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J Williams: 'Main title/ rebel blockade runner' (Structure…
J Williams: 'Main title/ rebel blockade runner'
Background information and performance circumstances
John Williams
Born 1932
Regarded one of the greatest film composers
Worked on music for films such as Jaws, Indiana Jones and Jurassic park.
Heavily used leitmotifs
Performance forces and their handling
Uses a full symphony orchestra
Woodwind
2 oboes
2 clarinets
Bass clarinet
2 bassoons
3 flutes
Brass
4 horns
3 trumpets
3 trombones
Tuba
Percussion
Timpani
Triangle
Snare drum
Tam-Tam
Glockenspiel
Vibraphone
Cymbals
Piano / Celeste
Strings
Plus Harp
Much doubling of parts
Very few use of solo timbres or lighter textures
Structure
Introduction Bars 1-3
Fanfare
Rapid repeated notes
Free imitation
Inverted tonic pedal
Tremolando in the violins
Quadruple time
ff
Main theme (A) Bars 4-7
Heroic leitmotif
Played by high trumpets
Punctuating syncopated rhythmic
Tremolando
ff
Main theme repeated (A) Bars 8-11 beat 3
Trumpets play melody again
Inverted tonic pedal varied by semiquaver lower auxillary
Accompaniment slightly to allow a descending bass
Contrasting section (B) Bars 11 beat 4- 20
Contrasting melody played over 3 octaves
Important notes picked up by glockenspiel
Accompanying block chords
Harmony reinforced by triplet figure
Dominant pedal
Bars 12-15
Played mf
Main theme (A) Bars 21-29 Played twice
Melody doubled across 3 octaves
Rushing upwards scale like passages
Punctuating syncopated offbeat chords
Harp glissando
Played ff
Link bars 30-32 and Transition Bars 33-35
Link
Fanfare-like material
Rapid ascending sequential figure
Transition
Unstable harmonies
Rapid arpeggio figures
General diminuendo
Star-filled sky Bars 36-38 & Appearance of planets and increase tension Bars 39- 41
Star- filled sky
lighter texture
Piccolo melody
Accompanied by held chords/ arpeggios
Appearance of planets and increase tension
Scurrying upward figures
Block chords build up and crescendo
Spaceship appears Bars 42-43 & Larger spaceship in pursuit firing at the first Bar 44-50
Spaceship appears
Low C pedal played ff and accompanied by huge Tam- Tam
Timpani hammers out an ominous rhythm
Brass play two chordal figures
Larger spaceship in pursuit firing at the first
Dissonant
ff
Ritardando
Pause emphasise effect here
Change to triple time
Battle continues and action then switches to inside the rebel craft Bars 51– 60
Fast tempo
Ostinato on the note C
Brass and upper woodwind play dramatic triads
Sustained low C fades away
Bars 1-29 follow a conventional pattern
Regular 4 bar phrases
AABA
Rest of the piece fits with the action on the screen
Texture
Homophonic texture
Start standard homophony
Bar 4 onwards
Melody- dominated homophony
Pedal textures
Inverted tonic pedal
Introduction
Dominant pedal
Bars 12-15
Ostinato textures
Tonality
Bb major
First 29 bars
Bar 30 onwards is based around the note C
Tonality becomes unclear due to more unstable harmonies
Music becomes based around the
More complex chords and lots of dissonance which make some passages almost a tonal
Harmony
Ostinato is also a tonic pedal
Bar 51
Db major chord
Creates dissonance
Could call this Bitonality
Flattened supertonic
Quartal harmony
Melody
Look at structure for specifics
Stepwise
Leaps
Sequence
Tempo, metre rhythm
Fast
4/4 metre
Changes to triple time in Bar 44
Homorhythmic chords