Re: Star Wars: Episode VIII (Pre-release)
Back in '97, I got the lovely two-disc Special Edition soundtrack releases for the OT. Play the opening fanrares of each back to back to back, and even then the differences are glaringly obvious. The original one for Star Wars was good, Empire is perfect, and already with Jedi it becomes... muddy, for lack of a more fitting term. All the the sharp punchiness of Empire was gone for a slurred melange of brass. The Prequels weren't much better. TFA's fanfare was, in my opinion, better than any of the Prequels or Jedi, but not as good as Star Wars or Empire. All but this most recent were done by the LSO, but the orchestra is made up of individuals, who come and go over time, who are directed by a conductor who may -- on a particular day -- feel like there needs to be more bassoons in this run-through, for instance. So, orchestra and recording site don't matter all that much. It's much more what the conductor decides is the sound he's going for, and what the director or producer like the sound of best.
As for other scoring things... Empire and Raiders have a very, very similar feel, being recorded only about a year apart. I consider both to be Williams at about the top of his game. In Star Wars, he was unhappy with Vader's leitmotif theme, so reworked it to great effect for Empire. Although I wish he'd confined it a little more to Vader and his forces specifically, and less so to the Imperial forces in general -- particularly in the Prequels before Anakin had even become Vader. In Empire, he gave us the beginnings of a theme for the Falcon herself, which sadly seemed to have been utterly forgotten by Jedi. People have commented that some phrases from the music he did for Hook show up in the Harry Potter theme. I'll add to that and say listen to the Attack of the Clones score again -- it's lurking in some of the Anakin and Padme stuff. So all told, I'm happy with where we are with TFA, music-wise, though I do feel the sound quality could have been better. I don't know the breakdown of the Los Angeles orchestra he went with versus the LSO -- or even the breakdown of the LSO each of the times he used them in the past. But whatever was there for the recording of the score for Empire, I hope that's what's there (and what he uses, in proportion) for Episode VIII.
--Jonah
