The Last Jedi - Original Soundtrack

I've listened to the OST just once so far. It seems like not all of the musical pieces that appear in the film can be found on the soundtrack, for instance the force theme that is played during the hand touching scene is missing, but I can be mistaken. Would love to hear your thoughts.

You can listen to the full soundtrack also here:
https://youtu.be/u_OO9taOvG8?list=PLh5vGAOncSbiaO_au8uEHG23iAgOuQSq9

EchoBase wrote:I've listened to the OST just once so far. It seems like not all of the musical pieces that appear in the film can be found on the soundtrack, for instance the force theme that is played during the hand touching scene is missing, but I can be mistaken. Would love to hear your thoughts.

You can listen to the full soundtrack also here:
https://youtu.be/u_OO9taOvG8?list=PLh5vGAOncSbiaO_au8uEHG23iAgOuQSq9

@EchoBase

But we have fun with finn and rose, at least

@EchoBase I think the piece you're talking about might be halfway through the track "The Cave"? Not sure, I've only listened to the score once all the way through and seen the film once, but I remember thinking it was there!

On first listen there are some great bits of music in this score (I mean, it's John Williams so that goes without saying), but I was really hoping for an Across the Stars type theme for Rey and Kylo. We get a bit of it when you hear both of their themes mixing in with the track "New Alliance", but as this is mainly an action filler there isn't a part that screams Rey & Kylo  to me. My wish for IX is that these pieces will be completely joined to make a new sweeping, solid Reylo theme.

The stand out tracks so far are Main Title and Escape (just, wow), Ach-To island, The Spark, The Last Jedi and Finale. I need to listen to it a few more times though, I always find Williams' SW music is so layered that it takes a few listens to really settle in to it

Aphelionna wrote:@EchoBase I think the piece you're talking about might be halfway through the track "The Cave"? Not sure, I've only listened to the score once all the way through and seen the film once, but I remember thinking it was there!

On first listen there are some great bits of music in this score (I mean, it's John Williams so that goes without saying), but I was really hoping for an Across the Stars type theme for Rey and Kylo. We get a bit of it when you hear both of their themes mixing in with the track "New Alliance", but as this is mainly an action filler there isn't a part that screams Rey & Kylo  to me. My wish for IX is that these pieces will be completely joined to make a new sweeping, solid Reylo theme.

The stand out tracks so far are Main Title and Escape (just, wow), Ach-To island, The Spark, The Last Jedi and Finale. I need to listen to it a few more times though, I always find Williams' SW music is so layered that it takes a few listens to really settle in to it

@Aphelionna

I will listen to “the cave” once again. I don’t think I could hear the force theme, but I will pay attention this time.

Aphelionna wrote:@EchoBase I think the piece you're talking about might be halfway through the track "The Cave"? Not sure, I've only listened to the score once all the way through and seen the film once, but I remember thinking it was there!

On first listen there are some great bits of music in this score (I mean, it's John Williams so that goes without saying), but I was really hoping for an Across the Stars type theme for Rey and Kylo. We get a bit of it when you hear both of their themes mixing in with the track "New Alliance", but as this is mainly an action filler there isn't a part that screams Rey & Kylo  to me. My wish for IX is that these pieces will be completely joined to make a new sweeping, solid Reylo theme.

The stand out tracks so far are Main Title and Escape (just, wow), Ach-To island, The Spark, The Last Jedi and Finale. I need to listen to it a few more times though, I always find Williams' SW music is so layered that it takes a few listens to really settle in to it

@Aphelionna

I was hoping for a love theme in TLJ too, but maybe it would be too premature. They could have gone with a twisted version of Across the Stars for the Reylo scenes, especially the proposal scene, but again that may be too telling. But yes, if Reylo is endgame by IX, there'll definitely be a love them for these two.

