Royal Scottish National Orchestra - Star Wars: Shadows Of The Empire [Enhanced CD]
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Free Music Notes for Star Wars: Shadows Of The Empire [Enhanced CD]
Free Music Review: great but what exactly is enhanced about it!
Hit: 5 Stars
WHAT IS ENHANCED ABOUT IT? HOW DO YOU OPEN THE INTERACTIVE BITFree Music Review: McNeeley's score for Shadows of the Empire is worth a listen
Hit: 4 Stars
In 1996, even as the 20th Anniversary Special Edition of the Star Wars Trilogy was being prepped for release in early 1997 and pre-production planning for Episode I was starting, Lucasfilm gathered several authors, artists, and representatives from Hasbro and other licensees to discuss a huge multimedia project that was, in short, everything but the full-fledged filmed version of a Star Wars movie. The talented science-fiction writer Steve Perry was hired to write an original novel for Bantam Spectra that would be the core of the project called Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire.
The novel would be a stand-alone Expanded Universe novel, the first of the Bantam Spectra series to depict events within the Trilogy's timespan, i.e., between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. All the other products, ranging from Hasbro's Kenner Star Wars action figures to Nintendo 64 cartridges, would use Perry's novel as a starting point and expand the story somewhat, sticking to the essentials of the story of the Falleen crime lord Prince Xizor's scheme to avenge his family's death after a bio-warfare experiment directed by Darth Vader results in a lab accident, forcing the Empire to sterilize part of Xizor's homeworld by Star Destroyer bombardment. Xizor plans to bring Vader down in the most painful manner -- by killing the young Jedi Knight-in-training named Luke Skywalker, the most dangerous threat to Emperor Palpatine...and Vader's son.
Because Lucasfilm's directive was "Everything but the movie," one of the more interesting aspects of the Shadows of the Empire project was the commisioning of composer Joel McNeeley, who had already worked for Lucasfilm as the composer for the wonderful but short-lived "Young Indiana Jones Chronicles," a stint that earned McNeeley an Emmy for the score of "Young Indiana Jones and the Scandal of 1920." (McNeeley has also written music for many feature films, including 1994's Terminal Velocity and 1996's Flipper)
McNeeley's task to compose music for a Star Wars adventure -- even if it was literary rather than cinematic -- was daunting. John Williams' scores for the existing Trilogy are masterpieces of symphonic music and are immediately recognizable. How could McNeeley compose a score of his own that would build upon Williams' material yet be able to stand on its own?
McNeeley's approach was simple. Instead of following slavishly in Williams' footsteps, he'd use a few existing motifs to set the scene by borrowing Main Theme from Star Wars and grafting music from the Han-Leia farewell scene in Bespin's carbon freeze chamber (track 1, "Main Theme and Leia's Nightmare), then break away on his own as much as possible. And this he accomplished brilliantly, as listeners of this album will discover when they hear "The Battle of Gall" (track 2), "Beggar's Canyon Chase" (track 4), "Xizor's Theme" (track 6), or "The Seduction of Princess Leia" (track 7), a wonderful piece that starts out, as the title implies, with sensual undertones in a waltz-like movement with almost Max Steiner-like romantic phrasings that end abruptly with a shift to dark thematic material.
Obviously, this being a Star Wars story that is set while Vader is still alive and still in the thrall of the Dark Side, McNeeley can't totally leave out existing material by Williams. In addition to the mood-setting first track, McNeeley borrows two key Star Wars motifs in track 8, "Night Skies," which features both The Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme) and Ben's/The Force Theme in a scene set on Coruscant's Imperial City as the Dark Lord senses his son's presence somewhere in the sprawling city-planet.
For the Varese Sarabande Digital recording of Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire McNeeley teamed up with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Chorus, an acclaimed ensemble of over 150 musicians. Acclaimed record producer Robert Townson, a fan of film scores and John Williams' Star Wars scores, helmed the project.
Key Tracks: Top 5 Must-Hear Cues from Shadows of the Empire
(Track Number, Cue Title)
1. Main Theme from Star Wars & Leia's Nightmare
2. The Battle of Gall
3. Imperial City
7. The Seduction of Princess Leia
10. The Destruction of Xizor's Palace
Free Music Review: not at all bad
Hit: 4 Stars
What a strange idea for an album... a symphonic work in the vein of a film score, but based on a novel rather than a film. Stranger yet, it's based on a novel that is a spinoff from a popular series of movies that in and of themselves helped redefine the way people think of film scores. John Williams's "Star Wars" scores (for the original trilogy, at least) are as iconic as film scores get, so for Joel McNeely to have dared to write major new material for that universe was a bold idea, indeed.In my opinion, it pays off.
