Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)

The Leitmotif for the Empire and Darth Vader

The leitmotif for the Empire and Darth Vader contrasts directly with those used for Luke Skywalker, Leia, and the Force. Instead of relying on recognizable and natural harmonic progression, flowing melodies, and progressing rhythms, the music seems “rigid, ponderous, and above all unnatural” (Buhler 45). Along with the avoidance of dominant and the proper tonal motion that accompanies it, the leitmotif for the Empire and Darth Vader makes heavy use of the tonic chord (Bulher 45). This makes the music seem like it cannot progress. For example, the music is the same for when Imperial troopers first step onto the Rebel ship, the Death Star is originally seen, and the Imperial forces are locked in battle with the Rebels. This makes it feel that the music is being held forcibly in place. While this relentless progression is on one hand ominous, and seemingly unstoppable, it also makes the Empire seem unable to adjust to any change and so ultimately destined for either ultimate success or failure.

Darth Vader’s leitmotif uses these techniques and then expands them to create a more mythical sense as well. The series of tonally unrelated, mostly minor chords and use of male chorus make the music seem arbitrary and elemental. The “other-worldly quality” of these combined musical elements makes it seem that “only a very powerful sorcerer, perhaps only a god, could animate these chords thus, could make them progress so against their tonal nature” (Buhler 45). But this rigid, static music is only part of Darth Vader’s leitmotif: his musical characterization also relies heavily on sound effects, most notably his definitive breathing and mechanical speech. As in other parts of the film, the imposition of sound effects in music highlight the technological (and thus unnatural) aspects of the film, and the combination of sound effects in an organic being is what gives Darth Vader his strongest estrangement from the other characters. As James Buhler states, “what is frightening about Vader is the way everything that is organic and human about him is masked by technology without completely destroying the sense that something is alive in there” (Buhler 41).

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