The Phantom Menace

Track Listing - Original Release

01 - Star Wars Main Title and

The Arrival at Naboo (2:55)

02 - Dual of the Fates (4:14)

03 - Anakin's Theme (3:09)

04 - Jar Jar's Introduction and

The Swim to Otoh Gunga (5:07)

05 - The Sith Spacecraft and

The Droid Battle (2:37)

06 - The Trip to Naboo Temple and

The Audience with Boss Nass (4:07)

07 - The Arrival at Tatooine and

The Flag Parade (4:04)

08 - He Is the Chosen One (3:53)

09 - Anakin Defeats Sebulba (4:24)

10 - Passage Through the Planet Core (4:40)

11 - Watto's Deal and Kid's at Play (4:57)

12 - Panaka and the Queen's Protectors (3:24)

13 - Queen Amidala and

The Naboo Palace (4:51)

14 - The Droid Invasion and

The Appearance of Darth Maul(5:14)

15 - Qui-Gon's Noble End (3:40)

16 - The High Council Meeting and

Qui-Gon's Funeral (3:09)

17 - Augie's Great Municipal Band and

End Credits (9:37)

Orchestrated by John Neufeld and Conrad Pope

Conducted by John Williams

Performed by The London Symphony Orchestra,

The London Voices, and

The New London Children's Choir

Produced by John Williams

Released by Sony Classical Records on May 4th, 1999

Ultimate Edition on November 14th, 2000

Total Running Time: 74:15

Track Listing - Ultimate Edition

Disc 1

1 - Fox Fanfare (0:23)

Treachery Within the Federation - The Invasion of Naboo

2 - Star Wars Main Title (1:24)

3 - Boarding the Federation Battleship (2:31)

4 - Death Warrant for Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan (1:18)

5 - Fighting the Destroyer Droids (1:44)

6 - Queen Amidala Warns the Federation (2:23)

7 - The Droid Invasion (1:00)

Underwater Adventures

8 - Swimming to Otoh Gunga (0:56)

9 - Inside the Bubble City (3:05)

10 - Attack of the Giant Fish (1:37)

Darth Sidious and the Passage Through the Planet Core

11 - Darth Sidious (1:04)

On to Naboo and The Rescue of the Queen

12 - The Giant Squid and The Attack on Theed (1:18)

13 - Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan Rescue the Queen (2:09)

14 - Fighting the Guards (1:42)

15 - Escape from Naboo (2:04)

16 - Enter Darth Maul (1:07)

Destination Tatooine, Home of Anakin Skywalker

17 - The Arrival at Tatooine (2:28)

18 - Street Band of Mos Espa (1:17)

19 - Padme Meets Anakin (1:12)

20 - Desert Winds (1:28)

21 - Jar Jar's Run-In With Sebulba (1:18)

22 - Anakin's Home and the Introduction of Threepio (2:42)

The Dark Forces Plot

23 - Darth Sidious and Darth Maul (1:12)

Qui-Gon Bets on Anakin

24 - Talk of Podracing (2:59)

Anakin Closes in on His Destiny

25 - Watto's Deal / Shmi and Qui-Gon Talk (2:24)

26 - Anakin, Podracer Mechanic (1:38)

27 - The Racer Roars to Life / Anakin's Midi-Chlorian Count (1:24)

28 - Darth Maul and the Sith Spacecraft (1:00)

29 - Mos Espa Arena Band (0:53)

30 - Watto's Roll of the Dice (1:59)

31 - The Flag Parade (1:14)

32 - Sebulba's Dirty Hand / Qui-Gon's Pep Talk (1:37)

Anakin's Victory

33 - Anakin Defeats Selbulba (2:17)

The Cheering Crowd

34 - Hail to the Winner, Anakin Skywalker (1:13)

Mos Espa Folk Song

35 - The Street Singer (1:13)

Disc 2

To Coruscant and to Palpatine and the Senate

1 - Anakin is Free (5:04)

2 - Qui-Gon and Darth Maul Meet (1:48)

3 - Anakin and Group to Coruscant (4:11)

Palpatine's Treachery

4 - The Queen and Palpatine (0:43)

Qui-Gon Goes Before Yoda

5 - High Council Meeting (2:36)

War Clouds and an Alliance with Boss Nass and the Gungans

6 - The Senate (1:12)

7 - Anakin's Test (3:42)

8 - Qui-Gon's Mission / Obi-Wan's Warning (3:48)

9 - Nute and Rune Confer with Darth Sidious (0:29)

10 - The Queen and Group Land on Naboo (2:20)

11 - Jar Jar Leads Group to the Gungans (2:26)

12 - War Plans (2:31)

Prelude to War

13 - Darth Sidious Receives News of the Gungan Army (0:25)

14 - The Gungans March (0:57)

The Great Battle Begins

15 - The Queen and Her Group Sneak Back to the Palace (0:19)

16 - The Battle Begins (0:24)

17 - The Republic Pilots Take Off Into Space (1:26)

The Battle Continues

18 - Activate the Droids (0:44)

19 - The Gungans Fight Back (0:24)

20 - The Duel Begins (0:51)

21 - Anakin Takes Off In Spaceship (0:48)

22 - The Duel Continues (1:00)

23 - The Battle Rages On (1:59)

24 - Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Darth Maul Continue Battle (1:22)

The War At Its Darkest

25 - Qui-Gon, Darth Maul, and the Invisible Wall (0:14)

26 - The Gungans Retreat and the Queen Surrenders (2:18)

27 - The Death of Qui-Gon and the Surrender of the Gungans (2:29)

