Nevertheless it's an interesting contrast. Of course, again it's hardly the two starting notes alone that make the theme what it is. It gives this affair a perceptibly darker, sadder flavour.
To communicate that very different set of emotions, the theme starts with a minor 6th interval: "Across the Stars", from Attack of the Clones (2002), is the theme that underscores Anakin and Padme's romance-a love that's "forbidden", complicated and, well, doomed. Miklos R ózsa's score for Spellbound (1945) is one example that comes to mind, and at the time point I've marked below, it's familiar in another way too.Īnother way to make sense of this is to look at what happens when Williams sub verts the idea to create a different effect. Within th at whole, as Emilio Audissino writes, the "emotional leap" from D to the high B, which holds for several beats, "creat an effect of longing is typical of the romantic dialect" - and evocative of classical romantic Hollywood scores. But how is that down to the "major sixth"? It's not simply the two notes in isolation of course-it's the melod y and harmonies as a whole. We can all agree on the sweeping, tender and impassioned qualities of these themes. In this case it's from D up to high B, because I've written them out in the key of D major, but of course in the films you hear these themes in various keys. Here's the first line of "Princess Leia's theme" from Star Wars (1977).Īnd now here's the first line of "Han Solo and the Princess" from The Empire Strikes Back (1980).įrom the same year, "Marion's Theme" from Raiders of the Lost Ark.Īll the themes start with a major 6th progression - you can see where I've marked "1" and "6th" on each score.
(Were the C not sharpened, it'd be a minor 7th). So A is the '5th', and C-sharp a major 7th.
We start with D (treated as '1') and then, re lative to that D, each successive note up the scale is an interval. Three of the best-loved such themes share something in common-a major sixth interval.įor a quick primer on intervals, here's a scale (of D major, as I'll be using that for examples below). Some of Williams's most memorable themes are his romantic ones - themes written to underscore a cinematic love affair, or a character who represents a film's romantic quality. So, here's a look at a few (fairly basic) musical ideas under the hood of some of the scores we all love. Having been learning music theory with a view to composing, I get a real kick out of taking the concepts I've encountered and link ing them back to my favourite scores by John Williams.
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