#5 / Star Wars – Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999) Buy easy piano sheet music from Blackwell’s.There’s an abundance of new material, too, with a lyrical new theme of belonging and destiny, a delightful speeder chase through the desert and no end of despicably dark modes for the evil Emperor – including an ‘Anthem of Evil’. Given this film ties up a story which began in 1977, Williams brings out many classic themes and moments to create bridges between plot moments and characters. Williams’s final entry in this Star Wars saga doesn’t see him resting on his laurels or showing any signs of boredom. Studio Orchestra Los Angeles Master Chorale/John Williams
#6 / Star Wars – Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) There’s lightness and brevity, too, with memorable new music for the resistance fighter Rosie, an unusual casino scene and rollicking music for a chase on horse-like creatures called ‘Fathiers’. Action music is rife, but not trivial Williams seems to have been much-inspired and revels in it. There is rather less looking over the shoulder to ‘classic’ themes, though a much-anticipated ‘reunion’ of siblings Luke and Leia sees the return of the composer’s 1983 theme for the pair. The middle film of the most recent trilogy saw Williams build on an arsenal of new themes he introduced in The Force Awakens. Studio Orchestra Los Angeles Master Chorale /John Williams & William Ross #7 / Star Wars – Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017) The appearance of babies Luke and Leia, and the ‘birth’ of Darth Vader, in the finale allows Williams to dust off some classic themes, though. Probably the most choir-heavy of all the scores, it’s marvellous stuff but perhaps quite removed from the sound of Star Wars we know and love. Williams takes it all in his stride, though, with broad Mahlerian strokes to underline Anakin Skywalker’s fall from grace – spoiler alert, he becomes Darth Vader – and what amounts to a Jedi genocide. films set before the original 1977-83 trilogy but made 20+ years after) delivers much drama, darkness and some absurdity.
This third act of George Lucas’s ‘Prequel Trilogy’ (ie. #8 / Star Wars – Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005) There’s a chase in the skies above the city-planet Coruscant that will leave you breathless, but beyond that it’s a lot of action-heavy music designed to tie up disparate locations and story threads. Top of the list is a tragic love theme, ‘Across the Stars’, for the forbidden romance between Anakin Skywalker and Padme (future parents of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia).
Williams’s score suffered from heavy editing – particularly in the third act, but there are standout moments. London Symphony Orchestra London Voices/John WilliamsĮven in last place, this score delivers thrills, spills and romance. Here’s our ranking of all of John Williams’s Star Wars scores… #9 / Star Wars – Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002) But where does this new, and final, score sit compared to the other eight? The Rise of Skywalker adds many new items to the canon while reflecting viscerally, and emotionally, on all that has come before.
Indeed, the composer sees this set of scores as one body of work and Williams’s Ninth doesn’t disappoint.