Another sequence is the initial reveal of the Death Star, with the addition of The Imperial March from TESB. Visually it is excellent and fits the narrative perfectly (I love that the Death Star now relies on a planet as a base, presumably so they could build it a la ROTJ. It never seemed right that it just sat in some part of outer space waiting for a phone call for the crew to go and blow up some planet the Emperor didn’t like the look of).
But the Imperial March is a stylistic theme throughout TESB and fits that films dark, doom-laden feel. Again, for it to just pop up doesn’t sit right and is another distraction. The new special effect sequence here even goes on too long seemingly to fit it in (the Star Destroyer appears to be about to crash in to the Death Star while it waits for the orchestra to finish) - and then music continues through the next scene where Vader remotely fingers a guys throat. It just seems a bit self-indulgent - although to be fair the nice bit of creepy music when Vader wiggles his finger is very effective.
I, too, am making a vote to remove ‘The Imperial March’ music-cue from the Death Star Reveal footage in ‘SW-ANH: Revisited’. I feel that if you leave it as is, you’ll destroy the impact of Vader’s first appearance in ‘ESB:Resvited’.
In ANH, Vader doesn’t appear to be the head-villain. When he enters the conference room, he follows Tarkin; Vader obeys Tarkin when he is told to ‘release’ his force-grip on an Imperial officer; and Vader goes out of the Death Star to do the dirty work of killing Rebel pilots. Vader and Tarkin are co-villains, whereas in ESB, Vader is the central villain, hence he gets his own bombastic music in his first entrance. Having that ‘Imperial March’ music-cue appear first in ‘ANH: Revisited’ and hearing that same music reappear in ‘ESB: Revisited’ would be redundant and it would lessen the impact of his introduction as the head-villain.
For that said Death Star footage, I originally thought that if you must use the Vader theme, then I would use portions of the ESB music-cue, ‘Aboard the Executioner’—the portion that was not used in the film. Furthermore, I would even trim that portion of the music and trim the footage to fit that music.
Audio example:
https://soundcloud.com/user262009578/death-star-reveal
However, to further give Vader a greater dramatic presence in ESB, just eliminate the Vader theme entirely and use this music-cue from ‘Rogue 1’.
I almost feel as though “The Imperial March” should NOT be in A New Hope, perhaps with the only exception being when Vader is on the screen — the theme has been closely tied with Vader and his leadership of the fleet.
However, after Rogue One, they chose to embrace the classic Death Star 1 theme (dun, dun dun dun!) and also introduced “The Imperial Suite,” which almost seems more like an appropriate theme for the Empire in the time of Tarkin.
I would personally like to see The Imperial Suite in ANH:R HD, and keep The Imperial March out of it (with the exception, perhaps, being when Vader makes a move — maybe the lightsaber battle with Obi-Wan or when Vader hops into his TIE fighter).
By the way, here’s the theme I’m referring to (“The Imperial Suite”):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uKtUlPmhqw
You can always write in the end-credits “additional music by Michael Giacchino’