Patrick Suiter - The Music of The Empire Strikes Back

We're back.. With an oldie but a goodie.

You may be thinking.. "Pat you did Star Wars a month or two ago, why are you doing it again?" and my answer to that is 1. because I can and 2. because I consider this score to be one of, if not the best film score ever written. (so good I probably will be writing my IB Extended Essay on it)

Composed by John Williams and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra in 1980, the score to the sequel to George Lucas' hit space opera Star Wars doesn't hold back. I personally consider it to be a big factor towards this film's success.

Today, we're going to be going into a little bit of why I think that and compared to my other reviews it's going to be quite simple actually.

Of course, John Williams is best known for his use of themes and the manipulation of leitmotifs.

This score sees the return of Luke's theme or the main theme, Leia's theme, the force theme and the Rebel fanfare (which are all amazing in their own right, but I'm not analysing A New Hope today), yet unlike most films nowadays, John Williams score adds to this already expanding bank of themes instead of just relying on the old ones, and strikes a perfect balance between density and development, just like the film it is accompanying.

First of all, we have Darth Vader's theme or the Imperial March, a powerful, menacing march. When Williams was composing this theme, he says that he wanted to represent Darth Vader's power, which I think he does perfectly with the use of brass, and also represent how evil he, and the empire are. You'll see that the theme is almost entirely based off of minor chords, there is no hint of remorse or a happy ending - fitting for a darker sequel. The fact that it’s a march, make of it what you will.. It could show a number of things, but most of all it does represent the empire army most well.

On the other hand, we have the Han and Leia love theme, and while it isn't my favourite love theme that Williams has written (check out Across the Stars or Can you read my mind? from Superman), it's got everything that I think this love theme needs. Obviously there's some tension in between Han and Leia, and that's represented by the constant returning of dissonant chords, it sounds tender, curious.. Make of it what you will. A lot of the time I think it almost sounds unsure of itself, just like Leia seems to be.

Finally, we have Yoda's theme, which has always been one of my favourites. Through the use of major 7 chords, it conveys that sense of wonder and awe that the audience feels towards him. It's not bright and happy, but somehow it makes Yoda feel old and wise.. Maybe the crotchet ostinato pattern (repeating pattern) in the strings.

If that wasn’t already amazing enough.. it is in his manipulation of these leitmotifs (basically themes representing characters) that this score truly shines.

George Lucas wanted to focus on emotional elements in his movies, not so much the other worldly, so it makes sense that he would want a score that harkens back to the romanticism of the 18th and early 19th centuries. This matches with the technique that Wagner (a late romantic composer) essentially created, the concept of leitmotifs. Williams uses this technique to help convey how we are supposed to feel about a certain thing, and I know that I’m not the only one who thinks the man essentially always knows what that feeling is.

And unlike the Rise of Skywalker, themes are not yet recontextualised (though I must admit the main theme does begin to move away from Luke Skywalker to being the main theme for everyone, though I don’t think that matters), they are never put in the wrong place because the editors have half a brain and don’t mess with the maestro!

I could go through the entire 2 hour movie and pick out essentially the whole thing in which Williams manipulates leitmotifs, but I don’t want to bore you. I’ll just tell you some of my favourites.

Let’s take for example, the Carbon freeze scene. We hear the imperial march in the horn, quite muffled, perhaps representing that the characters do not yet know what is about to happen to them, yet still sounds incredibly sinister. As Han and Leia look at each other we hear their love theme playing softly in the background – from which we can infer what they are thinking about, if you couldn’t figure it out. The same kind of strategy is used when Leia looks at Darth Vader and we hear his theme. Then when Han and Leia kiss before he gets put in carbon freeze, we hear their love theme, yet it’s played on an unstable inversion chord with tremolo in the strings, so it makes it feel very bittersweet. The theme is then modified with flats to make it seem more tragic, like a Romeo and Juliet kind of deal (I’m sorry I don’t have access to the score so I can’t guarantee that one with certainty). The high brass playing chromatically afterwards match the shock of the characters, after which Darth Vader’s theme plays in the trumpets and it sounds bloody terrifying! Han and Leia’s love theme then plays in a minor key, adding to the tragic atmosphere. All of this just makes this moment so much more impactful.

Another part that I will mention is the cue Yoda and the Force. If you read my Rise of Skywalker score review, you would know that I love this moment to death. In my opinion, it’s one of the most beautiful things that John Williams has written. When Luke has given up, we hear his theme in the minor, leading us to feel sorrow at his failure. As Yoda lifts the ship out of the water, the way in which Williams transforms Yoda’s theme into a powerful one, still conveying a sense of awe and wonder is absolutely beyond me. I don’t know how he does it, but he perfectly shows how Luke feels and how we as an audience feel, having never seen someone use the force like that before.

John Williams can truly create magic.

