This 100 year old music sounds EXACTLY like Star Wars

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[CharlesCornellStudios]

It's Star Wars week!!! Apparently. Seriously though, check out The Planets. So much of today's movie sound is heavily influenced it. What other works do you know of that have had similar impacts on the movie scores we know today??

[iMatt]

At the end of the first live performance of The Planets, Holst said: “I guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna love it.”

[ChristianIce]

According to the interviews inside the making of Star Wars, Lucas wanted to use that music (Planets) and John Williams offered to write something to that effect.
Holts' music was in fact used for the temporary soundtrack while editing the movie.

[seanchristophersynthesizer]

Lucas originally was going the use "The Planets" for Star Wars until Spielberg recommended John Williams to him. Lucas asked Williams to keep the feel of "The Planets" in his score.

[EricPS]

Gustav Holst's "The Planets" is one of those pieces of music that never gets old. And it's the same with John Williams cinematic music. You can tell he was heavily influenced by Holst. That's not anywhere close to stealing. Everyone is influenced by others. That's pretty natural. You just hope someone is influenced in a good way.

[Rvictorbravo]

When Star Wars first came out in '77, I was a huge Holst fan. I immediately noticed the influence. I always thought it was deliberate because it was so obvious.

[emmanuelacosta]

“A good composer does not imitate; he steals.” -Igor Stravinsky

[dbackscott]

I remember an interview where Lucas said he wrote the scenes in Star Wars with specific existing compositions in mind. He then turned those over to John Williams when it came time for him to score the film. I wouldn’t be surprised if Holst’s works were some of them.

[SapperRJMorgan]

Wow. I’m not even a classical fan and I love The Planets. My parents used to listen to this all the time. What an inspiration for Williams.

[claudiaandalex]

A key thing to remember about Star Wars is that at the time it was made, in many ways it was a throwback. Sci fi and fantasy were out of style; the American public was still reeling from Watergate and Vietnam; vigilantes, antiheroes, and other morally grey main characters were big.
Along comes Star Wars, drawing on old Flash Gordon serials, westerns, war movies, Japanese samurai movies, fairy tales and mythology. It’s natural and of a piece with the whole that the score itself was also retro, drawing upon these early 20th century works.

[joeyday]

George Lucas had placed "Mars: The Bringer of War" as a temp-track over the opening of Star Wars when it was in it's rough cut stage so it makes sense that John Williams would emulate it when composing the actual score.

[auranimm]

Funny. The first song that came to mind when you played "Jupiter" was Disney's Hercules' "Go the Distance", which is a scene where he's literally going to Zeus' temple. You know. Jupiter's.

[Meladjusted]

For me, ‘Neptune’ is my favorite; absolutely amazing. It sounds so genuinely otherworldly. Doesn't sound ANYTHING like something that should be coming out of the late-1910s—or even the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, honestly. Incredible stuff.

[Netsuko]

I'm pretty sure, Holst would have become one of the most well known soundtrack composers of modern times if he had been born around the 50s or 60s. This man had a vision decades before it became what we know as orchestral soundracks today.

[Zephandolf]

1:44 I would argue that THAT part of Mars sounds less like The Imperial March and more like the piece they played in A New Hope when the Falcon was being drawn into the Death Star Hangar, which itself is a different rendition of the piece when the Falcon was fighting Tie Fighters during its escape.

BTW, love the Holst suite.

[ExaltedDuck]

When I listen to John Williams's scores I hear a lot of Holst and Wagner and Dvorak and Stravinsky and that's why I like John Williams's scores. He understands the greatness of those who came before, and how to honor their ideas in a way that has brought amazing music to new generations.

[westtxtapper]

I discovered "The Planets" suite back when I was 15 and it's been a favorite of mine since. I finally got to hear it performed live by my local philharmonic orchestra early last year.

[efficiencygaming]

I think "The Planets" must have been a massive influence on the works of John Williams, because many of his scores (not just Star Wars) feature elements clearly inspired by that suite. The themes to Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, and Jurassic Park could be substituted with themes from "The Planets" and they would still fit very well.

It's incredible how that century-old music still has appeal in the present day. Even video game soundtracks like Halo and Destiny seem to be inspired by it, at least indirectly. "The Planets" is fantastic music that was far ahead of its time.

[austinconner]

John Williams has never been shy about admitting that he borrowed heavily from other composers to come up with the SW soundtracks BECAUSE he WANTED to reach down deep into peoples minds and pull those thematic memories up out if the dust and shake them back to life. He's never refrained from acknowledging any of this.

[Garrett_Rowland]

The ending of Neptune is really a whole different experience to hear in person. "until the imagination knew no difference between sound and silence" is very much true when you hear this performed in a dead-silent concert hall.