Published on Apr 4, 2000
No movie was as anticipated as last year’s
The Phantom Menace. Whether you loved it, liked it, enjoyed
it, dismissed it, hated it or despised it, you knew what was about
and who was in it. You recognized Darth Maul and Jar Jar Binks even
before they appeared on the big screen. You heard of people
standing in line for over a month to buy the first tickets. You saw
both teaser trailers as CNN, E!, Entertainment Tonight and your
local news played and replayed them for twenty-four hours after
their first appearances.
And now that all the hoopla and hype has passed, you are either
thankful for getting a chance to return to that big-eyed wonder of
childhood or you hope to never see so formulaic and mediocre a
movie ever again.
The funny thing is that, if you were to look back some twenty
years to the reviews of the first
Star Wars film, you’d find pretty much the same attitudes –
except for the expectation, of course. People were as divided over
that film as they were on its newest sibling. Some enjoyed it, some
loved it, while others hated it – and still do – for shifting the
attention away from straight storytelling and drama and towards
more visual excitement and special effects.
Whatever the case may be for you, the one aspect of the
Star Wars saga that nearly all people can agree on is the
music. Without composer John Williams’ stirring and amazing scores,
much of the mood, magic and power of the scenes – indeed of the
movies – is lost. Having established himself with his work for
movies like
The Cowboys and
Jaws, Williams was recommended to writer/director George
Lucas by his friend, Steven Spielberg, as the man capable of
creating the lush, operatic music with which Lucas’ movie could be
painted. I think it’s safe to say that Spielberg was right.
However, while no one will ever deny the beauty of the music,
their presentation has always left something to be desired. First
released as a 2-LP vinyl set, the soundtrack to
Star Wars – now referred to as
Star Wars: A New Hope – has gone through a number of
releases and re-releases in various formats, packages and with wide
degrees in sound quality. Worst of all, none of the albums ever
truly contained the entire movie score. The original LP and the box
set, I believe, came closest, but even those had good chunks and
portions missing, out of sequence or rearranged. (Very similar, you
will note, to last year’s release of
The Phantom Menace‘s soundtrack. Talk about not learning
from past mistakes!)
The release of special edition versions of the movie trilogy –
which coincided with the twentieth anniversary of the release of
A New Hope – provided the perfect excuse to release, once
and for all, the final and complete versions of the
Star Wars trilogy scores. For once, the music to the whole
films would be present, in sequence and uncut. Moreover, the music
was digitally-remastered to provide the sharpest and crispest
sound. These would be the end-all versions for these soundtracks.
Here, let’s look at the classic soundtrack to
A New Hope.
The music kicks off with Alfred Newman’s well-known “20th
Century Fox Fanfare.” While it’s true that it was not written
exclusively for
Star Wars – after all, it was written decades before
Star Wars was even a concept – it has become an integral
part of the
Star Wars experience. Above any other movie, this fanfare is
quickly associated with the
Star Wars saga. Ask yourself. How many times have you heard
the fanfare in a movie theater and expected the thunderous crash of
the “Main Title” to follow it?
Then we are introduced to the “Main Title” from
Star Wars. With it, Williams captures the essence of the
entire movie – of the saga – and of its main hero, Luke Skywalker.
A big, bold theme that has to be one of the most heroic ever
written. It became such a big hit that within months a disco remix
– at a time well before remixes became popular – topped the charts.
I wish I could say more about it, but there’s no way to capture all
of it in words. For a man so well known for his great musical
themes, Williams wrote his best right here and musically enshrines
Joseph Campbell’s mythological hero forever.
I must point out a little detail here. Unlike many of his
contemporaries, Williams returned to the old Wagnerian technique of
themes – better known as “leitmotif.” A method practiced well
during the Golden Era of movies, it had fallen out of favor with
the composers of the time. However, both Lucas and Williams agreed
that this technique would work better – as it would link the movie
with the old serials and matinees that were the inspiration for
Star Wars.
