He was known for his use of leitmotif, a recurring musical phrase such as a theme or motif to identify a character or element of a narrative. Williams and Lucas knew that Star Wars, with its ensemble of colorful heroes and dastardly villains, needed an extra step to help the audience identify characters and elements during such a fast-paced swashbuckling space adventure, so they looked back not only to the golden age but also the influence of opera before that, and the music of Wagner. Coincidentally, some of these scores were later re-used in the very fantasy and science fiction serials that Lucas was trying recapture with his film, with Waxman’s Bride of Frankenstein notably showing up on the soundtrack of Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe in 1940. Both Prokofiev and Copland had entered the scoring world - with the former scoring films by Sergei Eisenstein such as Alexander Nevsky - and from there the works of composers such as Max Steiner ( King Kong), Franz Waxman ( Bride of Frankenstein), Erich Wolfgang Korngold ( The Sea Hawk), Miklos Rozsa ( Ben-Hur), and Bernard Herrmann ( Citizen Kane) typified what became to be known as the classical era, or “golden age” of film music. From the classical age of Beethoven, Mozart, and Haydn to the romanticism period of Mendelssohn, Liszt, and Wagne r, the work of Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Copland in the early 20th century, all of which trickled down further as sound cinema began. These sorts of influences would put us in touch with remembered theatrical experiences as well - all western experiences to be sure.”įrom there, you can begin to see the evolution of music itself. In a 1997 interview with Film Score Monthly, Williams talked of “music that would put us in touch with very familiar and remembered emotions, which for me as a musician translated into the use of a 19th-century operatic idiom… Wagner and this sort of thing. “In other words, for two hours, they could forget.” For such a concept, Lucas needed a musical score that would transport audiences to unfamiliar alien worlds while still keeping them grounded with a more traditional musical language, as opposed to the more avant-garde music often used for science fiction. “I’d make a film so rooted in imagination, that the grimness of everyday life would not follow the audience into the theater,” the notes state. In the liner notes of the original Star Wars soundtrack album, Lucas says he wrote the film as escapism from modern life. While that idea went out the window once Williams came into the picture, the seeds of European classical music remained. It was Spielberg who introduced Williams to his friend George Lucas, who purportedly toyed with the idea of using classical music for the film, as Stanley Kubrick had done with 2001: A Space Odyssey. The first was for his adaptation of Jerry Bock’s music for the big-screen version of Fiddler on the Roof, but his second was essentially for a two-note theme that still today acts as primordial shorthand for danger in the ocean: Steven Spielberg’s Jaws. From 1977 to 1983, he created one of the most beloved cycles of film music with the scores for Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi.īy the time he began writing the score to Star Wars - later known as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope - Williams was already on his way to becoming a household name, having won two Academy Awards. Only instead of coming from the mighty hands of Zeus, this boom originated from the pencil and baton of American composer John Williams. This created a fertile period in which the introduction of a heavy dose of musical romanticism was met with the force of a thunderbolt thrown from Mount Olympus itself. The divisiveness of the Vietnam War and the national scandal of Watergate saw a country in uncertain times. Much has been said and written about the mood of the 1970s, particularly in America. “It’s really a silent movie.” – George Lucas But we’ll start with maybe the most famous of all, so strap yourself in while we make the jump to hyperspace and travel back a long time ago to a galaxy far, far away… Welcome to the first installment of Franchising the Score, a column that will explore countless musical scores from all of your favorite movie franchises.
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