ST John Williams to Score the Sequel Trilogy

jedijax

It's more like that he wants to see how to incorporate the new themes into the corresponding scenes. It's possible that they already edited scenes to recurring themes (the Force theme, Rey Theme, Kylo theme, etc).

 

From what I recall Looper uses music very sparingly, especially in its first half. Perhaps Rian is using JW's soundtrack for editing in order to strike a more 'star-warsy' tone, as Star Wars is known for having particularly lavish musical scores.

 

My guess: the rough cut was done, they did a spotting session to work out the broad strokes of the score, the final cut will be edited with the intention of matching the music to minimize edits to the score, but I doubt this will be absolute. Or RJ may just want it for inspiration.

 

Totally stoked to hear that Rian wants the score to inspire the edit rather than the other way around. All art aspires to music.

 

This news got me excited big time. It looks like Rian is letting John Williams tell the story to some extent. If that's true, then I'm really happy to see such appreciation of what music brings to Star Wars. Well, obviously it's not possible that the whole cut of the film is made around the music, but it's very interesting that Williams gets at least some freedom. It's also interesting how the communication between the director and the composer looks like if they don't want to rely on a fixed visual sequence.

 

no idea if real or not...
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxQSwI5aPja9NXlLWWQxRVQ0WGs/view

 

Not VIII but 100% real, from the TFA making-of documentary. It's two separate cues, the first for Hux's speech at Starkiller base and the second from Han's death scene.

 

This is a good thing. IMO, there were too many places in Episode VII, where there was no music; as if they left a lot of music on the editing room floor. At least that is what it seems like to me, compared to the other 2 Trilogies.

 

I'm glad RJ is using the score for his editing, gives me hope for having a great soundtrack.

 

You don't need music crammed into every corner of the film. Periods of silence are good breathers, and help enhance the musical moments in contrast. You need calms as well as storms.

 

That's true. The OT had some prominent quiet stretches. I believe the decision to leave most of the Death Star scenes unscored to provide a musical-breather for the audience. Not to mention The Empire Strikes Back, which (wisely) cut the music from the Vader/Luke duel and some of the early scenes on Hoth.

There's also AOTC, which cuts Williams' Battle of Geonises theme in favor Ben Burtt's tribal drumming, followed by 20 minutes of tracked music from TPM for most of the action finale.

 

Yup. Some of my favorite Star Wars scenes (the early ones on Hoth) are also music-less, with just the wind howling.

 

Yes, you need some moments without music. But if you compare the music in ESB to TFA for example; TFA sounds empty. Maybe I am wrong, but it just seems to me that they kept a lot of Williams' Score out of the final edit. The exception was in the beginning of TFA; where there was the normal amount of music expected in a Star Wars movie. There was Rey's introduction, when she was scaveging the ruins of the fallen Star Destroyer. Even the moment when Poe is talking to Lor San Tekka, there was the signature quiet atmospheric music in the background. The rest of the movie seems to be a musically empty, comparatively, to me. The ability to compose quiet atmospheric music during dialogue moments, as well as the big rousing Themes, is what I like most about Williams. I have watched TFA multiple times; and hoped that I would feel differently about this. But I still feel the same way.

Yeah. And I seem to remember (as seen in one of the video extras on the AOTC DVD) that there was some arguments with Ben Burtt, about holding back too much of Williams music in AOTC.

 

I've always felt like the Death Star battle felt a bit... empty without music.

 

One thing I'm looking forward to hearing is a variation on "The Jedi Steps." I could definitely see Williams playing with the feel of that piece, much like how he's done some very different renditions of the Binary Sunset theme and The Imperial March and, well, quite a few themes, actually. I could imagine getting a more upbeat/rousing rendition of "The Jedi Steps" during Rey's training, for example.

 

Same. JW could use The Jedi Steps as a new theme for Luke and Rey. It's perfect in TFA, and of course I'd love to hear more of it. Maybe we'll get some of Rey's theme with Jedi Steps. I'm curious to see how Luke is musically represented.

 

I would love if JW did a SW soundtrack like HZ did in Interstellar!!!! Even though it kinda isn't Star Warsy, Love to hear something like this in TLJ!

 

Unlikely to happen for Star Wars but his score for A.I Artificial Intelligence is probably the closest Williams has gotten to that sound, particularly with the use of Phillip Glass-esque minimalist rhythms.

 

I think you can count on it. The track "The Jedi Steps" (The word Jedi being significant) is used as a swelling build up to the climax, that being "The Force Theme", which literally introduces Luke for the first time in the ST.

 

I love how sparse the force awakens was tbh. I would love for them to do that again but also go more melodic and introduce more new themes at the same time

 

The score for the second movie in SW trilogies is all about:

Spoiler

 

hana_solo

Spoiler

Not really a romance fan, but I find myself seriously hoping that Finn and KMT have one in TLJ just for the slushy John Williams music that comes with it.
It doesn't even need to be the Steinerific grandiosity of Across the Stars (which is beautiful BTW), even something simple like this will do. I'll take anything, just one more JW love theme before he hangs up the baton for good.

 

Mostly Handless

Spoiler

I love Love Themes! Thanks for posting that one. Some of my favorites:

 

I'm sort of under the impression the first cue would be a First Order theme. It sounds amazing, and I'm really hoping that Williams expands on it in VIII.

 

hana_solo

Spoiler

Glad you enjoyed it, that said, you can never go wrong with the maestro.
BTS footage of JW scoring AOTC. From a VHS release, judging by the image quality


I'm not sure what he and Lucas were actually referring to by 'like the great love stories of the films of earlier times', but what sprang immediately to mind was this;
Max Steiner, Gone With The Wind enjoy


Regardless I'd love to know the identity of the temp track that became Across the Stars

Edit: BTW did Howard Shore & co. adapt Tolkien's Elvish for his LOTR scores?