The Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme) -- John Williams
It's no secret to anyone that I'm a huge fan of Star Wars. I practically grew up on it...born the year it was released, saw every film in theatres multiple times, played with the toys, read the books...you get the idea.
The interesting thing is you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone that didn't recognize this piece of music, even if they don't like the movies or haven't even seen them all. I'm completely speculating, but it's possibly the most recognizable film tune in history, perhaps only eclipsed by Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark or the main Star Wars theme. Ironically, all are from the same composer...the great John Williams.
After winning an Oscar for Star Wars, I think Williams outdid himself with The Empire Strikes Back, building upon his efforts to create thematic music for characters (called leitmotifs) and weaving them together to make the score as important to the films as the special effects, characters or good vs. evil storyline.
Evil was personified by Darth Vader and the Galactic Empire, so it was only fitting that to punctuate their movements against the heroes of the Rebellion in the second act of the legendary sci-fi trilogy, Williams composed a bombastic march that defines the dread Vader himself imparted as he swept down a corridor or as an Imperial Star Destroyer crawled across the cosmos. Unrelenting, militaristic...brilliant.
11/365
The interesting thing is you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone that didn't recognize this piece of music, even if they don't like the movies or haven't even seen them all. I'm completely speculating, but it's possibly the most recognizable film tune in history, perhaps only eclipsed by Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark or the main Star Wars theme. Ironically, all are from the same composer...the great John Williams.
After winning an Oscar for Star Wars, I think Williams outdid himself with The Empire Strikes Back, building upon his efforts to create thematic music for characters (called leitmotifs) and weaving them together to make the score as important to the films as the special effects, characters or good vs. evil storyline.
Evil was personified by Darth Vader and the Galactic Empire, so it was only fitting that to punctuate their movements against the heroes of the Rebellion in the second act of the legendary sci-fi trilogy, Williams composed a bombastic march that defines the dread Vader himself imparted as he swept down a corridor or as an Imperial Star Destroyer crawled across the cosmos. Unrelenting, militaristic...brilliant.
11/365
posted by MightyMartian at
9:12 PM
2 Comments:
Great post. I love that you Star Wars are the same age.
Fabulous post, you young thing. (Hey, I may have been 15 when Star Wars came out, but at least I got carded the other day.)
And I'll bet you're right about the recognizability of this piece.
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