"March of the Resistance" - Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens (Score Reduction & Analysis)

A full score reduction and analysis of "March of the Resistance." Enjoy!
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[@JJBerthume]

Please do Scherzo for X-Wings! I want to see that counterpoint notated :D

[@JacobMatthewss]

When I saw your comment I was like, "Thats JJay! I subscribe to him!" xD

[@albusdumbledore1218]

I actually had to do a double take when I first started to watch this one. "Holy crap JJAY COMMENTED ON THIS ONE"

[@iancypes5911]

When you're happy and nostalgic for the music, but you're also getting lowkey PTSD from high school band practice

[@HrHTeam]

Such a genius piece of work.

[@geoffstemen3652]

Anyone else getting strong hints of Beethoven 9:I ? Especially around 1:47 and 2:11

[@iceborg05]

Maybe just a dash of Beethoven vibe. Like a sense of urgency almost.

[@tylerallmon3172]

Please do the Throne Room

[@MaxTooney]

I get a kick out of these videos--good job; lots of info to be gleaned from them! (Plus, as the score rolls by, I get to remind myself just how woefully bad I am at sight-reading.)

[@ashleythorpe7933]

Williams's Rondo Burleske, albeit more tonally controlled

[@jacobwohleb9846]

It's crazy to see how much of this he took from the last movement of Mahler 1!

[@JJBerthume]

Nah, the Scherzo - 3rd movement.

[@thomh6083]

A lot of star wars music is inspired by Mahler. If you listen to his resurrection symphony you can hear lots of similarities to various star wars tracks.

[@craigkowald3055]

The main theme as played by the horns bears similarity to the Rondo Burlesque from Mahler 9.

[@sislaneydillanomore2803]

Shostakovich No.5 IV movement.

[@BrickLogicStudios]

I wanna try to do this but with Broadway musicals..

[@EnzoLebold]

cool, though he is not gonna outdo the prequel soundtrack.

[@dpetrov32]

so brad you get the score from John Williams Conductor Scores originally?

[@PianoMusicSheets]

If you are interested, I have created a visualization of the piano score here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bZTcfGmDiMd4msk

[@xscastasx]

You should do Quidditch, Third Year from The Prisoner of Azkaban

[@drewcollier1138]

No...I don't want to see how many wrong notes my piano transcription has. Haha.

[@ctfamily40]

How can you do an "analysis" of this piece and not use the word "fugue" once? Or at least "counterpoint"? The whole thing is contrapuntal, and the middle section, at 62, is an actual fugue, countersubject and all. A fugue. In a film score. The contrapuntal nature of this track is by far the most novel and interesting thing about it.

[@texwest65]

Completely agree with you!! But it starts out as a fugue from the very beginning. There are three entrances of the fugue subject on the first page. I would call measure 62 an example of stretto where there are rapid entrances of the fugue subject. I was shocked when I was listening to the music during the credits and heard a fugue in a movie theater!! I immediately started telling my friends how amazing it was to hear a fugue but they had no idea what I was talking about.

[@ΚωνσταντίνοςΓιαννός]

Indeed it's a fugue from the very beginning, with expositions, episodes and everything! The responses of course don't follow the baroque norm of tonic-dominant, dominant-tonic, but they usually appear in consecutive fifths. In the middle Also, the modulation in the first section from E minor to C minor happens the same way in b. 104. The form is also really interesting; it resembles a ternary form with the first section is repeated in the end and a new part with a new theme in the middle. As for that middle section in the middle it starts with an exposition and then is followed by a series of imitations that lead in theme B.

[@nicholasfox966]

Because all of these youtube "analyses" of films scores and whatnot are not analyses at all, but mere moment-to-moment descriptions of what anyone can see by looking at the music. Irrelevant chord and interval-labeling, false "modulations" that have no structural importance, etc. An analysis describes the deeper levels of a musical piece; the elements beyond what's there on the surface. Structure, function, long-term harmonic trajectory, form. These are descriptions, not analyses.

[@KinkyLettuce]

@@nicholasfox966 Absolutely agree with you. As my teacher keeps saying, you can go as deep as you want within the theory, but that really stops being relevant once it becomes inaudible. All the detailed description of chords wont tell us one bit about the big picture: How the music is structured, how the climax is built, how the sections are transitioned, what is the form of the music etc. These are what listeners need to know of, and not whether this chord is a "7th chord 2nd inversion with flat 9th and added 6th" Again, doing an "analysis" of this score without mentioning the word "fugue" is just absolutely outrageous

[@wump9066]

Please please please do A Jedis Fury from return of the jedi

[@Jetli390]

Do you think you could do harry vs the basilisk from the chamber of secrets? :D

[@dachshund_gaming]

Aw fuck it's like Harry Potter and Star Wars combined so goooooodododdodod

[@carsoniltis3506]

2:02

[@mewhenthe8177]

b&h

[@tomazvital1986]

Am I the only one who dislike this score? And also the movie.... This movie for me was by far the worst... But those reductions are amazing!!!!

