I don't know if he didn't remember the droid theme from Empire or, more likely IMO, he just decided that he could make one more appropriate to Return of the Jedi because that movie has its own droid theme that is very different than the one from Empire. You hear it mostly in the Tatooine Rendezvous with apparently much of that scene getting cut out of the final movie but you can still hear part of it as soon as the movie first cuts to the droids walking in the sand. And the longer version is on the expanded soundtrack. The theme shows up again on Endor for a little bit also.
The droid theme in Return of the Jedi is more descriptive of the droids where as Empire's droid theme feels very specific to the context of the droids being under distress and works well in the action sequences and such.
It is less consequential than going to the famous Vader's theme in Empire from Star Wars in terms of loss of consistency but probably the same reasoning in terms of adapting his approach to the new circumstances.
Probably could be argued either way but I think of that as more of a scene specific motif as opposed to a character theme. I guess the distinction being that it seems to accompany the entire sequence in a way that feels more about the momentum and flavor of the entire scene - arguably as much or more tied to the jawas though I don't really think of it as a theme for them either. And then, like you say, doesn't show up again in the movie which would also help give it the quality of a theme if that were his intention.
Probably could be argued either way but I think of that as more of a scene specific motif as opposed to a character theme. I guess the distinction being that it seems to accompany the entire sequence in a way that feels more about the momentum and flavor of the entire scene - arguably as much or more tied to the jawas though I don't really think of it as a theme for them either. And then, like you say, doesn't show up again in the movie which would also help give it the quality of a theme if that were his intention.
- Adam
Thanks for the reply Adam. I just thought I'd remembered Williams or someone in the know saying that it was a theme for the droids, and that for Empire he decided to write a new one. I wish I could remember where it was I read that...
In addition there is a short theme for 3PO at least that only makes a brief appearance in the final film got a couple more statements in the unused version of Binary Sunset. @1:23
I don't know if he didn't remember the droid theme from Empire or, more likely IMO, he just decided that he could make one more appropriate to Return of the Jedi because that movie has its own droid theme that is very different than the one from Empire. You hear it mostly in the Tatooine Rendezvous with apparently much of that scene getting cut out of the final movie but you can still hear part of it as soon as the movie first cuts to the droids walking in the sand. And the longer version is on the expanded soundtrack. The theme shows up again on Endor for a little bit also.
If you can point out the theme on Endor I'd appreciate it. The music from Tatooine Rendezvous sounds very droid-like and is reminiscent of the Empire theme, but it's actually Jabba's theme.
