Would have been really nice if the Sith cultist choir had echoed subtle DOTF, tried testing it a few times.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/702816288342278207/822925192031764530/preview_DOTF.mp4
Could be pulled off a lot better.
Oh, ah, hmmm…well, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I honestly don’t like DOTF here.
This moment is really interesting musically, because it’s kind of smack dab between diegetic and non-diegetic music. Like, I don’t think the Sith Spirits themselves are singing the music cue per se, but it does feel very much like Rey can actually hear echoes of the music from somewhere far away. (She turns around to look at the Spirits, as if she’s hearing something from them…) It’s kind of hard to describe; but the point is, it’s an incredibly difficult moment to score, and in spite of the difficulty, I think John Williams wrote this part perfectly.
So when you (or anyone else, I think you did a fine job editing it) put Dual of the Fates here, I’m immediately thrown off. Like, “Wait, why are they singing the Darth Maul music? How do they know that song?” And then it’s kind of way too…coordinated. Like, John gave them a pretty basic chant that you might find in an ancient church choir. It’s just one note repeating. That note carries a lot of power - it shows how like-minded the Sith are, how Rey and Palpatine are about to become one. And from a diegetic standpoint, it’s easy to imagine thousands of Siths singing the notes into Rey’s mind. Making it Dual of the Fates loses that sameness; while ironically also feeling overly rehearsed. (How do they all know this song, eh?) Couple all of this with the fact that it makes me think of a completely different movie and completely different characters, when I should be focusing on Rey…
Putting the choral Dual of the Fates into this scene would be like putting the Shire theme into the Ride of the Rohirrim. Sure, it may sound “cool,” sure, you could argue some thematic parallels; but man does it not fit in practice, and it takes me right out of the moment.
Yeah, no, definitely not for me. It’s hard to explain why, but I really don’t like it. From the sound of it, I may be alone in that though.
And honestly, I like the Solo-version Dual of the Fates in the Death Star battle, because it’s distinct enough from it’s Phantom Menace appearance that it makes me think of the cue thematically (as a dual for their fates), rather than literally (being “the Darth Maul fight scene music”).
As an aside: I honestly find it fascinating that John Williams didn’t opt to put the full choral “Emperor’s Theme” in this moment (which honestly fits the scene better than Dual of the Fates, imo). Like, that’s what I was expecting when watching the scene in theatres; and then we got something unique and wonderful instead.