on July 25, 2010.
The scores of the first trilogy (in the form of its Blu-Ray Special Edition release) and The Force Awakens are performed as Live to Projection concerts, but with greatly reduced forces. The performances follow the music of the finished film, with some of the music looped, tracked or omitted entirely, and do not feature any of the diegetic pieces.
Orchestration
John Williams sketched the score for his various orchestrations and wrote the music for a full symphony orchestra (ranging from 79 to 113 players overall) and, in several passages, chorus (ranging from 12 to 120 singers overall) and a few non-orchestral instruments. The orchestration is not consistent throughout the different films, but generally the score makes use of a considerable brass section over a comparatively smaller string section, giving the series its heraldic, brassy sound.
Several of the scores require larger forces, including a large (over 100-piece) orchestra, a mixed choir and even a boy choir. However, none of the scores call for particularly immense forces compared to larger film or theater works. Nevertheless, sections of The Empire Strikes Back required as many as 106 players due to an added harp, woodwinds, and percussion parts. The prequel trilogy, and one re-recording of suites from the first trilogy, required a fuller string section, added woodwind and percussion parts (which are also deployed in parts of the scores to Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith), a mixed choir, brief passages for a boy choir, and a second set of timpani for Revenge of the Sith. This saw the orchestra totaling as many as 112 players at a time. The original Star Wars trilogy and the sequel trilogy films call for much smaller forces of as little as 82 players, and small choral accompaniment in select cues.
The first spin off film, Rogue One, followed the prequel trilogy's instrumentation, using a 110-piece orchestra and 90-piece mixed choir.
In live performances, the forces are usually reduced further: the strings and voices may be augmented depending on the orchestra and choirmaster, and several vocal and wind parts can be omitted, doubled by other players or even synthesized. Official Star Wars Concerts were held with as little as 60-piece orchestras and 50-piece mixed choral ensembles, which not all episodes feature when performed individually. However, to recreate the eight scores as they were originally recorded, the following instrumentation is required:
- Woodwinds: 3 flutes (all doubling on piccolo, one on alto flute), 3 oboes (one doubling on cor anglais), 4 clarinets (one doubling on bass clarinet), 3 bassoons (one doubling on contrabassoon).
- Brass: 6-8 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 tenor trombones and 1 bass trombone, 1-2 tubas.
- Percussion:
- 1-2 sets (4-6) of timpani
- at least three percussionists playing bass drums, tenor drums, snare drums (including guillotine drums, side drums, military drums), timbales, toms (floor tom and hanging toms), triangle, tambourine, cymbals (suspended, sizzle, crash and finger cymbals), xylophones, vibraphone, tubular bells, glockenspiel, and anvil on all episodes. Also required are temple blocks (I), claves (II, V, VI) marimba (I, IV, VII-VIII), bongos (I, IV, VII-VIII), congas (I-III, VI-VII), log drums (I, IV, VII), low wood block (IV), bell plates, clappers (IV), steel drum (IV, VIII), boobams (I, IV, VII), medium gong (VI-VII), kendhang, rattle, sistrum, shekere, guiro, bamboo sticks, cowbells, hyoshigi (VI), bell tree (III), three medium chu-daiko drums (II-III, one for VII-VIII), washboard (VIII).
- Keyboard: piano, celesta, electric keyboard.
- Voices: 88-piece SATB choir (I-III, VIII), 30-piece boy choir, 1 Tibetan Throat Singer (III).
- Strings: 2 harps, 14-16 first violins, 12 second violins, 10 violas, 10 violoncellos, 6-8 double basses.
- Non-orchestral instruments: Cretan Lyra and cümbü? (I), electric guitar (II), toy piano (VI).
Musical themes in the scores
John Williams wrote a series of themes and motifs for certain characters and ideas in each of the Star Wars films. The multiple installments allowed Williams to compose some 52 themes (and counting) and reprise some of them extensively, continually developing them over a long period of screen time.
Williams introduced a few themes in each episode (eight or seven themes on average) and focused on making each of his principal themes long-lined and melodically distinct from the others so as to increase their memorability. Williams occasionally forged small connections between some of these themes, sometimes for a narrative purpose and sometimes in the more general favor of cohesion. This technique allowed him (especially in his scores to the first trilogy) to have each theme play out for a large number of occasions (the Force Theme plays over one hundred times in the series) and over long periods of time.
