Star Wars Love Theme

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The opening theme of Star Wars begins with a fortissimo tonic chord and a nostalgic fanfare that serves to remind the audience of themes such as Alfred Newman’s 1933 Twentieth Century Fox fanfare. This opening theme makes a dramatic statement that contrasts with the following lyrical section beginning in measure twenty. The violins, woodwinds and even harp take over the dominating brass section. Williams often employs the use of a perfect fifth interval, an interval that can be dated back centuries (Williams 1977). Williams was primarily concerned with creating nostalgia with his music and this interval was a technique he used to achieve that familiarity. Along with perfect fifths, Williams believes the French horn and other brass instruments …show more content…

This story was conveying how the empire would come to take away the freedoms of the republic’s citizens. The music progressively became somber throughout the prequels. In Episode II: Attack of the Clones Williams creates a love theme for Anakin and Padme’s relationship. Audissino believes this theme was a reworked or inverted version of Luke’s Theme (Audissino 2014, 75-80). When taking a closer look at the score, it is clear the love theme, Across the Stars, is not an inversion of Luke’s Theme, but however, it does share many rhythmic similarities. He utilizes triplet rhythms in both themes fairly often (Williams 1977). The reason Williams chose to keep the themes related is to remind the audience that Anakin (or later Darth Vader) and Padme are the parents of Luke Skywalker (Audissino 2014, 75-80).
Williams achieved a personal approach to the composing process by delivering the past to his audience’s conscious. He believed in creating a nostalgic film experience through large orchestras or synchronization between film scenes and the music. He explored narration support and character development through leitmotifs and their various musical …show more content…

He collaborated with his former partner, Lebo from The Power of One to incorporate every style of African music he could. MacDonald describes Zimmer’s music in The Lion King as an “atmospheric effect.” MacDonald is referring to the wordless choirs singing in the background. These melodies begin slow and quite, but over time increase in volume to a high climax. Zimmer uses quite a few exotic instruments in his score. When main character, Simba, is learning a lesson on the circle of life a musical theme enters in a minor-key with panpipes performing the accompaniment. His score for The Lion King was both exotic and unusual, but that is precisely what gave him the edge to win the best original score award (MacDonald 2013,

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