Star Wars

Released in 1977, this is the bold and brilliant work of a composer who has the film world at his feet. John Williams had won an Oscar for his collaboration with director Steven Spielberg on the 1975 aquatic horror Jaws; the launch of his creative partnership with director George Lucas on Star Wars would win the 45-year-old composer another (his score for Close Encounters of the Third Kind was also up for an Oscar in the same year). What is it about Williams’ music that strikes such a powerful chord? One answer lies in his recreation of the classic Hollywood sound. When it comes to telling the story of the fall and rise of the Skywalker family, he borrows, like the great composers of Hollywood's golden age, from Wagner’s leitmotif technique, attaching musical themes to specific characters or ideas, and developing them within the narrative. In fact, you can even hear shades of Erich Korngold in Luke’s theme, which recalls Korngold's 1942 soundtrack for Kings Row. Classically trained, Williams draws on his passion for concert-hall repertoire, too: Stormtroopers march to foreboding brass reminiscent of Gustav Holst’s “Mars” from The Planets (premiered in 1918); C-3PO and R2-D2 traverse the desert of Tatooine to otherworldly atmospheres that recall Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring (1913); Elgar fans will even notice hints of Pomp and Circumstance (1901) in the mix. All of it, though, is distinctly Williams, with his ear for a memorable melody proving fundamental to the creation of a classic.