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. Williams' scores for the eight saga films (and a suite for a spin-off film) count among the most widely known and popular contributions to modern film music, and utilize a symphony orchestra and features an assortment of about fifty recurring musical themes to represent characters and other plot elements: one of the largest caches of themes in the history of film music.
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 conducted by Williams and William Ross, and performed by the Hollywood Freelance Studio Symphony and (in a few passages) by the Los Angeles Master Chorale.
Additional composers have since contributed music to Star Wars. The music for several animated television series spin-offs 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 scored the second 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 18 hours of music, Williams has written approximately fifty 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 films' 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. Otherwise, however, his later scores were mostly tracked with music of his own composition, mainly from previous Star Wars films. Yet, In Williams' score to The Last Jedi he, for the first time in the series, went so as far as to incorporate direct quotes of other compositions, namely "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, and has described the scored film as a "musical".
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. A good example of this is the way in which 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 in terms of the number of leitmotives used, so as to not become too dense for the audience (being preoccupied with the visuals) 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, of which about 90% is scored.
Performance
Williams re-recorded some of his suites from the first trilogy with the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra as an album. Several of his later themes were released as singles and music videos, and were 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 and often omit the choral parts.
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) romantic-period orchestra, a mixed choir and even a boy choir, although none of the scores call for particularly immense forces compared to larger film or theater works. Nevertheless, due to added high woodwinds and percussion parts, scores such as Empire Strikes Back and Attack of the Clones call for 106 and 110 players, respectively. The former called for a third harp and fourth bassoon, while the latter (and all prequel scores) utilized a fuller string section. Revenge of the Sith also utilized a second set of timpani. Comparatively, 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 greatly reduced: Official Star Wars Concerts were held with as little as 60-piece orchestras and 50-piece mixed choral ensembles or with the choir omitted altogether. However, to recreate the eight scores as they were originally recorded, the following instrumentation is required:
- Woodwinds: 3 flutes (doubling on piccolos and an alto flute), 2 oboes (doubling on a cor anglais), 3 clarinets (doubling on a bass clarinet and a E-flat clarinet), 2 bassoons, doubling on a contrabassoon.
- Brass: 6 horns (doubling on Wagner Tubas), 4 trumpets, 3 tenor trombones, bass tuba.
- Keyboards: Piano, celesta, synthesizer.
- Timpani: 4-6 kettledrums.
- Percussion: 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, glockenspiel, tubular bells, and anvil on all episodes. Also required are temple blocks (I), claves (II, V, VI), ratchet (V-VIII), marimba (I, IV, VII-VIII), bongos (I, IV, VII-VIII), congas (I-III, VI-VII), log drums (I, IV, VI-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), one medium Thai gong (VI), three medium chu-daiko drums (II-III, one for VII-VIII), washboard, goblet drum, caxixi (VIII).
- Strings: 14 violins I, 12 violins II, 10 violas, 10 violoncellos, 6 contrabasses, 2 harps.
- Additional instruments: 1 piccolo, 1 flute, 1-2 recorders, 2 oboes, 1 clarinet, 3 saxophones, 1-2 bassoons, 2 horns, trumpet, bass trombone, tuba, set of timpani, five percussionists, 89-piece SATB choir, 10 basso profundo singers, 30 boys, 1 Tibetan throat singer, narrator, 4 violins divided, 2 violas, 2 contrabasses, 1 harp.
- Non-orchestral instruments: Cretan Lyra and cümbü? (I), electric guitar (II), toy piano (VI), kazzo, highland bagpipes, didgeridoo (VIII).
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 fifty 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 (six 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 forges 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 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 - for comparison - it still falls short of Wagner's use of leitmotifs in the Ring Cycle or even 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; and use the themes more clearly and with more nuance, where Williams prefers to write fewer themes (to allow him to focus on them better) and use them in a more straightforward manner and sometimes, solely for their romantic effect. Shore and Wagner's themes are also inter-related and arranged into sets of subsets of related themes through various melodic or harmonic connections, whereas Williams prefers greater distinction between his themes.
