STAR WARS EPISODE 1: THE ULTIMATE EDITION on Compact Disc

By: Randall D. Larson
Date: Saturday, November 18, 2000

By fleshing out their initial single-disc soundtrack for STAR WARS EPISODE 1: THE PHANTOM MENACE into two discs, Sony Classical provides virtually every note of John Williams' score, including one cue dropped from the final release print. With 68 cues, the new CD brings John Williams' fourth STAR WARS score to prominence by restoring more than 30 minutes of music not included on the original CD release. All 17 cues from the original CD are all here, although in different order and broken up into smaller components; and the new material, although some is rather trivial, contains enough remarkable music to make this new release well worth the purchase.

The original 1999 soundtrack release (SK 61816) had presented the cues in a somewhat random order, sequenced by Williams for what he felt was a maximum listening experience. The new release presents the cues chronologically as they are heard in the film. There has been a fair amount of malcontented whining on some fan web sites, bemoaning the fact that Sony's Ultimate Edition does not, in fact, contain every note composed for the film and that the 'correct dramatic sequence' as was heard in the film (and therefore on the CD) was not, in fact, the sequence Williams intended it to be. Some of these fansites are decrying the release as outright fraud.

Well, give me a break and get a life, folks. Rather than wracking your brains and loading up your websites with intricate minutia about how this cue is missing 3.5 seconds or making endless comparisons by the millisecond between this release and the first release and the music in the film and the music on the TPM videogame and then bemoaning the fact that not every note that popped into the composer's head is preserved in laser-etched plastic, how about simply evaluating this release on its own terms, as an expanded representation of the music as heard in the film?

While it's true that last-minute editing changes required the score to be altered by the editors to fit new timings, the new CD is indeed a preferred alternative to the original single disc. It's an appropriate representation of the music as it appeared in the film. True, there may be more music floating around that didn't make it into the final cut and subsequently wasn't included on this CD; and if there's any blame, it should lay on the post-production process. Perhaps a better way of evaluating this release is to take it on its own merits, devoid of endless comparisons and wish lists. To my way of thinking, it presents an entirely satisfying listening experience, and my evaluation of the release and its music is based on that perspective.

The music for EPISODE 1 is alternately quite different from, yet intrinsically tied to that of the first STAR WARS trilogy. For the prequel, Williams continually but subtly includes thematic references to music or to associations that will be developed in the latter trilogy. A great example is the new theme for Anakin, who as we all know will grow up to become Darth Vader and, ultimately, reject his dark identity to save his son, Luke Skywalker. Anakin's theme is directly taken from Vader's theme. 'I took Darth Vader's Imperial March and took it apart and inverted some intervals, so that Anakin's Theme is really made out of the material of Darth Vader's evil Imperial March,' Williams has said. This kind of symbiosis and musical connection to the latter STAR WARS films emphasizes EPISODE 1's spot in the overall series and adds an important underlying, perhaps even subliminal, correlation to the original films and their mythology.

Almost all the cues are titled differently from the original EPISODE 1 soundtrack, so it's difficult to compare their presence and placement on the new disc without virtually playing them side by side. The score's majestic concert piece, 'Duel of the Fates,' (second cue on the original CD release), appears here in its proper and extended placement during the various components of 'The Battle Continues' (cues 20-24) on disc 2. Among the most incredible music Williams has ever written, this action music develops the kind of furious orchestrations and tonalities the composer adopted from the swashbuckling 1930's style of Erich Wolfgang Korngold for the original STAR WARS scores.

Opening with the familiar energy of the original STAR WARS theme, the CD leaps into action music right away with 'Boarding the Federation Battleship.' EPISODE 1's version of 'Imperial Attack' rises resolutely out of the fading strains of the Main Title: low, quaking vibrations from brass and percussion rumbling over furtive tonalities of winds, strings, and subtle synths. As the cue segues into 'Death Warrant for Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan' and 'Fighting the Destroyer Droids,' the music is off and running, loud and brash and wonderfully yet tonally dissonant, with a few reprisals of the STAR WARS theme reminding us just what the movie's about. The dramatic use of choir is what makes EPISODE 1 really stand out, musically, from its three predecessors, giving it a heightened sense of legendry and dynamic import.

