enderdrag64's Star Wars Cue by Cue

[enderdrag64 843]

Hi everyone, I mentioned I would do this in the Cantina Band thread a couple days ago.

 

I've been writing this series for a few months now over on Wookieepedia, the Star Wars wiki's discussions forums. Originally I envisioned it as an introduction to JW's music for mainstream Star Wars fans, which it has been great at. However, with the exception of a couple regulars, there's very little overlap between the community viewing my posts over there and the community here. Further, there's been increasingly interesting discoveries made and discussions in the comments. For these reasons, I've decided that it may be of interest to JWFans after all, and that there's really no harm in posting the series to both sites.

 

Since I already have 21 entries done I'll put them below now, along with some links to the original posts. I would still recommend checking out some of the original posts because there are some good discussions in the comments for a lot of them:

 

#0 Introduction (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hi everyone!

 

This will be the first post in a new ongoing series I'm planning to discuss all of the music John Williams has written for Star Wars. At the very least, this project will cover his scores for the OT and the PT. 

I may be interested in covering the ST eventually as well, but as of now that would be virtually impossible as most of the music recorded for those scores isn't available to listen to, and TROS doesn't even have sheet music available.

 

The plan for this series is simple. For each film, I will make one introduction post to cover information about the score overall, and then I will make one additional post per cue. 

 

Throughout these posts I will discuss:

 - what themes a particular cue features

 - what scenes it was meant to score (and if it covered any cut footage)

 - what scenes it ended up being used in

 - when it was recorded

 - who orchestrated it

 - where it can be listened to

 - if there is any publicly available recording sessions footage

 

I hope that this series will be informative and educational, I plan on discussing many facets of the music that are not often discussed or recognized among mainstream Star Wars fans. 

 

Lastly, I want to wrap this Introduction post off by creating a quick glossary of film music terminology, since I'm going to be using a lot of these terms and you may not have heard them before:

• Theme - Short musical melody that represents a character, place or idea. Examples of these include Luke's Theme, Leia's Theme and The Force Theme.
• Cue - Musical piece written to picture for a specific scene in a film. Usually these will contain statements of themes. For example, the cue 3M2 New Lost R2 plays during the famous binary sunset scene in A New Hope and contains statements of Luke's theme and The Force Theme.
• Revision - This is relatively self explanatory. It's just a new version of a cue that was written to replace an earlier version.
• Insert - Somewhat less explanatory, this is a partial revision of a cue, it is usually recorded separately and then spliced into the original cue, replacing the revised portion. For example, the cue 6M5 Padme Falls from Attack of the Clones has an insert (called 6M5 Insert) that replaces a statement of the Love Theme with a statement of The Force Theme.
• Concert Suite - Sometimes themes will get special performances recorded specifically for the eventual soundtrack release, these are called concert suites and usually don't appear within the film whose score they were written for.
• Source music - Music heard by the characters within the film. Examples might include the Cantina Band, or the Dex's Diner music.
• Score - The collection of cues and revisions and inserts and concert suites  and source music written for a movie/series.
• Slate number - Slate numbers are a relic of older movies which were stored on film reels. In XMY notation, the X represents the reel number, and the Y represents the part number. The part number is usually just a running total of the number of cues per reel. Sometimes slate numbers will include suffixes. Revisions will sometimes say "New" or "Rev."; inserts will sometimes outright say they are an insert and for what bars, sometimes they'll just put an "X" at the end of the slate number; source music will sometimes throw an "S" at the end of the slate number; cues that were originally multiple parts will sometimes have either an "A" or " pt. 2" appended to the cue number. Also, older scores would sometimes use a different notation, for example on the sheet music for a cue from the Original Trilogy, instead of saying "3M3" it might say "R3P3"; these are functionally equivalent. Almost all scores nowadays universally use the XMY notation, so that's what I'll use in these posts
• Soundtrack - A soundtrack generally refers to a commercial release of a score, but can also include promos such as FYC albums.
• OST - OST or Original Soundtrack refers to the first commercial release of a score, usually containing heavy edits and presenting the music out of order.
• FYC - FYC or For Your Consideration refers to special albums released for consideration by Academy Awards members, usually for Best Original Score. These albums often contain different music than the OSTs do.
• Expanded album - New releases of a soundtrack are sometimes referred to as an "expanded album". This just means that the release contains more music than previous releases did. It usually doesn't mean that new music was recorded for the album, just that the album contains music that was previously unreleased.
• Unreleased - Unreleased cues are cues that are heard in a movie/series that aren't commercially available.
• Unused - Unused cues are cues written for a movie/series that do not appear in the final product. They may or may not be unreleased.
• Track - A track on a soundtrack album. These are usually heavily edited, and often contain multiple cues spliced together. They are also often retitled, with names that don't match the original cue titles.
• Tracking - In verb form, "tracking" refers to the use of a cue in a scene other than the one it was written for. For example, in The Empire Strikes Back, most of 2M3 Luke's Rescue is replaced by tracked portions of 12M2 To Hyper-Space, which wasn't intended to appear until much later in the film.

 

That's everything I can think of for now. I hope you enjoyed this introduction, and I hope you look forward to my next post, where I will begin by analysis with Star Wars (1977)!

 

#1.0 - SW (1977) - Introduction (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello again, welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we begin with the first score in the Star Wars saga: Star Wars (1977)

 

This installment I'm going to give a brief overview to the entire score, and then starting next week we'll finally begin looking at each cue one by one.