Each score can be said to have a "main theme", which is developed and repeated frequently throughout the film, often to unusual extents (such as the frequency in which The Imperial March is revisited during Empire Strikes Back). Besides the main theme and a handful of other principal themes, Williams forged several smaller motifs for each episode, which are generally not as memorable and at times interchangeable. A main theme for the franchise exists as well (which is the music of the main titles) but, interestingly, a main theme does not exist to represent a particular trilogy. Instead, each trilogy (and to a lesser extent, each film) has its own style or soundscape.
Williams' Star Wars catalog remains one of the largest collections of leitmotifs in the history of cinema, although his work still falls short of Wagner's use of leitmotifs in the Ring cycle or Howard Shore's work on the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings films. Both works feature many more themes for a similar or shorter running time; establish thematic identities more clearly; apply them in a more cohesive structure (where all themes and leitmotifs are harmonically and melodically related); and, use them in a more nuanced manner. Williams, on the other hand, writes fewer themes and uses them in a more straightforward manner and, at times, strictly for their Romantic effect.
Romantic application of Leitmotifs in the score
Williams' use of his themes in Star Wars is at times Romantic rather than strictly thematic, the themes sometimes being used randomly because their mood fits a certain scene. For instance, the theme for Luke Skywalker is also used as the main theme for the entire franchise, as well as a generic "heroic theme" in conjunction with various characters without any connection to its namesake. Leia's Theme (also known as Princess Leia's Theme) is used for the death of Obi-Wan Kenobi in A New Hope, which has little to do with her character even though she is present in the scene. Yoda's Theme appears several times during the Cloud City sequences in The Empire Strikes Back. The concert piece Duel of the Fates is used several times throughout the prequel trilogy, appearing over the entire final battle in The Phantom Menace (as opposed to just the lightsaber duel); Anakin Skywalker's search for his mother in Attack of the Clones; and, Yoda and Darth Sidious's duel in Revenge of the Sith. Williams' original composition for the Geonosis Battle Arena in Attack of the Clones was used for the Utapau assault in Revenge of the Sith. Multiple uses of the Force Theme are also non-thematic.
The Rebel Fanfare is applied to the Millennium Falcon throughout the original Star Wars, The Force Awakens, and The Last Jedi. It is also used for R2-D2's heroics during the opening action scene in Revenge of the Sith. Both parts of Kylo Ren's theme are at times used as menacing underscoring for a particular setting. The Emperor's theme is used in The Last Jedi when Supreme Leader Snoke tortures Rey. Even the melodic connections between some of the themes sometimes do not represent a straightforward dramatic purpose, such as the connection of "Across the Stars" to Count Dooku's motif and the Battle of Geonosis in Attack of the Clones. In fact, Some of Williams' themes are written from the outset purely to convey a certain mood rather than evoke a character or setting, such as the Throne Room music of the original Star Wars or the Pursuit motif from The Force Awakens.
Some of this music was re-tracked into other parts of the film, or even another film in the series, by the filmmakers. Attack of the Clones, the first film to be shot digitally, had major edits made after the scoring process, leading to the inclusion of tracked music over many of the digitally-created sequences such as the Droid Factory on Geonosis or the Clone Army's arrival to the battle. These scenes used music such as Yoda's theme or incidental music from The Phantom Menace with little dramatic connection to what is occurring on screen. In the original Star Wars, some of the music for the Death Star's Trash Compactor scene was used over an extended shot of the arrival into Mos Eisley inserted in the film's Special Edition. Musical similarities exist between the final scenes of The Phantom Menace with Finn's confession to Rey in The Force Awakens. Some of this tracking in the series was planned from the outset. For example, when scoring The Last Jedi, Williams was provided a temp track of music from his previous film scoring work by director Rian Johnson as a reference. Thus, a number of themes and motifs in Star Wars are constantly repeated throughout the entire film; musical similarities exist between this film, the first trilogy, and the prequel trilogy; and, the soundtrack contains quotes from sources outside of the Star Wars franchise.
Other composers for the franchise used Williams' principal themes in their own compositions, whether it be for the trailers to the main films, spin-off films, television series, or video games. More often than not, these composers also use the principal themes more for their emotional effect for their respective projects. Michael Giacchino, for instance, uses the Force Theme in some of the scenes where Rogue One's starship takes off.
