Star Wars Score Analysis: Rey’s Theme & Musical Foreshadowing

[00:00:00]there are a lot of videos and forum posts and images out there discussing Ray's theme it first showed up in Episode seven and it looks like there's a lot of hidden Easter eggs to it thankfully the Star Wars community is so diligent and obsessive there's already a bunch of material that's dissected Ray's theme so instead of me going through and pretending like I found all this by myself I'm gonna make sure they get the credit and leave links to all their work in the description below but there are Easter eggs to raise themed Easter eggs like there's a part of Ray's theme that almost sounds like the force theme played backwards but there are also parts of her theme that can be played along the force theme as if they were composed to be a duet with one another [Music] you [Music] if you play a certain part of her theme over and over again it almost sounds like the cadence to the Imperial March but if you play another part of her theme backwards it also sounds like the Imperial March but there's also this section of your theme that's harmonized just like Yoda's theme in fact you can take the chords to Yoda's theme then play Rey's theme on top of that and it works remarkably well also it looks like kylo ren's theme is almost raised theme played backwards but also you can look at kylo ren's theme as an extension of the emperor's throne room theme so if you have been a part of the Star Wars community at all you can immediately see that there is just a ton of information about Rey and kylo ren's backstory that you can unpack from their respective themes but then I went I saw episode 8 and then I came home and then I actually had the chance to see episode 8 again and then I came back home and now I'm making this video see you have to plan when you're writing a soundtrack with themes and light motifs like this you have to know what the story is who the characters are how everything is related and what's gonna happen when you're given all that information you can do some really great things like you know that Emperor's throne room theme for materna the Jedi you will find that it is you who mistakin but agreed it actually shows up in the prequels you remember this celebration at the end of episode one check out what happens if you slow it down yeah it also shows up in episodes 2 & 3 as well [Music] he will not let me down he never has I hope right noubar Williams knew where the story was going so he was able to use the music to tell the story of what happens with Palpatine over the course of the prequel trilogy but the problem with Star Wars is that a lot of it wasn't really like planned they didn't even know there was going to be a sequel but I may have told you this before but when doing the first film in 1977 I had no idea it was going to be a second one for her I don't think George Lucas simply didn't confide in me and others working on the film I didn't think it was another one coming in or another one that kept coming and I'm not entirely sure if he knew after the first one that there was going to be another one and if you pick apart the main line motifs you hear in the Star Wars universe you can see how Williams has had to compensate for the powers-that-be not planning ahead like look at the main theme now this is not just the main theme this is also Luke's team but just fine just like how the composers that inspired Williams gave their heroes the theme Luca now has a theme no problem but as soon as you open up this film to a sequel or even a trilogy there's a problem if you use the same music over and over again for your hero your hero will sound like they never develop and that their uncompromising every time you hear that theme you'll think of that kid from Tatooine in fact this is exactly how superheroes are scored but if you want your hero to feel like they grow in this world that you're building then you have to have other themes to demonstrate the outside influence that this character has experienced so by the end of the original trilogy you can see Luke being represented by other themes for example when Luke is acting as a Jedi you hear them being represented by the force theme there is [Music] you couldn't bring yourself to kill me before and I don't believe you'll destroy me now and the added benefit to that is that when you do hear the main theme when Luke appears I'm with you too even though you're reminded of that kid from Tatooine it forces you to think about how much Luke has grown okay so pretty minor detail but now let's move on to the prequels can you think of a scene where you hear the main theme for star wars in the prequels that isn't the title crawl in the six plus hours of the prequel trilogy you hear the main theme to Star Wars three times once in the first seven minutes of the Phantom Menace once at the end of Attack of the Clones and at the very end of Revenge of the Sith when ob1 hands look over to his uncle the instance in Episode three makes sense because this is Luke's theme after all but the other to use the theme is more of like a generic adventure main theme and I don't have a problem with using the main theme like that my problem is that why does the music that opens your film only appear once over the course of each of your two-hour films then we get the single trilogies where they play it over Finn and Poe talking in a closet I'm helping you escape can you fly a TIE fighter you with the resistance which doesn't really make any sense and then they play it when Poe is in his x-wing which makes