 

First for some background:

 

John Williams was hired to write music for Star Wars on the recommendation of Geroge Lucas' friend Steven Spielberg, who he'd had just two previous collaborations with (The Sugarland Express and Jaws).

 

I think a lot of people don't realize, John Williams was not the famous composing legend that he is today - in 1976 he had written almost nothing that he would later become known for. Barring the two Spielberg scores I've mentioned, he'd only really worked on some tv stuff and some weird comedies in the 60s, as well as a few disaster movies in the early 70s. It wouldn't be until after his success with Jaws and Star Wars that he became a household name and started taking higher profile projects.

 

John Williams was first talked to about the project in late 1976. Different sources disagree on the exact details, Williams has claimed that George Lucas originally intended to just use classical music in a similar vein to 2001 A Space Odyssey, and that Williams talked him into the need for an original score; but George Lucas has disputed this, saying he always intended to have an original score in a classical style.

 

I've seen some people speculate that perhaps Williams was originally brought in only for the cantina music as implied by the liner notes, or maybe instead Williams was hired to do a score highly derivative of the classical pieces and that he simply convinced Lucas that the score should be *more* original.

 

Regardless of the exact details, what is known for certain is that George Lucas had picked out a selection of classical pieces for the temp track which was used while the film was being edited. Many of these have been revealed by editor Paul Hirsch and sound effects designer Ben Burtt in various interviews, although they have sometimes contradicted themselves:

• The main title was temped with either the overture to Ivanhoe by Miklós Rózsa (if you believe Hircsh's quote in JW Rinzler's the Making of Star Wars), or Erich Korngold's theme to the 1938 Robin Hood (if you believe Hirsch's own autobiography)
• Luke's theme was apparently temped with Anton Bruckner's Ninth Symphony (according to Ben Burtt - confusingly the Main Title crawl is made of Luke's theme, so this may actually be a third claim as to what was used for the title crawl)
• Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring (specifically The Sacrifice portion) was used for the droids wandering the desert, and some of the Jawa scenes
• Benny Goodman's Avalon (the Carnegie Hall performance) was used for the cantina scenes
• A cue from Bernard Herrmann's Psycho score was used for the scene where the heroes exit the hidden compartment of the Falcon.
• Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring (this time the Dance of the Adolescents portion) was used again for some of the early battle footage
• Max Steiner's score from King Kong (specifically the approach to Kong Island) was used for the approach to the Death Star
• Antonín Dvořák's New World Symphony was temped into the medal ceremony
• It's also likely that Holsts' Mars The Bringer of War was temped into the first appearance of the Star Destroyer, as well as the part right before the Death Star blows up. (there is no specific firsthand source claiming this, but other than just the obvious similarities in sound, JW did mention Holst by name in the 1977 liner notes)

 

When John Williams was first brought on, he watched an early cut of the film that had this temp track. This was the spotting session, where he and George Lucas went through the entire film and decided which scenes were deserving of music. This process began on January 10, 1977

 

Here's the first page of the spotting notes (taken from The Making of Star Wars):

You can see how the notes include the shots a cue would start and end on, as well as notes describing any additional information that JW might have needed to be aware of before he started writing.

 

After spotting was finished, Williams went to work writing the score, first writing it out on 8-line sketchpad before handing the finished cues off to his orchestration team to hand-copy into a full score format.

 

Here's a list of the orchestrators who definitely worked on Star Wars:

Herbert Spencer

Arthur Morton

Angela Morley

Al Woodbury

 

Notably, John Williams has claimed that he himself and also Alexander Courage also orchestrated for the score, but no sheet music that they orchestrated has ever been seen by the public. That being said, there are a handful of cues from this film where orchestrated sheets have not leaked yet, so it's possible that they orchestrated one of those. For now though I would say that their involvement is not definitive.

 

The film changed a bit in editing between the spotting sessions and the recording sessions, so some of the cues have multiple revisions to account for scene changes - but I'll discuss these in more detail when I start going through each cue one by one.

 

For now, I will show the handwritten cue list that you can see an excerpt of in The Galaxy That Britain Built documentary:

Unfortunately I don't have a full scan of this, and they didn't show the entire thing in the documentary, but it does give you a glimpse of what the original cue log looked like.

 

The recording sessions were held on March 5, 8-12, 15-16 of 1977. There is a more exact recording log available on the 1997 album liner notes, which I also transcribed here:

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_Episode_IV_A_New_Hope#Complete_cue_list_(as_recorded)_and_recording_session_log

 

The gap between the spotting and recording sessions means that John Williams had about 7 weeks to finish writing the score between mid January and early March. The score was recorded in the now-defunct Anvil Studios in Denham England, with the London Symphony Orchestra. Here's a complete credit list of every musician who played in the sessions:

 

1st Violins:

Neville Taweel (Leader)

Richard Studt (Principal)

Irvine Arditti (Principal)

Brian Thomas (Sub-Principal)

Stanley Castle

Sydney Colter

Dennis Gaines

Robert Retallick

Cyril Reuben

Norman Freeman

Max Emil Alwin Weber

Robin Brightman

Brian Gaulton

 

2nd Violins:

Warwick Hill (Principal)

Neil Watson (Co-Principal)

Samuel Artis

William Paton Brown

Thomas Cook

Terence Morton

Jack William Steadman

Donald A Stewart

Thomas Albert Swift

David Williams

Robert Clark

Geoffrey Creese

David Llewellyn

 

Violas:

Alexander Taylor (Principal)

Brian Clarke (Co-Principal)

Peter Norriss (Sub-Principal)