I'd like to talk about two things, first off being the actual music. It would be not only difficult but stupid to write a "Star Wars" score -- be it for a film, a book, or anything else -- that did not utilize Williams's music to some extent. And so we have the main theme, which is the first half of track one; the other half, representing a scene in the novel in which Leia dreams of Han's carbon freezing, is a reprise of the score to that scene in "The Empire Strikes Back." Elsewhere, the Imperial March pops up in "Night Skies," along with the Force Theme (or Luke's Theme, I guess you could call it). Otherwise, McNeely does the right thing, which is to focus on his own music and to use it to represent the "Star Wars" universe in his own way. His best work is track six, "Xizor's Theme" (that's pronounced Shee-zor, by the way), which is a brutal and ominous theme for the book's new villain, a criminal underlord who has his eye on Darth Vader's position as right-hand-man to the Emperor. This theme is somewhat reminsicent of James Horner's music for "Aliens," in terms of instrumentation and intensity; in my opinion, it is only a bit less good than some of the themes Williams has written for "Star Wars" movies thus far. McNeely also has composed a theme for the Rebel Alliance, the Alliance Battle Hymn, which puts in several appearances but can be most prominently heard in the final track, "The Destruction of Xixor's Palace." Another standout is "Imperial City," an eight-minute piece representative of Coruscant, the Imperial seat, that begins gently but gradually grows into something both majestic and tinged with underlying hints of the evil that lives in this place. It's a marvelous piece, probably better than the music Williams wrote for the planet Coruscant as depicted in the prequels. All of the other tracks are good, as well, to one extent or another.
In my opinion, though, the greatest achievement of this album is the manner in which the music is reminiscent of a film score in general, and a "Star Wars" score in particular. Bear in mind, film scores are, with the very occasional exception, written in a manner that very precisely follows a pre-existing set of visuals. That McNeely manages to take the story of a novel and use scenes from it to create music that replicate the sound and timing we have come to expect from film music means that, in some sense, he had to have made a movie of the story in his head! That's sort of an amazing accomplishment, in my opinion, and it gives this musical work the status of not just good music, but also a sort of statement on the very nature of what film music is.
Even more impressive, McNeely managed to keep intact the very familiar "Star Wars" sound without either stealing from its primary composer or slavishly imitating him. As such, this score manages to be a genuinely important contribution to te admittedly small canon of original "Star Wars" music. Personally, I would happily welcome more such works from McNeely.
I recommend this album to "Star Wars" fans without hesitation.
Free Music Review: Not the kind of music you'd expect from a Star Wars score, but interesting nonetheless
Hit: 4 Stars
Shadows of the Empire is a Steve Perry novel whose events take place between the movies The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. The book was apparently so successful that LucasArts decided to make a video game based on it. An audio recording of the book was made as well; this music was used in both. Like many others, this is where I became intrigued by McNeeley's music (particularly the N64 game).
I'm not that familiar with Joel McNeeley. The only other music of his that I was familiar with at the time was Iron Will, so I decided to give him a try. Now, I've always been a Star Wars fan, so I tend to have a little bit of a bias toward the sweeping, grand John Williams style of music. But when I first listened to this CD I got a big surprise. It was NOT at all what I expected...
McNeeley's music for Shadows of the Empire is interesting in its own way. It's more dissonant than Williams's music, and I couldn't follow it all the way through some of its passages (which is why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5; I'd give it a 4.5 if I could). So if you prefer more of an ear-pleasing tone, this may not be the CD for you. But if you appreciate well-presented themes and a deep, rich tone, go ahead and try it out.
McNeeley borrows some themes from the movies and tastefully connects them to his work, providing a comforting reminder that even though his music is unique in its own way, it's also Star Wars music. Most of the tracks start off soft and usually slow as well, crescendoing and speeding up to powerful swells and peaks and then returning to the softer tones, transiting between them often. It's a little chaotic, but no film score is complete without at least a little chaos to reflect the events of its movie or video game.
This CD may be an acquired taste, but it warms up on you as you continue to listen to it. It's very original throughout, and it's performed with such energy that it keeps you on the edge of your seat. All-in-all, it's definitely set apart from other Star Wars music, but a very good listen nonetheless. Thanks for taking the time to read, and I hope this helps.
Free Music Review: Better than The Phantom Menace soundtrack in some areas
Hit: 4 Stars
Now that the new Star Wars soundtrack is out, it helps to lend a better persepective on what has come before. Joel McNeely was signed on to do something that has never been done before and something that I wish there would be a lot more of: score a book. This was the biggest non-event ever, because back when this came out, people were so desperate and hungry for anything that was new Star Wars, that for some reason, this mediocre book got special treament. First of all, why didn't Timothy Zahn's books or some of the other more superior books get the treatment? Anyway, despite that, McNeely turns in what is still far and away the best work of his career. I wish he would do more work like this. If he did, he would definitely be one of the big players on deck today. Obviously, if you come into this expecting John Williams, you will be disappointed. However, if you take this on its own merits, you will find that it has a lot of beautiful themes, and in fact, is more thematic and almost seems more inspired than the TPM soundtrack. What does that mean? It means Maestro Williams, as good as he still is and will always be, has gotten so used to scoring mellow and sappy music, that he is "out of practice" from writing full fledged, powerful work. (With the exception of Duel of the Fates, which, it seems to be another take on Carl Orff's Carmina Burina) This score is definitely a successful experiment. I would love to see more of this scoring books being done. Imagine if Goldsmith did a few, or Williams himself? Bring on more of these, and Joel, go back to doing work like THIS!