Star Wars: The Force Awakens

In July 2013, John Williams was confirmed to compose the score. The music for the film's first two trailers was reworked from earlier Williams compositions. He began writing working on the film in December 2014, and by June 2015 had been through most of the film reels, working on a daily basis. In May 2015, Williams stated that he would return to themes from the previous films, such as ones for Luke, Leia and Han, in ways that "will seem very natural and right in the moments for which we've chosen to do these kinds of quotes. There aren't many of them, but there are a few that I think are important and will seem very much a part of the fabric of the piece in a positive and constructive way." He said that working with Abrams was similar to the process he went through with Lucas in the earlier films.

Recording sessions for The Force Awakens began in June 2015 at the Sony Pictures Studios' Barbra Streisand Scoring Stage in Culver City, with William Ross conducting most of the music. The first day of recording was June 1, 2015. Williams attended the sessions and conducted the remainder of the recordings. The recording process was “very luxurious,” Williams said, with 12 sessions scattered over a five-month period between June and November. The score was recorded by a freelance orchestra, with sessions continuing on and off over that five-month period. The 90-piece orchestra recorded 175 minutes of music, although nearly an hour of that was discarded, modified, or rerecorded as Abrams re-edited the film. Williams's theme for Snoke was recorded by a 24-voice men’s chorus. Recording of the score was completed in mid-November 2015, on November 14. The film's soundtrack will be released by Walt Disney Records on December 18, 2015. In the film, Williams's score is more than two hours long.

Lin-Manuel Miranda and Abrams contributed music to the film's cantina scene, similar to the Mos Eisley Cantina. Abrams met Miranda at a performance of his Broadway musical Hamilton, where Miranda jokingly offered to compose the cantina music, should it be needed. Unbeknownst to Miranda, Williams had previously told Abrams that he did not want to compose the music for that scene, wanting to focus on the orchestral score for the film. Abrams then contacted Miranda, and the two began to collaborate on the music for the scene, over a period of two months.