- "Once again, John Williams has exceeded my expectations and produced a lavish, rich, moving and thrilling score. Every fan of Star Wars—and of great music—is in his debt."
- ―George Lucas about John Williams' score for Revenge of the Sith
WookieeProject: Real World Music is a WookieeProject intended to help organize and improve the articles on out-of-universe music. Come join us! You can comment on the talk page with any suggestions you may have. For a list of articles under our project, see here
Project goals[]
Our main goal is to make sure Wookieepedia is a reliable and excellent source of information about all things real world music. Though it is realized that not every such article will be able to be made into WP:FA or WP:GA, the goal for those articles is still to make them as complete and comprehensive as possible.
If you would like to contribute, please sign your name using three tildes (~~~) at the bottom of the page under the section "Writers and editors".
===Formatting=== // figure this out later
- Make sure articles have flawless grammar and spelling. Titles of songs and themes should be enclosed in double quotation marks (e.g. "Star Wars Main Title"). Titles of albums should be italicized (e.g. The Phantom Menace).
How and what to write[]
Terminology[]
- Theme - Short musical melody that represents a character, place or idea. Examples of these include Luke's Theme, Leia's Theme and The Force Theme.
- Cue - Musical piece written to picture for a film/series. Usually these will contain statements of themes. For example, the cue [3m2 New] Lost R2 that plays during the famous binary sunset scene in A New Hope contains statements of Luke's theme and The Force Theme. Cues should be referred to by their original titles and slate numbers, where known.
- Slate number - Slate numbers are a relic of older movies which were stored on film reels. In xmy notation, the x represents the reel number, and the y represents the part number. The part number is usually just a running total of the number of cues per reel. Sometimes slate numbers will include suffixes. Revisions will sometimes say "New" or "Rev."; inserts will sometimes outright say they are an insert and for what bars, sometimes they'll just put an "X" at the end of the slate number; source music will sometimes throw an "S" at the end of the slate number; cues that were originally multiple parts will sometimes have either an "A" or " pt. 2" appended to the cue number.
- Revision - This is relatively self explanatory. It's just a new version of a cue that was written to replace an earlier version.
- Insert - Somewhat less explanatory, this is a partial revision of a cue, it is usually recorded separately and then tracked over the relevant part of the original cue. For example, the cue [6m5] Padme Falls from Attack of the Clones has an insert that replaces a statement of the Love Theme with a statement of The Force Theme.
- Concert Suite - Sometimes themes will get special performances recorded specifically for the eventual soundtrack release, these are called concert suites and usually don't appear within the project whose score they were written for.
- Score - The collection of cues and revisions and inserts and concert suites written for a movie/series.
- Soundtrack - A soundtrack generally refers to a commercial release of a score, but can also include promos such as FYC albums.
- OST - OST or Original Soundtrack refers to the first commercial release of a score, usually containing heavy edits and presenting the music out of order.
- FYC - FYC or For Your Consideration refers to special albums released for consideration by Academy Awards members, usually for Best Original Score. These albums often contain different music than the OSTs do.
- Expanded album - New releases of a soundtrack are sometimes referred to as an "expanded album". This just means that the release contains more music than previous releases did. It usually doesn't mean that new music was recorded for the album, just that the album contains music that was previously unreleased.
- Unreleased - Unreleased cues are cues that are heard in a movie/series that aren't commercially available.
- Unused - Unused cues are cues written for a movie/series that do not appear in the final product. They may or may not be unreleased.
- Track - A track on a soundtrack album. These are usually heavily edited, and often contain multiple cues spliced together. They are also often retitled, with names that don't match the original cue titles.
- Source music - Music heard by the characters in the film, and therefore automatically gets an IU article (e.g. "Cantina Band" from ANH, known IU as "Mad About Me", plus "Jedi Rocks", "Lapti Nek", etc.) - the IU aspect of these cues is not covered by this project, but development and recording and release info is still fair game.
