It’s difficult to overestimate
the magnitude of John Williams’ achievement
over the course of the six Star Wars
movies. It’s a truism that before Star
Wars in 1977, the frankly operatic
‘Golden Age’ style of film scoring had
fallen into abeyance, replaced by a
sparser, more modern approach – as in
much of Jerry Goldsmith’s best work
of the late-1960s – or the nakedly contemporary
sound of, say, Lalo Schifrin’s Dirty
Harry.
Fortunately for us,
Charles Gerhardt’s Korngold records
for RCA must have been on John Williams’
turntable in the mid-1970s, since no-one
who has heard them could miss the influence
Korngold’s music exerted on the original
Star Wars. This is famously the
case in the comparison of Williams’
main theme with Korngold’s for the 1942
melodrama Kings Row. More importantly,
Korngold’s scoring ethos – his concept
of a film score as ‘an opera without
words’ – informs Williams’ approach
to his own ‘space opera’. That is to
say, Williams’ Star Wars scores
are genuinely through-composed in exactly
the manner of grand opera. What this
means is much more than just the basic
idea of adopting musical leitmotifs
to depict specific characters, groups
or concepts (Luke, Leia, the Rebel Alliance,
the Empire, the Force etc). Like Puccini’s
Tosca or Wagner’s Ring
cycle, the music of Star Wars
forms a unified whole, architecturally
conceived, within which specific themes
are subordinate to the grander plan
and develop as the drama progresses.
In the specific case
of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith,
this Korngoldian idea of an ‘opera without
words’ is arguably perfected in a way
that no other film score – either Golden
Age or present day – has accomplished
before. Why? Because this score links
the whole impressive edifice together,
at last making six individual works
into a single piece.
It’s worth looking
briefly at just one of the techniques
Williams has used to achieve this: melodic
variation. Consider the following pairs:
- Anakin’s theme – Darth Vader’s theme
- Amidala’s theme – Princess Leia’s
theme
- Duel of the Fates – Battle of the
Heroes
- ‘Anakin’s Betrayal’ theme – The
Force theme
All are thematically
related to each other, the latter growing
organically from the former according
to the established principles of musical
composition. The fact that some of the
latter pieces were written decades before
the former only makes this theme and
variation method even more interesting.
Technically the new themes for Episodes
I-III are variations on the older ones
for Episodes IV-VI. In the chronology
of the drama, the situation is reversed:
it is the new theme (say, ‘Amidala’s
theme’) that is the ‘original’ Theme
and the older theme (in this case, ‘Princess
Leia’s theme’) that has now become the
Variation.
To my mind, nowhere
is this more subtly and effectively
conceived than in the case of the cue
described on the Sith album as
‘Anakin’s Betrayal’ (track 4), in which
the pastoral optimism of the ‘Force
theme’ is twisted and subverted into
a dark lament. Musically it’s a brilliant
sleight-of-hand, but also a paradigm
example of Williams’ gifts as a dramatist:
what could be more appropriate to accompany
the destruction of the Jedi than their
own ‘Force theme’ transmuted from gold
into base metal?
It’s worth noting in
this context that the Sith soundtrack
sequence cues out of film order, according
to Williams’ common practice when releasing
albums. The composer’s argument is that
this produces a more satisfying listening
experience away from the screen, but
in the case of the Star Wars
saga, I must disagree. By taking the
music out of its intended running order,
the development of the principal themes,
that is their careful reworking into
new forms, is lost.
In the movie, for example,
there’s a noticeable change in mood
as the music moves into the final reels.
Indeed, from the first sight of the
volcanic planet Mustafar, Williams begins
the musical task of preparing us for
the final confrontation by shifting
both the thematic content and the orchestration
into darker, more aggressive mode: tr.
10, ‘Anakin’s Dark Deeds’ with its splendidly
grim fanfare as the camera focuses on
Anakin, standing alone after slaughtering
the Separatists, a single tear running
down his cheek. When, at last, the ‘Battle
of the Heroes’ erupts with all the bravura
the LSO can muster, we’ve had at least
ten minutes of musical preamble; on
the album, this build-up is not apparent.
Although presented
as a standalone piece on the album,
‘Battle of the Fates’ is actually a
companion to ‘Duel of the Fates’ from
Episode I, and in the movie segues
into that piece as Yoda and Palpatine
fight in the Senate. Again, this connection
is not explicitly made on the CD, which
is a shame since, again, the sense of
musical architecture is lost.
