Q&As About 'Star Wars': Who were other candidates for composing the music of the original Star Wars movie?

Who were other candidates for composing the music of the original Star Wars movie?

Besides John Williams? None.

George Lucas, who had a keen understanding of the intimate relationship between movie imagery and music, planned to follow Stanley Kubrick’s example in 1968’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and use different compositions of classical music throughout the film. A little Holst here, a little Wagner there, some Tchaikovsky in this bit, and so on.

One of the original ideas that Lucas had for the Star Wars - which was based on his use of rock 'n' roll songs in American Graffiti, was to use different classical music compositions to match the visuals. And in fact, during the early stages of assembling the film after principal photography was complete, Lucas created a "temp track" that consisted of pieces such as Gustav Holst's Mars: The Bringer of War from his suite of tone poems The Planets. 

This approach worked well for 2001, but it’s doubtful that it would have worked in Star Wars. 2001 was set in a possible and realistic version of the 21st Century and on familiar environments - Earth, the Moon, and Jupiter orbit. (Watch the video clip featuring On the Beautiful Blue Danube by Johann Strauss, Jr. as used by Stanley Kubrick in 1968's 2001: A Space Odyssey.)

But Star Wars was space fantasy and set (as we all know) “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” To ground the audience in a story that depicted truly alien worlds that had not been seen before, Lucas needed something familiar, non-electronic, and yet original for Star Wars.

Because Star Wars was in pre-production when Jaws was in the middle of its record-setting theatrical run, Steven Spielberg was happy to recommend John Williams as the composer for Star Wars. He told Lucas - who was one of his best friends in the film industry - that “Johnny” understood the role of music as a major component in cinematic storytelling, and gave him a solid endorsement.

Williams eschewed the modernistic, electronic music approach that was in vogue for many science fiction film scores in the 1970s. Instead, he went in the opposite direction and opted for a fully symphonic score written in a style that evoked 19th Century Romantic composers like Beethoven, Brahms, and (especially) Wagner, whose use of "leitmotivs" in his massive operas informed Williams to write themes for specific characters (the Star Wars theme is usually associated with Luke Skywalker in the movie and its two follow-up Episodes), creatures, places (the Death Star has its own motif), and even a leitmotiv that is associated with both Obi-Wan Kenobi and the Force.

No one else was even considered for the job.