[Lord Aquaman]

Can't stand the music of the Star Wars prequels? Well, here's a game to take care of that: toss off music that could stand in the place of such musical pieces as "Duel of Fates" and "Across the Stars" (episode 2's quote unquote "love theme") so long as the rhtym or lyrics some how match the action going on. My suggestions:

Replace "The Duel of Fates" with U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday" or Van Halen's "Runnin' With the Devil".

Replace the AOTC love theme with something like "With Or Without You" by U2... no wait, that song's too good for AOTC, scratch that. Maybe Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing"... no, that one's also too good. Let's use "How Deep Is Your Love" by the Bee Gees.

This post has been edited by Lord Aquaman: 16 December 2004 - 01:26 PM

[Helena]

Personally, I loved Duel of the Fates. I agree that the love theme was a bit sappy, though.

And shouldn't this be in the Star Wars forum?

[Chefelf]

And shouldn't this be in the Star Wars forum?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm gonna move this right along to the Star Wars Forum. The "game" connection is a little thin.

I have heard negative things about Duel of the Fates and that it sounds like a Christmas Carol. Personally I rather liked it.

[Just your average movie goer]

I usually agree with you on Star Wars matters, Chefelf and I nearly ALWAYS agree with Helena. But I have to disagree on Duel of the Fates. That piece is so damn repetitive that if it was a vinyl record, I'd just be checking the needle the whole time, trying to work out if it was stuck.

[Vwing]

I'm going to stay out of this, because if I get into this, I'm going to say some things I'll regret, because I get very heated on this matter. I don't care how much you hate the prequels, and I don't like em either, but the scores are fabulous. Listen to the TPM score in its entirety, it's beautiful and haunting, a much more subdued, complex version of Star Wars in most aspects. You have the grand DOTF (which I love), followed by Anakin's theme, an innocent theme, but unlike the Ewok theme, with a sense of true foreboding, and little hints of the Imperial March sprinkled (Williams is the master at mixing themes). Probably the most classic SW track on there is The Flag Parade, but all of the music is just fabulous. The use of chorals when they are going to Otoh Gungah and going through the core is really haunting like nothing we've really heard in a SW movie before, perhaps the closest being the Emperor's Throne Room in ROTJ. And Qui-Gon's Funeral is beautiful, using the same voices from Duel of the Fates in a much more subdued manner with violins. It evokes memories of Vader's pyre, but is even more solemn and foreboding rather than bringing closure, making it a nice parallel to ROTJ.

AOTC is a little worse, only because there isn't as much of it. For the battle scenes, Williams (understandably so) used some music from TPM. However, I can't understand how anyone could not like Across the Stars. It's a beautiful piece. If you asked me how musically to express the idea of forbidden love, I would immediately just point to Across the Stars. It's gorgeous, tragic, grand, like a 30s love theme combined with the SW universe. I think it is my single favorite piece from any Williams' Star Wars scores.

The Arena is another great track (JYAMG would say it's repetitive, but a theme can be arranged differently, and that's what is done with both the Arena and DOTF). Not to mention, The Arena gives us a great ending using the Force Theme and an almost atonal version of the "Here they come" theme. You know, "Da da Dum Da Da Dum Da Daaaaaaaaaaa, dada da dum" only much stranger.

Return to Tatooine gives a great performance of the Force Theme that invokes Binary Sunset from ANH, and leads into a much stronger use of DOTF (which is much better as chase music than as battle music, interestingly enough. It fits perfectly with Anakin going to find his mother on the speeder, but is a bit out of place in the actual duel).

Confrontation with Count Dooku is much more introspective and subdued, but builds and builds until we reach what I believe to be the best use of music in the entire saga. We have a grand version of the Imperial March as we see the Clone Army, which segues perfectly into a final, all-out playing of Across the Stars, with a nearly perfect transition to the End Credits that is the musical version of To Be Continued. Just beautiful, effective and affecting music, that speaks louder than any words said in the prequels it has been wasted on.

My rant's over. Talk amongst yourselves. I may be back.

*I also just noticed I did not stay out of it, by the very nature of my rant. So I guess I have gotten into it. Damn you all.

