Watch John Williams conduct the opening scene of Star Wars: The Force Awakens
A master at work.
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Your support makes all the difference.60 minutes has revealed footage of legendary composer John Williams at work on the new score for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
We're officially entering the home stretch, with mere days until The Force Awakens hit screens and the world decides whether we've truly reached the cinematic event of the decade, or whether this is just the prequels all over again. And things are certainly starting to ramp up, with the American news programme offering us our very first glimpse of Williams' work on the new film.
Everything we've seen so far in the trailers has been extracted from the franchise's previous scores and general temp/trailer music. Iconic music though it may be, with presenter Contessa Brewer pausing just for a moment just to take in all that glory of the original theme. What will inevitably be one of the most crucial factors of Williams' score is striking that perfect balance between paying homage to what's come before and developing new sounds and directions for the score to breathe into. Williams told Vanity Fair that the re-use of original material, "will seem very natural and right in the moments for which we've chosen to do these kinds of quotes. There aren't many of them, but there are a few that I think are important and will seem very much a part of the fabric of the piece in a positive and constructive way."
Either way, J.J. Abrams is entirely right when he describes the recording as, "momentous". Between Williams' work, and the return of screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan and poster artist Drew Struzan, The Force Awakens has been offered an incredible chance to authentically carry on the atmosphere which has made the original trilogy such a gargantuan force (pun intended) in pop culture history.
Williams began work on the score back in December 2014, working daily to go through the film reels, with completion in June 2015. Recording sessions began that month at the Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, the first time the score for the franchise has been recorded outside of London. The 90-piece orchestra spent the time between June and November 2015 recording 175 minutes of music; though nearly an hour was supposedly discarded, modified, or rerecorded throughout Abrams' own editing process. The final score will be over two hours long.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be released in the UK 17 December.
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