Patrick (Paddy) Hooley

Michael (Mitch) Mitchell

David Hume

William Sumpton

Patrick Vermont

William Krasnik

Eric Cuthbertson

 

Cellos:

Douglas Cummings (Principal)

Maurice Meulien (Co-Principal)

Raymond Adams (Sub-Principal)

Jack Long

Kenneth Law

Douglas Powrie

Francis Saunders

Clive Gillinson

Tom Storer

Keith Glossop

 

Basses:

Bruce Mollison (Principal)

Arthur Bowen Griffiths (Sub-Principal)

John Cooper

Gerald Newson

Pashanko Dimitroff

Gordon Neal

 

Flutes:

Richard Mervyn Taylor (Principal)

Lowry Sanders

Francis Nolan

 

Oboes:

Roger Lord (Principal)

Anthony Camden (Principal)

 

Clarinets:

Jack Brymer (Principal)

Ronald Moore

Roy Jowitt

 

Bassoons:

Robert Bourton (Principal)

Peter Francis

 

Horns:

David Cripps (Principal)

John Rooke (Asst. Principal)

Anthony Chidell

Graham Warren

James Quaife

James Brown

Steve Reading (freelance)

John Butterworth (freelance)

 

Trumpets:

Maurice Harrison Murphy (Principal)

William Lang

Norman Archibald

Ralph Izen (freelance)

 

Trombones:

Denis Wick (Principal)

Eric Crees (Princiapl)

Frank Mathison

 

Tuba:

John Fletcher (Principal)

Steve Wick (freelance)

 

Timpani:

Kurt-Hans Goedicke (Principal)

 

Percussion:

Michael Frye (Principal)

Ray Northcott

 

Harp:

Renata Scheffel-Stein (Principal)

John Marson

 

Piano/Celeste:

Robert Noble (Principal)

Michael Round (freelance)

 

The sessions were overseen by Lionel Newman, who was from the 20th Century Fox Music Department. The sessions were recorded by engineer Eric Tomlinson, and his assistant Alan Snelling. They recorded with 16 different microphones, recorded directly to a 16-track master tape, simultaneously recorded with a live LCR mixdown onto 3-track masters. These live mixes are what ended up being used in the film.

 

The LSO was not given the music to practice with ahead of time, they sight-read everything that they played. Each cue usually had a handful of takes recorded before moving on to the next one, and the takes would later be spliced together into a final performance edit by music editor Ken Wannberg.

 

Ken Wannberg was also responsible for editing the music into the final film, and we'll get more into some of the edits he did when we talk about each cue one by one.

 

The last step of the music process was releasing it commercially. As is traditional with soundtrack albums, the OST for Star Wars was not complete, it only contained a selection of cues in a random order and with various edits made to them. Supposedly these changes are made for "listening experience" purposes, although I personally feel they generally make the experience worse.

 

For its OST album, the film mixes weren't used, but rather the score was remixed from the 16-track multitracks by remixing engineer John Neal. The original mixes wouldn't be released until the 1993 Anthology edition boxset. Every release after the original OST uses the original film mixes.

 

Jay of jwfan.com did a spreadsheet breakdown of the various releases of this score available here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NTJGw3zWk6qamNFBPNCfrQiMefuO2BQCDlovHwi6ud4/edit#gid=0

 

I do also plan on talking about where you can listen to each cue as I go through them one by one.

 

Now that the background is out of the way, here are some of my thoughts:

 

It's interesting to look back on this score with the context of everything that's come after it: for one thing it's very short - the entire score is just barely over 90 minutes long, and that's including alternates and concert suites.

 

It's also interesting how few themes there actually are. This first score only has:

Luke's Theme/Star Wars Theme

Ben's Theme/The Force Theme

Leia's Theme

Rebel Fanfare

Imperial Motif

Death Star Theme

Jawa Theme

And that's really it. Only 7 themes, and the Death Star theme is only really used for scene transitions, and the Jawa theme appears in a total of 2 cues. So really there are only 5 main themes in this score. It's really quite simple when you lay it out like this, especially compared to its sequels.

 

That's all I have for this week, I'm super excited to start breaking the score down for real next week, with our first cue: 1m2 Star Wars

 

#1.1 - SW (1977) - 1m2 Star Wars (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello again and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue,

 

Today I'm excited to begin analyzing the score proper.

 

This week, we'll begin with the cue 1m2 Star Wars.

 

Unfortunately, this is one of the few cues from this score where I don't have scans of the conductor sheets, so I'm not actually sure who orchestrated this. In fact, the only reason I even know the original cue title is because of that handwritten cue sheet from The Galaxy That Britain Built that I showed last week. Said cue sheet also reveals that the sheet music for this cue is 98 bars long.

 

Before saying anymore, let's listen to the cue together, and then we can talk about it in more detail.

 

 

 

Listen along commentary:

 

At 0:00 we get our first crash of the brass as we see the Star Wars logo for the first time.

 

There's some more brass for a bit, and then at 0:07 we get our first statement of Luke's Theme (the A section) right as the crawl begins, followed by another similar statement at 0:17.

 

At 0:26 we get our first appearance of the Luke's Theme (B section).

 

Then at 0:48 we return to the A section of Luke's Theme, which appears one last time at 0:58 - leading into some new brass and string material to end the crawl.

 

The loud orchestra then fades away at 1:24, leaving only soft woodwinds as we admire the starry view, before returning again for a build up at 1:31 as we pan down to the view of Tatooine and its moons.

 

As the pan slows at 1:38 we get our first glimpse of the Rebel Theme, which immediately bleeds into sharp brass figures at 1:41 as we see a Star Destroyer for the first time. This entire section from 1:41-1:55 is actually a reference to the ending of Mars, The Bringer of War by Gustav Holst.

