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The Last Jedi Soundtrack Musical Analysis: Catalog of Themes

12/21/2017

21 Comments

 
I saw The Last Jedi for a second time on Tuesday. I took 21 pages of notes (I know, I'm a nerd) on the music and how it relates to the story so I can update my "Music of Star Wars" presentation. Here is a working catalog of all the themes used in the film. Starting tomorrow, I will use this catalog as a reference as I dissect and analyze the soundtrack.
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Most of the thematic (meaning non-incidental) music reprises themes from previous films.

Reprized from A New Hope:
  • The Main theme
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  • The Rebel fanfare
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  • The Force theme
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  • Leia's theme
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  • TIE Fighter Attack
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​Reprized from The Empire Strikes Back:
  • Imperial March
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  • Han Solo and the Princess
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  • ​Yoda's theme
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Reprized from Return of the Jedi:
  • Luke and Leia
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  • The Sith theme
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Reprized from The Force Awakens:
  • The March of the Resistance
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  • Rey's themes (considered below)
  • Kylo Ren's themes (considered below)
  • Poe's theme​ (?)
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  • Jedi Steps (Luke's theme?)
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The Force Awakens implied that the Jedi Steps theme is Luke's theme (there were only two characters in that final scene and Rey already has her music, so it seems reasonable that Jedi Steps is Luke's theme), but The Last Jedi did little to confirm or deny that. We do hear the theme a couple of times, but only at the beginning. If this really is Luke's theme, why don't we hear it throughout the film when we see Luke? It should be heard during Luke's battle with Kylo Ren for sure. So I'm still puzzled as to exactly what this theme means.

The March of the Resistance undergoes the most musical development throughout The Last Jedi. It is constantly fragmented, twisted, turned, and pulled in all sorts of directions depending on the narrative function at any given moment.

Poe's heroic theme features much less prominently in The Last Jedi than the March of the Resistance. It's still there, but it's much more subtle (I didn't even notice it the first time I saw the film) and doesn't carry the same weight. I'm a bit confused, though, as to why. Poe plays a major role throughout The Last Jedi, so why don't we hear Poe's theme more?

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, notice how Rey's and Ren's themes are plural. It's because both characters have multiple parts to their music.

Rey's music has five components:
  • The tip-toe motive sounds sneaky and delicate
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  • The chime motive sounds like bells (and is often played by bells)   ​
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  • The big melody, this is the type of ultra-romantic sweeping melody Williams is so famous for writing
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  • The regal motive – there's something royal-sounding about this one
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  • And lastly, the counter melody
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And Ren's music, though not quite as dense as Rey's, has several component parts, as well:
  • The power motive, heard when Ren is portrayed as a strong character who relentlessly pursues his goals. It often immediately follows the wannabe motive documented below.
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  • The wannabe motive, whose i-bvi harmony is reminiscent of Vader's Imperial March, is heard when Ren is portrayed as a weak character. It's a dissonant octatonic melody symbolic of his anxiety over not being as strong as his grandfather.
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  • The brooding motive also highlights Ren's anxieties, though it's less obvious than the wannabe motive.
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It's also worth mentioning how most of Rey's music and all of Ren's music is motivic rather than melodic. A motive is a short but memorable musical phrase, where melodies tend to be longer. Rey's chime motive, for example, is two measures long and uses seven notes. Rey's melody, by contrast, lasts for six measures and uses 14 notes. I was expecting (and hoping) for musical development of these brief motives for both Rey and Ren in The Last Jedi. I have to admit I was disappointed when that didn't happen. Nevertheless, music for both characters permeates the film – it's just that they're always more or less the same as what was heard in The Force Awakens.

Okay, so there are the themes from The Last Jedi that were reprized from previous episodes. Now for the new themes.

The most prominent is Rose's theme, which has two parts:
  • Rose's primary theme is the big melody and the contribution that I'll be adding to my “Music of Star Wars” presentation.
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It rather similar to the opening phrase of the Force theme...
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...  and to Anakin's theme from The Phantom Menace...
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… and even to David Newman's theme from the 1999 film Galaxy Quest.
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I suppose this could mean that Rose is related to the force, or to Anakin (or to Dr. Lazarus!), but I suspect these similarities are little more than coincidence. All of these themes use scale degrees 5-1-2 and most use 3 in their melodies, which is a cliche of western music - there are a great many more themes that use this pattern, far too many to list here.

