ANH 3: Droid Musicality

There's no music for our first 90 seconds on Tatooine, forcing us to reckon with the cicadas, barren landscape, and Threepio's frozen joints. This is a deep dive into the music and sound of Star Wars: A New Hope, Minutes 11-15. Guest: Ender Smith AKA AurekFonts.

Let's see if timestamps work this time (if not, I'm sorry!):

  • (0:00:00) - Hello there.

  • (0:03:49) - Fonts and motifs

  • (0:09:03) - Ben Burtt on creating R2-D2's voice

  • (0:11:48) - "Worldizing," a sound design concept by Walter Murch

  • (0:15:41) - Cicadas

  • (0:23:00) - Silence on Tatooine and what that evokes

  • (0:33:20) - Stravinsky Rite of Spring comparison

  • (0:48:00) - Sound design of Artoo in the canyon

  • (0:55:16) - Jawaese

  • (1:15:19) - Cat bomb

  • (1:21:20) - Tuba forum tidbits

  • (1:22:09) - Tour of the sandcrawler droids.

  • (1:24:45) - GNK droid's music debut.

  • (1:27:22) - PSA: Gonk droids say more than just "Gonk"!!!!!!!!!!

  • (1:33:00) - Hidden writing

  • (1:39:18) - Star Wars Music Minute questionnaire

Musical Themes:

  • 7. Jawas

  • 7) Sandcrawler

  • 8) Scum and Villainy

Where we are in the soundtrack album:

  • Dune Sea of Tatooine/Jawa Sandcrawler

Anything Else Mentioned:

STAR WARS MUSIC MINUTE QUESTIONNAIRE:

1. In exactly 3 words, what does Star Wars sound like?

  • California radio voiceovers

2. What's something related to Star Wars music or sound that you want to learn more about?

  • Ender would like to see the making of one musical cue from start to finish (similar to the documentary Star Wars Within A Minute: The Making Of Episode III Documentary). This might include things like John Williams looking at a scene, writing sketches, passing it on to copyists, all the way to editors and sound team working on the final mix.

3. What's a score or soundtrack you're fond of besides anything Star Wars?

  • Knives Out (composed by Nathan Johnson)

GUEST LINKS:

Follow AurekFonts!

SWMM LINKS:

Star Wars Music Minute:

Xanthe:

Acknowledgments:

  • "Cantina Band" theme music written by John Williams, performed by Chrysanthe Tan

  • Frank Lehman created and maintains the Complete Catalogue of the Musical Themes of Star Wars, a resource that we frequently reference on this show. Available as a PDF on his website: https://franklehman.com/starwars/

  • Thank you to Star Wars Minute podcast for inspiring this show.

Previous
Previous

ANH 4: Lars Family Ties

Next
Next

ANH 2: Baby Force Theme