Wagner and Star Waars

[Admin]

I'm not familiar with Wagner, but I know George Lucas based Star Wars in part atleast on Sci-Fi serials he watched/read growing up. Buck Rogers and all of that.

[Peer Gynt]

I'm interested in the thematic similarities between Wagner's Ring Cycle and the original Star Wars trilogy. There are overall similarities in structure, as well as John William's music attempting Wagnerian heights at some points. More specifically you have twins separated at birth, an important character frozen between episodes, a hero combating his father/grandfather and many more examples. Does anyone have any thoughts on the matter? Is this a general feature of epic sagas or is there a greater similarity here? Is it interesting and meaningful or not?

[TexaninNihon]

I did a paper in college about the Star Wars music, and more specifically, about how John Williams took most of his inspiration from 20th century Russian composers. In the Star Wars score, Williams wrote numerous passages that seemed to come straight from Stravinsky (Rite of Spring, Firebird) and Shostakovick(5th and 7th symphonies). As for any kind of "form" in William's score, he is limited in that because since he does use leitmotivs, like Wagner, his form is limited by what is happening in the movie at any given time. As for the inspiration for the movie itself, George Lucas has admitted being inspired by Akiro Kurosawa's, "The Hidden Fortress", a samurai movie made by the famous Japanese film maker Kurosawa. I have seen this movie, and I don't see the corrolation, but maybe I wasn't watching deeply enough. Let me know what you think, about the music or "H. Fortress", because I might be wrong. Since this is a literature page, I feel like I should say I'm reading a book, so, "I'm reading a book. It's War and Peace, by Tolstoy."

[TexaninNihon]

Sorry, I just realized after reading your post a 2nd time, that you were referring to the actual Star Wars Trilogy and not just the music and how it relates to Wagner's music. It's embarrasing to say so, but I am far more familiar with the music to the "Ring Cycle", specifically "Das Rheingold", than I am with the actual story.

[Miriam]

Interesting point. I am very familiar with the Ring Cycle and i can see the connections(the twins, destruction of valhalla/death star, prophisised pure hero, ect.), although i don't think they were intentional since the twins were not lovers and never begot a child (who was the one to destroy valhalla) so i think it was mainly just happy chance that they seem so similar but i think as with all epics they both follow similar patterns, its all in how hard you look for them.