The music of the Star Wars franchise is composed and produced in conjunction with the development of the feature films, television series, and other merchandise within the epic space opera franchise created by George Lucas. Released between 1977 and 2015, the music for the primary feature films was written by composer John Williams and, in the case of the first two trilogies, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. In July 2013, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy announced at Star Wars Celebration Europe that Williams would be returning once more to score the seventh episode, Star Wars: The Force Awakens.^[1] Williams' scores for the seven saga films count among the most widely known and popular contributions to modern film music.

Additionally, music for an animated spinoff was written by Kevin Kinerries, and further music has been composed for Star Wars video games and works in other media (Television Series).The scores utilize an eclectic variety of musical styles, many culled from the Late Romantic idiom of Richard Strauss and his contemporaries that itself was incorporated into the Golden Age Hollywood scores of Erich Korngold and Max Steiner. While several obvious nods to Gustav Holst, William Walton, Sergueï Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky exist in the score to Star Wars, Williams relied less and less on classical references in the latter six scores, incorporating more strains of modernist orchestral writing with each progressive score. The reasons for Williams' tapping of a familiar Romantic idiom are known to involve Lucas' desire to ground the otherwise strange and fantastic setting in well-known, audience-accessible music. Indeed, Lucas maintains that much of the original trilogy's success relies not on advanced visual effects, but on the simple, direct emotional appeal of its plot, characters and, importantly, music.^[2]

Star Wars often is credited as heralding the beginning of a revival of grand symphonic scores in the late 1970s. One technique in particular is an influence: Williams's revival of a technique called leitmotif, which is most famously associated with the operas of Richard Wagner and, in film scores, with Steiner. A leitmotif is a phrase or melodic cell that signifies a character, place, plot element, mood, idea, relationship or other specific part of the film. It is commonly used in modern film scoring as a device for mentally anchoring certain parts of a film to the soundtrack. Of chief importance for a leitmotif is that it must be strong enough for a listener to latch onto while being flexible enough to undergo variation and development.

A series of concerts which featured Star Wars music, Star Wars: In Concert, took place in 2009 and 2010. First performed in London, it went on to tour across the United States and Canada, last playing in London, Ontario, Canada on July 25, 2010.

Kevin Kiner composed the score to the film Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) which lead into the animated TV series of the same name while using some of the original themes and score by John Williams. His own material for the film includes a theme for Anakin Skywalker's Padawan learner, Ahsoka Tano, as well as a theme for Jabba the Hutt's uncle Ziro. Kiner went on to score the TV series' entire six seasons, which concluded in 2014. A soundtrack album was released that same year by Walt Disney Records.^[5]

Kiner continued his work with the franchise for the animated series Star Wars Rebels (2014), which also incorporates Williams' themes.^[6]

• "Main Title"
• "Rebel Fanfare"
• "Force Theme"
• "Princess Leia's Theme"
• "Stormtrooper Motif"
• "Imperial Motif"
• "Death Star Motif"
• "Tatooine Motif"
• "Jawa Theme"
• "Tusken Raider Theme"
• "Dies Irae"
• "Here They Come!"
• "The Throne Room"

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• "The Imperial March"
• "Han Solo and the Princess"^ⓘ
• "Imperial Walkers"
• "Yoda's Theme"^ⓘ
• "Droids Motif"
• "Boba Fett Motif"
• "Lando's Palace"

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• "Jabba's Theme"
• "Emperor's Theme"
• "Parade of the Ewoks"^ⓘ
• "Luke and Leia"
• "Secondary Ewok Theme"
• "Victory Celebration"

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• "Anakin's Theme"
• "Shmi's Theme"
• "Droid Invasion Theme"
• "Duel of the Fates"
• "Funeral Theme"
• "Qui-Gon's Theme"
• "Darth Maul's motif"
• "Jar Jar's Theme"

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• "Across the Stars"
• "Kamino Theme"
• "Dooku's Motif"
• "Mourning Theme"
• "Conflict Motif"

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• "Battle of the Heroes"
• "General Grievous's Theme"
• "Anakin's Betrayal"
• "Mustafar Motif"
• "Mystery of the Sith Motif"
• "Republic Theme"

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• "Rey's Theme"
• "Kylo Ren's Theme"
• "Kylo Ren's Second Theme."
• "March of the Resistance"
• "Finn's Theme"
• "Poe Dameron's Theme"
• "The Jedi Steps"
• "BB-8's Theme"
• "Scherzo for X-Wings"
• Starkiller Theme
• "Snoke's Theme"
• "First Order Motif"
• "Secondary First Order Theme"

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• Jyn's Theme
• Hope Theme
• Guardians of the Whills Theme
• Imperial Theme
• Krennic's Theme
• Cassian's Theme

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From A New Hope

• "Main Title"
• "Princess Leia's Theme"
• "The Throne Room"

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From The Empire Strikes Back

• "The Imperial March"
• "Yoda's Theme"
• "Han Solo and the Princess"

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From Return of the Jedi

• "Jabba the Hutt"
• "Parade of the Ewoks"
• "Luke and Leia".
• "The Forest Battle"

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From The Phantom Menace

• "Duel of the Fates"
• "Anakin's Theme"
• "The Flag Parade"

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From Attack of the Clones

• "Across the Stars"

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From Revenge of the Sith

• "Battle of the Heroes"

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From The Force Awakens ^[58]

