because he almost never just lays down a beat.
In fact, while studying scores for this video
what really stood out was how often he doesn't use the percussion section at all.
The one word that summarizes how Williams uses percussion
is "support" and in this video we're going to look at examples of how he uses percussion
to support accents, to support the form, to support bass lines, and to support melodies.
The main role given to percussion in this score is to support accents.
These can be down beats or punching chords or
any of these different moments that need a little extra force.
At the very opening of March of the Resistance we
have three bars of this rhythmic figure that acts like a fanfare.
The cymbal and timpani give it even more punch by hitting the downbeats of each bar.
I'm going to play the examples here in reduced form because the point is not the way the
colors blend but really how the percussion is functioning and its role in the orchestration.
Later in that same cue the entire orchestra
has a crescendo and there's a rising line into the downbeat.
He supports the crescendo with a suspended cymbal and a roll on the timpani, and then on
beat two when the entire orchestra rests for just a single 16th note he has this huge crash cymbal.
Crashing on everyone else's silence is almost like an anti-accent.
There's an interesting moment in Scherzo for X-wings where you can
see how even if a percussion instrument is unpitched, its general character of high,
medium and low is being matched to the register of what it's supporting.
So here the triangle, a very high sound,
is being used to accent the highest notes of the violin and woodwind line.
The cymbal supports the horns and trumpets, and the bass drum has another one of those
anti-accents where it's highlighting the gap in the low register for this beat.
Also some people pointed out in a different video that John Williams does not work alone.
He also has orchestrators.
In particular on this score William Ross is credited as orchestrator,
so our hats off to him. Thank you for your work.
Anytime here where I say "John Williams does this" I'm including his whole team.
The snare drum is used surprisingly rarely in all the examples I looked at.
An example of when we do hear it is to support
these brass accents that are an accompaniment to the main theme.
The snare doesn't get its own independent part but is joined by the tympani in almost
exact rhythmic sync with the trumpets and trombones.
Another thing we can do with percussion is support the form,
which means draw attention to these moments where sections end and new sections begin.
The most frequent way I've seen this happen is with a suspended cymbal.
So in Rey's Theme,
right before rehearsal mark 58 we have a cymbal swell crescendo into the downbeat.
Notice that it's also joined by a tympani roll and both instruments are supporting the fact
that we have a rising melodic line and a crescendo written in all the other parts of the orchestra.
Most of the other examples are pretty much the same as this so
let's move on to how the percussion supports base and melodic parts.
Not surprisingly when Williams uses percussion to support the bass he uses the tympani.
Thomas Goss has a great video about how the tympani is not a bass instrument,
so once again we're emphasizing that word support.
In the cases where he is supporting that bass line,
that bass line tends to be simple and rhythmic.
Like here the timpani is doubling the cellos,
double basses, and tuba on this very short, accented accompaniment part.
Or here the bases, cellos and bassoons are holding
down a tonic pedal point while the timpani thumps out quarter notes at the same pitch.
It feels like a march, so not surprisingly it's from the cue March of the Resistance.
It only happens for eight bars, and this is one of those rare
examples where the percussion is being used for pulse or beat.
The timpani is not the only percussion instrument with
pitch and often the percussion will be used to support the melodic line.
The opening of ray's theme features a combined texture of celesta and flutes,
but in the original recording the flutes really dominate the sound
and the celesta is just there for support without really being the focus of what we hear.
Later in that same theme the woodwind counter lines are doubled by the glockenspiel.
This adds extra articulation to the rhythm of the melody and I also think it helps separate
that very high pitch register of the counter line from the mid register of the main melody.
The melodic support doesn't always have to be a literal doubling.
In this example the glockenspiel has a variation of the violin part.
The percussion section is just one of the four main sections of the orchestra
and another section that composers tell me they don't really know what to do with is the brass.
That's why you have to check out this video here where I talk about how John Powell uses a massive
brass section in How to Train Your Dragon and how he separates the sections within the section,
and why the trumpets don't really get to play as much as everyone else.
Thanks for watching, I will see you in the next one!