May the Music be with us: who's behind the soundtrack of Star Wars?

Raise your hand if you're a Star Wars fan - and if you aren't, stay with us because I'm sure you certainly know its soundtrack, at least the main theme! 

I watched the 70s/80s movies in my teens and I remember I loved them (Han Solo was my first fictional character crush obv) but my passion for the whole thing began later... during lockdown. Since I remembered all the important things of the original movies (I wouldn't risk THAT spoiler, you know what I mean) I decided to watch the whole serie in chronological order starting from The Phantom Menace and ending with The Rise of Skywalker, plus all the spin-offs like Rogue One and Solo. Even if I tend to agree with most of the fans that the originals remain the best, I really enjoyed also both the prequels and the sequels with some little exceptions... that I won't say here. But I REALLY fell in love with The Mandalorian serie, and since I fell in love with the music too, I started being curious about the composers, so let's investigate more on who are the geniuses behind the Star Wars music!

The main soundtrack of the primarly features films was written by the composer John Williams and played by the London Symphony Orchestra for the originals and prequels and by the Hollywood Freelance Studio Symphony for the sequels. John Williams is crazy talented and a sort of God in the movie industry, if you search more about him you'll find he composed also the music for Indiana Jones, ET, Home Alone, Jurassic Park, Schindler's list, Harry Potter and many others! Born in Queens, NYC, in 1932, he later moved to Los Angeles with the family and I'm happy to say there's something italian in his formation as he studied composition privately with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. He joined the U.S. Air Force where he played the piano and brass and conducted the band of the Air Force as part of his assignment. He now has a star in the Walk of Fame and the Star Wars Theme has been selected as the greatest film score of all time by the American Film Institute, as well as entered in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant". 

The Star Wars music by John Williams is also currently ranked #3 by The Guardian in the "50 greatests film soundtracks" and we can all agree that it is the best-written and recognisable movie soundtrack of all times. It is composed by an incredible number of several leitmotifs - a recurrent theme associated with a particular person, idea, or situation. A film music sholar and assistant professor at Tufts University, Frank Lehman, made a catalogue of all the 55 leitmotifs you can find in the Star Wars Soundtrack (including famous Darth Vader's theme, Han Solo and Leia's theme, etc...) and 43 "incidental motifs". Would you like to listen and learn how to play of ALL of them? No problem, he posted the catalogue online, you can find it here! (Source: "The New Yorker: A field guide to Star Wars movies leitmotifs" by Alex Ross)

The most recent series Obi-Wan Kenobi features again the super famous Imperial March, but what makes this theme so recognisable and iconic? Maybe the Wagner-inspired orchestration? Maybe the "space opera" vibes (as it has often been described)? Maybe the sounds and melodies that bring the right amount of drama and emotions? I leave this dissertation to who is more expert than me in music - If you'd like to know more about this, I suggest you the article written last year by Rosie Pentreath for Classic FM, I loved the way she went deep in analysing John Williams music!

Fast forward to our days, let's talk about The Mandalorian theme. The music of The Mandalorian is incredibly iconic and I couldn't wait to search who was the genius who wrote it. The composer is Ludwig Göransson, born in Sweden in 1984. I wasn't surprised to discover that he was the composer of Black Panther soundtrack and that won a Grammy for it. Göransson worked continuosly for one month on the soundtrack of The Mandalorian, trying to recreate the sentiments of John Williams and make something new with it. Göransson music marks certainly a new chapter in Star Wars music, making it epic in a completely different way, but it has also some signs of continuity with John Williams music, including elements of lyric and march/classical sounds. He used different instruments but the best idea he had is certainly the use of the sound of the flute, edited in a futuristic way. Compared to the Season 1, the soundtrack of Season 2 is even better, the Bo Katan's motif is particularly relevant, always higlighting the incredibly powerful main theme. You certainly can recognize his talent and touch also in The Book Of Boba Fett soundrack, with the same space western vibes. The incredible use of the lyric voices gives me goosebumps and I personally think that both these series are the best Star Wars products of the recent years, being iconic not only for the music but also for the acting, the plot and the incredibly beautiful concept arts.

I hope you enjoyed the little journey in the Star Wars universe! Are you a Star Wars fan or are you an hater? Haven't you seen any Star Wars movie, ever? Message me to @laurameetsmusicians, I can't wait to hear your comments!