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, rather than for a narrative purpose. 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. Princess Leia's Theme is used for the death of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars, 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 for which it was written); Anakin Skywalker's search for his mother in Attack of the Clones; and the unrelated Yoda and Darth Sidious's duel in Revenge of the Sith. Williams' original composition for the Geonosis Battle Arena in Attack of the Clones, a variation on the Droid Army March, 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. Kylo Ren's secondary theme, meant to evoke his more conflicted side, but since he quickly makes his allegiances clear, its generally used in tandem with his fanfare to evoke his menace, instead. 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, probably a result of temp-track choice. In other cases, the material wasn't tracked but rather lifted from the original composition and re-recorded, such as in the big action scenes of Return of the Jedi, both of which lift material from the Battle of Yavin and Ben's death.
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: the themes for each score are only devised during each film's post-production, so Williams will often come up with a new theme that, in hindsight, would have been preferably introduced, at least in embryonic form, in a previous score: This can be said for the love theme "Across the Stars" (for Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala), introduced only in "Attack of the Clones" or even "The Imperial March", introduced in Empire Strikes Back. The same can be said about some themes only composed for the prequels (such as Duel of the Fates), which would have been perfectly applicable to the films in the first trilogy, had they been produced in the narrative order. In fact, since the prequels featured both their own stock of leitmotives and recurring themes from the previous films, they boasted a larger catalog of themes, whereas the use of the leitmotifs in a cycle of works typically involves increasing density towards the later installments in the narrative order. Also, the themes in the prequels appear in shorter, blockier statements and the motives themselves are often short, rhythmic ideas, as opposed to longer melodies used in the first trilogy. Also, in the prequels the motives are often associated with places and events, rather than with characters as they are in the rest of the scores, creating a further discrepancy in the musical narrative.
Even within each trilogy, Williams often abandons a motif after a single score or two (as he did with Anakin's theme), writes (across several films) multiple motifs that serve a similar function (e.g. the Rebel fanfare, the Throne Room March and the Triumph Fanfare in Return of the Jedi), or writes a motif that he only uses in one installment, such as the Droid motif. In other cases, a motif is supplanted by a new one, as the Imperial March replaced the original, Imperial motif - a problem only confounded when he returned to that theme with the prequels, only for it to disappear entirely for what is now supposed to be the fourth episode; sometimes, the existing motif simply changes its thematic meaning: Ben Kenobi's theme turned into a theme for The Force by Empire Strikes Back, and Luke's theme - into the "Star Wars theme".
The Last Jedi, specifically, departs from Williams method of relying primarily on new thematic material, and instead relies heavily on pre-existing themes, in keeping with Johnson's temp-track choices. As a result, a number of themes and motifs from the previous films are constantly repeated, often in very familiar settings, such as statements of Yoda's and Leia's theme that are lifted from the concert arrangements, a reprise of the Binary Sunset rendition of the Force theme, and recurring statements of Rey's and Kylo's themes. There are some incidental phrases similar to existing themes such as Battle of the Heroes, The Immolation scene, et cetera, and some deliberate, tongue-in-cheek references, such as a quote of the Death Star motif for a scene with a clothes iron that is shot to look like a landing Star Destroyer.
Listed below are as 51 recurring themes or leitmotives, of which about 49 leitmotifs are clearly identified in Williams' scores; as well as two leitmotives written by Williams for John Powell's upcoming score to Solo (see Themes in the Antology films: Solo). Williams is expected to expand upon this catalog further in his upcoming composition to Episode IX. Whether that score will merit as many themes as his most sparse efforts (The Last Jedi at three themes), his most dense (The Force Awakens with eight) or in-line with his average (six themes), Williams will have written between 54 and 60 themes for the series.
