Popular Post Tydirium 1,166 Posted December 5, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted December 5, 2019 Not sure how many others here have picked up on this, but it recently occurred to me that one of Williams' go-tos when it comes to scoring a character who is dying or falling, appears to be a sustained trumpet note, followed by some sort of trombone interjection/hit and then finally joined by French horns noodling around relatively atonally. Here are three examples from STAR WARS to help show what I'm talking about: Are there other examples of this that you can think of? Would be cool to collect all the instances for which he does this. SingeMoisi, Bayesian, Evanus and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crlbrg 381 Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 Great catch! Never noticed this before now Tydirium and crumbs 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crumbs 14,274 Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 Wow interesting! That's definitely a pattern. Would the Emperor's Death in ROTJ be another example? There's a sustained brass note which I assume is a trumpet, with other brass underneath. 5:31 here: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tydirium 1,166 Posted December 5, 2019 Author Share Posted December 5, 2019 I thought of that one too; it's close but not quite, as there is no weird French horn line that joins the trumpet note. I'm curious to see if this sort of thing is a more recent development in his scoring style, in which case ROTJ might be too early; would be interesting to try and pick out the first usage of this technique in his scores. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crumbs 14,274 Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 We need a master spreadsheet of every cue Williams wrote for someone dying! Tydirium 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tydirium 1,166 Posted December 5, 2019 Author Share Posted December 5, 2019 Good point! @Falstaft, as our music theorist in residence do you have any thoughts on this topic? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crumbs 14,274 Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 You'd think there's gotta be examples of this in JP or TLW? There's some very interesting brass work in Ripples for Carter's death but truthfully I can't tell the various instruments apart. It sounds more like sustained horns with punches of trumpets, so conceptually similar to your examples but inverted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crlbrg 381 Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 Definitely lots of horns used in this falling sequence, but without the sustained note from the trumpet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loert 2,495 Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 There's a case of something similar when Short Round almost falls into the river: It doesn't exactly follow the formula of long trumpet note + trombone interjection + noodling horns though, but at least the instruments come in the same order... Also, may be a bit random but those descending horns in the TPM excerpt are curiously reminiscent of the horns here from Schoenberg's Erwartung...(note the three long notes at the bottom) Tydirium and crlbrg 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omen II 1,234 Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 An early example of the sustained trumpet note accompanying a character falling to his death can be heard in the album version of Up The Drainpipe from The Eiger Sanction. The music accompanies the scene in which Hemlock (Clint Eastwood) travels to Zurich and scales a drainpipe to kill enemy agent Kruger. In the film version, Williams uses a strident synthesiser note to depict Kruger's death plunge from the window of the apartment. However, in the album rerecording Williams replaces the synthesiser note with an equally strident two-note trumpet stinger, heard at about [2:46] in the album track (or at [12:48] in this video). Tydirium 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Falstaft 2,097 Posted December 5, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted December 5, 2019 55 minutes ago, Tydirium said: Good point! @Falstaft, as our music theorist in residence do you have any thoughts on this topic? Definitely a little mini-trope, yep! Here's some more, just from Star Wars. Most don't follow every technique you listed exactly, but they're doing quite similar stuff. Williams never misses an opportunity for literal-minded mickey mousing when it comes to characters plummeting to their doom. Will, Tydirium and Bayesian 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post mrbellamy 6,235 Posted December 5, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted December 5, 2019 Another nearly: crlbrg, SingeMoisi, Tydirium and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tydirium 1,166 Posted December 5, 2019 Author Share Posted December 5, 2019 34 minutes ago, mrbellamy said: Another nearly: Close enough for me! 38 minutes ago, Falstaft said: Definitely a little mini-trope, yep! Here's some more, just from Star Wars. Most don't follow every technique you listed exactly, but they're doing quite similar stuff. Williams never misses an opportunity for literal-minded mickey mousing when it comes to characters plummeting to their doom. Can't believe I had forgotten about the first one you listed! That's exactly the sort of thing I'm talking about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Stu 15,495 Posted December 6, 2019 Share Posted December 6, 2019 Cool thread. I don't have any examples, but these are all great. EDIT: Well, there is Phasma's death in TLJ, which isn't *too* far off from this trope (2:15-2:22) EDIT EDIT: Oops, just noticed that falstaft already included that in his post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arpy 4,145 Posted December 6, 2019 Share Posted December 6, 2019 Never noticed how similar Snoke's death is to Yoda's Fall in Revenge of the Sith, another temp or Williams just had Revenge on his mind? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Datameister 2,019 Posted December 6, 2019 Share Posted December 6, 2019 Probably temp. I never really picked up on that particular similarity either, but it's totally there. In any case, this is definitely a very Star Wars thing, more so than a general Williams thing, though it certainly fits within his overall style. The TPM and AOTC examples are especially prototypical. Tydirium and crumbs 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faleel 5,278 Posted December 6, 2019 Share Posted December 6, 2019 Not really the same thing, but kind of similar: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manakin Skywalker 4,850 Posted December 6, 2019 Share Posted December 6, 2019 When Obi-Wan starts falling. Trumpet is replaced with oboes and clarinets though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Mark 3,615 Posted December 6, 2019 Share Posted December 6, 2019 there's also when Lois Lane falls from the helicopter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karelm 2,888 Posted December 7, 2019 Share Posted December 7, 2019 Hey, it even works here but with low trumpets when the heroes fall to their seeming death in the trash compactor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evanus 215 Posted December 7, 2019 Share Posted December 7, 2019 Yeah, I noticed this a while ago as well. Pretty cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now