John Williams is considered to be the master composer who brought back the orchestral sounds to the silver screen.  His musical output looks back to the Golden Age of Hollywood with techniques and concepts started and developed by the composers of film from the 1930s and 1940s, including Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold.  These composers made use of the Opera technique developed by Wagner known as a leitmotif (a reoccurring theme that describes a person, situation or event).  At the time of Star Wars, John Williams had already composed several film scores including Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  He used this method of composing.  It is a structure and pattern that makes sense in film scoring.  


The Star Wars Saga is probably one of the most enriched film series with these concepts, where he uses these leitmotifs cross from one film to the other.  This project is the study of how John Williams has used these themes and the analysis of these themes.  Alfred Surenyan first started this project with the Empire Strikes back in 2003 during his Doctoral Studies at Claremont Graduate University.  This website serves and information to the progress of this study.  The first final outcome of this project will be a book on the music of Star Wars Episodes 1-6.  A second book planned will follow when the Sequel Trilogy is complete by 2020, however information for these films will be included in this website.

Alfred Surenyan is a composer, musicologist and college professor.  He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from Claremont Graduate University and teaches at the Art Institute of CA- Inland Empire.  His studies in musicology includes ethnomusicological work in Armenian Music, Native American Music, and Folk Music.  He has also studied the music of the Neo- Pagan Movement for the past 15 years.  His compositional output includes orchestral works, chamber works and electronic music.