Moving along....
​
  • Rose's secondary theme is much less prominent. It's heard far less frequently in the film and soundtrack, but is nevertheless worthy (thought just barely) of distinction from the primary theme.
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In addition to Rose, there are a few more new themes:
  • A minor-key sarabande.
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  • A crying motive that usually follows the sarabande.
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  • A rhythmically unstable desperation motive, which lacks a downbeat and juxtaposes duple and triple division of beats.
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  • A last-ditch fanfare that seems to flirt with disaster
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Frankly, I'm not entirely sure what all these new themes mean. I suspect it will become more clear as I continue digesting the soundtrack. If anybody out there has ideas, please comment!

So there are all the themes and motives I gathered from a second viewing of The Last Jedi. It's quite likely that I'll discover more bits of new music as I continue digesting, but I believe these are all the major new contributions to the Star Wars musical universe.

Now it's time to turn to the soundtrack specifically. I noticed quite a few discrepancies between the film's soundtrack and the album soundtrack (for example, the soundtrack's finale employs Yoda's theme while the film omits it).
​
The soundtrack consists of 20 tracks. I will endeavor to write 20 more blogs, one per track, over the next month, leading up to my “Music of Star Wars” presentations in January 2018, which will debut new commentary on Episode VIII's music.
21 Comments
Sam
12/21/2017 05:02:05 pm

There's definitely reference to/use of the melody of Battle of the Heroes from Episode 3 at the end of the Main Title and Escape on the soundtrack.

Reply
Aaron
12/22/2017 02:05:18 pm

Yeah, I heard that, too. But I think it's coincidental. If he really is reprising Battle of the Heroes, this is the ONLY use of prequel themes in The Last Jedi.

Reply
Mike
1/4/2018 09:55:06 pm

I will agree that the Battle of the Heroes theme is used towards the beginning of VIII (when everything is blowing up).

What its significance is here I'm not entirely sure of, but I honestly wouldn't put it past Williams to draw a parallel.

(Immolation, perhaps? It's not the music Anakin gets roasted to in III, but it's a lot of people associate that with the whole duel with Obi-Wan and Mustafar set-piece thing. Also, Rose's sister gets blown up.)

Reply
Alex Ginsberg
12/27/2017 08:33:27 pm

Aaron, I believe the theme you are calling "Sarabande" is what serves as Luke's theme in this film. Or, more precisely, a theme that covers Luke and Rey's relationship. The "Luke" theme you mentioned, from the end of TFA, was a one-off to represent the mystery of the island, and I think it only appears in the first island scene of TLJ in order to provide continuity with the end of TFA.

Reply
Aaron
12/28/2017 05:59:30 am

Hmmm, I think you're right. Congrats on being the first person on the entire internet to offer any sort of constructive comment regarding what this sarabande means! (Everybody else so far on social media and in chatroom forums has been telling unhelpful.)

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Alex Ginsberg
12/28/2017 07:09:16 am

Eh, I read it somewhere else, just can't remember where. I note a strong resemblance between the forte iteration of this Luke-Rey sarabande (3:53 in "Ahch-To Island") and a particular interlude heard late in the fourth movement of Sibelius' Second Symphony, prior to the end (starting around 11:00 minutes on an average 15:00 performance).

Also, others have identified a Holdo theme that only made it onto the soundtrack in the Finale (5:45).

Keep up the excellent work. Music nerds live for this stuff.

Mark
12/29/2017 12:35:32 pm

What was the theme / music when Luke and Kylo first stand "face to face" - thought i heard some spaghetti western strains / homage such as from the final duel in "Once Upon a Time in the West". My imagination?

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Lucian
1/3/2018 10:42:24 am

Thanks for this analysis.

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Mike
1/4/2018 10:02:09 pm

What about the 6/8 Imperial March variation introduced in the track "The Spark" (takes place immediately after the Luke and Leia/Han Solo and the Princess statements)?

I'm not sure if one can completely consider it "new music" as it IS derivative, but it seems to be the piece of music that is most closely associated with this film. It sets up the duel between Luke and Kylo Ren and a version was also prominently featured in the second trailer.

As an aside, I'm personally a big fan of this little motive. It almost feels like Luke is taking the best parts of his father and his legacy out onto that battlefield with him and giving them far more heroics than they ever originally had.

Reply
Aaron
1/5/2018 06:57:35 am

Yeah, I was wondering about that, too! But Imperial March uses scale degrees 1-b6-b3-i and this uses 1-5-b3-1. The latter is just an arpeggiated minor triad. It is similar, but I don't think it's a quote of Imperial March. But obviously only Williams can confirm or deny it.

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Stridehyde
1/10/2018 01:48:02 pm

I disagree about Rey’s theme only being a short motif. There is definitely motivic material as you say: the tip-toe and the chime motifs. But if you go back to The Force Awakens you will find a fully fleshed out melody with a first and second ending (the “Regal” motif is the second ending).

