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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Am I just missing them, or is there none of Williams' themes in CW?

Discussion in 'Star Wars TV- Completed Shows' started by DMan304, Jan 31, 2009.

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  1. JediCow

    JediCow Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Jun 27, 2005
    I feel like I'm alone in that I really enjoy the techno sounds some of the episodes have. I thought it worked especially well in the Downfall of a Droid/Duel of the Droids two parter, given the robotic nature of the subject matter...

    Who's got my back on this one?
     
  2. obi-rob-kenobi4

    obi-rob-kenobi4 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 17, 2007
    Its funny because Ahsoka's theme was one of the only solid pieces of music in the soundtrack and they never use it. Same thing with a few other pieces here and there that weren't that bad.:oops:
     
  3. Qui-Gon_Reborn

    Qui-Gon_Reborn Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 11, 2008
    You don't need to have the Star Wars theme to make it Star Wars. The new music is refreashing, after six movies and plenty of games with the same music. It gets boring after awhile.

    Yep. :cool:

    That's because the POINT of most SW games is to feel like you're playing in the world of the movies.

    That can be accomplished without the music.

    Look at Knights of the Old Republic: The characters are different from the movies, the ships, droids, and weapons all look different, the sound effects are different, but all it takes is that faint hint of the Force theme in the apartment on Taris and suddenly there's no doubt that this is STAR WARS.

    The whole atmosphere would have been distinctly Star Wars without the score.

    Themes are DESIGNED to be repeated. I don't care whether the melody is played by a symphony orchestra, an electric guitar, or a MIDI sequencer; when I watch something called "Star Wars" I expect that at some point the Star Wars theme is going to be used to heighten a moment of heroic adventure.

    Things change. Movies change. Star Wars is changing. John Williams' music is a collection of masterpieces, but it's nice to have a certain sense of variety and balance.
     
  4. obi-rob-kenobi4

    obi-rob-kenobi4 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 17, 2007
    No one is saying that it should be ONLY John Williams music, we are just saying that the music should be better than it is now and the show should have just a little more John Williams music than there is right now -thats all.

    So far you can count on 3 fingers how many time we have heard ANY John Williams music in the whole first season, there should be more. Im not saying a lot more but just a little more. Maybe one theme every 3 episodes at one quick point during the episode.

    This isn't the Matrix, there should NOT be techno/hip hop/rock type of beats as the score, it should be classical music...ya know...with actual instruments. That would be a start:rolleyes:.


     
  5. Qui-Gon_Reborn

    Qui-Gon_Reborn Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 11, 2008
    Why should it be? Because it always has been?
     
  6. draemsu

    draemsu Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Feb 2, 2009
    I consider the show to be something separate from the movies, so it's not really important to have the same music.

    If that makes any sense.
     
  7. Ashoka

    Ashoka Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Jul 20, 2008
    Why no Techno?I'm not the biggest fan of Techno, but they were there because the episode had alot of emphasis on Technology

    Artoo - It's was his story arc in a sense. What better way than to Techno-ised him?

    If we have an episode with Wat Tambor, we should have some Techno too!
     
  8. jedi-soon

    jedi-soon Jedi Grand Master star 3

    Registered:
    Nov 27, 2001
    The Artoo escape theme is actually the high point of the series for me, in terms of original music. I caught myself toe tapping to it! Made doubly great because it incorporated actual Artoo sound effects in the spaces between the beats.

    GL himself decreed that percussion would be a staple of the series' musical oeuvre. That's come to us in a wide variety of strains, techno being only one of 'em. I appreciate that they're not just letting the music fall into predictable patterns, but have actually in many cases gone with styles that were completely counter to what one might expect.

    And, maybe it's just me, but I'm constantly hearing snippets and little echoes of the classic Williams themes. Pretty much every episode!
     
  9. brainwash

    brainwash Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Jan 19, 2009
    I liked the electronic music in the Duel/Downfall of droids episodes, it was unlike anything I've heard in a Star Wars product outside of the old Droids cartoon. I've been finding it refreshing how one style of music that wouldn't fit the atmosphere they're going for fits anyway if you take out the preconceived notion they're basing the environment on something from our cultures.

    That said, I was talking with a friend of mine who doesn't like the music for how common and Earthy it is. Until he mentioned it, I never thought of it that way, but apparently John Williams would go the extra effort to things like clip notes in the Cantina theme to make them sound familiar, but foreign to the ears, whereas the Ziro theme is a straight-up sax, which I loved and even put on my ipod, but isn't really "alien" by usual terms.
     
  10. swcolts157

    swcolts157 Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Jun 15, 2008
    I remeber in Dooku Captured that there was a music cue that was almost note for note the Entering the Death Star cue from Ep IV, it was very subtle, but I noticed it the first time I watched it.
     
  11. The_Attackinator

    The_Attackinator Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Dec 31, 2008
    Yeah, I loved that. :)
     
  12. DMan304

    DMan304 Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Jul 10, 2004
    One thing that needs to be cleared up that it seems like people are getting confused about. No one is saying (I guess, at least I'm not saying) that John Williams music should be used straight out of the movies, just that the themes and tunes he wrote should be used more in the cartoon.

    Lord of the Rings is a perfect example. You hear a lot of the same themes being used over and over, but never the same exact piece you heard before. It's always different. Yet with this cartoon we are getting almost entirely new music with none of the old themes from the movie.

    I'm a big fan of the music, and I was excited to hear Yoda's theme in the very first episode, but ever since then I have been disappointed with the seemingly complete lack of Star Wars music.
     