more sense but it doesn't play when Luke shows up at the end of the force awakens and in Episode eight I want to say I heard it when bb-8 is shooting coins at a cop if I heard myself saying this a month ago I wouldn't believe it instead the sequel trilogy focuses on the force theme the whole [Music] it's in the trailers it's all over Episode seven and the first time I watched episode eight I noticed that they played it almost non-stop so when I got to see it a second time I kept track of how many times they played the binary sunset music then went home watched all the other Star Wars films and counted them as well they played the force theme more in Episode eight than they have in any other film in the franchise plus they use it in all the trailers and promotional materials alongside with Han Solo and the princess there are stories about what happened [Music] hey your worship I'm only trying to help you please stop which still just makes absolutely no sense to me I think Disney thinks that this is the main theme for Star Wars but they forgot that every Star Wars film begins like this and the force theme is strange everyone calls it the binary sunset because people remember it during this scene from a new hope but this wasn't the force theme in a new hope it was just obi-wan Kenobi's theme don't be afraid don't worry he'll be alright I heard that it was Lucas who wanted to have this music played here which is why in the isolated context of the first film it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense but the film was a hit and so now there's a trilogy and suddenly Williams can use Lucas's mistake to his advantage obi-wan is dead but he was the only other character who really explained the force and whenever he shows up after the first movie it's as a force ghost or because of the force or whatever so Williams pivoted and had obi-wan steam the binary sunset just behave as the force theme for episodes 5 & 6 and it was fine it retconned obi wan's theme as the force theme which now makes it seem like that binary sunset scene actually involved the force guiding Luke and everything worked out nicely but this then created a problem for the prequels obi-wan is alive again but he's surrounded by force users Williams committed to how binary sense that was used in episodes 5 & 6 because the general public probably just remembers this music is the force theme so Williams kept binary sunset as the light motif that represented the force but now we get this awkward situation where obi-wan is surrounded by people who use his old light motif from the future but he doesn't get a light motif for himself so now we have a musical dissociation between these two characters they do not sound the same they do not possess the same musical identity even though they're supposed to be the same character then the sequels happen and they play it for all the trailers and they play it whenever anything remotely force related happens and they play it almost non-stop in episode 8 except for the one part where they needed it the most so there's this big point episode 8 where Luke has like given up the force and isn't a Jedi anymore but the entire final fight of this film revolves around the audience not knowing that Luke is astral projecting himself across the galaxy to defend everyone and there's this huge reveal where Luke is meditating on the island and showing the audience that he's using the Force and even though I counted 21 instances of the force theme during this film it might be wrong in my defense it was dark I did not hear the force theme when the most powerful Jedi who had given up on the force was revealed to be using one of the most powerful force powers demonstrated in the Star Wars universe but it does play when he actually dies which I thought was more of a literal homage to the binary sunset scene but I'm not sure so now it looks like Disney thinks that the force theme is the new main theme for Star Wars okay so what does all this have to do with Rey's theme well let's break it down in the Imperial March the first film we don't hear the Imperial March we get a little motif to represent the Empire but not the March [Music] but if now there's going to be sequels in a trilogy and we want to make it seem like losing their largest military base isn't enough to stop the Empire and the Empire is going to continue to be an antagonistic force in the world of Star Wars then they need their own theme so we get the Imperial March in the Empire Strikes Back right here but when we get to the prequels we have more problems the entire prequel trilogy navigates around Anakin Skywalker becoming Vader well contrary to popular belief the Imperial March does not actually represent Vader it represents the Empire we hear it when the empire is on screen even when Vader isn't [Music] and there are times when Vader's on screen and the Imperial March is nowhere to be found [Music] we associate the Imperial March with Vader because Vader is an agent of the empire he is the Empire strength personified so we hear the Imperial March while Vader's on screen all the time but when it comes to having the whole prequels navigate around Vader's backstory well I'll let mr. plain could explain my point number nine the importance of Darth Vader the biggest problem with Revenge of the Sith and all the Star Wars prequels in general was ironically Darth Vader himself but if you look back at it from a story perspective in a new hope he was just a weirdo in a suit he was a part of a bigger story he was a carryover from an older era I guess but