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Aaron
1/11/2018 07:11:52 am

Indeed, the most important musical contribution for Rey is the big melody. The little motives, though still important, are clearly secondary to that melody.

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STRIDEHYDE
1/12/2018 07:38:32 am

Right, but the main melody comprises a lot more than 14 notes. It’s a whole form with a first and second ending. Williams uses the first 6 notes often as a classic leitmotif, especially in the combat scene with Kylo Ren in TFA.
And yes, the secondary motifs are very important. The final track over the credits ends with one of them.

STRIDEHYDE
1/11/2018 06:52:06 am

I’m wondering if what you refer to as Poe’s theme could rather be a theme for the nascent Rebellion that is being born oy of the ashes of the Resistance. Just a thought.

Reply
Aaron
1/11/2018 07:06:05 am

Yeah, I had that thought, too, particularly in The Force Awakens, where it's somewhat ambiguous whether or not it is Poe's theme. But The Last Jedi implies that this is indeed's Poe's theme. We hear it three times in TLJ: First, 8 minutes into the film when Poe attacks the First Order ships (which is absent from the soundtrack for reasons I don't understand). Second, 2 hours 13 minutes in, during Poe's "Spark of the rebellion" speech, where it's harmonized like a chorale. And third, 2 hours 22 minutes in, where Poe meets Rey for the first time. Lastly, the Resistance already has its march, which is heard and developed constantly throughout TLJ. So I have to believe this theme belongs to Poe, not to the Resistance in general.

Reply
STRIDEHYDE
1/12/2018 07:45:05 am

Yes, I’ve seen commentary elsewhere that the theme has been left out. I’ve only seen TLJ twice, not enough for me to absorb everything.
I do think Williams may eventually make a distinction between the Resistance and the new Rebellion. That idea is prominent in the script. I’ll be interested to see how it plays out.
It’s a shame that Disney doesn’t release soundtracks that more closely cleave tonyhe movies. My biggest gripe with the TFA soundtrack release was the music that plays when Anakin’s lightsaber goes to Rey instead of Ren. The force theme is played on the soundtrack but in the movie it is an exactly orchestrated copy of what is played when Luke finds his home and relatives burned in ANH. It’s very powerful.

jader3rd
1/15/2018 09:11:42 pm

Do you think that 20 tracks is good for the soundtrack, or should they have split some of them up? I think that the 1st track should have been split into two; making for 21 tracks.

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Aaron
1/17/2018 01:21:31 pm

I don't have any problem with there being 20 tracks. That being said, my understanding is that the opening scroll is a copy/paste from The Force Awakens. I'd be interested in hearing what was ACTUALLY recorded for The Last Jedi instead in addition to what was used in the film. That could be separate tracks, but then it'd need to be a double-album release instead of a single disc. That adds cost, so I understand why the powers that be chose NOT to do that.

Reply
Aaron Foster
3/13/2018 11:38:59 am

Has anyone else noticed the change in the Force theme's harmony between the original trilogy and this one?

For example, here's the theme from "Light of the Force" in ROTJ. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDMLbk4nMm4&t=1m19s Each time it follows the same formula: at measure five, the chord drops from I to IV (example: for the theme in key of G, which seems to be the main key throughout the series, when it reaches measure five you get a C chord.)

But listen to the one in "Jedi Steps" in FA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUBUlKgsNK8&t=1m38s and the harmony changes. Instead of dropping to a C, it RISES to an Ab. Abrams has gone on record to say his story didn't have the continuation of The Last Jedi at the time, so I'm guessing Williams did this as part of the theme of "changing of the guard" between original trilogy and new.

It takes on a different meaning in LJ, though, since every time we hear it, that change is kept. Luke is detached from the Force, and his life has taken a very different tone. It's not until his final scene that "Peace and Purpose" brings back the drop to C https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FviFi42Y4c implying that he has made his peace with the Force at last, as he becomes one with it.

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Jonathan
7/24/2020 06:34:03 am

What if the Jedi Steps theme doesn't represent luke but instead purely represents the Jedi Steps as an idea; the steps Rey takes as she underoges her journey to become a jedi?

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ADB
2/9/2022 07:42:44 pm

My take is that "Jedi Steps" is associated with Luke specifically in his exile on Ahch-To. That's where we hear it. But it could be seen to include Rey's acquaintance with him, also. Of course, the scenes on the island prominently feature stone steps, and more figuratively, it could be seen, as the last comment suggested, as underscoring Rey's steps toward becoming the Last Jedi, which necessarily include a kind of apprenticeship to Luke. So I'm really seeing it as a theme about the relationship between Luke and Rey on that particular world.

Thanks for making all these wonderful themes readily available online.

Reply



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