It's crazy a new Star Wars trailer featuring new John Williams music has gotten no discussion here. It's generated pages worth at JWFan. To be fair, the new arrangements aren't that different from the pre-existing versions. If it were something like the Lincoln or War Horse trailer music, everybody would be singing a different tune.
well, is it new John Williams music? There is part of the end of the end title from Empire Strikes back, parr of the Yoda and Luke moments. Slightly newly orchestrated and newly recorded. It sounds heavily edited.
In the middle there is a few seconds entirely new.
It is new John Williams Arrangements for the Two Trailers. It was Performed by LA Artist.
Did you all notice the tremendous bass on the first Trailer of Star Wars Music. Amazing.
yes. there is no NEW arrangement, it is edited together and NEW recordings. Except for a few seconds right before the music climaxes in the end of the Empires end credits.
Feels to me like an original composition even though he adapts some moments from Empire Strikes Back. The exception is the piano note which kind of seems like somebody edited in and not something John Williams would have done. Though it is kind of funny to imagine they brought in Randy Kerber or another one of Hollywood's top pianists to contribute to this performance.
The force theme has approximately 300 different arrangements from the 6 films so it is not easy to notice that it is original but, IMO, it is. I love how it segues into the brass hits which all punctuate and perfectly match the action on screen, the awe in the look of the female character, etc.. The coda to Yoda and the Force cue is perfectly timed as the trailer goes into character curtain call mode. There's also a lot of detail like the "windy" orchestration with the shot of Luke touching R2 that matches the visuals and on and on. The usual detail that we get just like when Williams scores directly to movie.
They were smart to have Williams do the Star Wars trailers for the first time because it adds a lot!
It does not sound like a composition. It sounds like bits and pieces edited together. Noone knows if Williams was even involved in that assembly of bits.
It would make most sense if he recorded this when he recorded his first composition (and we know the first was an original composition and we know a big chuck of this new teaser music must be original.) My guess is he was instructed to incorporate references to Empire Strike Back because the second teaser is pushing harder the nostalgia angle. Probably like Williams was asked to use references to Empires Strikes Back in the final battle in Revenge of the Sith. Somebody had the brilliant idea that we are Pavlovian dogs who start salivating at the sound of certain bells going off even if it makes for a more awkward listening experience, especially for those of us used to the original context. And so he crafted music with a blend of past references and new material that works very well with the images. Unless somebody can explain where the new music came from, that would make the most sense to me. But there' s also the piano note, the swooshes, etc. that are generic trailer cliches mixed in.
Regardless of whether the music was newly recorded or not, I thought the teaser was great and did exactly what is was supposed to do. Make people excited about what is to come. I personally like Abram's stuff so I have high expectations for this. If the music was newly recorded, it was spot on.