  13. waheennay

    waheennay Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2000
    One of my favorite moments from the TCW movie is during the battle of Teth where Anakin jumps one one STAP and slicing each droid pilot and kicking off the last one and taking over his ride and flying up to the top of the mesa. That would have been SOOOOOOO cool to have the swashbuckling version of the Star Wars theme from the original trilogy. The part they play whenever Luke does something cool like in the Sail Barge battle in ROTJ where he flips on the plank back on the skiff.
     
  14. LawJedi

    LawJedi Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 11, 2009
    I can't decide what side I fall on this issue. There are so many factors.

    It may not be a plausible theory, but it was proposed on the latest Force-cast that money might be the issue. While many games and audiobooks have used the JW themes in the past, it may be cost prohibitive to use his music for a 100+ episode series that is likely to enter syndication. It might be an issue of Lucasfilm crunching the numbers and realizing how much it would cost to give old Johnny a cut of every episode. Even the hosts of the show stated that they had a hard time buying this theory.

    I don't know a thing about SW music licensing, but I just wanted to throw that out there.
     
  15. Master_Starwalker

    Master_Starwalker Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 20, 2003
    Definitely, and I would prefer a Williams' esque score at the very least, I'm just saying there's precedent for such things being considered 'Star Wars.'
     
  16. Kwenn

    Kwenn Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Mar 30, 2001
    I also thought that when Anakin leaps onto the tri-droids during the opening battle. Or at least an action version of Anakin's Theme. It sadly disappeared in AotC and RotS, and I'd have loved to hear it used again in TCW.

    While Star Wars doesn't necessarily have to remain in the classical genre, I think it should continue to utilize motific scores. Kliner never seems to create any truly memorable themes, and if he does, he uses them maybe once or twice, and they're dropped without any development. The only real example of a motif working is Yoda's Theme in Ambush. There were hints of it prior to the flute version in the cave, and then a couple of epic versions to round the episode out. No other episode has struck me in the same way, which is a real shame.
     
  17. DMan304

    DMan304 Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Jul 10, 2004
    I'm confused.

    We get none of the classic themes, yet we get a retooled and rerecorded Speeder Chase from AotC?

    Oh well, at least Rex's theme was back, although I'm thinking it's just for all the clones, and not Rex and the 501st like I originally thought. They played it in tonight's episode when Slick was giving his speech/rant about being slaves to the Jedi.
     
  18. JEDI_MADDEN

    JEDI_MADDEN Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Oct 20, 2008
    Let it go. The music is fine. If you guys remember G.I. Joe, every episode had the same AWFUL music. Kiner's music is being unfairly compared to Williams. He was commissioned to due something different, yet familiar at times, and totally unique at others. I think he well deserves his paycheck. I enjoy his compositions and would buy the soundtrack.

    Hearing JW music would get old after a while. Just relax, and enjoy it for what it is.
     
  19. Jedi_Keiran_Halcyon

    Jedi_Keiran_Halcyon Jedi Knight star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 17, 2000
    No, I really don't think it would.

    Plenty of cartoons have a set of reusable cues, because of how repetitive the episodes tend to be. The Real Ghostbusters had a great set of such cues. And it didn't matter that it happened every episode, when that main theme kicked in it made things more exciting.

    The most exciting moment in the PT as far as I'm concerned is when the two Jedi burst through the smoke at the beginning of Episode I. It's no coincidence that that's also pretty much the only time in the PT that the main theme is used as an action cue.
     
  20. waheennay

    waheennay Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2000

    Hey I liked the music from the old GI:JOE show. At least from the first mini-series. I still remember the jazzy saxaphone cue in the scene where they're fighting in helicopers over the active volcano!

    It is weird that the first JW music we hear in a while is that cue from the Zam Wassell speeder chase from Episode II. Which by the way JW used again during the Quidditch scenes in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets!
     
  21. Biddybot

    Biddybot Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Aug 6, 2002
    It sounds like what some of you are really yearning for are the leitmotifs John William's score established over the course of the six live-action movies, and since TCW deals with an expansion of the same subject matter and many of the same characters, I can certainly understand why you'd miss them so. I can't imagine watching a movie treatment of Wagner's Ring cycle opera anymore, for example, without Wagner's music being an integral part of the soundtrack.

    That said, when it comes to TCW and despite having watched nine of the earlier episodes, I absolutely cannot now recall a single thing about this new series' music...nada, zip, not even the opening theme. I don't know what to think about that, honestly. I've read that one of the characteristics of really great soundtracks is that they manage to enhance their visuals without ever becoming intrusive so maybe that means TCW has a real good score. It certainly never intrudes into my consciousness when I watch, alas.
     
  22. DMan304

    DMan304 Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Jul 10, 2004
    Really?

    I never knew that.
     
  23. LawJedi

    LawJedi Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 11, 2009
    Your argument seems to be based on a false assumption that familiarity=good, new=bad. Then again, every argument you've made for the last decade on this forum probably amounted to the same failings.

    Yeah, yeah, yeah, Empire Strikes Back is so amazing and it rocked your world, moving on...
     
  24. Qui-Gon_Reborn

    Qui-Gon_Reborn Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 11, 2008
    I'm not participating in the little bit of banter going on there, but I just wanted to say that way too many assumptions are made according to that repulsive statement. I agree wholeheartedly.
     
  25. LawJedi

    LawJedi Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 11, 2009
    Individual posts don't exist in a vacuum.
     
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