The music of the Star Wars franchise is composed and produced in conjunction with the development of the feature films, television series, and other merchandise within the epic space opera franchise created by George Lucas. The music for the primary feature films was written by John Williams and performed by a full symphony orchestra (principally, the London Symphony Orchestra) and, in select passages, by a choir. Throughout 16 hours of music, Williams composed and weaved a large collection of over fifty themes. Music for spin-off films, television programs, video games as well as the trailers of the various installments were created by various composers, while revisiting some of Williams' principal themes.
Released between 1977 and 2017, the music for the primary feature films was, in the case of the first two trilogies, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and, in select passages, by the London Voices chorus. Williams scored the seventh and eighth episodes, and is currently slated to score the ninth (and last) episode, as well. Those latter scores were performed by a freelance Hollywood orchestra and (in a few passages) by the Hollywood film Chorale, and largely orchestrated and conducted by William Ross. Williams' scores for the eight saga films count among the most widely known and popular contributions to modern film music.
Additionally, music for animated television series spinoffs has been written by Kevin Kiner and Ryan Shore, and further music has been composed for Star Wars video games and works in other media. Michael Giacchino was the composer on the spin-off film, Rogue One. John Powell will score the Star Wars film Solo.
The scores are played by a symphony orchestra of varying size joined, in several sections, by a choir. They make use of a series of musical themes that represents the various characters, objects and events in the films. Throughout the films, a total of over 16 hours of music, Williams has written some 51 themes which is one of the largest, most rich collection of themes in the history of film music.
Maps, Directions, and Place Reviews
Overview
Films
Television
Kevin Kiner composed the score to the film Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) which led into the animated TV series of the same name while loosely using some of the original themes and score by John Williams. His own material for the film includes a theme for Anakin Skywalker's Padawan learner, Ahsoka Tano, as well as a theme for Jabba the Hutt's uncle Ziro. Kiner went on to score the TV series' entire six seasons, which concluded in 2014. A soundtrack album was released that same year by Walt Disney Records.
Kiner continued his work with the franchise for the animated series Star Wars Rebels (2014), which also incorporates Williams' themes.
Ryan Shore composes the score for Star Wars: Forces of Destiny (2017-present).
Video games
War Themes Video
Style
Inspiration
The scores utilize an eclectic variety of musical styles, many culled from the Late Romantic idiom of Richard Strauss and his contemporaries that itself was incorporated into the Golden Age Hollywood scores of Erich Korngold and Max Steiner. The reasons for Williams' tapping of a familiar Romantic idiom are known to involve Lucas' desire to allude to the underlying fantasy element of the narrative rather than the science-fiction setting, as well as to ground the otherwise strange and fantastic setting in well-known, audience-accessible music. Indeed, Lucas maintains that much of the original trilogy's success relies not on advanced visual effects, but on the simple, direct emotional appeal of its plot, characters and, importantly, music.
George Lucas originally wanted to use tracked orchestral and film music, after the manner of 2001: A Space Odyssey, itself a major inspiration for the film. Williams, however, advised to form a soundtrack with recurring musical themes to augment the story, with Lucas choice of music being used as a temporary track for Williams to base his musical choices on. This results in several nods or homages to the music of Gustav Holst, William Walton, Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky in the score to Star Wars. Williams relied less and less on references to existing music in the latter six scores, incorporating more strains of modernist orchestral writing with each progressive score, although occasional nods continue to permeate the music: The love theme from Empire Strikes Back is closely related to Williams' composition for Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark; The score to Revenge of the Sith has clear resemblances to the successful scores of Williams contemporaries: namely Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings, Hans Zimmer's Gladiator and Tan Dun's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, with which the movie was most likely scored temporarily. In his score to The Last Jedi he, for the first time in the series, went as far as to incorporate direct lifts of Aquarela Do Brasil and from his own composition for The Long Goodbye. Nevertheless, Williams also started to develop his style throughout the various films, starting to incorprate other instruments, unusual orchestral set-ups (as well as choir) and even electronic or electronically-attenuated music as the films progressed. Williams often composed the music with a heroic but tongue-in-cheek approach.