Thematic inconsistencies between installments
Because Williams scores one episode at a time and attempts to base each score on new material as much as possible, the musical material does not have a particularly cohesive structure as a whole. Each trilogy and, to a certain degree, each individual score has its own set of leitmotifs, often in overlapping roles (while all films beyond the original Star Wars also revisit some earlier themes). Return of the Jedi has both the Main Title/Luke's Theme and The Rebel Fanfare to essentially serve a similar function of triumph and heroism. Alternatively, some motifs appear in just one score with no intention of being perfectly applicable to others, such as the playful Droid motif of The Empire Strikes Back as well as the Death Star and Imperial motifs of Star Wars (and Rogue One). Other material is dropped at a certain point in the series, such as Anakin's Theme of The Phantom Menace being all but abandoned in Revenge of the Sith.
This problem of thematic inconsistencies is confounded by the order in which the episodes were produced. Because the prequel trilogy was created after the first trilogy, Williams' introduction of new themes such as Duel of the Fates and Battle of the Heroes are unable to be carried over to the sequel trilogies' scores. However, this gave Williams the advantage of revisiting several established themes like The Imperial March, only exacerbating its absence from the original Star Wars.
Another issue arising from the production of this franchise is that Williams was unable to foreshadow motifs for later installments, even in embryonic form. For instance, "Across the Stars" (the love theme for Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala) naturally does not appear in the score for The Phantom Menace, as it was only conceived during the scoring process for its sequel Attack of the Clones. The same can be said for the absence of The Imperial March in the original Star Wars.
Even when leitmotifs do carry over between the scores, it is very hard to chart a clear direction as to their development, since no such overarching direction was initially laid out from the outset. The Force Theme, for instance, completes its development in the original Star Wars, having turned from a reverent motif into a triumphant march ("The Throne Room"). It even makes grand appearances in the prequels (particularly Revenge of the Sith), only to appear later in a more subdued form even at the heroes' most triumphant moments. In fact, some of the themes that cross over change their meaning between films. For instance, Ben Kenobi's theme from the original Star Wars was repurposed throughout Empire Strikes Back as a theme for the Force and lost any specific connection to Kenobi by the time The Phantom Menace was scored. The opening crawl and closing credits music was originally designed as an "overture" for the main themes in the original Star Wars (for Luke, the Rebels and Princess Leia). However, this music became so iconic that was reused in all subsequent films, even if they have little to do with Luke and nothing to do with Leia and the Rebels, thereby eliminating their function as an overture and re-purposing that particular variant of Luke's theme as the main theme for Star Wars as a whole.
Since the prequels were composed later, they ironically feature greater ensemble forces (and hence different orchestrations of thematic music) with a more dense and nuanced thematic structure when compared to the first trilogy, if only by virtue of the fact that they both have their own stock of leitmotifs as well as those of the existing films to work with. On the other hand, many of the thematic ideas of the prequels (especially Attack of the Clones) are more rhythmic in nature due to Williams' evolving musical style over the years. Many of the prequels' themes and motifs are also applied to locations and situations in the narrative, whereas the scores for the original and sequel trilogies focus more on themes for characters.
Listed below are 52 leitmotifs identified in Williams' scores (and one written by Williams for John Powell's upcoming score to Solo) thus far, although a few of them could be contested. Other pieces of music, described either erroneously or tenuously as leitmotifs, are labelled as "unconfirmed leitmotifs" below.
