Music in Star Wars

[Whill]

Rogue One OST -> https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXaH20eIS38ZMeHH8EHMhN49QJXdT746q

Rogue One FYC -> http://waltdisneystudiosawards.com/#/rogue-one/music
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[Whill]

Leitmotifs First appearing in Rogue One

Jyn Erso’s Theme (RO) - The main theme of RO which seems to be inspired by the classical motif Dies Irae and William's theme for Rey from TFA. Jyn Erso’s Theme is nice, and serviceable.

Imperial Theme (RO) - The new major theme for the Empire inspired by the short little Imperial Motif from ANH, the Imperial March, and William's Nazi theme from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The Imperial Theme is the most memorable from the film. Krennic’s Theme is a minor RO theme associated with the Imperial Theme.

Guardians of the Whills (RO) - Chirrut Îmwe's mystical and somewhat sad theme inspired by the Force Theme and Across the Stars, the tragic love theme from AotC. The latter may seem an odd choice to inspire the Whills theme, but Across the Stars in part represents the beginning of the fall of the Jedi Order, while the pillaging of the Jedha temple and destruction its city represents the last remnants of the Jedi being swept away. Or maybe the composer just loves Across the Stars.

Hope Theme (RO) - This is the most important new minor theme, inspired by Main Star Wars Theme and representing optimism. Rebellions are built on hope.

Other RO music - Erso Family Theme, Rogue One Suspense Theme

(The above was also added to the rest of the movies in the second post in this thread.)


Brief commentary on the music of Rogue One

As you can imagine, the first Star Wars film score from someone other than John Williams is a divisive subject for film score fans. Originally, Rogue One was going to be scored by the guy who scored the last Godzilla reboot and the two Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows films, but RO reshoots altered the post-production schedule and the composer was no longer available so they had to get a replacement. In steps Michael Giacchino who scored the last three Star Treks, Doctor Strange, and Jurassic World. Giacchino only had four and a half weeks to compose the themes, score the film and record the music, but he is a big Star Wars fan and didn't want to pass up the chance.

Michael Giacchino is a good composer, but there’s no denying that he’s simply not John Williams and the score for RO is not quite up to par for Star Wars. However that bar is at the highest possible setting so there is no way it would be. It’s good score and overall the music works for the film. I find it utterly amazing the score is as good as it is with being so rushed. Maybe that even helped. Giacchino just didn’t have time to be worry too much about living up to the legacy and overthink it.

Giacchino’s use of the existing Williams themes in RO is overall well conceived and executed (with perhaps a couple missteps). From ANH, the Death Star motif and Rebel Fanfare and no-brainers. Princess Leia’s Theme has an appropriate reference. Despite the unconventional loss of the main title and opening crawl sequence for RO, Luke’s Theme fittingly appears for the cameo of Artoo and Threepio (who are instrumental to the plot of ANH from the beginning). The Force Theme also continues its streak of appearing in every Star Wars movie. And the iconic Imperial March appears in conjunction with Vader. But I was most excited to hear Giacchino resurrect the Imperial Motif and Vader’s Motif that have not appeared since ANH due to them both being replaced by Imperial March starting in TESB. I was excited not because they are great motifs, but just because ANH is my favorite movie and RO's point is to set it up.

Giachinno’s new Imperial Theme is somewhat “controversial” among Star Wars film score enthusiasts. I admit even I at first thought, Why do we need yet another Imperial theme? Imperial March was all over TESB and ROTJ, but so was Vader and it is (parenthetically) his theme. The prequels used it to sparingly in key moments to emphasize Anakin’s fall and the rise of the Empire (and ANH doesn’t have it at all), so I think Imperial March works best in RO as is, for Vader’s appearances only. For the rest of the Empire, ANH’s Imperial Motif is really inadequate on its own, which is why it was replaced and never used by Williams again. Thus, a new theme really was necessitated. No, it is no Imperial March. I wouldn’t even say it is the best new theme in RO, but it is the one you will most likely find yourself humming after watching RO. Since the Han Solo film is also not likely to have much Vader (if any), I hope this new Imperial Theme shows up again there.

