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| • | Newest Major Reviews: | . | • | This Week's Most Popular Reviews: | • | Best-Selling Albums: | ||
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1. Nim's Island 2. The Life Before Her Eyes 3. Horton Hears a Who! 4. Leatherheads 5. The Spiderwick Chronicles | . | . |
1. Moulin Rouge 2. Gladiator 3. POTC: Curse of the Black Pearl 4. Star Wars: A New Hope 5. Edward Scissorhands |
6. Pearl Harbor 7. Schindler's List 8. Titanic 9. Braveheart 10. Home Alone | . | . |
1. Varèse Sarabande 25th 2. The Last of the Mohicans 3. Legends of the Fall 4. Schindler's List 5. LOTR: Return of the King (Set) |
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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... the 1997 Special Edition albums over all others because they feature the best combination of outstanding packaging and a complete presentation of John Williams' music. Avoid it... the 1986 - 1993 albums because of poorer sound quality and incomplete presentation, as well as the 2004 re-pressings that are identical to the 1997 albums and without the superior packaging. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
It may seem elementary by post-2000 standards of film music composition, but the use of a prominent title theme and several leitmotifs in 1977 was a refreshingly bold move back to the Wagnerian influence of Hollywood's Golden Age. In other words, the existence of so many memorable themes, and their masterful placement throughout the film for individual characters and settings was a somewhat novel concept at the time. After five takes on the first day of recording sessions, Williams and Lucas combined three of them to form the "Main Titles" that we are so familiar with today. Along with the fanfare came two primary motifs: one for 'the force' and another for Princess Leia's character. Other minor ideas would manifest themselves for the Death Star (the pre-Imperial March theme for the Empire... one that would completely disappear in sequels), the various creatures of Tatooine, and one for rebel alliance heard at the end of the film. Of all these ideas, only the title theme and 'force' theme would remain prevalent in all of Williams' sequel and prequel scores, with Leia's theme incorporated to a lesser degree in the classic trilogy. Williams' ability to shift between these themes, in their various states of volume and completeness, is what truly captured audiences at the time. For people discovering the original Star Wars scores today, it may be the dominant memorability of each individual theme that causes such fan attachment, but if you take Star Wars: A New Hope as a whole and enjoy its lesser-known cues, you'll hear the real reason why the score was such a success. A cue like "Tales of a Jedi Knight/Learn about the Force" (in which Ben Kenobi tells Luke Skywalker of the force in his home and the two then watch the Princess' message) contains so many of the themes in magical, conversational context that you realize that Williams' music for the series doesn't require bombast for the same effective utilization of the Wagnerian concepts. This is not to say, however, that bold statements of theme in Star Wars aren't worthy of their place in history; the "Throne Room" cue alone, with its ultra-heroic brass of truly epic proportions, is a piece that remains awe-inspiring decades later, especially when heard in live concert quality. The "Imperial Attack" cue follows a similar history, representing the monumental scope of the swashbuckling spirit that Star Wars generates. So well this score is known that a lengthy cue-by-cue discussion would largely waste your time. The only debate that exists today about the actual content of the Star Wars score is related to the "Special Edition" of the classic trilogy that was released in 1997 as part of the 20th anniversary celebration of the saga. With new music recorded freshly for Return of the Jedi and cues shifted slightly for additional scenes in the first two films, many fans wondered why Lucas decided against the belated, but perhaps appropriate insertion of the Imperial March (from The Empire Strikes Back) in place of the short Death Star theme heard throughout Star Wars. With that march heard in all of the other five films as a representation of the Galactic Empire, its absence from Star Wars: A New Hope remains the score's sole lingering question or abnormality. Aside from this debate, the only real issue surrounding the Star Wars score in the post-2000 era is the history of the music on album. A person could easily ramble on for days about the people and technicalities behind all of these albums; every time you think you've purchased the definitive and final version of any of the classic trilogy scores, you can wait a few years and be treated to yet another re-release in the stores. While the existence of all of the music from the classic Star Wars film scores is taken for granted today, the first fifteen years were quite lean for Williams fans. It would take a full twenty years before the entire finished products --with every available cue released-- would finally reach fans in time for the Special Editions in theatres. Much of the information that follows, regarding each of the various releases of the score, is relevant to not only this score, but the others in the classic trilogy as well, so you'll read very similar accounts in the Filmtracks reviews of those scores as well. After their initial, separate releases on LP records, the CD editions of the scores have always been released as a trilogy, despite your ability to usually buy them separately upon each update of all three. The first release of Star Wars on CD was by Polydor in 1986 --a very early CD-- and was identical in contents and packaging as the LP release. Of the roughly 88 minutes of music that was finalized for the film, about 75 minutes appeared on this album (Star Wars had far less music recorded than the other scores in the saga). The only substantial alternative source for music from this score (and the others in the saga before 1993) was the Charles Gerhardt re-recording of 33 minutes