By HRJ
The music of John Williams' Star Wars (1932) transposes the dizzying narrative of the film saga into a world of sounds where the Light/Luke Skywalker is represented by a fanfare and the Darkness/Darth Vader by a march. From the confrontations between these two themes are born countless atmospheres of descriptive music that express the feelings of endearing characters, such as the grumpy Wookie Chewbacca, the cowardly droid C-3PO, the mobster Jabba the Hutt or the brave Princess Leia, whose intimacy sounds in an exotic and mysterious, almost weightless passage, with soloist participation of the oboe.
Listening to this masterpiece is a thrilling musical experience when performed by a symphony orchestra committed to perfection. In its 45 years of history, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería (composed of carefully selected outstanding Mexican and foreign musicians) has been characterized by its dedication to building a sound of excellence. Currently, under the artistic direction of Carlos Miguel Prieto, it is going through a period of splendor, as evidenced by the nomination for a Grammy for its album of Erich W. Korngold works recorded for the Naxos label.
Today is Star Wars Day around the world and we invite you to celebrate it by listening to this live recording of this live recording of the Star Wars Suite performed by the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería at the Nezahualcóyotl Concert Hall in Mexico City.
5 key facts to help you delve into the mysteries of Star Wars music
To translate the Star Wars story into a world of sound, with all its charged emotions and conflicts, John Williams wrote an intensely expressive score where characters and concepts take on a secret life through the instruments.
Here are 5 key facts to help you delve into the mysteries of Star Wars music:
- The main plot of the story is the confrontation between the forces of Light and the forces of Darkness. Luke Skywalker represents the Light through various trumpets playing a colorful, fast and energetic fanfare. The Darkness, on the other hand, is represented by Darth Vader through several trumpets playing a warlike and sinister march.
- The march and the fanfare are not entirely opposed. They have something in common: the same instrument. They both star the trumpet. Therefore, light and dark must also share something, and that something is Star Wars' most startling revelation: Luke is Darth Vader's son. In this way, the music traces its own film within the film. An invisible film where the images are constructed through sound.
- In addition to Luke and Darth Vader, an endless series of characters both repulsive and endearing appear. Some of these characters are human, such as Princess Leia and airman pilot Han Solo, who love each other and their love is depicted in a delicate and mysterious musical passage starring the oboe.
- Other characters, perhaps the most interesting, are fantastic beings: the grumpy Chewbacca the Wookie (hairy biped from the tree-worshipping planet Kashyyyk), the cowardly C-3PO the protocol droid (a robot designed to serve humans as a translator, since he is familiar with six million forms of communication) or the evil mobster Jabba the Hutt (a gigantic, deep-mouthed alien mollusk from the planet Nal Hutta). The scene where the diversity of these imaginary species can be best appreciated is when Han Solo and Chewbacca go to buy a stolen spaceship at a cantina located in Mos Eisley, a violent lawless city on the planet Tatooine. It is a dirty and chaotic cantina frequented by the worst scum of all planets: bounty hunters, thugs, treasure hunters, gamblers, drug dealers, gangsters, drug addicts, sellers of stolen merchandise, escape expert spaceship pilots and pirates. At the back of this cantina, next to the restroom, there is a small stage where the local jazz septet, Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes, usually plays. Their jazz is decadent and frenetic (Cantina Band). An unhurried, dizzying and partying jazz that is moving in a strange way: Despite the danger and despite the lack of control, life inside that cantina is immediate and true; it is a life that happens in real time through the music and is linked to the present moment.
- If one considers that beyond the instruments, beyond that ill-fated cantina, beyond the sky of the hostile city and beyond that desert planet, a war between galaxies has been unleashed that threatens the stability of the universe, suddenly the fragility of vulnerable monsters who, on a Friday afternoon, have gathered to drink, insult each other and dance jazz, suddenly stands out as profoundly beautiful.
