In the Star Wars films the mythic battle between the forces of good and evil is accentuated through the film's score. The contrast between the music associated with the evil empire and that of its heroic opponents is so conspicuous that even those who never saw the films are unlikely to mistake the music of one for the other. The contrast is particularly clear when comparing the motif associated with the young heroic rebel Luke Skywalker with that of his dark imperial foe (and father) Darth Vader. The reason it is so hard to mistake music representing the villains for heroes is that most of...