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| Williams |
Star Wars: A New Hope: (John Williams) Commonly
considered one of the greatest films of all time,
Star Wars
launched the space opera craze of the 1980's and unintentionally spawned
the culture of blockbuster sequels that has endured in the decades
since. Its budget of $11 million was nursed by concept creator and
director George Lucas to allow for the special effects wizardry of
Industrial Light & Magic to dazzle audiences with visuals of a variety
never seen before. More important to the film's success than the
awe-inspiring effects of spacecraft in battle, however, are its affably
quirky characters and a compelling storyline. A farm boy on a desert
planet accidentally owns a silly pair of droids that carry the secrets
to destroying the most powerful weapon in the arsenal of an evil
Galactic Empire, and with the help of a old master of magic (otherwise
known as a Jedi Knight, one of a group that inspired Earthlings to make
"Jedi" an actual, state-recognized religion in several countries by
appearing as a common enough answer on census forms), he joins a
rebellion and initiates the downfall of the Empire. The tagline "a long
time ago in a galaxy far, far away" became engrained in pop culture so
thoroughly that Lucas developed the concept into a fuller franchise of
six films of a reportedly nine-part arc, initially breaking the box
office records set by
Jaws after just six months and eventually
earning billions of dollars and encouraging the filmmaker to improve
upon the renamed
Star Wars: A New Hope (and his other entries in
the original trilogy to follow) by modernizing the special effects and
adding new scenes to the classic. Not only was a saga born, but
orchestral film music experienced a rebirth in 1977 as a result as well.
Lucas had originally intended for the movie to be tracked with his
favorite symphonic classical pieces, including a few Golden Age film
scores, but buddy Steven Spielberg convinced him to hire John Williams
for the job based on the composer's ability to write
classically-inclined music for foreign environments and, of course, his
recent success on
Jaws. Little did anyone know that the maestro
was in the early years of the most productive period in his career, and
no single orchestral score has had more of an influence on the history
of movies and their music than what Williams conjured for the original
Star Wars.
At a time when the Silver Age of film music had emphasized
(and rewarded) 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 forever passed.
Ironically, 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 earned significant respect and awards
recognition for his jazz and musical works. But throughout the 1970's,
Williams began a film score renaissance, shifting perceptions of
greatness back in the direction of 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 that 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 broadly thematic orchestral works as the
must-have sound 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 on the charts that a
disco dance version of it was pressed onto a wildly embraced LP record
and heard frequently in clubs for an entire year after the film's
release. It may seem elementary by post-2000 standards of film music
composition, but the use of a prominent title theme and the constant
development several leitmotifs in 1977 was a refreshingly bold move back
to the Wagnerian influence of Hollywood's Golden Age. 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. Lucas encouraged Williams to seek inspiration in classic
movie scores by everyone from Erich Wolfgang Korngold to Alessandro
Cicognini, some of which influencing Williams' finished score enough for
trained ears to detect.
