BINARY SUNSET

STAR WARS

One of my favourite scenes in the history of cinema: the cue of Binary Sunset, from Star Wars: A New Hope. This motif, also known as "The Force Theme", as "Ben Kenobi's theme", "Obi-Wan's theme", or "May the Force Be With You", appears very early in the film, when Luke Skywalker contemplates his future while watching a pair of suns set on the horizon. A solo horn accompanies our solo hero: in the background, the violas play tremolo, increasig the sense of uncertainty felt by the character. The theme is built over four two-bars ideas: the goal notes of each idea together form a shape that rises through the first three ideas, reaches a climax, then falls with the last. Thus, the theme gradually builds to a climax over a long stretch, then more quickly relaxes and comes to an end. The Force theme is set in a minor key, and minor keys usually signal some kind of negative emotion. But it's not all doom and gloom in this theme: the chord ending the second idea is a more positive major IV chord. At the end of the theme's third idea, the climax emerges over another major chord, VI: it's when Luke raises one last time his head, looking at the twin suns. Then the theme resolves into the final chord, which gives a sense of punctuation, a sign that we have finished with the theme altogether, or at least with that section of it. 

This is one of the most recognizable themes in film scores and, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful: not because I grew up with Star Wars, but because the overwhelming sense of hope that this piece transmits is breathtaking.