What is “leitmotif”? It is the use of particular tracks – themes
– to musically represent a character, a group, a place or an event.
In
Star Wars, you get themes for just about everything or
everyone. I think only Chewbacca never got his own theme in the
whole of the
Star Wars saga – proving that the Wookie never got his due
respect.
The use of themes start early in the score, with “Rebel Blockade
Runner” and “Imperial Attack.” Here we are introduced to the Rebel
Fanfare, a three-note militaristic motif that was as well-known as
the Main Theme. In the middle of all the action, the music only
changes tone twice – once to introduce the soft theme for Princess
Leia and the other to introduce an ominous motif for Darth Vader.
At the end of “Imperial Attack,” we also hear the motif for the
Death Star and the Imperials–as if to tell us where they’re
going.
Meanwhile, some of these themes are written to further heighten
the sense of fantasy and alien worlds. Easy examples are “Dune Sea
Of Tatooine/Jawa Sandcrawler,” where we are introduced to the Jawas
by way of a light and easy theme, and “Lightspeeder Search/Attack
Of The Sand People,” where disjointed drums and cymbals mark the
appearance of the Tusken Raiders. Then, there’s the two Cantina
band pieces, “Cantina Band #1” and “Cantina Band #2.” This take on
Benny Goodman must have sounded weird at first, but it captures the
entire point of the Mos Eisley cantina – an eclectic group. They
still remain well-known and popular.
However, Williams sometimes breaks his own rules and the themes
do not follow the actions of the character onscreen. For example,
as the Millenium Falcon is captured in “The Death Star,” sense
would tell us that the Death Star motif would play here. Instead,
the Rebel Fanfare is done in a grandiose and exciting manner. Later
on, in “Ben Kenobi’s Death,” it is Princess Leia’s theme that plays
on – when his own theme would perhaps have made more sense. In both
cases, Williams makes these changes to provide the proper music for
the emotion up on the screen – whether or not it thematically
follows the action becomes secondary. And, in these cases, Williams
makes the right choices.
The climax of the movie – and of the score – is the almost ten
minute “Battle Of Yavin.” In here, most of the major themes
reappear and mix with some great action music. Williams pulls out
all the stops and provides one of the most exciting, fast-paced
cues in all the saga. From there, it’s the triumphant brass fanfare
of “The Throne Room” and the “End Title,” where four main themes –
Luke’s, Leia’s, Rebel Fanfare and Throne Room theme – all appear to
tie the entire movie together.
So, what about the quality of the music?? If you’ve read this
far down and are still wondering if the music is very good, let me
put those fears at rest. The music to
Star Wars: A New Hope is classic – not just because the
movie became a watershed event in movie history, but because of the
effort that went into creating and performing the music. The
innocent romanticism of “Princess Leia’s Theme” and “Binary
Sunset,” the unbridled action of “Shootout in the Cell Bay” and
“TIE Fighter Attack” mixed with the dramatic weight of “Burning
Homestead,” all can be found here.
To make sure you went out and got this, BMG went all out and
packaged the CD with some of the nicer liner notes and pictures
they could find. Michael Martissimo does a play-by-play of each
piece and provides some insight into the thoughts behind the music
and how the music enhances and tells the story that is on the
screen. On top of that, you get some extra music. First, there’s
the “Binary Sunset (alternate),” where you get the original music
for the scene I consider to be the heart of the
Star Wars saga. It’s weird hearing the music for this scene
and not hear what we’ve always heard.
Then, after about three minutes of silence, you get five takes
of the
Star Wars “Main Theme.” These are the first recordings of
the theme and you get to hear how it was molded into what we now
know. Hearing these takes is like seeing the work progressing from
idea to finished product.
Overall, if you’re a
Star Wars fan, you should get this. If you’re a fan of movie
music, you should get this. Heck, if you’re a fan of great music,
get this. This is the soundtrack of adventure and fantasy. (Now,
let’s hope we get something like this for
The Phantom Menace‘s score!)