Structure
Star Wars was one of the film scores that heralded the revival of grand symphonic scores in the late 1970s. One technique in particular is an influence: Williams' use of a technique called leitmotif, which was most famously associated with the operas of Richard Wagner and, in early film scores, with Steiner. A leitmotif is a phrase or melodic cell that signifies a character, place, plot element, mood, idea, relationship or other specific part of the film. It is commonly used in modern film scoring as a device for mentally anchoring certain parts of a film to the soundtrack.
Of chief importance for a leitmotif is that it must be strong enough for a listener to latch onto while being flexible enough to undergo variation and development along the progression of the story. The more varied and nuanced the use of leitmotif is - the better the score. Indeed, Williams uses his themes to great effect, such as subtly concealing the intervals of the Imperial March theme in Anakin's theme, implying his future.
Also important is the density in which leitmotifs are used: the more leitmotifs are used in a piece of a given length, the more thematically rich it will be considered. Film music, however, has to strike a balance, so as to not become too dense for the audience to follow. John Williams' music of Star Wars is unique in that it is relatively dense for a film score, with about 11 themes used in each two-hour film, with Williams' providing the score to about 90% of the film length.
Performance
Williams re-recorded some of his suites from the first trilogy with the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra as an album, and later released a collection of suites from the six films as a compilation that played to a series of clips from the films, with sparse dialogue and sound effects. These became the basis for a series of hour-long concerts which featured Star Wars music to images from the films, Star Wars: In Concert, which took place in 2009 and 2010. First performed in London, it went on to tour across the United States and Canada, last playing in London, Ontario, Canada on July 25, 2010.
The scores of the original trilogy (in the form of the Blu-Ray special Edition release) and The Force Awakens are performed as Live to Projection concerts, but with greatly reduced forces. The performances follow the music of the finished film, with some of the music looped, tracked or omitted entirely, and do not feature the diegetic pieces.
Orchestration
John Williams sketched the score for his various orchestrations and wrote the music for a full symphony orchestra (ranging from 79 to 113 players overall) and, in several passages, for chorus (ranging from 12 to 120 singers overall) and a few non-orchestral instruments. The orchestration is not consistent throughout the different films, but generally the score makes use of a considerable brass section over a comparatively smaller string section, giving the series its heraldic, brassy sound.
Several of the scores require larger forces, including a large (over 100-piece) orchestra, a mixed choir and even a boy choir. However, none of the scores call for particularly immense forces compared to larger film or theater works. Nevertheless, sections of Empire Strikes Back required as many as 106 players, due to an added harp and added woodwinds and percussion parts. The prequel films and one re-recording of suites from the original films, required a fuller string section. Adding to the added woodwind and percussion parts, which are also deployed in parts of the scores to Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, as well as an added set of timpani for the latter, saw the orchestra reach as many as 112 players, as well as including a mixed choir and brief passages for a boy choir. The original Star Wars and the sequel trilogy films, especially, call for much smaller forces of as little as 82 pieces. The first spin off film, Rogue One, followed the prequels and used a 110-piece orchestra and 90-piece mixed choir.
In live performances, the forces are usually reduced further: the strings and voices may be augmented depending on the orchestra and choirmaster, and several vocal and wind parts can be omitted, doubled by other players or even synthesized: Official Star Wars Concerts were held with as little as 70-piece orchestras and 50-piece mixed choir, which not all episodes, when performed individually, feature. However, to recreate the eight scores as they were recorded, the following instrumentation is required:
- Woodwinds: 3 flutes (all doubling on piccolo, one on alto flute), 3 oboes (one doubling on cor anglais), 4 clarinets (one doubling on bass clarinet), 3 bassoons, one doubling on contrabassoon.
- Brass: 6-8 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 tenor trombones and 1 bass trombone, 1-2 tubas.
- Percussion:
- 1-2 sets (4-6) of timpani
- at least three percussionists playing bass drums, tenor drums, snare drums (including guillotine drums, side drums, military drums), timbales, toms (floor tom and hanging toms), triangle, tambourine, cymbals (suspended, sizzle, crash and finger cymbals), xylophones, vibraphone, tubular bells, glockenspiel, anvil; as well as temple blocks (I), claves (II, V, VI) marimba (I, IV, VII), bongos (I, IV, VII), congas (I-III, VI-VII), log drums (I, IV, VII), low wood block (IV), bell plates, clappers (IV) and steel drum (IV, VIII), boobams (I, IV, VII), medium gong (VI-VII), kendhang, rattle, sistrum, shekere, guiro, bamboo sticks, cowbells, hyoshigi (VI), bell tree (III), three medium chu-daiko drums (II-III, one for VII), washboard (VIII).
