Wonderful reply, thanks Mark. The first possibility you suggest does line up with my own take on it, which is based on what I felt while watching the movie, and what I learned afterwards from various sources.

As far as the theme for Rose goes, I personally never “heard” the link between the two (when watching the film or listening to the soundtrack), but when reading your article earlier today and looking at the transcription, the similarity just jumped at me. It’s visually strikingly close, actually. Looking at it, I’m quite convinced there’s some kind of a connection (whichever it is!) between Rose’s theme and the Force theme; after all, we often tend to link different SW themes with each other, sometimes in ways that (to me, at least) can be flimsier than this one. But your suggestion that this is likely not a calculated musical decision on Williams’ part and more likely a result of the temp editing process you (very) accurately describe seems to me the most logical of all scenarios. (Unless there was a discussion at any point in the process of making TLJ that Rose was unknowingly force-sensitive, which would be revealed later on.)

Thank you again!

Great question, Jerome. The similarity between Rose’s theme and the Force theme was something that came up in discussions on jwfan.com when the film was released. As I recall, no one really made heads or tails of it. And I think they’re right not to do so. I think the problem would be, what would it mean to associate Rose with the Force or the Jedi, and with a major-key theme that was originally minor? She’s not Force-sensitive, nor is she a Jedi. I suppose what makes the most sense to me is one of two possibilities. First, Williams could have been following a temp track where the Force theme was used for Rose at some salient point and decided to write something similar. This would be consistent with the unusually heavy reliance on the temp track for Williams’ score, which was used basically in lieu of spotting sessions with Rian Johnson. There are many callbacks to previous scores in The Last Jedi, some intended to be noticed for the nostalgia factor (e.g., “Here They Come” from A New Hope in The Last Jedi’s Battle of Crait), others there seemingly just because the music editor who pieced together the temp thought it sounded right for the particular moment. Not that the editor wouldn’t know what the Force theme was associated with before, but rather that there may have been some creative licence on that person’s part. Think also of the moment where Snoke Force grabs Rey in his throne room and the Emperor’s theme comes in. That can be nothing else but a retention of the temp that, as a part of the final film, is awkward and inappropriate. So having the Force theme infiltrate Rose’s theme in a major key seems to me rather insignificant from this perspective.

The second possibility is that Williams simply thought outlining the Force theme in a new theme, even when the associated character has no Force ability, sounded appropriately of the Star Wars world. This would be consistent with his loosening of the meaning of Luke’s theme, for example, over the prequel and sequel trilogies as a general heroic theme rather than one associated only with Luke, which is really is in the original trilogy. I think this is the less likely of the two possibilities since Rey’s theme is so overtly connected to the Force theme, both in harmony and in its interweaving with the Force theme in the end credits music to The Force Awakens. Williams himself even spoke of the connection between these themes in an interview.

So again, I’d probably say the connection between Rose and the Force, in terms of their themes, is of no real significance and probably the result of the temp track he was given.

If you want, there are plenty of YouTubers who talk about music theory – 12tone, Adam Neely, 8-bit Music Theory, Rick Beato and Aimee Nolte, to name a few. I recommend you check them out.

Hi Matt – great question. I did not include that part of the theme because I’m aiming to keep posts on the shorter side. But it’s certainly part of the Luke in Exile theme and seems to act something like framing material for the more central sarabande-like portion I show in the post. But it is more connected to the main melody than simple introductory or bridging material since it is essentially a variation of the main melody, similarly winding its way down from scale degree 5 all the way to 1. And as you point out, the time signature has changed. So has the rhythm, which is rather disjunct, making it sound less melodic and therefore less significant than the sarabande melody. In short, we could probably say it’s somewhat analogous to B sections of other Williams themes. That is, its purpose seems to be to separate statements of the main material, and in this case, that’s especially important because the main melody here is built on successive statements of a single motive, which could easily become tiresome. Its status as a kind of variation of the main melody, though, is unusual for Williams but is another aspect that places the theme in line with sarabandes, which were often used as a theme for variation (well known examples being Bach’s Goldberg Variations and the Sarabande movement of Handel’s Keyboard Suite in D Minor).

I’m wondering about another phrase that seems to be related to the Luke in Exile theme. It appears as a third element in the track “The Rebellion is Reborn”, along with Rose and Luke in Exile. It also appears in the track “Ahch-To Island”, and in the finale it “sandwiches” the Luke in Exile theme. Due to its placement it seems related to Luke in Exile, and to my ear it seems related in the progression of notes, but it’s a different time signature I think and it sounds more forceful. Would you consider it a sub-theme to Luke in Exile?

Thanks very much, Teresa! I had no idea this material could be adapted for such young minds. Williams scores in particular are great for leitmotif, especially because they usually capture so perfectly what they are associated with on the screen. Best wishes for the movie music unit!