Good Triumphs Over Evil

28 - The Tide Turns / The Death of Darth Maul (3:24)

The Wrap-Up

29 - The Queen Confronts Nute and Rune (1:48)

30 - The Funeral of Qui-Gon (1:18)

Victory Parade

31 - The Parade (1:24)

Titles

32 - End Credits (8:15)

33 - Duel of the Fates (Dialogue Version) (4:21)

Total Running Time: 68:07

Total Running Time: 55:51

It has been fifteen years since the last John Williams score for a Star Wars film, Return of the Jedi, was composed. Ever since it was announced the George Lucas would be revisiting his famous trilogy, the new score was highly anticipated. After all, the Star Wars cadre of scores are some of the most recognizable orchestral music in the world. While Williams is considered the master of all things musically related to that universe, it would not be an easy task to return to that style after so long. Some would argue that The Phantom Menace doesn't even come close to recapturing the the feel of the original scores. While the score doesn't fit completely in the original trilogy, I feel that it is more of a stylistic decision in that the universe of The Phantom Menace is not the same as what we were exposed to before. There is no Rebel Alliance, Galactic Empire, Luke Skywalker, or Darth Vader (yet). As such, it would be out of place for Williams to reassume the themes representing those groups or characters. I feel that given the setting of the film, Williams has composed a fine score that serves quite well as the roots for what is to come.

While all three previous scores have contained an epic quality about them, Williams imbues The Phantom Menace with an even greater quality due to his excellent use of choral moments. Somewhat similar to what Joel McNeely did for Shadows of the Empire, they are not overused, actually appearing in just a handful of places, but within the context of the score, they are quite delightful. The ultimate use of the choir comes with "Duel of the Fates". While part of its musical foundation represents the theme for Darth Maul, the other section is more elusive, though it is repeated many times throughout the score. While choral moments in Star Wars are not new (Return of the Jedi used them quite effectively), nothing quite approaches the intensity of this piece.

"Anakin’s Theme" is a quiet, almost pastoral track, which has its evolutionary beginnings in Williams' score to Hook. Williams incorporates the Imperial March into this theme in a flawless way that just has to be heard to be fully appreciated. When Williams uses the theme to end the film with an overlay of Darth Vader's breathing, the effect is quite successful and it definitely foreshadows things to come. Other themes that pop up here and there include the Force theme, the heroic Rebel fanfare (as the Naboo make their assault on the palace hanger bay), and even Jabba the Hutt's theme.

But this is a new film, and while references to the previous scores are always fun, there are plenty of new characters and groups for Williams to thematically reference. The Battle Droid march is a really fun theme that harkens back to the Imperial March though without an overly sinister quality. The most interesting of the thematic twists, however, involves the opening of the "End Credits" track. It opens with a lighthearted version of the Emperor's theme with children providing the choral backdrop instead of an ominous men's choir.

When the original CD release came out, many were left scratching their heads. It was a good release, but several sequences just didn't seem to go together. When the film finally came out, the truth was revealed. The soundtrack release had been totally butchered from how the score actually played out within the film. Many problems that had been had with the score were actually only problems with how the music on the CD was arranged. Several great cues and theme were omitted totally, and the music had a tendency to cut away right before a great cue, much to the dismay of the fans. A while later, Sony Classical announced that a deluxe 2-CD release would hit the store shelves containing every note that John Williams composed for the film. The fans were elated.

And then the thing actually came out.

Sony Classical really screwed up with "The Ultimate Edition." From the looks of the hefty package, it seemed that Sony had stuffed this set to the gills. Unfortunately, as the old adage goes, looks can be deceiving. Anyone who expected this to be Sony's version of RCA Victor's Star Wars Special Edition releases were in for a disappointment. Why? Well, as it may have been every note that John Williams composed for the film that actually ended up in the film, it was certainly not every note that was composed. Much like the original CD release contained music that was re-arranged, Williams' original music was totally revamped in post-production for some sequences.

What "The Ultimate Edition" amounted to was an isolated score from the film. Everything that was altered in post-production is here. Dismayed at the choppy way the ending battle sequence was edited together? But while the edits can be quite rough at times, at least we have more of a semblance of the complete score without having to rely on low-quality MP3s ripped from the associated LucasArts software titles.

Still, the score itself comes more alive in this semi-complete form. While I still enjoy the arrangement Williams provided for the first album, the complete score shows off just how much great thematic work he did for this score. Qui-Gon's theme actually gets a lot of playing time where it had hardly surfaced at all in the original release. The spooky elements surrounding the sequences regarding Darth Maul really stand out (though nothing that quite matches that eerie "ahhhing" sequence that can only be found on the original album). Of course, all the excellent renditions of the Force theme are here as well, and Anakin's destruction of the Federation battleship remains one of the best cues that surprisingly didn't see the light of day on the original release.

The booklet has to be the biggest letdown of the whole album. It is just a bunch of fluff, consisting of stills from the film with track labels from the appropriate cue. That's it. There are two pages of linear notes is just introductory. There are also two pages listing the track titles...with no track times. After the excellent track-by-track analysis in the Special Edition albums, I was very disappointed.

I have loved this score since I first heard it on the original release CD and I've come to love it even more after hearing its full usage in the film. Despite the problems with this release, it is still the best way to experience this score as of now. I do have to express my extreme disappointment with the fact that there are a lot of great cues that Williams scored for this film that have still not seen an official release. Also, it does come with a hefty price tag, so only die-hard lovers of the music should take the plunge. Otherwise, the original can suffice well enough. While the score is excellent, Sony Classical pretty much dropped the ball on both their original release and their expanded "Ultimate Edition."