The Music of Star Wars: A New Hope

*if you haven't seen Star Wars yet...watch it. honestly.
I honestly don’t know where to begin on this one. There is probably not a single person in the civilized world that hasn’t heard the music of star wars. It’s as iconic as the costumes, the story and the lightsabers. It’s instantly recognizable. And today, that’s what we are going to talk about.
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This video is formatted for use on Ultra-wide screens rendered at 3440X1440 :) This means that the end screen content will not work properly...sorry!

[@RossLovesMovies]

The Binary Sunset track gets me every time!

[@TheMusicoftheMovies]

RIGHT?!

[@smtucker0419]

Nicely done. It is so amazing when you are watching with just the music and no dialogue. the music does carry the story so well. Good video technique on your part as well. Thanks

[@TheMusicoftheMovies]

It makes such a difference doesn't it? Thanks for watching! :)

[@Sailoras]

THANK YOU for rendering your Videos in true 21:9, really appreciate that. Great Video as always!

[@TheMusicoftheMovies]

Sailoras I work on a ultrawide monitor myself, so I feel the pain too. Glad I'm not alone! Unfortunately KZbin doesn't support end screen options for this ratio, bummer!

[@Sailoras]

I just supported you on patreon, keep up the good work buddy! Greetings from Germany ;)

[@TheMusicoftheMovies]

danke schön!

[@avidfather1864]

Great video! Can you do the LOTR score too? I personally think it's the only score comperable and on the same level with Star Wars.

[@remonholubek8123]

Yeah... This is a great video, it is a great video for music lovers who are kind of new to the film scores of Star Wars. In contrast, there are also a lot of things that are wrong or could have done better in this video in my opinion. To begin, the star wars soundtrack does not consist out of songs, but pieces. Calling it songs is very out of place. Also you refer to the Princess leia theme as a whole piece. You are right that Williams composed a piece called 'Leia's Theme', this piece is not played in the movie but it is a track of the soundtrack. The theme that you hear in this piece, is actually Leia's Leitmotief, that is used in the course of the entire movie. It is used like at least nine times in A New Hope. Therefore it is not entirely justly to mention that the Leia theme is not in the movie, because it certainly is. Secondly, it suprises me that there is nothing said about Williams influences like Wagner, Wolfgang Korngold and Gustav Holst. There are hundreds of videos showing us 'Rip-offs' that are used in the Star Wars music. (I think that this is just inspiration instead of rip offs, and it has also a lot to do with temp tracks and directors and that kind of stuff). What I try to say: Williams was very inspired by some other composers, he probably would not be able to compose the Star Wars score as it is now without his inspirations, but there is nothing mentioned about that in the video. Also last, there is nothing said about Williams use of Leitmotifs or Musical Onomatopoeia, what is the main feature for many musicians when analysing a film score. This is afcourse not amateur knowledge, so I do understand why you did not mentioned it, because it could make the video very complicated for non-musicians. But the use of leitmotiefs is for me one of the major things I like about the score. I would have liked it if and honestly expected that you mentioned something about that in the video, To add, there is also not said a single thing about the rich use of things as Melody, Harmony, Rhytm or orchestration, what Williams not only masters as a film composer, but as a classical composer as well. This is in my opinion the reason why the music is so grand in the Star Wars sage. I am not trying to abase you and I have nothing against you or something. But these are just some things that do lack a bit in your video in my opinion.

[@TaliesinBHeidkamp]

Okay, very good videos, but a few things: Stop calling them songs...if there is no singing, it's not a song, but a piece. Might sound snobbish from me, but seriously, there are a lot of music-nerds out there who won't take you seriously when you make mistakes like that :) Second...why didn't you choose the tracks from the RCA Special Editions where there's all the music from the film in the right order? The original CD you chose, tends to merge unrelated tracks together and stuff which makes it really hard to use for the analytical purposes you go for Last but not least, you mentioned that you think Williams might have written stuff like "Princess Leia's Theme" not for the screen but for listening and that it would be very hard to showcase them in the movie...well, that's because the piece called "Princess Leia's Theme" is just a concert suite. It never appears in the film like that. But there are enough udnerscore tracks where her theme does appear :)) Anyway, still keep up the good work!

[@idfkwhatyouwantfromme]

Very nice! Are you gonna do the Prequel Trilogy, TFA, and RO also?

[@TheMusicoftheMovies]

BroBroNelly I'd love to. After these first three, I'll do another trilogy to take a break from Star Wars, but after the last Jedi comes out I'd love to review that alongside TFA and RO. Especially see how Michael G did RO. Holding a vote til October on my Patreon for the next trilogy, between lord of the rings, back to the future or the first 3 Harry Potter films.