'The Flag Parade' that heralds the start of the Podrace is magnificent, potent and exciting. It segues into a mischievous electronically buzzing warble for 'Sebulba's Dirty Hand,' one of the score's rare overt uses of synthesizers. 'Anakin Defeats Sebulba' is a thrilling 2:14 orchestral battle, with flailing brass and crashing percussion, trilling woodwinds and frantic violins stabbing and crashing and bellowing, seemingly chaotic yet held in check by tight orchestration and the controlled performance of the London Symphony, and is followed by 'Hail to the Winner,' a typically Williamsesque triumphant march.

'Attack of the Giant Fish' seethes with energy and pulsations of orchestra. 'Watto's Deal/Shmi And Qui-Gon Talk' has one of the score's nicest and fullest dramatic crescendos, intensifying an otherwise low-key dialog sequence. But it's an example of Williams' ability to heighten the emotion and import of a quiet scene, just as his 'The Return Home' did in the original STAR WARS. 'The Racer Roars to Life' revisits the dramatic flourish pleasingly. 'The Queen and Group Land on Naboo' is rhythmic, fast-paced action music, heralding battle but rich with anticipation and forward motion. Williams invests some terrifically intense brass flourishes into this cue. 'The Gungans March' is its antithesis: it is also a march-to-battle music, but considering the characterizations of the Gugans, Williams scores it for unearthly, subterranean-sounding low woodwinds, which soon merge with the higher brass and lend a provocative texture to the sound. 'The Battle Begins' is one of the score's richest and most cataclysmic full-blooded action cues, brimming with energy and flurries of orchestration, over which an almost Western-sounding melody emerges from French horns, echoed by a touch of the STAR WARS theme from the brass. This and the other battle scenes on the second disc are potently amazing. Williams sense of energetic action has never been better. His thunderous orchestrations lose none of their dynamic potency on the CD. Play it loud.

Contrasting with the battle music is that for the heroic characters and their interrelations. 'Anakin is Free' is one of the neatest new cuts to appear on this release; a soft and tender cue for flute over strings and xylophone, it lends a strong degree of emotive power to the scene wherein young Anakin is freed from slavery to Watto; it thrusts forward with full orchestration and a recapitulation of Luke's theme from STAR WARS, a subtle but profound musical link between Anakin and his progeny that again ties this film together with the latter trilogy. A Herrmannesque cadence for flutes over pulsing harp notes emerges midway into 'High Council Meeting,' as Qui-Gon pleads his case for Anakin before the Jedi Council.

Aside from the energetic action material, the score's most interesting musical material is that for the villains. Low intonations of choir introduce Darth Sidious and maintain an undercurrent of menace when dealing with the dark personages of the Empire. 'Enter Darth Maul' includes some neat whispered choral effects beneath the low winds and male chorus. The words, not readily discernable, here and during the louder choral passages in 'Duel of the Fates,' are actually Sanskrit translations of 'most dread/inside the head,' (as Williams told Boston Globe reporter Richard Dyer in 1999). Those same whispers will appear menacingly in 'Darth Maul and the Sith Spacecraft' and in 'Watto's Roll of the Die,' the latter of which adds a sense of villainy to the Watto character, seemingly associating him with the Darth characters. 'Darth Sidious and Darth Maul' emerge from low orchestral patterns that burst forth with a heraldic rush of high trumpets and forceful orchestrations, before returning to the disquieting resonance of low chorus and brass. 'Qui-Gon and Darth Maul Meet' is terrific action material, bursting forth out of the whispered intonations of the villainous Darth theme and erupting into furious but brief battle clash music. 'The Death of Darth Maul,' following on the heels of the dissonant fury of 'The Tide Turns' (with its continual restatements of the STAR WARS theme lending it cohesion), dispenses with the whispered villain music altogether, and instead ends on a purely tonal orchestral resolution, suggestive perhaps of the humanity that lay beneath the villainous visage of the evil Jedi.

