The Flag Parade

"The Flag Parade" is a theatrical motif written by John Williams for the score for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and it's respective soundtrack. It was written in 1999 and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO). The piece has a majestic style at a tempo of 92 bpm, and a time signature of 4/4 at the beginning and 2/4 during the main melody. The composition is one minute thirteen seconds long and is in the key of C major. The theme is used during the scene showing the flag ceremony before the Boonta Eve Classic podrace in Mos Espa. The composition is also used in the heroes versus villains Assault Mode in Mos Eisley on Star Wars: Battlefront II and again during the first cut scene in "Chapter 5: Mos Espa Podrace" of "Episode I" in LEGO Star Wars.

Conception and development
John Williams wrote the score for the 1999 film Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and the respective soundtrack, as had been the case with the previous four films. "The Flag Parade" was written by Williams' to be used during the flag ceremony scene directly before the Boonta Eve Classic podrace on Tatooine. The piece, along with the entire score, was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. The original soundtrack was released by Sony Classical on May 4, 1999, and the Ultimate Edition was released on November 14, 2000.

Summary
"The Flag Parade" has a majestic style at a tempo of 92 bpm, and a time signature of 4/4 at the beginning and 2/4 during the main melody. The composition is one minute thirteen seconds long and is in the key of C major. It begins with a loud cymbal crash and a brass fanfare. The fanfare starts off with the trumpets followed by a descending phrase featuring the French horns. Next in the fanfare is a trumpart part consisting of two sets of nine triplets with a quarter note at the end of each set. The fanfare continues with the trumpets and low brass playing between each other. The French horns then come in with the main melody, which contains two pickup sixteenth notes followed by four quarter notes, nine triplets, and two more quarter notes. They continue with an eigth note, two sixteenth notes, two more eigth notes, and two quarter notes. This is repeated again without the last quarter note. The whole melody is backed by a percussion and low brass beat which is mainly composed of quarter notes and some occasional eigth note/two sixteenth notes beats. This is secceeded by another trumpet fanfare, which is followed by a repeat of the main melody again played by the French horns. Next is a string phrase followed by another trumpet fanfare-like part. Lastly, the horns play the primary melody for the third time, this time with the trumpets coming in every once in a while with short phrases. The ending of the melody is played by the low brass and trumpets, who take turns on each phrase. The theme ends with a fading snare drum rhythm.

In the soundtracks
The piece appears soley in the Episode I soundtrack. In the original version, the theme is contained in the seventh track called "The Arrival at Tatooine and The Flag Parade." In the Ultimate Edition, the theme gets its own track, the thirty-first track, titled "The Flag Parade."

In the movies
The piece is used in the flag ceremony scene just before the start of the Boonta Eve Classic podrace in The Phantom Menace.

In the Expanded Universe
The composition also makes an appearance in the heroes vs. villains Assault Mode in Mos Eisley on Star Wars: Battlefront II. The piece is utilized again during the first cut scene in Chapter 5: Mos Espa Podrace of Episode I in LEGO Star Wars.

In other merchandise
The sheet music for the piece made an appearance in the music book for The Phantom Menace released by Bantha Music.