The score overall is nothing amazing but it has a more prequel feel to it which I really like. My new fave is this: it's quite uppity and waltzy like- 1:32 (rose's theme...?) I love how it just grows and grows with the glorious brass esp at 3:08 



Old Friend is also good, he does this really beautiful twist on the force theme/binary sunset theme. 

I also liked Rey's theme in the last seconds of the credits, it's very beautiful. But yea altogether nothing really great.

@EchoBase I just had the chance to listen back to it, I was wrong, sorry! I could've sworn I had heard the force theme in that track If it's not anywhere else in the score then it's weird that they would leave such a pivotal moment out of the album.

@thescavenger Yeah that's a fair point. I guess the arc of the three films is Rey and Kylo coming together, it would make sense to get a full blown theme in IX instead! I'll be crossing my fingers until then ^_^

A friend of mine just told me that we got a Brazilian song in the Soundtrack.

We can listen a glimpse of "Aquarela do Brasil" (by Ary Barroso) at 00:59 of the “Canto Bright” track.



As a fan of "Aquarela do Brasil" I am happy to hear some samba playing in a galaxy, far, far away.

Source: wikipedia

So, Reylo hand-touch Force Theme -ish music is not in the OST? Why would they omit that one? And it's the score for a super significant scene, no less

The score was a let down for me initialy. It did not really stand out during my first viewing. However, after second viewing and multiple listens, the score is really good. While its not bombastic and as exciting as past scores, its very good, and its just like the movie itself - subtle, intimate and atmospheric. Main Title and Escape, Revisiting Snoke, The Cave, New Alliance, Spark, Last Jedi are notable mentions.

Listening now. pretty elevator music so far, lost of reused themes.

I bought the soundtrack (iTunes)!

It's such a glorious jumble of leitmotifs - Kylo's theme, especially, is everywhere. There's a cool musical moment about 2 minutes into the piece called The Supremacy that plays when Kylo is hesitating to shoot Leia's bridge.  Leia's motif plays and then it goes right into a variation of Kylo's.

I had been hoping for a new, seductive force bond theme, but it makes sense there isn't one, because in the film they cut the sound to signify those scenes.  The piece that plays during the fight with the Praetorian Guards is A New Alliance. It's angular battle music, and I don't see it as a Reylo theme at all, though it does have a quick Rey motif towards the end. It's dissonant and would fit right in a mid-20th century film more welcoming of brassy atonality than most of today's minimalistic scores.

The standout piece for me is called The Last Jedi, which plays in the film during the final Kylo-Luke showdown.  After an initial fanfare where Kylo & Luke size each other up, it features a section with lovely expansive choral music that plays while Rey is lifting the rocks. This parts ends when the camera switches back to Luke with a heartbreaking minor cadence.  This is followed by a few more explosive Kylo motifs and then rising minor triplet arpeggios that play when Kylo realizes that Luke is not really there.  You really feel a sense of horrified revelation here. John Williams is probably most famous for his optimistic themes, but I love it when he goes tragic like this.  (Torn Apart is my favorite from The Force Awakens).

LadyHa wrote:I bought the soundtrack (iTunes)!

It's such a glorious jumble of leitmotifs - Kylo's theme, especially, is everywhere. There's a cool musical moment about 2 minutes into the piece called The Supremacy that plays when Kylo is hesitating to shoot Leia's bridge.  Leia's motif plays and then it goes right into a variation of Kylo's.

I had been hoping for a new, seductive force bond theme, but it makes sense there isn't one, because in the film they cut the sound to signify those scenes.  The piece that plays during the fight with the Praetorian Guards is A New Alliance. It's angular battle music, and I don't see it as a Reylo theme at all, though it does have a quick Rey motif towards the end. It's dissonant and would fit right in a mid-20th century film more welcoming of brassy atonality than most of today's minimalistic scores.

