Star Sounds

STAR SOUNDS

JV Explains the hidden musical signals in the films’ scores

by John Villanova

In my humble opinion, you can’t talk about Star Wars without talking about the score. Composed largely by the legend (and recent Kobe Bryant collaborator) John Williams, the music of Star Wars is in many cases as iconic as its characters and “wow” moments. If you don’t trust me, consider this quote from the Wookieepedians: “The music for the films [is] especially distinctive as it has been known to paint musical pictures of such accessibility and precision. Williams’ invaluable contribution to the tripletrilogy and story films stands as an unsurpassed feat in the history of film scoring in terms of breadth, thematicdevelopment and cultural impact.”

That’s high praise, sure. But Star Wars scholars (AKA huge nerds) have connected the score to the Late Romantic period of classical composition, suggesting that Williams intentionally included nods to important composers like Richard Strauss and Igor Stravinsky throughout the films. This grounded them in a kind of sonic framework where a musical gesture—strings, horns, drums— could foretell what was coming. Williams once suggested that these connections helped the film speak become a kind of “cross-cultural myth.”

These gestures are called motifs (or if you want to get really technical, leitmotifs), and they’re the lifeblood of a film or operatic score. They tailor our viewing by acting as the types of musical cues we’ve learned through our consumption of film, TV, and even radio, emblematic of the “show-not-tell” rule of good storytelling. German composer Richard Wagner* is credited with popularizing their usage, where a particular melody or instrumental would denote the entrance of a character or an upcoming major plot development.

Films of the Seventies seized upon this idea, as the dawn of the Hollywood blockbuster meant everything was bigger, including the budget for film scoring. With those budgets came composers willing to use motifs to add to the sense of drama. Jaws is the quintessential example—that two-note signal is a surefire way to create anxiety, isn’t it?

Further, in the case of Star Wars, I’d argue that the score serves an even more important purpose: It gives the series a level of seriousness or gravitas it would otherwise lack. In a world where Ewoks (read: Muppets) manage to defeat the heavily-armored stormtroopers on Endor in Return of the Jedi and Jar Jar Binks somehow breathes, the series has always had to walk a tightrope between mass appeal for kids and the serious stakes of intergalactic war. The music, I’d argue, enriches and deepens the feelings of excitement, fear, and wonder that are why people return again and again to the original trilogy of films despite their age.

Madeline Vega

So for this issue, I thought I’d do a kind of musical primer, unpacking some of the most important Star Wars motifs and their meaning.

Star Wars Theme - “Dun DUN… Dundundunduuuun Dun.” This sad facsimile—which probably looks like a transcription of a college a cappella group’s beatbox backing track to “Let Me Clear My Throat”—is my best attempt at writing out the main Star Wars theme. You know the one I’m talking about: It plays as the credits scroll and at times of high adventure or stress. The strings swell, the bass drums bomb. This, my friends, is an intergalactic opera. There are stakes. It matters. This fanfare pops up whenever the stakes rise in that galaxy far, far away. I don’t know about you, but even after dozens of viewings, I still get goosebumps sometimes.

“Imperial March” - Let’s try one more phonetic exercise. “Dun dun dun dundundun dundundun. DUN DUN DUN dundundun dundundun.” This military march with snare drums and horns usually plays when Darth Vader is doing anything— it’s essentially the anthem of the Empire/ First Order/bad guys. What’s fascinating is that if you listen throughout Episodes I, II, and III, you’ll hear callbacks to it, growing louder and more realized as Anakin Skywalker descends into fear, anger, and hate that characterize the Dark Side.

“The Force” Theme - As our young hero Luke Skywalker stands alone on Tatooine, cast against a double-moon “binary sunset,” a single French horn introduces a mystical melody before swelling strings repeat it as our hero stares out across a desert landscape. In a piece on the series’s music, The New Yorker’s Alex Ross suggests, “This may be the point at which Star Wars steps out of the adolescent-adventure arena and into the realm of modern myth.” What’s cool is that it happens before we ever learn about The Force in the first place, so by the time we start hearing Ben Kenobi sharing its ways, we’re already primed for it. That’s great storytelling.

“Rebel Fanfare” - This is the shortest and hardest to describe—a quick burst of horns that plays whenever we check in with Admiral Akbar (he of “it’s a trap!” fame) and the rest of the Rebel Fleet. Someone who knows more about music than me says, “the theme itself is constructed out of brassy major block chords that progress in parallel motion through intervals of a third, resulting in an appropriate heraldic flavor,” which is an appropriate way to describe it for all intents and purposes.

“Duel of the Fates” - One might argue that this piece of scoring—which first appears during the menage-a-lightsaber duel between Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, and Darth Maul—is the only good thing to come out of Episode I. Between the tense strings and the choir chanting a Celtic poem translated into Sandskrit, this piece really sums up the darkness of the prequel trilogy. “Duel of the Fates” actually crossed over into the mainstream: Its music video debuted on TRL, the only classical piece to have done so. This is the gothic high drama that works every time.

* This is about the only thing we should credit Wagner with—he was a pretty evil dude.

Sounds funny

Star Wars’ music, like its characters and best lines*, has taken on a life of its own in the 41 years since A New Hope debuted. These are some of my favorite appearances of Star Wars music outside of the series itself.

by John Villanova

The Simpsons (Season 10, Episode 9)

After quelling a riot at a sci-fi convention and saving Mayor Quimby and Mark Hamill in the process, Homer becomes the mayor’s personal bodyguard. Never ones to waste a guest appearance, the creators had Hamill pull double duty, starring in a dinner-theater performance of Guys and Dolls featuring a stirring performance of “Luke Be a Jedi Tonight” and a “use the forks” joke.

Saturday Night Live (Season 3 Episode 10)

Starring as Nick the lounge singer, Bill Murray stretches out the Star Wars theme and adding lyrics that still make me laugh every time I hear them. “When these Star Waaaars come to an end?!”

“Star Wars Cantina”

The satirical crooner Richard Cheese (yes really) released a parody of “Copacabana” in 1997 that is definitely worth a listen. Set in the Cantina of Mos Eisley,*** the song introduces all of the characters and is full of in-jokes for serious fans. Try it at your next dinner party—there’ll be “Music and blasters and old Jedi masters at the Star Waaars...”

**The best Star Wars line is “That’s not a moon. That’s a space station” and this is not up for debate. ***Han shot first.