I watched this using the Movie viewer that comes with Microsoft's latest gift to the world, Windows 10, and noticed there are 21 audio tracks. The one named "untitled" is the music score by itself. No level adjustments, just the music at full volume.
If you've watched every variation of A New Hope a gazillion times like me, you might try watching it again with just this audio track. It's a different experience. What I found most interesting are the scenes for which there is no music. You can imagine the task of John Williams and George Lucas at the spotting session deciding which scenes needed music and which did not. And you can imagine given the full volume of the music score in this track how it sounded during the recording session as John Williams would glance at the movie playback to synchronize his conducting the London Symphony Orchestra for each scene.
Interestingly what would at first seem an obvious place to have dramatic music would be during the lightsaber duel. But music is only at the very beginning at the very end. But it's appropriate - so the audience focuses on the action and the dialog. There is no need for music to augment those scenes.
And transitioning from that period of musical silence, Ben's "death" is made all the more dramatic, harkened by a single pluck of a string, into a soaring musical crescendo in perhaps the movie's most emotional moment. Luke's "No!!!" and Leia's "Luke it's too late!" just wouldn't have been as dramatic without the music backing it.
Good stuff! Looking forward to hear what Johnny has prepared for us in the new TFA score.
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