• "Rey's Theme"
• "March of the Resistance"
• "Scherzo for X-Wings"
• "The Jedi Steps"

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From Rogue One

• "Jyn Erso and Hope Suite"
• "The Imperial Suite"
• "The Guardians of the Whills Suite"

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Diegetic music is music "that occurs as part of the action (rather than as background), and can be heard by the film's characters".^[65] In addition to the orchestral scope that was brought on by John Williams' musical score, the Star Wars franchise also features many distinguishing diegetic songs that enrich the detail of the audio mise-en-scène.^[66]

From A New Hope

• "Cantina Band" and "Cantina Band #2". Written by John Williams, it is played in the Cantina on Tatooine. It is written for solo trumpet, saxophone, clarinet, Fender Rhodes piano, steel drum, synthesizer and various percussion. According to the Star Wars Customizable Card Game, the diegetic title for the first Cantina band piece is "Mad About Me". The liner notes for the 1997 Special Edition release of the Star Wars soundtrack describe the concept behind these works as "several creatures in a future century finding some 1930's Benny Goodman swing band music ... and how they might attempt to interpret it". This piece also appears on an all the outtakes easter eggs on the DVDs from episode I and II and on the bonus disc of the 2004 original trilogy DVD set.

From Return of the Jedi

• "Jabba's Baroque Recital". Mozart-esque John Williams composition played while 3PO and R2 first arrive and play Jabba the message from Luke Skywalker.

• "Lapti Nek". Lyrics written by Joseph Williams and translated into Huttese, this is played by the Max Rebo Band in Jabba the Hutt's palace (in the original cut of the movie).

• "Jedi Rocks" (composed by Jerry Hey). This was composed to replace Lapti Nek for the 1997 Special Edition of the film.

• "Max Rebo Band Jams". Heard twice in the film, once after Jabba sends the Wookiee Chewbacca to jail, and again on Jabba's Sail Barge (hence its title). A recording of the first can be found on the official Star Wars Soundboards.

• "Unknown Source Music". Not used or heard in the films, Joseph Williams is credited for a second source cue that has been lost.

• "Ewok Feast" and "Part of the Tribe". Heard when Luke and company were captured by the Ewoks and brought to their treehouses.

• "Ewok Celebration". The Victory Song, whose lyrics were written by Joseph Williams, can be heard at the end of the original release of Return of the Jedi.

• "Victory Celebration". The Victory Song at the end of the Return of the Jedi 1997 re-edition.

From The Phantom Menace

• "Tatooine Street Music". Joseph Williams wrote four separate pieces of unusual, vaguely Eastern sounding source music for the streets of Mos Espa.

• "Augie's Municipal Band". Music played during the peace parade at the end of the film.

From Attack of the Clones

• "Dex's Diner"

• "Unknown Episode II Source Cue". A second source cue is credited to Joseph Williams' name for Episode II, but is not heard in the film.

• "Arena Percussion". Originally meant to accompany the Droid Factory sequence, Ben Burtt's attempt at composition is instead shifted to the arena, replacing the predominantly unused John Williams cue "Entrance of the Monsters."

From The Force Awakens

• "Jabba Flow" and "Dobra Doompa". Written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and J.J. Abrams, these songs were played at Maz Kanata's castle.^[67]

The score of the original Star Wars film of 1977 won John Williams the most awards of his career:

• an Oscar at the 50th Academy Awards for Original Score^[68]
• a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score at the 35th Golden Globe Awards^[69]
• a BAFTA Award for Best Film Music at the 32nd British Academy Film Awards in 1978^[70]
• Three awards at the 1978 Grammy Awards for Best Instrumental Composition, Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special and Best Pop Instrumental Performance^[71]

He also received the 1977 Saturn Award for Best Music for both the Star Wars score and his score for Close Encounters of the Third Kind.^[72]

Williams's score for the 1980 sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, also earned him a number of awards:

• BAFTA Award for Best Film Music at the 34th British Academy Film Awards in 1980^[73]
• two awards at the 1981 Grammy Awards for Best Instrumental Composition and Best Album Of Original Score Written For A Motion Picture Or A Television Special^[74]

The Empire Strikes Back was also nominated in 1981 for Best Original Score the 53rd Academy Awards (the award was won by Michael Gore for Fame).^[75]

Williams's subsequent Star Wars film music was nominated for a number of awards; in 1984 his score for Return of the Jedi was nominated for Best Original Score at the 56th Academy Awards.^[76] His compositions for the prequel trilogy also received nominations: the score for The Phantom Menace was nominated for Best Instrumental Composition at the 2000 Grammy Awards^[77] and Revenge of the Sith was nominated at the 2006 Grammy Awards for Best Soundtrack Album.^[78]

In 2005 the 1977 soundtrack for Star Wars was voted as the "most memorable film score of all time" by the American Film Institute in the list AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores, based on the assessment of a jury of over 500 artists, composers, musicians, critics and historians from the film industry.^[79]

In 2016, John Williams was nominated for Best Original Score, his 50th overall nomination, for his score to Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

The soundtracks to both Star Wars and Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace have been certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, for shipments of at least 1 million units, with the albums for The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones being certified Gold (500,000 units).^[80] The British Phonographic Industry certified Star Wars and Episode I as Gold for shipments of over 100,000 units in the UK.^[81]

• The Official Star Wars Music Site (Archived)