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What's astonishing to know, is that the Vader hallway scene wasn't in the original cut of the film, it was added when they did the reshoots. To think a scene that became one of the most iconic in the franchise almost didn't make it, tells you just how special it is.
@@zoundbiestudio4021the above comment isn’t exactly right. They were debating between two Vader scenes. One is this scene, the other would have him storming the beach on Scarif. They chose the right move
@@oXRaptorzXo yeah they chose right but i'd love to have seen the other too. imagine how terrifying it would be for the rebels as they were outnumbered by quite alot already but to witness Vader himself would just crush your hope
You guys realize he only had 4 WEEKS from initial phone call to make the soundtrack because Williams unexpectedly fell through and last minute reshoots? Absolutely nuts how intricate this score is.
Williams was never involved. Desplat was replaced by Giacchino with a little over a month to write the whole thing. He did a great job though, it's a solid ST
Your harmonic analysis of the pieces that you have covered are remarkable. The pure joy you express during your analysis is inspiring. Keep up the awesome work.
Alexandre Desplat was actually supposed to do the soundtrack but he had to dropout due to his schedule and the late reshoots. That's when they brought in Giacchino. I don't think Williams was ever involved.
My heater is an F. When I played an F1 on my keyboard my heater started to vibrate like crazy. And it actually sounds somewhat like a light saber. Absolute useless piece of information, I know
I hear many appliances constantly emitting musical notes. Most commonly: -Drills in F (though most recently I've heard them in C) -Shaving machines in Eb (when away from hair) or A (when in contact with hair). -Anything related to cold (I think temperature in general) in E.
I love how at the beginning of the video, the part of this song that is playing is actually in tune with Across the Stars (Anakin and Padme’s romance theme basically), and then goes into the craziness that is the hallway scene, only to end with the Imperial March. It’s almost like a musical version of the tragedy of Anakin becoming Darth Vader
Being a composer and having worked with a ton of sound engineers, I can blindly vouch for this being 100% planned. However, I didn't know why this was my favorite Star Wars scene in the last 15 years and now I know. I got chills when you explained this. Please geek out like this in every video, I enjoyed it so much.
Fun fact: the sound of Vaders saber slashing is a bassline to the piece ALL the time, the guy shouting „take it“ adds to the chord in the same way the saber is (somewhere between the 3brd and 3rd) as well as the blaster shots and Vaders breath. Finally a really demonstrative score that shows, what film music actually does/is supposed to do!
@@jackbob9961 Since Baby Driver is mostly licensed music I don’t think it technically counts. although you are right in that the soundtrack for BD always fits the energy of the scenes, Mickey Mousing is more when you annunciate an action (like a character slipping and falling) with accompanying musical sound effects (like a slide whistle).
@@jackbob9961 I believe Baby Driver was more about sequences being choreographed to pre-existing songs, rather than music being written around the action in the film.
12:40 there's no winds in High Orbit. Vader was making his cape flutter dramatically with the force. You can't be the Fist of the Emperor without a little showmanship.
Technically it's cuz the hanger is pressurized and there's a force field covering the gaping hole that is the entrance to said hanger, but I like your explanation better.
I thought that scene was dumb. Vader could have just used the Force to grab either the object from the guy or the guy himself and brought it to him in like two seconds and then still kill all the rebels.
and the point of the writers turning a decades old boomer plot hole meme abt the death star weakness into the most touching revenge plot was absolute class.
@@cleverman383 I’m not sure if we know what exactly causes those with synesthesia to associate specific aspects of sensation (ie: E specifically) with others from a different sense (ie: red specifically). It’s probably something like that, though I personally think it was likely a children’s colorful toy piano, but there are so many I doubt I’ll ever find it. As for this specifically, it completely depends on whether Vader’s lightsaber was also in E in the original movies.
I'm now convinced those lego star wars clips of Darth Vader conducting his own theme music with his lightsaber are actually cannon. Vader is definitely enough of a drama queen to change the pitch of his lightsaber to enhance the music.
@@janmelantu7490 fun fact: when Vader is standing on the edge of the ramp towards the end there, it's fanonically accepted that he was using the force to blow his cape around, as there's no wind in space. At the beginning of the hallways scene, he also turned off all the lights on his suit so he could just step out of the darkness, illuminated only when he ignites his lightsaber, and finally, in an episode of Star Wars Rebels, he used the force to land his TIE Fighter while he was standing on top of it, implying that he flew his TIE to Malachor, got out, got on top, and flew it from on top of it. So basically, Darth Vader is still that bitch lmaooo
Three more things: 1. That Vader Theme is called "Hope" 2. You can here the Blockade Runner theme when you see the ship 3. If you speed the soundtrack up, it becomes the imperial march
Fun fact Vader actually turned off his life support to be completely invisible So basically he turned off what's keeping him alive to be a badass while entering
Part of why I love Rogue One is that it is a tragic story. Star Wars is one of those strange war-for-kids stories, when real war is desperate, tragic and good people die. It was something that the franchise needed and I think needs more of.
They also need less of “the good guys always win” since it ruins the tension when you know that everyone will love and get the outcome they want except the space nazi
@@floppywalrus3426 Ironically this is exactly why _The Empire Strikes Back_ was originally kind of hated when it first came out, as was _The Last Jedi:_ they're both films where the protagonists fail (and in the _Last Jedi's_ case everyone fails). These days _Empire_ is considered the best of the original trilogy and people are coming around on _Last Jedi,_ but when they were both new people _didn't_ want to see anything other than "the good guys always win". As the second acts in the extended 3-act structure of a trilogy it makes complete sense why the heroes would reach the lowest point of their story, that's traditionally how the 3-act works, too bad _Rise of __-Palpatine-__ Skywalker_ didn't have the payoff of _Last Jedi_ clearing the road for it.
@@Vespuchian Actually, Empire was very universally liked when it came out… saying it was hated? That’s a myth. The “hate” ESB got is a recent myth due to the hate TLJ got. ESB was never universally hated like TLJ. Stop falling for these myths.
10:23 those two chords (Gm->Ebm) are the chords of the Imperial March. The lightsaber may not be intentional but those two chords are ALWAYS used to represent Darth Vader, throughout the saga
By extension, that movement of a minor chord, moving down a minor 3rd to a minor chord is something William's, and many other composers of his era, use ubiquitously to represent evil in a lot of scores he's done. Comes out of the octatonic scale.
I worked in a cinema during the release period of rogue one. Much to my boss's dismay, the entire ushering team would all run to a screen when we knew it was approaching the Vader sequence. We watched this scene literally 20+ times on opening week and it was chilling EVERY single time. 10/10, would Vader-in-Hallway again.
I’m pretty pretty sure that it was giacchinos intention but Disney never noticed, because as a film composer you pay a lot of attention to the pitch of certain things in the environment of a movie.
@@SomeGuy_GRM Since musics are editing are in a very close realionship during those phases, it's very unprobable there was no intentional work about this specific point between the scoring team and the editing one. Movies (with a bit of involvement from authors) are made that way for years, and it's even easier with DAWs to edit musics... and video clips.
I understand NOTHING about music theory, BUT, the energy you had is INCREDIBLY infectious, and I found myself sitting through the whole video despite not understanding a single thing you said. I love this.
It's not that hard. Think of the scale "do ray me fa so la ti do" as "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8". A major cord would be 1 3 5 8. For the minor cord lower that 3 "me" by half a step. Now if you take the cord and start adding certain other notes, it becomes dissonant sounding. Most common is to add the 7th "ti" but here he's talking about adding the 5th "so". That's it, that's all there is to what he is saying.
no need...the thing to take away is this: It's unclear if this was intentional or not but the pitch of the lightsaber sound adds to the music and creates a even more dramatic sound...