Themes in the "original trilogy"
Star Wars (A New Hope)
- "Luke's Theme (Star Wars theme)"
- "Luke's (Star Wars) secondary theme"
- "The Rebel Fanfare"
- "Ben Kenobi's Theme (The Force Theme)"
- "Princess Leia's Theme"
- "Imperial motif"
- "Death Star motif"
The Empire Strikes Back
Returning: Throne Room Victory March (First re-statement); Luke's Theme; Luke's Secondary Theme; The Rebel Fanfare; The Force Theme (Ben Kenobi's theme); Leia's Theme
- First re-statement: "Throne Room Victory March"
- "The Imperial March" (Darth Vader's Theme)
- "Han Solo and the Princess"
- "Yoda's Theme" :
- "Droids motif"
- "Cloud City March"
- "Boba Fett motif"
Return of the Jedi
Returning: Spaceship Battle Motif; Luke's Theme; Luke's Secondary Theme; The Rebel Fanfare; The Force Theme; Leia's Theme; The Imperial March; Han Solo and the Princess; Yoda's Theme
- First re-statement: "Spaceship Battle motif"
- "Parade of the Ewoks"
- "Jabba The Hutt theme"
- "The Emperor's Theme"
- "Brother and Sister motif"
- "Triumph Fanfare"
- "Luke and Leia Theme"
Themes in the prequel trilogy
The Phantom Menace
Returning: Luke's Theme, Luke's Secondary 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 March"
- "Qui-Gon's motif"
- "Darth Maul motif"
- "Jar Jar's Theme"
Attack of the Clones
Returning: Shmi's Theme; Luke's Theme, Luke's Secondary Theme, The Rebel Fanfare, The Force Theme, The Imperial March, The Emperor's Theme, Anakin's Theme, Trade Federation March, Duel of the Fates
- First re-statement: "Shmi's Theme"
- "Across the Stars"
- "Across the Stars secondary theme"
- "Separatist motif"
- "Kamino motif"
- "Courting on Naboo motif"
Revenge of the Sith
Returning: Jedi Funeral Theme, Coruscant Fanfare; Luke's Theme, Luke's Secondary Theme, Leia'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, Across the Stars secondary theme.
- First re-statement: "Funeral Theme"
- First re-statement: "Coruscant Fanfare"
- "Battle of the Heroes"
- "General Grievous' motif"
- "Lament for Anakin theme"
Themes in the sequel trilogy
The Force Awakens
Returning: Luke's Theme, Luke's Secondary Theme, The Rebel Fanfare (Millennium Falcon motif), The Force theme, Leia's Theme, The Imperial March, Han Solo and the Princess
- "Rey's Theme"
- "Kylo Ren's Fanfare"
- "Kylo Ren's Conflicted motif"
- "March of the Resistance"
- "Pursuit ostinato"
- "Poe Dameron's motif"
- "Snoke's Theme"
- "Jedi Steps"
The Last Jedi
Returning: Luke's Theme, Luke's Secondary Theme, The Rebel Fanfare (Millennium Falcon motif),The Force Theme, Leia's Theme, Yoda's Theme, Luke and Leia, Han Solo and the Princess, The Imperial March, Spaceship Battle Motif, Death Star motif, The Emperor's Theme, Poe's Theme, Rey's Theme, Kylo Ren's themes, Snoke's Theme
- "Rose Tico's theme"
- "Luke's Island motif"
- "Rebel Desperation motif"
Incidental motifs
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, even where the composer probably never intended for, and others taking an exclusive approach.
Thematic components and variants
One of the key differences between the two approaches in the way in which Williams' main, long themes are approached: some view them as composed of several leitmotives that can appear (for the very least once) in isolation (i.e. in a separate cue) from the unabridged theme, and may even represent a different facet of the plot element or character that the theme stands for, while others see them as a single theme with multiple components, which can appear in fragmented form by use of only one of the said components to suggest the entire theme.
