use of leitmotifs in Star Wars

April 7, 2016 8:56 AM

Do you know of a good source explaining and analyzing the use of leitmotif in Star Wars?

Leitmotives?

posted by the man of twists and turns to Media & Arts (8 answers total)

Though only about a specific character/family, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt's recent spoiler-ridden article for the Huffington Post discusses some musical themes.
posted by papayaninja at 9:04 AM on April 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

Your question prompted me to do some searching, and I'm listening to Classical Classroom, Episode 4: Leitmotif in Star Wars with Brett Mitchell right now.
posted by sparklemotion at 9:05 AM on April 7, 2016 [2 favorites]

"Star Wars, Music and Myth" by James Buhler
posted by thetortoise at 9:17 AM on April 7, 2016

This article in Mashable. The author is a music theory professor who focuses on film music (and is a crazy John Williams fan), and if you reached out to him directly he would certainly give you more resources, if not chat with you directly about it.
posted by brainmouse at 9:27 AM on April 7, 2016

Pre-Web, maybe 20 years ago, Asimov's Science Fiction (or maybe Analog? but I think Asimov's) had an article or three by a SF author who is also a composer, looking at theme variation and inversion and uses of syncopation in Williams' scores. IIRC the author had a longish, maybe Indonesian name and publishes under several variants of it. I remember playing the example staves in the magazine, and can't narrow down anything else.
posted by clew at 3:03 PM on April 7, 2016

It must be S. P. Somtow.
posted by clew at 3:04 PM on April 7, 2016

The liner notes for the Star Wars soundtrack CD's have essays about the music, including discussion of the leitmotifs.
posted by clorox at 4:57 PM on April 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

+1 liner notes of the soundtrack; one song is even called "Leia's theme" iirc.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 5:45 PM on April 7, 2016