'Street Band of Mos Espa' isn't quite EPISODE 1's version of 'Cantina Band.' It's more of an ethnic-Asian styled percussive rhythm, source music for the sequence in the Tattoine town. It does lend an interesting flavor and texture between the heavily orchestral cues; fortunately, it is kept short before segueing into the lovely lyric of 'Padme Meets Anakin,' a soft and tender interlude for flutes over strings, with a distant echo of French horn to bolster the thematic importance of this meeting. The tune then meanders into a cheerful romp for woodwinds as the camera moves on to explore Watto's shop.

The cue not used in the film, 'Desert Winds,' is not, as one might hope or expect, a lavish new orchestral action cue, but rather 1:28 extension of 'Street Band of Mos Espa,' more inert belly-dance music from warbling flutes, cymbals, and middle-eastern strings; hardly the kind of rare 'bonus track' we may have preferred. Two more Mos Espa source cues, 'Mos Espa Arena Band' (introducing the Podrace scene) and 'The Street Singer,' are more or the same, with the latter a tad more intriguing due to its neat echoed choral effects. Not really 'score' music in the strictest sense, but in the CD's attempts to be all-inclusive, their inclusion is appropriate.

The score's final source cue is 'The Parade' ('Augie's Great Municipal Band' on the original CD) which, as in RETURN OF THE JEDI, accompanies the victory parade of the heroes (the acoustic-sounding Arena Band and chorus, incidentally, is in fact synthesizer samples with some brass added, according to music editor Ken Wannberg in Soundtrack Magazine #70) before erupting with a series of three down-stabbing orchestral notes into the familiar STAR WARS End Title.

The CD's 'Bonus Cue,' a version of 'Duel of the Fates' with dialogue and sound effectsheard not as in the film but as edited in the film's traileris on first hearing perhaps a throw-away (since the music is much better preserved and heard earlier in the disc without the sound effects), but as an audio trailer collecting the sensation of the film and its best dramatic moments, it is actually quite likable and will surely lead the listener to a renewed acquaintance with the film itself.

Many of the cues segue into the next, which maximizes listenability and masks the fact that many of the thirty-odd cues are very short. The sound quality is excellent, with effective bass and high quality to both ends of the audio. The tracks have been assembled into Acts, or sections of the storyline: 'The Invasion of Naboo,' for example, contains a half dozen tracks, which sequence one into the other, with a break before the next section, 'Underwater Adventure,' which includes three cues from the excursion into and the flight from Otoh Gunga. This allows for a degree of organization to the listening experience and helps the listener relate the music to the specific sequence or dramatic section within the film. It also works very well

Picture discs make for a nice bonus during the transition from jewel box to CD player. The colorful 60-page booklet itemizes each cue but does not indicate cue timing, which would have been nice, nor is there any attempt at analysis or expository notes about the music. There is a short introductory note which is just a bit too hype-sounding ('so come, feel the power of the force and travel deeper into one of the most remarkable epics of our time...') and then all we are left with for the remaining 55 pages are track titles accompanied by color photos from each of the tracks. It's doubtful you'll refer to the voluminous pagination of the booklet more than once or twice, other than to check the track index on pages 2-3. Individual track timings (or at least timings for the various sections) and thoroughgoing appreciation or track-by-track analysis of the score would have been a big plus for such an 'ultimate edition.' Such has come to be expected in major 'restoration' such as this.

The appearance of The Ultimate Edition should not discount the original single-disc release, which remains an effective and very likeable abridgement of the best moment's of the score. The added orchestral material found in the new 2-disc edition should interest more than just STAR WARS or Williams completists, however, as it displays the prowessand permits a more thorough appreciationof what is certainly the William's best and most advanced music for the STAR WARS series.

STAR WARS EPISODE 1: THE ULTIMATE EDITION. Music composed and conducted by John Williams. Sony Classical S2K-89460, 2 discs, 68 tracks, 124:38 mins