Star Wars: A New Hope: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Special Edition)

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Disc: 1
1. 20th Century Fox Fanfare
2. Main Title/Rebel Blockade Runner
3. Imperial Attack
4. The Dune Sea Of Tatooine/Jawa Sandcrawler
5. The Moisture Farm
6. The Hologram/Binary Sunset
7. Landspeeder Search/Attack Of The Sand People
8. Tales Of A Jedi Knight/Learn About The Force
9. Burning Homestead
10. M... read more

Description: John Williams's music for Star Wars looks back to the Golden Age of Hollywood, particularly to the sweeping grandeur of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's The Sea Hawk and The Adventures of Robin Hood. Korngold, himself an opera composer, drew upon the Wagnerian leitmotif technique of assigning a melody to each important character, and Williams followed this approach, creating a series of memorable themes developed throughout all the Star Wars movies, including The Phantom Menace. The result is a vast, surprisingly unified tapestry of music, a veritable space-operatic Ring cycle for our times. This rich, glittering, boldly orchestrated m John Williams's music for Star Wars looks back to the Golden Age of Hollywood, particularly to the sweeping grandeur of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's The Sea Hawk and The Adventures of Robin Hood. Korngold, himself an opera composer, drew upon the Wagnerian leitmotif technique of assigning a melody to each important character, and Williams followed this approach, creating a series of memorable themes developed throughout all the Star Wars movies, including The Phantom Menace. The result is a vast, surprisingly unified tapestry of music, a veritable space-operatic Ring cycle for our times. This rich, glittering, boldly orchestrated music is filled with rousing action, wistful reflective passages and moments of playful humour (including some witty retro-alien jazz for the Mos Eisley cantina band). Epic in scope and wearing it's romantic heart on its sleeve, Williams's music is a galaxy far, far away from the ecstatic, modernistic score he produced the same year for Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Although various Star Wars albums have long been available, this double-disc Special Edition at last presents the entire score in original running order. The performance of the London Symphony Orchestra is superb, and the remastered sound a significant improvement on previous issues. In 1977 Star Wars heralded a revival of traditional orchestral scoring which continues today, paving the way for such composers as David Arnold, Bruce Broughton, Patrick Doyle, James Horner and many more. This is the definitive presentation of perhaps the pivotal score in all film history, and an essential part of any collection. --Gary S. Dalkin ... (more) (less)