to me just seemed like one of the bad guys that carried out the business of the Empire but like it or not the stories about Vader and the only piece of music really associated with Vader is the Imperial March so check out what happens with Anakin steam everybody sort of realizes that the Imperial March is hidden inside Anakin steam somewhere I don't think people realize just how much it's in there it's in there from the opening bars [Music] so you have these cars but if I changed all that to just minor you start to recognize this is the Imperial March cards okay so Anakin gets the Imperial March and then Disney buys out Lucas and makes the sequel trilogy and we hear the Imperial March when we hear about Vader in the force awakens or you started [Music] and there's a moment in Episode eight where Snoke says something about kylo Ren becoming more like his grandfather or something and we hear the Imperial March again oh but then look at Rey's theme like there's this one part that sounds like the cadence and Imperial March because Vader and then if you play backwards it also kind of sounds like the Imperial March which is really cool because in Episode seven there's this big mystery about who raised parents are so maybe she's actually like Luke Skywalker's daughter and there's gonna be another big reveal in the second film of the trilogy and I was really excited to see what Williams was gonna do with Ray's theme in Episode eight then I saw the scene where Rey and kylo Ren are talking about how Rey's parents were nobody's like literal nobody's no names no faces they completely exist off screen and I realized something Disney has no idea what they're doing I'm serious they don't have a plan for this trilogy they're making this trilogy film by film they're seeing how people react and in compensating based on the audience's reaction to their newest film that's why they're interlacing the main story with these additional stories they want more fan feedback about the direction they should take Star Wars people can play in the episode 7 felt too sanitized into corporate so they give episode 8 to just one guy no limitations and they swung way too hard to the other side but what's more important than discovering that Disney has no plan for this franchise is realizing that Lord Commander John Williams first of his name lord of the light motifs keeper of the score's crafter of compositions and master of maestro's has been working on Star Wars for 40 years now and he knows that these guys have no idea what they're doing so instead of leaving himself to the mercy of whatever Disney decides to do at the next story he constructed a flexible theme for Rey that he can use no matter what happens in the story he can emphasize different areas of Rey's theme and have it fit within the narrative no matter what happens I imagine they told Williams that Rey and kylo Ren are related somehow and now they'll be at the core of the trilogy so Williams wrote their themes to be almost perfect retrograde of one another if there's going to be a scene where Yoda trains ray or ray is revealed to be related to Yoda in any way shape or form then Williams could we harmonize her theme with the accompaniment from Yoda's theme if we find out that Rey is actually a Skywalker Williams can extend that portion of her theme that sounds like the cadence to the Imperial March if kylo Ren is actually related to the Emperor thematically or otherwise Williams could literally move from the Emperor's theme to kylo ren's theme as Rey becomes more powerful with the force Williams can emphasize that aspect of her theme to coincide with music that he established 40 years ago the Lord Commander knows that these guys have no idea what they're doing so he purposefully planned critical themes that are flexible in such a way that he can emphasize different aspects of the given themes in order to fit what the story demands no matter what happens to these characters they clarified in episode 8 that as kylo Ren becomes more powerful with the force and so does Rey she acts as his equal and opposite so I bet you that as soon as this film comes out on DVD we're gonna start seeing people dissecting how their respective music in this film becomes more and more retrograded from one another so I'm honestly kind of excited to see episode 9 I personally feel like it would be really cathartic to hear the main theme play for Luke's force ghost and if we stopped hearing binary sunset literally every 10 minutes of the film because the Disney marketing team has lost all sense of subtlety and grace it would have way more of an impact when it actually showed up but most importantly I'm most excited to see how Williams is going to manipulate Rey and kylo ren's themes when it comes to organizing the soundtrack for your film and structuring how your light motifs are going to work it isn't enough to just go from one film to another and just hope that everything works out but even if you aren't given that level of preparation at the very least you can still try oh why not [Music] do not there is no try [Music] thanks for watching I'd like to thank my patrons for making these videos possible with a very special thank you to Anna Burch AFN Matt and Ben leaves fogger hi I hope I said that right if you like what you saw here - be sure to subscribe and check out my other videos follow me on Twitter and twitch to have your musical questions answered live and if you really like what I'm doing consider supporting the channel on patreon but that's gonna be it for me for now thanks for watching