soundtrack for events/characters not in the films

[atamascolily]

I was thinking today about what music might be appropriate for characters and events not shown in the films. Obviously, we can't have John Williams write us an opera based on the Thrawn trilogy--though it would be awesome--and distinctive leitmotifs would carry over, but I'm curious what music and songs people imagine to fill the void. Any ideas?

(AKA I want an excuse to listen to music I haven't heard before through the lens of my Star Wars obsession.)

Comments

[unspeakablehorror]

Have you heard Thrawn's melody from Rebels? I'm rather fond of that one.

[atamascolily]

No, I haven't been following Rebels at all, I'll have to look into that!

[klcthebookworm]

How I'm approaching this with the fanmix soundtrack for my next novel Unexpected Consequences: I'm taking music John Williams wrote for The Force Awakens and the Last Jedi and applying it my new version of the Thrawn Trilogy.

However, since Thrawn's scenes don't change from the canon, I haven't really tag anything for him. I have reapplied a track for a new character's theme and picked out Luke and Mara's love theme and I'm trying to decide on the mood of the Myrkr hike: dark and foreboding or jaunty and optimistic?

But the piece of music I feel most cheated of: a love theme for Luke and Mara that is as iconic as Han and Leia's.

The second fanmix is the one I'm making to go with Rescue the Farmboy: Liberation. Rescue is my reshaping of the original trilogy in which Luke ends up needing the rescue from the Death Star without making him Prince of Alderaan. So all the ANH music is on tap, but I opened up to other musicians for character themes and ended up with a lot of Linkin Park. "Leave Out All the Rest" for Biggs Darklighter, "What I've Done" for Mara, and "Wake" for a specific scene. For Luke in this story, I've picked "Live to Rise" by Soundgarden. I'm planning on some different developments for Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader, but I haven't finalized my music choices there yet.

What music style do people hear for Naboo?

[atamascolily]

That is such a good idea to re-purpose the sequel trilogy soundtracks!

(Though I must say, when I watched TLJ a couple weeks ago, I was struck by how little new music I noticed. I picked up on all the OT leitmotifs, but I have no idea what Rey's theme is, or any of the new characters. I was also struck by how many scenes in TLJ are silent - particularly, the Kylo Ren and Rey Force-communications - and how empty that made them feel to me. I'm left with the feeling that I utterly, utterly missed something - and yet, I had no trouble at all picking out all the themes the first time I watched the OT or in LOTR and other movies that use orchestral leitmotifs. Very strange.)

I'm not sure why the Myrkr trek can't have both jaunty and optimistic sections AND dark and foreboding, and zig-zag back and forth. The latter is probably most true to canon, but the former is funnier to imagine in my head.

I'll have to think about the Naboo soundtrack. I think I imagine it as the sort of music that would accompany a wuxia film like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and House of Flying Daggers.

[klcthebookworm]

Rey's theme from TFA wasn't used a lot, which I think is a choice I support. The melody is very positive (and I think made to fit in perfectly with Skywalker/Force themes already developed) but TLJ is so relentlessly dark, I can appreciate them not giving us tonal whiplash.

Now I chose the track Ahch-To Island for Luke and Mara's love theme, mostly because I like it. I think it has hints of Luke's Force theme without being the Force theme and when it goes deeper and darker, fits well for Mara. I think they work Rey's theme in as well, which works for my plot.

Identifying all the old motifs: I have only watched TLJ once. I bought the soundtrack mainly for John Williams and was playing it in the car. I can't point to which track it is yet because this project is the first time I'm listening to it after that first time, but Luke and Leia's reunion on Crait is on there and then it transitions into Han and Leia's theme when Luke hands over the dice. I had to stop playing the CD because I started shouting in fury over why I haven't had a damn funeral for Han yet and everything else. Here's hoping this experiment won't make me mad like that agin.

[atamascolily]

On the plus side, you're making me much more excited about the TLJ soundtrack than I was after seeing the film!

I really like Rey's theme listening to it straight - I don't know what you have planned for it in your playlist, but I could imagine it as Mara's character theme. I found someone on YouTube who had synced it with Luke's theme, and it worked surprisingly well together.

[klcthebookworm]

It's the theme for a new character connected with Mara and Luke, an OC. I haven't found which track is just Mara yet. This story features the results of a different backstory for Mara, in which her and Luke met much earlier in the timeline. So anything with Imperial flourishes isn't working for me where I'm writing right now (the Myrkr hike). Maybe when we get further into Act 2 and she's confessing to her Imperial past.

[threadsketchier]

I...am LIVING for this discussion because AT LAST MY TIME HAS ARRIVED

*cough* Well, then again, I doubt my highly personalized soundtracks would hold the same meaning for anyone else XD but I am such a ho for temp-tracking my fics so I can't NOT comment on this subject...

Don't laugh, because I'm sure it's too corny, but I've used "Theme From Tin Man" by Simon Boswell as a generic love theme for Mara and Luke. I like how the first half of the piece is tempered by some slightly ominous melancholy and then it bursts out in sweeping, triumphant sunniness and sappiness at the end. Super melodramatic, but hey, MELODRAMATIC SPACE TRASH™. For a lyrics-based song, my OTP jam for them is "One and the Same (Coda)" by Rob Dougan. I just love that it's...very much not a traditional song. Gravelly vocals with a pop beat AND a full-blown orchestra and chorals in background with a techno ending? SIGN ME THE HELL UP.

On a classical angle, I also love "Phaéton, Op. 39" - specifically conducted by Lorin Maazel and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra - as a sort of Luke/Mara theme.

I do find it funny that apparently I'm not the only one who got Thrawn trilogy vibes from hearing the TFA soundtrack. XD

My playlist for I'll Come With You is a whopping 126 songs/7 hours and 35 minutes long, so uhhhhhhhhh, if anyone's curious, HMU. ;D

(I also have a separate playlist for Love Thy Enemy, but that's not really a Legends-focused fic series, I know.)

For Naboo - I know this is weird, but I have music from Elizabeth: The Golden Age and, uh...Somewhere in Time spread across my fic playlists for time spent there. *hides under the couch* DON'T JUDGE ME. There's also a little sprinkling of George Fenton from Planet Earth and The Red Violin as well.

[klcthebookworm]

I'm not judging. For Naboo, I was considering going for any Italian composers I have in my CD collections (and I have no idea if I have any) or poking at the prequels sountracks to see if John Williams wrote a Padmé theme all by itself.

"Theme From Tin Man" is probably NOT the track that my head went to. No, it wasn't I'm using "Central City" as the O.Z. theme song in another project. I will have to listen to that album again.

[atamascolily]

I, er, might want to hear these playlists actually. Don't worry, I won't judge you!