Star Wars Episode 3

In 1977 George Lucas’ vision of a universe where war, mysticism, despair, and hope was made a reality by 20th Century Fox studios.

Instrumental to the shaping of a complete universe was the musical language created by John Williams. Williams’ orchestration, thematic motifs and understanding of the emotional context of the story propelled the film to legendary status, and now, in 2005 we reach the climax of the six feature film series with Episode III Revenge Of The Sith.Lucas, never having been a conventional filmmaker, completed the Star Wars (Original) Trilogy (OT) with Return Of The Jedi in 1983 (see Appendix: Synopses). However the original Star Wars premise was of a 9 episode epic.

The OT was the middle three films (Episode IV – A New Hope, Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, and Episode VI – Return Of The Jedi) and many fans thought that with Return Of The Jedi the saga was complete. However, in 1999 Lucas released Episode I – The Phantom Menace.This began the Prequel Trilogy (PT) which culminated in 2005 with Episode III – Revenge Of The Sith . Working in this way has not only meant that the look and design elements of the film (2005 costumes and sets maintaining continuity with 1977 counterparts) have had to be carefully monitored, but have given John Williams a wealth of previous themes and styles in which to work in. Personally, I believe this to be the best Star Wars score; both as a stand alone piece of film scoring (as it complements the film excellently) but also acts as the shining jewel within the six film crown.

Through the recommendation of their mutual friend Steven Spielberg, Lucas and Williams’ union resulted in the resounding, nearly unheard-of success of the Star Wars soundtrack. Yet Lucas’s use of an operatic score in A New Hope caused some to raise their eyebrows. “When George started A New Hope, in the mid-1970s,” sound designer Ben Burtt remembers, “the trend was not to have densely scored movies. Music was used sparingly by today’s standards. ” Lucas nevertheless went on to order a soundtrack that played for much of the film’s running time .A New Hope went on to win Williams an Academy Award for his score that year .

And that was just the beginning of a successful collaboration. Part of this success has been continuity. Not only has Williams drawn on his previous material from the Star Wars saga for this film, but he has used, as with all the Star Wars films, the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) and (certainly for the PT) the London Voices choir. Despite working in a multitude of ways and scoring a wide variety of films, it is ironic that Williams is best known for his grand orchestral scores, like Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones and Star Wars.It is no coincidence that these films are part of a series, and for each film in the series Williams has been invited back to do the scoring. The massive scale of the LSO has always been integral to the Star Wars films, but in Episode III Williams carefully blends synthesised vocal work into the fabric of the score.

Williams uses the various sections of the orchestra to great effect. One could suggest that strings and woodwind moments could be quite natural for lush, romantic scenes, whereas brass and percussion will be battlised moments within the film.However, it is Williams’ art that he can juxtapose instruments in classically inopportune moments, yet still create a fantastic score. One of Williams’ pet preferences is the use of the French horn. Throughout the Star Wars films the French horn has always had prominence during the more emotional, quieter moments.

For example, the Binary Sunset scene in A New Hope (where Luke looks out over twin sunsets on Tatooine from outside his uncle’s farm) featured a French horn version of the Force Theme, which is also revisited note-for-note as Uncle Owen holds the newborn Luke in his arms looking out over a Binary Sunset at the close of Episode III.The solo French horn also plays a version of the Leia theme as the infant Leia is presented by Bail Organa to his wife. Not only do instrumentational choices such as this imbue the Episode III score with a sense of continuity within the compass of John Williams’ work, but also establishes itself as a score in a larger collection of Star Wars scores. The use of the LSO (a 100+ piece orchestra) and the London Voices (an over 180 strong choir) gives a large degree of, well, force, to the recordings.When Williams thinks a French horn solo will give the best results, he uses a solo French horn (such as the Binary Sunset homage on Tatooine), and if he thinks that the French horn is the instrument of choice but needs a thicker texture, or more resolute timbre then will write for all four horns (Timothy Jones, David Pyatt, John Ryan and Jonathan Lipton ).

It is this integral knowledge of how far to extend parts to instruments that is Williams’ forte. Williams can write in a myriad of different styles and genres.Perhaps no coincidence that his most well loved scores (most of which have a predominance of large orchestras) happen to be the biggest grossing films at the box office. From E.

T, Indiana Jones’, Jurassic Park, (in fact, think almost every Steven Spielberg film) to the recent Harry Potter films, large dramatic orchestra has been the way to go. Still, it is with films like Minority Report, Jaws (his first Oscar-winner), Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List, AI, Nixon, that emotional context and delicacy become just as important to Williams.Through Star Wars and his other big-orchestral works he can indulge his clear influences from the likes of Erich Korngold (himself an Oscar winner for The Adventures of Robin Hood {1938} ) and become the forefather of the ‘modern’ film score. Starting in the 1930s with the likes of Korngold, big orchestral scores were popular until the experimental 50s and 60s where jazz, world music and other influences would saturate the scoring community.

However, with the score for the then titled Star Wars (since renamed Episode IV - A New Hope), Williams returned the big orchestra to the fray, where it has resided ever since. Part of the effectiveness of Williams’ A New Hope score was his extensive use of the leitmotif device. In music drama, this is a marked melodic phrase or short passage which always accompanies the reappearance of a certain person, situation, abstract idea, or allusion in the course of the play; a sort of musical label. Also appears as a dominant and recurring theme.

With origins in the operas of Wagner, who wrote particular melodic or harmonic passages that the audience associated with certain characters such as the Sigmund theme from Wagner’s tetralogy Der Ring Des Nibelungen, Williams’ use of leitmotifs throughout the 30 year history of Star Wars is never more evident than in Revenge Of The Sith. The Force Theme, Luke’s Theme and Leia’s Theme all appeared in A New Hope and return in various (and perhaps their most emotional) guises in Revenge Of The Sith.The Imperial March (often quoted as Darth Vader’s Theme although differs from the A New Hope Vader theme), and Yoda’s Theme from The Empire Strikes Back return. Also returning is the Emperor’s Theme from Return Of The Jedi. It is through the use of these themes and tracked music from the PT that Williams creates a sense of continuity between the preceding five films and Revenge Of The Sith.

In terms of this score, Williams himself said in The Making of Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith The Final Chapter by J. W. Rinzler: “My first impression, whenever George shows me these films, is usually, My God, so much? I’m not going to be able to write all that. Because it goes from scene to scene, battle to battle, and fight to fight. I have to confess it’s always a little bit daunting when I first see these things.

I may ask George something like, how many weeks did you say we’ve got to do this in? And he’ll tell me and we laugh. ”