The standout piece for me is called The Last Jedi, which plays in the film during the final Kylo-Luke showdown.  After an initial fanfare where Kylo & Luke size each other up, it features a section with lovely expansive choral music that plays while Rey is lifting the rocks. This parts ends when the camera switches back to Luke with a heartbreaking minor cadence.  This is followed by a few more explosive Kylo motifs and then rising minor triplet arpeggios that play when Kylo realizes that Luke is not really there.  You really feel a sense of horrified revelation here. John Williams is probably most famous for his optimistic themes, but I love it when he goes tragic like this.  (Torn Apart is my favorite from The Force Awakens).

@LadyHa omg I love Kylo's theme in the last jedi track, where it also has some epic choral. I wish he used it more!! Love that prequel feel.

LadyHa wrote:

I had been hoping for a new, seductive force bond theme, but it makes sense there isn't one, because in the film they cut the sound to signify those scenes.  The piece that plays during the fight with the Praetorian Guards is A New Alliance. It's angular battle music, and I don't see it as a Reylo theme at all, though it does have a quick Rey motif towards the end. It's dissonant and would fit right in a mid-20th century film more welcoming of brassy atonality than most of today's minimalistic scores.

@LadyHa I was listening to a new alliance again, I def. hear that stravinsky firebird quality to it! What I find interesting is that you hear Rey's theme very obviously, but not for Kylo at all, despite him being a major player in the scene. Interesting how Williams seems to convey this is not dark side at work for him in the moment.

@LadyHa

Or anyone else who is 20x more musically inclined than me - could you put the following article I found in simple terms

https://www.elitedaily.com/p/the-last-jedi-music-reveals-more-about-kylo-ren-than-you-realize-exclusive-7664753

As it turns out, Kylo's lack of certainty in himself was reflected in Williams' score, at least, according to Frank Lehman, an assistant professor of music at Tufts University. Lehman is a musicologist, which often means studying more classical music, but he's been fascinated by Williams' Star Wars music for a long time. In fact, he created a full catalogue of the leitmotifs — i.e. repeating musical themes — in the Star Wars series....."John Williams gives [Kylo] a surplus of thematic material. It’s not just one theme or two, it’s actually three," Lehman says in an interview with Elite Daily. "The most prominent of them is this defending, growling fanfare, which is over the top in its villainy. It’s almost like it’s overcompensating for his lack of confidence in himself."

The second Kylo theme is "more hesitant," according to Lehman, and it tends to come up around his conversations with Rey. (That said, the more interesting part of the sounds around Kylo and Rey's conversations was "the way the soundtrack pulls back," Lehman says.) The third Kylo theme is a "menacing, chromatic string line" (i.e. a bunch of notes that are really close to each other in a row) that serves as Kylo's "musical calling card."...."[Kylo is] announcing himself, or the music is announcing his presence in this big and bold way, which sometimes feels musically overcompensatory, because, yeah, he’s not Darth Vader," Lehman says. "He doesn’t get this instantly memorable 'Imperial March' theme that’s so famous from the older movies. It’s kind of a wannabe theme."

This is particularly notable because of how badly Kylo just wants to be Vader. Still, per Lehman, "It will never be Darth Vader's theme, which is kind of the point — maybe."

And apparently this music professor had this to say about Snoke- like I said I don’t have a musical bone in my body. So thoughts please

Many fans were upset at the lack of background on Snoke and with his quick death. But, Lehman says, Snoke "doesn't even really get a theme" to begin with, "which suggests maybe he’s not really the most important character."

rey09 wrote:
@LadyHa I was listening to a new alliance again, I def. hear that stravinsky firebird quality to it! What I find interesting is that you hear Rey's theme very obviously, but not for Kylo at all, despite him being a major player in the scene. Interesting how Williams seems to convey this is not dark side at work for him in the moment.

@rey09

Considering how liberally Kylo's themes are sprinkled throughout the film, it's noticeable that it doesn't appear anywhere during this scene. And, I love the idea that John Williams might have been inspired by ballet music for the light saber battle! (Tales of Hoffmann was already mentioned as a visual influence.)

