Listen To A Happy, Upbeat Version Of The Star Wars ‘Imperial March’ In Major Key
“The Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme)” composed by John Williams is one of the most famous and recognizable musical scores in the history of cinema. The low minor key notes of the symphonic movie theme are synonymous with the Star Wars franchise’s most iconic villain, and still sends chills down the spines of listeners with the feeling of oncoming evil.
John Williams first composed “The Imperial March” for the 1980 film Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, and since then it has become an example of a leitmotiv, a recurrent musical theme associated with characters, ideas and events in a drama. In this case, the recurrent theme song is associated with appearances of the Galactic Empire and Darth Vader in particular. It is also used to herald Palpatine’s arrival on the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi and to foreshadow Anakin Skywalker’s future as Darth Vader in the prequel trilogy. A few bars were used in the latest movie, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, during the scene where Kylo Ren is seen talking to the charred remains of Vader’s helmet.
Since its debut in The Empire Strikes Back, “The Imperial March” has been widely used for TV series adaptations, commercials, parodies, sporting events, fan-made videos, you name it. But have you ever wondered what it would sound like if Williams had used a major key instead – in other words, as a more cheerful and upbeat tune?
Well, Soundcloud artist Iaztozia, also known as Ian Gordon from Muted Vocal, has done just that with “Vader’s Redemption” – a version of the famous theme in major key.
I can’t help but feel it sounds like Darth Vader is going onstage to accept an award, or like an uplifting national anthem for a fictional country. It completely changes the feel and mood of the original score to a happy, uplifting, even chipper tune.
Embedded below is the menacing, militaristic original version for comparison.
Film Music Notes, a website dedicated to analysis of the style and technique of film scores, examines what exactly makes the original march sound so dark and evil.
“Rhythmically, the march projects a strong, confident, and forward-driving tone. Orchestrally, it emphasizes the powerful brass instruments and the menacing sound of the instruments’ low registers. Harmonically, it focuses on the dark sound of minor chords and presents distorted versions of what would otherwise be normal progressions. Contrapuntally, it makes use of dissonance to give a fearful sound. Melodically, the theme is constantly moving in the downward direction, suggesting the heavy hand of the Empire literally bearing down on the Rebels (and us!)”
According to the score’s page on Wookiepedia, the original “The Imperial March” was based on “he well known funeral march from Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor and on “Mars, the Bringer of War” by Gustav Holst.”
“Bit of background relating to the creation of these things: Though I have been a musician for many years, I have no real knowledge of music theory. I learn the themes by ear and then record them into Cubase. From there I basically mess with the notes until they sound ‘happier’ or ‘sadder’ depending on the theme. That’s all there is to it.”
Some of Gordon’s other interesting creations, such as a major key version of the theme to the X-Files, can be found on his Soundcloud and YouTube accounts.
The Imperial March from #StarWars is a lot less evil in a major key https://t.co/iRFPEnwc7X pic.twitter.com/Rf7OZk6665
— Nerdist (@nerdist) February 26, 2016
[Photo by Sascha Steinbach/Getty Images]