- Keyboard: piano, electric keyboard.
- Voices: 88-piece SATB choir (I-III), 30-piece boy choir, 1 Tibetan Throat Singer (III).
- Strings: 2 harps, 14-16 first violins, 12 second violins, 10 violas, 10 violoncellos, 6-8 double basses.
- Non-orchestral instruments: Cretan Lyra and cümbü? (I), electric guitar (II), toy piano (VI).
Musical themes in the scores
John Williams wrote a series of themes and motifs for the characters and occurrences in each of the Star Wars films. The multiple installments allowed Williams to compose some 51 themes (and counting) and reprise some of them extensively, developing them over a long period of screen time.
Williams introduces a few themes in each episode (eight or seven themes, on average), and focuses on making each of his principal themes long-lined and melodically distinct from the others, so as to increase their memorability, although he does forge small connections between some of his themes, sometimes for a narrative purpose and sometimes in the more general favor of cohesion. This technique allows him (especially in his scores to the first trilogy) to have each theme play out for a large number of occasions (the Force theme plays over one hundred times in the series) and over long periods of time.
Each score can be said to have a "main theme", which is developed and repeated very frequently in the score, often to a very unusual extent (such as the frequency in which the Imperial March is revisited during Empire Strikes Back). Besides the main theme and a handful of other principal themes, Williams forges several smaller motifs for each episode, which are generally less memorable and at times interchangeable. Williams' forged a main theme for the franchise as well (the music of the main titles) but interestingly does not create one for each trilogy. Instead, each trilogy (and to a lesser extent, each film) has its own style or soundscape.
Williams' Star Wars catalog remains one of the biggest collections of leitmotifs in the history of cinema. although his work still falls short of Wagner's use of leitmotifs in the Ring cycle, or Howard Shore's work on the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings films. Both works feature many more themes for a similar or shorter running time, establish thematic identities more clearly, apply them in a more cohesive structure (where all themes and leitmotifs are harmonically and melodically related) and use them in a more nuanced manner. Williams, on the other hand, writes fewer themes, and uses his themes in a more straightforward manner and, at times, strictly for their romantic effect.
Romantic application of Leitmotifs in the score
Williams' use of his themes is in times romantic rather than strictly thematic, the themes sometimes being used randomly because their mood fits a certain scene: For instance, the theme for Luke is also used as a generic "heroic theme", in conjunction with various characters, without any connection to its namesake. Leia's theme is used for Ben's death, which has little to do with the princess (although she is present in the scene), Yoda's theme is used in Cloud City, Duel of the Fates used over the entire finale of Episode I (rather than just the light-saber duel) and in a riding scene in Episode II and then again in an unrelated duel in the third episode; Williams' original composition for the Arena from Episode II was used for the Clone Army. Leia's theme is featured in Empire Strikes Back during Luke's arrival to Dagobah. Multiple uses of the Force/Ben-Kenobi theme are also non-thematic. The Rebel Fanfare is applied to the Millennium Falcon throughout the original Star Wars and the Force Awakens, and is also used for R2-D2 during the opening action scene in Revenge of the Sith. Kylo Ren's secondary theme, which was intended to represent his ruminative, conflicted side, is in times used in a menacing setting, much like his main theme. The Emperor's theme is used in The Last Jedi when Snoke tortures Rey. Even the melodic connections between some of the themes doesn't represent a straightforward dramatic purpose, such as the connection of the love theme in Attack of the Clones to the motif for Dooku and the Galactic conflict. In fact, Some of Williams themes are written from the outset purely to convey a certain mood rather than evoke a character or setting, e.g. the Throne Room theme or the pursuit motif from the Force Awakens.
