The sound of Star Wars has come a long way since John Williams first put those iconic themes into the world in 1977. Since then, Williams has continued to make the franchise one of the most sonically recognisable and has been joined by the likes of Natalie Holt, Nicholas Britell and double Oscar winner Ludwig Göransson for the small-screen iterations of the franchise.
The latest composer tasked with following in William’s footsteps is Michael Abels, an American composer whose work on the 2022 opera Omar landed him a Pulitzer Prize. He’s also written scores for Jordan Peele’s movies, Get Out and Nope.
The Acolyte takes Star Wars in a new direction, set roughly 100 years before Episode I: The Phantom Menace, marking the earliest era we’ve seen the franchise in live-action.
However, the series has drawn notably more audience criticism than other Star Wars projects. Fans have strongly bemoaned The Acolyte’s storylines, performances and episode lengths, with many lambasting Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and claiming that it conflicts with other Star Wars plot lines.
Mixed reviews aside, The Acolyte tells the story of a group of Jedi coming to terms with rising darkness in an era of peace. And, thankfully, Michael Abels’ work on the score is among the stronger parts of the series. But it didn’t come without its own challenges.
“It was important that, with these new things, there is also some familiarity,” says Michael Abels. “Because it’s Star Wars and everyone has unique things they love about the franchise. Certainly, for me, one of those things is the music.”
MusicTech: How did you approach The Acolyte’s earlier setting and this new era of the Star Wars universe through the music?
Michael Abels: “We chose to have music where the emotions and the actions feel like traditional Star Wars. So, there’s one part of the music that’s very consciously the huge space opera — in the traditional style of John Williams — then there’s another part of it that, as the characters confront unique experiences and situations, the music portrays the new planets, species and characters in the universe. There’s a conscious balance between the traditional and the untraditional in the score.”
The series was accompanied by Victoria Monét’s Power Of Two, a vocal-led pop single. This is unusual for the franchise — where did this idea come from?
“A vocal-led single is a first for Star Wars, and I was excited to be a part of that. The first piece of music I wrote for the series was the music of the Ascension scene in episode three. I wrote that piece and, in its first version, it was entirely vocal. Even though in the episode, you hear it with drums and other instruments, my original take on that was it was all female vocals.
“Near the end [of the series], we revisited that idea and one of the producers, Rain Roberts, played some music by Victoria Monét and D’Mile I was instantly so excited about the possibility of being able to work with them.
“I went to D’Mile and played him several tracks that I thought were worthy of being sampled and that had musical material he could draw from. I was delighted when he chose the Ascension scene music because that was where the whole project started. Then Victoria, over the track that D’Mile made from the Ascension score, wrote this lyric and this melody that just makes it sound like it’s coming exactly from the voice of Osha, the lead character.”
Did you have any favourite worlds or characters to score?
“There are a lot of musical themes — that’s just part of what makes the music of Star Wars. Osha has a theme, though you don’t necessarily hear it until later. Her theme comes in when she’s feeling vulnerable; it’s from very internal moments we hear this theme. Mae [Osha’s twin sister] has music, but it’s very martial arts-oriented, very percussive. There are a lot of Japanese taiko drums and every other kind of percussion instrument that goes in Mae’s vibe.
“There’s a theme that gets played a lot for Sol. I guess it’s his theme, but it’s a theme of the aspiring justice of the Jedi when Osha first sees the Jedi ship. That theme plays not because Sol’s in the picture, but because it represents her aspirations. And there’s another theme for the character who we’re about to meet — it very much rises from the deep. It starts on the very lowest C and rises up in the strings because that character is evil rising. So, you can tell, I think, the amount of fun I had finding the themes of the characters and the story.”
Was there a sense of expectation to live up to the legacy that John Williams and Skywalker Sound have left?
“I think anyone working on anything involved with Lucasfilm [is aware of] the huge legacy and expectation to live up to. And that’s intimidating but, to be creative, you have to just set all that aside and do what feels right for the story.
“I wasn’t physically at Skywalker Sound — the majority of the score was recorded in Vienna, with the musicians of Synchron Stage who were amazing. Skywalker Sound and Lucasfilm’s post-production team were intimately involved in making all of that happen.”
Speaking of recordings, how did you find the balance between live and virtual instruments?
“I love writing for live instruments but it’s not a requirement of my art. Given the kind of score we were trying to create, live instruments were required, as far as I was concerned. At the same time, when there’s a new sound that works in the story and in the world, but it’s outside of live instruments, I don’t have a problem using virtual instruments. I wouldn’t record something live if it was already sounding great virtually.
“We recorded all the strings and brass live and a lot of the woodwinds. There’s a duduk sound which is virtual — it was right in the mock-ups and didn’t need to be changed. Then the percussion, we have these great live taiko drums, and there’s nothing that sounds like that. But a lot of the additional percussion is half live and half virtual. I took it on a case-by-case basis of which parts felt right for the scene. I wasn’t trying to prejudge that until I just watched it and heard it together.”
How does your approach differ from working on, say, a Jordan Peele project to The Acolyte?
“There are some key differences. The composer always has a very personal relationship with the director of a film or the showrunner of a series; how you approach [the score] is dependent on the nature of that working relationship.
“There’s often a large volume of music in a series — even the largest film can’t compare to a huge series with wall-to-wall music. The Acolyte isn’t entirely wall-to-wall music, but there’s certainly a lot. So one of the differences is that you work on a series for a long time and, as you get closer to the end, there’s a [better] understanding of how things need to go; you work in a team for such a period that you just develop a system, which streamlines the process.
“In a film, there’s a little more time to dwell on each detail. Jordan is a person who has a mastery of every aspect of filmmaking in every genre. There’s time to go back and look, tell the story a different way and see how that plays. I find Jordan highly responsive to test screenings. Often, if he gets great feedback at a test screening, he’ll want to lean into the things that the audience is responding to.
“It’s great to be able to create in these different ways and try things out. I’ve certainly learned so much about storytelling by doing both films and TV series.”
Were there any unique instruments or sounds that you used on The Acolyte that we might not have heard in other Star Wars projects?
“I don’t know what would have been used that hasn’t been heard in some way or at some point in the Star Wars world. There are some fairly intense, horrific moments in The Acolyte — or, at least, the approach to the music is very much in that vein.
“Some cues are very dissonant and atonal and designed to terrify. So, there, I’ve used sound design aspects and extended orchestral playing techniques which is unusual for Star Wars.”
What else should viewers know about The Acolyte?
“By the time you reach the end of the series, the themes come together in a way that feels very organic and it’s a terrific musical conclusion, as well as a conclusion to a story. I hope that people who appreciate music’s ability to tell a story, hear that in the music and appreciate that for what it is.”
‘The Acolyte’ is available to stream now on Disney+.
This interview has been edited and condensed for brevity and clarity.