Constant communication, tests, tries and errors, and rework between editing teams and score teams. You don't synchronize a ballet by keeping each dancer away from the others.
@@V3nom7 All it takes is good composition, as soon as you give everyone something enjoyable in their part, the entire orchestra will happily indulge into the theme and play it till their hearts content.
Hats off to that extra for REAL. Honestly all the actors in this film knocked it out of the park 100%. Those who don't like it seriously need to take an unbiased look at this movie because it's so amazing
Another commenter said that was the director and I honestly don't know if they were referring to that line and I did absolutely no research of my own. So.....take everything with a grain of salt.
Unrelated to the Music: When it all clicked, it makes the confrontation between Vader and Leia in ANH even better. It's literally a child lying to a parent in a 'they know that I know that they know I'm lying' situation. "We are on a diplomatic mission!" *"I WATCHED YOU RUN AWAY."*
I have the opposite reaction. According to Rogue One, he didn't "trace the rebel spies to her" he watched them fly away, they knew he did, and he just followed them. It would have been so much better if the escaping ship WAS NOT the Tantive IV. Also why TF was Leia just sitting in a corvette inside some cruiser? A huge part of the rebellion, uselessly exposed to destruction but not doing anything. Makes no sense.
You know this chord had an insane impact when even I, somebody who’s not musically inclined at all, noticed it. Never thought I’d see anyone talk about it
Just an fyi! every lightsaber has the “hum” but every lightsaber sounds different. (Especially on ignition). Soo anyone other than Vader would have had a saber that wouldn’t fit with the themes created by John Williams in the original trilogy and Michael’s work on Rogue One. Freaking amazing
It's very intentional. At least in the sense that they've said in bts materials that music is tricky in saber fight scenes because the sabers are so musical themselves, in fact George Lucas started out always intentionally not having music in saber fights, saying "the sabers _are_ the music" essentially. Of course they eventually started having music in the saber fights but they likely alter the pitches of the sabers to not clash too harshly or dissonantly with the music.
The Gmin to Ebmin pulls a bit of the Imperial March into the mix as well. Which adds to the awesomeness as this was (at the time of Rogue One’s release), one of the greatest Vader scenes. Weaving in his theme song only adds to the feeling of his overwhelming power!
@@peejay1981 I think it was tuned intentionally. It's all about the timing of the swings of the saber in relationship to where the musical score is. That's just not accidental.
This ending sequence was one of the best horror films I've ever seen, and it's the moment I saw "ah. THIS is why Vader is terrifying." The original trilogy didn't give us THIS.
The original trilogy was limited by the technology of the time - and back then it was groundbreaking stuff. And the fact that it was not normal for actors back then to do months of physical preparation for a role to make elaborate action scenes convincing. Of course modern films can much "flashier", over the top action scenes. I mean look at Obi Wan vs Vader fight on the miniseries. I makes you wonder how awesome a remake of the original trilogy could be, if they actually did it right. Then you remember that they'd probably make Obi Wan gay, Tarkin would be trans and Chewbacca would be rainbow coloured, and Leia would comment every five minutes how men are useless while single handedly doing everything better than everyone else because reasons.
Fun fact I thought Charles would talk about: That Gm to Ebm chord progression is the exact same one that drives (most of) the iconic Imperial March theme.
That's exactly what I thought! I was like "obviously bro! Gmin to Ebmin is the most recognizable aspect of the Imperial March." Glad someone else thought that.
I remember Episode 7 actually being pretty well liked when it initially came out because of the mystery shrouded around it. Wasn't really until 8 came out that not only ruined itself, but it's predecessor in the process.
Andor is one of the greats as it segues into Rogue One. Both show the backstory of immense cost and sacrifice needed to get that information into Leia's hand; which starts the ball rolling back in '77. Like many, I was there as a kid, at the cinema watching something life changing. Thanks for your compositional breakdowns, and enthusiasm.
Yep... Giacchino not really doing a great job "not being Williams" when he's using the same chords, in the same key, as arguably the most iconic theme from the entire saga. Not trying to gatekeep but I find it odd that a self-proclaimed star wars fan and serious musician wouldn't realize this lol
Then when you immediately cut to the opening of A New Hope and Leia is like “we’re on a diplomatic mission. I don’t know what you’re talking about?” Like he didn’t just slaughter two hallways full of YOUR CREW not half an hour ago! Lol
@@deadfromhell1235 A daughterz gotta do, whut a daughterz gotta do! She may not appreciate, da fact, dat dadz been around da block, a time or 2, & knowz all about whut shez doing.
@@DavidSmashGames WOW!!! Current eventz, should show u, dat a bold-faced lie, can git u far. If u blieve they r telling da truth, about just about anything going on n 2daze newz, then Princess Leiaz lie, probably woulda worked on u 2!
original series: "a lot of people died to get us this information" literally the entire script of rogue one. But the end scene literally adds 10 minutes to the older fan loved movies beginning. So that one time, we forgave Disney.
The “many bothans died to bring us this information” relates to acquiring the plans for the second death star, rather than the events depicted in Rogue One to acquire the plans for the first death star.
Of the Disney films, yeah, Rogue One stands above. I think my favorite of the non original trilogy was 3, Revenge of the Sith. The acting had improved, the tone was different and heavier, and it was well written. Lots of nuance to notice as Anakin became more and more Vader. The music for the epic fight on Mustafar between Anakin and Obi-Wan was also just, so great!
Fun music theory fact: The two minor chords a major third apart actually make a relationship known as a "chromatic mediant". This relationship is commonly used in film because it adds a very dark and ominous sound. In the case of this scene and the Star Wars series in general, it serves as the basis for Darth Vader's theme (the Imperial March).
I took music theory in class and was pretty well known as a Star Wars fan, and my teacher would always look at me whenever we discussed chromatic mediant chords and say, "Otherwise known as the Star Wars chord." Because it's everywhere in the Star Wars score!
Cant it also be a minor 3rd apart? Because a chromatic mediant is 2 chords that are 3rds apart and have only one note in common so am (a c e) to cm (c eb g) is a minor third and has 1 common note.
A chromatic mediant isn't necessarily 2 minor chords a major 3rd apart, it's just that the mediant (3rd scale degree) or submediant (6th scale degree) is altered relative to the original key. So in G minor the chromatic mediant would be Bb minor (instead of Bb major diatonically). The chromatic submediant for G minor is Eb minor (again, instead of Eb major).
As someone who isn’t so musically knowledgeable, I never noticed the stuff going on with the music and lightsaber in that scene. But I think I never noticed because the music is doing it’s job. It really blends into the emotion of that scene and enhances it so that all your focus is on the absolute chaos that Vader is dishin out
Even if you don’t notice it consciously. You’ll still feel it on a subconscious level. It’s why the saber does sound so incredibly menacing. It’s pitch is as far from the key as possible while also being in the bass register.
As someone in the film industry, I would be extremely surprised if this was not done on purpose. The music rings out here, the lightsaber rings out here; they absolutely would’ve cross-checked to make sure they were tonally complementary. For instance, in Ford v Ferrari, the composer was instructed by the director to use a key that would complement the pitch of the Ford GT’s engine.
"beautiful accident" is a great description of Rogue One generally. The script, pacing, and editing are pretty weak, but it comes together as a film much greater than the sum of flawed parts and it's my favorite Star Wars of the Disney era.
