Over the last couple of months, I have been attending all kinds of film music events and writing many reports about them. While I still have some events to report on, I wanted to write about something else first. While I have been away a lot recently, I have been listening to new soundtracks, and I need to write about the scores Gordy Haab composed for two different Star Wars games that have been released back-to-back. I am always excited when a Haab score is released. After writing countless hours of music for Star Wars games, he has managed to master the John Williams sound people associate with Star Wars.
Back in 2024, I had the privilege of asking Haab about his approach to Star Wars games: “I always have one of two options. I could do like a pastiche of the original scores from the films. I kind of think of it like a ‘paint by numbers,’ to step into John Williams’ shoes. Or, find a way to make it my own personal aesthetic but use the same color palette as was used in the original scores.” To get this musical style without copying Williams, he explained he went back to the source of the source, using the same influences Williams used decades ago, like music from Korngold, Elgar and Stravinsky. In the two Spotlights articles below, you can read to see if he’s managed to do it again. below.
Star Wars: Zero Company – Gordy Haab
The first soundtrack I want to highlight is from the game Star Wars: Zero Company. It is a turn-based strategy game about a group of mercenaries fighting a cult. While the focus is on characters on a grid trying to defeat the enemy, the game has a lot of story to tell. This means that, first of all, Haab gets to write themes for the characters of the game, including the mercenary group Zero Company and the antagonist Fathom. Secondly, it also means that in a story of heroism, betrayal, death and victory, these concepts need to be reflected in the music, and Haab did that with an outstanding orchestral score. On top of that, he wrote it in a very recognizable Star Wars style.
Star Wars: Galactic Racer – Gordy Haab
The second Star Wars game Haab composed the music for, Star Wars: Galactic Racer, came out a little over a month after Zero Company. It has an excellent main theme, one of Haab’s strengths, and it’s brilliantly integrated into many tracks on the soundtrack. As the title suggests, this is a racing game, and the music reflects that. John Williams has a certain style of writing music for action sequences and chases, but also for racing itself, as he has demonstrated with the podrace in Episode I. Haab has taken that approach with fast-paced cues, where the orchestra sets up a foundation that keeps moving forward, over which mostly the brass section is playing melodic, rhythmic patterns. The music is perfect while playing this game. It makes the game more than a racing game. It makes it a racing game in the Star Wars universe.
There you have it: two excellent Star Wars scores by Gordy Haab. What I love about having these two so close together is how similar and yet how different they are. They both sound very much like they come from the Star Wars universe, but they are very different games, which is reflected in the music. I am quite curious about how he has managed to write these two scores so close after each other. It is something I will definitely ask him when we would meet again.
