Inventory of Galactic Musical Culture

First of all, just because the thread title says "music" does not mean this is a place to discuss the film soundtracks. It is not. All discussion along those lines can and will be redirected by myself or a moderator.

This is to discuss the different styles of music present in the Star Wars galaxy, as well as the different musical instruments. I'm a musician myself, which is why I'm interested in these things. Plus, I don't think a catalog of the music and instruments of the Galaxy's culture has really been done in a centralized fashion.

And if it has, I don't want to look back 100 frickin' pages to find it.

I'll start with what I recall myself. There is, of course, Figrin D'an's Modal Nodes, the jizz-wailing band fond of kloo horns and stuff. IIRC, the song that they sing in the cantina in ANH is called Tears of Aquanna, but I'm not sure.

From Vector Prime, the symphony known as Crested Wake is mentioned as Kyp Durron takes off. It's from a Mon Calamari composer whose name I can't recall.

From the Jedi Knight graphic novels, Jerec's favorite musical composition, Borna's 2nd symphony. I don't think it mentioned where he's from or what kind of style he uses, namely since it's hard to incorporate music into a comic, unless he wants to write out the entire damn score himself. And somehow, I think the authors have better things to do.

We also have both versions of the musical number from ROTJ, done by Sy Snootles and the Max Rebo Band. Seems like their style is similar to big band music -- for a reason, of course.

Then, there's the tribal Ewok music. Self-explanatory, employing heavy percussive elements and few wind instruments to create a dance-like piece to honor their religious beliefs, which center around trees but incorporate the Force as well.

The Cathedral of Winds is probably the most extravagant example of music in all of Star Wars history. It's very poetic as well as beautiful. We're given the impression that somehow, a distinct musical sound is created by the bodies of the residents of Vortex, implying some kind of telepathic connection, either through the Force or their biology. It's something powerful either way -- making music with nature, becoming the wind to sing the song in your heart.

So far, for musical styles, we have the jizz-wailing style, the Mon Cal style, and the Ewok tribal style. Don't know if the Cathedral could be called a style, but they likely have a musical subculture developed around it. Then, you have the techno bar music on Coruscant, which is much more reflective of the surroundings -- machines overriding the entire planet, suffocating it in some senses. Oh, and the girls. Can't forget those.

Other than the kloo horn, I'm not sure about any of the instruments besides the voice. So help.

Elaborate on this, or flying monkeys will eat you.

 

Jizz. Tee hee, tee hee hee hee.

There were several musical works mentioned in the Boba story in the Tales of the Bounty Hunters book.

 

Besides the Kloo horn for jizz, we have:
Bandfill - played by Nalan Cheel
Ommni Box - percussion device seen in the cantina band, has pedals, played by Tech M'Or..
Dorenian Beshniquel - commonly called a Fizzz, played by Doikk Na'ts
Jizz - a long reeded instrument used in playing jizz
Nalargon - the keyed instrument played by Max Rebo
Slitherhorn - instrument
Fanfar - played by Ickabel G'ont and Tedn Dahai
Figrin D'an could play both Kloo horn and Gasan String Drum
Lirin Car'n plays back up Kloo

"Mad about Me" -- one of the Modal Nodes' songs played at the cantina in ANH. "tears of aquanna" and "solitary world" are other songs of theirs. they also have been known to play "The Sequential Passage of Chronological Intervals" and "Talcharaim Mist-Night" and "Worm Case"

for more instruments and music stuff, check out the CUSWE (over 306 entries with "music" in them):
http://www1.theforce.net/cuswe/search.asp?search=music&EandD=EyDy&no=306

also, Star Wars galaxies has Musician and Entertainer professions, so you could pop on boards for those to learn more about the different instruments that exist in that game..

other types of music include:
Dusk
Heavy Isotope
Gacerite battle music
B'ssa Nuuvu
Core Drive
Deva (from Ardalon)
classical
leap-jump
jatz
flaunt
glimmik
glitz
gliz
jizz-wail (the precursor to jizz)
kiriswing (the karaoke of the SW universe)
minga
techno rock
rughja (also called swing-bob)
shanpa
shudderup
smazzo
sparkle-bop (sugary pop music)
tatooine blues
zabrak diaspora music

 

I made an SSD sized effort of forgetting the sheer childish idiocy of Kyp's squadron in Vector Prime, cheerfully reminded by Alpha Red.

Kyp's Dozen and Two Avengers . . . like some Marvel comic hero whose name couldn't have been more absurd.

Kyp's Dozen and Two Avengers . . . who actually played background music during moments of their flight to cement that impression above.

Release the hounds!

 

You want to check x-wing book 5 or 6 , the Wraiths refer to some local bands on a planet I can't remember, the screaming mynocks or something.

