~The ESB Gusher Society~

The brilliance is with each listening.

 

Here's something interesting. An old review of the soundtrack in Starlog magazine. Wonder if I have this issue buried away somewhere.

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>>Why is it so damn good?<<

Oh geez, where to start. I could take forever, so I'll just say pianos and (I think?) xylophones.

 

Good find, LMM.

 

Lol about the Florida thing. I got the Harry Potter soundtrack and was so mesmerized I played it over and over again. When I got to the movie, I found myself whistling along half the time.

 

The Finale (Rebel Fleet & End Credits) is THE BEST Star Wars track IMHO.

 

Too true. I've learnt much of it for the keyboard, only a few more sections to do. The way he flows between the themes...this should be the example set to ALL film scores ever.

 

The Finale has been known to bring tears to my eyes (the good kind!).

 

I've driven to work in my car listening to the 'Asteroid Field' and a few too many times I've pointed over the bonnet and said: "There. That looks pretty good.... Yeah. That'll do nicely"

Try it! It still feels great!

 

This time of year successfully navigating a mall parking lot is 3,725 to 1!

 

what a trip.

was listening to it on the subway into work this morning.

best star wars score ever.

aside from the asteroid field (best piece ever) and the bespin segments... the hoth battle- brilliant!

i love how frickin' tragic the music is.. all hope is lost... and then luke runs up underneath the walker and the music swells... one glimmer of shining light while the rebels are getting trampled... gave me chills.



it goes with out saying i have high hopes for williams' second score for the PT. maybe he'll find that magic again. i can only hope.

 

LOL LMM....

Just don't tell your mother the odds

 

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The music that scores the escape from Cloud City is also quite good to drive to.

 

Damn you lot! I wish I could drive! Well, one day...

 

Dark Score: I do that every time I find a parking space in New York.

 

i used to drive to work on the 405 listening to "the asteroid field."

what a kick.

p.s. have you all heard how the guy who invented the "IT"/Segway/Ginger device listens to the Star Wars theme as he flies himself to work in his helicopter every morning? i mean, come on- what a geek!

ahem... yeah. well, um.. anyway. back to my ESB.

 

Gush about ESB's score? Gladly. I love the individual themes; Yoda's, Han&Leia's, Vader's; but then I also love the actual sequences in the movie that combine and transition from theme to theme with incredible - welll, perfection! The Carbon-freeze sequence, for example - dark and forboding, then swelling into Han Solo and the Princess, and then getting brutally cut off by harsh, dark music as Han gets frozen - oh, it gives me goosebumps every time! And the end sequence - the different themes folwing seamlessly into each other...sigh...

John Williams took what was already incredible music from ANH and carried it even farther, masterfullly creating Han&Leia's theme from aspects of Princess Leia's theme as well as new themes, taking existing music and going to new heights with it. If he can do it, AOTC will similarly take TPM's themes and carry them to new heights, and perhaps musically as well as thematically the transition to the second film of the prequel trilogy will resemble the transition to the second film of the original trilogy. Who knows? I have faith in John Williams. ESB's score is a masterpiece. I just can't stop grinning and gushing!

 

I was listening to the ESB score on the train into work this morning (I have pretty much all three soundtracks crammed onto one MiniDisk - it's wicked) and another theme really struck me: it's when Lando, Leia and Luke are escaping from Cloud City and the music swirls and whirls into an incredibly moving, dreamy rendition of Ben's Force theme (as Vader tries to contact Luke aboard the Falcon, remember?). It's absolutely beautiful...

 

The best use of the Force Theme has to be when Luke is contacting Leia from the weather vane underneath Cloud City. Gives me the chills every time I hear it.

 

Oh, the music when Luke is calling out to Leia? It's like the Force theme with a heartbeat, a throbbing desperation and power that captures exactly the feelings of the two of them. Marvelous! One of my favorite rendition's of Ben's theme.

 

UP

Just got it, downloaded all the songs on my iBook. Bought nice new headphones, ahh man does it kick @$$.

 

Must be nice!

 

I guess all you people are the ones that has made ESB so successful in my John William's poll. OK, I love it too, and I'll give you my high points.

After Luke brings down the AT-AT and it hits the ground, the music on the next cut where the walkers are moving along the snowscape and then when you get the POV shot from the control room of the tank looking out across the snow and seeing the rebels fleeing before them, that's great.


When Han says "well we can still outmanuever them!" and all of the Imperial ships are rocking back and forth...that quote of the Imperial march is so great because it gives the feeling of the huge and unwieldy nature of the Empire off balance while Han is sort of flying circles around them, the lean, fast rebel.

And my favorite final moment is when Luke calls to Leia as he hangs below Bespin. There's a cut to the Millenium Falcon cockpit and as the camera tracks in on Leia, seemingly in a trance, that music gives me chills.

I LOVE many themes and tracks throughout the film, especially the music in the final scene that segues into the credits, but the above 3 are the best.

I agree with an earlier poster...there
is something both special and indefinable about the ESB score that seems to set it apart from other scores by Williams. It seems as though he was particularly inspired by the images, situations and characters of this magnificent film.