Throughout the making of Episode I, there's been a strong effort to unite this movie with the Star Wars films that came before with costume design, casting, sets -- and music. In this segment of my video diary we meet John Williams, who composed and conducted the soundtracks for the original trilogy and joins George Lucas for this next journey to the Star Wars universe.

John won an Academy Award for the soundtrack to Star Wars: A New Hope, yet he says that living up to the past was a challenge. "It's daunting for me to start any project," says John. "Will I be able to solve the problems, will I be able to come up with something as good - that challenge has been there with The Phantom Menace."

The process of creating the soundtrack began with him and George reviewing a fine cut version of the film scene by scene. George set the general contours and geography of the music, which John used to compose the soundtrack.

John says the approach he's used for the original trilogy and again for The Phantom Menace is the 'silent film technique.' Episode I is by no means silent, but neither were silent films which were generally accompanied by music that closely followed the film's story development. Similarly, the music in Episode I propels the action on screen. By using set themes for each character and offering emotional cues, the music creates reference points for the audience and gives them hints as to character's motives and emotions. As in a silent film, every point of action is illustrated. Williams says it's really no different from the way music is constructed for a ballet, opera, or even a Saturday morning cartoon.

Ninety percent of The Phantom Menace soundtrack is new with the remaining coming from themes from the original trilogy. Both he and George felt that using the first track that accompanies the opening crawl from the original trilogy was obligatory. In addition to using Darth Vader and Yoda's themes, Williams also reconstructed one of Darth Vader's themes into a melodic tune for young Anakin Skywalker. "If you listen to it very carefully, you can hear the intervals of the Imperial March of Darth Vader - an evil imperial power piece transformed into a very sweet lyrical and youthful piece," John says. When you hear the music, you sense that the music like the boy is going to turn into something more complex than what you see on the surface, he says.

The soundtrack was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and conducted by John, another connection with the past, as this group performed the music for the original trilogy. John says he was approached by several members of the orchestra who performed on those original soundtracks, and others who were inspired to become musicians because of music from Star Wars. He says that the mythology of the Star Wars films are bigger than the sum of their parts, and that it means more to him to contribute to something that will last longer than any of us.