This post has been edited by Vwing: 17 December 2004 - 03:47 PM

[Vwing]

And you know what, JYAMG, sometimes, the function of music is not necessarily to be memorable. From just watching the TPM (though much of it is due to the quality of movie) I don't remember the beautiful chorals in the Funeral for a Jedi because all that stupid dialogue is dubbed over it. I don't remember the music in There's Always a Bigger Fish because I have Jar-Jar and Qui-Gon bantering like morons. I don't remember the whispered vocals just before Qui-Gon dies because I'm paying attention (or trying to) to a pointless swordfight hearing the sounds of lightsabers over the truly haunting chants. But when I hear all these things on CD, alone, without the disturbance of the movie itself, goddamn it's one memorable experience.

So you know what, maybe the music may not be memorable, because it's not as loud, as noticeable as it was in the OT. But that doesn't mean it's not as good, it is just serving a different purpose. Williams' scores, as I've said many times, reflect movies that could have been, could prequels with a real sense of emotion, which could have combined the grandeur of the OT of Star Wars with the grim tragic story of the prequels. The music did this amazingly well. The movie...not so much.

This post has been edited by Vwing: 17 December 2004 - 03:54 PM

[Lord Aquaman]

And you know what, JYAMG, sometimes, the function of music is not necessarily to be memorable.  From just watching the TPM (though much of it is due to the quality of movie) I don't remember the beautiful chorals in the Funeral for a Jedi because all that stupid dialogue is dubbed over it.  I don't remember the music in There's Always a Bigger Fish because I have Jar-Jar and Qui-Gon bantering like morons.  I don't remember the whispered vocals just before Qui-Gon dies because I'm paying attention (or trying to) to a pointless swordfight hearing the sounds of lightsabers over the truly haunting chants.  But when I hear all these things on CD, alone, without the disturbance of the movie itself, goddamn it's one memorable experience.

So you know what, maybe the music may not be memorable, because it's not as loud, as noticeable as it was in the OT.  But that doesn't mean it's not as good, it is just serving a different purpose.  Williams' scores, as I've said many times, reflect movies that could have been, could prequels with a real sense of emotion, which could have combined the grandeur of the OT of Star Wars with the grim tragic story of the prequels.  The music did this amazingly well.  The movie...not so much.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I never said I disliked the prequel music. I actually have no opinion of the prequel music, I just know a lot of other people out there hate the stuff like the plague so I figured I'd toss this thread out there.

[Vwing]

Aquaman, I wasn't accusing you of anything. I'm just giving my very strong opinion on the matter. I'm not trying to attack anyone here though, don't worry

[Michel Orla]

I agree with JYAMG. For the most part the music is one of the few constant good things in the PT (that and the sound). The Tusken Camp and Homest is especially good because the music evokes happier memories of better movies (including the Tusken theme, and Darth Vader's theme briefly at the end). But Duel of the Fates doesn't do anything for me. It just doesn't seem Star Wars. Id rather even hear the Ewok theme then DOTF.

This post has been edited by Michel Orla: 17 December 2004 - 06:26 PM

[Despondent]

this is a game, right?

I'd like to hear the Celebration Sequence from TPM (you remember, with that incredible cgi of the gungan marching band. Hey George, Special Edition THAT! ) music swapped with the Original Yub-yub song from Jedi, and vice versa.

Just a lark. But hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[Garth Vader]

I love the music for the prequels. it's a shame that maybe if the quality of the films were better then the score would be as well.

eg take the clone war and final battles at the end of episode II - all cut and pasted from episode I since wilianms didn't have enough time to write a score for scene due to lucas' constant chopping and changing of the scene.

[Helena]

I know what people mean about DotF not sounding 'Star Wars', since most Star Wars music is purely orchestral. But I happen to love choral music. As for being 'repetitive', many pieces of classical music take this approach, i.e. repeating the same basic theme in different configurations. It can still be incredibly effective if done right - Karl Jenkins' 'The Armed Man' and Edvard Grieg's 'Hall of the Mountain King' are good examples.