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Star Wars: A New Hope: (John Williams) No single
orchestral score has had more of an influence on the history of movies and
its film music element than the original
Star Wars. At a time when
the Silver Age of film music had emphasized smaller orchestras and pop style
genres of music in film, it was feared by long-time film score collectors
that the glory days of
Ben-Hur and
Lawrence of Arabia had
passed. Ironically, composer John Williams had been a part of that
modernizing trend of music for films when he, in the first ten years of his
career, was known as "Johnny Williams" and was well respected for his jazz
and musical works. But in the 1970's, Williams began the film score
renaissance back in the direction of the large orchestras and sweeping
themes. His disaster scores of the early 70's often combined his orchestral
and pop influences together, as heard popularly in
The Towering
Inferno and
The Poseidon Adventure, and in 1975, Williams'
Jaws won him his first dramatic score Oscar and for film buffs,
ushered in the renaissance for good. It wasn't until his trio of famous
adventure/fantasy scores in the late 1970's, though, that the public fully
embraced the move. With
Star Wars,
Close Encounters of the Third
Kind, and
Superman revealed to audiences within a year's time,
Williams cemented thematic orchestral works as the must-have for studios of
Hollywood's Bronze Age (largely consisting of the 1980's in the last years
of the pre-digital era). Williams'
Star Wars alone would become the
most popular soundtrack of all time, selling many millions of copies and
mirroring the film in its cult following. Perhaps baffling to collectors
today, the title theme of
Star Wars was so popular that a disco dance
version of it was pressed and heard frequently in clubs for the subsequent
year after the film's release. As a film, the impact of
Star Wars
doesn't need much discussion. Breaking the box office records set by
Jaws after just six months, George Lucas' exciting universe broke all
the normal bounds of science-fiction on the big screen. To the delight of
the world, Lucas announced that
Star Wars was the fourth installment
in a series of nine episodes, and with the sequels set for production, a
saga was born.
It may seem elementary by post-2000 standards of film music
composition, but the use of a prominent title theme and several leitmotifs
in 1977 was a refreshingly bold move back to the Wagnerian influence of
Hollywood's Golden Age. In other words, the existence of so many memorable
themes, and their masterful placement throughout the film for individual
characters and settings was a somewhat novel concept at the time. After five
takes on the first day of recording sessions, Williams and Lucas combined
three of them to form the "Main Titles" that we are so familiar with today.
Along with the fanfare came two primary motifs: one for 'the force' and
another for Princess Leia's character. Other minor ideas would manifest
themselves for the Death Star (the pre-Imperial March theme for the
Empire... one that would completely disappear in sequels), the various
creatures of Tatooine, and one for rebel alliance heard at the end of the
film. Of all these ideas, only the title theme and 'force' theme would
remain prevalent in all of Williams' sequel and prequel scores, with Leia's
theme incorporated to a lesser degree in the classic trilogy. Williams'
ability to shift between these themes, in their various states of volume and
completeness, is what truly captured audiences at the time. For people
discovering the original
Star Wars scores today, it may be the
dominant memorability of each individual theme that causes such fan
attachment, but if you take
Star Wars: A New Hope as a whole and
enjoy its lesser-known cues, you'll hear the real reason why the score was
such a success. A cue like "Tales of a Jedi Knight/Learn about the Force"
(in which Ben Kenobi tells Luke Skywalker of the force in his home and the
two then watch the Princess' message) contains so many of the themes in
magical, conversational context that you realize that Williams' music for
the series doesn't require bombast for the same effective utilization of the
Wagnerian concepts. This is not to say, however, that bold statements of
theme in
Star Wars aren't worthy of their place in history; the
"Throne Room" cue alone, with its ultra-heroic brass of truly epic
proportions, is a piece that remains awe-inspiring decades later, especially
when heard in live concert quality. The "Imperial Attack" cue follows a
similar history, representing the monumental scope of the swashbuckling
spirit that
Star Wars generates.
So well this score is known that a lengthy cue-by-cue
discussion would largely waste your time. The only debate that exists today
about the actual content of the
Star Wars score is related to the
"Special Edition" of the classic trilogy that was released in 1997 as part
of the 20th anniversary celebration of the saga. With new music recorded
freshly for
Return of the Jedi and cues shifted slightly for
additional scenes in the first two films, many fans wondered why Lucas
decided against the belated, but perhaps appropriate insertion of the
Imperial March (from
The Empire Strikes Back) in place of the short
Death Star theme heard throughout
Star Wars. With that march heard in
all of the other five films as a representation of the Galactic Empire, its
absence from
Star Wars: A New Hope remains the score's sole lingering
question or abnormality. Aside from this debate, the only real issue
surrounding the
Star Wars score in the post-2000 era is the history
of the music on album. A person could easily ramble on for days about the
people and technicalities behind all of these albums; every time you think
you've purchased the
definitive and final version of any of the
classic trilogy scores, you can wait a few years and be treated to yet
another re-release in the stores. While the existence of all of the music
from the classic
Star Wars film scores is taken for granted today,
the first fifteen years were quite lean for Williams fans. It would take a
full twenty years before the entire finished products --with every available
cue released-- would finally reach fans in time for the Special Editions in
theatres. Much of the information that follows, regarding each of the
various releases of the score, is relevant to not only this score, but the
others in the classic trilogy as well, so you'll read very similar accounts
in the Filmtracks reviews of those scores as well. After their initial,
separate releases on LP records, the CD editions of the scores have always
been released as a trilogy, despite your ability to usually buy them
separately upon each update of all three.