MrsWindu wrote:
And apparently this music professor had this to say about Snoke- like I said I don’t have a musical bone in my body. So thoughts please

Many fans were upset at the lack of background on Snoke and with his quick death. But, Lehman says, Snoke "doesn't even really get a theme" to begin with, "which suggests maybe he’s not really the most important character."

@MrsWindu

Thanks for sharing that article! I discovered that the professor has compiled a handy dandy list of motifs here. (you need an free account to see them). The list also has links to videos so you can listen to them.

Snoke kind of doesn't have a hummable melody, but he does have a "sound." If you listen to Snoke from TFA and then Snoke Revisited from TLJ, they both are kind of just exercises in How Low Can You Go.  Super low voices and basses playing long tones. It's similar in both films, but maybe doesn't rise to the level of a recognizable "leitmotif?" Here's what it sounds like.

Here's the three Kylo themes he is talking about:

1. "Aggressive" listen here. The first is the most heavily used- it's a downward riff that's usually played really loudly.

2. "Hesitant" listen here. The second is a little quieter, maybe ruminating - it's 5 repeated notes followed by two descending ones.

3. "Menacing" listen here. It's the low rising notes you hear right at the start. I haven't heard this one so much, so I wouldn't have identified it as a Kylo-specific motif.  I am not even sure where it is used, so I'll have to listen again for it.

LadyHa wrote:

rey09 wrote:
@LadyHa I was listening to a new alliance again, I def. hear that stravinsky firebird quality to it! What I find interesting is that you hear Rey's theme very obviously, but not for Kylo at all, despite him being a major player in the scene. Interesting how Williams seems to convey this is not dark side at work for him in the moment.

@rey09

Considering how liberally Kylo's themes are sprinkled throughout the film, it's noticeable that it doesn't appear anywhere during this scene. And, I love the idea that John Williams might have been inspired by ballet music for the light saber battle! (Tales of Hoffmann was already mentioned as a visual influence.)

@LadyHa Ah sorry I actually meant Rite of Spring instead of Firebird. I listened to both this morning and felt Rite of Spring a New Alliance had *a lot* of similarities specifically in the Augurs of Spring. I see comments though that William uses a lot of Stravinsky in his work in general so maybe this isn't anything new lol. I do think Firebird has far more similarities thematically to the battle scene. In Firebird, Prince Ivan is about to kill a firebird but decides not to. She then gives a feather which he can use if he ever needs her. Later on the princess he loves is kidnapped by the evil sorcerer, and he calls for the firebird to help him. The bird destroys the evil magician and Ivan marries the princess. It's like Rey is both the firebird and the princess lol. I mean I doubt Williams took it this far but it's a cool comparison nonetheless! 





2:15

rey09 wrote:
@LadyHa Ah sorry I actually meant Rite of Spring instead of Firebird. I listened to both this morning and felt Rite of Spring a New Alliance had *a lot* of similarities specifically in the Augurs of Spring. I see comments though that William uses a lot of Stravinsky in his work in general so maybe this isn't anything new lol. I do think Firebird has far more similarities thematically to the battle scene. In Firebird, Prince Ivan is about to kill a firebird but decides not to. She then gives a feather which he can use if he ever needs her. Later on the princess he loves is kidnapped by the evil sorcerer, and he calls for the firebird to help him. The bird destroys the evil magician and Ivan marries the princess. It's like Rey is both the firebird and the princess lol. I mean I doubt Williams took it this far but it's a cool comparison nonetheless! 

@rey09

Cool, I hear Rite of Spring too starting at 1:55 in A New Alliance.

I was looking at the Joffrey Ballet's recreation of the Rite of Spring from the 1980s and laughed when I noticed that the role for one of the dancers is "The Chosen One." In this case, she is the virgin sacrifice. I am not implying a connection, just that I hadn't thought about the double meaning of the term as meaning both savior and sacrifice before.

