In our second Star Wars episode, marking the fortieth anniversary of the film, we complete our exploration of the themes for this landmark film and score from 1977. We take on the franchise’s most defining melody: the Force Theme, and also throw in the Rebel Fanfare, Vader’s motif, and the Death Star, before ending on that eternal question: what links Star Wars and Metallica?

Episode notes:

2:15 – The Force Theme (or Ben Kenobi’s theme)2:50 – Binary Sunset7:25 – the Alternate Binary Sunset cue12:30 – the Burning Homestead cue14:50 – Rogue One: The Master Switch cue17:10 – the first encounter with Ben Kenobi18:55 – development with Kenobi, Tales of a Jedi Knight22:45 – The Force Theme as anxious suspense24:50 – Luke mourns Ben26:30 – the martial Force Theme at the Battle of Yavin28:30 – Use the Force, Luke32:10 – The Force Theme in Superman?34:40 – The Rebel fanfare motif37:21 – The Blockade Runner and Imperial Attack, combining the Rebel and Imperial motifs42:10 – Rebel fanfare as dramatic relief after the destruction of the Death Star43:49 – Darth Vader’s motif49:00 – development in Imperial Attack 55:00 – Ben’s recollections of Vader for solo clarinet57:50 – Is Vader’s theme really Metallica in disguise?1:01:11 – the Death Star motif1:03:00 – Burning Homestead as a theme showcase

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