Shame on anyone who does'nt own those books in the first place .

 

In the PT (Minus ROTS of course) there's also the desert winds theme from the Mos Espa streets. While we don't see anyone physically playing the instruments, I tend to think of it as a local song. Plus the final track on disc one of the TPM ultimate edition soundtrack.

Then in AOTC there's a theme playing in the background of Dex's Diner. Wasn't on the regular soundtrack unfortunately.

 

A Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina story named the "famous" background track.

Famous, as in having to hear it in countless other SW games . . . like Jedi Outcast. Thankfully, the KOTOR bars had new music.

 

The Star Wars Holiday Special has a few examples of both the pre-recorded holo-music and live (and sometimes improvised) songs from the Star Wars Universe. Also, one of the Marvel comics has a lounge act with lyrics to a popular song in the GFFA (oddly enough, both the special and the comic feature Princess Leia singing...)

Lost City of the Jedi established the popular tune "Sweet Lady from Alderaan" as well as the infamous "Space Pirate Boogie", a dance favored by Han Solo.

In The Starfighter Trap, one of the starfighter pilots recalls singing with friends on Naboo as a popular pasttime.

TC

 

There is, of course, Figrin D'an's Modal Nodes, the jizz-wailing band fond of kloo horns and stuff. IIRC, the song that they sing in the cantina in ANH is called Tears of Aquanna, but I'm not sure.

I know you said not to make this about the soundtracks, but I think there is one slight loophole in that, that being when we actually see songs from the soundtracks being preformed in the movies. But only these particular songs, of which there are about six, two by the Modal Nodes, at least two by the Max Rebo Band, the Ewok celebration song, and the Gungan celebration song. And I believe this is one such case.

The soundtrack had the Modal Nodes song entitled Cantina Band song. I believe years later it was retitle Mad About Me and that became the in-universe title. The alternate version of this song, the slower, more melodic version, may be Tears of Aquanna. The two seem similar, but they do have differences aside from speed and tempo.

 

There's some original music that plays in your "room" in X-wing Alliance, and that same tune is playing in a Mos Epsa cantina in TPM video game.

 

So what do we have for the movies?

Two songs from the Modal Nodes in the Mos Eisley Cantina in ANH.

Four songs from the Max Rebo Band. One is Jedi Rocks from the ROTJ SE. The other is Lapti Nek (sp) from the original cut of the film. Another is Jabba's Boroque Recital which can be heard on the SE Soundtrack. The final is on Jabba's Sail Barge. Unfortunately that can barely be heard.

Then we have two from the Ewoks. One as they're trying to roast the heroes and the other during the original ending of ROTJ. The SE ending shows them playing instruments, but it doesn't match the song.

Then we have Desert Winds from the TPM Ultimate Edition Soundtrack. It's a local theme. Plus the final track of disc one on the UES. Very local.

Then we have the ending celebration theme of TPM which shows trumpets blasting etc etc.

In AOTC we have a bit of local music playing in Dex's Diner on the Juke Box. Can barely hear it though.

 

The Star Wars Holiday Special has a few examples of both the pre-recorded holo-music and live (and sometimes improvised) songs from the Star Wars Universe.

Heh heh, yes, apparently Jefferson Starship exists as a band in the GFFA as well.

 

It'd be nice to see that databank pick up on that.

The two Ewok movies likely had more Ewok music; we'll have to listen for it when the movies are released on DVD. Come to think of it, the Droids and Ewoks cartoons probably have music as well; I know the Max Rebo Band made an appearence...

TC

 

Famous, as in having to hear it in countless other SW games . . . like Jedi Outcast.

Don't forget random real world skill tester machines, Excellence!

 

This is a great topic! And one I've often wondered about, being the daughter of a professional musician and a music teacher.

All of Chapter 13 in the Galaxy Guide 9: Fragments from the Rim is about music. One of my favorite bits from the RPG. Can't list all of it right now, but there are some great band names (The Emperor's New Clothes, Red Shift Limit, Deeply Religious, etc) along with their album and track titles. Lots of stuff about which bands and songs were banned by the Empire or encouraged, secretly with the Rebellion, etc. And some Behind The Music type stuff.

There's a lot about music in the stories dealing with--I think it's the Devaronian--in Tales from Jabba's Palace and Tales of the Bounty Hunters.

Also, Pekku Blue and the StarBoys from COTJ. There may have been one or two other bands mentioned in that "trilogy" as well.

 

I made an SSD sized effort of forgetting the sheer childish idiocy of Kyp's squadron in Vector Prime, cheerfully reminded by Alpha Red.

I made a Death Star sized effort to forget a lot of other things. Kyp's squadron is the least of my concerns.

Besides, it's all for the sake of the topic.