The issue continues with music that got re-tracked into other parts of the films by the filmmakers. Attack of the Clones, the first film to be shot digitally, had major edits made after the scoring process, leading to the inclusion of tracked music over many of the digitally-created sequences like the Droid factory or the Clone Army arrival, using such themes as those of Yoda or incidental music from the Phantom Menace without any dramatic connection to what is happening on screen. Some of the music for the Death Star's Trash Compactor was used over an extended shot of cruising into Mos Eisley inserted into the Special Edition. Some of the racing music from Phantom Menace was tracked into Finn's confession in The Force Awakens. Some of the tracking in the series was planned from the outset.
Other composers used Williams' principal themes in their compositions, including the trailers to the films, as well as the spin-off films, television series and video games, and more often than not, they also use the themes more for their emotional effect. Giachinno, for instance, uses the Force theme in some of the shots where the Rogue One ship takes off.
Thematic inconsistency between installments
Since Williams writes the themes to one episode at a time, and attempts to base each score on new material as much as possible, the scores don't have a particularly cohesive structure. Each trilogy and, to a certain degree, each individual score has its own leitmotifs (while revisiting some earlier themes), often in overlapping roles: Return of the Jedi has both the triumph fanfare motif and the rebel fanfare, for much the same function. Alternatively, some motifs appear in just one score although being perfectly applicable to others, such as the Droids motif (limited to Empire Strikes Back) and the Imperial motif (limited to the original). Other motifs are dropped at a certain point, such as Anakin's theme being all but abandoned in Episode III.
This problem is confounded by the order in which the episodes were made: Having composed the prequels later, Williams' went on to introduce new themes like Duel of the Fates which would have been perfectly applicable to the first three films, had it been composed during their production. These motifs also don't carry over to the sequel trilogies' scores. He also revisited several established themes like the Imperial March, only exacerbating its absence from the original film, which is now the fourth episode.
Also to the detriment of this composition technique is that Williams is incapable of foreshadowing motifs for later installments, even in embryonic form. For instance, the love theme for Anakin and Padme, having been only conceived during the composition of Episode II, naturally does not appear during the score for Episode I. The same can be said for the absence of the Imperial March in the original Star Wars.
Even when leitmotifs do carry over between the scores, it is very hard to chart a clear direction as to their development, since no such overarching direction was laid out from the outset, even at a basic form. The Force theme, for instance, completes its development in the original film, having turned from a reverent motif into a triumphant march. It even makes grand appearances in the prequels (particularly Episode III) only to appear later in a more subdued form even at the heroes' most triumphant moments. In fact, some of the themes that cross over change their meaning between Episodes. For instance, Ben Kenobi's theme from the original was repurposed throughout Empire Strikes Back as a theme for the Force and lost any specific connection to Kenobi by the time Phantom Menace was scored. The opening crawl and closing credits music was originally designed as an "overture" for the main themes (of Luke, the Rebels and a hint of Leia) but became so iconic that was reused in all episodes, even ones that have little to do with Luke and nothing to do with Leia and the Rebels, thereby eliminating their function as an overture and re-purposing that particular variant of Luke's theme as the main "Star Wars theme".
Since the prequels were composed later, they ironically feature greater forces (and hence different orchestrations of thematic music) and a more dense and nuanced thematic structure compared to the first three movies, if only by virtue of the fact that they have both their own stock of leitmotifs as well as those of the existing films to work with. On the other hand, many of the thematic ideas of Episodes I, III and especially II are more rhythmic (due to Williams' evolving musical style), and many of them are applied to locations and situations in the narrative, whereas the scores for the first trilogy and third trilogy focus more on themes for characters.
Listed below are 51 leitmotifs identified in Williams' scores thus far, although a few of those could be contested. The main theme of the series is stressed in bold and underline, and the main theme of each episode is in bold, as well. Other pieces of music, described either erroneously or tenuously as leitmotifs, are discussed in "unconfirmed leitmotifs" below.
Themes in the original trilogy
Star Wars (A New Hope)
- "Luke/Star Wars theme"
- "Rebel Fanfare"
- "Ben Kenobi/Force Theme"
- "Princess Leia's Theme"
- "Imperial Motif"
- "Death Star Motif"
- "Jawa Theme"
The Empire Strikes Back
Returning: Luke's theme; Rebel Fanfare; Force Theme; Leia's theme.