 

At 1:55, right as we see the engines of the Star Destroyer, the Rebel Theme's rhythm kicks in, followed immediately by the theme proper at 1:58 as we see the Tantive IV exchanging fire with the Star Destroyer.

 

The final crash of the orchestra at 2:06 syncs perfectly with the Tantive IV getting hit. Thus, the cue ends.

 

 

This cue is used in the final cut exactly as it was intended to be, evidently this portion of the film's opening did not change between recording and release.

 

The cue was recorded on March 5, 1977, the first day of the recording sessions. Despite what you might think, it was actually not the first cue recorded, being the fourth cue recorded that day. Five takes of this cue were recorded, labeled 16-20. The numbering here is sort of confusing, these aren't the 16th-20th takes of this cue, as I just said only five were recorded. Rather, these are the overall take numbers for the entire span of recording sessions for the project. These were the 16th-20th takes recorded overall, not just of 1m2 Star Wars.

 

Of these five takes, parts of 18, 19 and 20 were used in the performance edit for the film.

 

This cue is special in that it's currently the only cue from the Star Wars saga to have had multiple takes intentionally released to the public, and more than that, every take recorded of this cue is actually available to listen to. We'll talk more about where you can hear these in a second.

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 1m2 Star Wars can be heard:

From 0:00-2:14 of track 1 "Main Title" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 0:00-2:14 of disc 1 track 1 "Main Title" on the 1993 album

From 0:00-end of disc 1 track 2 "Main Title/Rebel Blockade Runner" on the 1997 album.

 

Only the 1997 release has a clean ending. The 1977 release is a remix, and the 1993 release uses incorrect takes. For these reasons I would recommend sticking with the 1997 release for this cue. This is the version used in the video linked above.

 

As an additional bonus, the 1997 release is also the one that contains all five takes, all of which are included as part of disc 1 track 13 "Binary Sunset (Alternate)":

Take 16 can be heard from 5:06-7:21

Take 17 can be heard from 7:27-9:43

Take 18 can be heard from 9:55-12:08

Take 19 can be heard from 12:19-14:30

Take 20 can be heard from 14:41-16:55

 

It's interesting to hear the evolution of these takes, especially the opening. The earlier takes had a lead-in to the big crash that was removed, presumably as a podium change, for takes 19 and 20. Take 19 is the take used to open the final film. Take 20 has the most different opening from the rest, removing the opening crash entirely. It seems they decided that Take 19 was the strongest opening for the performance edit, and after listening to them all I have to agree.

 

One last thing of note on this, the 1981 Radio Drama (which had access to the recording sessions) actually used take 20 of this cue for its opening, instead of the film's performance edit.

 

Edit: One additional thing I just realized I forgot to mention: this is one of the very few cues from the Star Wars saga to have officially purchasable sheet music - it's available as the first 98 bars of "I. Main Title" in the Star Wars Suite for Orchestra published by Hal Leonard. The remainder (starting at bar 98) is the end credits cue instead, which matches the 1977/1993/2018 OST edit.

 

That's all I have for this week, thanks for reading!

Next week we will analyze 1m3 The War.

 

Feel free to talk about your thoughts in the comments, or ask any questions!

 

 Wook comments:

Spoiler

//Someone asked why I thought the Main Title was Luke's theme, so I responded with this:

Quote

 

John Williams names it such in his original liner notes in 1977. He also refers to the Force theme as "Ben's theme". Evidently, while he was writing this score that is what they were meant to represent. 

 

Here's Williams' own words:

I would argue that the Star Wars title theme didn't grow away from just being Luke's theme until maybe the prequels, but the Force theme grew to represent the Force instead of just Ben over the course of the writing of this score. We'll talk about that more later on when we get to cues like 3m2 New Lost R2. 

 

I would also note that Williams isn't always strict about where he uses his themes, an obvious example being Leia's theme playing right after Ben's death, or Yoda's theme playing during the action music on Cloud City.

 

 

 

 

#1.2 - SW (1977) - 1m3 The War (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello again and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue!

 

Before starting today's content, I want to offer a brief addendum to last week's post thanks to some new discoveries this week. Last week I said I didn't have any scans of the original production sheet music for 1m2 Star Wars, which was true last week - however, thanks to an auction listing posted just a couple days ago, I am now happy to present the first page of John Williams' handwritten sketch for the cue:

This of course still doesn't tell us who orchestrated it, as it's the 8-line sketch and not the full conductor sheet. Also the signature/note in black text is not original to the sketch, it's a signed copy that was given to a crew member. Regardless, it's very cool to see, and it's now the only cue from this score for which I have any scans of an original sketch.

 

Now, onto today's cue...

 

This week, we'll be listening to 1m3 The War.

This cue is 129 bars long and was orchestrated by Herbert Spencer. Here's what the top third of page 1 of the conductor's score looks like:

 

As usual, let's listen to the cue together, and then we can talk about it in more detail:

 

 

Listen along commentary:

 

At 0:00 the cue begins immediately with the Rebel Theme's rhythm, with the theme itself kicking in at 0:03 right as we see some rebel troopers. The theme continues for a little while as they get into defensive positions.

 

At 0:36 the tension and pace of the rhythm increases as rumbling can be heard outside, and then at 0:44 we get a loud brass crescendo as the Star Destroyer docks with the Tantive IV.

 

0:51 returns us to the rebel rhythm as we see the droids and troops again, fading away to some hesitant woodwinds and percussion at 0:58.