I read somewhere that they started shooting before the script was even finished, which makes certain things make sense, like Jyn’s purple kyber crystal being introduced as a mcguffin and then never being mentioned again, and Chirrut Imwe walking through laser fire to pull a random lever arbitrarily placed in the middle of a beach because reasons. The fact that the movie is as good as it is is a testament to the actors.
It was luck, then, that it was also rather self-contained and before the original trilogy. Anything more tied to the sequels and the movie would have sucked. (As in, anything putting it around the same time as the sequels.)
7:17 the chord is actually the same as the opening chord of Verdi's Dies Irae! The very jarring nature of it was also an instantly noticeable similarity, and while I'm sure it wasn't intended, it certainly invoked the same chaotic feeling that Dies Irae stimulates!
That’s pretty progressive for classical, it is a m7b5! The musical allusion is likely strong here to contextualize, but it’s also just inherently destabilizing or tension-inducing
Interestingly enough, it's also the Imperial March, a.k.a. Darth Vader's theme song. Makes you wonder whether John Williams did that on purpose, and this new composer guy too.
@@gillianomotoso328 Oh yeah sorry I think Dies Irae is just a regular g minor chord, certainly no flat 5 in it, but the voicing etc sounds similar. Don't have the Star wars orchestral score to compare exactly
@@NielDLR it's literally everywhere, listen to the first four notes when the full orchestra kicks in at 3:08 as it plays the main heroes' theme from the movie. First four notes of dies irae. Pretty cool when you think about how dies irae is usually used to denote death and mourning, literally means "day of wrath," and they made the heroes' theme echo its beginning as they all die in the end.
And Michael Giacchino had just 4 weeks to write this score, being a replacement composer. And during that short time, he composed possibly the best score of Disney Star Wars era next to John Powell's Solo.
Your reactions to these scenes make me so unbelievably happy, you're adorable and seeing someone act the same way I do at these awesome scenes is so cool
The part that made me super emotional was when they started playing 'Your Father Would Be Proud'. When the Death star appeared, building up all the way to Jyn and Cassian hugging each other as they get swept away by the blast. The score during that killed me.
I would say I'm 90% sure it was intenional. Many Audio designers I know do change pitch (and even rythm) of SFX to match music on very emotional scenes. Even soccer ball kicks, weapons loading, chunky metal impacts, waves crashing, get pitched to match music in trailers and important scenes. I can totally see the sound designer layed this out, the composer layed this out, then they met during a mixing or editorial session where they would try out things like that. And I bet they geeked out just like you did (Specially because Rogue One was the 1st [I think?] Start Wars film without Ben Burt... they had VERY big shoes to fill).
Just another amazing example of John Williams ground work of character vignettes paying off decades later. And Michael Giacchino uses the tool like a surgeon to enhance the scenes 10 fold!
I just realized that the "star wars sound" I recognized as a "phantom of the opera sound" is probably intentional... because Star Wars is a space opera.
I would love to see a follow up video on how sound effects plays a role like this in movies. Like how the “Duel of Fates” lightsaber clashes in Episode I are rhythmically in sync with the score and almost matching pitch within that scene. Great Video, Charles.
Not only that but these 2 chords, g minor and e flat minor are both in duel of fates. Go listen to it after this and they have really interesting parallels.
I just realized how similar Rogue One is to Halo: Reach; both have a suicide squad with an objective of transporting the mcguffin to a ship that then ties directly to the opening scene of the first installment in the original trilogy.
Yup, great comparison that I've noticed before. Maybe Nobile 6 survived Reach after all and went on to write the script for Roque One under a pseudonym
Yeah, and it ties directly to the crawling title from "A New Hope" from 1977: "It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the Death Star, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet." Not the best fit, but good enough.
Even with all the Disney adaptations of Star Wars, my all time favorite episode was "The Empire Strikes Back". The fight on Hoth, the budding romance of Hon and Lea, the introduction of Yoda and Lando, the first real light saber fight, the reveal of Luke's true father, (and our joined interest) the introduction of the "Empire" theme... all make it the best of the Star Wars franchise.
This may be a little obvious, but did you also notice that the chord progression during this entire sequence matches that of the Imperial March? If you play the Imperial March on top of that sequence, it matches perfectly.
I love that you incorporated the saber into the song…..I never woulda thought to put that together…..it now makes me realize if this happens in the original films that the way the saber makes a kind of wub wub wub sound, that the origins of that style of dubstep may come from the 70s songs with the lightsaber over top lol.
Having worked in film sound design, I can almost GUARANTEE the sound mixer or the creative sound lead would want to do something like that with pitch-adjusting the lightsabers. Also, hearing Charles playing the movement from Gmin to Cmin, all my brain heard was Phantom of the Opera
Thank you for giving launch guy the credit he deserves. That single line held so much raw emotion and fear, that dude really placed himself directly into the boots of that soldier, it's so great.
Film mixer Kelley Baker told me once, "It's in the movie because we put it in there." Granted, happy accidents happen all the time and shouldn't be discredited. But when it comes to something like this, something that directly enhances the aural experience of the movie, I'd argue it was deliberate. Another example of Michael Giacchino's genius! Great video, man. Rogue One is def one of my favorites too.
In Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, there's a speeder chase scene where Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker are in an airspeeder chasing an assassin (Zam Wesell) also in an airspeeder. In regard to the sounds of the assassin's airspeeder, the sound designer Ben Burtt had this to say: "The howl of Zam's speeder was produced with an old electric guitar. I play drums in a church band and I asked guitarist Dave Weaver to make the sounds for me one day after practice. I chopped the sound up with a synthesizer program and ran it through an old time spring reverb system. The idea was to produce a sound as if Zam's speeder were not rocket-powered, but ran on some sort of magnetism, perhaps in a field produced by the automatic Coruscant traffic control." And in regard to the sound of lightsaber - yeah, I would bet they DID think about it, in relationship to the background music. Watch the video titled "Sound Design - Star Wars Episode II (FULL)" that's on UA-cam.
RE: Disney-era musical contributions, the Dark Trooper theme really stood out for me. If you had asked me ahead of time if dubstep would make good Star Wars music I probably would've laughed, but IMO it actually did a great job emphasizing the unique "technological terror" they represented in the show.
SO much music feels like it gets lost in movies that aren't living up to par as the piece here. Or "My Enemy" in Amazing Spiderman 2. A piece I feel got wasted in a movie that no one really cares to remember and sadly, one of the best themes exist in it. Love the channel.
I gotta say, just watching Charles react to music is an experience in and of itself - he truly feels every note, chord and key change. And when the suspense is drawn out…just…a…li…ttle…too f…a….r, I get just as antsy and “Come On!” as he does. So cool.
I saw this movie in the theatre the same week Carrie Fischer passed away. When Leia’s back appeared on screen, tears just flooded my eyes, and I know I wasn’t the only one
Uncommonly known fact: While Obi-wan was watching over Luke on Tattooine, he had his own youtube channel where he completely geeked out over movie music. I'm on to you Obi-wan Cornell-be.
There is an enormous nerd for everything people do. And listening to them talk about how they experience something only enriches that thing for the rest of us.
I am 5:19 into this video. This is the very first time I have seen a video from this channel and I have to say, the way you play that beautiful instrument, fills me with emotions that I'm still trying to process! 😁🙌 Is it Awe? Excitement? Wonder? Tranquility? I don't understand it but I shall be back for more!
