Star Wars Romantic Style

Why would a composer use the musical style of the Romantic period for a scientific, futuristic film that features weird western style characters? The score to the Star Wars movie broke all the traditional rules to writing music for sci-fi films. The Star Wars Main Title, introduces the idea of using the Romantic style instead of modernistic music for films. This choice reflects the composer’s influences from that musical period and features key musical elements that are easily remembered by audiences.
In 1975, director George Lucas was ready to select the music for his new film Star Wars. Lucas had heard of the great modern compositions for previous films, but did not want the typical sound. He had made it clear that he did not want to use
The musique concrete style was used specifically for sci-fi film. Musique concrete was produced by recording sounds that did not come from a musical instrument. For instance, the sound of a barking dog can be modified and manipulated to create a different effect. Although Star Wars had robots and spaceships, it did not fit the sci-fi, futuristic film mold. It was considered to be a super genre, a category of film that exceeded the characteristics of a sci-fi film. Before this time, sci-fi films generally featured atonal and 12-tone techniques to compliment what may represent the sound of the future. Horns played without mouthpieces and key taps on clarinets were typical sounds used for this type of film. Music that sounded mysterious and dissonant was accepted by a large viewing audience. However, Lucas’s idea was to bridge the classical romantic dialect with his new movie. In fact, Lucas had written the script to Star Wars while he listened to music from Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Some of the characteristics of the Romantic style in music are its large brass, symphonic sections with dramatic dynamics. Orchestras during this era had grown large,