"I work for a music & video store and I'm usually not one to reveal any SW "scoops" on the net, but this was a particularly important issue to me, and to see it finally resolved is a relief. According to someone I know at Sony Classical, they're planning on issuing a complete TPM soundtrack in November to ride the coattails the video re-release of the trilogy is bound to stir. The 2 CD set will be in complete sequential order as the music appeared in the film, a la the RCA Victor releases for the Special Editions. Sadly, my friend didn't know, and was kind of doubtful, that Sony would do the hologram-images-on-the-CDs thing, as well. (The limited edition versions of the original Trilogy's soundtracks were some of the niftiest packages I've seen....oh well...) "

I emailed John in order to get further details on the subject, and this was his reply:

"In short, I work for J&R Music World in New York. I was manager of the classical music department for over a year, and developed a good relationship with our rep from Sony Classical. He told me about this personally about 2 weeks ago. I'm sorry to be so "Deep Throat"-ish about this, but he was as anxious to keep his name out of this as he was in getting the info out. He knows I frequent the forums at TFN, and suggested I let everyone know. I do trust him and believe the information accurate. If you'd like I can forward you any news of more "official" confirmation as I see it (sell sheets, etc). I will ask him more about this next time I see him, probably not until this Thursday.

I love John Williams' work myself, and I agree this is a dream come true."

John WILL keep us posted on this as we wait for official news from the Sony Classical label. Stay tuned!

Ricard L. Befan
JOHN WILLIAMS CENTRAL http://worldzone.net/music/johnwilliams

But I surely hope so...

Even reading about this previous post, I return to your original post on this subject, where your source says he'll "can forward you any news of more "official" confirmation as I see it."

Please keep in contact with him as to whether this is "really" genuine, and pass it on to us.

Darth: Whatever you feel about Lucas "hacking up the music" (not that I don't agree with you, but it has to fit the scenes), he (Lucas) won't have any say on the CD. It will be whatever Mr. Williams wants. Of that we can be sure.

...GIMME!

quote:

---

Originally posted by Darth Fart:
Originally, Williams had different music in place of Duel of the Fates scoring the action in the palace. Lucas decided to mess around with the music too much.

---

Well, then I guess we'd get this "different music" IF this album is really in the making.

Unfortunately, Williams made the mistake of recording "Duel of the Fates" first, and Lucas started tracking that recording into the film with little regard for narrative or thematic continuity.

Let's face it, that final battle has an awful music track, with DOTF showing up, disappearing, interrupted by another part of the cue itself... a big mess.

IIRC, it was an interview on 60 minutes, and it was pointed out that Williams wrote an 18 minute "Battle Suite" for the fights.

Interviewer:
'Some say that certain sequences, especially the final battle scenes do not suit well your partition...

JOHN WILLIAMS:
There were matters which I could not control. I wrote my first partition on a first edit of the movie. Then, George Lucas showed the film to many people including Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard... and a second edit was made. I made adequate and necessary changes, but most of the time, I had to suppress complete cues. The "coherence" done during the scoring sessions in febuary was as linear as possible. At that time there were no problems with George. So I had to recalibre my compositions in function to the new edit.
After these new sessions, George again showed The Phantom Menace, and some changes to the film were again made, and obviously, this "messed up" my second "coherence". George Lucas prefered mixing in certain passages of my music taken from other places, rather than ask for a re-score, which I could not have done anyways. As a musician I would have liked that things went differently. My first reaction as an artist was to transmit him a form of disapprobation, that, I think, he understood. He made the choice that seemed nessesary, but that artistically embarrass me. I bear no grudges though, because the whole experience was extraordinary. Now that the film is out in the U.S., I can permit myself this slight reticence."
Sounds more like a composer nightmare to me, urgh...
Working on the film was still a great experience and I'm waiting for the green light for episode 2.'

It's been several days since this was (not really) announced and (kind of) confirmed. Since then, I've heard nobody confirm jack other than Soundtrack Mag.

Regards,
Sean Robert Abbey

"The big buzz this week is that Sony Classical is going ahead with a 2CD set of Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace to include John Williams's complete score. So yes, you were right all along -- you DID pay $18 for a CD that will soon be obsolete. However, we have no further word as to when the release will be available."