 

The music picks up again once the door starts sparking at 1:03, building into the first appearance of this score's Imperial theme at 1:11 (not the same as the Imperial March, that won't appear until The Empire Strikes Back). This action variant of the Imperial theme continues until 1:33, as the stormtroopers decimate the rebels.

 

At 1:33 we get some transitionary strings as the screen fills with smoke and the scene fades. 1:39 marks a percussion-y return to the Rebel theme as the droids cross the blaster-filled hallway. Notably, this shot was cut short with a jump cut right before the explosion in the final film, leading to a music edit later on. Since I'm presenting the uncut music as recorded, I had to insert a black screen for 1 second at 1:52 to maintain the sync.

 

The rebel theme falls off around 1:56 as the troopers retreat, leading way for a brass crescendo for Vader's entrance at 2:01. This crescendo is very similar to the Death Star theme, but has some notable differences including having less and different notes.

 

The brass falls away to some light percussion, and we get 3 drum hits for each of Vader's 3 turns. In the final film, the music actually plays out of sync here due to that jump cut I mentioned earlier, and as a result the drum hits don't line up with the head turns. The music resyncs in the final cut around 2:14, where 1 second of the music was trimmed.

 

At 2:15 we get some brass for the stormtroopers walking away. I always thought it was curious that the second or two where Vader walks away is almost silent. It's an interesting way to convey the weight of his presence.

 

At 2:18 the brass falls away and we get our first appearance of Ben's theme, which is played as Leia gives the Death Star plans and her message to R2. This is some interesting thematic foreshadowing, the audience doesn't know it yet but R2 is receiving the "Help Me Obi-Wan Kenobi" message, and so it makes sense to tease his theme here.

 

Immediately after that, we get the briefest hint of Leia's theme at 2:31. This leads to some more hesitant music for the droids reuniting, with one final even briefer Leia theme statement at 2:52. Again, it's interesting that Leia's theme here plays not when she's on screen, but rather when R2 starts moving to carry out the mission that she gave him.

 

The music abruptly switches to some harsh brass figures at 2:58 for the stormtroopers marching with some rebel prisoners, which quickly fade into some strange trombones at 3:09 as Vader interrogates a rebel. Tension builds in the strings at 3:22, and there's a big crash at 3:30 when he's dead and Vader throws him.

Lastly at 3:30 we get our final string crescendo, as Vader demands for all passengers to be captured alive. Thus the cue ends.

 

 

This cue is used in the final cut almost exactly as it was intended to be, minus that one jump cut that I mentioned earlier. While researching for this post I had briefly considered that it was possible that the shot of C-3PO being tangled in wires had been covered by this cue (in the shooting script it was originally after the hallway explosion before being moved to after the TIE Fighter battle), but I decided that this was unlikely since it was a pretty invasive edit, requiring other things to be cut for the music to still fit. As for why the hallway scene has a jump cut, I'm really not sure honestly. If anyone has any more information about this I'd love to hear about it.

 

The cue was recorded on March 8, 1977, the second day of the recording sessions. It was the third cue recorded that day. Ten takes of this cue were recorded, labeled 41-50.

 

Of these ten takes, parts of 44 and 50 were used in the performance edit for the film.

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 1m3 The War can be heard:

From 0:00-3:14 of track 2 "Imperial Attack" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 0:00-3:37 of disc 1 track 3 "Imperial Attack" on the 1993 album

From 0:00-3:37 of disc 1 track 2 "Imperial Attack" on the 1997 album.

 

The 1977/2018 releases are cutdown, they're missing the hesitant strings before the door explosion from 0:58-1:05, as well as the music as R2 reunites with C-3PO from 2:41-2:58.

 

 

None of the four releases have a clean ending, sadly. The clean ending can be heard in the original 1981 Radio Drama, which had access to the recording sessions, but unfortunately it's buried under sfx and dialogue. I also believe that it may be an alternate take, because it doesn't have the percussion hit at the end of the string crescendo like the film and albums do. For these reasons, I ended up faking a clean ending by fading out the music in the video above. It doesn't sound great, but it's the best I can do with the available sources.

 

Additionally, the 1977 release is a remix, and the 1993 release uses incorrect takes. For these reasons I would again recommend sticking with the 1997 release for this cue. This is the version used in the video linked above.

 

Next week we will analyze 1m4-2m1 The Escape Hatch.

Feel free to talk about your thoughts in the comments, or ask any questions!

#1.3 - SW (1977) - 1m4-2m1 The Escape Hatch (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello again and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue!

 

Today we're going to be listening to 1m4-2m1 The Escape Hatch. This cue is 100 bars long and was orchestrated by Herbert Spencer. Here's a pic of the top of page 1 of the conductor score:

Interestingly, this cue was actually renumbered (usually referred to as "rebalancing"), you can see at the top that it was originally numbered 2M1 (which is crossed out), before being renumbered to 1M4-2M1. Rebalancing like this actually happened quite a bit with this score, we'll be looking at several more cues in future posts like this. Usually this happens due to cues being written out of order, so changes made before or after a particular cue can affect its numbering.

 

Now, let's listen to the cue together:

 

 

 

 

At 0:00 the cue begins with some hesitant strings for the stormtroopers searching around the ship. At 0:05 we see Princess Leia again, and finally we hear a full statement of her theme.

 

At 0:15 we get some quick strings for the short action of Leia shooting a stormtrooper and running, but the music swells to a stop right as she hits the ground after being stunned. 0:19 has some more hesitant strings for the Stormtroopers talking about bringing her to Vader, which lead directly into some playful music for R2 waddling toward the escape hatch door.

