Empire was written while Williams was (in my opinion) at the very top of his game. Three years in a row we get Empire, Raiders, and ET (his best, again, in my opinion). The Imperial March, Yoda’s Theme, and the Love Theme are incredibly strong, but it might be because I like the movie so much.
But honestly…I think I’d still have to give it to the original. I think we take it for granted now, and we can never know for sure, but I think the film owes at least 50% of its success to the soundtrack. The main theme itself is worth ranking it first. That soundtrack is INCREDIBLE, especially considering it was made for a science fiction film in the 70’s (lots of great sci-fi scores from the 70’s, but there was nothing like SW). It’s mind-blowing. The dogfight after the escape from the Death Star is some of the most rousing action music you’ll ever hear. I still think Empire is more consistently great, though.
After those two I don’t really care about order. I dislike the prequels too much to objectively separate the music from the film in my head. Revenge of the Sith has the worst editing choices of the prequels, and there’s some really baffling decisions. You have Anakin walking up to the Jedi temple with a legion of stormtroopers prepared to carry out his first violent act as Darth Vader and…there’s no Imperial March. Instead we have the same music that was used for Kashyyyk (had to google that. Why three “y’s”? 😛 ), which is also a leftover track from Attack of the Clones, if I remember correctly. We witness the very birth of the Empire…and no Imperial March. Instead we get a choral piece. I’d love to have heard a choral rendition of the March if they wanted to go that rout. I guess it’s a good thing that movie isn’t any good.
I don’t remember anything from Attack of the Clones except for the melodramatic Across the Stars. Why do I think it’s worse than the Love Theme from Empire? I have no idea, but probably because I associate that music with the worst on-screen romance I’ve had the displeasure of suffering through.
Both Return of the Jedi and Phantom Menace seem pretty inoffensive to me, but as much as it pains me to say it, I might have to give it to Phantom Menace, if only because it features more original music. Jedi uses a badly edited version of the dogfight sequence from the original, and it’s main new theme is the Ewok music, which fits well enough for those little guys, but is hardly anything to get excited about. Like the movie itself, it’s more of a callback to the first two, and much like the movie itself, is pretty solid when doing its own thing (I’m talking the Emperor material).
The Force Awakens is pretty nice to my ears when listening to it outside of the movie, but for whatever reason I thought it didn’t shine through. This might have to do with editing or how it was mixed, but I don’t know considering I saw the movie twice, and the last time was back in the beginning of January. I give it props for not having many callbacks, but I think it could have used more “hummable” themes. No, I’m not a fan of “catchy” music, but I don’t mind it when it’s written by a great film composer for a space adventure film.
So in short, I have no idea how I’d rank them. 😛