What is Star Wars: Symphony for a Saga?

"All I need is an idea..."

The idea struck me in early April 2005. I had just listened to the Revenge of the Sith soundtrack for the first time. At the end of that album, the themes for the Skywalker twins, Luke and Leia, are revisited. Likewise, Obi-Wan Kenobi's theme, also referred to as the Force theme, closed out that soundtrack by reprising the concert version victory march from the original STAR WARS.

I immediately recalled a journal entry found on www.starwars.com which recounts the day the London Symphony Orchestra scored this section of music. The musicians were overwhelmed, some having played in the orchestra during the original scoring sessions back in 1977. Listening to this recording, I was instantly struck with a lifetime of emotions this saga and music has given me. I was filled a great amount of joy...and a great amount of sadness, for this was the final STAR WARS film ever to be made. The last STAR WARS film ever to be enjoyed for the first time. The last STAR WARS soundtrack I would listen to...for the first time.

From within this melancholy feeling came the urge to revisit all of the saga's soundtracks, and to revisit those feelings of my youth. I am sure we all had similar reactions of varying depth and impact. For me, they brought me to action.

In listening to the many versions of STAR WARS soundtracks I had purchased, I found myself looking at the 1993 Anthology box set—my first set. Disc 4 on this collection contains a compilation of various themes from Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi not available on the original scores. The tracks are out of order, but with this disc I was able to journey through the original films. I wondered what the experience might be listening to a compilation of all six films.

However, the solution is not as easy as creating a mix tape of selected tracks. As I continued my musical journey back through STAR WARS, I first thought of beginning by quoting the different themes from each film, much like the end credit medleys of every STAR WARS film revisits new themes. My original goal was to create a single disc of these various themes.

Unfortunately, I found many of my favorite musical moments came from sections of cues, rather than the entire track. This quickly developed into the idea of seamlessly combining these moments with the various themes from all six films into one collected work; almost like a symphony of sorts. The journey would not be chronological, but still be total.

I did have a second motive. STAR WARS has been influential to my life in nearly every way possible. First, it fueled my love for movies, as The Empire Strikes Back was the first movie I saw in a theatre, and it remains my favorite to date. Above toys and collecting, STAR WARS read-along books and records helped me learn read at an early age. I became interested in art and drawing, often recreating scenes on my notebook throughout school. The films' scores helped create an appreciation for classical music. The list goes on.

Since STAR WARS has been so influential in my life I wanted to create something to share with other fans and, hopefully, impact them in some small way. It seemed that this project was one way I could give back to the saga that gave so much to me.

"Version 1.0"

I put myself to work. Soon after I found it impossible to keep each film's segment down to the necessary time needed to make a single disc (around 12 minutes per film). The Phantom Menace was originally only a mere 15 minutes, while Attack of the Clones stretched past 22. With 30 minutes allotted to Revenge of the Sith, I realized this was ultimately a two disc album.

I was very pleased with my initial work of 71 edits over a two day period. I immediately put the work online at various STAR WARS related messages boards and forums. Initially, no one cared to listen to a "fan work," and scoffed at it. Slowly, reviews came in and more people gave “Symphony for a Saga: Disc One” a listen. As I released it to other boards, its reputation grew. Within no time, nearly 500 hundred people had downloaded the first disc, and loved every minute of it. Every compliment was followed by asking for disc two, which had not yet been created.

I began the Original Trilogy disc with the same intent, but found it to be a much greater challenge. The music from the first trilogy was more familiar, and difficult to edit down because I was in love with nearly every note. Secondly, I noticed that John Williams scored the two films differently. Whereas the prequel trilogy was scored with quite a few clean endings and easily edited sections, the original films were not. Most likely this was because those films were more complete and locked by the time Williams began scoring. He could create cues that were more static. The prequels were more fluid, allowing for the many changes George Lucas would make as he directed from the editing room.

This resulted in a much more stilted second disc for “Symphony for a Saga”. In addition, it was more difficult to edit cues out of chronological order the second time. The end product felt more like an abbreviated version of the trilogy than a musical journey. Regardless, the final project was completed within a week including a total of 79 edits and running just over 75 minutes...far longer than the prequel disc.

Since its completion, “STAR WARS: Symphony for a Saga” was been downloaded by at least 4,200 people (my count as of 2006)! Others may have heard the “Symphony” when it briefly appeared on an internet radio station. Response had been overwhelmingly positive.

Yet, the more I listened to it, the more I remembered that it was meant to be a work in progress, hence it was labeled "Version 1.0." The original took only less than two weeks to create, and by the end of the project my skill level had increased noticeably. I began to notice some of the edits were not as clean as I had originally thought and needed reworking. There was also an audio quality issue, as the Revenge of the Sith section was made using a 256kbps leak of the soundtrack well before we could purchase the official compact disc.

Some sections of Attack of the Clones also needed to have some mastering and filtering done. Also, as many fans are aware, the audio quality of Return of the Jedi as released has several problems. A reissue made with wave quality audio would be a vast improvement. Sure enough, this was suggested. At this time, I began to think of editing another version.

"Version 2.0"

The second release of “STAR WARS: Symphony for a Saga” allowed me to address many issues. First, I could fix some of the edits I disliked. Second, I could increase the audio quality. Third, I could expand upon themes and sections of the prequel disc I had previously edited down with the intention of creating a single disc.

I also wanted to address how it would be released. Originally, I had cut each suite into individual tracks (for example, The Phantom Menace was released as 7 tracks). The thought behind this was it could be burned to compact disc with a 0 second buffer for seamless listening, and still allow the listener to skip to a specific section of a suite. I learned most people didn't know how to do this. If listened to in a play-list, some computers would skip between tracks! The whole point of this work was to be seamless from start to finish, and many people were not hearing it this way. In the second version, I could release each film suite as one single track.

I began releasing updated suites, and finished the prequel trilogy disc, and then life happened. Years passed, and in 2009 I finally released A New Hope to little fanfare. But really, the work had stalled. Children, work, and serious illness wedged their way into my life. I had attempted to jump back into the world of “Symphony for a Saga” many times, but was always unhappy with my efforts at editing The Empire Strikes Back.

But the saga continued to live on with the Clone Wars, until one day out of the blue...George Lucas sold all his companies to Disney. A new trilogy was announced. There would be more STAR WARS after all.

"Always something to look forward to..."

In November 2015, I sat down to begin my new edit of The Empire Strikes Back. I began with the single, "Han Solo and the Princess," but my efforts were easily frustrated. As the release for Episode VII, The Force Awakens, approached and worldwide fandom reached a fever pitch, I sat down to complete the covers for the A New Hope single and suite. I also finally broke through on how to edit The Empire Strikes Back.

With the fifth suite in the series taking shape (the first cut is a dreadful long 37 minutes), it is now time to re-launch this fan work of art. Please be patient as it may take longer to release than we both want...but I plan to create suites for every episode in the Saga.

Thank you to all who have expressed their gratitude and support of this project. It is the only reason I have come back to this project after so many years!

Thank you for listening, and I hope you enjoy!