Missed Musical Oppurtunity?

Listening to the PT score in my car this morning I had a thought. The Score does some 'reverse foreshadowing,' using themes from the OT during the PT in order to bridge moments and add some resonance emotionally.

I don't know if they didn't think of it, or Williams didn't want to or not, but wouldn't it have been neat if some of the leitmotifs from AOTC and ROTS appeared in early forms in the earlier prequels.

Padme meets Anikin, we hear a few notes of what will later be the AOTC love theme.

Anakin complains about Obi in AOTC, we hear a few soft notes of the ROTS "Battle of the Heroes" theme.

In all likelihood those themes weren't even remotely developed when the earlier prequels were in production, but it might have been kinda cool. If I ever do a PT edit, I might do just that.

There is some of that already with the Naboo celebration being the Emperor's theme up tempo and sung by children and Anakin's theme clearly being a variation on Vader's.

I wish they could have built on that.

The Imperial March should not have appeared until the end of ROTS and Anakin's theme should have slowly clawed towards it as he fell deeper into the dark side (not that he is much in the light side in the PT we saw).

I would have liked to hear the Imperial motif from ANH as the clonetrooper's theme too and maybe a bit more of the droids motif from ESB (but I'd have liked to have heard that in ROTJ too).

Bingowings said:

There is some of that already with the Naboo celebration being the Emperor's theme up tempo and sung by children and Anakin's theme clearly being a variation on Vader's.

I wish they could have built on that.

The Imperial March should not have appeared until the end of ROTS and Anakin's theme should have slowly clawed towards it as he fell deeper into the dark side (not that he is much in the light side in the PT we saw).

I would have liked to hear the Imperial motif from ANH as the clonetrooper's theme too and maybe a bit more of the droids motif from ESB (but I'd have liked to have heard that in ROTJ too).

 

 True, but those are building on themes we already knew ('reverse foreshadowing'). I mean that they could have put in refrences to themes that we hadn't heard yet.

This would have required Williams to have written those theme before the films were made (and Lucas to have known what the future plot points would have been), which is unlikely and difficult, but making a saga like the PT afforded a rare oppurtunity.

I don't think Lucas had enough planned in advance to give Williams to think about.

Besides with the way his scores got badly served in the editing suite it would have been a huge waste of his time to have a clever bit of music ready for the Skywalker Ranch torture chamber of doom to rip apart and paste in out of context.

Oh, I definitely hear it.  The main melodies are exactly the same.  One is sung by a dark, creepy church choir, while the other is sung by overenthusiastic children.  Other than that, they're the same.  (The "celebration" music around the kids singing is quite different, but that's not what we're talking about.)

ChainsawAsh said:

Oh, I definitely hear it.  The main melodies are exactly the same.  One is sung by a dark, creepy church choir, while the other is sung by overenthusiastic children.  Other than that, they're the same.  (The "celebration" music around the kids singing is quite different, but that's not what we're talking about.)

Damn, I hear it too now... NEVER tought of it. I guess I learned something today.

vote_for_palpatine said:

"There is some of that already with the Naboo celebration being the Emperor's theme up tempo and sung by children..." I have read this idea before, on other SW sites. I don't hear it at all. I've listened as closely as I can to make sure I wasn't the odd man out, and my conclusion stands: one is not an arrangement of the other. They are two different pieces.

 Try whistling it. That's how I realized it, trying to whistle the "Happy Naboo Children Song" and realizing it's the same melody as the Empy's Theme.

xhonzi said:

Bingowings said:

I don't think Lucas had enough planned in advance to give Williams to think about

 That's the most absurd- and truthful thing I've read today.

Then clearly you haven't read the Naboo Handsome Devil Thread.  Who has two votes?  This guy.

Variation - Music a version of a theme, modified in melody, rhythm, harmony, or ornamentation, so as to present it in a new but still recognisable form.