Force Theme
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The Force Theme (aka The Throne Room or Ben's Theme or Binary Sunset) is a leitmotif from the film scores of the Star Wars movies, composed by John Williams. Its most noted appearances are in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope during a scene in which Luke Skywalker looks out onto Tatooine's Binary Sunset and during a homage to this scene in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith as Owen and Beru Lars look out onto the same type of sunset from the same location. An excerpt is also heard during the Battle of Yavin in Episode IV at the point, appropriately enough, where Luke hears Obi-Wan Kenobi's urgings to "Use the Force, Luke".
The Force Theme is heard being played with a dramatic swell to the second half of the leitmotif when it is fully played with the exception of Boys Into Battle (first part of the Battle of Coruscant), The Throne Room and the End Credits for A New Hope, Return of the Jedi, and Revenge of the Sith (album version). Other times it turns up include but are not limited to:
- A New Hope: The aforementioned Binary Sunset scene (Available on the original soundtrack as 'Binary Sunset'), the Throne Room scene at the end.
- The Empire Strikes Back: Yoda's "My ally is the Force" monologue in which he exhorts Luke to ignore the size of his X-wing and to trust in the ubiquity and power of the Force, and when Luke calls out to Princess Leia while hanging from a Cloud City antenna.
- Return of the Jedi: During the "Obi-Wan has taught you well" monologue, Darth Vader saving Luke and casting the Emperor into the Death Star's core, Anakin's Funeral Pyre scene
- The Phantom Menace: When Qui-Gon attempts to get through the blast doors, When Anakin Skywalker leaves his mother on Tatooine, and when he escapes the Trade Federation Droid Control Ship, and when Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Maul duel, after the death of Qui-Gon .
- Attack of the Clones: When Anakin and Padme Leave Coruscant.When Anakin and Padmé Amidala are outside the Lars homestead right before The Search Montage.
- Revenge of the Sith: At the beginning, when we first see Obi-Wan and Anakin in their fighters, a militaristic version of the Theme plays, Anakin crash-landing the Invisible Hand (tracked from The Phantom Menace), Obi-Wan's arrival on Utapau and later Polis Massa, and the aforementioned scene with Owen and Beru. Revenge of the Sith makes use of this theme more frequently than any other movie—at least 20 different statements of the theme can be heard in the film itself.
The Force Theme also regularly appears in the Star Wars video games, such as the Knights of the Old Republic series, usually when the character learns about the Force or does something associated with the Light Side of the Force or in Bastila's Theme.
[edit] Analysis
Harmonically, this theme is in a minor key, though it makes use of modal mixture and inserts a major IV chord (see Music Theory).