of the score with the National Philharmonic Orchestra. For years, Gerhardt and the NPO had recorded famous film scores from mostly the Golden Age of Hollywood, but as a few of their final collaborations, Gerhardt recorded the three classic Star Wars scores near the times of their release. In this case, the 33 minutes from Star Wars was recorded in December of 1977 and was released on LP record at that time. The CD version from RCA was remastered in 1989 and released that year. The original Polydor release of the actual recording suffered from the muted sound quality that often plagued scores of the 1970's, but the Gerhardt recording (mixed into Dolby Surround for the CD) had outstanding sound quality and remains, to this day, one of the best recordings of Star Wars (and a suite from Close Encounters of the Third Kind) of all time. Their performance of "The Throne Room" is not to be missed, and luckily the CD is a rather easy used-bin find at many major stores. When 20th Century Fox finally commissioned the ultimate trilogy Star Wars Anthology in 1993, the resulting set was considered a godsend by fans. While mostly doing the significant justice for the two sequel scores, the anthology of 1993 did offer another ten minutes of music from A New Hope (but far less than what was still missing). Produced by some of the biggest names in film score production, the additional music was certainly welcomed with great anticipation. There were, however, problems with the presentation of that music, despite the best intentions of the producers. The anthology put as much music from each film on an individual CD for each of the three scores, but then pressed additional unreleased cues on a fourth CD that spanned all three scores. Thus, to get cues such as "Destruction of Alderaan" and "A Hive of Villainy," you would have to insert the fourth CD to enjoy them. Add on a large, custom-sized package (roughly DVD size by today's standards) and hard-to-read individual CD covers within, and you had some ill-received protests from some fans. The anthology release of 1993 is looked upon with fondness by many Star Wars fans today simply because it filled a major void in collections at the time. In 1997, however, the anthology was rendered largely outdated by the massive, highly advertised RCA Special Edition releases of 1997. By January of that year, George Lucas had announced the production of The Phantom Menace and revealed newly enhanced versions of the original three films for a 20th anniversary theatrical release. For Star Wars: A New Hope in particular, this didn't mean any physical changes to the score despite some expectation that the Imperial March would finally be inserted into the picture. On album, fans were treated to double-CD releases of each Star Wars score in film order with alternative cues and extensive attention to detail in the mixing and arrangement. Digitally remastered in 1996 (separately from 35mm magnetic and 16-track analog elements), the vibrance of the original recordings was finally starting to be heard. Including the fifteen minutes of alternate takes of the main title (hidden at the end of the last track on the first CD for some reason... why couldn't these be given their own tracks at the end of the entire product? the same applies to the 2004 releases), a total of 106 minutes of music on this special edition made it the definitive release. Extensive notes and pictorials graced both the 1993 and 1997 releases, and the list of recorded takes on the latter is of particular interest. Later in 1997, these albums were re-packaged by RCA and offered in slimline packages that feature the special edition poster art, but these fell out of print about five years later. In 2004, the Sony Classical label, which had been releasing the second trilogy scores, had acquired the rights to the classic scores and decided to re-press the 1997 releases with new artwork. These 2004 albums offer Sony's Direct Stream Digital remastering, and while this technique does provide some minimal extra clarity on high-end stereo systems, casual listeners will notice no significant change since the 1997 albums. Thus, if you own the special edition albums and don't require slightly improved sound, there is no reason to seek the 2004 ones. In fact, the 2004 albums are badly lacking in packaging compared to previous releases, with absolutely none of the fantastic notes and pictorials presented in the 1993 or 1997 releases. Essentially, you can look upon the 2004 albums as nothing more than a re-pressing of existing streamlined albums. Overall, owning this classic score is a must, and with its outstanding packaging and complete presentation of music, the 1997 special edition album (the original full version bound in black booklets) continues to be the best Star Wars: A New Hope product available.
1986 Polydor: ** 1989 RCA Gerhardt: **** 1993 Fox Anthology: **** 1997 RCA Special Edition: ***** 2004 Sony Classical: ****
* Contains previously unreleased material ** Previously unreleased music *** Composed by Alfred Newman (1954)
* Previously unreleased ** Contains previously unreleased material
The 1986 Polydor and 1989 RCA Gerhardt albums contain no information about the film, score, or recording. The 1993 Fox Anthology has extensive notes and pictorials in an oversized booklet with information written by John Williams, Nicholas Meyer, and Lukas Kendall. The 1997 RCA Special Edition albums with the black book format include extensive notation from album arranger Michael Matessino regarding the film, score as a whole, and each cue. A recording log for Star Wars in this 1997 album also includes information about each take. The 1997 RCA Special Edition slimline format lacks the same level of detail. The 2004 Sony Classical products (available both as a set and individually) include a fold-out poster, but sadly no extra information about the film or score. A sample of the colorful 1997 RCA Special Edition CDs is seen below (each of the three 2-CD sets for the trilogy has a different pattern on the CDs):  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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