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The music of the Original Trilogy vs the music of the Prequel Trilogy — Page 3

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If any of you dig listening to deeper discussions of the scores, this guy has a site/series devoted to them. Very interesting stuff.

http://www.rebelforceradio.com/star-wars-oxygen/

To the discussion: I wore out the vinyl copy of the score in 1977. To this day, it still instantly transports me back to that summer. After 1977, nothing came close to that connection for me. Great pieces followed for sure, but they didn’t have that emotional connection. My personal favorite of all of William’s Star Wars pieces; the first 50 seconds of The Desert And The Robot Auction. That passage is like a time machine for me.

I’m not familiar with the prequel scores.

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So 8 year old post. But in honor of May 4th, Ive had the prequels on while doing work…i dont know why it never dawned on me. There is always music on. Almost constantly. And its frenetic. I think about the battle of endor, they would cut to vader and luke and there would be no music just them fighting. Its like Lucas wanted to tell everyone…look how amazing this scene is. The use of Duel of the Fates notwithstanding, its all forgettable. Also…these movies are painful to watch, more so the older I get.

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The Battle of Endor might not be the best example since it’s almost constant music even in the quieter Throne Room scenes. But you’re right, sometimes less is more, like for instance the last act of ANH. There is no music in the scenes leading up to the final battle because the filmmaker’s thought (rightly) that the absence of music would make its return much more powerful.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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 (Edited)

Has there ever been a silent screening of any of the OOT movies with a live orchestra? I always thought that would be a wonderful thing to see.

I don’t care for the scores for the PT very much. I think a lot of the overkill with the music was to try and distract from what was happening (or not happening) on the screen. ROTJ is my favorite of all the scores.

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Mielr said:

Has there ever been a silent screening of any of the OOT movies with a live orchestra? I always thought that would be a wonderful thing to see.

Yeah, that would be amazing. The SE live orchestra screenings were fun, but kind of counteracted by the distracting SE changes.

I don’t care for the scores for the PT very much. I think a lot of the overkill with the music was to try and distract from what was happening (or not happening) on the screen. ROTJ is my favorite of all the scores.

Agreed. I think Williams realized that the prequels were extremely boring, so he tried to compensate with lots of epic choir music. Padme’s Ruminations in particular sounds more like Gladiator than Star Wars.

My preferred Skywalker Saga experience:
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX

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StarkillerAG said:

Mielr said:

Has there ever been a silent screening of any of the OOT movies with a live orchestra? I always thought that would be a wonderful thing to see.

Yeah, that would be amazing. The SE live orchestra screenings were fun, but kind of counteracted by the distracting SE changes.

I don’t care for the scores for the PT very much. I think a lot of the overkill with the music was to try and distract from what was happening (or not happening) on the screen. ROTJ is my favorite of all the scores.

Agreed. I think Williams realized that the prequels were extremely boring, so he tried to compensate with lots of epic choir music. Padme’s Ruminations in particular sounds more like Gladiator than Star Wars.

That’s because John Williams could see all the freed slave/Ancient Rome vibes even if the film makers were too incompentent to actually execute those ideas properly. He’s a pro.