Transcript Key Composerx

In 1977 Williams won a Grammy for Best Album of Original
Written for a Motion Picture , one for Best Pop Instrumental
Performance, and one for Best Instrumental Composition.
 Elvis Presley died August 16,
1977 in Memphis, TN due to
Health problems, prescription
drug dependence, and other
factors.
 Jimmy Carter was inaugurated
as the 39th President of the
United States.
 The Son of Sam murders swept
through New York City.
 Three members of the rock band
Lynyrd Skynyrd died in a
charter plane crash outside
Gillsburg, Mississippi.
On the recommendation of his friend Steven
Spielberg, George Lucas hired composer John
Willams, who had worked with Spielberg on the film
Jaws, for which he won an Academy Award. Lucas felt
that the film would portray visually foreign worlds, but
that the musical score would give the audience an
emotional familiarity. In March 1977, Williams
conducted the London Symphony Orchestra to
record the Star Wars soundtrack in twelve days. Lucas
wanted a grand musical sound for Star Wars, with
lietmotifs to provide distinction. Therefore, he brought
together his favorite orchestral pieces for the
soundtrack, but then John Williams convinced him that
an original score would be unique and more unified.
However, a few of Williams' pieces were influenced by
the tracks Lucas gave him. The "Main Title Theme"
was inspired by the theme from the 1942 film Kings
Row, by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and the track
"Dune Sea of Tatooine" drew from the soundtrack
from Bicycle Thieves, by Alessandro Cicognini.
Williams's technique is called lietmotiv, which is most
famously associated with the operas of Richard
Wagner and in film scores, with Steiner. A "leitmotif"
is a phrase or melodic cell that signifies a character,
place, plot element, mood, idea, relationship or other
specific part of the film. The most important for a
leitmotif is that it must be strong enough for a listener to
handle while being flexible enough to undergo variation
and development.
Star Wars main theme and King ‘s Row by Erich Korngold.
Similarities have been noticed between the Star Wars main theme and the main theme from Korngold's
score to the Golden Age film, "King's Row,"
-Both sharing similar melodic structures and orchestration.
The first eight notes are the same, although the last three of those eight are played more slowly in the
Korngold piece. After that the two melodies go in different directions.
-To a lesser extent, the Star Wars Main Theme resembles many "heroic" melodies, such as the
"Siegfried Horn Call" from Wagner's Ring Cycle; many conventions (brass instrumentation, use of
perfect intervals) exist for composing music for male heroes and Williams clearly taps into them in the
Star Wars films.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjMNNpIksaI