JOHN WILLIAMS CONDUCTS JOHN WILLIAMS
                        THE STAR WARS TRILOGY
                   The Skywalker Symphony Orchestra

           (recorded March 19-20, 1990 at Skywalker Ranch)


"Some day I'm going to build a recording studio with a sound as live
as if it were inside a cathedral." That was the promise I made to John
Williams after we finished our second score together.

Music is a major emotional underpinning for all my films. While
writing the 'Star Wars' script, I listened to music for inspiration
and would actually arrange the script loosely into various
"symphonies". I visualized the scenes in terms of symphonic music -
large, grand, theatrical adventure scores - as opposed to rock and
roll or electronic music.

When it came time to choose a composer, I asked around, and Steven
Spielberg told me about John Williams. He raved about Johnny, a
wonderful jazz composer who also has an amazingly thorough
understanding of symphonic music. Many film composers can write small
orchestral pieces or various kinds of indigenous scores, but there are
few with the talent to create the full-on, old-fashioned movie score
for a large orchestra that I envisioned.

Film scoring is a very difficult, exacting, disciplied artistic
venture.  Our collaboration was great from the beginning. We watched
the film reel by reel. I indicated to John where I wanted music, what
kind of music, and the feel and texture I wanted in a particular
place. He would suggest what he thought was appropriate or not
appropriate, or what his feelings were. I wanted some of the
characters to have their own themes, like in 'Peter and the Wolf', and
we discussed how many and which roles should be musically
delineated. John took it from there, and he did so beyond my wildest
dreams.

We recorded all the scoring in London. It ws there that John and the
orchestra played the music against the film for the first time. I must
say I was exhilarated! There's nothing more exciting than listening to
the score and seeing it put together with the film. It's also a time
when there's not as much pressure on me as there is in the other parts
of filmmaking. It was very rare that I had to make a comment or ask
John to make a change. We see eye-to-eye on a lot of things; so most
of the time I just sat back and enjoyed the music.

If I saw something that wasn't quite appropriate, I would say: this is
all great except the six bars here are not quite the transition I
wanted. John would say okay; if it needed a minor change, he could
adjust it on the floor and just say, we'll take the trombones out here
or we'll play with the rhythm section here and we'll give George what
he wants. Or he'd say, I'll have to rewrite this section. Then he
would come back the next day or two days later with a new piece that
was exactly what I wanted.

John is an extremely talented composer, one of the best film composers
in the world. In situations with highly creative people working under
a lot of stress, it is unique to find someone as gifted as he who is
such an easy-going, fun person to work with. He is a real gentleman.

To record 'The Empire Strikes Back', we went to the Abbey Road studio
in London and were struck by the incredible acoustics. We discussed
how unusual it was to be in a recording studio that was live, and at
one point we even considered actually recording inside a cathedral.
Unfortunately, the motion-picture equipment made that impractical. It
was then that I made a promise to John that someday I would build a
recording studio in San Francisco that would have a live sound to it
like a cathedral so we wouldn't have to go all the way to London.

Skywalker Sound is the realization of that dream. The studio is
versatile, state-of-the-art and unique in that it is designed for
symphonic scores. I have always felt that an orchestra should be
recorded as a single unit, and Skywalker Sound made that possible.
Instead of relying on mechanical devices to duplcate live sound or
miking and overdubbing any particular instrument, we can capture all
the sounds at once.

To record this new digital album of the 'Star Wars' music, I wanted an
orchestra that could compete with the London Symphony Orchestra or the
Hollywood studio orchestras in Los Angelos. We worked very hard to
assemble a group of the best qualified musicians that the Bay Area has
to offer, and we all held our breath when John came to audition them.
To my delight, the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra passed the audition
with flying colors.

It was thrilling to have John Williams re-recording the 'Star Wars'
music as the inauguration of our facility at Skywalker ranch.

- George Lucas