Charles and I are on the same wavelength. When I heard him playing on that gm melody, the first thought that came into my head was “hit the Eb 7. PLEASE hit the Eb 7”
I knew there was something to this. When the film came out and I watched it on opening night with my family. I sat next to my dad, and when we heard the steps and the breathing, I got chills, we looked at each other with like an "oh my god" face, and watched the whole scene probably without a single breath. I remembered the music was incredible, so I listened to it on its own. There was something missing. In that first G minor chord, the sound of the lightsaber was missing for me, that E2 if I'm not mistaken. Then I missed the lightsaber sound when Vader starting swinging. It's really cool to see what I was missing.
I love that your take on the three films of the final trilogy AND Rogue One are EXACTLY the same as mine. ^_^ Oh and the final scenes of Rogue One were such big emotions for this OG Star Wars fan. Rogue One is easily the best Star Wars film ever made.
I don't think I noticed the score and the lightsaber sound effect interacting as much as I felt it. What you've done is tied those two things together in a way that helps put a shape to my experience that I could not have attained on my own. Your practical ability as a performer informs my understanding of storytelling and sound effect creation in a wonderful dovetail. Thank you for sharing and nerding out with us!
WAS THIS INTENTIONAL I HAVE TO KNOW
i don't know you creeper!
It has to be… right?
You weren't
Probably.
Please do an episode on The Incredibles it has great music
brb gotta go tune my lightsabers
Dont tell me you are trying to produce a dyad…
Are y m m B. Bbb I do
C the
H a
Bum. B
Knock I'm a
I got a bad no'e. \
J
Third comment on checkmark yessir
lmao that sent me. thanks Adam you're low-key a babe
😅👍👍👍👍
Imagine writting a villain so good that when he appears on screen the audience cheers.
only Star Wars
@@peterlacey5187 Vergil in DMC
This, THIS
@@poorcolossus they were not motivated enough when they said Only SW
The Darth Vader of Rogue One is the villian we had been searching for over 30 years. He never showed up in the prequels.
Darth Vader: slaughters an entire team of innocent Rebel soldiers
Charles: WUHWUHWUHWUH
Is that what the word innocent means?
Honestly...is anybody innocent in this franchise
If you're military you're not innocent.
@@suburbanindie They weren't military. They were rebels loyal to the royal family. Basically insurgent terrorists.
LMAO underrated comment
What's astonishing to know, is that the Vader hallway scene wasn't in the original cut of the film, it was added when they did the reshoots. To think a scene that became one of the most iconic in the franchise almost didn't make it, tells you just how special it is.
Tells you just how lame they are at choosing their scripts sometimes, god. THis is glod. Everything they made after it is just meh.
@@zoundbiestudio4021the above comment isn’t exactly right. They were debating between two Vader scenes. One is this scene, the other would have him storming the beach on Scarif. They chose the right move
@@oXRaptorzXo yeah they chose right but i'd love to have seen the other too. imagine how terrifying it would be for the rebels as they were outnumbered by quite alot already but to witness Vader himself would just crush your hope
alot of the best scenes in tv almost didn't make it.
@@nickf.6027if they had both, the hallway scene wouldn't be as effective.
Do one on the Incredibles because the music for that movie goes hard
True, the waltz theme is my favorite. (when he's training to get back on the job)
I've been wanting this for so long, he should do it!
YAS
And the Mandalorian theme!!
He also did the soundtrack to Space Mountain at the Disney parks!
You guys realize he only had 4 WEEKS from initial phone call to make the soundtrack because Williams unexpectedly fell through and last minute reshoots? Absolutely nuts how intricate this score is.
The fuck that’s insane
Williams was never involved. Desplat was replaced by Giacchino with a little over a month to write the whole thing. He did a great job though, it's a solid ST
Your harmonic analysis of the pieces that you have covered are remarkable. The pure joy you express during your analysis is inspiring. Keep up the awesome work.
Alexandre Desplat was actually supposed to do the soundtrack but he had to dropout due to his schedule and the late reshoots. That's when they brought in Giacchino. I don't think Williams was ever involved.
Williams wasn't involved
"The light saber is in E" is definitely not a phrase I thought I would hear today...
My heater is an F. When I played an F1 on my keyboard my heater started to vibrate like crazy. And it actually sounds somewhat like a light saber. Absolute useless piece of information, I know
@@joda3615 resonate frequency!!! We love vibrating things by making noise
I hear many appliances constantly emitting musical notes.
Most commonly:
-Drills in F (though most recently I've heard them in C)
-Shaving machines in Eb (when away from hair) or A (when in contact with hair).
-Anything related to cold (I think temperature in general) in E.
I love how at the beginning of the video, the part of this song that is playing is actually in tune with Across the Stars (Anakin and Padme’s romance theme basically), and then goes into the craziness that is the hallway scene, only to end with the Imperial March. It’s almost like a musical version of the tragedy of Anakin becoming Darth Vader
Nice analysis and i think i can agree with that!!!
call me crazy/paranoid but that sounds intentional
The tragedy of Darth Vader is not a story the Jedi would tell you...
@@151monka But Obi-Wan does exactly that lol.
Holly shit good catch
Being a composer and having worked with a ton of sound engineers, I can blindly vouch for this being 100% planned. However, I didn't know why this was my favorite Star Wars scene in the last 15 years and now I know. I got chills when you explained this. Please geek out like this in every video, I enjoyed it so much.
15 years? pretty sure this movie came out in 2016
@@tobiastangen37 yeah but he means in the 15 years prior to when he saw this movie
I think the Luke hallway scene in mandalorian is just above this one for me, but this takes second place by an enormous margin.
@@tobiastangen37 IN the last 15 years 🤦♂️
@@tobiastangen37 Read the line again ...
Fun fact: the sound of Vaders saber slashing is a bassline to the piece ALL the time, the guy shouting „take it“ adds to the chord in the same way the saber is (somewhere between the 3brd and 3rd) as well as the blaster shots and Vaders breath. Finally a really demonstrative score that shows, what film music actually does/is supposed to do!
Yeah that’s an old technique called “Mickey mousing” where the music literally narrates the action and melds with the sound fx
@@rnttnzr774 would Baby Driver be an example?
@@jackbob9961 Since Baby Driver is mostly licensed music I don’t think it technically counts. although you are right in that the soundtrack for BD always fits the energy of the scenes, Mickey Mousing is more when you annunciate an action (like a character slipping and falling) with accompanying musical sound effects (like a slide whistle).
@@jackbob9961 I believe Baby Driver was more about sequences being choreographed to pre-existing songs, rather than music being written around the action in the film.
@@rnttnzr774 that's a bit ironic considering the owner of star wars rights
12:40 there's no winds in High Orbit. Vader was making his cape flutter dramatically with the force. You can't be the Fist of the Emperor without a little showmanship.
Technically it's cuz the hanger is pressurized and there's a force field covering the gaping hole that is the entrance to said hanger, but I like your explanation better.
Vader has traits of Anakin, his attitude and arrogance and flashiness. Makes sense tbh
Yeah, but there's a full array of rockets speeding away from him... maybe enough t flutter a cape
Perfect comment of the day. You win. Per.Fect.
He also held the door closed and turned off the lights on his suit for *drama* lmao
That whole ending scene of Rogue One that starts when Vader arrives to intercept the Rebel fleet is a masterpiece.
Sadly it's all been shit otherwise
I thought that scene was dumb. Vader could have just used the Force to grab either the object from the guy or the guy himself and brought it to him in like two seconds and then still kill all the rebels.
and the point of the writers turning a decades old boomer plot hole meme abt the death star weakness into the most touching revenge plot was absolute class.
