About a month ago the soundtracks for Star Wars Rebels Season One and Two were
released digitally on Itunes. Now among all the fanfare going on about Rogue One coming in December, and the
return of Thrawn in this season of Rebels, one might think soundtracks for an
animated television series wouldn’t be that important. Well as many fans of Star Wars Rebels will tell you, it’s a
huge deal! Kevin Kiner, who scored The
Clones Wars television series as well, has brought music for a television
series to whole new levels. In the following I will pick out some of the high
points and make some connections between the original saga, prequel saga, The Clone Wars, and Rebels.
As some of you may know, when scoring the
music for The Clone Wars, Kevin Kiner
was able to work outside the proverbial John Williams-box of saga music, and
strike out on his own. The result of this was an incredible soundtrack of new,
original music never before heard in the setting of the Star Wars galaxy. When Star
Wars Rebels began back in 2014, and Kevin Kiner returned to score that
series, the decision to use more of John Williams’ worked only made sense as we
were approaching the original saga to use the music there as a foundation. I believe
the feeling was they wanted to capture the feeling of the original trilogy,
where rebels were fighting the Empire.
During the first few episodes of season
one, The Force Theme was heard several times as we were getting to know Ezra,
in pieces such as Ezra Sneaks Aboard and Ezra’s Theme. Hearing similar cues in
music from the different sagas really helps bring the entire story together.
It’s something that was first done by Richard Wagner, and it’s called a leitmotif—a musical theme that is
associated with a person. During scenes in which The Inquisitor or Agent Kallus
appeared brought back hints of the Imperial March, probably the most
recognizable piece of Star Wars
music. During the theme of Kallus we can hear hints of the Emperor’s Throne
Room music when Vader and Luke exit the turbolift. A couple honorable mentions:
Glory of the Empire, we can safely say The Imperial Theme is now canon. What’s
the Force? Beautifully blended the adoption scene music from Revenge of the
Sith with Kevin Kiner’s own original work.
If Season One was good, Season Two was off
the charts. The emotional impact of the entire soundtrack really hit the mark
on several occasions. And if it wasn’t the emotion it was the harkening back of
familiar themes found in films by Stephen Spielberg. I have to immediately turn
to Hera Soars. I was going to put this off, but I can’t it’s too good! This is
quite possible my favorite piece out of the two soundtracks. As soon as it
begins we hear light flutes, followed by trumpets that lift us into the air. As
soon as I heard this I felt I was on a bicycle with E.T. as my passenger. Absolutely
perfect!
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention
Journey into the Star Cluster. As soon as this music was heard in the episode
many fans pointed it out as something we’ve never heard before. It was so
unlike any other music from Star Wars. It was inspired by the music of composer
Philip Glass. Using music like Glass as an inspiration continues to show me how
much research and artistic knowledge they put into making Rebels.
A couple of honorable mentions: Ketsu and
Sabine’s History sounded very much like music from The Karate Kid. I could
almost see Mr. Miyagi sitting in his house drinking sake and thinking of his
long lost wife. And Zeb Rock: who doesn’t want to listen to some 80s hairband
rock in the Star Wars galaxy?
Finally, I see the last three tracks from
season two as one long roller coaster song of emotion. Anakin and Ahsoka, Where
the Sun Sails and The Moon Walks, and It’s Over Now. If you’ve seen the season
two finale then you’ll know what I mean when I say you can almost see what’s
happening just by hearing the music, and that’s a mark of a great musical
composer. There’s nothing more I need to say about that. Just give it a listen.
It’s heart-wrenching level is on par with the Obi-Wan/Anakin scene from Revenge
of the Sith.
With Dave Filoni and Kevin Kiner working
together on Star Wars Rebels, the levels of greatness are meteoric.
Did I miss something? Send me a comment,
I’d love to discuss this or anything else Star Wars.
Eric Onkenhout
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