The featured list of themes follows what could be deduced to be Williams own approach: certain pieces are described as two separate themes when they were described as such by Williams and/or appear at least twice in isolation from each other (and usually emerge and develop separately to some extent) and serve a different dramatic purpose altogether. Other pieces such as the ostinato accompaniment and B-section of the Imperial March, the introduction figure to Kylo's secondary theme, to Rey's, or the various components of Duel of the Fates did not merit this treatment, because of lack of evidence to authorial intent on the part of Williams (especially given how seldom, in his body of work, he referred to individual sections of his themes as individual leitmotifs) and/or because they only appear in isolation once and/or lack a defined dramatic purpose distinct from the other parts of the unabridged theme. Its also, largely, the approach taken by Matessino, Adams and Lehman.
A particularly noteworthy but ultimately incidental instance is the ostinato accompaniment to the Rebel Fanfare: its only used isolated from the fanfare in lifted material that appears in Return of the Jedi. Otherwise, it always precedes and accompanies the Rebel Fanfare, but often again it extends to underpin large sections of on-screen action and the respective material in the original Star Wars. However, since its not really entirely detachable (on more than one instance, that is) from the Rebel Fanfare and never plays at the front of the orchestra, Adams comments that "It's not a theme per se" and Lehman makes no note of it, even as an incidental motif.
Certain analysts will also list a single melody multiple times under various guises. For instance, the emperor's theme can also be labeled separately (in the same glossary) as the "dark side" theme, Darth Sidius' theme, etc...
Setpiece material
The inclusive approach also tends to identify leitmotives even where they don't meet the criteria of recurrence. This is the result of Williams' propensity (in these scores and otherwise) to write material that is either melodic, rhythmic, harmonic or timbral specifically to an individual setpiece or none-recurring plot-element in the film, such as The Battle of Hoth, the Chase through Coruscant, or The Battle of Crait. These individual pieces of music - whether they consist of a full melody, ostinati, diegetic pieces or a certain timbre - have sometimes been described as having thematic significance, occasionally (in fleeting comments) even by Williams himself, but since they do not recur in a different part of the narrative, nor are transformed from or into another motif, they do not comply with the definition of a leitmotif, even if they form the highlights of their respective scores or even featured prominently in the "making of" material (e.g. Chase through Coruscant). A case of particular note is the piece Williams designated as the "Jawa theme." While it is a fully realized melody, clearly evoking the "little scrap and robot collectors", as Williams called them, it doesn't recur across two discrete cues, rather being just interrupted briefly by Imperial music (the interruption slightly extended in the film by silence) and than resuming.
Incidental material
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 often includes material that is incidental in nature, such as several figures used in the finale of The Empire Strikes Back; material with overly broad (and therefore vague) association to the story such as tragic music written for the Starkiller sequence in The Force Awakens returning for Han Solo's death or "Tension" music from Episodes 7 and 8; material that is purely rhythmic or timbral 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, a women's chorus for the underwater scenes of The Phantom Menace; material that is of a generic nature, such as his use of "mournful homophonic" choir in The Last Jedi for climactic moments; or material that is part of Williams' stylistic choices as a composer, more than a thematic statement unique to the series. For instance, his use of tritones often denotes mystery, a device he uses for the droids landing on Tatooine and again in the concert arrangement of "The Throne Room." He uses a related device to reflect the mystery of Luke's whereabouts in The Force Awakens. However, similar devices are also used in Indiana Jones to represent the mysteries of the Ark and the Crystal Skull. Hence, it is more of a way for Williams to evoke mystery, than a motif conceived specifically for any one of these scores.
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 rely on this gesture, such as his original take of the binary sunset, as non-thematic.
In fact, sometimes the supposedly recurring material is similar, but not in fact identical. A good example would be the variety of gestures relating to the dark side, following a piece of music used in the opera-house scene. Lehamn however clarifies that those alleged following statements are "similar but inexact" to the earlier gesture. In other cases, variations on the same thematic ideas are erroneously labeled as two or more separate themes, such as a secondary droid motif or a motif for Anakin's immolation, which is in fact a variation on his lament theme. Similarly, the proposed motifs for Mustafar or Anakin's Dark Deeds are in fact variations on Grievous' material, redirected to the evil Anakin.