As someone with synesthesia who perceives E as red, the fact that Vader’s lightsaber sound is in E feels extremely satisfying
Omg you too 😂 why does this chord sound so red ?
If you watched Star Wars while young, could Vader's lightsaber have caused your perception of E?
@@cleverman383 I discovered Star wars late x)) but it surely is a similar reason, I agree with you.
@@cleverman383 I’m not sure if we know what exactly causes those with synesthesia to associate specific aspects of sensation (ie: E specifically) with others from a different sense (ie: red specifically).
It’s probably something like that, though I personally think it was likely a children’s colorful toy piano, but there are so many I doubt I’ll ever find it.
As for this specifically, it completely depends on whether Vader’s lightsaber was also in E in the original movies.
Awww man...I get orange
I'm now convinced those lego star wars clips of Darth Vader conducting his own theme music with his lightsaber are actually cannon. Vader is definitely enough of a drama queen to change the pitch of his lightsaber to enhance the music.
Anakin was always a showboating, swashbuckling hero. Vader never lost his showboaty nature
@@janmelantu7490 fun fact: when Vader is standing on the edge of the ramp towards the end there, it's fanonically accepted that he was using the force to blow his cape around, as there's no wind in space. At the beginning of the hallways scene, he also turned off all the lights on his suit so he could just step out of the darkness, illuminated only when he ignites his lightsaber, and finally, in an episode of Star Wars Rebels, he used the force to land his TIE Fighter while he was standing on top of it, implying that he flew his TIE to Malachor, got out, got on top, and flew it from on top of it. So basically, Darth Vader is still that bitch lmaooo
@@charliebeckham2391 Vader understands that villainy without theatrics is, quite simply, a travesty.
Bruh I am dead, this thread is hilarious
@@Boyde712 he understands the difference between a regular villain and a *super* villain
11:00 is the _perfect,_ PERFECT spin on the imperial theme.
With the exact same sinister brass Williams gave us back in the day!
Damn, was he forced to cut parts away from the video? Damn copyright. I know what you mean, but wish I could see what was cut out.
@@TealJosh think he meant 11:00
@@thevegastan Yes i did mean 11:00.
No idea why i typed 13:26.
Corrected it. My bad.
Three more things:
1. That Vader Theme is called "Hope"
2. You can here the Blockade Runner theme when you see the ship
3. If you speed the soundtrack up, it becomes the imperial march
I never never poo old have figured that out.
Whaaat
Fun fact Vader actually turned off his life support to be completely invisible
So basically he turned off what's keeping him alive to be a badass while entering
Or maybe he used the force to hide the light/alter their perception, like siths can change the way they look so nobody notices who they are
That's dedication right there
Theres also no wind in space, so he’s also taking a note from “How to Make an Entrance” by Obi-Wan Kenobi
evidence where?
Well if you're going to murder a dozen people, you should do it with style!
11:44 "Props to that guy! He had one line, and he nailed it!"
That was the director, Gareth Edwards
Gareth is the guy who pulls the lever immediately after dude screams launch.
Yeah, he's talking about the guy that yelled "Launch" and not the director who pulled the release.
That's a Willheim Scream too
Apparently it's actually Christopher Nolan (no relation)
@@piraka_mistika i heard his name was actually Darude S. Storm
The siren/alarm going off in the background is forever burned into my memories. Absolutely iconic
Part of why I love Rogue One is that it is a tragic story. Star Wars is one of those strange war-for-kids stories, when real war is desperate, tragic and good people die. It was something that the franchise needed and I think needs more of.
They also need less of “the good guys always win” since it ruins the tension when you know that everyone will love and get the outcome they want except the space nazi
If you haven't read Shatterpoint, you'd probably like it. It was another moment where Star Wars kind of dipped into the reality of war
@@floppywalrus3426 sorta the thing with clone wars. We know half the characters will be ok
@@floppywalrus3426 Ironically this is exactly why _The Empire Strikes Back_ was originally kind of hated when it first came out, as was _The Last Jedi:_ they're both films where the protagonists fail (and in the _Last Jedi's_ case everyone fails). These days _Empire_ is considered the best of the original trilogy and people are coming around on _Last Jedi,_ but when they were both new people _didn't_ want to see anything other than "the good guys always win". As the second acts in the extended 3-act structure of a trilogy it makes complete sense why the heroes would reach the lowest point of their story, that's traditionally how the 3-act works, too bad _Rise of __-Palpatine-__ Skywalker_ didn't have the payoff of _Last Jedi_ clearing the road for it.
@@Vespuchian Actually, Empire was very universally liked when it came out… saying it was hated? That’s a myth. The “hate” ESB got is a recent myth due to the hate TLJ got.
ESB was never universally hated like TLJ. Stop falling for these myths.
10:23 those two chords (Gm->Ebm) are the chords of the Imperial March. The lightsaber may not be intentional but those two chords are ALWAYS used to represent Darth Vader, throughout the saga
Same thing i was thinking. With that being said it has to be intentional
Indeed
Was waiting for him to realize this!
The music in the scene is the Imperial March, just slower.
By extension, that movement of a minor chord, moving down a minor 3rd to a minor chord is something William's, and many other composers of his era, use ubiquitously to represent evil in a lot of scores he's done. Comes out of the octatonic scale.
I worked in a cinema during the release period of rogue one. Much to my boss's dismay, the entire ushering team would all run to a screen when we knew it was approaching the Vader sequence. We watched this scene literally 20+ times on opening week and it was chilling EVERY single time. 10/10, would Vader-in-Hallway again.
The phrase "10/10, would Vader-in-Hallway again" has me giggling hysterically! Thank you for tickling my grammar nerd brainstem.
I’m pretty pretty sure that it was giacchinos intention but Disney never noticed, because as a film composer you pay a lot of attention to the pitch of certain things in the environment of a movie.
Yeah, this seems like it. Intentional decision by the composer, but nobody asked him to and only music geeks ever noticed.
@@SomeGuy_GRM Since musics are editing are in a very close realionship during those phases, it's very unprobable there was no intentional work about this specific point between the scoring team and the editing one. Movies (with a bit of involvement from authors) are made that way for years, and it's even easier with DAWs to edit musics... and video clips.
6:08 "I'm sorry. I'll stop geeking out."
*geeks out for another 11 minutes*
me
@@emr1d341 too
Me three
Me fourth (I am one with the fourth, and the fourth is with me)
My dude was like “I know that’s the sound of the twin ion engines, not the lambda shuttle. Shut up, nerds.”
RIP MF DOOM 😪
I understand NOTHING about music theory, BUT, the energy you had is INCREDIBLY infectious, and I found myself sitting through the whole video despite not understanding a single thing you said. I love this.
It's not that hard. Think of the scale "do ray me fa so la ti do" as "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8". A major cord would be 1 3 5 8. For the minor cord lower that 3 "me" by half a step. Now if you take the cord and start adding certain other notes, it becomes dissonant sounding. Most common is to add the 7th "ti" but here he's talking about adding the 5th "so". That's it, that's all there is to what he is saying.
No, the 5th is already there, you meant the 6th
no need...the thing to take away is this: It's unclear if this was intentional or not but the pitch of the lightsaber sound adds to the music and creates a even more dramatic sound...
I understood what he said, but I get your feeling! I was also watching because he was so genuine! Such a good youtuber!
@@chrisaustin9949 You just didnt hahahahahahaha
Composers for film music are just incredible, I have no idea how they come up with such good music, that fits exactly to the movie.