A common thread for Williams in all of his
Star
Wars scores, and especially prominent in the original trilogy, is
his concentration of the soundtracks' melodic cores around three central
themes, each usually informing the concert suites that he arranged from
these ideas. A bit different in these regards is
Star Wars,
however, with the main theme and that of Princess Leia sharing the focus
while the third major idea, that of the "Force," factors significantly
in this score (and becomes more of a complete, overarching identity in
all six films, even more so than the title theme) despite never
receiving its own concert arrangement by Williams outside of its
attachment to the first score's famous "Throne Room" finale that was
often performed alongside the official end credits suite. The main theme
for the franchise opens each of the films in overture form and serves
the heroic action element throughout, though originally it was deemed
lead character Luke Skywalker's dedicated theme. It explodes in bursts
of immense energy as the film approaches its climax and establishes
itself as a familiar bookend when it opens all of the end credits
sequences in the six films. After five takes on the first day of
recording sessions for the 1977 original, Williams and Lucas combined
three of them to form the "Main Titles" that listeners are so familiar
with today, the melody largely considered the most widely recognized
film score theme of all time. The theme for Princess Leia is the lush,
romantic interlude to the fanfare in the end credits and receives its
own major arrangement. Williams is dedicated to referencing her theme
whenever she is relevant, including an introduction during the initial
attack sequence, longing performances when her recording is seen by
Luke, and a surprisingly robust rendition upon Ben Kenobi's death and
the escape from the Death Star. The theme for the Force is also well
placed in the entirety of
Star Wars, sprinkled throughout the
scenes featuring Kenobi but most famously accompanying two of the film's
most poignant scenes: first, the binary sunset vista as Luke
contemplates his future and then at the conclusion, when he uses solely
the Force to continue his attack on the Death Star. The aforementioned
"The Throne Room" cue translates the theme into a stately, optimistic
march, though this usage has always seemed slightly out of place as a
reference to the rebel celebration rather anything truly unique to the
Force (the choice makes a little more sense if you think of it from the
perspective that Williams must have had when tackling the movie as a
single entity and not part of a larger franchise).
The secondary motifs in
Star Wars are a curious
bunch, because most of them are not touched upon again the subsequent
movies. The most intriguing of these is a belligerent, stomping identity
for the Death Star itself, the theme that represented the evil Empire
before the "Imperial March" took over in the next film. The idea sadly
disappears completely in the sequels, not even hinted in
Return of
the Jedi for the second Death Star. The firing mechanism with that
battle station enjoys its own motif, a crescendo of rhythmic ensemble
hits anticipating the blasts. Likewise, the stormtroopers chasing around
in the corridors are treated to an extension of this material. The
various creatures of the desert world of Tatooine are afforded sparse
rhythmic material that is among the score's weakest. Only when the Jawa
crawler is afforded a grim, full ensemble motif does this material
really impress, though it strays awfully close to the villains' theme in
tone. The anthem of nobility that extends out of the Force theme in "The
Throne Room" likely qualifies as its own self-contained theme for the
Rebel Alliance as well, though its only subsequent reference would come
as an awkward application to the end titles of
Revenge of the
Sith. 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 consider
A New Hope as a whole and appreciate 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" 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 "Imperial Attack" and "TIE Fighter
Attack" cues are both immensely satisfying in how they punctuate the
adrenaline rush of their scenes, the latter resolving with incredible
relief as the last enemy fighter explodes. The final battle cue
transitions from suspense to action with a tremendous sense of
anticipation, its rhythmic propulsion vital to the scene. And, of
course, no discussion of the various facets of
Star Wars sound be
complete without the two "Cantina Band" source pieces for the exotic
Tatooine bar, both of which highly obnoxious in their otherworldly jazz
but perfectly tailored to the oddly configured creatures in the
room.
