I find the no-music version more effective, but the score is *so darn good!* Had I been George Lucas, I would try to fit the music in a different scene, or something like that.
I think it is more effective without the music in the beginning of that scene. Overall, the music from The Empire Strikes Back is my favorite score, but some the music in the snow walker attack was a little too frantic. John Williams delivered what was asked of him, and brilliantly. I think Lucas and Kershner made the right choice to have the eerie silence set the mood in the beginning of the attack.
The no music version makes it more ominous since at the time the Rebels hadn’t identified what was coming until the soldier said “We’ve spotted Imperial Walkers!” Plus it gives the Imperial Walkers more presence since you only hear that BOOM... BOOM... BOOM. So the audience is intended to be curious about these mysterious mechanical beasts. The version with music makes it seem like they already knew about it before the soldier reported the sighting to the base. The audience already knows it’s the enemy.
I liked the music he wrote for it but somehow the piano alone was kind of incongruent and almost felt corny. I think maybe it would have been more effective if it had been orchestrated a little differently and a little more subdued, like maybe leaving some of that piano line as rests, and/or having that music on double basses and trombones/tubas or something. On the whole I agree that I like it better without the music. There's something more menacing with the echoing sonority of the giant steps of the AT-ATs crunching the snow. It captures the tension of the rebels as they wait for the battle to start better. However, the music that WAS in the final film makes more sense when you hear the deleted parts.
*just kidding this was before I went and dug up info on this - see my reply* It's not deleted music. It was an addition Williams recorded for the soundtrack release to symbolize the walkers. Don't believe it was ever written with the intention of being in the film.
@@UnderstandingMusic So I actually went and did a lot of additional research and I will retract this statement, because it seems it *was* actually written for the film! It turns out Empire had a lot of music editing/cutting choices made, with close to 20 minutes of Williams' score completely cut for the film and probably 7 to 10 minutes being rescored with other parts. The best example of both is the track "The Imperial Probe/Aboard the Executor" on the special edition. The first part was cut (the scene in the film has no score) and that score was actually sequenced over the opening of the film so as not to give away the Imperial March until the Executor first appears, while the second part was mostly replaced by the concert suite of the Imperial March. tl;dr you were right to begin with saying it was deleted haha. It probably just needs to be edited a certain way to fit the film - sounds like you cut out a little bit of the silence in the recording. I would theorize that it should be left as is and the cymbals are supposed to line up with the ice hitting R2.
I find the no-music version more effective, but the score is *so darn good!* Had I been George Lucas, I would try to fit the music in a different scene, or something like that.
Always loved that music!
the music is literally in sync with ice falling on R2's head lol
I think it is more effective without the music in the beginning of that scene. Overall, the music from The Empire Strikes Back is my favorite score, but some the music in the snow walker attack was a little too frantic. John Williams delivered what was asked of him, and brilliantly. I think Lucas and Kershner made the right choice to have the eerie silence set the mood in the beginning of the attack.
That's common place with movie scoring.
The no music version makes it more ominous since at the time the Rebels hadn’t identified what was coming until the soldier said “We’ve spotted Imperial Walkers!” Plus it gives the Imperial Walkers more presence since you only hear that BOOM... BOOM... BOOM. So the audience is intended to be curious about these mysterious mechanical beasts.
The version with music makes it seem like they already knew about it before the soldier reported the sighting to the base. The audience already knows it’s the enemy.
yeah
I liked the music he wrote for it but somehow the piano alone was kind of incongruent and almost felt corny. I think maybe it would have been more effective if it had been orchestrated a little differently and a little more subdued, like maybe leaving some of that piano line as rests, and/or having that music on double basses and trombones/tubas or something. On the whole I agree that I like it better without the music. There's something more menacing with the echoing sonority of the giant steps of the AT-ATs crunching the snow. It captures the tension of the rebels as they wait for the battle to start better. However, the music that WAS in the final film makes more sense when you hear the deleted parts.
the non-music one is much much more effective in a thematic sense
I find this music-version more complete but it would be more effective if music was little lower
*just kidding this was before I went and dug up info on this - see my reply*
It's not deleted music. It was an addition Williams recorded for the soundtrack release to symbolize the walkers. Don't believe it was ever written with the intention of being in the film.
@@UnderstandingMusic So I actually went and did a lot of additional research and I will retract this statement, because it seems it *was* actually written for the film! It turns out Empire had a lot of music editing/cutting choices made, with close to 20 minutes of Williams' score completely cut for the film and probably 7 to 10 minutes being rescored with other parts.
The best example of both is the track "The Imperial Probe/Aboard the Executor" on the special edition. The first part was cut (the scene in the film has no score) and that score was actually sequenced over the opening of the film so as not to give away the Imperial March until the Executor first appears, while the second part was mostly replaced by the concert suite of the Imperial March.
tl;dr you were right to begin with saying it was deleted haha. It probably just needs to be edited a certain way to fit the film - sounds like you cut out a little bit of the silence in the recording. I would theorize that it should be left as is and the cymbals are supposed to line up with the ice hitting R2.
I think it was better with the music
Anyone else here after hearing this discussed on play, watch listen?
Which episode?