Favorite John Williams score from OT?

This was mine

 

My favorite portion is when Luke is besting Vader on Death Star II.

However that's so brief. If we're speaking extensive track, for the moment I'll have to go with many of the segments associated with Cloud City, like the freezing of Han, the escape, etc... Some very interesting sounds in there.

But you've given me cause to go listen through my cds again.


EDIT: This whole combo is awesome in my view.

 

Man, that's a tough one! As you say, thx1138, there's so much amazing stuff to choose from.

Yoda's theme is an old favorite of mine. John Williams, especially at his height back in the late '70s/early '80s, wrote some of the most amazingly fitting and evocative character themes I've ever heard. And Yoda's theme is one of the very best. It conveys the dignity, the wisdom, the playfulness and the touch of sadness that I always associate with Yoda. And it's just a beautiful piece of music.

And though it's not a "theme" exactly, I also have always been a huge fan of the music from the Death Star assault at the end of the original Star Wars. I practically wore out the grooves on my SW soundtrack album on the "The Last Battle" track when I was a kid.

And here's an unusual one to put in the running - the Jawa theme from the first movie. As with the Yoda theme, it's perfect for them. It's kind of cute and goofy, and just a touch creepy - which is what the Jawas were originally like before they got the big cutsey flashlight eyes and were relegated to the role of comic relief. When all there was was the original Star Wars film, the Jawas, with their pinpoint little yellow eyes and their scurrying-behind-the-rocks thing were cute and a little spooky. I miss that version of 'em!

Then, of course, there's that brilliant little piece of music when Luke finally snaps and attacks Vader at the end of ROTJ. John, I agree wholeheartedly on that one. The very first time I saw ROTJ, that was the bit of music that made me REALLY psyched to buy the soundtrack album. And, wouldn't ya know it, that was the one piece of music that they DIDN'T put on there!

 

Besides the obvious choices like Binary Sunset and the Imperial March, I really like the Battle of Hoth and the Battle of Endor tracks.

 

I've always liked "Jedi Master revealed" track on the ESB soundtrack. I can feel Luke realization of who Yoda is in the music and how Yoda is in tune with the force.

 

I bought the ESB soundtrack album before the movie came out, and had it practically memorized by the time I saw the film itself. As glad as I am to have the full soundtrack on CD now, that original two-album set is still a favorite old memory, in terms of how the tracks were arranged. I listened to it on YouTube recently (vinyl pops and cracks and all!) and it took me right back to that spring and summer of 1980. Fantastic stuff!!

Yeah, the music in that original film is really what makes Tatooine for me too. I don't think they ever really nailed it that well again, in terms of creating that bleak, mysterious and ever so slightly goofy feel from the original film.

John Williams does brilliant feminine/romantic themes. From Princess Leia's theme in the original film, you had the Han and Leia theme in ESB, the Luke and Leia theme in ROTJ, the "Across the Stars" love theme from the PT. I'd even lump Marion's theme from Raiders in there too. All of these themes are unique, but they also all are of a kind. They have that sweeping, emotional feel to them that only John Williams can really get down to. Great stuff!

 

A very good point. I think that the reason that one didn't leap to mind is that, on a certain level, the Ewok theme is almost a little too close to the Jawa theme.Though I guess that's not so different from the way the romantic themes are so close to one another, now that I think on it more. But you're right, the Ewok theme does create the right atmosphere for Endor. It gets some of that forest feel happening, and it also has shades of primitive tribal music to it in parts that reflects the Ewok culture a bit. Good call there!

 

I "appreciate" classical music and all that, but I don't ever really listen to it - the SW soundtracks are the exception on my iPod.
I have to say, Land of the Jawas gets another vote from me, too - who would have thunk it?
Somehow that one takes me right back to a certain point... Y'know, like the main theme and Binary Sunset kind of stick in most people's heads initially, but then the Jawa thing reminds me of a time when I must have been repeatedly viewing this movie on VHS and really starting to study all the little details and picking out other things, visually and in the soundtrack.

Love the Cantina Band stuff. It really places things "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" for me, because musical fashions come and go, and it would be really easy to try and imagine some "futuristic" sounding music, from the POV of the 70s, but that would just have dated really quickly. There is something so perfect about just saying "they listen to something that sounds like jazz" - that is a cool and futuristic sound for them, because they are alien and they have nothing to do with us and our time.
Same with Jabba's Baroque Recital, not so much as a track on it's own, but it creates the perfect atmosphere how it is used in the movie.
In fact, it would probably be easier to say Jedi Rocks is the only track I actually hate...