Themes in the original trilogy
Star Wars (A New Hope)
- "Luke's Theme/Star Wars Main Title"
- "The Rebel Fanfare"
- "Ben Kenobi's Theme/The Force Theme"
- "Princess Leia's Theme"
- "Imperial Motif"
- "Death Star Motif"
- "Jawa Theme"
The Empire Strikes Back
Returning: Throne Room Victory March; Luke's Theme; The Rebel Fanfare; The Force Theme; Princess Leia's Theme
- "The Imperial March"/Darth Vader's Theme
- "Han Solo and the Princess/Love Theme"
- "Yoda's Theme" :
- "Droids Motif"
- "Cloud City/Lando's Palace"
- "Boba Fett Motif"
- "Throne Room Victory March"
Return of the Jedi
Returning: Spaceship Battle Motif; Luke's Theme; The Rebel Fanfare; The Force Theme; Princess Leia's Theme; The Imperial March; Han Solo and the Princess; Yoda's Theme
- "Parade of the Ewoks"
- Secondary/Primitive Ewok theme
- "Jabba The Hutt"
- "The Emperor's Theme/The Dark Side"
- "Yoda's Revelations/Brother and Sister"
- "Luke and Leia"
- "Spaceship Battle Motif"
Themes in the prequel trilogy
The Phantom Menace
Returning: Luke's Theme, The Rebel Fanfare, The Force Theme, The Imperial March, Yoda's Theme, Jabba's Theme, The Emperor's Theme
- "Duel of the Fates"
- "Anakin's Theme"
- "Trade Federation/Droid Invasion Theme"
- "Qui-Gon's Motif"
- "Darth Maul's Motif/The Sith"
- "Jar Jar's Theme"
Attack of the Clones
Returning: Shmi's Theme; Luke's Theme, The Rebel Fanfare, The Force Theme, The Imperial March, The Emperor's Theme, Anakin's Theme, Trade Federation March, Duel of the Fates
- "Across the Stars"
- "Dooku/Separatists Motif"
- "Conspiracy/Mystery Motif"
- "Kamino Motif"
- "Pastoral Love/Courtship Motif"
- Shmi's Theme
Revenge of the Sith
Returning: Jedi Funeral Theme, Coruscant Fanfare; Luke's Theme, The Rebel Fanfare, The Force Theme, The Imperial March, The Emperor's Theme, Anakin's Theme, Trade Federation March, Duel of the Fates, Across the Stars
- "Battle of the Heroes"
- "General Grievous' Theme"
- "Lament/Anakin's Betrayal"
- "Mustafar Motif"
- "Escape Motif"
- "Funeral theme"
- "Coruscant Fanfare"
Themes in the sequel trilogy
The Force Awakens
Returning: Luke's Theme, The Rebel Fanfare, The Force theme, Leia's Theme, The Imperial March, Han Solo and the Princess
- "Rey's Theme"
- "Kylo Ren's Theme"
- "Kylo Ren Secondary Theme"
- "March of the Resistance"
- "Pursuit motif"
- "Poe Dameron's Theme"
- "Supreme Leader Snoke's Theme"
The Last Jedi
Returning: Luke's Theme, The Rebel Fanfare, The Force Theme, Leia's Theme, Yoda's Theme, Luke and Leia, Han Solo and the Princess, The Imperial March, TIE Fighter Attack, The Emperor's Theme, Poe's Theme, Rey's Theme, Kylo Ren's themes, Snoke's Theme
- "Luke in Exile"
- "Rose Tico's Theme"
- "Desperation/Admiral Holdo's Motif"
Unconfirmed themes
Since neither Williams nor his office ever provided a full list of the leitmotifs used in every Star Wars film, there is some controversy around the exact number of themes, with some taking an inclusive approach that identifies various leitmotifs which the composer probably never intended for. However, Williams did provide some information through the original LP liner notes and various interviews, which allowed for those such as Mike Matessino, Doug Adams, John Takis, Frank Lehman et al. to compose lists of his themes from the series on good authority. This basis is what comprises the list of themes and motifs that appear above in context.
One cause for confusion is Williams' propensity (in these scores and otherwise) to write material that is either melodic, rhythmic or harmonic specifically to an individual setpiece in the film, such as The Battle of Hoth, the Chase through Coruscant, or The Battle of Crait. These individual pieces of music have sometimes been described as having thematic significance, occasionally even by Williams himself, but since they do not recur in a different part of the narrative, they are not themes in the leitmotivic sense. Even when some of these figures do recur, it is often unclear whether they are substantial enough to be assigned with thematic significance, as these instances include material that is generic or incidental (such as several figures used in the finale of The Empire Strikes Back); material that is purely rhythmic or based on a certain orchestral color like various "bouncing" horn figures for Luke's landspeeder search in the original Star Wars. the use of the synthesizer to represent Vader's menace in The Empire Strikes Back, and a women's chorus for the underwater scenes of The Phantom Menace.
Sometimes, the recurring material is more a part of Williams' stylistic choices as a composer than a thematic statement unique to the series. For instance, his use of tritones often denotes mystery, a device derived from Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and typical of many of Williams' scores (including Raiders of the Lost Ark where it represents the mystery of the Ark and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull where it represents the crystal skull). The same intervallic relationships would go on to be used by Williams to denote the mystery of Luke's whereabouts in The Force Awakens, usually in association with the map carried by the droid BB-8, leading to the gesture becoming falsely associated with the droid or the map itself. Similarly, other gestures taken from pre-existing music (such as Williams' use of the Dies Irae melody to denote impending doom) have been falsely identified as leitmotifs, even though Williams clearly described sections of music that use this motif as non-thematic.
