Art of the Score

In Episode 21 we finally make good on our long-held promise to explore the world of videogame music, with Austin Wintory’s beautiful score for thatgamecompany’s Journey. Crucial to the experience of Journey, Wintory’s music was recognized with a Grammy nomination and is widely held to be one of the greatest videogame scores of all time. Join us as we take a videogame diversion and analyse this gorgeous soundtrack. Episode notes: 5:20 – How does videogame music differ from film or television? 8:50 – Dan’s complicated menu music 10:05 – thatgamecompany’s journey to Journey, and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s ‘flow’ 16:12 – The rise of independent videogame development and aesthetics 18:20 – Nascence and Wintory’s main Journey theme 21:50 – Tina Guo’s cello, Amy Tatum’s flute, and Charissa Barger’s harp 26:30 – Solo cello in Tan Dun’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Hans Zimmer’s The Last Samurai 31:20 – Journey’s central weenie 33:45 – The Call, the sonic palate cleanser 38:10 – The Mountain 41:33 – Sound design and music in Journey 44:02 – The First Confluence and the absence of a downbeat 48:48 – The Bridge and the Second Confluence 51:50 – The first encounter and Journey’s dance 55:30 – ‘I was born for this’ 58:05 – The Desert’s Threshold and the musical interactivity of Journey 1:04:10 – The melancholy beauty of the machines 1:10:25 – The Descent, and Nick’s musical snowboarding adventures 1:20:16 – The Belly of the Whale’s Serpent 1:26:08 – The gaze of the sentinals 1:28:18 – Journey’s achingly beautiful string writing and Arvo Pärt’s Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten 1:34:40 – Atonement and the giant structure 1:38:56 – Journey’s Buddhist links 1:47:03 – The ascent to the peak (‘The Crossing’) 1:55:12 – The nadir 2:01:10 – Apotheosis and the hero realised 2:12:24 – The return to Tina Guo’s solo cello 2:18:28 – What does Journey mean? Is it a metaphor? 2:21:22 – The Return? Finally, if listeners are unfamiliar with Journey, we highly recommend checking out this video recording of a playthrough of the game from start to finish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkL94nKSd2M We love to hear from our listeners – get in touch via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and if you like The Art of the Score, please take a moment to subscribe, rate and comment.

In Episode 20 we conclude our three-part retrospective of the music of Bond, James Bond. Having already covered the pioneering Bond sound of John Barry and the funk of the Moore era, in our final episode we make it through the emergence of David Arnold as the Bond musical heir apparent, and Thomas Newman’s recent work. Join us as we finally answer the question to end all questions: which is the greatest Bond score of all time, and which is the greatest song? Episode notes: 3:45 – Arnold, David Arnold 7:04 – Tomorrow Never Plays the Fanfare 11:25 – The fanboy composer? 13:05 – Surrender’s presence in the score 19:23 – Arnold’s neo-Barry romance writing 23:48 – The World Is Sort Of Enough 28:00 – Arnold’s muscular action writing – the submarine escape 33:48 – Score Another Way (electronically) in Die Another Day 40:04 – Bond joins the choir 44:25 – Blond, James Blond 50:18 – Parkour percussion 54:10 – You Know My Chord Progression 59:20 – Vesper’s Theme 1:01:28 – Quantum of Solace 1:05:08 – Watery woodwinds at the opera 1:07:40 – DC3s, tempo, chromaticism, and the peak of Arnold’s action music 1:10:48 – Thomas Newman, Bond’s new man 1:12:35 – M’s retiring brass statements 1:16:50 – Bond on a boat 1:19:47 – Severine and Newman’s romantic strings 1:26:45 – A Spectre haunts 007 1:30:10 – The Writing’s On The Train 1:32:08 – At the end: our favourite score, and our favourite song We love to hear from our listeners – get in touch via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and if you like The Art of the Score, please take a moment to subscribe, rate and comment.

