John Williams wrote Luke Skywalker’s theme in the same key, so that it would follow seamlessly.
Listen to the crowd come alive for the 20th Century Fox theme. You think I’m exaggerating? Here’s “Star Wars: In Concert” at Philadelphia in 2009. accepted Lucas’ treatment, did Star Wars open with the romantic, put-on-your-church-clothes, we’re-going-to-the-movies introduction it needed to complete that atmosphere. George Lucas famously wanted an old Saturday-matinee feel to his space adventure, and Williams’ score is an indispensable part of that. In 1953 he gave it the “CinemaScope extension” (to note the film was shot in the new widescreen format developed by Fox).
It was composed by Alfred Newman, the music director for 20th Century-Fox Studios (as it was known) from 1940 into the 1960s. There are movie fans my age and even older who think this tune was something Lucasfilm or composer John Williams concocted for the first film in 1977.