Finally, the whole
comes full circle with straightforward
reprises of Luke and Leia’s themes and
the Force theme itself, scored just
as we heard it in Star Wars when
Luke stares pensively at the binary
sunset - visually echoed by Owen and
Beru with baby Luke here. And just in
case we hadn’t already got the idea,
the End Credits suite ties us back into
Episode IV with ‘Leia’s theme’
and the ‘Throne Room’ music.
So, in sum, this is
a magnificent achievement as a single
score, an even more marvellous piece
of musical construction when put in
the context of the other five movies,
Revenge of the Sith immediately
takes a place in the select canon of
unarguably great film music.
Mark Walker
Ian Lace adds:-
After Mark’s erudite
review of the Revenge of the Sith
score and John Williams’ brilliant through-composition
of the whole six-episodes of Star
Wars, I would just add
a few more words specifically
about The Revenge of the Sith.
All tracks arrest the ear by virtue
of the cleverly wrought harmonies and
colourful orchestrations. John Williams’
film music remains nonpareil.
Commencing with the
customary Star Wars fanfares
and Overture common to all six films,
new material soon grows organically:
a march cold and cruel as the Empire
that is to triumph from the close of
this third episode and a prelude to
the familiar march we hear in Episodes
IV-VI. ‘Anakin’s Dream’ is an impressive
creation with the strings singing most
tenderly of his love of Padmé
before the dreaming swirls horrifically
downwards to bleak nightmare as Anakin
‘foresees’ the death of his Princess.
This bleak landscape is echoed in the
wailings and stark undertow of ‘Padmé’s
Ruminations’. The music here is remarkably
reminiscent of Vaughan Williams’ Sixth
Symphony, one of that composer’s most
despondent and bleakest scores and incidentally
about the horrors of war. Extraordinary
too, is the music of ‘Battle of the
Heroes’, so powerful in its use of men’s
voices and its novel rhythmic patterns
and propulsion. I agree with Mark’s
assessment of ‘Anakin’s Betrayal’. The
brooding, manifestly evil low string
and woodwind figures of ‘Palpatine’s
teachings’ lead, again, naturally to
the crushing Empire March so familiar
in the later Episodes, filmed first.
Another standout track
‘Anakin’s Dark Deeds’ illustrates just
how well Williams penetrates to the
heart of the psychology of a scene.
Here starkly stated is the onset of
madness, and, consequently black cruelty,
upon the vulnerable, gullible Anakin.
Without resorting to cheap mickey-mousing
how well Williams underscores the Frankenstein-like
transformation of Anakin into Darth
Vader. Once more the score leads naturally
to the dread Vader music of the original
Star Wars. And how moving is
the choral and orchestral farewell to
Padmé fulfilling her sad destiny
in giving birth to the twins who would
ultimately triumph over the Empire in
their future fight with Vader. The 13-minute
‘A New Hope and End Credits’, bringing
in all the familiar themes, is beautifully
performed and is a fitting golden nostalgic
conclusion to a most satisfying album.
I have to say I was
less impressed with the accompanying
DVD. Granted that it affords the opportunity
to hear Williams’ music without the
imposition of dialogue and often ear-splitting
sound effects. However the constant
rapid change of clips, too often of
fast-moving battle sequences, presented
too frequently in random and non-logical
order - jumping backwards and forwards
through all six episodes - soon becomes
very disconcerting, distracting and
wearing on the senses. On the more positive
side, the music often gave me insights
I had previously overlooked. For instance,
the remarkable similarity of Princess
Leia’s theme to Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade
and how nice it was to be thrilled once
again by the concluding Elgar-like ‘Throne-Room’
music.
Not to be missed.
Ian Lace
Gary Dalkin adds:-
Really there’s little
point me saying anything other than
in an astonishing career this is one
of John Williams’ finest works. A triumphant
finale to the six film sequence which
collectively stands unchallenged as
the finest achievement in the history
of film music. Absolutely essential.
Gary Dalkin
On our sister site, Film
Music on the Web, this disc was
the reviewer’s choice as Film Music
album of 2005
London Symphony Orchestra/John Williams 
DVD
Star Wars: A Musical Journey narrated
by Ian McDiarmid 
