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Back
in 1999, when I reviewed the initial release of The Phantom Menace
soundtrack (Sony SK 61816  ),
I predicted that a special release of the complete music would appear
- correctly, as it turned out. What I did not expect, though, was
the Ultimate Edition (as it has been titled) coming so soon. Perhaps
this is part of a carefully-planned campaign of merchandise releases
to generate and maintain public interest in the Star Wars franchise
until Episode II appears.
Packaged
in dark silver-foil fold-out cardboard and containing two discs,
this album also includes a picture booklet which has been (inconveniently)
attached to the cardboard packaging. What I've done is to photocopy
the track listings onto a separate sheet and use this as a reference
when listening to the music. The individual track timings are also
not provided, which is very annoying indeed.
Not
that there's a lot to go by in the sleeve booklet: a full listing
of tracks, a two-page intro to the music, followed by copious amounts
of pictures from the movie, captioned to match its corresponding
musical cue. The blow-by-blow commentary by Michael Matessino, which
was provided in the Episode 4-6 Special Edition soundtracks,
is sorely missed here.
This
release contains every single note of music from the movie, and
then some, with thirty-five tracks on disc 1 and thirty-three tracks
on disc 2, with a "bonus" track on Disc 1 and a "Dialogue Version"
of Duel of the Fates at the end of Disc 2 - basically, the
music with dialogue and sound effects mixed in, as seen on the music
video of Duel.
But
the main attraction of this album is the inclusion of other music
that was excluded (and missed) on the initial soundtrack release:
the arrival of the Jedi knights aboard the Federation flagship and
the subsequent lightsaber melee (Boarding the Federation Battleship);
the fanfare after Anakin wins the podrace (Hail to the Winner,
Anakin Skywalker); the sweeping Force theme as Anakin promises
to return to free his mother from slavery (Anakin is Free);
and the extended victory parade chorus at the end of the movie -
here listed as The Parade. (I wonder what happened to Augie's
Great Municipal Band...)
 The
werewithal to listen to the music (without the "distraction" of
the movie and sound effects) also produced a number of revelations:
the Force theme quoted in its entirety after Anakin blows up the
Federation battleship from the inside ("This is podracing"),
which most people - myself included - would have missed as they
would be busy watching the big explosion, or Qui-Gon's martial motif,
heard in several of his lightsaber duels, the most prominent being
his initial lightsaber duel with Darth Maul on Tatooine.
The
music was recorded and mixed by Shawn Murphy and edited by Ken Wannberg
- kudos to them for an excellent job. The way the final tracks have
been edited for the film and released here means that there are
some points where the music stretches for a length of time: the
track listings have been cleverly divided into eleven "chapters"
on each disc, with each chapter containing between one and eight
contiguous tracks and representing a major sequence of scenes in
the movie (e.g. the Jedi knights visiting the underwater city of
Otoh Gunga).
This
arrangement allows listeners to cue directly to a specific segment
of each "chapter" if they want, which is useful when the music jumps
between one point and another - such as the final battle which takes
place in four separate locations (Queen Amidala in the palace, the
Jedi knights in the hangar, the Gungans in the open fields and Anakin
in space), each with its own motifs and themes.
This
makes the album an obvious godsend to diehard Star Wars/John Williams
fans and soundtrack afficionados, but less so for the casual listener.
The Phantom Menace music, neatly arranged into concert suites
and other nicely-timed servings on the original album, are not to
be found here. This version contains the soundtrack as it appears
in the movie, cuts and jumps and all, and the less-than-dedicated
listener may find the discontinous juxtaposition of musical themes
rather heavy going, even unpalatable.
Conclusion:
sample before you buy, unless you're one of the few who have been
waiting for this for the last year or so. The average listener
will be more than satisfied with the original single-CD release;
the Ultimate Edition is strictly for the hard-core minority.
BENJAMIN
CHEE needs a few more parts to finish his light sabre.
834:
7.1.2001 © Benjamin Chee
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