 

At 0:28 is some interesting thematic use, we get some Imperial motif for R2 and 3PO's argument. While I don't know the exact reason why it was used here, my best guess is that perhaps it was meant to underscore the danger of being caught, e.g. "Get out of there before somebody sees you". This would make sense, given that the argument is immediately followed by an explosion, one last reminder of the threat of the stormtroopers.

 

At 0:42 the music changes, right as the explosion goes off and 3PO decides to join R2 in the escape pod. The strings swell and build up as the door closes to a climax at 0:51, right as the escape pod leaves the ship.

 

This leads into a string melody progression that plays from 0:51 all the way to1 1:10, covering the escape pod falling, the officers discussing it, and R2 and 3PO talking about the damage. At 1:10 some brass gets added for a climax as we see it falling toward Tatooine.

 

This falls away to some Imperial motif at 1:16 as the stormtroopers march Leia to Vader for interrogation. The motif gets less intense during the dialogue, but builds back up again as Leia is taken away at 1:54, continuing as Vader talks with the officer until 2:14, when the motif stops, and we just get some low strings and woodwinds for the additional discussions with the officers about the escape pod being jettisoned and the missing plans.

 

Notably, this section (around 2:21), had 4 seconds trimmed in the final cut, due to a picture edit where Vader's conversation with the officers was cut short. In the script he had a longer line of dialogue before the scene ended. This line probably wasn't cut until during or after when James Earl Jones did his dubbing, which was around the same time as the score's recording sessions. The exact footage that this part played under hasn't been released to the public, so I added a couple reused shots of Vader and the officer in order to match the music, instead of just leaving it as a black screen.

 

Around 2:35 the music starts to build back up, right as Vader talks about sending a detachment down to find the plans. This builds into a quasi-statement of the Death Star theme as we see the Star Destroyer. Just like Vader's entrance last week, this is reminiscent of the Death Star theme - but isn't quite it. Perhaps it's meant to be some foreshadowing since the next time we see Vader and the princess will be on the Death Star.

 

After that last statement trails off, we get some mysterious harp as 3PO and R2 walk away from their crashed escape pod...

 

 

This cue is used almost exactly as intended in the final cut, except for that minor 4 second trim I mentioned earlier during the scene where Vader talks to the commander.

 

The cue was recorded on March 12, 1977, the sixth day of the recording sessions. It was the sixth cue recorded that day. Five takes were recorded, numbered 163-167.

 

Of these five takes, parts of 165 and 167 were used for the performance edit.

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 1m4-2m1 The Escape Hatch can be heard:

From 3:14-end of track 2 "Imperial Attack" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 3:37-end of disc 1 track 3 "Imperial Attack" on the 1993 album

From 3:37-end of disc 1 track 2 "Imperial Attack" on the 1997 album.

 

This cue is complete on all releases, although it doesn't have a clean opening on any release. You can hear a clean opening on the 1981 Radio Drama, but it's buried under sfx and dialogue. Because of this, the video above had to fake a clean opening by using a fade-in. The remnants of the percussion that you can hear when the strings start at 0:00 are actually remnants of the previous cue that couldn't be completely separated out

 

The 1977 release is once again a remix, but the 1993 actually appears to use the correct takes for this cue. The 2018 release has some weird reverb applied to the ending Imperial motif statement.

 

For these reasons, I would recommend listening to this cue either with the 1993 or 1997 release. The video above uses the 1997 release.

 

That's all I have for today. Thank you for reading! Feel free to leave any questions or comments!

 

Next week we'll be analyzing 2m2 Desert Song.

#1.4 - SW (1977) - 2m2 Desert Song (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hi everyone, welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Apologies for the delay, I was busy last weekend and wasn't able to type this up.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 2m2 Desert Song. This cue is just 12 bars long, and was orchestrated by Herbert Spencer.

 

Here's what the top of the first page of the conductor's score looks like:


 

Interestingly, it looks like they rebalanced this cue a couple times back and forth, like they couldn't decide between 1m5-2m1 and 2m2. The sheet scans I have show that 1m5-2m1 appears to have won, however the final cuesheet lists this as 2m2. It also makes more logical sense as 2m2, since 2m1 was covered by the last cue we looked at. So why were they so indecisive on this cue's number? I honestly have no idea, it's one of a few curious unsolved mysteries regarding the cue numbers of this score.

 

Before discussing anymore, let's listen to this cue together:

 

 

 

This entire piece is made of hesitant strings and woodwinds while Threepio wanders the desert by himself. There aren't really any clear sync points, it's pretty surprising how little of what's on-screen is acknowledged by the music - for example, there's no change in the music for when the bones appear on the screen, or for when Threepio sees the Sandcrawler. The cue simply continues being hesitant strings from its beginning through to its conclusion.

 

One potential explanation for this is that Williams may have been asked to closely follow the temp track for this scene - the rough cut is known to have used a snippet of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring here, and Williams' cue copies it pretty closely. Here's the Stravinsky piece for comparison:

 

 

The opening of this is almost identical to the WIlliams cue in some parts. This is probably the most extreme example of temp track influence in the entire saga.

 

 

This cue is used exactly as intended in the final cut, no edits were made between writing/recording and the final film.

 

The cue was recorded on March 12, 1977, the sixth day of the recording sessions. It was the third cue recorded that day. Six takes were recorded, numbered 144-149.

 

Of these six takes, take 149 was the one selected for the performance edit.

