Star Wars: Is the Imperial March the actual in-universe anthem of the Empire?

I would have said no, but in the Movie “Solo”, he watches an Imperial recruitment commercial, and something that sounds not-quite-but-pretty-close to the Imperial March, is playing in the background.

Of course, this assumes that brass and string orchestras exist in the Star Wars universe, which I don’t think is an unreasonable assumption.

It might have been retconned in , i remember battlestar galactica they used the old intro as the anthem which i thought was cool.

There are many in-joke references like that in Solo, some may say too many. They transposed the Imperial March to a major key so it didn’t sound menacing and evil, and instead encouraging and upbeat. My sound system isn’t good enough for me to hear it very well, though, so every time I’ve watched it goes right by me unnoticed.

It was smart to change it to major key, because as it stands (minor) it really screams “WE ARE THE VILLAINS.”

Not a good recruitment message at all.

Darth Vader himself screams that, too, though.

The opposite problem applies for the Old Republic theme. The music sounds wistful and nostalgic, which is perfect for how it’s used in the original trilogy. But then it got used all over the place in the prequels, when the Old Republic was just The Republic, and it was out of place.

if i remeber in the tie fighter games they made the march sound more upbeat when you heard it

If you know a little music theory you will find this quite interesting: Understanding The Imperial March

I thought he screamed “Noooooooooooooo!”

Every song sounds more upbeat when played through a MIDI synthesizer. :slight_smile:

<Cheryl Tunt>

It’s not diegetic!

</CT>