Something that may be interesting to examine is that while Leia, Chewie, Lando etc. are trying to rescue Han, we hear the presence of Yoda’s theme played on a muted trumpet in the background. In my opinion it acts as a little bit of an ‘I told you so’, since he was warning Luke about how it was a trap. But that’s up to you.

Some other bits that I like are Darth Vader’s theme in the lightsabre fight towards the end, and of course after the big reveal.. and the use of the main theme throughout Luke’s training on Dagobah (is that how you spell it?).

Another thing that this movie nails perfectly is atmosphere, case and point: fight music. For those who don’t know (I mean it is kinda self-explanatory), fight music is music used during action scenes.

In my opinion, Williams totally nails this. There are always aspects of adventure, chaos, and tension, before a release of emotions. Whether it be the heroic brass when our heroes appear on the screen or the rebels are winning, the powerful and dastardly brass that play when our enemies are on the screen, the perpetual motion that never lets up, the militaristic percussion, the sometimes messy chaos between instruments (Stravinsky style), motifs for the Battle of Hoth, the Asteroid Field and the Mynock Cave that often develop, rhythmic ostinatos that maintain movement throughout, virtuosic and chromatic string runs .. I could go on and on about why it is so perfect.

My favourite fight music would have to be The Asteroid Field, though the Battle of Hoth comes in a close second. With piccolo flourishes to represent the asteroids and a terrifyingly cool motif in the brass (give it a listen, I highly recommend), this music gives that tense atmosphere and really puts you on the edge of your seat.. more so if you haven’t seen the film before like I have. And then there’s the release of tension (somewhat) with the Han and Leia love theme at the end, though it still sounds very eerie, and therefore the escape doesn’t seem cheap.

The Battle of Hoth is very long so I couldn’t talk all about it now, but it has some really cool moments. The beginning, when the first cruiser escapes past the Star destroyer shows how John Williams has started to transition the main theme away from just Luke and boy does it sound cool. We have low brass representing the stomping of the walkers, large cluster chords when Rogue Two falls out of the sky, a really cool ostinato in the pianos that takes away the clear sense of key. There is so much dissonance, tritones (really dissonant interval) and syncopation (accents offbeat) which all help to create that tension which this battle needs.

There are so many other times when John Williams does not fail to deliver the atmosphere the movie needs. Some examples are the very opening, very mysterious chromatic intervals open the movie after the title crawl, corresponding with how the events on screen are quite mysterious to the viewer. Cloud City seems so peaceful because of the music.. which helps to deceive the viewer into thinking that the heroes are safe. The beginning of the duel between Darth Vader and Luke sounds incredibly eerie, getting us on the edge of our seat once again, and the triumphant major as we finally escape through hyperspace. I could argue that every moment of this film has the perfect music to represent the feelings we should feel, even when there is no music there (for example when we get somewhat jump scared by Darth Vader in the duel).

The credits are perfect too.. they are very typical John Williams style, but have always been a favourite of mine.

So.. we come to the end of our little journey through the score for the Empire Strikes Back. I could probably write 1000 words on 5 minutes of this score alone, and to be honest it was quite hard to separate this movie into points to discuss. If you’re interested in a lot of the nitty gritty analysis, I recommend checking out FilmScoreAnalysis or David McCaulley on YouTube, who do score reductions and analyses for lots of film scores, and a lot of John Williams, including this film. If you didn’t think this stuff was already complicated, take a look at a few, and you’ll see just how much of a genius this man is. There are so many tiny details that are so impactful in our viewing of the movie that many of us probably don’t even realise.

Ultimately, this film score is just incredible, I struggle to think of any flaws that it has, and it’s very consistent in quality throughout the film. George Lucas definitely made the perfect choice for Star Wars’ score, it’s definitely one of the most iconic scores for a reason. This is what happens when directors value their composers! I give the score for Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back a 10/10. I personally think it may be the best score ever written, perhaps the works of Korngold and other Williams works can compete, though let me know what you think in the comments.

You may be wondering what I think about the first Star Wars score, as everyone seems to think that one is the best. I think this film relies on its score a bit more than the first one, John Williams’ musical voice is a lot more developed and I prefer the thematic usage and orchestration (thanks partly to Herbert Spencer) and construction of and additions to leitmotifs, as well as fight music which just stands out to me. That doesn’t mean the first Star Wars’ score is bad by any means.. in fact it’s excellent, but I think this one is better.. it should have won an Oscar, I’m still bitter.

Some John Williams memery for you..

Hope you enjoyed this more positive review! I know it’s a little shorter than normal (not that that is a bad thing), I tried to make it shorter because I don’t want to put you guys through such a long read. I actually found it slightly harder to talk about good things as opposed to bad things.. wonder what that says about me. Anyhow, let me know what you thought of this score in the comments, and I’ll see you next time!