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 2m2 Desert Song can be heard:

From 0:00-0:52 of track 4 "The Desert and The Robot Auction" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 0:00-0:52 of disc 1 track 4 "The Desert and The Robot Auction" on the 1993 album

From 0:00-0:57 of disc 1 track 4 "The Dune Sea of Tatooine/Jawa Sandcrawler" on the 1997 album.

 

All releases have clean openings, although only the 1997 set has a clean ending. The 1977 set is of course a remix. The 1993 set does appear to use the correct take for this cue, and the 2018 set doesn't seem to have any obvious issues.

 

However, due to the clean ending, I would recommend listening to this cue with the 1997 release, which is also used by the above video.

 

That's all I've got for today, thanks for reading! Sorry again for the delay. Feel free to leave any questions or comments.

 

Next week we'll be analyzing 2m3 The Little People.

Wook comments:

Spoiler

// I wrote this in response to someone asking what my sources were:
 

Quote

 

I use a bunch of sources. I could probably write an entire post on it honestly, but I'll give a quick overview here:

 

As with any research effort, primary source documents are the best - so that is the original sheet music (sketches and conductor scores), spotting logs, cue lists, liner notes, behind the scenes footage in various documentaries, the films themselves, the official albums, plus all the unreleased music sources (radio dramas and videogames and stuff).

 

Following that, there are loads of great secondary and tertiary resources which I can list below:

 

The Jan 1994 and Jan 1997 issues of Film Score Monthly have interviews with the people who worked on the 1993 and 1997 soundtrack expansions of the OT:

https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/backissues/viewissue.cfm?issueID=151

 

https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/backissues/viewissue.cfm?issueID=10

 

Soundtrack expansion producer and mastering engineer Chris Malone made an excellent writeup on the state of the OT scores back in 2005. It's a bit outdated now but it still has unique and important info - particularly that which was sourced from 1:1 interviews with recording engineers Eric Tomlinson and Alan Snelling.

https://www.malonedigital.com/starwars.pdf

 

Then of course there's the excellent JWFan forums, which are in my opinion the premiere resource for Star Wars music information on the internet thanks to it's highly knowledgable userbase. The info is quite scattered across a variety of threads, but I can link to several useful ones:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The old Hyperspace service on starwars.com also had some interesting info regarding Revenge of the Sith:

 

 

The JW Rinzler Making Of book also has some great info on ROTS including a complete cue list, the only one to be officially released to my knowledge.

Oh also there's this interesting resource for Attack of the Clones:

https://web.archive.org/web/20041218031805/http://www.mixonline.com/mag/audio_star_wars_episode_2/

Also if you're interested in podcasts I'd recommend Star Wars Oxygen, Star Wars Music Minute, and the Star Wars focused episodes of The Soundtrack Show.

 

 

 

#1.5 - SW (1977) - 2m3-2m4N The Little People (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hi everyone and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today's cue marks a few firsts for this series. Most immediately, it is the first cue we've discussed that has a major revision - the original cue 2m2 The Little People was scrapped before recording and replaced by 2m3-2m4 New The Little People, which is used in the film. I had debated whether or not to do two separate posts for this, but I've opted to combine them together into this post so as to not drag out the series.

 

Both versions were orchestrated by Herbert Spencer, the original cue is 50 bars long, and the revised version is 61 bars long.

 

Here's the top of the conductor's scores for the original and revised versions:

You can see that rebalancing occurred at the same time as the revision, hence the note on the revision that it's based on the previous 2m2 to try to prevent any confusion. This rebalancing likely occurred as a result of the rebalancing of last week's cue (which went from 1m5-2m1 to 2m2), forcing this cue to go from 2m2 to 2m3. We'll continue to see the effects of this through the rest of reel 2, as each cue got moved forward in number.

 

That said, the final cue list for this film actually lists this cue as 2m3-2m4. The gap at 2m4 is a bit of a mystery in this score, since the next cue that immediately follows this one was rebalanced to 2m5, meaning that there was clearly a gap left at 2m4 for something. Eventually that gap got filled by this cue which was rebalanced again from 2m3 to 2m3-2m4.

 

My theory on what happened is this: If you're familiar with the editing of this film, you'll know that all of the Imperial scenes were reordered compared to how they were intended in the script/during filming. The "look sir, droids" scene that follows this cue in the final cut was originally supposed to happen much later, and the scene originally intended to be here was the Death Star conference scene. My proposal is that the 2m4 gap was intended for a Death Star conference cue. Then at some point before recording when the scenes had been rearranged, 2m4 was dropped and 2m3 became 2m3-2m4. If I'm right, that means there may be a cue written for the Death Star conference scene that no one's ever heard before, it may not have ever even been orchestrated depending on when it was dropped. This would also explain why it's not in the sheet music scans that I have, since I don't have the sketches.

 

Anyway, the main differences between the original and the revision are that the revision appends 10 new bars to the beginning, and replaces the final 3 bars with 4 new bars.

 

Okay now it's time to listen to the revised cue:

 

From 0:00-0:38 is the extended intro added in the revision. It is primarily a steady string rhythm, with an occasional flourish from the woodwinds section, usually to accompany a Jawa sighting. It's possible that the ones that don't accompany Jawa sightings were meant to in an earlier cut, but I'm not aware of any alternate footage for this sequence being available to the public.

 

It is also worth noting that all of these shots so far were filmed in Death Valley, where most of the rest of the scene was filmed in Tunisia (or in England for the indoor shots). Therefore it's possible that the reason that this intro was added in the revision is because this footage didn't exist yet when Williams wrote the original version. The spotting sessions started January 10th, where the USA pickup shooting continued all the way into February, so it's definitely possible that there were cues written before pickups were finished. Perhaps this is one of those cues.