What articles to and not to write[]
- Musical score - Possibly keep as an overview article - I'm thinking about removing the redundant info about individual soundtrack releases and the allegations of copying, but keeping and expanding the theme breakdowns. I haven't 100% committed to this yet, it depends how I decide to handle theme breakdowns
- We should have articles for every important soundtrack album, which we have in Category:Soundtracks. These should cover one album each, covering the development history of that particular album, as well as having a track listing and a cue breakdown. Information about the score itself should be left to the respective film page's #Music section.
- Note: important soundtrack albums means it is an album with unique material. A straight reissue such as the 2004 Sony Classical rerelease of the 1997 RCA Victor Special Edition sets should not get its own article.
- IU pieces of music like "Mad About Me" get articles anyway - the behind the scenes sections could possible be expanded by us if they aren't in a good state.
- All themes that occur in more than three cues ("Princess Leia's Theme", the "Emperor's Theme", etc.) should have their own articles. We should prioritize themes with official names (concert suites, liner notes, John Williams interviews).
- As for concert pieces like "The Forest Battle", I would argue these should not get articles. The concert suite can be talked about on the page for the theme it demos.
Album tracks and edits should never get pages - the cues contained on an album are contained on the album's page, and the usage of cues in the movie are covered on the movie's page
Current progress[]
Project: add score information to film/series pages:
- - ANH: wip (still have to add breakdown of cues in special edition releases, also maybe add some pictures of spotting session document and of recording sessions and of sheets)
- NOTE: ON HOLD UNTIL I CAN GET APPROVAL TO REFERENCE LEAKED SHEETS
- - ESB: wip (still have to add breakdown of cues in film and in special edition releases, also maybe add some pictures or spotting sessions and orchestration and recording sessions)
- NOTE: ON HOLD UNTIL I CAN GET APPROVAL TO REFERENCE LEAKED SHEETS
Project: move soundtrack releases onto separate pages, add background info, breakdown cues:
- - ANH OST: complete
- - ESB OST: complete
- - Anthology: still need to cover ROTJ
- - ANH SE: mostly complete, should mention 2004 release and differences
- - ESB SE: mostly complete, should mention 2004 release and differences, also add picture of 2004 cover
- - ANH Remaster: complete
- - ESB Remaster: still need to cover mastering issues with this release
NOTE: ANY ALBUM NOT LISTED HERE HAS NOT BEEN DONE YET
NOTE: FURTHER CUE BREAKDOWNS ARE ON HOLD UNTIL I CAN GET APPROVAL TO REFERENCE LEAKED SHEETS
Project: make pages for important themes
- still need to figure out whether we should break down theme usage in cues within the film/series page music sections or on the Musical score page.
- we should reference themes by the real name John Williams called them by, if known
NOTE: CUE USAGE OF THEMES IS ON HOLD UNTIL I CAN GET APPROVAL TO REFERENCE LEAKED SHEETS
Project: break down unreleased music in videogames
- this should go in the music sections of the various videogame pages that we cover
- break down the cues used within the game files, using the game's original filenames, make the cue breakdowns similar to the ones for albums
- we should note when games use original music or music taken from Williams' film scores. Some games do both
NOTE: CUE BREAKDOWNS ARE ON HOLD UNTIL I CAN GET APPROVAL TO REFERENCE LEAKED SHEETS
Project: break down usage of music in official documentaries, behind the scenes footage, other miscellaneous stuff (radio dramas)
- these cue breakdowns should be similar to the ones on film pages, but it should be noted that the music is not original
NOTE: CUE BREAKDOWNS ARE ON HOLD UNTIL I CAN GET APPROVAL TO REFERENCE LEAKED SHEETS
Project: Move onto animated series/spinoff stuff (TCW and beyond)
- I'm not sure how to handle this yet as not all cue titles are known, and there is also unreleased music from composer websites. I don't know where to put that yet.
