Join: April 14th 1977 7:00 pm
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Location: The Netherlands
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One of the members of the choir has written a piece about his contribution in ROTS.
Read the story here @ JWFan.net
JWFan Report: EPISODE III Choral Sessions, Part One
Posted by: Ricard on Feb 08, 2005 - 11:43 AM
STAR WARS An exclusive report by Andrew Hewitt, member of the London Voices for Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (CONTAINS SPOILERS)
Monday 7th February 2005
Playing My Part in The Revenge of the Sith
Today was a dream come true. Sounds corny, I know. But it was. A dream come true.
I grew up with Star Wars… a young classical musician suddenly introduced to a different world: a world where orchestras played not with feeling, but for feeling. That was the function of film music, and I found it in Star Wars. So I decided when I was still a child that I would be a film composer – and I’m on my way – but I sing too, and one of the choirs I sing for is the London Voices. I did the Lord of the Rings Trilogy with them, and that was stunning. But this…this was a different world. This was John Williams.
Usually, film conductors will have the choir and orchestra on different days – it's complicated to get it together, in such a quick time (ie. sight-reading), and the balancing of their respective volumes can get difficult. But Williams prefers them together – so he gets them that way. It was just unbelievable: the first track, titled ‘Lament’ (we didn’t know what for) was the most intense expression of feeling. It was thickly textured, and wildly passionate. And this man is 73. He’s written for Indy, and E.T. and Close Encounters and Schindler's, and he’s got between 2 and 3 hours of music to produce for this film alone, and still the music is like nothing else. It was beautiful, and made me turn to a fellow singer with, “If Williams doesn’t win an Oscar for this film, I’ll be surprised”.
We went on, to ‘The Birth of the Twins’. How exciting can it get for a Star Wars and Star Wars Music afficionado? I turned round to see the screen behind us, and I could see the births intercut with the building of…him. The birth of Vader, clearly, being paralleled with the birth of Luke and Leia. As babies are handed to people, in another location ‘the helmet’ descends onto Anakin’s broken face, to just one chord (minor of course) which builds from p to a deafening fff and back down again. Later I cut into the control booth with some of the orchestra, and listen with fascinated enjoyment as Lucas (sitting by me) begins to impersonate Vader’s breathing, much to the amusement of all. “We’ve got to get the breathing to work with the music there, John”, says George.
Next: “The Death of Padme”. A re-placement of an earlier choral track from the new extant Episodes. The visuals look glorious.
Now its lunch, and the choir are officially finished. But I make a decision. I’m not going to go – not now. After all these years? So I sneak in after lunch, and sit at the side of the orchestra. It’s a risk (I could get thrown out), but I take it – it's too important. It’s just me, the LSO, John Williams and an unfinished Star Wars III on the big screen. We’ve an extraordinary-looking space battle to get through, which rocks like nothing else (“Cool”, proclaims Lucas after one extra-vigorous take, a cross between the Hoth Ice Battle and the end of the Episode IV fighter-battle music), and then a quiet scene between Palpatine and the falling Anakin (“I love this scene,” says Williams. “The old guy’s great”). The former contains a striking brass fanfare as ships land and troops mass (we’ve heard it in Episode I), and Williams takes it separate to the rest of the cue, so he can sound-mix it more carefully. By contrast, the latter scene contains a moment for a solo cello trio, which is played gloriously by three members of the LSO.
This score feels immediately more emotionally full, dense, than the scores for Episodes I and II. And that feels somehow right – there’s so much more going on, so much more of importance to the Star Wars of IV, V and VI in this one. I get the feeling this score is going to be more interesting than I and II, more engaging – and the film too.
Anthony Daniels and Frank Oz suddenly appear, dropping in for a quick ogle at the process. Lucas signs my music. Williams extends a hand for me to shake – “Good luck in your own work, Andrew,” he says generously. How much better can it get?
And the best news? London Voices are back for another day next Tuesday…
-- Andrew Hewitt
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