Constant communication, tests, tries and errors, and rework between editing teams and score teams. You don't synchronize a ballet by keeping each dancer away from the others.
@@V3nom7 All it takes is good composition, as soon as you give everyone something enjoyable in their part, the entire orchestra will happily indulge into the theme and play it till their hearts content.
That blood curdling
“LAUNCH!”
Was definitely one of the best lines given by any extra ever.
Hats off to that extra for REAL. Honestly all the actors in this film knocked it out of the park 100%. Those who don't like it seriously need to take an unbiased look at this movie because it's so amazing
that 1 line is gonna launch his career
Another commenter said that was the director and I honestly don't know if they were referring to that line and I did absolutely no research of my own. So.....take everything with a grain of salt.
The director is in that scene! But rather he’s actually the one who pulls the lever, which is probably what this fact is based on!
"LAUNCH!" In this case means " I am staring death in the face mask, get us the hell out of here!" Lol
Unrelated to the Music: When it all clicked, it makes the confrontation between Vader and Leia in ANH even better. It's literally a child lying to a parent in a 'they know that I know that they know I'm lying' situation.
"We are on a diplomatic mission!"
*"I WATCHED YOU RUN AWAY."*
I have the opposite reaction. According to Rogue One, he didn't "trace the rebel spies to her" he watched them fly away, they knew he did, and he just followed them.
It would have been so much better if the escaping ship WAS NOT the Tantive IV. Also why TF was Leia just sitting in a corvette inside some cruiser? A huge part of the rebellion, uselessly exposed to destruction but not doing anything. Makes no sense.
You know this chord had an insane impact when even I, somebody who’s not musically inclined at all, noticed it. Never thought I’d see anyone talk about it
Just an fyi! every lightsaber has the “hum” but every lightsaber sounds different. (Especially on ignition). Soo anyone other than Vader would have had a saber that wouldn’t fit with the themes created by John Williams in the original trilogy and Michael’s work on Rogue One. Freaking amazing
It's very intentional. At least in the sense that they've said in bts materials that music is tricky in saber fight scenes because the sabers are so musical themselves, in fact George Lucas started out always intentionally not having music in saber fights, saying "the sabers _are_ the music" essentially. Of course they eventually started having music in the saber fights but they likely alter the pitches of the sabers to not clash too harshly or dissonantly with the music.
"It disappointing that the characters die"
True, but hey, you can't ruin their legacy with a terrible sequel if they're dead
That's what prequels are for
Don't underestimate their power...
@@apmarcus *laughs in Disney*
*Laughs in Andor*
Prequels... force gosts... Disney.
The Gmin to Ebmin pulls a bit of the Imperial March into the mix as well. Which adds to the awesomeness as this was (at the time of Rogue One’s release), one of the greatest Vader scenes. Weaving in his theme song only adds to the feeling of his overwhelming power!
The ligthsaber being tuned has to have been done intentionally. And it's an epic piece of writing.
100%, no way does a person whose whole job and passion it is to obsess about sound not make these basic considerations
It may not be intentionally musically tuned, but I bet the sound design people could hear the dissonance and said "yeah, that's it!"
@@peejay1981 I think it was tuned intentionally. It's all about the timing of the swings of the saber in relationship to where the musical score is. That's just not accidental.
Ah..the lower pitch of sinthethic crystal. It's those sound effects that make SW unique.
Also the siren being tuned to D lol
This ending sequence was one of the best horror films I've ever seen, and it's the moment I saw "ah. THIS is why Vader is terrifying." The original trilogy didn't give us THIS.
It kind of did, we have to remember that Episode IV is a 45 year old movie. But this takes it to a whoooole new level and I absolutely love it.
Yeah. A solid like 6'3 black shadowey figure who had a blood red lightsaber and could kill you through a tv. The rebels had a righr ro be scared
@@AlechiaTheWitch "could kill you through a TV"....lol, brilliant - not quite sure that is how the force works... but then, hey, who am I to know :))
@@ari.martin wait, The Original Trilogy is around 45 years old? My god…
The original trilogy was limited by the technology of the time - and back then it was groundbreaking stuff. And the fact that it was not normal for actors back then to do months of physical preparation for a role to make elaborate action scenes convincing.
Of course modern films can much "flashier", over the top action scenes. I mean look at Obi Wan vs Vader fight on the miniseries. I makes you wonder how awesome a remake of the original trilogy could be, if they actually did it right. Then you remember that they'd probably make Obi Wan gay, Tarkin would be trans and Chewbacca would be rainbow coloured, and Leia would comment every five minutes how men are useless while single handedly doing everything better than everyone else because reasons.
Fun fact I thought Charles would talk about:
That Gm to Ebm chord progression is the exact same one that drives (most of) the iconic Imperial March theme.
Me too
That's exactly what I thought! I was like "obviously bro! Gmin to Ebmin is the most recognizable aspect of the Imperial March." Glad someone else thought that.
Yeah same!!
And Duel of the Fates
It's the general "John Williams menace". Voldemort for example is Am to Fm. But the Imperial March was first, and it was in G.
I remember Episode 7 actually being pretty well liked when it initially came out because of the mystery shrouded around it. Wasn't really until 8 came out that not only ruined itself, but it's predecessor in the process.
No one:
Charles: That imperial shuttle is playing a Ab/Bb
Charles (off handedly): “maybe we should do something on The Incredibles”
Me: Punches through screen screaming YES!!!!! DO IT!!!!! I WANT!!!!!
Agreed.
Absolutely
Andor is one of the greats as it segues into Rogue One. Both show the backstory of immense cost and sacrifice needed to get that information into Leia's hand; which starts the ball rolling back in '77.
Like many, I was there as a kid, at the cinema watching something life changing.
Thanks for your compositional breakdowns, and enthusiasm.
I would love to see an Incredibles score breakdown
it would be really incredible
Seconded
thirded
Yes please. Please twice.
Fourthed
10:23 "That is a very Star Wars sound" says Charles as he is playing the chords to the Darth Vader Theme. Gm and Ebm. lmao
Thought i was the only one who noticed
I was yelling at my screen "IMPERIAL MARCH CHORDS BRO YOU'RE PLAYING IT RIGHT NOW!"
Yeah, I heard it the first time we saw the film in theaters. Of course, I'm probably one of the biggest "Star Wars" fans ever, so...
I was looking for this comment. 😂
Yep... Giacchino not really doing a great job "not being Williams" when he's using the same chords, in the same key, as arguably the most iconic theme from the entire saga. Not trying to gatekeep but I find it odd that a self-proclaimed star wars fan and serious musician wouldn't realize this lol
Then when you immediately cut to the opening of A New Hope and Leia is like “we’re on a diplomatic mission. I don’t know what you’re talking about?” Like he didn’t just slaughter two hallways full of YOUR CREW not half an hour ago! Lol
there is an indertermined amount of time between those two scenes
@@deadfromhell1235
A daughterz gotta do, whut a daughterz gotta do!
She may not appreciate, da fact, dat dadz been around da block, a time or 2, & knowz all about whut shez doing.
Which is why this movie is WORST Star Wars movie in history!
@@DavidSmashGames
WOW!!!
Current eventz, should show u, dat a bold-faced lie, can git u far. If u blieve they r telling da truth, about just about anything going on n 2daze newz, then Princess Leiaz lie, probably woulda worked on u 2!
@@Einnor084 are you ok?
original series: "a lot of people died to get us this information" literally the entire script of rogue one.
But the end scene literally adds 10 minutes to the older fan loved movies beginning. So that one time, we forgave Disney.
Disney did much more good then bad
@@oXRaptorzXo that's.... no...
Yes, when K-2SO died was the moment when I suddenly remembered this quote and realised where the film was going.
The “many bothans died to bring us this information” relates to acquiring the plans for the second death star, rather than the events depicted in Rogue One to acquire the plans for the first death star.
wasn't that for the 2nd death star?
Rogue One is literally top of my list of Star Wars films. It was outstanding.
@James Black Revenge of the sith is better. So is the original trilogy movies.
@James Black OT and Prequels
Rogue one was good but the Disney Trilogy really went down the drain
Rouge One was great, but... Kyle Katarn and Jan Ors...
Of the Disney films, yeah, Rogue One stands above. I think my favorite of the non original trilogy was 3, Revenge of the Sith. The acting had improved, the tone was different and heavier, and it was well written. Lots of nuance to notice as Anakin became more and more Vader. The music for the epic fight on Mustafar between Anakin and Obi-Wan was also just, so great!
I was expecting a full analysis but it felt more like a conversation, kinda refreshing ngl
Fun music theory fact: The two minor chords a major third apart actually make a relationship known as a "chromatic mediant". This relationship is commonly used in film because it adds a very dark and ominous sound. In the case of this scene and the Star Wars series in general, it serves as the basis for Darth Vader's theme (the Imperial March).
I took music theory in class and was pretty well known as a Star Wars fan, and my teacher would always look at me whenever we discussed chromatic mediant chords and say, "Otherwise known as the Star Wars chord." Because it's everywhere in the Star Wars score!
Cant it also be a minor 3rd apart? Because a chromatic mediant is 2 chords that are 3rds apart and have only one note in common so am (a c e) to cm (c eb g) is a minor third and has 1 common note.
A chromatic mediant isn't necessarily 2 minor chords a major 3rd apart, it's just that the mediant (3rd scale degree) or submediant (6th scale degree) is altered relative to the original key. So in G minor the chromatic mediant would be Bb minor (instead of Bb major diatonically). The chromatic submediant for G minor is Eb minor (again, instead of Eb major).
Music is math is music... Love this discussion and video
I've never heard the term "chromatic mediant" before but your last name is Yuditskiy so I'll assume you know what you're talking about.
As someone who isn’t so musically knowledgeable, I never noticed the stuff going on with the music and lightsaber in that scene. But I think I never noticed because the music is doing it’s job. It really blends into the emotion of that scene and enhances it so that all your focus is on the absolute chaos that Vader is dishin out
Even if you don’t notice it consciously. You’ll still feel it on a subconscious level. It’s why the saber does sound so incredibly menacing. It’s pitch is as far from the key as possible while also being in the bass register.
As someone in the film industry, I would be extremely surprised if this was not done on purpose. The music rings out here, the lightsaber rings out here; they absolutely would’ve cross-checked to make sure they were tonally complementary. For instance, in Ford v Ferrari, the composer was instructed by the director to use a key that would complement the pitch of the Ford GT’s engine.
I love hearing people be so passionate about their skill. Keep on rocking, dude, you're awesome.
I love how Charles' videos are just 15+ min of him just fully geeking out about something.
"beautiful accident" is a great description of Rogue One generally. The script, pacing, and editing are pretty weak, but it comes together as a film much greater than the sum of flawed parts and it's my favorite Star Wars of the Disney era.
its really the only one worth sparing.
I read somewhere that they started shooting before the script was even finished, which makes certain things make sense, like Jyn’s purple kyber crystal being introduced as a mcguffin and then never being mentioned again, and Chirrut Imwe walking through laser fire to pull a random lever arbitrarily placed in the middle of a beach because reasons. The fact that the movie is as good as it is is a testament to the actors.
It was luck, then, that it was also rather self-contained and before the original trilogy. Anything more tied to the sequels and the movie would have sucked. (As in, anything putting it around the same time as the sequels.)
7:17 the chord is actually the same as the opening chord of Verdi's Dies Irae! The very jarring nature of it was also an instantly noticeable similarity, and while I'm sure it wasn't intended, it certainly invoked the same chaotic feeling that Dies Irae stimulates!
That’s pretty progressive for classical, it is a m7b5! The musical allusion is likely strong here to contextualize, but it’s also just inherently destabilizing or tension-inducing
Interestingly enough, it's also the Imperial March, a.k.a. Darth Vader's theme song. Makes you wonder whether John Williams did that on purpose, and this new composer guy too.
I would say this was 100% intentional. Dies Irae occurs often in Star Wars scores.
@@gillianomotoso328 Oh yeah sorry I think Dies Irae is just a regular g minor chord, certainly no flat 5 in it, but the voicing etc sounds similar. Don't have the Star wars orchestral score to compare exactly
@@NielDLR it's literally everywhere, listen to the first four notes when the full orchestra kicks in at 3:08 as it plays the main heroes' theme from the movie. First four notes of dies irae. Pretty cool when you think about how dies irae is usually used to denote death and mourning, literally means "day of wrath," and they made the heroes' theme echo its beginning as they all die in the end.
And Michael Giacchino had just 4 weeks to write this score, being a replacement composer. And during that short time, he composed possibly the best score of Disney Star Wars era next to John Powell's Solo.
And Ludwig Goranssons Mandalorian and Boba Fett to a lesser extent
Your reactions to these scenes make me so unbelievably happy, you're adorable and seeing someone act the same way I do at these awesome scenes is so cool
When describing how the lightsaber changes the chord Charles went full sideways and I absolutely love it
I thought the same thing!!
The chord progression that accompanies Vader’s entry is also the same progression that opens “Dual of the Fates” from E1.
That’s exactly what I thought!
@@annoyingbookworm it really brought Duel of the Fates vibes, that DUUUNNNNN DUN DUUUNNNN
The part that made me super emotional was when they started playing 'Your Father Would Be Proud'. When the Death star appeared, building up all the way to Jyn and Cassian hugging each other as they get swept away by the blast. The score during that killed me.
I would say I'm 90% sure it was intenional.
Many Audio designers I know do change pitch (and even rythm) of SFX to match music on very emotional scenes.
Even soccer ball kicks, weapons loading, chunky metal impacts, waves crashing, get pitched to match music in trailers and important scenes.
I can totally see the sound designer layed this out, the composer layed this out, then they met during a mixing or editorial session where they would try out things like that. And I bet they geeked out just like you did (Specially because Rogue One was the 1st [I think?] Start Wars film without Ben Burt... they had VERY big shoes to fill).
The chords used are exhortations from the Imperial March, “Vader’s Theme” and “Duel of Fates” from the prequel films.
Just another amazing example of John Williams ground work of character vignettes paying off decades later. And Michael Giacchino uses the tool like a surgeon to enhance the scenes 10 fold!
what is the difference between the imperial march and Vader theme?
@@gubblfisch350 no difference... the song is officially listed as The Imperial March (Vader's Theme)
That was my thought.
I love how this guy’s videos make me feel like I’m sitting around with a friend just chatting and geeking out about music
I just realized that the "star wars sound" I recognized as a "phantom of the opera sound" is probably intentional... because Star Wars is a space opera.
I mean the original trilogy predates Phantom, so if anything the inspiration went the other way (which could be the case, I don't know)
Phantom came after
I may not understand anything but seeing this guys excitement and explanation makes me smile
I always enjoy your enthusiasm in music whenever you can't stop yourself from being overwhelmed with joy!
I would love to see a follow up video on how sound effects plays a role like this in movies. Like how the “Duel of Fates” lightsaber clashes in Episode I are rhythmically in sync with the score and almost matching pitch within that scene. Great Video, Charles.
