This year’s passing of legendary film composer Ennio Morricone prompted me to reflect on what makes his film music of such broad appeal. Morricone himself offered a very fitting answer in a recent book of conversations from 2013–2015 with Alessandro … Continue reading →
SPOILER ALERT : This analysis contains spoilers for The Rise of Skywalker. If you have not seen the film but would like to do so without having read plot details, please consider returning to this analysis after viewing the film. … Continue reading →
Dear film music fans, To ensure that you get the most out of posts on this blog, I’d like to know a little about how you read music notation and how you would describe yourself.* *No personally identifiable information is … Continue reading →
While John Williams’ score for The Last Jedi draws heavily on his existing thematic material in the Star Wars saga, it does contain three new themes that feature prominently in the score, ones for Rose, Luke in exile, and desperation … Continue reading →
Although The Force Awakens draws heavily on plot elements from the original Star Wars, John Williams’ score remained in a style more reminiscent of the prequels than the original films. To be sure, there are numerous appearances of many themes … Continue reading →
To all friends and followers of Film Music Notes, I must apologize to you as it has been well over a year and a half since my last post here, and some of you have asked whether I would return … Continue reading →
As the climax of Revenge of the Sith and the entire prequel trilogy, the duel between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker that concludes the film is placed under a great deal of dramatic weight. So how does a composer score … Continue reading →
With its emphasis on the budding romance between Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala, it is no surprise that the love theme, Across the Stars, is the most pervasive theme in Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Because its association … Continue reading →
When John Williams returned to the Star Wars films in 1999 with Episode I: The Phantom Menace, there was something quite different about his approach to the score. Of course, the main theme and a handful of other old themes … Continue reading →
In his score for Return of the Jedi, John Williams introduced a handful of new memorable themes into the Star Wars saga including that for the Ewoks, Jabba the Hutt, and Luke and Leia. But the only one to have … Continue reading →
