Okay, shut the fuck up everyone and go back to discussing the score.

This has been a Holonet Security Announcement issued by Emperor Palpatine.

The only thing that i dont like of the Soundtrack is that its too short

As far as the entire soundtrack goes I'm not sure what to think. I definitely haven't been "moved" as some others have. I mean if I wanted to hear any OT stuff I already have all the cds. Just because it is included in ep 3 doesn't make me think "Star Wars is back!" or anything like that. I do like some of the slightly different ways the themes were used however.

The music as a whole seems to have a lot more emotional content than episodes 1 and 2. I like the darker feel and stlyistic difference. It will be interesting to see how people react to Padme's death/funeral scene. If any sort of visceral response is seen in the audience I think it will largely be because of the music. I seriously doubt it would be because people feel for Padme's character unless she is a lot better in Ep 3.

I think I definitely like BotH more than DotF. DotF has always seemed a bit contrived to me, although I know many don't feel that way.

The end credits will probably be edited anyway. They edited the ending of the AOTC credits, and they'll probably take some cues out of this one for time.

I dunno... my views seem to diverge from the common preference of Battle of the Heroes. It's good, sure (although I think it woulda been hecka lot better with a trumpet fanfare - maybe even solo trumpet - at the beginning, rather than horn.), but I'm just lured into "Grevious Speaks to Lord Sidious (Grevious's Theme). Maybe it's just that I have a real hankering for leitmotifs, I'm not sure. Certainly Grevious's Theme presents a more prevalent theme. In the end, this soundtrack is both epic and original - and I like it very much - but when viewed as a whole, it seems to exude the "underscore"-type of soundtrack, where the music is a supplement to the story, and not a complement. And the music complementing the story is what has made Star Wars so great musically.

I suppose to be completely fair, I will just have to wait and see how this gets played out on screen, when I can associate music with visual images and emotion.

Perhaps a score that exists under a nearly relentless barrage of sound design.

_Mike

It's the age-old battle. I've only had one sound designer who was willing to sit down with me during production and compare notes so we didn't step on each other. But I'm surprised that Burtt wouldn't be more sensitive to how effective a soundtrack can be when score and sound design work together. Sometimes, sound design alone is the answer, sometimes music-forward is the answer. Usually, a carefully considered balance is the best solution. But just having both disciplines throw everything out there and letting the mixer pull faders around is sadly the norm.

In terms of the contribution to the emotional drama of a movie - which is greater music or sound design? - I can only say this:

Nobody buys sound effects soundtracks to movies. People don't post on messageboards saying that a hydraulic door sound effect was so good it made them cry. Sound design may be a crucial and at times emotional element to a film soundtrack, but music is where the heart is.

_Mike

If nothing else, I would be surprised that after 5 Star Wars movies with Williams, this wouldn't have been fleshed out earlier. I mean - there didn't seem to be as big a problem with this in any of the other scores, with the possible exception of the aurally lackluster AotC.
Perhaps it is as I said, and I will just need to hear this in its full silver-screen glory to appreciate it.

My personal soundtrack to he Prequel stuff, is DEFINATLY this one, my favorite section from the score is prolly midway through track 10, that new theme that he's introduced there is just magical...so emotive.

Love it.

That's a great point about the 'underscore' aspect of this new music. I'm a little bummed about the lack of new, hummable themes (ESB still takes the prize for that in my book, what with Yoda, Han & Leia, Cloud City, Asteroid Field, Imperial March... hell, even sections of the Hoth Battle I enjoy humming along to), but I hear a lot of interesting sections that sound well suited to support interesting on-screen moments. It sounds more suited to that function than the TPM or AOTC scores were.

I really can't judge until I see the movie and get the requisite attachments, but at this point I'd still count TPM as my favorite among the prequel scores, as far as what I'd rather pop in my CD player and listen to. Though I am a BIG 'Across the Stars' fan.

THANK YOU / THANK YOU / THANK YOU GUYS!

It´s soooo cool that you made a mirror for us Europeans possible. It´s so great to listen to this. I am really happy (and this is the first time ever I got music from the net!)

Greetings blubbel

My favorite thing about the ROTS soundtrack is that there are hints of TPM, AOTC, ANH and ESB woven into the pieces, connecting this episode to the other episodes through music.

For those that use newsgroups alt.binaries.starwars has the complete soundtrack. I was able to download it yesterday. I tried the first link on this page and I got Page Not Found. I am guessing that the page probably had too many hits or they were forced to shut down. If you try yousendit that is only up for a short while.

Could someone throw up another mirror? I grabbed them from the original site this afternoon but it turns out half of them didn't download properly and are corrupted.

