JarHead413

Originally posted by: ADigitalMan
Thread.

Originally posted by: GoodMusician
First off, the implication that John Williams has any ego is ...well... laughable. He is perhaps the most humble man in hollywood and far more humble than he needs to be. So no, his ego did NOT get in the way.

As for why it wasn't in A New Hope, I'm sure we all know that the ANH was made to be a stand alone film and no intention of continuing the series was known when the first film was made.

As such, when williams composed the music, he composed it in a lite motif style, but did not focus a lot on how to develop themes. In fact, there's an interview with him for Episode I where he says there was almost NO motivic development in the OT because it simply wasn't something they planned for.

As such, Episode IV has a "bad guy theme" but it's never used again in the series.

Why no Vader's theme was inserted I think is because it's the first film to be re-released as a special edition. If they did a LOT to it and added new music and such, I think Fans would have been put off right from the bat. (Notice that most of the changes are in the other two releases which came months latter).

So I think the real issue is that the prequels were started with the intent on having motivic development, but when Episode I's final battle was re-edited some 5 times, and when Williams could no longer be called upon to rescore it, they simply and barbarically ripped his music apart. He entered the project hoping to use it as a great exercise in motivic development and musical literature. Look at the amount of music written for Episode I! It's nearly 3 hours!

Then look at Episode II... it's less than a single CD's worth of music.

Episode II suffered because Williams was very disenchanted and no longer saw the project as what he was hoping it would be and probably didn't feel the need to compose music that would simply be ripped apart (which he is actually quoted as saying he would not write music for the final battle of Episode II probably for this reason... and the fact that he only ever composes music for actual film. If the Video hasn't been presented to him, he won't compose to it. That's how we know that Jedi originally had a longer introduction and that the scene of Luke Building the Lightsaber exists because williams wrote music for it).

By Episode III, Williams and Lucas must have sat down and talked it out. Certain decisions were made to allow for tracked music into Episode III, but it was pre-planned rather than something they'd do behind Williams back. The score's strength is much stronger because Williams felt more motivated to do it and he wrote a lot more material.

I tell you all this becuase the idea of even having Motifs that develop was something new to the prequels, and really only starts in Episode I but is crushed almost right after because of these events. Williams wrote Anakins theme with the intent of having some development, but because of what happened, never truly used it to the extent he could have.

Episode III did have some development of themes but Episode II almost had none.

So with that being said, asking why Episode IV didn't have the music from Empire included... the simplest answer is it wouldn't have fit the film and Lucas probably didn't like the idea at all.

I know that personally, I always saw Vader in ANH as weak. He was weaker than he was in Empire. After the fall of the Death star and the death of the one "holding [his] leash," Tarkin, I felt that he became a more prominent and stronger character; more free and more important as his relationship with Luke and Leia begins to develop and the Emperor becomes more involved.

I think that because of this, not having a real theme for Vader until then works fine, and having the Imperial Theme in ANH works fine as it is although Adwyns edit of ANH "Star Wars Revisited" I noticed DOES include some tidbits of score from Empire so perhaps you should keep an eye on that edit