Someone over at Reddit has posted a leak of the "For Your Consideration" music files for TLJ [x] and it includes some full tracks that didn't make it on the official score, or ones that did were cut shorter. I've only quickly gone through a comparison so it's by no means a comprehensive list but I found some interesting new bits:

Admiral Holdo - Where she addresses the fleet after Leia is injured
Connection - This starts when Luke comes out of his hut during Rey and Kylo's first force vision and Kylo hears him, then the journey to the temple and Rey seeing it for the first time
Fun With Finn and Rose - Slightly different to the album version and 30 seconds longer (I think it's played in their first two scenes together?)
The Master Codebreaker - Finn and Rose talking on the balcony, finding the master codebreaker and getting arrested
Rey's Journey - Rey getting in the pod on the Falcon and arriving at the Supremacy
A New Alliance - Extended version, about an extra 2 minutes at the start (but not the music from the elevator scene unfortunately)
Holdo's Resolve - Holdo preparing to go into lightspeed, Rey turning Kylo down and their fight for the lightsaber
The Spark - An extra few seconds at the beginning with Finn and Rose's theme when she kisses him
The Last Jedi - An extra 2 minutes of music at the beginning of the track with a bit of Rey's theme. Possibly when the resistance are going through the tunnels and Rey is tracking them.

Definitely worth a listen, especially Rey's Journey and Holdo's Resolve Just a shame there still isn't a version of Rey training or the hand scene.

Is it just me or do I hear a "happier" version of kylo's theme lol? It's a play on rey's but the horn is getting to me... at 0:42

LadyHa wrote:I bought the soundtrack (iTunes)!

It's such a glorious jumble of leitmotifs - Kylo's theme, especially, is everywhere. There's a cool musical moment about 2 minutes into the piece called The Supremacy that plays when Kylo is hesitating to shoot Leia's bridge.  Leia's motif plays and then it goes right into a variation of Kylo's.

I had been hoping for a new, seductive force bond theme, but it makes sense there isn't one, because in the film they cut the sound to signify those scenes.  The piece that plays during the fight with the Praetorian Guards is A New Alliance. It's angular battle music, and I don't see it as a Reylo theme at all, though it does have a quick Rey motif towards the end. It's dissonant and would fit right in a mid-20th century film more welcoming of brassy atonality than most of today's minimalistic scores.

The standout piece for me is called The Last Jedi, which plays in the film during the final Kylo-Luke showdown.  After an initial fanfare where Kylo & Luke size each other up, it features a section with lovely expansive choral music that plays while Rey is lifting the rocks. This parts ends when the camera switches back to Luke with a heartbreaking minor cadence.  This is followed by a few more explosive Kylo motifs and then rising minor triplet arpeggios that play when Kylo realizes that Luke is not really there.  You really feel a sense of horrified revelation here. John Williams is probably most famous for his optimistic themes, but I love it when he goes tragic like this.  (Torn Apart is my favorite from The Force Awakens).

@LadyHa

"Torn Apart" is also my fave from TFA. And "The Last Jedi" gives me life. What a track! I also love how Kylo's theme is everywhere in this OST.

I totally agree with you and I was just reading a The New Yorker article discussing the leitmotifs in this OST, maybe you would like to read it too.

I confess I was happy to see I was right in my impressions about John Williams tapping at Wagner in this OST. I only wish we could have the trailer song, without the voices, I loved the music they used there (it's actually my ringtone).

MrsWindu wrote:@LadyHa

Or anyone else who is 20x more musically inclined than me - could you put the following article I found in simple terms

https://www.elitedaily.com/p/the-last-jedi-music-reveals-more-about-kylo-ren-than-you-realize-exclusive-7664753

[...]

@MrsWindu

What a great article! Thanks for sharing.

I really enjoyed this three part podcast series on The Last Jedi soundtrack. Talks about the unique way the movie was scored and how the themes parallel other Star Wars films.

Full of Sith- How the Force Works

Atenais wrote:

"Torn Apart" is also my fave from TFA. And "The Last Jedi" gives me life. What a track! I also love how Kylo's theme is everywhere in this OST.

I totally agree with you and I was just reading a The New Yorker article discussing the leitmotifs in this OST, maybe you would like to read it too.

I confess I was happy to see I was right in my impressions about John Williams tapping at Wagner in this OST. I only wish we could have the trailer song, without the voices, I loved the music they used there (it's actually my ringtone).
What a great article! Thanks for sharing.

@Atenais  Yay, Alex Ross on John Williams!  The part in his essay where he ties a melody from Strauss's Elektra to the end of The Last Jedi was quite interesting and something I never would have noticed.  I love that studying and reading about this score can lead to listening to some challenging music!  It makes me pity all the fanboys who are wasting their time fuming and making angry Star Wars videos about their hurt feelings.

@Cowgirlsamurai - Thanks for the recommendation - I've never seen that site before and the soundtrack podcast that I've heard so far is great-  there's actually a lot of music talk on it!  (I was pretty disappointed by a podcast episode I found elsewhere about The Last Jedi called The Sound Cast, which is ostensibly about the score, but just ended up being a few people talking in general about what they like/don't like about the movie itself. It's so easy for reviewers and podcasters to get stuck on just expressing their opinions and fail to take time to go into depth about things. But, hey, I fall into that trap, too.)

I have only recently started actively listening to the Star Wars soundtracks on their own outside of viewing the films, and I am excited about how much there is to discover.  For example, after reading about all the parallels with Reylo and Anidala, I went back to the music of the prequels.  I’ve been listening to Across the Stars (from AOTC) and The Abduction (from TFA) back to back and finally noticed how stylistically similar the lush string parts are, especially that "Romeo and Juliet" part of The Abduction. I do try not to focus too much on looking for “clues” in the score, but it’s fun when they are noticeable.

I once read an anecdote about the composer Arnold Schoenberg, who left Germany during the Jewish diaspora in the 1930s and ended up in Los Angeles.  Like many transplanted composers, he was approached to create soundtracks for Hollywood films.  Apparently, he at first assumed that this would mean that his music would be central to the creation process of the films and that he would receive top billing, more akin to an opera, musical, or even a ballet. When he realized that he was being asked more for essentially background music, he was insulted and not interested.

I thought of that anecdote, because it seems like Williams’s score does reach that level of being integral to the film itself, like the Star Wars series is more of a nine-part spoken word opera than just films with soundtracks. Although the visual tone of the different films varies wildly and the stories feature different characters, Williams’s music and themes ties them together.  From a certain point of view, with eight films in, I’d argue that the artistic thread of these films belongs to Williams more than to Lucas.

I sometimes go this film score website Filmtracks, which dissects music far beyond my nonexistent technical music knowledge. But I always think I should stop going to it, because whenever the guy who runs the site and writes the reviews talks about the actual films, rather than just the music, it tends to make my blood boil, as he can be quite scathing to not just the movies, but the audience and even critics. One thing he is very good at though is divorcing his opinion of the film from its music, so he gave TLJ's soundtrack a 5/5, even though he called it abysmal and made fun of the movie, its subplots, Luke's character, Laura Dern's performance, a lack of new interesting concepts (?!!?!!), and RJ's script. So... mixed bag? http://filmtracks.com/titles/last_jedi.html

Also, here's another positive, shorter review from Allmusic, a site that does not do impromptu film reviews in its album reviews. https://www.allmusic.com/album/star-wars-the-last-jedi-original-motion-picture-soundtrack-mw0003107006

"Ahch-To Island" is my favorite song on the soundtrack. But honestly the song or mashup of songs in the trailer is still my favorite. I can't find the exact song that I'm hearing in the trailer in the soundtrack. Like part of it is Ahch-To Island but it sounds more daunting in the trailer. I like the darker feel to it.