- "The Imperial March" (Darth Vader's theme)
- "Love theme/Han Solo and the Princess"
- "Yoda's Theme" :
- "Droids Motif"
- "Cloud City/Lando's Palace"
- "Boba Fett Motif"
Return of the Jedi
Returning: Space Battle Motif, Throne Room Victory March; Luke's theme; Rebel Fanfare; Force Theme; Leia's theme, the Imperial March, Han Solo and the Princess, Yoda's theme.
- "Parade of the Ewoks"
- Secondary/Primitive Ewok theme
- "Jabba's motif"
- "Dark Side/Emperor's Theme"
- "Triumph Fanfare"
- "Yoda's Revelations/Brother and Sister"
- "Luke and Leia"
- Space Battle Motif
- Throne Room Victory March
Themes in the prequel trilogy
The Phantom Menace
Returning: Luke's theme, Rebel Fanfare, Force theme, The Imperial March, Yoda's theme, Jabba's theme, Emperor's theme
- "Duel of the Fates"
- "Anakin's Theme"
- "Trade Federation/Droid Invasion Theme"
- "Qui-Gon's motif"
- "Sith/Darth Maul motif"
- "Jar Jar's motif"
Attack of the Clones
Returning: Shmi's theme; Luke's theme, Rebel Fanfare, Force theme, the Imperial March, Emperor's theme, Anakin's theme, Trade Federation march, Duel of the Fates
- "Across the Stars"
- "Conspiracy/Mystery Motif"
- "Kamino motif"
- "Pastoral Love/Courtship Motif"
- "Dooku/Separatists Motif"
- Shmi's theme
First appearance in Revenge of the Sith
Returning: Funeral theme, Curoscant Fanfare; Luke's theme, Rebel Fanfare, Force theme, the Imperial March, Emperor's theme, Anakin's theme, Trade Federation march, Duel of the Fates
- "Battle of the Heroes"
- "General Grievous' motif"
- "Lament/Anakin's Betrayal"
- "Mustafar Motif"
- "Escape motif"
- Funeral theme
- Coruscant Fanfare
Themes in the sequel trilogy
The Force Awakens
Returning: Luke's theme, Rebel Fanfare, Force theme, Leia's theme, The Imperial March, Han Solo and the Princess
- "Rey's Theme"
- "Kylo Ren's motif"
- "Kylo Ren Secondary motif"
- "March of the Resistance"
- "Pursuit motif"
- "Poe Dameron's motif"
- "Snoke's Theme"
The Last Jedi
Returning: Luke's theme, Rebel Fanfare, Force theme, Leia's theme, Yoda's theme, Luke and Leia theme, Han Solo and the Princess, Imperial March, X-Wing attack, Emperor's theme, Poe's theme, Rey's theme, Kylo Ren theme, Kylo Ren secondary theme, Snoke's theme.
- "Rose's theme"
- "Luke's exile theme"
- "Desperation/Admiral Holdo's motif"
Unconfirmed themes
Since neither Williams nor his office ever provided a full menu of the leitmotifs used in the films, there is some controversy around the exact number of themes, with some taking an inclusive approach that identifies various leitmotifs which the composer probably never intended for. However, Williams did provide information through the original LP liner notes and various interviews, which allowed for Mike Matessino, Doug Adams, John Takis, et al. to compose lists of his themes on good authority, and those lists are the base of the menu of themes that appears above.
One cause for confusion is Williams' propensity (in these scores and otherwise) to write material that is either melodic, rhythmic or harmonic specifically to an individual setpiece in the film, such as the Battle of Hoth, the Chase through Curoscant, etc. These pieces of music have sometimes been described as having thematic significance, occasionally even by Williams himself, but since they do not recur in a different part of the narrative, they are not themes in the leitmotivic sense.