In Episode 19 we continue our ambitious attempt to analyse every James Bond score ever. Having covered the Connery classics in Episode 18, we’re now onto the 1970s, 1980s, and even the early 1990s, covering Moore, Dalton, and a little bit of Brosnan as James Bond goes from funk to disco to acid jazz and even a little early hip-hop. Join us as we look at some of the kitschiest Bond music out there – and, some of the all-time greats. Episode notes: 3:38 – Roger Moore’s more George (Aston) Martin Bond music 9:11 – The 1970s funk boat chase 12:45 – Nick has a problem with The Man With the Golden Gun’s parallel motion 16:43 – The Spy Who Wrote A Fantastic Opening Song 18:10 – James ‘Disco Stu’ Bond 24:30 – The singing pyramids 28:33 – The Space Who Loved Me 32:45 – Bossa, James Bossa 35:38 – Bill Conti’s For Your Funk Only 43:40 – John Barry’s finale: Octopussy, A View To A Kill, and The Living Daylights 49:12 – Dalton’s daylight drum machine 54:50 – Michael Kamen’s License to Trill 1:01:04 – Bond’s power ballad romance 1:04:50 – Serra’s synth sound for Goldeneye and the sonic reinvention of James Bond 1:13:34 – Acid James 1:17:40 – Escaping the Archives 1:19:04 – Goldeneye’s Tank Chase and John Altman’s replacement music We love to hear from our listeners – get in touch via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and if you like The Art of the Score, please take a moment to subscribe, rate and comment.

In Episode 18 we begin one of our most ambitious musical projects yet – the music of the James Bond franchise. Over the next three episodes, we’ll be looking at the sounds of Bond, James Bond, across 50 years, 24 films, and a great many composers, theme songs, and one-liners. In this first episode, we’re covering everything from the birth of the cinematic Bond to the end of the Sean Connery era, with a particular focus on how John Barry created that classic – and timeless – Bond sound. Episode notes: 4:45 – Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass make an unscheduled appearance 6:35 – The evolution of the Bond franchise and its importance in film history 10:23 – “The best Bond film is the next Bond film” 12:40 – The birth of the Bond theme, with Monty Norman’s sitar 15:30 – John Barry’s swinging ‘60s style 22:23 – Monty Norman’s Dr. No score 24:10 – ‘Three Blind Mice’ and Norman’s Jamaican grooves 26:30 – Bond and orchestra swat a bug 31:12 – Lionel Bart’s ‘From Russia With Love’, the first title song 38:15 – John Barry’s 007 theme 42:11 – John Barry’s idiosyncratic action cues and quotations of the main theme 45:47 – James Bond’s travelogue music 51:13 – Goldfinger’s swinging ‘Into Miami’ 55:55 – ‘Alpine Drive’ and ‘The Raid on Fort Knox’ 1:00:34 – Thunderball’s alternate themes 1:07:14 – Barry’s underwater fight scenes 1:10:05 – The brass-fanfared evil lair 1:13:08 – You Only Live Twice’s slow-moving villainous space capsule 1:20:48 – Nancy Sinatra’s ‘You Only Live Twice’ 1:23:05 – The ‘Japanese’ music in You Only Live Twice 1:27:43 – On Her Majesty’s Australian Service 1:31:09 – ‘We Have All The Time In The World’ 1:35:04 – “This never happened to the other synth” 1:41:00 – The horny saxophone 1:43:11 – Diamonds Are Forever 1:46:33 – The creepy saxophone We love to hear from our listeners – get in touch via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and if you like The Art of the Score, please take a moment to subscribe, rate and comment.

In the year 2000, the sword-and-sandal epic was revived, with Russell Crowe trebucheted to international stardom as the star of Ridley Scott’s hugely successful film, Gladiator. But fame was also found for Hans Zimmer, today the biggest music man in Hollywood, but who along with Australian composer and singer Lisa Gerrard wrote some of the most influential film music in decades for Gladiator. In Episode 17, we take a look at what makes Zimmer’s sound so pervasive, how Lisa Gerrard’s voice intensifies the film’s emotions, and just where all that strength and honour comes from. Episode notes: 3:02 – Gladiator as the breakthrough Hans Zimmer score 5:09 – Some background on the significance of Gladiator, sword and sandal films, epics, and peplum 14:24 – Hans Zimmer style and the 1990s action film 21:00 – Hans Zimmer and the synth 23:52 – The unusual instrumentation of Gladiator 25:25 – A duduk demonstration 27:10 – The themes of Gladiator – Commodus’ theme 33:15 – The power of Lisa Gerrard’s voice 39:48 – Maximus’ hymn 43:00 – Maximus’ polyrhythms 45:32 – Zimmer’s Vangelis’ moment 48:01 – Once Upon a Time in Ancient Rome 53:11 – The Earth theme – Gladiator’s musical soul 1:00:56 – Lucilla’s theme 1:05:17 – The Gladiator waltz 1:08:15 – A Holst heist? 1:12:34 – Gladiatorial piracy 1:16:41 – The death of an emperor (or, Mozart’s Da Vinci Code) 1:21:02 – To Zuccabar 1:24:00 – Gladiator’s establishing music (and a surprise) 1:29:21 – Zimmer’s answering horns 1:31:43 – The Might of Wagner 1:39:18 – The Hans Zimmer Olympics 1:41:27 – Gladiator’s finale: Now We Are Free We love to hear from our listeners – get in touch via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and if you like The Art of the Score, please take a moment to subscribe, rate and comment.

