Star Wars Music Minute

Author: Chrysanthe Tan

Celebrating the music and sound of Star Wars 5 cinematic minutes at a time!
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Genres: Music, Music Commentary, TV & Film

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Hearing Death at the Movies: Dies Irae Deep Dive (with Alex Ludwig)
Monday, 9 June, 2025

This episode is a deep dive into the Dies Irae musical motif and its evolution through film music. Here to talk about it is Dies Irae guru Alex Ludwig, who has just written a book about it! Hearing Death at the Movies: Film Music and the Long History of the Dies Irae will be out on June 11th, 2025. Timestamps: 0:00 - Hello there! 1:52 - The seeds of Alex's Dies Irae scholarship. 4:40 - Hector Berlioz, Symphonie fantastique, transforming a sacred melody into a secular one. 12:09 - Wendy Carlos and The Shining. 29:05 - Silent films, Dimitri Tiomkin, vampire films. 30:31 - Metropolis. 34:59 - How was the music for silent films done? 39:55 - Dies Irae Typology and the "master list" 40:32 - Dies Irae Type 1: Prelude to Evil 43:55 - The Screaming Skull. 46:35 - Dies Irae Type 2: Ominous Echo 47:39 - "The Burning Homestead" from Star Wars: A New Hope. 51:58 - Jyn's theme (Rogue One) and subtypes. 1:00:12 - Columbia Pictures logo. 1:03:51 - Dies Irae Type 3: Tension Engine 1:04:54 - Mars Attacks (Type - "ostinato") 1:06:04 - Jurassic Park examples (Type 3 - "fortspinnung") 1:10:07 - Predator example. 1:13:01 - Morricone examples: Escalation, Fists in the Pocket, Le Trio infernal 1:22:10 - "The Master Switch" from Rogue One. 1:27:02 - Dies Irae as musical trope, meme. 1:34:48 - Are certain types of Dies Irae more prevalent in certain genres or eras? 1:41:00 - Vampire movies. 1:42:42 - If a composer uses Dies Irae accidentally, do you still count it? 1:44:52 - How to use this book. --------------- Alex Ludwig: Website: https://alex-ludwig.net BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/celexo.bsky.social Film Music Tropes (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/@celexo22 Hearing Death at the Movies: Film Music and the Long History of the Dies Irae - https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-78795-9 ------------------ ⭐️ Join the Discord server by becoming a patron at any level! https://patreon.com/chrysanthetan Leave a voice message, and I might play it on the show... https://starwarsmusicminute.com/comlink Where else to find SWMM: BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/starwarsmusmin.bsky.social Twitter: https://twitter.com/StarWarsMusMin Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/652WVfMTLwJpVZ82i8uhFA Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/star-wars-music-minute/id1552988763 YouTube: https://youtube.com/starwarsmusicminute TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@starwarsmusicminute? Instagram: https://instagram.com/starwarsmusicminute Email: podcast@starwarsmusicminute.com Buy Me A Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/starwarsmusmin