Yeah and I'm tardy to the party (har) and DP's site is down - or at least when I click his link I get a big ol' 404.

Can you help out an old 49'er?

You felt like you were just told a beautiful story at the end of these 15 tracks.


Indeed. Good write

Wow much thanks. This has to be the best Star Wars score since Empire Strikes Back.

I don't think that I can really judge this soundtrack against the others until I have a few days or weeks to cool off. I'm so psyched about it right now that I can't listen objectively. It's been said before, but I don't think it quite matches the ESB soundtrack. For me, nothing matches the perfection of the quick strings around the 2:00 mark in Asteroid Field.

But I guess I don't really have any context to judge the film by, except for the spoiler images running through my head. In time, maybe it'll move up above ESB, like after I see the flick the music goes against.



Definitely agree. Everyone's trying to compare this DotF, but there really two very different tunes.

Great review though.

You can't judge the score from the soundtrack, no matter how weird that sounds.

Alot of these pieces will be altered for the score, and there's still a bunch of music, themes, cues that are probably not present in the soundtrack.

That being said, I think there's ALOT of potential in this score from what we've heard and I'm really excited. However, I was also really excited for the AOTC score when I heard the soundtrack, and we all know how that turned out.

I'm not an 'OT sheep purist' at all for those of you that know me, but I really don't think these PT scores come close to the music of the OT. I'm not talking about simple themes, but the fluidity and overall score of the picture. I hope to be proven wrong on May 19.

Thanks for hosting these... excellent music. My favorites so far... the Intro, Anakin's dream, Obi vs Anakin, and the Closer. Haven't got a real chance to listen to the whole thing yet.

Something I was surprised NOT to hear is the Death Star Theme in the ending piece... I thought for sure Williams would put it in when they show Tarkin, Vader and Palps standing on the bridge.

EDIT. As far as other influences in the soundtrack, I hear Jurassic Park in the beginning of General Grievous... sounds like when Nedry is stealing the embryos.

Well the original laserdisc version of the OT is better mixed then the newer dvd. They fucked up the mix for ANH dvd.

For one thing i really hope Lucas will leave the score the way it was meant. Meaning no odd cuts or replacing shit with old shit.

Ben Burtt is one of the reasons i got into sound design but he sure is shit as an editor.

Some of the butchering was so obvious in AOTC that i really made me sick to me stomach.

I hope ROTS will have a better balance of music and editing.

Very nice review! You captured a lot of my thoughts!

Status Report:

* thepsychotic.web1000.com website is in the process of being taken down.

* I have the first 8 tracks with a higher quality bitrate @ 256 kbps. When we get them all, the tracks will be upped to another new website.

Awesome, DP! You rock!!


btw, anyone has an idea where Anakins dark deeds will play? Its such a unlike SW cue so im curious.

Been listing to the whole score non stop since yesterday. I fuckin love love LOVEEEEEEEEE it!!!!!!

I heard it plays during the hologram of Anakin killing the people in the jedi temple. Makes sense title-wise anyway.

Dark Deeds is one of my favorites!

That's awesome, but maybe go for VBR 320kbps? :P

Ok whenever your 256Kbps version is up, I'll Mirror it for ya!

the first time I heard Rebel Fleet was several weeks before the movie, my college buddies and I geeked out on the score, and unfortunately we knew how it was going to end, if there was one book that shouldn't have been released before the film it was that one, but that was 25 years ago.
Its a great piece, and yes you can hear Throne Room interpolated in there, but it was sad and a downer. Like I said we must agree to disagree, but I always reserve the right to change my mind when I see the film and how the score works in it, since we know that Lucas will pull a Michael Myers on the score, and the end titles will be different than those on the album.

Padme's Ruminations sounds like it was scored by Brad Fiedel.

I'm running through the 6 tracks I managed to download..

I'll say that the first time I heard the end credits I thought it was strange having the ANH throne room inserted into the score for as long as it was, considering it's a score coming from the end of the next movie.

There is a wide gap in time between episode 3 and 4, the Imperial reign has just started at the end of the movie, that should be recognized before a new hope cue.

I'd have liked an Imperial theme thrown in there, and then possibly an uplifiting Luke theme to represent a new hope instead of a repeating throne room cue.

just my take.

Battle of the Heroes wasn't bad, but people are right, I was suprised Duel of the Fates wasn't used at all, espcially since after it was used in AOTC I took the cue to mean the hands of destiny at work.

DOTF is also more thematic. I like the "Heroes" track, and it will still work great, but I guess I was expecting something a little different I wish It would have been a more recognizable theme like the Imperial March, Throne room, or DOTF was.