Even certain figures that do recur in the scores do not appear to have thematic significance. These include some setpiece-specific orchestral colors, such as the horn for Luke's landspeeder, the use of synthesizer to represent Vader's menace in Empire Strikes Back, etc. In other cases, the material seems generic and isn't fitted to scenes that have a thematic throughline, such as some of the recurring gestures in the Cloud City finale, which have been described as additional material for Boba Fett. Sometimes, the recurring material is more a part of Williams' stylistic choices as a composer than a thematic statement, for instance his use of tritones to denote mystery, a device derived from Stravinski's Rites of Spring and typical of many of Williams' scores, including Raiders of the Lost Ark where it represents the mystery of the Ark, and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull where it represents the Skull. The same chords would go on to be used by Williams to denote the mystery of Luke's whereabouts in The Force Awakens, usually in association with the map carried by BB-8, leading to the gesture becoming falsely associated with the droid or the map itself. Similarly, other gestures taken from prexisting music such as Williams use of the Dies Irae melody to denote impending doom, have been falsely identified as leitmotifs. Furthermore, some of the recurring material is in fact tracked from preexisting music, such as the podrace fanfare motif and "action ostinato" identified by Adams, or the mournful writing for french horn at Shmi's funeral. In times, observers are beset by similar (but not identical) gestures, such as the variety of gestures that signal the dark side in Revenge of the Sith.
Another cause for controversy involves Williams main themes, which are often long-lined and complex, therefore giving rise views that observe their individual sections as separate motivic ideas. Adams himself does this with Luke's theme secondary phrase, but others have made similar comments on the introduction figure of Rey's theme, the end-cap of Across the Stars, the ostinato accompaniment of Duel of the Fates, etc.
Even within the analyses above, some of the motifs are not entirely beyond questioning. Adams himself referred to the "Throne Room" saying its "certainly not a theme in the leitmotivic sense" and similar doubts can be cast at some of the infrequent motives such as the quote of the "curoscant" fanfare during Revenge of the Sith, Shmi's music, or others.
Themes in the spin-offs
The first spin-off score, written by Michael Giacchino, utilizes several themes from John Williams, mostly for their romantic sweep (like the Force theme and hints of the main theme). It has its own catalog of themes, independent from Williams', including a new, third theme for Darth Vader and the Empire, although Giacchino also quotes both the original Imperial motif and the Imperial March.
First appearance in Rogue One
- Jyn's Theme.
- Hope Theme
- Guardians of the Whills Theme
- Imperial Theme
- Krennic's Theme
Concert suites
Instead of offering a full recording release, Williams releases a condensed score on album, where the music is arranged out of the film order and more in the vein of a concert program. This involves several concert suites, written purely for the end-credits or the album itself, where a specific theme is developed continuously throughout the piece. Williams also re-edited some of his existing cues after the fact in order to "concertize" theme on the behest of conductors like Charles Gerhardt. Several of the films (Episodes II, III, V, VII, VIII) also have unique credit suites that features alternate concert arrangements of themes (Across the Stars) or a medley of the main themes of the episode.
From the main episodes
From Star Wars (A New Hope)
- "Princess Leia's Theme"
From The Empire Strikes Back
- "The Imperial March"
- "Yoda's Theme"
From Return of the Jedi
- "Parade of the Ewoks"
- "Luke and Leia"
From The Phantom Menace
- "Duel of the Fates"
- "Anakin's Theme"
- "The Flag Parade"
From Attack of the Clones
- "Across the Stars"
From Revenge of the Sith
- The album does not feature a dedicated suite, but rather an edited-down form of "Battle of the Heroes."
From The Force Awakens
- "Rey's Theme"
- "March of the Resistance"
- "Scherzo for X-Wings"
From The Last Jedi
- "The Rebellion is Reborn"
From the spin-offs
From Rogue One
- "Jyn Erso and Hope Suite"
- "The Imperial Suite"
- "The Guardians of the Whills Suite"
Diegetic music
Diegetic music is music "that occurs as part of the action (rather than as background), and can be heard by the film's characters". In addition to the orchestral scope that was brought on by John Williams' musical score, the Star Wars franchise also features many distinguishing diegetic songs that enrich the detail of the audio mise-en-scène, some written by John Williams, some by his son, Joseph and some by various other people.
From A New Hope
- "Cantina Band" and "Cantina Band #2". Written by John Williams, it is played in the Cantina on Tatooine. It is written for solo trumpet, three saxophones, clarinet, Fender Rhodes piano, steel drum, synthesizer and various percussion, including boobams and toms. According to the Star Wars Customizable Card Game, the diegetic title for the first Cantina band piece is "Mad About Me". The liner notes for the 1997 Special Edition release of the Star Wars soundtrack describe the concept behind these works as "several creatures in a future century finding some 1930's Benny Goodman swing band music ... and how they might attempt to interpret it". This piece also appears on an all the outtakes easter eggs on the DVDs from episode I and II and on the bonus disc of the 2004 original trilogy DVD set.