One final thing I wanted to mention is the music scoring the awesome final scene of RO - The track on the soundtrack is simply called “Hope” (but to be clear it doesn’t actually have the Hope Theme). The orchestration and chorus of the Vader sequence recalls “Anakin’s Dark Deeds” where he slaughtered the Separatist leaders on Mustafar in RotS. The chorus in “Hope” is chanting a slowed-down Imperial March theme before the overt orchestrated phrasing of it as Leia’s ship escapes from Vader. Then the Rebel Fanfare plays as the Death Star plans are taken to Leia (mimicking the ship’s soldiers’ anticipation of being boarded in ANH), and then it ends with the Force Theme as the plans bring hope to Princess Leia. The scoring of this sequence is 1:40 of genius.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaEzKRngCyY&list=PLXaH20eIS38ZMeHH8EHMhN49QJXdT746q&index=18
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[Telsij]

Thank you for these insightful posts, Whill. Interesting background and analysis. And I had not noticed that the chorus is singing a slowed-down iteration of the Imperial march in that final scene before the recognizable orchestral nod comes at the close! The scene was already stirring, as was its scoring, but I now have an even greater appreciation for it.

[Whill]

[dph]

I support this!

I've always used music but it's often hard (and time consuming) putting together appropriate play lists and (especially while GMing) constantly playing DJ to set the 'mood'.

With TTA I set up couple of tabs on my PC.
One with the 'scifi' collection of looping ambient tracks (which includes stuff like a Starship Bridge, Spaceport and Medical Centre) and one with a Soundpad. There's a number of appropriately themed Soundpads but I take advantage of the 'custom' option and make a collection of natural, technological and combat SPFX with a few 'encounter' sound tracks.

I then use VNC Viewer (virtual desktop app) on my ipad to control the music at the table.

It's brilliant!

[WillTasker]

[Whill]

[bobenhotep]

Sun Ra's "Love in outer space (alternate take)" and "Lady with the Golden Stockings" often end up being cantina type music. There are some other pieces I use here and there as well. Sun Ra is also a long lived alien musician in my universe as well. You can listen to either of those pieces or the rest of his galactic weirdness on Spotify or Youtube.
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D&D 5e DM and WEG Star Wars GM for two kids who will hopefully carry on with RPGs for years to come

The Chijawa said so, that's why.

[Telsij]

[bobenhotep]

I drew pictures of him as looking like the cover from "Sun Ra and his Band from Outer Space" but with the sunglasses actually being his eyes and him having long vertically pointed ears. One of his band members is Moog, who I named after the Moog synthesizer. Sunny Blount was one of the first people to have one. I never gave him stats since he worked in the background. I should, though. And the ship too. Another alien of his species that made a lot of music was Kull Trane. My players are my 13 yr old son and 14 yr old daughter, so they only have a vague idea where this stuff comes from.
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D&D 5e DM and WEG Star Wars GM for two kids who will hopefully carry on with RPGs for years to come

The Chijawa said so, that's why.

[Whill]

http://variety.com/2017/film/news/john-williams-star-wars-composer-han-solo-movie-theme-1202650282/

John Williams is about done with Star Wars. Other composers are being brought in to score the anthology films. If we're lucky, Williams will compose the entire score for Episode IX. But in the mean time I'm so excited to report that John Williams will compose the main theme for Solo and hand it off to the composer to build the the score around.

Luke's theme is the main theme of the classic trilogy. Leia has a trilogy of themes, the middle of which is the only motif that has to do with Han, the love theme of TESB. In TFA Luke's theme was used for Han. Finally, Williams is writing a dedicated theme for Han Solo! This is awsome!

Now if the Solo composer will only use the Imperial theme from Rogue One (we don't don't need a 4th Imperial motif).
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[WillTasker]

[Whill]

[Jollyone]

Found this site helps in music/mood area. https://tabletopaudio.com/

[WillTasker]