ST John Williams scored TFA - incl. Soundtrack discussion

From the replies to that tweet:

https://mobile.twitter.com/serenamckinney/status/649788912777367552

 

There are three JoAnn Kane tweets of interest: https://mobile.twitter.com/JKMSlibrary/status/64726121889005978, https://mobile.twitter.com/JKMSlibrary/status/648331624216596480, and https://mobile.twitter.com/JKMSlibrary/status/649672352930750468

 

The first is a panorama of a studio orchestra recording a score, posted September 24. Scoring Sessions tweeted at JAKMS asking which score it was, but received no reply. The second is a shot of Williams' parking spot at Fox, posted on September 27. The third is the one I recently posted on this thread, which was tweeted October 1 and confirms he was recording something the day before.

 

They were the first to break the news that he was scoring The Book Thief so...

Or he could be recording new music for the trailer.

 

Hopefully he records the soundtrack for the entire ST . Can't wait to see how the new music and how he includes music from the PT and OT.

 

Heh. A sense of humor about your work is (generally speaking) a good sign.

 

He is not the maestro but he is clearly the next in the line IMO, has anyone heard Jurassic World OST? It has some classic SW sounds to it.

One thing that makes the wait more palatable is listening to JW music but, as I listen to it a lot I sometimes use SW-ish music as well.

 

The quotes are from Williams!

Anyway, I've said it a few times here before but I don't believe that John Williams (or any artist for that matter) has a clear successor waiting to take over once the inevitable happens. Even if I did, I wouldn't say it'd be Giacchino, whose work strikes me as being too peppy and horpity-dorpity (yes, I just made that word up, but it perfectly sums up how I feel about his music).

 

The posters at JWFan (in the thread here: http://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=23272&page=18) suggest four possibilities: Williams is recording TFA trailer music, Williams is doing pick-ups for the TFA film itself, Williams is doing a bit of early recording for the BFG, or Williams is recording a new score we haven't yet heard about.

 

And I'll rank them in order of likelihood!
1. Pick-Ups for TFA
2. Music for the new trailer
...
3. Music for The BFG (possibly for the trailer, though it could be for the film itself, should it be animated)
...
....
4. A new score. This one is very unlikely methinks.

 

You're right, a new score is very unlikely. However, it's more likely that you might think that Williams is recording The BFG. I did some research, and his Tintin score was mostly recorded about one year, nine months before the film's release date. His War Horse score was recorded about nine months before that film's release. Like Tintin and War Horse, BFG is a Spielberg film.

 

I've changed my mind. I found an AP interview published September 2, which included this exchange:

AP: “Bridge of Spies” is the first film in years you’ve made without John Williams composing the score.

Spielberg: Johnny Williams will be back to do The BFG. We’ve only not worked together twice in 42 years. The first one was “The Color Purple” in 1985 and the second time was because Johnny had a small medical procedure that precluded him from writing and scoring my movie in the window that he was going to do it. He’s fine, he’s 100 percent back to work on “Star Wars,” but it sadly precluded him from working on Bridge of Spies. I was able to work with Thomas Newman, who I’m a huge fan of. This is just a blip and we’re both sad about it, but we’re excited to get back together for “BFG” now.

I think Spielberg would have mentioned if Williams was far enough along in the process that Williams was about to record music. So I now think this new recording is either TFA-related, or for a film we didn't know Williams was scoring.

Probably TFA-related. It could be pick-ups; as Howard Hand noted, that's probably most likely. Williams might also be recording music for trailer 3. For the first teaser, Williams recorded it about two weeks before release. On May 25, Making Star Wars reported that some of the TFA film score would be recording in June, and that, "Many musicians have been put on call for recording future teasers but now some of those musicians are learning that they are actually going to be playing on the film’s soundtrack recording." Recording future teasers. Could that be what's going on right now?

 

Just found this: http://daisy-ridley.net/photos/albums/Magazine Scans/2015/10 Empire/012.jpg. It's from an Empire Magazine Force Awakens story.

 

I'd presume that these October scoring sessions for the Force Awakens were what JoAnn Kane Music Services was recently tweeting about. If indeed TFA music is being recorded in October, that's a really spread out recording process (the first sessions took place in early June). If true, this news is surprising since Kathleen Kennedy said the score would be recorded over the summer. October, of course, is not summer.

 

October is now part of summer. Also, a "fall trailer" is coming in November.

Abrams is altering the seasons. Pray he doesn't alter them further.

 

Well, technically, fall doesn't end until December 22.

So within the bounds of Abrams' statement, we could theoretically get the final trailer for the Force Awakens attached to the Force Awakens.

 

My educated guess, with the conducting baton being passed on, is that Williams is probably conducting/recording the opening titles/crawl itself.

 

This may be of some interest:

http://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=23272&p=1171153

(take with grain of salt, etc.)

 

Sounds factually legit, but there's probably a lot of hyperbole in there.
I'm not really it expecting the score to be "the end all be all of music". Just a fun and nostalgic collection of John Williamsisms

 

Hope it's better than that. Needs to serve the story being told, not a desire for nostalgia.

 

Exactly. Here's hoping JJ understands this in the context of the entire film....(because I'm sensing too much nostalgia in this sequel, to be honest...)/

 

I think where Williams' score for The Phantom Menace missed a trick (and I love that score by the way), is that it actually tried too hard to move away from the themes of the OT (IMHO). What it made up for in originality and actual musical progression (or regression), it fell short sometimes in actually sounding like a SW score. I think it’s highly likely that the score for TFA references the classic themes more obviously/closely e.g. the actual Star Wars main theme, Leia’s theme, Tie Fighter Attack, Imperial Pursuit etc. etc. I think if there’s a lot of bombastic musical references, people will automatically believe it sounds more Star Wars like... and ‘classic’.

 

Not "nostalgic" as in referencing previous themes verbatim, but "nostalgic" in style and execution. I'm not expecting Williams to reinvent the wheel or come up with another top 10 hit, just something that'll serve the film (and album) well and act as a breath of fresh air in today's relatively stale scoring climate.

 

Can't disagree with that. And the force theme and a version of the Imperial march are a must.

 

there's some interesting music on the Sullust level in the Star Wars Battlefront Beta. That game lines up with Ep VII in a few ways, could any of that music have been done by JW for the film?