# Force Awakens strings - what are they doing?



## erica-grace (Jan 26, 2018)

The violins (maybe violas too?) that start at about :11, and go to abolut 1:35. Seems like they keep doing the same thing. but at different dynamics.

Is that an aleatoric thing? Or a definitive articulation?

Thanks!


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## Sears Poncho (Jan 26, 2018)

Tremolo. Fingered tremolo, thirds.


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## zolhof (Jan 26, 2018)

Hi erica, here's a snippet of the signature edition score:







Low quality scan, but you can see how's notated. Violas and cellos join violins from bar 12 to 15, then it's violins and violas until bar 25 (1:35). Hope it helps!


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## erica-grace (Jan 26, 2018)

Thanks!

I can't really see how that's notated, no  LOL

Does that sheet music tell us it's fingered tremolo, in thirds?

Also, where to find the score? Earlier, I checked Hal Leonard, but they didn't have it.


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## resound (Jan 26, 2018)

It's difficult to see, but it's written in 12/8 and the violins are playing two alternating notes in 16th notes, slurred across the whole bar. Violin 1 has D and Bb, Violin 2 has Bb and G. I suppose you could call it fingered tremolo, but it's measured tremolo because there is a strict rhythm to it.


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## zolhof (Jan 26, 2018)

https://www.halleonard.com/product/viewproduct.action?itemid=4491706

Just click on buy now and pick "from internet retailer" for a bunch of options.

I got mine from East Coast Music, it's 5 bucks cheaper than HL + free shipping.


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## erica-grace (Jan 27, 2018)

zolhof said:


> https://www.halleonard.com/product/viewproduct.action?itemid=4491706
> 
> Just click on buy now and pick "from internet retailer" for a bunch of options.
> 
> I got mine from East Coast Music, it's 5 bucks cheaper than HL + free shipping.



Thanks! I did a search of the HL site for "The Jedi Steps" but it didn't find that!


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## Sears Poncho (Jan 27, 2018)

erica-grace said:


> Does that sheet music tell us it's fingered tremolo, in thirds?



Yes.
[String nerd alert] All fingered tremolo is basically "measured", even if it's not written as such. It's symmetry, a player will get a pattern going. If it's "non-measured" it will be blurry, if it's measured it will be quasi-blurry. I played Star Wars this morning with a symphony: When he wants a strict rhythm but the same feel, it will be 8ths or 16ths. Princess Leia's theme has 8ths in the upper strings but the same vibe, just stricter and slower. Anything faster than 16ths is meant to be an effect, perhaps with a pulse but an effect regardless. [/String nerd alert]


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## erica-grace (May 3, 2018)

Hey - just realized I never said thank you for that last post, so, thank you!

So, kind of like this?:



So, what's the difference between fingered tremolo and trills?

In other news - there is no way I can get this sound with samples  I know that CSS has measured tremolo, but does any library have Fingered tremolo like in the Williams' example?


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## aaronventure (May 4, 2018)

Not fingered tremolo, but Berlin Strings Expansion E has true Measured Trills (pp and f dynamics) that auto adjust to DAW tempo, so you can do speed-ups and slow-downs smoothly. You can also unlock tempo and control the slider as you wish. It's a great patch and I'm not sure if there's another string library that did it that well, if at all. Berlin Strings are 8 6 6 5 4 or something like that, so if you were to use two patches per section and then use the transpose trick, and manually add some variation to the tempo slider per section, you could make it blurry like that.

OT are having a sale on their expansions right now so keep an eye out for the SFX expansion sale. 

EDIT: http://www.orchestraltools.com/libraries/bst_exp_e.php (It appears to be on sale now.)


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## erica-grace (May 7, 2018)

Thanks!

What about here:



Starts at :47

Are the strings playing in unison with the horns, or something else? Hard to hear them :/


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## Neifion (May 9, 2018)

A little late to this party, but I did a mock-up of this cue from the Hal Leonard John Williams Signature Edition. For that particular technique, the strings are doing trills, from Maj 3rd to to Perfect 5th I believe. To achieve this, I used the recorded trills patches from a combination of SSS and SCS except for the perfect 5th, which I had to perform via the fast legato patch since neither SCS or SSS contain a perfect 5th articulation.


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## erica-grace (May 16, 2018)

Thanks!


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