In Episode 16, we finish our look at Williams’ seventh entry into the Star Wars universe by looking at what’s returned and what hasn’t. We take apart the reoccurring Star Wars themes and how they’re used in The Force Awakens, and make a number of bold and possibly a little reckless predictions for The Last Jedi (then unreleased).   Episode notes:   3:01 – Yes, this was recorded before The Last Jedi was released, and we’re sorry 4:04 – What were our reactions to The Force Awakens’ music when it was released? 9:50 – Ice Landing and the Rebel Fanfare 12:48 – Han Solo and the Princess in The Force Awakens 20:06 – Scherzo for X-Wings and the undanceable dance 26:02 – The Force Theme Awakens 30:00 – The Homestead Burns Again 36:20 – The sonic signature of The Force Awakens 37:30 – Williams’ emotional mood shifts and the journey to Luke Skywalker 39:54 – The brief return of Darth Vader 41:35 – Nick promises to walk out of The Last Jedi in disgust (Narrator: he did not) 48:54 – Andrew embarrasses himself with some music-inspired Last Jedi predictions 52:15 – The Skywalker map and the tritone 56:12 – Snoke’s supreme choir – and Andrew embarrasses himself again 1:04:29 – The death scenes of The Force Awakens and John Williams’ string lament’s across episodes 1:19:50 – Finn’s Phantom Confession 1:21:09 – Maz Kanata’s Jabba Flow 1:24:03 – Dan hopes for some more zany Williams jazz (Narrator: he got it)   We love to hear from our listeners – get in touch via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and if you like The Art of the Score, please take a moment to subscribe, rate and comment.

In Episode 15, we return to the galaxy far, far away and take a look at how the musical landscape of Star Wars changed between the almost 40 years between A New Hope and The Force Awakens. In the first of a two part episode we look at Rey’s Theme, Kylo Ren’s motifs, and The March (or is that the fugue?) of the Resistance. Recorded last year in eager anticipation of The Last Jedi, we’re finally getting this episode to you just in time for its release on Blu-Rey (see what we did there?), so sit back and enjoy our return to perhaps John Williams’ greatest musical franchise. Episode notes: 0:00 – A disclaimer (and possibly an apology!) 5:15 – Dan is writing a book about Star Wars 7:51 – The weight of expectation for The Force Awakens 10:00 – The legacy film 16:30 – The return of little-known composer John Williams 17:35 – Rey’s theme 22:40 – Rey’s riff 26:32 – Rey eats her lunch, on solo flute 30:41 – Rey’s abduction 33:11 – Rey’s impassioned bridge 36:15 – Comparison to other John Williams work: Potter and The Terminal 44:35 – Williams bringing Rey and The Force together in the end credits 46:40 – Rey’s theme – the dance remix 49:10 – Musically, Rey is a Jawa 50:33 – Kylo Ren’s theme 55:50 – The Kylo Ren B motif – the call of the dark side 1:00:00 – Ren and the Imperial March 1:01:45 – The March of the Resistance 1:04:51 – The March or the Fugue? 1:10:00 – Poe’s theme 1:16:39 – Finn’s rhythmic motif 1:19:00 – The mixed-meter Falcon theme 1:28:10 – John Williams as the bloodline of Star Wars 1:29:34 - …and more to come in Part Two! We love to hear from our listeners – get in touch via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and if you like The Art of the Score, please take a moment to subscribe, rate and comment.