Furthermore, some of the recurring material is in fact tracked from pre-existing music, such as the Podracing fanfare and "action ostinato" identified by Adams and Leman, the mournful writing for French horn at Shmi's funeral, and a multitude of material identified by Frank Lehman, who concedes to having identified "retroactively inserted or tracked themes" as "incidental motifs." In times, observers are beset by similar (but not identical) gestures, such as the variety of gestures that signal the dark side of the Force in Revenge of the Sith.
Another cause for controversy involves Williams' principal themes. These are often long-lined and complex, therefore giving impressionistic views that observe their individual sections (as well as introduction figures, ostinato accompaniments, and end-cap figures) as separate motivic ideas.
Even within the analyses above, some of the motifs are not entirely beyond questioning. Adams himself referred to the "Throne Room" by stating it is "certainly not a theme in the leitmotivic sense", and similar doubts can be cast at some of the infrequent motives such as the quote of the "Coruscant" fanfare during Revenge of the Sith, Shmi's music, or other instances.
Themes in the Anthology films
The first Star Wars Anthology score for Rogue One, written by Michael Giacchino, utilizes several themes from John Williams, mostly for their Romantic sweep (such as The Force Theme and hints of the Main Theme). It has its own catalog of themes, independent from Williams' material, including a new, third theme for the Empire, although Giacchino also quotes both the original Imperial Stormtrooper Motif and The Imperial March.
First appearance in Rogue One
- Jyn's Theme
- Hope Theme
- Guardians of the Whills Theme
- Imperial Theme
- Krennic's Theme
First appearance in Solo
For Solo, John Williams will contribute a theme for the character Han Solo; all other leitmotifs and other material will be written and adapted by John Powell, the main composer for the film.
- Han Solo's Theme
Concert suites
Instead of offering a full recording release of a particular film, Williams typically releases a condensed score on album, in which the music is arranged out of the film order and more within the veins of a concert program. This involves several concert suites, written purely for the end credits or the album itself, where a specific theme is developed continuously throughout the piece. Williams also re-edited some of his existing cues after the fact in order to "concertize" theme on the behest of conductors such as Charles Gerhardt. Several of the films also have unique credit suites that features alternate concert arrangements of themes ("Across the Stars") or a medley of the main themes of a particular film.
From the main episodes
From Star Wars (A New Hope)
- "Princess Leia's Theme"
From The Empire Strikes Back
- "The Imperial March"
- "Yoda's Theme"
From Return of the Jedi
- "Parade of the Ewoks"
- "Luke and Leia"
From The Phantom Menace
- "Duel of the Fates"
- "Anakin's Theme"
- "The Flag Parade"
From Attack of the Clones
- "Across the Stars"
From Revenge of the Sith
- The album does not feature a dedicated suite, but rather an edited-down form of the film cues featuring "Battle of the Heroes."
From The Force Awakens
- "Rey's Theme"
- "March of the Resistance"
- "Scherzo for X-Wings"
From The Last Jedi
- "The Rebellion is Reborn"
From the spin-offs
From Rogue One
- "Jyn Erso and Hope Suite"
- "The Imperial Suite"
- "The Guardians of the Whills Suite"
Diegetic music
Diegetic music is music "that occurs as part of the action (rather than as background), and can be heard by the film's characters". In addition to the orchestral scope that was brought on by John Williams' musical score, the Star Wars franchise also features many distinguishing diegetic songs that enrich the detail of the audio mise-en-scène. Some of this diegetic music was written by John Williams; some by his son, Joseph; and some by various other people.
From A New Hope
- "Cantina Band" and "Cantina Band #2". Written by John Williams, it is played in the Mos Eisley Cantina on Tatooine. It is written for solo trumpet, three saxophones, clarinet, Fender Rhodes piano, steel drum, synthesizer and various percussion, including boobams and toms. According to the Star Wars Customizable Card Game, the diegetic title for the first Cantina band piece is "Mad About Me". The liner notes for the 1997 Special Edition release of the Star Wars soundtrack describe the concept behind these works as "several creatures in a future century finding some 1930's Benny Goodman swing band music ... and how they might attempt to interpret it". This piece also appears on an all the outtakes easter eggs on the DVDs from episode I and II and on the bonus disc of the 2004 original trilogy DVD set.
From Return of the Jedi
- "Jabba's Baroque Recital". Mozart-esque John Williams composition (featuring a synthesized harpsichord) played while 3PO and R2 first arrive and play Jabba the message from Luke Skywalker.
