enjoyallneednothing-blog:

@corseque is someone in the fandom that I have mad respect for, as I’m sure all of you do as well! She made a video with every instance of The Force Theme/Binary Sunset musical leitmotif composed by John Williams, as it used across all 8 saga films. It’s 30 dang minutes long and a thing of glory – and she sent it to me with a request for some meta. I’m using this video as my main reference point.  Here is her original request:

“I put together 99% of the times the Force Theme (Binary Sunset)* plays in all the Star Wars movies, including The Last Jedi. Since this music is used in interesting ways during Rey and Ben’s scenes together (the fight on Starkiller, the hand touch, the decision in Snoke’s Throne Room, etc), I wanted to edit all of them in one place for easier comparison reference, mostly so I could tempt tumblr users @enjoyallneednothing-blog and @reylo-musings (and anyone else who has more musical knowledge than me) to look through this and answer this question asked me by @superkeenstarwarsbean:

“I heard something interesting in the scene where Ben and Rey touch hands. The three notes played with the left hand in Across the Stars plays softly and lowly under the force theme. Or at least something very similar. It’s hidden and hard to hear but there is definitely three notes played in much the same way its played in the prequel love theme.” 

In this video, the hand touch is @25:31. As far as I can hear, this playing of the Force Theme sounds different than any other time the Force Theme is used in all the movies (I put them all together here just so people could easily check my work and correct me if I’m wrong).

interesting – the Force Theme seems to be used sometimes as romantic music during a few of Anakin and Padme’s scenes in the prequels, even when the Force is not being referenced or used. also interesting – how many, many times this theme appears in TLJ, especially compared to TFA.”

I want to answer the question of @superkeenstarwarsbean AND properly celebrate the awesome power of this theme, and I’m so sorry, but I really don’t think I can do it justice in one meta. So I’m breaking it up into three parts! The Force Theme in the Original Trilogy. The Force Theme in the Prequel Trilogy. And the The Force Theme in the Sequel Trilogy. I will get to the original question in the Sequel Trilogy segment – and I plan on having them all done by the end of this week, so not a huge wait I hope! 🙂

The Force Theme:

Screenshot from Mark Richard’s Film Music Notes Analysis, which I will be quoting from extensively. 

It’s entirely possible that this is John Williams’ most well known and beloved piece of music – and that’s saying a lot. Can you remember the first time you saw the scene in Ep IV: A New Hope, where young Luke gazes out at the binary sunset, and the questioning french horn swells with strings and harp into a mystical theme of longing and struggle? I know you do. Cuz I do. I remember that shit like it was yesterday.

In his comprehensive catalog of John Williams Star Wars Leitmotifs, Frank Lehman labels this theme “Force/Obi-Wan/All Purpose.” We’ll get in to why the Force Theme is sometimes used in an “All Purpose” manner, but I really hate when I see it described as being used “like wallpaper.” That’s a common theme in criticism of The Last Jedi score and essentially, I think it’s hogwash. Balderdash. Poppycock. You get my drift. 

This scene above is actually the second time we hear the Force Theme – the first time is a brief statement as Leia gives the Death Star plans to R2-D2. The music segues into Princess Leia’s theme as we get the wide shot of the Princess and Artoo in the hallway.  As New Yorker Music Critic Alex Ross notes:

“Something more substantial happens in the celebrated scene in which young Luke Skywalker looks longingly toward a horizon lit by twin setting suns, dreaming of a life beyond the desert planet Tatooine. Williams writes a melancholy, expansive G-minor theme for solo horn, which is soon taken up by full strings. Akin to the noble C-minor melody that Wagner writes for Siegfried, this leitmotif represents not only Luke but also the mystical medium known as the Force. Buhler points out that the music is heard before the Force has been explained; thus, in classic Wagnerian fashion, it foreshadows the not-yet-known. This may be the point at which “Star Wars” steps out of the adolescent-adventure arena and into the realm of modern myth.”

But what’s actually happening with this iconic theme? Why can it be used in so many different scenarios and work SO WELL for what’s happening onscreen, and in our character’s inner worlds of emotion? Or as Richards says, “Emotionally, the theme ranges from the gentle poignancy of cues like this that can bring a tear to one’s eye to a brash militarism that can rouse the spirits and make us root for the good guys. So what is it that gives this theme its emotional qualities and makes it such a perfect fit for what we see onscreen?”

I’m putting the rest behind a cut because it got way, way long 🙂

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