John Williams- His Creative Process

In what year was the first piece for Star Wars: A New Hope conducted and recorded according to John

Williams? (0:56)

• 1989

• 1976

• 1989

• 2000

The first day Star Wars music was recorded, a trumpet player, Maurice Murphy was admitted to what

major orchestra, having had to jump right in and play that opening high C? (1:44)

• Chicago Symphony Orchestra

• Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra

• London Symphony Orchestra

• Boston Pops

Instead of reading a script to create themes for the movie’s soundtrack, John Williams would rather do

what? (2:30)

• Look at the actual film

• Listen to the director of the film

• Listen to other recordings

• Draw the story by hand

What is John William’s process when he composes music? (2:48-3:40)

• He uses the composing program called Finale to write his music on the computer after going to

  the piano first

• He goes to the piano to play the music and writes it by hand, scene by scene

• He gets his ideas for the music by taking long walks and then writes it down

• He plays his ideas on his violin first and then writes it down by hand

John Williams talks about how his themes have changed with the characters’ stories from Episode 7 to

Episode 9. How does he say Rey’s theme changes, once the “child” character of the trilogy? (3:53-4:45)

• He treats the theme in the orchestra in a more “grown up way” by increasing the tempo, dynamics, and percussive elements, no longer simply presented

• He creates a new theme with similar elements to portray the character’s change throughout the

  movies

• The theme is inverted from the original theme and other orchestral elements are added

• The theme is presented much louder and faster in the same key and tempo as before

How does John Williams change the theme of Kylo Ren to help symbolize his character change in the

movie? (5:10-5:50)

• He changes the theme to the major key, giving it a more heroic theme.

• He turns Kylo Ren’s theme around by reharmonizing it within the orchestra, giving it a more heroic theme.

• He increases the tempo of the original Kylo Ren theme to give it a more heroic sound.

• He adds a significant key change in the middle of the theme to symbolize the character’s

  transformation.

According to John Williams, the Emperor’s theme is a motif meaning what? (6:02)

• a mini crescendo

• a repeat of the same theme

• a musical phrase

• a short theme

How does John Williams compose the music for the lifting of the X-Wing (ship) in The Rise of

Skywalker? (7:57)

• He takes the original scene from The Empire Strikes Back and adds Luke’s theme to it

• He went back to the score of The Return of the Jedi to get the exact measures for the music making it the same music from before.

• He went back to the score of The Empire Strikes Back to get the exact measures for the music making it the same music from before.

• He uses the Force theme and changes the key to give it a bright and uplifting feeling.

What two instruments do you mainly hear play the melody of Princess Leia’s (Carrie’s) theme? (8:36,

8:54)

• Trumpet and violin

• Flute and cello

• Clarinet and bassoon

• Trombone and string bass

After watching the video, the music for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was most likely performed

where? (whole video)

• A concert hall in front of a live audience

• On the set of the movie

• In a big recording studio in front of the cast and crew

• At a local high school