I also am of two minds on Duel of the Fates. Is it an amazing piece of music? Absolutely. Is it also ridiculously over the top? Yes. Why do we need an epic choir for that lightsaber duel? Why do we even care? Well the answer is we don’t
My thoughts exactly.
Completely reversed in R1 track “Hope” (when you-know-what happens), as we do care, and we get something akin to XIXc gothic opera, where the chorus is matching the horror.
(otherwise I don’t like too much chorus, like the one during Jyn’s Theme was too much for me)
I wonder if they will mention it in Oxygen, I found that in Youtube’s comments:
try to speed up that track, at least x2. Notice the notes the chorus hits? Isn’t that a certain familar march…?
Did Giacchino do the same genious trick as John Williams in TPM, where that festive child chorus is actually …sped-up Emperors’ Theme?