Sometimes, the recurring material is question is not part of the original composition but is rather tracked after-the-fact, or at least lifted, from existing material into a different section of the film, or from material that is recapitulated in a concert piece or end-credits suite. This includes the Podracing fanfare and the ostinato accompaniment of the Rebel Fanfare, which otherwise doesn't appear isolated from the unabridged theme more than once; the mournful writing for French horn at Shmi's funeral, the Arena March from Attack of the Clones etc. Occasionally, track titles are mistaken for themes.
Williams had created themes out of none-recurring material by quoting them again in a following score: e.g. the funeral music for Qui Gon being reused (and repurposed) as a general funeral theme in Revenge of the Sith. This, however, does not extend to such gestures being quoted in spin-off scores (e.g. the Asteroid Field in Solo, the material for Imperial Walkers in Rogue One) nor for more fleeting, none-narrative references which Williams provides in his scores.
Themes in the Anthology films
The first Star Wars Anthology score for Rogue One, written by Michael Giacchino, utilizes several themes (and recurring interstitial material) 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 Motif and The Imperial March.
Rogue One
Returning: Luke's Theme; Rebel Fanfare; The Force Theme; Leia's Theme; Imperial Motif; Death Star Motif; The Imperial March
- Jyn's Theme
- Hope Theme
- Guardians of the Whills Theme
- Imperial Theme (Krennic's Theme)
Solo
For Solo, John Williams wrote and recorded a concert arrangement for a new theme for Han Solo. In the process of composing the theme, Williams ended up using two separate ideas, each conveying a different aspect of the character, and went as far as to spot the film for places to use each motif; all other leitmotifs and other material were written and adapted by John Powell, the main composer for the film.
Returning: Spaceship Battle motif; Luke's (Star Wars) Theme; Rebel Fanfare; Duel of the Fates; The Imperial March; The Imperial motif; Death Star Motif
By John Williams:
- Han Solo's Theme
- "Han Solo's Searching theme"
By John Powell:
- Chewbacca's Theme
- Han and Qi'Ra's Love Theme
- L3'S Theme
- Crew theme
- Enfys Nest 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. These album releases typically include 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. Five of the eight films also have unique credit suites that features alternate concert arrangements of themes and/or a medley of the main themes of a particular film.
From the main episodes
From Star Wars
- "Princess Leia's Theme"
From The Empire Strikes Back
- "The Imperial March"
- "Yoda's Theme"
- "Han Solo and the Princess"
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
- "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"
From Solo
- "The Adventures of Han"
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 Star Wars
- "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, featuring a player on Cretan Lyra and Cumbus, and a solo, wailing female vocal.
- "Augie's Municipal Band". By John Williams. Music played during the peace parade at the end of the film, it is a sped-up, attenuated trumpet and boy choir composition. It is closely related to the Emperor's Theme, but is not 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 Star Wars. The track features solo alto saxophone, two bass saxophones, solo clarinet, trombones, kazoo, muted trumpets, Fender Rhodes piano, bass, synthesizers, steel drums, and various percussion, including washboards and goblet drums. The track briefly quotes "Aquarela do Brasil" (which also features hi-hat and ride cymbals) by Ary Barroso as a reference to the 1985 Terry Gilliam film Brazil, and includes a brief piano statement of Williams' and Johnny Mercer's theme from The Long Goodbye.
- "Caretaker party music": source cue of an unknown composition (possibly by Williams), which features highland bagpipes and a didgeridoo, and accompanies a deleted scene from the film.
Reception
Awards
The score for the original Star Wars film of 1977 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 fo 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. In 2018, Williams would go on to be nominated for Best Original Score at the 90th Academy Awards, for his score to Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
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 article : Wikipedia
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