George and John*

Where were you when you first heard this?

The first time I really remember resonating with this song was when The Phantom Menace (i.e. movie that must not be named #1) came out. I was in the theaters, totally pumped up, and this music started. The theater erupted in cheers. It was electric!

While George Lucas was making Star Wars: A New Hope, he had a soundtrack all figured out. He wanted a large, over-the-top score and, like Stanley Kubrick , had a whole list of classical music songs that he wanted playing in the background. But his pal, Steven Spielberg, recommended that he use this composer Spielberg had worked with on the Indiana Jones series, John Williams.

So George asked John for help, and movie magic was born.

When it comes to classical inspiration in the modern world, George and John had a huge list of composers they pulled from. In my last post I talked about “The Imperial March” and The Planets. But it wasn’t just Holst that inspired Williams.

C3PO and R2D2 are lost in the desert on Tatooine, with an eerie, haunting soundtrack that underscores their isolation.

Compare it to Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring** (premiered 1913).

George Lucas considered Star Wars a space opera. While there’s not much singing in Star Wars, (here’s Harrison Ford singing a little song, if you’re curious what that would sound like), music does play a major part. Lucas himself says that Williams’ music quickly became central to the story itself: “About 90 per cent of the Star Wars films are music. It’s done in a very old-fashioned style, as silent films, so that the music kind of tells the story.” (From the Telegraph)

Next, take a listen to this clip from Sergei Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet. Does it sound, in places, a little like a bunch of furry animals in the forest?

While the comparison isn’t as obvious as some of the others, you can definitely hear echoes of Prokofiev in the music for the Ewoks. Who doesn’t love the Ewoks???

One of the techniques that John Williams used is called lietmotif. This is an operatic composition technique where there is a specific musical theme for each character. The "Imperial March" is the theme for Darth Vader. If you listen to "Anakin’s Theme" in the “movies that must not be named”, you can hear that John Williams works The "Imperial March" into the theme as a musical foreshadow. Over the course of the 9 movies to date, John has composed over 50 themes to go with George’s characters.

For my last example, we have Carmina Burana.

"O Fortuna" from Carmina Burana, by Carl Orff is a little like "Sunrise" from Also Sprach Zarathustra. You’ve heard it a million times, but you may not have known what the music was. And it may have reminded you of some something. You cannot deny that "Duel of the Fates" is the best scene from the “movies that must not be named” and has the best background music to boot, and that John Williams was heavily influenced by Orff when he wrote it.

George had the idea, along with the classical music inspiration, and John created true movie magic***. The music from the Star Wars saga has arguably become the most recognized soundtrack of all time. John Williams received 26 award nominations for the work as a whole, and won 10 of those awards.

*Not the Beatles. Sorry.
**Did you know there was a riot in the hall the first time The Rite of Spring was performed? It’s not just nowadays that people get offended!
***If you want to find out just how much of a difference the music makes to the movie, check out this article which has videos of the movie without the music. George wasn’t kidding when he said the music is everything. 

"Silly me - my speakers weren't all the way up. Starts over." John Jackson

There’s nothing quite so epic as “Mars, the Bringer of War.” 

While we know that Holst came to hate The Planets for being so popular, we all know that we just can’t help ourselves when it comes to “Mars”. As one YouTube commenter said, “This Influenced about… Everything in the sci-fi music genre.”* And it’s true. The following are comments, taken directly from the video above, illustrating the influence of "Mars" (interspersed with a few random facts about Holst).

“The most brutal, metal, classical song ever written.” HeathenMetalhead221

Random Fact #1: Papa Holst wanted Gustav to play the piano and organ, and really, Gustav did do that, but he was never performance caliber. Holst had neuritis in his right arm which caused him constant pain. He picked up the trombone to help his asthma instead. 

“...it seems Zimmer took some creative assistance from this beautiful body of work…,” lovewhisper68

(This one might be tricky to hear. There's speaking over the top. But, especially at the beginning, the melody of "Mars" is here, but in a different rhythm.) [There's echoes of Pirates of the Caribbean in there too, but that's another post for another day.]

Random Fact #2: Two of Holst’s other works that gained huge followings were St. Paul’s Suite--composed for the opening of a new wing at the St. Paul’s Girls School--and Brook Green Suite--a song based on one of the places he lived. Holst was a huge advocate for female music education. 

“‘Attack of the Airships’ from the Super Mario Galaxy game soundtrack totally sounds like...” Lucy Deetz

Random Fact #3: Gustav Holst was what we today would lovingly term an introvert. Part of the reason that he hated the popularity of The Planets was because he hated the fame. He just wanted to compose and teach, not deal with crowds and people.