The first release of
Star Wars on CD was by Polydor
in 1986 --a very early CD-- and was identical in contents and packaging as
the LP release. Of the roughly 88 minutes of music that was finalized for
the film, about 75 minutes appeared on this album (
Star Wars had far
less music recorded than the other scores in the saga). The only substantial
alternative source for music from this score (and the others in the saga
before 1993) was the Charles Gerhardt re-recording of 33 minutes of the
score with the National Philharmonic Orchestra. For years, Gerhardt and the
NPO had recorded famous film scores from mostly the Golden Age of Hollywood,
but as a few of their final collaborations, Gerhardt recorded the three
classic
Star Wars scores near the times of their release. In this
case, the 33 minutes from
Star Wars was recorded in December of 1977
and was released on LP record at that time. The CD version from RCA was
remastered in 1989 and released that year. The original Polydor release of
the actual recording suffered from the muted sound quality that often
plagued scores of the 1970's, but the Gerhardt recording (mixed into Dolby
Surround for the CD) had outstanding sound quality and remains, to this day,
one of the best recordings of
Star Wars (and a suite from
Close
Encounters of the Third Kind) of all time. Their performance of "The
Throne Room" is not to be missed, and luckily the CD is a rather easy
used-bin find at many major stores. When 20th Century Fox finally
commissioned the ultimate trilogy
Star Wars Anthology in 1993, the
resulting set was considered a godsend by fans. While mostly doing the
significant justice for the two sequel scores, the anthology of 1993 did
offer another ten minutes of music from
A New Hope (but far less than
what was still missing). Produced by some of the biggest names in film score
production, the additional music was certainly welcomed with great
anticipation. There were, however, problems with the presentation of that
music, despite the best intentions of the producers. The anthology put as
much music from each film on an individual CD for each of the three scores,
but then pressed additional unreleased cues on a fourth CD that spanned all
three scores. Thus, to get cues such as "Destruction of Alderaan" and "A
Hive of Villainy," you would have to insert the fourth CD to enjoy them. Add
on a large, custom-sized package (roughly DVD size by today's standards) and
hard-to-read individual CD covers within, and you had some ill-received
protests from some fans.
The anthology release of 1993 is looked upon with fondness
by many
Star Wars fans today simply because it filled a major void in
collections at the time. In 1997, however, the anthology was rendered
largely outdated by the massive, highly advertised RCA Special Edition
releases of 1997. By January of that year, George Lucas had announced the
production of
The Phantom Menace and revealed newly enhanced versions
of the original three films for a 20th anniversary theatrical release. For
Star Wars: A New Hope in particular, this didn't mean any physical
changes to the score despite some expectation that the Imperial March would
finally be inserted into the picture. On album, fans were treated to
double-CD releases of each
Star Wars score in film order with
alternative cues and extensive attention to detail in the mixing and
arrangement. Digitally remastered in 1996 (separately from 35mm magnetic and
16-track analog elements), the vibrance of the original recordings was
finally starting to be heard. Including the fifteen minutes of alternate
takes of the main title (hidden at the end of the last track on the first CD
for some reason... why couldn't these be given their own tracks at the end
of the entire product? the same applies to the 2004 releases), a total of
106 minutes of music on this special edition made it the definitive release.
Extensive notes and pictorials graced both the 1993 and 1997 releases, and
the list of recorded takes on the latter is of particular interest. Later in
1997, these albums were re-packaged by RCA and offered in slimline packages
that feature the special edition poster art, but these fell out of print
about five years later. In 2004, the Sony Classical label, which had been
releasing the second trilogy scores, had acquired the rights to the classic
scores and decided to re-press the 1997 releases with new artwork. These
2004 albums offer Sony's Direct Stream Digital remastering, and while this
technique does provide some minimal extra clarity on high-end stereo
systems, casual listeners will notice no significant change since the 1997
albums. Thus, if you own the special edition albums and don't require
slightly improved sound, there is no reason to seek the 2004 ones. In fact,
the 2004 albums are badly lacking in packaging compared to previous
releases, with absolutely none of the fantastic notes and pictorials
presented in the 1993 or 1997 releases. Essentially, you can look upon the
2004 albums as nothing more than a re-pressing of existing streamlined
albums. Overall, owning this classic score is a must, and with its
outstanding packaging and complete presentation of music, the 1997 special
edition album (the original full version bound in black booklets) continues
to be the best
Star Wars: A New Hope product available.
Score as Heard in Film: *****
1986 Polydor: **
1989 RCA Gerhardt: ****
1993 Fox Anthology: ****
1997 RCA Special Edition: *****
2004 Sony Classical: ****
Overall: *****
| Bias Check: | For John Williams reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
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