I listened to the music of Star Wars again, especially the first one. I compared "Imperial Attack" (the boarding of Princess Leia's frigate) with "The Imperial March" (Darth Vader's theme from "The Empire Strikes Back") and there's many continuous elements. Many of the elements are stomping and driving in "Imperial Attack", it is, if listened to with headphones in the dark, an onslaught of driving rhythms and tension-building elements. It even would produce flashes in my vision on especially impacting parts.
Without intending for such a conscious comparison I then put on Holst's "Mars, the Bringer of War" from his work "The Planets". It's clearly related as Williams, the composer of the Star Wars music, drew on elements from Holst's music (amongst others) when composing his epic soundtrack. What surprised me, however, is that Holst portrayed war with more facets than Williams did the Empire, and maybe a bit more than we are used to when thinking of war. Holst mixes the onslaught of war with the fanfare - a link to older times when the sound of horns called the troops into battle. Yes, there are tension-building elements, loudness and intensity, but also there are elements that seem to speak of idealism and patriotism, and how they end up to become the road to war, maybe even paving that road.
I was pretty surprised to find music sounding so "virtuous" in there. Not like heroism, but like noble virtues. And that is the thing - only by being surprised I made that connection. Holst wrote it after the First World War. With great enthusiasm the soldiers had left for the war that had turned into a cataclysmic onslaught and endless killer. Williams' depiction of the Empire sounds more ruthless than this, and I wonder if this could also mean that Holst wanted to say that it is people, after all, that conduct war. It's a different quality.
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