- "Lapti Nek". Written by Joseph Williams and translated into Huttese, this is played by the Max Rebo Band in Jabba the Hutt's palace (in the original cut of the movie).
- "Jedi Rocks" (composed by Jerry Hey). This was composed to replace Lapti Nek for the 1997 Special Edition of the film.
- "Max Rebo Band Jams". Heard twice in the film, once after Jabba sends the Wookiee Chewbacca to jail, and again on Jabba's Sail Barge (hence its title). A recording of the first can be found on the official Star Wars Soundboards.
- "Ewok Feast" and "Part of the Tribe". By John Williams. Heard when Luke and company were captured by the Ewoks and brought to their treehouses.
- "Ewok Celebration". The Victory Song, whose lyrics were written by Joseph Williams, can be heard at the end of the original release of Return of the Jedi.
- "Victory Celebration". By John Williams. The Victory Song at the end of the Return of the Jedi 1997 re-edition.
From The Phantom Menace
- "Tatooine Street Music". Joseph Williams wrote four separate pieces of unusual, vaguely Eastern sounding source music for the streets of Mos Espa.
- "Augie's Municipal Band". By John Williams. Music played during the peace parade at the end of the film. It is closely related to the emperor's theme, but isn't an outright quote of it.
From Attack of the Clones
- "Dex's Diner"
- "Unknown Episode II Source Cue". A second source cue is credited to Joseph Williams' name for Episode II, but is not heard in the film.
- "Arena Percussion". Originally meant to accompany the Droid Factory sequence, Ben Burtt's attempt at composition is instead shifted to the arena, replacing the predominantly unused John Williams cue "Entrance of the Monsters."
From The Force Awakens
- "Jabba Flow" and "Dobra Doompa". Written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and J.J. Abrams, these songs were played at Maz Kanata's castle.
From The Last Jedi
- "Canto Bight". Written by John Williams, it appears when Finn and Rose first arrive to the casino planet of Canto Bight. It is written in the style of big-band jazz and is stylistically akin to the "Cantina Band" music from A New Hope. The track features solo alto saxophone, two bass saxophones, solo clarinet, trombones, kazoo, Fender Rhodes piano, bass, synthesizers, steel drums, and various percussion. The track briefly quotes "Aquarela do Brasil" by Ary Barroso as a reference to the 1985 Terry Gilliam film Brazil.
Reception
Awards
The score for the original Star Wars film of 1977 (A New Hope) won John Williams the most awards of his career:
- an Oscar at the 50th Academy Awards for Original Score
- a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score at the 35th Golden Globe Awards
- a BAFTA Award for Best Film Music at the 32nd British Academy Film Awards in 1978
- Three awards at the 1978 Grammy Awards for Best Instrumental Composition, Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special and Best Pop Instrumental Performance
He also received the 1977 Saturn Award for Best Music for both the Star Wars score and his score for Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Williams's score for the 1980 sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, also earned him a number of awards:
- BAFTA Award for Best Film Music at the 34th British Academy Film Awards in 1980
- two awards at the 1981 Grammy Awards for Best Instrumental Composition and Best Album Of Original Score Written For A Motion Picture Or A Television Special
The Empire Strikes Back was also nominated in 1981 for Best Original Score the 53rd Academy Awards (the award was won by Michael Gore for Fame).
Williams's subsequent Star Wars film music was nominated for a number of awards; in 1984 his score for Return of the Jedi was nominated for Best Original Score at the 56th Academy Awards. His compositions for the prequel trilogy also received nominations: the score for The Phantom Menace was nominated for Best Instrumental Composition at the 2000 Grammy Awards and Revenge of the Sith was nominated at the 2006 Grammy Awards for Best Soundtrack Album.
In 2005 the 1977 soundtrack for Star Wars was voted as the "most memorable film score of all time" by the American Film Institute in the list AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores, based on the assessment of a jury of over 500 artists, composers, musicians, critics and historians from the film industry.
In 2016, John Williams was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Score, his 50th overall nomination, for his score to Star Wars: The Force Awakens. He would later go on to win the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media for the film, his 23rd Grammy win overall.
Certifications
The soundtracks to both Star Wars and Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace have been certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, for shipments of at least 1 million units, with the albums for The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones being certified Gold (500,000 units). The British Phonographic Industry certified Star Wars and Episode I as Gold for shipments of over 100,000 units in the UK.
References
External links
- The Official Star Wars Music Site (Archived)
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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