84 lines
4.1 KiB
Plaintext
84 lines
4.1 KiB
Plaintext
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This article written by: ldkendal@unix.amherst.edu (Lukas Kendall)
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I know many people are interested in the music of John Williams
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largely because of his Star Wars scores, which is great. As I posted
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earlier, I publish a newsletter all about film music, called FILM
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SCORE MONTHLY, and there's something about Williams in just about
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every issue. Please e-mail me for more info on my newsletter.
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And now, here is a list of all the Star Wars related music CDs, not
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including the abysmal compilation CDs which have a theme or two from
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Star Wars and sound awful, and not including the many identical
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foreign pressings.
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STAR WARS:
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Original soundtrack, 2 CDs, Polydor 800 096-2. This is it, 80 minutes
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of music straight from the film soundtrack, the same as the original
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double LP and tape.
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Star Wars/Close Encounters:
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Conducted by Zubin Mehta. London "Cinema Gala" 417 846-2. A
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rerecording of a 30 minute Star Wars suite (concert versions --
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different from those heard in the film) plus a 13 minute suite of
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music to Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
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Star Wars/Close Encounters:
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Conducted by Charles Gerhardt. RCA Classic Film Scores series,
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2698-2-RG. Similar to the above, but better, with more music. Again,
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these are concert arrangements of the scores, so with have different
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endings, for example, than the arrangements in the films.
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EMPIRE STRIKES BACK:
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Original soundtrack, Polydor 825 298-2: As we've all learned the hard
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way, this is only half the music on the original double LP. The
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boneheads at Polydor issued a "1 LP" version of the initial 2 LP
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release some time in the '80s, and when it came time to issue a CD,
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they chose to issue the 1 LP version, with half the music as only the
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double LP. Fortunately, the 2 LP version, with some 80 minutes of
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score, can be found on the cassette release. Unless, you're a
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completist, don't bother buying this CD--the sound is bad, and the
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sequencing is absurd, with the main title found on track six.
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Re-recording, conducted by Charles Gerhardt, Varese Sarabande VCD
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47204, recently reissued as VSD 5353. This is definitely the CD to buy
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from Empire, a re-recording of 45 minutes of music--as with the
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SW/CE3K CDs, these are concert arrangements and differ slightly from
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the arrangements in the film. Some music is included here which
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cannot be found on the Polydor CD, or even the original double
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LP/cassette, such as a concert arrangment of Han & Leia's theme and
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some music for Hoth which wasn't used in the film. If you're looking
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to pick up music from Empire, buy this CD and the Polydor tape to get
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the most music from the film.
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RETURN OF THE JEDI:
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Original soundtrack, Polydor 811 767-2: For reasons as yet unknown,
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only a single LP soundtrack was ever issued of Jedi, unlike the
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previous films. This CD is a good buy--the sound isn't that good, but
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it is the original soundtrack after all.
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Re-recording, conducted by Charles Gerhardt, RCA RCD 14748, recently
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reissued with new label number. A better sounding recording of music
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from the film, with some music not on the original soundtrack, such as
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the music for the fight in the Rancor pit, and some extra Ewok fight
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music. No Emperor music here, though, unlike on the original
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soundtrack from Polydor.
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TRILOGY CDs:
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The Star Wars Trilogy, conducted by Varujan Kojian, Varese Sarabande
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VCD 47201. For my money, better than the Williams conducted Trilogy
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CD, the main reason being that included here are two tracks from Jedi,
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unavailable on the Jedi CDs. These are Fight with Tie Fighters and
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Darth Vader's Death. Otherwise, a solidly conducted CD of music from
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the three films (three SW cuts, three ESB cuts, 7 ROTJ cuts).
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John Williams Conducts John Williams: The Star Wars Trilogy: This is
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the more recent Trilogy CD out on Sony SK 45947. Nice packaging, but
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no new material that can't be found elsewhere, and I think Williams
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takes his own compositions a bit slow.
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All of these CDs should be in print--if you can't find them at your
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local record store, you can mail order them from Footlight Records
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(212-533-1572) and/or Intrada (415-776-1333), two reliable soundtrack
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dealers.
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