Music Album Review: 'John Williams - The Star Wars Trilogy: Varujan Kojian/The Utah Symphony Orchestra'

Album cover art by William Stout. (C) 1983 Varese Sarabande Records

On May 25, 1983 – the sixth anniversary of the premiere of Star Wars (aka Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope) – 20^th Century Fox released Star Wars – Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, the third chapter of George Lucas’s Star Wars Trilogy. Written by Lucas with Lawrence Kasdan and directed by Richard Marquand, Return of the Jedi chronicled the beginning of the end of the Galactic Empire at the Battle of Endor, the ascension of Luke Skywalker from Jedi trainee to the last of the Jedi Order, and the redemption of Darth Vader – Anakin Skywalker – whose love for his son was stronger than his loyalty to the evil Emperor Palpatine.

Because Jedi marked the end of the Luke Skywalker/Darth Vader story arc and no other Star Wars films were planned for the immediate future, many people, including book publishers and record producers rushed to make merchandise with the “standalone” label The Star Wars Trilogy.

In the fall of 1983, Varese Sarabande Records, a U.S. recording company that specializes in soundtracks of sci-fi and fantasy movies and TV shows, released producer George Korngold’s The Star Wars Trilogy, a 13-track compilation of themes from Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. Produced by George Korngold with the cooperation of composer John Williams, the album featured performances by the Utah Symphony Orchestra under the baton of conductor Varujan Kojian. Per industry standards of the time, Varese Sarabande issued the recording on vinyl LP, audio cassette, and the new compact disc (CD) format. (In Great Britain, The Star Wars Trilogy was released in 1983 on vinyl by That’s Entertainment Records.) 

The Star Wars Trilogy has since then been reissued by Varese Sarabande on CD and the resurgent vinyl LP format (which many audiophiles say has the richest and “warmest” sound quality as far as recorded music is concerned) and is still “in print” according to the label’s website.

In all its incarnations – LP vinyl record, cassette tape, and CD – The Star Wars Trilogy has presented the same 13 tracks. They are:

1. Fox Fanfare (:20)

Composed by Alfred Newman

Star Wars:

2. Main Title (5:15)

3. Princess Leia's Theme (4:22)

4. Here They Come (2:00)

The Empire Strikes Back:

5. The Asteroid Field (4:17)

6. Yoda's Theme (3:16)

7. The Imperial March (2:52)

Return of the Jedi:

8. Parade of the Ewoks (3:31)

9. Luke and Leia (5:57)

10. Fight with TIE Fighters (4:31)

11. Jabba the Hutt (3:58)

12. Darth Vader's Death (2:50)

13. The Forest Battle (4:06)

14. Finale (3:11)

The Star Wars Trilogy, which was released several months after RSO Records' original soundtrack album for Return of the Jedi, was the first recording to present Fight with TIE Fighters (Track 10) and Darth Vader's Death (Track 12). These tracks were left out of RSO's soundtrack album for space/aesthetic considerations; the London Symphony Orchestra/John Williams performances would not be available in a Star Wars soundtrack recording until the 1993 release of Arista Records' The Star Wars Trilogy: The Soundtrack Anthology box set.

The album packaging – in all three formats – features simple but elegant front cover art by illustrator William Stout, with the track list, a publicity still from Return of the Jedi and a note from composer John Williams on the back cover. In that epistle, Williams writes:

When producer George Korngold told me of his plans to present music from all three Star Wars films on one record, I was particularly pleased.

I was gratified because this record will mark the first time that the music will appear in one collection, and secondly because it will be presented by the very fine Utah Symphony Orchestra which I have admired for such a long time….

I thank Maestro Kojian for bringing together his forces to present an idea that I have hoped would be realized since the earliest days of my work on The Star Wars Trilogy. – John Williams, Hollywood, August 1983

My Take

As a long-time fan of Maestro Williams’ scores for Star Wars and other movies, including Steven Spielberg’s A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, Richard Donner’s Superman, and Chris Columbus’ Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, I have to say that The Star Wars Trilogy is one of my favorite albums.

For me, it was the first Star Wars recording – besides the Story of Star Wars LP released in 1978 by 20^th Century Records – that begins with Alfred Newman’s 20^th Century Fox Fanfare (With CinemaScope Extension). Other recordings, including Varese Sarabande’s The Empire Strikes Back Suite, would later incorporate the Fox Fanfare, which Williams himself re-recorded for the 1977 Star Wars film and has since been the version heard in all the films that feature. (This, perhaps, is one of the few gripes that I have about the Disney ownership of the Star Wars franchise – I miss that familiar 20-second fanfare that fans of the 1977 Generation associate with the saga.)

Naturally, since this is not a soundtrack, the cues are presented in a different style than the one heard in the source films. The style of the Utah Symphony Orchestra’s presentation is what score aficionados know as “concert hall arrangements.” Thus, the Main Title from Star Wars doesn’t end at the 2-minute and 30 second mark with The Rebel Fanfare as in the original score; instead it segues into the medley-like End Titles from Star Wars, which in this arrangement has a subtly different coda from the 1977 original soundtrack recording of The Throne Room and End Titles.

Other cues, such Here They Come (Star Wars) and The Asteroid Field (The Empire Strikes Back) are re-orchestrated arrangements that are shorter than the cues heard on the original soundtrack recordings. The former is just a fragment from the longer Ben’s Death and TIE Fighter Attack, while the latter omits large chunks of the cue from Empire that feature The Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme).

Because Return of the Jedi was the “new kid on the block” of the Star Wars trilogy, producer George Korngold – whose father Erich was a Golden Age of Hollywood composer and one of Williams’ heroes – gave the lion’s share of space to its score. Of the album’s 14 tracks, half are from the Jedi score.

Most of them – Parade of the Ewoks; Luke and Leia; Jabba the Hutt; and The Forest Battle – were familiar to Williams fans from either the Jedi soundtrack or the Boston Pops Orchestra’s Out of This World album, both of which were released in 1983.

However, Korngold and Varese Sarabande executive Tom Null (who produced several of the tracks) wanted to add new and exclusive material to The Star Wars Trilogy. As a result, the album was the first to feature the exciting Fight with TIE Fighters and the melancholic, bittersweet rendition of the Imperial March heard in Darth Vader’s Death.

Obviously, my favorite recordings of Star Wars music are those that present the original scores performed by orchestras led by Maestro Williams himself, especially the soundtrack albums for the Original and the Prequel Trilogies.

Nevertheless, the late Varujan Kojian (who recorded this album during his last year as music director of the Utah Symphony) did an excellent job when he conducted the Salt Lake City-based ensemble. The performance is full of energy and excitement; listeners can tell that Kojian had respect for Williams’ composing skills and presented the music with the same attention to detail and emotional impact as he would give to a piece by Mozart or Beethoven.