 

Leia's Theme, from the original Star Wars soundtrack.

I was ten years old when Star Wars came out. My mom was getting a couple albums a month through the mail from Colombia or BMG back then, and she let me pick one from the catalog once in a while. I got the Star Wars soundtrack.

Leia's Theme made me cry, and I couldn't understand why. The only other song that had ever made me cry was Seasons in the Sun by Terry Jacks. I understood why that one made me cry - it's about a young person dying. But Star Wars was the most awesomest thing ever to my ten year old self. It was a source of pure happiness to me. So how could music from a movie that I associated with happiness make me sad?

Mom tried to explain that music can be happy or sad by itself, that it doesn't need a happy memory associated with it to make us feel happy. But I couldn't accept that. Sounds were sounds, not emotions. And music was just a collection of sounds. How could music possibly make me sad unless I associated it with a sad event?

Turns out Mom was right. I don't understand it today any more than I did in 1977, but music conveys emotions. About 2/3 of my CDs are classical music, and the emotional expressions are undeniable. Mozart almost always sounds playful, Beethoven almost always sounds stately, Wagner usually sounds angry, Bach always sounds honest.

It would probably be an exaggeration to say the Star Wars soundtrack - and Leia's Theme especially - started my love affair with music. But it's not an exaggeration at all to say they opened my mind to the connection between music and emotion.

And I agree with all the praise given to John Williams on this thread. His best work was probably on The Phantom Menace, but every score in the OT was good and every score in the PT was a masterpiece. George Lucas was very, very lucky to get Williams to score his movies.

 

This is so diffcult the complete OT Soundtrack is brilliant, I own the three Special Edition Double cd's.
Gold/Silver/Bronze plus the orginal releases of the complete Prequel Trilogy Soundtracks.
John Williams is a genius in using the leitmotif technique. (like Wagner did in his Operas)

Hardest pick ever and I'am still unsure.

A small extract from wikipedia: (if someone is interested what I above mentioned)
The spelling leitmotif is an anglicization of the German Leitmotiv, literally meaning "leading motif", or perhaps more accurately, "guiding motif". A musical motif has been defined as a "short musical idea ... melodic, harmonic, or rhythmic, or all three", a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition: "the smallest structural unit possessing thematic identity."

Richard Wagner is the earliest composer most specifically associated with the concept of leitmotif. His cycle of four operas, Der Ring des Nibelungen (the music for which was written between 1853 and 1869), uses hundreds of leitmotifs, often related to specific characters, things, or situations. While some of these leitmotifs occur in only one of the operas, many recur throughout the entire cycle.

 

The Asteroid Field in Empire is epic.

 

Don't know why, The Asteroid Field always makes me think of this first...

 

Gun to my head, I would have to say the Asteroid Field theme from Emipire. It just sounds like perilous adventure. It does something to my insides. Sort of like vertigo. Anyway thats my choice. Think its all great though.

My one complaint about the music of the OT is that Williams waited for Empire to come up with the Imperial March. And even thats not really a complaint. It wouldn't have had the same impact in Empire if we'd all heard it before in ANH. So maybe I should rectract that complaint...I don't know. ANH is just different from the rest. And I think that is one of the reasons along with money and polish...But those are also the things that make it badass...so nevermind.

 

No other song in the world makes the hair on my arms and neck stand up like the climax of Binary Sunset.

 

IGN ran an article that's actually interesting. They sampled clips from a show called Star Wars Oxygen. Where these two guys talk about John Williams' SW scores. There's some pretty interesting stuff there, if anyone's interested.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/08...ar-wars-music?abthid=55d3620137323bb63600000c

http://www.shotglassdigital.com/releases/?a=3554

 

Absolutely. Star Wars Oxygen is a phenomenal podcast. Takes me back to my music school days... except now I'm not responsible for anything so it's far more enjoyable.

This is produced by the same guys as Rebel Force Radio, and unfortunately they don't differentiate between podcasts on their feed. So that means you'll have to manually scroll through podcasts to find the episodes of Oxygen (if you're using iTunes). The first one (back in November 2013) covers ANH, and they have slowly moved to ESB, then ROTJ. After covering Phantom Menace, they are now on AOTC.

Again, couldn't recommend this show enough!