After a short break, Art of the Score enters the new year with a trip to the Upside Down to take a close listen to Stranger Things. With the help of synth expert, musician, and podcaster Seja Vogel, we pull apart this wonderfully analogue score, its influences, and how it all works over the course of Season One of the Netflix hit. Episode notes: 2:35 – Welcome to special guest Seja Vogel. Find Seja’s podcast, ‘Hear Sej’ here (https://itunes.apple.com/bw/podcast/hearsej/id1168366353?mt=2), and her amazing Etsy store for felt synth models here (https://www.etsy.com/shop/pulsewidth). 5:20 – Into the nostalgic world of Stranger Things 8:41 – The ‘nostalgia film’ and Fredric Jameson 10:30 – Michael Stein and Kyle Dixon and their analogue synth band S U R V I V E 13:24 – ‘Dirge’, the track that formed the Stranger Things sound 15:05 – The influences and musical tools of S U R V I V E 19:00 – How the music works in Stranger Things – a scene comparison with Williams’ E.T. 25:14 – The main title – is it E minor or C major? 28:51 – Seja breaks down the synths involved 31:47 – Seja’s meticulous reconstruction of the Main Title 34:00 – Square waves and pulse waves, filter sweeps and resonance 44:33 – ‘Kids’ and keying between worlds 51:55 – Nancy and Barb 55:06 – Eleven’s theme and its development throughout season one 1:05:45 – Lay-Z-Boy couch theme 1:10:20 – The Upside Down 1:13:55 – The Demogorgon 1:18:11 – Searching the woods 1:20:42 – The government evildoers in portamento bass 1:26:37 – ‘This isn’t you’ 1:32:01 – Linking sound with image – was Stranger Things written to footage? 1:35:45 – How each kiss is scored 1:40:04 – Pop music in Stranger Things: The Clash – Should I Stay or Should I Go? 1:44:02 – Stranger Things’ secret pop: We Can Be Heroes We love to hear from our listeners – get in touch via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and if you like The Art of the Score, please take a moment to subscribe, rate and comment.

From Hedwig’s theme to Quidditch matches, the musical world of Hogwarts may be one of the most iconic musical contributions to the film world this millennia. John Williams worked orchestral magic and brought us a unique contribution of fantasy, off-beat fanfares, and even a bit of jazz harmony. But what makes this great score tick? Join us as we dissect the power, the charm, and the enchantment of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Episode notes: 07:00 – a brief history of the franchise 10:45 – Harry Potter, one of the largest franchises of the 21st century 11:22 – John Williams on how he came to be involved with Harry Potter 15:00 – Hedwig’s Theme 16:42 – the celeste and its use in other films and, famously, Tchaikovsky’s Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy 18:15 – Andrew drops a bombshell 20:10 – Breaking down Hedwig’s Theme 26:20 – a recounting of the day the musicians first encountered the score 28:00 – Hedwig’s Theme and its variations 31:25 – is Hedwig’s Theme the last John Williams melody to enter pop culture? 33:00 – The Flying Theme or the Nimbus 2000 Theme 44:15 – Harry’s Theme or the Family Theme 50:27 – the appearance of the tri-tone 52:30 – Harry’s Wondrous World Theme 1:00:08 – the Hogwarts School Song 1:02:00 – we apologise for what is about to happen… 1:04:50 – Philosopher’s vs Sorcerer’s (Stone) and some of the localisations 1:08:10 – The Stone motif 1:16:00 – the Voldemort motifs 1:23:00 – the music of Diagon Alley 1:31:10 – some banquet music from Harry Potter and other films 1:36:50 – the Quidditch Fanfare and its similarity to other “arena” cues 1:40:30 – John Williams’ use of synthesizer for the Invisibility Cloak 1:43:10 – the diegetic (harp) music of Harry Potter 1:47:00 – the action music compositional style of early 2000s John Williams We love to hear from our listeners – get in touch via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and if you like The Art of the Score, please take a moment to subscribe, rate and comment.

After a short hiatus, we’re Back – from the future – with a good look at Alan Silvestri’s score to the Robert Zemeckis time-travel classic. Back to the Future is, at its core, about a small group of characters, and yet it possesses a huge scale of feeling and mood, much of which can be attributed to Silvestri’s impressive orchestral score. Join us as we take in the jazz roots of this classic, the fanfares and motifs, and of course, the classic hit songs that power the film. Episode notes: 0:45 – We’re back, from the future 4:40 – Following in the Spielbergian mould 13:10 – Romancing the Silvestri-Zemeckis relationship 16:10 – The main theme 20:00 – Asking questions through tritones 26:00 – Mysterious origins of the time machine 29:14 – Main theme variations 32:32 – Going through the gears 39:41 – The main theme, romantically 41:47 – Marty’s theme 44:39 – The time motif and the Back to the Future sound 49:05 – Doc’s turning wheels 53:00 – The octatonic scale 55:02 – The Biff motif 57:08 – Back to the Predator 59:33 – Art of the Score dissects the climactic suite 1:07:00 – Is it the best climax suite in film music? 1:09:54 – The songs! The Power of Loving Back to the Future 1:15:50 – Mister Sandman 1:26:10 – Night Train 1:32:13 – Earth Angel 1:37:19 – Andrew’s Johnny B Goode telephone authorship theory of doom We love to hear from our listeners – get in touch via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and if you like The Art of the Score, please take a moment to subscribe, rate and comment.