Overall,
A New Hope really defines the original
parameters of the space opera score. It has been imitated so often since
that its general sound may seem overwrought and overexposed for
listeners discovering it for the first time. But it remains among the
most important scores in the history of cinema, and any serious
collector of Digital Age film music needs to forgive the archival
quality of the London Symphony Orchestra's recording in order to
appreciate the composition. One of the few debates that persist about
the actual content of the
A New Hope score is related to the
"Special Edition" of the classic trilogy that was released in 1997 as
part of the much hyped 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 and singular Death Star theme heard throughout
A
New Hope (or alluded to after the gong hit when Vader is first
introduced). With that march heard in some form or another in all of the
other five films as a representation of Darth Vader and the Galactic
Empire, its obvious absence from
A New Hope remains the score's
sole lingering question or abnormality. Aside from this debate, the only
notable issue surrounding the
A New Hope score in the Digital 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 of scores, it seems that you can
wait a few years and be treated to yet another mass re-release to
consumers. While the existence of all of the music from the classic
trilogy of
Star Wars on album is taken for granted today, the
first fifteen years were quite lean for fans of Williams and the
concept. In fact, it would take a full twenty years before the entire
finished products (with every available cue released) finally reached
fans in time for the Special Editions in theatres. Regarding each of the
various releases of the score, much of the information that follows is
relevant to not only this score, but the others in the classic trilogy
as well, so you'll encounter very similar accounts in the Filmtracks
reviews of those scores. After their initial, separate releases on LP
records and their equivalent CDs, the editions of the scores on
subsequent discs 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
A New Hope on CD was by
Polydor in 1986, a very early CD with sparse packaging, and it was
identical in contents and packaging to the LP release. Of the roughly 88
minutes of music that was finalized for the film, about 75 minutes exist
on this album (
A New Hope 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 it 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
A New Hope was recorded in December of 1977
and released on LP record at that time. A CD version from RCA was
remastered and released in 1989. The original Polydor release of the
actual recording suffers terribly 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 for its
age and remains to this day one of the best recordings of the highlights
of
A New Hope (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 long remained a rather easy used-bin find
at many major stores. When 20th Century Fox finally commissioned the
ultimate
Star Wars trilogy set in 1993, the resulting "Anthology"
was considered a godsend by fans. While mostly doing significant justice
to 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 set and its additional music were 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 as possible from each film on
an individual CD but then pressed additional unreleased cues on a fourth
CD that spanned all three. Thus, to get cues such as "Destruction of
Alderaan" and "A Hive of Villainy" in the age before digitization, you
had to insert the fourth CD separately to enjoy them. Add on a large,
custom-sized package and hard-to-read individual CD covers within, and
you had some ill-received fan protests. The Anthology is looked upon
with fondness by many
Star Wars fans today simply because it
filled a major void in their collections at the time.
Not long after, however, the 1993 Anthology was
rendered outdated by the massive, highly advertised RCA Special Edition
releases of 1997. In 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
A New Hope in particular, no physical changes
resulted for the score despite some unrealized expectations that the
"Imperial March" would retroactively be inserted into the picture. On
album, fans were treated to double-CD releases of each
Star Wars
score in film order with alternate 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 true
vibrant scope of the original recordings was finally starting to be
heard outside of the film. Including the fifteen minutes of alternate
takes of the "Main Title," a total of 106 minutes of music on this
Special Edition made it the definitive release. Those alternates are
tucked into the last track on the first CD for some reason (here and on
the 2004 releases) rather than receiving their own tracks. Extensive
notes and pictorials grace 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 adorned by 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 prequel scores, acquired the rights to the
classic trilogy's scores and reissued 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 difference. Those who owned the Special Edition albums and
didn't require slightly improved sound had no reason to seek the 2004
ones, which lack the fantastic notes and pictorials presented in the
1993 or 1997 albums. The same presentation was re-pressed in 2016 by
Sony as the "Ultimate Soundtrack Collection." More basic re-issues dribbled
out with Sony's various 2007 releases (the "Corellian Edition" compilation and
"30th Anniversary Collector's Edition"), both of which redundant, unnecessary,
and irritatingly packaged. Upon Disney's ownership of the franchise's rights,
its label nonsensically remastered only the original 1986 album presentation in
2018. Still, owning this classic score is a must for any film score
enthusiast, 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
A New Hope product available. The Force is strong with this one...
@Amazon.com: CD or
Download
- Music as Written for the Film: *****
- Music as Heard on the 1986 Polydor Album: **
- Music as Heard on the 1989 RCA Gerhardt Album: ****
- Music as Heard on the 1993 Fox Anthology: ****
- Music as Heard on the 1997 RCA Special Edition: *****
- Music as Heard on the 2004/2016 Sony Classical Albums: ****
- Music as Heard on the 2007 Sony and 2018 Disney Albums: **
- Overall: *****
| Bias Check: |
For John Williams reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.68
(in 91 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.54
(in 363,716 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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