One note here. The person nominated for the most academy awards is not an actor or a director. It’s a composer. John Williams, specifically. When George Lucas asked John Williams to compose the soundtrack for the Star Wars movies, he gave him several classical pieces that he was using as filler*. The Planets was one of them. And so, in probably the most well known spin off of "Mars"...

“John Williams: can i copy your homework?

Gustav Holst: yeah but change a few things so it's not obvious

John Williams: ok” Eric Dean

This is a bonus piece: Avatar. You’ll hear echoes of Mars in the piece when the war starts.

*More on Star Wars next post! George Lucas lurved his classical music!

Elvis, Buzz Lightyear, College Football, and Strauss

In 1968, Stanley Kubrick released 2001: A Space Odyssey. It’s a weird movie, really. But there was this music. Epic. Thunderous. Music that makes you want to stand up and conquer! You know the music. But do you know where it came from and just how wildly popular it is? Have a listen.

“Sunrise” is the first minute and a half in a 30-minute tone poem called Also Sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra) by Richard Struass. What’s a tone poem? A piece of music that describes something. Who is Richard Strauss? A German composer born in 1864 with a unique story. He started composing when he was six. Six! His work bridged two classical music eras; the Romantic and the Modern. He was definitely the rock star of his time, but a controversial one. He died in 1949.

Richard Strauss wrote Also Sprach Zarathustra in the late 1890s, relatively early in his career. It was based on the book of the same name by Frederich Nietzsche. (I have no idea how to say that without sounding 100% ‘Murican.) His work was lush and complicated*. He really was a bit of a drama king in his compositions, from large, full-orchestra, grandiose moments to just three or four instruments playing softly.

Strauss lived in Germany through both world wars. Hitler admired the work of Strauss and pressed Strauss into working for him (as in, he nominated him for a position without Strauss even knowing). Strauss accepted the appointment to save his Jewish daughter-in-law and grandchildren, but it was a tenuous relationship at best.

Joseph Goebbels, second only to Hitler in nastiness, said of Strauss, “Unfortunately we still need him, but one day we shall have our own music and then we shall have no further need of this decadent neurotic.” The feeling was mutual. After the war was over Strauss said, “The most terrible period of human history is at an end, the twelve-year reign of bestiality, ignorance, and anti-culture under the greatest criminals, during which Germany's 2000 years of cultural evolution met its doom.”

These two men have attained immortality (or infamy). I like Strauss’s version of immortality better.

“Sunrise” is used three times in Kubrick's movie. You can find the opening scene here.  This is the scene from the middle of the movie. Strauss gets going at about 6:15.

Like I said, weird movie. But because of it, Strauss’s song went from relative obscurity to instant fame. It’s probably more well-known than the movie is. (Also, did you listen through the whole thing? That really strange-sounding music when the monolith appears? Don’t forget that.*)

“But,” I can hear you saying, “That was 1968? It’s 2019. There’s no way that song has lasted this long?”

Rock n' Roll ü Elvis, in the late 1970s, used it to open his shows.

Pro Wrestling ü In the late 80s  Ric Flair used it for his entrance video for about 5 years.

TV ü Many of the uses of Also Sprach Zarathustra are parodying 2001: A Space Odyssey. This clip is from 1991 from the beginning of a Simpsons episode titled “2001: The Homer Odyssey”.

Disney  ü  Pixar joined the party in Toy Story 2 (1999). Strauss shows up within the first four minutes of the movie. Pixar must have loved the song. They used it again in Wall-E with a computer that looks suspiciously like HAL.

Live Action Movies  ü Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)  If you watch closely, you can see the movie playing on the TV in the background. If Charlie and the Chocolate Factory isn't your thing, you can try Zoolander instead.

Commercials ü 

Video Games ü

College Football ü

Today ü Phish used their version of Also Sprach Zarathustra to open their concert on September 1, 2019. The song was released in the mid 90's, but the concertgoers still love it!

*Remember the weird monolith music? Kubrick also used songs by a composer by the name of Gyorgy Ligeti. Ligeti wrote crazy atonal stuff. That strange, otherworldly-sounding music when the monolith appears is from Ligeti’s Requiem. He also wrote a piece called “Atmospheres” that Kubrick liked so much he used the whole thing in the film. Ligeti didn’t like that at all, because Kubrick didn’t get permission from him to use it. He actually sued Kubrick for using it. They settled out of court, but Kubrick happily paid the settlement. They ended up working together on two other films.