[@JacobMatthewss]

I enjoyed the movie. I think the score was amazing. By far my favorite one. What makes you dislike it?

[@CosmicTeapot]

Trilha Vital Yes, thankfully you are the only one or at least there are very few of you.

[@cobaltstudios935]

The movie has its issues, but this score is flawless

[@sethedmonds5996]

This was by far one of my favorite marches, idk how you could like this!

[@mydogskips2]

@@JacobMatthewss What makes me dislike this score? Let me see... just going with the "main themes" of this score, that it Rey's theme, the March of the Resistance, Scherzo for X-wings, and Kylo Ren's theme... in my opinion, they are utterly incoherent and without direction, a bunch of sounds without meaning or purpose. There are no great and memorable themes or melodies(which John is great at) here, even Rey's theme(by far his best work for this film) is mediocre at best. I want to say that I take no pleasure in saying this as I believe John Williams to be a genius composer and I enjoy most of the Star Wars film music, but this particular score is just lacking in many ways, I simply find it to be dull and uninteresting, that is insipid and trite to say the least. Tchaikovsky was a great composer, like John Williams he wrote some of the greatest music ever put on paper, but he had some bad pieces, the two of which come to the forefront in my mind and his 5th symphony and March Slave(some may like them, I think they're drivel), with the former being a better example, and I find this music to be somewhat reminiscent of it. I mean, honestly, do you really think these pieces compare to the original Star Wars Main Theme(arguably the greatest, most iconic movie theme ever written), the force theme, the Imperial March, Yoda's theme, Leia's theme, Battle of Yavin, the Throne room and finale? They're not even in the same galaxy in my opinion. And this doesn't even mention the incidental music where the other movies were far superior as well. To reiterate, the bottom line for me is that this music is just banal and pedestrian at best. For whatever reason, John lost his way here, or really, he never found it to begin with, the spark of genius his music usually possesses is simply not present in this score, that's my belief.

[@alinkbetweengames4328]

I was expecting more comparisons to the Rebel fanfare, but good job anyway.

[@aarons5018]

The style taken from Shosti Symph No5 mov 4 is so apparent, and obvi mahler...and a little bit of beethoven symph 5 too

[@pauldejeandelabatie1583]

Thanks for the score! it very much sounds like Beethoven meets Mahler to me, the result is amazing!

[@waterglas21]

It reminds me of Episode 1 podrace theme: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pnrJnZmOlrZonJY

[@KinkyLettuce]

imagine having the ability to write an orchestral fugue, implement it into a movie score to be completely neglected by the majority of the audience. This is whats so crazy though, its the artistic integrity of Williams. He doesnt care whether the audience can pick up his superb artistry, he stays true to his craftsmanship and maintain his high musical standard PS: FilmScoreAnalysis you fucked up big time. How can you even call this an analysis without mentioning the word "fugue" even once? Knowing this is a fugue is way more important than knowing all the minuscule labeling of chords inversions, which are completely irrelevant to the whole musical narrative

[@jamesaccetura1776]

While the composition is very fugue like, it doesn't exactly follow the 'rules' or form of a traditional fugue. For example, the subject of a fugue comes back in the tonic key after the answer in the exposition, where Williams modulates more continually.

[@moxieme1174]

Like or dislike the movie, you gotta admit, the music is pretty neat. 👏🏻👍🏻

[@Quotenwagnerianer]

Modern Williams is more about developing small motifs rather than writing full blown romantic themes like he used to do in the time of the first trilogy. There is a lot of craftsmanship in this, but it feels to me that he is just making up for his lack of inspiration.

[@drewcollier1138]

This is the most blantant "big theme" he has written in a long time. It's epic.

[@kaibibi]

this theme is stunningly similar to the opening theme of Shostakovich symphony 5, finale

[@geoffstemen3652]

He is not given much of an emotional world to draw on in this film, not his fault

[@jbg_music]

I doubt it has to do with lack of inspiration, but rather with the ever growing trend of movie scores nowadays using small motifs and ostinatos. I think movie directors have something to do with that. Nevertheless, I feel that while we might lose a certain melodic quality, John Williams more than makes up for it in form ingenuity.

[@aj.s...]

I think you should go back and watch the og trilogy. Those scores are blanketed with motifs. Most of the big themes are really just treatments he wrote for the soundtrack albums that don't appear in the films at all.