So like very many a person, I can listen to a tune or indeed a few notes of a tune and potentially recognise it or have a game of name that tune and so on and so forth.

It does not really matter what your musical preference, some tunes from some musicians or realms are so well known or widely played as to potentially placing you at some point or time within your own life.

The Music of Star Wars is little different in that respect.  I believe I went through a phase years ago of not wanting to be a total philistine (so to speak) regarding music and whilst I do enjoy various classical pieces anyway, I did buy & purchase various famous movie soundtracks and indeed some collections that often included highlights of an era.

If you hear the Imperial March that many refer to as Darth Vader’s tune you can typically identify such things quite rapidly.  In buying the Album’s and so on separately you come to realise that in many an instance the music is designed specifically for particular sequences or sections of the storyline & film.  I say this because many movie soundtracks sound very differing when separated out from the associated film or movie.

And that again can be used as a kind of Inspiration Prompt.  Even if you do not know the movie or film a piece is strongly associated with you  can probably seek to identify the kinds of moods or emotions evoked and without knowing the associated story or film, can likely gain insight into how you might think of the music as part of the background to your own life & story.

So in complete honesty, prior to The release of SW: Episode VII , it had actually been many years that I had deliberately or consciously last listened to any associated musical scores, though having strongly mentally invested in the Franchise at this point in my life, and of course exploring life narratives, storytelling & styles & themes it seems like an obvious given to include such things within your research.

The highlight for myself in that particular movie was actually Rey’s Theme, and for myself kind of invoked a memory of some classic Western Soundtrack, a kind of hybrid of the spaghetti Western tunes, such-as the one associated with the Watch in the Good The Bad & The Ugly, the gunfight where you cannot draw until the music stops.

Having seen TLJ a couple of times, and indeed written on multiple occasion as to what is so great for myself within the film, I spoke on topics & issues such-as the pace and timings and how the film manages to weave from action to action and story thread to story thread, in many ways the music is very much integrated and part & parcel of that in the emotions and so on that arise at any given point, so much so that it can be easy to forget that the music is actually for many people the SIGNPOSTING, in terms of continuity you might hear a given CHARACTERS associated music or elements before they actually enter stage left or right and so on.

So after seeing an article speaking on the musical score, I thought hmmn, I did not give that enough attention in my viewings, what can I do, YOUTUBE came to my rescue and I had an entire musical score listening session.  The musical score very much reflects the movie in many ways, for myself especially, what seemed apparent was how many pieces were quite fast and had an urgency and pace to them.  Yes the signposting for differing groups and peoples was present, though what really stood out STRONGLY on this listening session was how much AMBIGUITY has seemingly been introduced, whereby a tune associated with say the imperials was interwoven with tune for Rebels and so on, it actually seemed far more CHAOTIC or URGENCY driven than many historical themes including its immediate predecessor.

I cannot at present decide on an out and out favourite tune from this score, based in one listening session, though a couple of pieces did stand out or affect myself in unexpected ways.  The first was one that I shared on Twitter and was the given tune for Canto Bight, the Casino planet that Rose & Finn & BB-8 visit & encounter DJ, interesting to note that BB-8 and DJ’s presence was not particularly high-lighted in other peoples write-up’s as though superfluous to requirements regarding the music.

However Canto Bight begins as if just another SW tune and then suddenly switches into a much more populist & fun series of interwoven themes, popular rhythm n blues scales & rises, that for myself reminded myself of quite a few well known styles & tracks, though delivered as they may have been for ancient cartoons and decadent 40’s & 50’s Hollywood film, the tune really was a kind of MELTING POT head nod to multiple genres of musical shape & form, that has to be listened to and then perhaps dissected from your own knowledge base, I say that because I literally found myself referencing quite a broad spectrum of other materials, hence that kind of repeat listening value, quite a few TRIGGERS that work in getting the noggin going and Giving X Degree’s of separation pointers to other favourites.

Another track that surprised myself was called The Sacred Jedi Texts.  I am unsure as to what actually occurred though it almost seemingly brought tears to my eyes, unsure if that was the result of listening to the tune in solitude or simply a result of all the other pieces I had listened to beforehand leading up to that point, I shall again have to have another listen through all the tracks and be more precise in my thought processes or reasoning and meaning I give myself for likes and loathing and all that JAZZ.

Overall I would say that just as everyone has a favourite film ranking and how they would place differing films in the linage at differing positions, the music of course has always been John Williams, so he is really in a one man competition with himself, this one reflects the pace, chaos & ambiguity and indeed some of the magical & Fun sections of the film, and I genuinely struggle in finding an out-and-out favourite piece at the present time.  He has of course the unenviable task of remixing and reworking much of his long term Original Material, so many a philistine would likely say they much prefer the Original Trilogy Music in Original Form, though that for myself detracts from the Original Pieces introduced for several of the newer characters & scenes & scenario’s within the Soundtracks for both VII & VIII. Like many Ensemble pieces, we have to adapt & adjust & be flexible as to what is occurring and happening within the CURRENT FILM storyline & threads & themes etc. Yes I love the Original Imperial Marches and Love Rey’s Theme, though I usually find over the longer period that has been had at present, that a favourite gradually rises its head from the pack and so on.

So definitely one that much like the movie it accompanies requires repeat viewing/listening/ EXPERIENCING prior to rushing to any outright conclusions of preferences.

Thank you for reading, God Bless and Be Well.