The Power of the Imperial March

I have to say that one of the most effective pieces of music composed for a film must be the Imperial March composed by John Williams for Star Wars. 

A classic leitmotif (recurring theme associated with a particular person or place) you know the second you hear it that Darth Vadar must be close and it is a powerful prompt in the film to know you are about to view something from the Empire (the baddies) rather than from the Rebel Alliance (the goodies).

The rest of the score for the original trilogy suits the mood very well and is at times rousing or moving, but that Imperial March is so distinctive and different to the rest of the score that it stands out and is extremely effective.

Aural prompts are very powerful and when used alongside images on screen like I’ve mentioned in a previous article (Film Soundtracks and Early Ego Boosts) they can make an already stirring scene have even more impact.

I remember as a child listening to the Orchestral piece ‘Peter and the Wolf’ by Prokofiev at school and being taught that each animal in the story had a different instrument assigned to it.  We were taught to listen out for each instrument and analyse why it’s tone and feeling represented the animal it portrayed.  I remember being enthralled by this afternoon in class and the lasting effect it had on me.  The Imperial March is a similar form of this idea.

It is amusing how often you will hear the Imperial March used as a ring tone and my friend used to assign it to his wife’s contact so he always had a distinctive, if slightly ominous, indicator that it was her calling.  We used to find it amusing when the phone would ring with the Imperial March and then he’d answer it saying something like ‘hello my love’.  It was very incongruous to say the least.

Now the Imperial March has been associated with evil and at times intimidation, it has been used in other situations to suggest the same information.  Sports teams use it to tar or intimidate their opponents and it has been used by political satirists to comment on the political leanings of noted politicians (John Stewart used to play the Imperial March whenever discussing Dick Cheney).  Notoriously the Band of the Welsh Guards played it when King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia visited the UK in 2007 on a controversial state visit.



I am sure there are other prompts of this kind in films and I would love to hear those that stand out for you, but I think for sheer distinctiveness and impact the Imperial March must be pretty high up the list.  The fact that it is so recognised and powerful even after many years shows how successful it is.