ST John Williams scored TFA - incl. Soundtrack discussion

JediKnightWax
He complained about the extensive modifications Lucasfilm did with his AOTC score because of all the editing done in post-production. He was diplomatic about it though. With that said, I thought Lucasfilm did a good job 'arranging' his score.

 

A quick story: this past week, I ended up in California for a couple of days. On Monday, I took a tour at the Sony lot, and during the tour we were taken into the Barbra Streisand Scoring Stage. The tour guide informed us it was the first time a tour group had been allowed into the stage for two weeks, since a movie had been recording its score there. Further, he told us the recording stage was a favorite of many composers, including John Williams, due to it being considered "acoustically perfect," and that Star Trek '09 had its score recorded there. When they finished scoring that film, Abrams hung a little toy Enterprise from the ceiling with what looked like fishing wire; I tried to snap a pic, but wasn't allowed to. By this point, the gears had been turning in my head, faster and faster, and I raised my hand to ask, "What movie has been scoring here?" The tour guide told me that they weren't told officially which film, but he and others suspected it was likely Star Wars: The Force Awakens due to the reasons mentioned above, and also because John Williams has allegedly been seen going into/coming out of the building a few times the past couple of weeks. I bristled with excitement, and the rest of the tour seemed to share at least a little bit of that buzz.

 

With John using a different orchestra instead of the London Symphony, I don't think the music will sound any different. I was listening to FSM's Superman IV Complete Score the other night and even though the music was performed by two different orchestras (Symphony-Orchestra Graunke in Germany and the National Philharmonic Orchestra in England) I couldn't tell the difference between them.

 

If anything is going to change the sound, it won't be the orchestra, but the way it's engineered. For example - the main title as heard in Teaser 1 doesn't sound different because of the orchestra playing it, but because whoever engineered it made it sound really bassy and full of low-end.

 

It's all about that bass...

 

Just a question somewhat off topic:

It's been stated that "Han & The Princess" is sometimes considered Han's theme. Could "Across the Stars" be somewhat considered Padme's theme?

I wonder who will get new themes or at least motifs. Boba, Jabba, Palpatine, and even Qui-Gonn had motifs. I assume we'll have one for Rey, Finn, and Kylo. Not sure about Poe though.

 

Across the Stars is considered to be a love for the love-making itself rather than any of the two characters. If anything, the light frolicking music heard in "The Meadow Picnic" would be her theme.

Should the MSW info be accurate, we'll definitely have have a theme for Rey and a new "First Order March" which will probably represent Kylo Ren as well. There might be one for Poe and his X-Wing Squad (or just a general "battle motif"). I don't really see a "Finn theme" happening though. If anything, he and Rey will be represented by a general "hero" theme. I can also imagine a couple minor character motifs being written too. BB-8, Maz Kanta, Luke, etc... Given the amount of time and effort Williams has spent on this, there should be a ton of new material.

 

Seeing as they're recording the score so early compared to other films (I think Jurassic World was recording a month before release) do you think we'll start to hear some of it at Comic Con? I'd hope for it in the trailer at least. There isn't a release date for the score either, is there?

 

Not yet, though it'll probably be around early December unless they want to pull an Interstellar and wait until after the film to release the album.

I'm almost sure we will, in some shape or form. Whether it be in a short clip or new teaser/trailer.

 

Yes I'd agree with that. It goes without saying that something recorded in 2015 will be produced with an ear for a more 'modern' sound... which tends to be quite low-end driven and compressed (relatively speaking).

 

It´s not the same them 100%, it has some changes that make it sound different. You can find a proper explanation in Star Wars Oxygen podcast.

 

Not that I'm not a huge proponent of telling people to listen to that show, because I definitely am (you can find examples of it in this thread) but you don't need to listen to Oxygen to discern all the differences in the Main Title at the end of teaser 1. If you're a score nerd they jump out at you (the bass being the loudest signifier) pretty clearly.

 

I actually liked the more low end sound of it. I welcome that change, sounds great.

 

Got some bump in the trunk for 2015.

(it was a little compressed, though)

 

Do we know for sure it's not the London Symphony orchestra? I mean, was it officially stated somewhere?


Also, I love "Across the Stars"...would love it to make an appearance in TFA

 

It's not London symphony.

 

I realize this is the John Williams thread, but anyone coming here must be a fan of great film music. VERY SAD news-James Horner, Avatar, Titanic, Braveheart, and Field of Dreams composer has died after a plane crash in California.

 

Terrible news. He was one of the greats...

 

Everyone worries about Williams´ age but this came out of nowhere He had still a lot of music on him :.(

 

James Horner. One of the truly greats. He did Willow for Lucasfilm, i did have the soundtrack for that movie on vinyl at some point. Field of Dreams also comes to mind. Braveheart is beautiful. Maybe some have been afraid of suggesting him for Star Wars, not sure why, maybe because he was considered as James Cameron`s guy, or...i dont know. His style was very suitable for Star Wars i believe.

 

James Horner Dead: ‘Titanic’ Composer Was 61 | Variety

r.i.p. such great music.

 

I'm sure JW would be one of the first to offer condolences, so I think it's perfectly appropriate.

I had the Star Trek/Wrath of Khan soundtrack on vinyl as a kid and played the hell out of it. Enjoyed it immensely.

RIP, Mr. Horner.

 

He was second only to Williams for me. It seems so unfair for him to be taken so soon, perfectly healthy and with many years of great film scores ahead of him.

 

Joe Johnston's awesome, fun, and severely underrated, The Rocketeer, (with ILM sfx!) has hands down one of my favorite film soundtracks, by James Horner. Epic score that fists so well with the film.


Shame it didn't launch a series.

 

If scoring sessions for Episode IX occur around Summer/Fall of 2018, JW will be 86. Piece of cake!



Forum tribute to the late great James Horner