Not only that but these 2 chords, g minor and e flat minor are both in duel of fates. Go listen to it after this and they have really interesting parallels.
I just realized how similar Rogue One is to Halo: Reach; both have a suicide squad with an objective of transporting the mcguffin to a ship that then ties directly to the opening scene of the first installment in the original trilogy.
You’re spot on, good insight.
Also I very much enjoyed your use of the word mcguffin
Yup, great comparison that I've noticed before. Maybe Nobile 6 survived Reach after all and went on to write the script for Roque One under a pseudonym
Yeah when this movie first came out I both loved it and was also like "heeeeyyyy, i know that prequel set up anywhere"
Also tying in that both of these franchises started their story with destroying a massive space weapon
Yeah, and it ties directly to the crawling title from "A New Hope" from 1977: "It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire.
During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the Death Star, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet."
Not the best fit, but good enough.
I love how the entire finale of this movie is quite literally Halo: Reach but in Star Wars. It's so good
You mean star wars but in halo reach :p
Best Analogy ever
*Current Objective: Survive*
Even with all the Disney adaptations of Star Wars, my all time favorite episode was "The Empire Strikes Back". The fight on Hoth, the budding romance of Hon and Lea, the introduction of Yoda and Lando, the first real light saber fight, the reveal of Luke's true father, (and our joined interest) the introduction of the "Empire" theme... all make it the best of the Star Wars franchise.
This may be a little obvious, but did you also notice that the chord progression during this entire sequence matches that of the Imperial March? If you play the Imperial March on top of that sequence, it matches perfectly.
I love that you incorporated the saber into the song…..I never woulda thought to put that together…..it now makes me realize if this happens in the original films that the way the saber makes a kind of wub wub wub sound, that the origins of that style of dubstep may come from the 70s songs with the lightsaber over top lol.
9:57 When the lightsaber goes down in pitch, not only does it match the chord but the striking pattern also fits in with the rhythm
Having worked in film sound design, I can almost GUARANTEE the sound mixer or the creative sound lead would want to do something like that with pitch-adjusting the lightsabers.
Also, hearing Charles playing the movement from Gmin to Cmin, all my brain heard was Phantom of the Opera
It was kinda of painfuI not having the movement back up :)
@@MagnaKay EXACTLY!
Rogue One was the first movie that didn't make me angry when likable characters die, so I think that says a lot about just how good a film it is.
No it says a lot about you.
Game of thrones kills off likeable characters all the time and it was fantastic (for a time)
Thank you for giving launch guy the credit he deserves. That single line held so much raw emotion and fear, that dude really placed himself directly into the boots of that soldier, it's so great.
Film mixer Kelley Baker told me once, "It's in the movie because we put it in there." Granted, happy accidents happen all the time and shouldn't be discredited. But when it comes to something like this, something that directly enhances the aural experience of the movie, I'd argue it was deliberate. Another example of Michael Giacchino's genius!
Great video, man. Rogue One is def one of my favorites too.
Seeing charles acting like a little kid when talking about Star Wars is soo wholesome 😂😂
four words: "The Phantom of the Opera." the whole reveal of Vader makes me think of POTO, because it is the destabilizing sound that sets you off...
wow, that light saber was the chord changer!! I actually thought some kind of brass played this note
In Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, there's a speeder chase scene where Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker are in an airspeeder chasing an assassin (Zam Wesell) also in an airspeeder. In regard to the sounds of the assassin's airspeeder, the sound designer Ben Burtt had this to say: "The howl of Zam's speeder was produced with an old electric guitar. I play drums in a church band and I asked guitarist Dave Weaver to make the sounds for me one day after practice. I chopped the sound up with a synthesizer program and ran it through an old time spring reverb system. The idea was to produce a sound as if Zam's speeder were not rocket-powered, but ran on some sort of magnetism, perhaps in a field produced by the automatic Coruscant traffic control."
And in regard to the sound of lightsaber - yeah, I would bet they DID think about it, in relationship to the background music. Watch the video titled "Sound Design - Star Wars Episode II (FULL)" that's on UA-cam.
RE: Disney-era musical contributions, the Dark Trooper theme really stood out for me. If you had asked me ahead of time if dubstep would make good Star Wars music I probably would've laughed, but IMO it actually did a great job emphasizing the unique "technological terror" they represented in the show.
Bo Katan and the Night Owls theme slaps too imo
“Every time you see that, you’re just like ‘YES!!!’”. I do that every time to and I love that scene
SO much music feels like it gets lost in movies that aren't living up to par as the piece here. Or "My Enemy" in Amazing Spiderman 2. A piece I feel got wasted in a movie that no one really cares to remember and sadly, one of the best themes exist in it. Love the channel.
I love it, the reharmonization with light saber. Peak nerd!
I gotta say, just watching Charles react to music is an experience in and of itself - he truly feels every note, chord and key change. And when the suspense is drawn out…just…a…li…ttle…too f…a….r, I get just as antsy and “Come On!” as he does. So cool.
That is absolutely incredible, whether it was intentional or not, It's just adds incredibly to the scene! Love it!!
I saw this movie in the theatre the same week Carrie Fischer passed away. When Leia’s back appeared on screen, tears just flooded my eyes, and I know I wasn’t the only one
Uncommonly known fact: While Obi-wan was watching over Luke on Tattooine, he had his own youtube channel where he completely geeked out over movie music. I'm on to you Obi-wan Cornell-be.
There is an enormous nerd for everything people do. And listening to them talk about how they experience something only enriches that thing for the rest of us.
I am 5:19 into this video. This is the very first time I have seen a video from this channel and I have to say, the way you play that beautiful instrument, fills me with emotions that I'm still trying to process! 😁🙌 Is it Awe? Excitement? Wonder? Tranquility? I don't understand it but I shall be back for more!
Charles and I are on the same wavelength. When I heard him playing on that gm melody, the first thought that came into my head was “hit the Eb 7. PLEASE hit the Eb 7”
For clarification, in this case it would be a slash chord. Not half diminished or eminb5
I read this as “ Chris Cornell saved Star Wars”
At this point in the new trilogy, anything like that would make perfect sense lol
I mean i personally think jon favreau saved star wars, but this music is exceptional!!
I knew there was something to this. When the film came out and I watched it on opening night with my family. I sat next to my dad, and when we heard the steps and the breathing, I got chills, we looked at each other with like an "oh my god" face, and watched the whole scene probably without a single breath.
I remembered the music was incredible, so I listened to it on its own. There was something missing. In that first G minor chord, the sound of the lightsaber was missing for me, that E2 if I'm not mistaken. Then I missed the lightsaber sound when Vader starting swinging. It's really cool to see what I was missing.
12:17
Love how he calls it a "battle"
i’d like to see a complete harmonic analysis lightsaber influence on the harmonic structure of music throughout all of the star wars music.
I love that your take on the three films of the final trilogy AND Rogue One are EXACTLY the same as mine. ^_^
Oh and the final scenes of Rogue One were such big emotions for this OG Star Wars fan. Rogue One is easily the best Star Wars film ever made.
the hard cut at 44seconds to the dog suddenly laying down is pure comedy
I don't think I noticed the score and the lightsaber sound effect interacting as much as I felt it. What you've done is tied those two things together in a way that helps put a shape to my experience that I could not have attained on my own. Your practical ability as a performer informs my understanding of storytelling and sound effect creation in a wonderful dovetail. Thank you for sharing and nerding out with us!