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'Star Wars': Another Dimension in Soundtracks
By Richard Harrington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 19, 1999; Page C01
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Just as special-effects technology has changed drastically since the first "Star Wars" movie in 1977, so has sound technology. The original "Star Wars" helped popularize the Dolby noise reduction stereo system, and when the "Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition" soundtracks were released two years ago, director George Lucas created expanded and digitally remixed soundtracks far superior to the magnetic tracks on the original 70mm prints.
For "Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace" (Sony Classical), Lucas and composer John Williams are introducing Dolby Digital-Surround EX, an expanded surround-sound system, which translates as louder and liver, particularly when the London Symphony Orchestra kicks in full force during the action sequences.
Not surprisingly, "Episode I" kicks off with the classic "Star Wars" cascading trumpet fanfare, but Williams otherwise does not allude to the more familiar signature themes from the earlier scores, since the action in "Episode I" predates such characters as Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo. About the closest suggestion: the airy, lighthearted "Anakin's Theme," which barely suggests the gloomy "Imperial March" many years down the line, when spunky little Anakin has transformed into the grandiloquently evil Darth Vader. The closest we get to character definition is the sonic wallop of new bad-guy Darth Maul's "Passage Through the Planet Core." Unfortunately, Queen Amidala is no Princess Leia, and her theme is as uninvolving as her character.
There's also nothing as lighthearted as the original's "Cantina Band" theme, though "Jar Jar's Introduction" is suitably elastic and there's plenty of swooping melody and bustling energy to such passages as "The Sith Spacecraft/The Droid Battle" and "The Droid Invasion," "Anakin Defeats Sebulba," and the heroic intimations of "He Is the Chosen One" and "Qui-Gon's Noble End."
Of course, Williams has a streak of portentousness evident in "Duel of the Fates," used in a much-played behind-the-scenes/selected-scenes video that does nothing to disguise itself as a free trailer for the film. Performed by the LSO and the London Voices, the dissonantly doomish choral piece is clearly inspired by Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana."
In the CD's liner notes, Lucas writes, "I like to think of the Star Wars films as silent movies, movies whose stories are carried forward visually and by a musical score." Williams, who has won five Academy Awards, has risen to the occasion again, even if the occasion is somewhat less grandiose and resonant than many longtime fans might have expected.
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