General Grievous's theme

"General Grievous' Theme" is a piece of music written by John Williams for the soundtrack of the 2005 film Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and its respective score. It represents the character of the Separatist General Grievous and was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Voices, the choir used for the previous two prequels, in 2005. The theme appears three times in Revenge of the Sith and twice in its soundtrack. "General Grievous' Theme" prominently features a number of strings, French horns playing the melody, and the London Voices.

Conception and development
Composer John Williams wrote the score for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, as he had done for all five previous Star Wars films. In 2005, he worked with the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Voices choir to perform the score as he had done for the two previous prequels. Both the Orchestra and choir were used in "General Grievous' Theme," the main theme used to identify with the Separatist character General Grievous, the cyborg leader of the Separatist Droid Army following the death of Count Dooku. The soundtrack was released on May 3, 2005 and again on May 24 as an mp3 download.

Summary
"General Grievous' Theme" appears twice in the Revenge of the Sith soundtrack. The track "Grievous Speaks to Lord Sidious" has the easiest to make out and most complex form of the theme. The piece is generally polyphonic, meaning that sections play their own unique parts dissimilar in rhythm and pitch to those of other instruments or groups. In this track, the theme starts off with a rapid string part. Trumpets then come in, followed by horns playing the main melody, which is broken into three sections by short rests. This is repeated once. The London Voices enter next, singing between the brass phrases. The theme ends suddenly as the chorus and orchestra drop off all at once. The theme also appears in the track "Star Wars/The Revenge of the Sith." This version is simply a tuba soli, a part that features a single section rather than an individual musician, which is followed by the beginning of the theme, replacing the horns with tubas.

In the movies
"General Grievous' Theme" is exclusively used in Revenge of the Sith. It appears in the scene aboard the Invisible Hand, General Grievous' flagship, when Grievous is seen for the first time in the movie. It appears a second time in the scene showing Grievous arriving on the sinkhole planet Utapau in a Sheathipede-class transport shuttle. This scene contains the most complex appearance of the theme. The theme is heard for a third time during the lightsaber duel between Grievous and Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi in the hangar in Pau City, the capital city of Utapau, which results in Grievous' death. The theme is also used in the chapter menu on the DVD that uses the hangar scene as the background.

In the soundtracks
General Grievous' Theme is featured for the first time four minutes and forty-six seconds into the track "Star Wars/The Revenge of the Sith," the first track on the Revenge of the Sith soundtrack. It is also heard at the beginning of "Grievous Speaks to Lord Sidious," the soundtrack's thirteenth track.