How do you score music to a place that’s “far, far away”?Looking at the approaches taken by John Williams and James Horner in their respective sci-fi classics, Star Wars Episode IV and Avatar, yields some interesting results.
Williams, who is almost single-handedly credited with bringing back the traditional orchestra to film music, opted for a Romantic-era approach: grand, sweeping music with practically zero electronic elements. This was a conscious choice on his part, going against the grain of many other films of the time that were embracing the developing electronic music culture..
Contrast this with Horner, who still relied heavily on the use of the orchestra, but invented an entirely new context for it. Instead of revisiting a past musical culture to score his epic narrative, Horner invented an entirely new one to go along with the new world of Pandora. In terms of the music, this means new sounds, new instruments, new ways of playing old instruments; and digitally-manipulated instruments and voices. (Horner reportedly spent a great deal of time buildling up a library of digital instruments, that he was able to manipulate and put to use. This luxury may be as he had over a year to score the film; the norm is about six weeks.) Even the vocals in the soundtrack use the Na’vi language of the indigeonous people of Pandora. Everything’s new!
For a minute, assume you’re travelling to a foreign country, somewhere where they don’t speak your language. The best way to understand the new culture you find yourself in would be to have someone relate it in terms you’d understand, using words familiar to you. A guide; a translator.
The same argument is present when comparing Star Wars and Avatar and their music. Both musics tell their stories and help relate them to the viewers, only Star Wars does it using a language well-familiar to Western ears, and Avatar with the unique flavour of the Na’vi culture. In films “long, long ago” and “far, far away”, music is your guide.