There Will Be Blood, Paul Thomas Anderson’s relentlessly dark exploration of Daniel Plainview, an American oil baron, now comfortably sits among the greatest films of the century so far. Yet Jonny Greenwood’s score - who is best known from his days on guitar for Radiohead - may well be even greater and more original still. In this episode of Art of the Score, we take a look at Greenwood’s incredibly unusual music, and with the help of There Will Be Blood expert and conductor Hugh Brunt, take apart what makes it tick, its fresh musical influences and style, and jointly, drink its milkshake. We love to hear from our listeners – get in touch via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and if you like The Art of the Score, please take a moment to subscribe, rate and comment.

Today, Batman is undergoing yet another renaissance – fresh off the Dark Knight trilogy, he’s heading up a whole new Justice League. But in 1989, Batman was only starting to become the Dark Knight of popular culture – and Danny Elfman’s landmark score to the Tim Burton film helped him along the way. In this episode of Art of the Score, we take a look at the 1989 score, and pull apart its main themes, its musical influences and style, and ask the ultimate question: just where does he get those wonderful (musical) toys? Show notes: 2:50 – An intro to Danny Elfman 4:20 – Batman (1989), Tim Burton, and franchising in Hollywood 10:42 – Is this the most iconic Batman theme ever? 12:45 – Breaking down Elfman’s Batman theme 16:10 – The influence of Herrmann on Elfman 21:00 – The Dark Knight rides again 23:56 – The versatility of the Batman theme 26:00 – The Batutsi 26:55 – 6/8 versus 3/4 timing for Batman 30:20 – How does the Elfman theme fit into the history of Bat-music? The 1949 serial, the TV series, Goldenthal, and Zimmer 35:05 – Is Zimmer’s theme just the bare elements of Elfman’s? Dan says yes: https://vimeo.com/193995233 36:40 – Or is it all just building on Wagner? 38:00 – How does Prince’s music work with the score? Listen to the Love Theme and find out 42:00 – Beautiful Dreamer, the Joker’s Parlour Song 46:00 – Dancing with the Devil in the Pale Moonlight 53:44 – Waltzing to the Death (and Dan’s frustration) 58:11 – The Henchmen’s piano 1:01:35 – Alfred Hitchcock directs Batman 1:05:52 – The henchmen’s boom box 1:08:45 – It’s a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight 1:11:50 – Advertising for the Joker 1:18:30 – Nick’s favourite cue in the score 1:22:30 – Dan has a bone to pick with Batman 1:26:50 – The finale to Batman – the Light Knight? We love to hear from our listeners – get in touch via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and if you like The Art of the Score, please take a moment to subscribe, rate and comment.

In our third and final Star Wars episode, we take a look at some of the lesser known cues that round out this incredible score. We discuss the giant bantha in the room: the musical influences that inspired Williams and the temp music that helped to shape some of his artistic choices. Finally, we take a whirlwind tour of the action music, explore the groovy Cantina Band tunes and debate whether Star Wars is in fact the greatest film score of all time. Is it? Show notes: 3:20 – the music for the Jawas 5:40 – finding the downbeat in “The Little People” 7:28 – is this the highest Tuba line ever? 11:03 – the music for the Sand People 14:39 – Williams’ family relations and a link to Toto 15:28 – use of the Timpani 18:08 – a comparison with Jerry Goldsmith’s Planet of the Apes 20:26 – discussing the Bantha in the room: the musical influences on Star Wars 26:05 – The Dune Sea of Tatooine vs Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring 30:17 – The Rebel Blockade Runner vs Holst’s The Planets 32:02 – Some Bernard Herrmann references in Star Wars 36:56 – The Throne Room vs Dvorak and Elgar 42:21 – The Throne Room’s reappearance in Return of the Jedi 44:55 – rude trumpets and the performance/recording of the score 47:03 – the musicians who made contributions to Star Wars 48:53 – the action music of Star Wars and Williams’ hip grooves 53:11 – Dan’s dissapointment in Star Wars’ lack of musical numbers 56:15 – The Battle of Yavin vs The Battle of Britain 1:02:35 – The Cantina Band, is it jazz or jizz? 1:06:20 –Sing Sing Sing as temp music 1:08:48 – the 2nd Cantina Band song 1:11:18 – the original Star Wars trailer music and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons 1:15:46 – the studio’s woeful attempt at marketing Star Wars 1:17:42 – is Star Wars the greatest film score of all time? We love to hear from our listeners – get in touch via Twitter, and if you like The Art of the Score, please take a moment to subscribe, rate and comment.

