Around that time, he and Lucasfilm's Lucy Autrey Wilson discussed the idea of an orchestral soundtrack based on the Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn. In the early 1990s, Robert Townson of Varèse Sarabande Records worked with Lucasfilm to release four soundtrack albums of music composed for The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.

5.1 Main Theme from Star Wars and Leia's Nightmare.

In addition to the score, the CD contained exclusive CD-ROM features with behind-the-scenes content. The album was released by Varèse Sarabande Records on April 23, 1996.

The 51-minute score, conducted by McNeely, was performed by the 90-piece Royal Scottish National Orchestra and a 150 voice chorus in Glasgow, Scotland in early 1996. While McNeely set out to make an eclectic piece of his own style rather than try to imitate John Williams, three familiar themes from the movies can be heard in tracks one (' Main Title' and part of 'Carbon Freeze'), eight (' The Imperial March' and ' Force Theme'), and ten ('The Imperial March'). The score, much like classical program music of the past, is based on a piece of literature rather than a motion picture. The Shadows of the Empire soundtrack is a musical score by Emmy Award-winning composer Joel McNeely which was inspired by author Steve Perry's 1996 novel of the same name. ' An original orchestral score composed for a book? Why not?' ― Robert Townson

Shadow of war soundtrack