Musical ruminations
This latest chapter is on simmer, at the moment, before the next scene gets written. Do things always get so complicated the closer to the end you get, or is that just me?
So I'm filling time by posting to LJ. :D
The iPod's been playing quite a bit of SW III: Revenge of the Sith lately, and you know, I have to say I think it's some of the best stuff John Williams has ever written. Especially all the tracks from Anakin's fall through the end of the movie. Handicapped as the movie and story were by Lucas' directing, the music is what carries much of the emotional weight of the film. Right now "Enter Lord Vader" is playing, for instance. And there is something distinctly chilling about the rhythm of the section where Anakin is walking down the hall to kill all the trade federation guys who've been working with Palpatine. Very much a track that introduces Vader as the quintessential villain.
And now it's playing "Anakin vs. Obi-Wan" - twinned with it's companion piece, "Battle of the Heroes", these are possibly the best tracks on the whole score. They incorporate the classic Imperial March and elements from the masterpiece track "Duel of the Fates" from Episode I. Without them, that final battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan wouldn't have been nearly as powerful.
"Anakin's Betrayal" is haunting, much more so musically than his turn in the movie manages to be. (Don't get me started.) So is what I consider a companion track, "Padme's Ruminations". Beautiful, sad, truly epitomizing the moment where Anakin makes the wrong decision, and falls.
"Anakin's Dark Deeds" - the track that plays while Obi-Wan and Yoda discover the truth of what their former pupil is capable of. Where Obi-Wan proclaims he cannot hunt down his friend. Where he sneaks onboard Padme's ship and hides, to do exactly that. It ends with Anakin standing on a balcony after he's finished killing the Emperor's enemies, a single tear tracking down his face over what he's done, and become. Again, the music adds weight to the pivotal, climactic scenes Lucas has been building toward since he began his saga thirty years ago.
And let's talk about "A New Hope/End Credits", with Luke's theme from Ep 4 playing over a nearly identical scene involving the twin suns of Tatooine. A wonderful, truly brilliant way to end the movie, tying it back to the original. Then the End Credits takes pieces from each of the tracks mentioned above and weaves them seamlessly together with the more classic SW music.
I have, in case you haven't guessed, put the album on shuffle play on my iPod. :D
So I'm filling time by posting to LJ. :D
The iPod's been playing quite a bit of SW III: Revenge of the Sith lately, and you know, I have to say I think it's some of the best stuff John Williams has ever written. Especially all the tracks from Anakin's fall through the end of the movie. Handicapped as the movie and story were by Lucas' directing, the music is what carries much of the emotional weight of the film. Right now "Enter Lord Vader" is playing, for instance. And there is something distinctly chilling about the rhythm of the section where Anakin is walking down the hall to kill all the trade federation guys who've been working with Palpatine. Very much a track that introduces Vader as the quintessential villain.
And now it's playing "Anakin vs. Obi-Wan" - twinned with it's companion piece, "Battle of the Heroes", these are possibly the best tracks on the whole score. They incorporate the classic Imperial March and elements from the masterpiece track "Duel of the Fates" from Episode I. Without them, that final battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan wouldn't have been nearly as powerful.
"Anakin's Betrayal" is haunting, much more so musically than his turn in the movie manages to be. (Don't get me started.) So is what I consider a companion track, "Padme's Ruminations". Beautiful, sad, truly epitomizing the moment where Anakin makes the wrong decision, and falls.
"Anakin's Dark Deeds" - the track that plays while Obi-Wan and Yoda discover the truth of what their former pupil is capable of. Where Obi-Wan proclaims he cannot hunt down his friend. Where he sneaks onboard Padme's ship and hides, to do exactly that. It ends with Anakin standing on a balcony after he's finished killing the Emperor's enemies, a single tear tracking down his face over what he's done, and become. Again, the music adds weight to the pivotal, climactic scenes Lucas has been building toward since he began his saga thirty years ago.
And let's talk about "A New Hope/End Credits", with Luke's theme from Ep 4 playing over a nearly identical scene involving the twin suns of Tatooine. A wonderful, truly brilliant way to end the movie, tying it back to the original. Then the End Credits takes pieces from each of the tracks mentioned above and weaves them seamlessly together with the more classic SW music.
I have, in case you haven't guessed, put the album on shuffle play on my iPod. :D