In our second Star Wars episode, marking the fortieth anniversary of the film, we complete our exploration of the themes for this landmark film and score from 1977. We take on the franchise’s most defining melody: the Force Theme, and also throw in the Rebel Fanfare, Vader’s motif, and the Death Star, before ending on that eternal question: what links Star Wars and Metallica? Episode notes: 2:15 – The Force Theme (or Ben Kenobi’s theme) 2:50 – Binary Sunset 7:25 – the Alternate Binary Sunset cue 12:30 – the Burning Homestead cue 14:50 – Rogue One: The Master Switch cue 17:10 – the first encounter with Ben Kenobi 18:55 – development with Kenobi, Tales of a Jedi Knight 22:45 – The Force Theme as anxious suspense 24:50 – Luke mourns Ben 26:30 – the martial Force Theme at the Battle of Yavin 28:30 – Use the Force, Luke 32:10 – The Force Theme in Superman? 34:40 – The Rebel fanfare motif 37:21 – The Blockade Runner and Imperial Attack, combining the Rebel and Imperial motifs 42:10 – Rebel fanfare as dramatic relief after the destruction of the Death Star 43:49 – Darth Vader’s motif 49:00 – development in Imperial Attack 55:00 – Ben’s recollections of Vader for solo clarinet 57:50 – Is Vader’s theme really Metallica in disguise? 1:01:11 – the Death Star motif 1:03:00 – Burning Homestead as a theme showcase We love to hear from our listeners – get in touch via Twitter, and if you like The Art of the Score, please take a moment to subscribe, rate and comment.

Forty years ago today, in 1977, the film universe was turned upside down by a galaxy far, far away. Star Wars may have changed the film industry forever, but John Williams’ score might just be as influential for the film music landscape. In this episode, our first of three on Star Wars, we take a look at the influence of John Williams’ music, and two of its major themes: the Main Theme (or Luke’s Theme) and Princess Leia’s theme. Episode notes: 2:30 – The influence of Star Wars, the music, the film 4:30 – How Star Wars changed film history and the film school generation 8:00 – Star Wars and nostalgia 11:20 – Was there anticipation for Star Wars? 13:40 – This was not what films were supposed to sound like at the time 15:00 – Before the main titles: the 20th Century Fox fanfare 16:20 – The main Star Wars theme (Luke’s theme) 18:50 – The orchestration of the main theme 20:45 – The jazz-inspired harmony of the main theme 23:33 – “War drums in space” 25:03 – Development of Luke’s theme – first playing 26:55 – Luke’s theme begins to mature with the hero’s journey 32:00 – Luke’s theme on the Death Star 34:44 – The shootout on the Death Star, Luke’s “boy’s own adventure” moment 39:15 – Influences on Luke’s theme: Ivanhoe and King’s Row 50:06 – The uses of Luke’s theme in the final Death Star dogfight 53:15 – The (mis)uses of the main theme (?) in Rogue One 54:45 – Leia’s theme and the development of ‘concert versions’ 1:01:10 – John Williams and the romantic major sixth 1:03:14 – The first time we hear Leia’s theme 1:05:18 – Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope 1:07:38 – The full Leia’s message 1:10:10 – Luke meets Leia for the first time 1:11:30 – The Death of Obi-Wan and the abandonment of leitmotif 1:15:30 – High romance in the Leia concert suite 1:17:45 – The Star Wars NPR Radio Serials We love to hear from our listeners – get in touch via Twitter, and if you like The Art of the Score, please take a moment to subscribe, rate and comment.