Chords for John Williams scores Star Wars Episode 2

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[F] _ Yeah, David, [E] don't play the higher F at 70.
That shouldn't be there.
Tacit, yeah.
The
only [Em] people, the only horns sounding at 70 are the Profundo.
_ _ Updated in credit, take 260.
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_ [Dm] The [Am] Star Wars films are basically silent movies and they're designed as silent movies.
Therefore,
[F] the music has [A] a very large [Dm] role in carrying the story, more than it would in a normal [Gm] movie.
[Bb] The moment you stand in front of [Gm] the orchestra and begin [Dm] to conduct the music and hear it
for the first time is the [Cm] moment of greatest exhilaration [Gm] for me as a musician.
[Cm] You know, this is the first time [D] we've really done a full-out love story, so I wanted to
[Fm] have the love theme be something very [Cm] emotional and very poetic [Fm] and have something that was
very strong to help [G] push the idea of a love story.
But I also just wanted [Cm] something beautiful.
It was a chance to get a really beautiful love theme into the series.
_ In earlier film, at least, love stories may have been more idealistic.
We can now have
passionate [Gm] scenes that are very explicit physically.
But in earlier decades, all [Cm] that had to be
imagined.
So I think the task and [Eb] opportunity for the musician [Bb] might have been [Cm] to provide
the erotic [Fm] aspects that couldn't be shown.
I think [Cm] George had those things on his mind
when he described to me the [G] need for a love theme that was like the great love [F] stories
of the films of [Fm] earlier times.
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_ [F] Collaborating with George has been a lot of fun over these decades.
It's been great with
him.
We've had great success.
Five films with this huge glossary of themes, but we have no love theme.
So now we have_
Now we've completed the book.
[Db] Almost.
Once in a while he will say, [Eb] this maybe should be a little louder here, a little this there,
that there.
[D] Very seldom.
And the guitar should [Abm] be usable or not.
I mean, loosable.
It may not [A] have just the right performance.
Usable or [Dbm] loosable.
It being a collaborative process, I'm very used to this.
And I will make the adjustments
that night and come in the next day [Gbm] and rework whatever [Bbm] little section that he may have had comments on.
Do it again.
One, two, three.
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But still not good.
Agree about the length of the long note.
One, two, three.
_ _ Much better.
I think one of the great interesting things about the George and John relationship is
that it is based on total trust.
I mean, virtually every movie George has done, John has done
the score for.
[N]
We're, you know, going from one thing, you're going back and forth between the two characters,
between Obi-Wan and Anakin.
They work very intensely together about 15, 20 weeks before the film is scored.
They
spot the music over a two or three day period.
George goes through every sequence and every cut.
You're using her as bait.
The underlying melodic tone of this should be much more of the ominous strings that we
were using earlier, combined with some kind of rhythm track that goes over that.
And then I go off to my studio and write the music, which can take a matter of two, even
three months as these films have two, two and a half hours of music in them.
And then we, what typically happens is that we meet again on the sound stage and he hears
[E] the music for the first time with the orchestra.
_ [D] _ _ _ Action [Db] sequences require a lot of [D] carefully measured, [Dbm] rhythmic and [Db] metric aspects of music
that will, at [A] least in the style of George Lucas' films, where the orchestra goes through
all the choreographic moves of the action [Gm] or many of them.
And it's a series of [Ab] quick cuts and they go, [Dm] they descend or the descent and suddenly [Eb] stop.
All of that kinetic [Bbm] activity is [Ebm] expressed musically.
_ [Gb] The chase music is much more rhythmic, much more [Eb] powerful, you know, much more excited.
In [Gm] this particular case, we were [C] hoping to get a more sort of Asian influence into the,
and drums and percussion into the chase.
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_ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _ [Dbm] He's [Ebm] such an extraordinary conductor, such a wonderful [D] composer, and [Gbm] he is so instrumental.
He helps [Dbm] link all the sequences together.
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[Dbm] There's a lot of very quick transitions [E] in Star Wars.
You're moving from [A] scene to [Am] scene and scene.
It moves very fast.
[D] And without that music there to smooth it [Gb] out and take you from point A to point B in
[G] a sort of elegant way, it becomes very [Ebm] jerky and confused and [Gb] the story doesn't work very well.
The film doesn't work very well.
[F] _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ [Ebm] It does feel for me, writing music to Star Wars, that it's one _ [F] entity, that it's one body,
and that I'm adding parts to it every [Cm] time.
And there is a continuity there in musical terms that is, as far [Eb] as I know, in film, unique.
[D] That's been a lot of fun for me, to [E] notice over the years how this glossary of themes
has been collected and expanded [Gb] over the years.
I've had a couple of decades of this [C] looking back, realizing that we've come a few steps together,
and it's [G] gratifying. _ _
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