What I heard was an electronic keyboard version of a celesta.
Yeah, that was a synth.
And technically-speaking, Harry Potter also uses a synth -- but it is a celeste sample with some processing to give it a slightly more "magical" timbre. A real celeste is used in concert performances of the Potter music though.
It's just allegedly. someone else here will have to link to it, since I can't find it, but there's a video somewhere on Youtube of one of the people who worked on the Potter score, showing how they created that softened celesta sound, which involved a computer program. It was specifically created for the score, not from some sample library.
Jerry does indeed use the instrument in "The Invaders"...we recently recorded our podcast on this score for The Goldsmith Odyssey (should drop by the end of next month).
I'm pretty sure that's not the first time he used it in anything, either, but I'm having trouble remembering what he used it in before that...I feel like we called it out on the show, though.
I presume a celesta - maybe synth or augmented - is used in Rey's theme. Also at the end of the end credits in THE FORCE AWAKENS, where Luke's theme plays out the score.
Jerry does indeed use the instrument in "The Invaders"...we recently recorded our podcast on this score for The Goldsmith Odyssey (should drop by the end of next month).
I'm pretty sure that's not the first time he used it in anything, either, but I'm having trouble remembering what he used it in before that...I feel like we called it out on the show, though.
Yavar
We noticed it in The Cheaters, from the Thriller TV series, and you guys also cited it at least one more time in a prior episode.
What I heard was an electronic keyboard version of a celesta.
Yeah, that was a synth.
And technically-speaking, Harry Potter also uses a synth -- but it is a celeste sample with some processing to give it a slightly more "magical" timbre.
I'm inclined to think they used a sample to get rid of the keyboard "action" noise. Every time I listen to the Outer Space Suite, or "The Invaders," I heard.
It's just allegedly. someone else here will have to link to it, since I can't find it, but there's a video somewhere on Youtube of one of the people who worked on the Potter score, showing how they created that softened celesta sound, which involved a computer program. It was specifically created for the score, not from some sample library.
Jerry did use a celesta or celeste as I have seen it spelt also. It was in the rejected first score he composed for Escape From The Planet Of The Apes that Varese could have included on their new CD!!!!
Seriously, wasn't it a celesta for the source music in the Nursery scene in Logan's Run?
Also prominently on the track “Catching Butterflies” from Papillon
It's just allegedly. someone else here will have to link to it, since I can't find it, but there's a video somewhere on Youtube of one of the people who worked on the Potter score, showing how they created that softened celesta sound, which involved a computer program. It was specifically created for the score, not from some sample library.
This it, Jaybee?
At the symphony performance of Azkaban (to screen) I recently saw, I can also confirm they used electronics for the celeste (and other sounds). It was kinda fascinating seeing so many keyboards on a symphony stage.
Don't know about Goldsmith, but oh how Korngold loved the instrument! It's everywhere in his music -- as I see "Hester_Prin" (!) pointed out above. In The Miracle of Heliane (which I'm about to see this afternoon) he also uses the similar glockenklavier ("bell piano"), a similar instrument pitched an octave lower.
doesn't sound electronic 