Templates[]
Add this template on the talk page of every article within this project by posting {{WRWMtalk}}.
Place this at the bottom of every article within this project by posting {{RWM}}.
Place this at the bottom of every article about a real world theme or motif by posting {{themes}}.
Place this at the bottom of every article about a concert suite by posting {{Concert Suites}}.
Use this as the infobox for theme/song articles.
{{Music infobox |image = |name = |hideg = |composer = |written = |recorded = |released = |represents = |performedby = |genre = |hidem = |length = |key = |tempo = |texture= |timesig= |meter= |hideu = |movies = |EU = |hides = |media = }}
Use {{music-stub}} to label music-related stubs.
Useful sources[]
Internet[]
- jwfan.com Discussion forums
- thread: Prequel Music Resource
- thread: Prequel Music Resource Part 2
- thread: Customizing The Phantom Menace Soundtrack
- thread: The Armies Face-Off Confusion
- Remasters of the First 6 Star Wars Soundtracks now available (Shawn Murphy / Disney Records 2018)
- The Thematic Material of the Star Wars Saga (Possible Community Project?)
- John Williams OST Album Breakdowns
- Star Wars Episode III Post Notes Archive
- Jason Leblanc's Williams spreadsheet index
- Jason Leblanc's non-Williams spreadsheet index
- Chris Malone's Recording the Star Wars Saga document
- Frank Lehman's Star Wars Thematic Material document
- January 1997 Film Score Monthly issue - Star Wars articles by Michael Matessino and Lukas Kendall
- January 1994 Film Score Monthly issue - Star Wars article by Lukas Kendall
- CGCJ's spreadsheets index
- CGCJ's Ewok Movies spreadsheet
- CGCJ's The Clone Wars spreadsheet
- CGCJ's Rebels spreadsheet
- CGCJ's Resistance spreadsheet
- CGCJ's The Mandalorian spreadsheet
- CGCJ's The Bad Batch spreadsheet
- CGCJ's The Book of Boba Fett spreadsheet
- CGCJ's Tales of the Jedi spreadsheet
- CGCJ's LEGO The Freemaker Adventures spreadsheet
- Trent B's The Phantom Menace spreadsheet
- Trent B's Attack of the Clones spreadsheet
- Trent B's Revenge of the Sith spreadsheet
- cheetordude's Star Wars The Old Republic spreadsheet
- Enderdrag64's spreadsheet index
- The Empire Strikes Back spreadsheet
- The Phantom Menace spreadsheet
- Attack of the Clones spreadsheet
- Revenge of the Sith spreadsheet
- The Force Awakens spreadsheet
- The Phantom Menace videogame spreadsheet
- Episode I Racer spreadsheet
- Episode I Insider's Guide spreadsheet
- Episode I Jedi Power Battles spreadsheet
- Episode I Ultimate Edition album breakdown
- Star Wars Galaxies spreadsheet
- Star Wars Battlefront II 2005 spreadsheet
- Improved Star Wars The Old Republic spreadsheet (forked from cheetordude's)
FAs, GAs, and CAs[]
Featured articles[]
2 |
Currently, this project and/or its participants have produced 2 Featured Articles. For a full list of the articles which have achieved Featured status since the project's creation please visit here → WP:RWM's Featured article portfolio (Update)
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Good articles[]
3 |
Currently, this project and/or its participants have produced 3 Good Articles. For a full list of the articles which have achieved Good status because of this project since the project's creation please visit here → WP:RWM's Good article portfolio (Update)
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Comprehensive articles[]
0 |
Currently, this project and/or its participants have produced 0 Comprehensive articles. For a full list of the articles which have achieved Comprehensive status because of this project since the project's creation please visit here → WP:RWM's Comprehensive article portfolio (Update)
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Forums[]
For more pages, see the project archive.
Discord[]
A special Discord channel has been set up for this project: #music