From Return of the Jedi
- "Jabba's Baroque Recital". Mozart-esque John Williams composition (featuring a synthesized harpsichord) played while 3PO and R2 first arrive and play Jabba the message from Luke Skywalker.
- "Lapti Nek". Written by Joseph Williams and translated into Huttese, this is played by the Max Rebo Band in Jabba the Hutt's palace (in the original cut of the movie).
- "Jedi Rocks" (composed by Jerry Hey). This was composed to replace Lapti Nek for the 1997 Special Edition of the film.
- "Max Rebo Band Jams". Heard twice in the film, once after Jabba sends the Wookiee Chewbacca to jail, and again on Jabba's Sail Barge (hence its title). A recording of the first can be found on the official Star Wars Soundboards.
- "Ewok Feast" and "Part of the Tribe". By John Williams. Heard when Luke and company were captured by the Ewoks and brought to their treehouses.
- "Ewok Celebration". The Victory Song, whose lyrics were written by Joseph Williams, can be heard at the end of the original release of Return of the Jedi.
- "Victory Celebration". By John Williams. The Victory Song at the end of the Return of the Jedi 1997 re-edition.
From The Phantom Menace
- "Tatooine Street Music". Joseph Williams wrote four separate pieces of unusual, vaguely Eastern sounding source music for the streets of Mos Espa.
- "Augie's Municipal Band". By John Williams. Music played during the peace parade at the end of the film. It is closely related to the emperor's theme, but isn't an outright quote of it.
From Attack of the Clones
- "Dex's Diner"
- "Unknown Episode II Source Cue". A second source cue is credited to Joseph Williams' name for Episode II, but is not heard in the film.
- "Arena Percussion". Originally meant to accompany the Droid Factory sequence, Ben Burtt's attempt at composition is instead shifted to the arena, replacing the predominantly unused John Williams cue "Entrance of the Monsters."
From The Force Awakens
- "Jabba Flow" and "Dobra Doompa". Written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and J.J. Abrams, these songs were played at Maz Kanata's castle.
Reception
Awards
The score of the original Star Wars film of 1977 won John Williams the most awards of his career:
- an Oscar at the 50th Academy Awards for Original Score
- a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score at the 35th Golden Globe Awards
- a BAFTA Award for Best Film Music at the 32nd British Academy Film Awards in 1978
- Three awards at the 1978 Grammy Awards for Best Instrumental Composition, Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special and Best Pop Instrumental Performance
He also received the 1977 Saturn Award for Best Music for both the Star Wars score and his score for Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Williams's score for the 1980 sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, also earned him a number of awards:
- BAFTA Award for Best Film Music at the 34th British Academy Film Awards in 1980
- two awards at the 1981 Grammy Awards for Best Instrumental Composition and Best Album Of Original Score Written For A Motion Picture Or A Television Special
The Empire Strikes Back was also nominated in 1981 for Best Original Score the 53rd Academy Awards (the award was won by Michael Gore for Fame).
Williams's subsequent Star Wars film music was nominated for a number of awards; in 1984 his score for Return of the Jedi was nominated for Best Original Score at the 56th Academy Awards. His compositions for the prequel trilogy also received nominations: the score for The Phantom Menace was nominated for Best Instrumental Composition at the 2000 Grammy Awards and Revenge of the Sith was nominated at the 2006 Grammy Awards for Best Soundtrack Album.
In 2005 the 1977 soundtrack for Star Wars was voted as the "most memorable film score of all time" by the American Film Institute in the list AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores, based on the assessment of a jury of over 500 artists, composers, musicians, critics and historians from the film industry.
In 2016, John Williams was nominated for Best Original Score, his 50th overall nomination, for his score to Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Certifications
The soundtracks to both Star Wars and Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace have been certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, for shipments of at least 1 million units, with the albums for The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones being certified Gold (500,000 units). The British Phonographic Industry certified Star Wars and Episode I as Gold for shipments of over 100,000 units in the UK.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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