There is a lot to celebrate after ROTS! Yoda, Obi-Wan, Luke and Leia, among a lot of other important people survives, so the uplifting throne room makes perfect sense. There is hope for the entire galaxy! And to be honest, the throne room music isn't that happy either. It's not like Jar Jar singing the Yub Yub song, or something like that, although I would personally have prefered that of course. The music and the title of the track suggests that it focuses on the hope ahead, not the sadness of the past.

Wow, check out "Anakin vs Obi Wan" 0.56 and 1.55 minutes in - it sounds (highlight) like it's STRAIGHT from The Empire Strikes Back, when Vader's using the Force to throw shit at Luke. Fucking awesome, it's even got the exact same string "long way down" motif when you see Luke hanging from the gantry...

Fucking awesome...

Status Report II:

* MF was just contacted by Anti-Piracy@LFL and we were asked to remove the links.

* Please keep all bootleg soundtrack mp3 discussion off the public boards. What you do via private messages, instant messengers, and email is your own business.

I'm surprised it took that long...

_Mike

Hello, Monday.

The entire hosting service for where I had them up is down right now. The attached email is with the guy paying for the site, and I haven't even heard from him in several months. Eh, we'll figure it out somehow.

I like BotH. I don't care for Harry Potter too much, so couldn't compare it. But as far as Star Wars goes, I think it fits well.

I give it two thmbs up. It needed to have elements of all scores to tie it in aurally as well as visually. I'll be first in line to get it. After I have picked up "With Teeth", of course.

The first 1:50 of Padme's Ruminations sounds like it's straight out of the new Battlestar Galactica series...

I love using torrents.
I'm no spy.
Com down and search elsewhere.

<<DELURK_ON>>

"It could also be because Lucas' Star Wars movies feature more sound effects than Spielberg's movie and if that's the case then yeah maybe Ben Burtt is a factor."

Nuh-uh. The OT has the score featured prominently in the mix. It's with the damn PT that Burtt has convinced Lucas to allow him a massive "sound-effects-only" sequence every freeking film. It kinda was okay in the podrace, it totally sucked the life out of the asteroid fight, and I'm anxious to see what it's going to do to RotS. The man is a sound nazi. His design work is very cool, and he has a great ear for the potential of organic, and ordinary sounds. Along the way though, whoever was editing the PT seems to have lost sight of the need to not obliterate the music in the mix, just because something sounds cool.

<<DELURK_OFF>>

Ha ha I did the same thing when the AOTC soundtrack came out on Audiogalaxy and the mods flipped and banned my ass. Funny how liberal they have become since then.

After dl'ing the EditDroid OT Empire, and listening to the isolated score that the creators made (this is a "bootleg" OT that is up on a torrent site; for fear of it getting shut down, I'll PM those interested), there are some cut cues reinserted (not into the film soundtrack, just the isolated score), and listening to the original music for the beginning of the Luke-Vader duel is simply awesome and should have been left in.

The original trash compactor music on the other hand is just plain weird-sounding (in ANH - btw, the ANH disc has the original crawl re-created; it's very eerie looking to someone who's never seen it like that). After the sound design/lack of lightsaber-duel music conversations, I figured I'd mention that.

ROTJ hasn't been posted yet, so I dunno about any cut cues from the final duel (WHICH, by the way, has my favorite bit of music in any SW film - when Luke goes ballistic on Vader after "if you will not be turned, perhaps she will" - absolutely haunting.)

DP, jus twanted to say thanks a lot. really.

as for those complaining... you havent seen the movie. yuou have a right to complain, but who knows how much good stuff is being left out.

hell, some of the best music in TPM wasnt on the soundtrack, till the ultimate edition finally came out.

as for the throne room... i agree, its not the most logical choice (having not seen the movie, or heard what cues are used in it NOT on the soundtrack)... but who are we to tell the man who has made the music for all 5 previous installments (not gonna comment on the raping that was done to his music for AOTC), who are we to tell the man with more oscar nominations than any other being in the world, what does, and does not belong ANYWHERE on his soundtracks?

I am still trying to figure out what's the deal with all these different listings. MF's, Best Buy's, Cduniverse.com, Allmusic.com's.

Although judging by what we've got from DP, and StarWars.com I've to say Best Buy's listing is Incorrect, Grievous travels to Sidious ain't right anymore.

Maybe I am the senate is still the real deal, but that's the Wal-mart exclusive.

Fan Made
http://img142.exs.cx/gal.php?g=customcoverposter1jy.jpg

^
"Includes the smash hit WOOKIEE RAP by Kashyyyk"

"Grievous Speaks To Lord Sidious" subliminally rocks at 2:30. It's eerie.

I think that the cue in the track one at 4:46 is one of the coolest in all of the sound track