The Arena

"There are some xylophone effects for the Geonosians during a short passage that precedes a new march for the arena monsters. Developed over the next four minutes, the march is Rozsa-like, similar in style to the droid march and the flag parade from The Phantom Menace."

- JWFan.com

"Arena Theme" is a minor theatrical theme written by John Williams for the Attack of the Clones soundtrack and respective score to represent the executions in the Petranaki arena. It was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) in 2002. The theme features many different sections of the LSO and contains references to "Across the Stars" and the "Force Theme". The theme appears in Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, and the expansion pack Galactic Battlegrounds: Clone Campaigns.

Conception and development
John Williams was contracted to write the score for Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones in 2002. He used the London Symphony Orchestra and London Voices to perform the music. Only the orchestra was used for Arena Theme, the motif used to represent the executions in the Petranaki arena.

The executions begin
The theme starts off with a percussion, string, and woodwind part that sounds as if it's slightly random. Brass instruments play occasionally throughout this part, but only scarcely.

Anakin tames the Reek
The theme then goes into a snare drum roll that leads into the main melody, which is played by the tubas. The melody is complimented by a simple quarter note beat by the snare drums. The rest of the low brass then come in and repeat the melody in a slightly different key. The trumpets come in toward the end of the melody's second run-through. The melody is then played again by the low brass with the trumpets playing a countermelody, which at first consists mainly of one note. After this run-through, the theme goes into a complicated set of notes, which sound a little random, that is led by the trumpets. This is followed by a brief woodwind, string, and keyboard percussion part that leads into a fast string part that repeats four times before going into another altered version of the main melody. This carries on into a part featuring more brass (once again set to a quarter note beat by the percussion). It then rushes into a frantic percussion part with accented bursts by the brass. This leads into a fast-paced brass part accented in the background by short bursts of strings. Next the theme goes into a heavily accented part played mainly by brass instruments which is followed by a descending low brass phrase. The main melody is played once again, this time going back and forth from the trumpets to the low brass and back to the trumpets. The low brass then plays two sets of two notes that are slurred together. This is complimented by a trumpet part consisting of a three note phrase which repeats twice. The main melody is then again played by the trumpets. The low brass then repeats the sets of slurs, this time to a much faster, more complicated trumpet part. The low brass then play a near soli. After this the low brass plays the main melody once again. The trumpets and percussion play in-between the phrases that compose the melody.

Anakin rescues Padmé and Obi-Wan
Next the strings go into a brief section of "Across the Stars" (the main love theme from Attack of the Clones). After a couple measures of low brass and trumpets, the theme goes into a timpani and string part where the strings repeat a fast phrase over and over. The brass play occasionally throughout this part. Following the string/timpani part, the tubas play an extremely low phrase. The next couple measures feature the percussion, followed by the brass. Then the low brass and low strings play a bass melody while the keyboard percussion and woodwinds play quick random bursts. This is followed by another reference to "Across the Stars", which is played by the strings, and then the baritones. This leads into another fast string part succeeded by a phrase split between the baritones and other low voices. The theme then references the "Force Theme" which swaps from low brass to trumpets to low brass. Then follow the strings play the last mentioned fast part. The trumpets come in for the last time, and the theme fades out with a low string part.

In the movies
In Attack of the Clones the theme is used only during the executions in the Petranaki Arena. The theme is used again in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith when Darth Vader attacks the Jedi Temple in Operation: Knightfall.

In the Expanded Universe
The expansion pack to the video game Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, Clone Campaigns, uses the theme as part of a medley of background tracks meant to represent each of the game's factions. The theme represent the Confederacy of Independent Systems faction.

In the soundtracks
The theme appears only in the track "Love Pledge and The Arena" on the Attack of the Clones soundtrack. Most of the track is composed of this theme. Though the theme appears in Revenge of the Sith, it does not appear in the film's soundtrack.