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I was watching (one of the) Special Edition versions of Star Wars: A New Hope and noticed that the music playing during Vader and Obi-Wan's lightsaber duel on the Death Star sounded unfamiliar.

In particular, there was choral singing and the song sounded similar to Duel of the Fates from the Phantom Menace soundtrack, which plays during the final fight between Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon and Darth Maul.

Was the music for the Death Star scene in ANH re-scored to more closely match the music from a similar scene in TPM, or am I totally mis-remembering things? I'd check this out myself, but sadly I do not have a copy of the original cut of Star Wars.

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  • which special edition? the early 90s remaster, the late 90s cinematics, the version released after the prequels, or the new Blu-Ray?
    – HorusKol
    Feb 6, 2012 at 1:19
  • @horuskol So I updated the answer above. Answer was none of the above. My special edition released after the prequels did not have music in the duel.
    – Adam Wuerl
    Feb 8, 2012 at 3:12

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Can you please be a little more specific what music you meant?

In Special Edition, the only music I know of that plays during the entire Obi-Wan/Vader duel is the first notes of the "Force Theme" - right when Ben raises his lightsaber to be killed and ascend to the Force (which was the same in the original release and Special Edition). The rest of the duel there's no music, just Lightsaber sounds.

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  • I will attempt to make a sound recording of what plays on my edition and upload a link to the audio/video.
    – Adam Wuerl
    Feb 5, 2012 at 22:27
  • See edit to question above. I bow down to your pristine memory.
    – Adam Wuerl
    Feb 8, 2012 at 3:13
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    @AdamWuerl - YES!!!! 8 years of music school paid off!
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Feb 8, 2012 at 4:15
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I went back to figure out what version of ANH I'd been watching, only to discover it wasn't a special edition release at all, but the fan edit A New Hope Revisited. When I put in my circa 2000 copy of ANH indeed there was no music during the duel until shortly before Vader strikes down Obi-Wan.

A comment from the ANH Revisited link above seems to confirm that the music was indeed a fan-edit revision and not based on one of the official special editions:

Choice of music or music-less duel

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