 

0:38 marks the original opening of the unrevised cue, beginning with the proper Jawa theme rhythm as we see R2 moving through the cliff. The rhythm continues on its own until 0:46 when the full A section of the Jawa theme kicks in as we see some Jawas hide. The theme continues as one surprise pops out and stuns R2, with no indication in the music that this has happened until the strings at 1:06 which accentuate R2 hitting the ground.

 

The music changes a little into softer woodwinds with less rhythm as the other Jawas start to appear. You can almost hear the woodwinds mimicking footsteps around 1:12 for the shot of the Jawa running.

 

The full theme and rhythm then return at 1:15 as we see many more Jawas come out. This continues until 1:32, when the music transitions to playful music at 1:35 for the Jawas carrying R2 away. At 1:47 the music builds into a full statement of the B section of the Jawa theme for our first appearance of the sandcrawler at 1:50.

 

This continues until 2:06, where we get another small bit of Jawa rhythm, before some descending strings at 2:10 for the vacuum thing being lowered. This part of the cue always stuck out to me in the movie when I watched it as a kid.

 

At 2:19 we get a nice sandcrawler melody built out of the Jawa rhythm on the tuba, which continues until 2:33. There's a short break in between of just Jawa rhythm at 2:25, for the shot of R2 getting his restraining bolt. Additionally, there's some ascending woodwinds on top of the tuba at 2:30 for the shot of R2 being sucked up by the vacuum.

 

Finally, at 2:33 there's a brass crescendo as the Jawas enter the sandcrawler, taking us to the second half of the cue. Starting at 2:37 there's a strings/woodwinds section that's hesitant and fearful, almost sad, but that becomes more playful around 3:06 as R2 wakes up and realizes that he's surrounded by other droids.

 

Then at 3:15, as R2 works up the courage to explore more of the sandcrawler, the strings start playing that same sandcrawler melody last heard at 2:19. This continues as R2 and C-3PO reunite, leading to a celebration crescendo from 3:33-3:46. As the music builds in intensity the camera starts to shake more, and eventually the camera moves to a shot of the sandcrawler leaving the canyon area. The music starts to fade out here. This is where the original cue would've ended.

 

The revision adds a statement of the Imperial theme at 3:50 as a transition to the "Look sir, droids!" scene. It is here, that the cue ends...

 

 

This cue is heavily edited in the film, with major portions unused, and several portions that are used underscoring shots they weren't composed for.

 

In the final cut, 0:00-1:11 is completed unscored.

The part intended for 0:00-0:07 is used from 1:11-1:18.

The part intended for 0:08-0:20 is used from 1:18-1:30.

The part intended for 0:21-0:24 is used from 1:30-1:33.

The part intended for 0:38-0:42 is used from 1:33-1:36.

The part intended for 0:44-0:54 is used from 1:36-1:46.

The part intended for 1:47-end is used from 1:47-end

 

As you can see, only the part from 1:47-end is used as intended. Curiously, there aren't any picture edits that accompanied these edits, the revised cue syncs with the final cut perfectly. It would appear that the filmmakers either felt that music didn't fit or that the beginning of the scene worked better with silence.

 

Even so, it is very curious to me that they chose to butcher it so badly and use parts for shots they weren't meant for instead of using the intended music but fading in at the point they wanted it to start. 1:11 would have made a perfectly fine point to fade in at...

 

Additionally, I personally think the edit at 1:47 in the final cut is extremely jarring, the music cuts into the middle of the Jawa theme and it's very obvious. Most of the music edits before this aren't very noticeable though, and they mostly fit the footage in a way that makes sense. Still, I think I prefer the original intentions over the edited version.

 

That said, I'm actually not a fan of the extended opening of the revised version, since there's not much going on in it. I much prefer the original opening at 0:38. I do also understand the argument that silence works better for the section from 0:38-1:11, although I haven't yet decided if I prefer having music there or not. From 1:11-end I definitely prefer the original intentions over the film edit.

 

In the Special Edition there's one additional music edit here, instead of this cue fading out to silence at 3:54, it fades into some reused music from 7m2 The Mouse Robot, which is a cue we're quite a ways away from talking about, being all the way in the 7th reel. The reason that it was tracked here in the Special Edition is because the "Look sir, droids!" scene was extended with new footage, and I guess that because it was longer George Lucas felt that silence didn't work for the scene anymore.

 

 

This cue was recorded on March 15, 1977, the seventh day of the recording sessions. It was the third cue recorded that day. Three takes were recorded, 186-188. All three were used for the final performance edit.

 

Curiously, I noticed while writing this that no official release has the correct takes for the entire cue. Of course, identifying the correct takes from the film is difficult for most of the cue since most of it wasn't used, but for the parts that were, there are sections that differ from the film on all three releases that use the film mix.

 

As with every cue we've looked at so far, this cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 2m3 New The Little People can be heard:

From 0:00-end of track 6 "The Little People Work" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 0:00-end of disc 1 track 5 "The Little People Work" on the 1993 album

From 0:57-end of disc 1 track 4 "The Dune Sea of Tatooine/Jawa Sandcrawler" on the 1997 album.

 

All releases have clean openings and endings, and of course the 1977 set is a remix. As mentioned before, all three film mix releases (1993/1997/2018) have incorrect takes somewhere. The 1997 release appears to be the closest to the film's performance edit, but I noticed one obviously wrong take from 3:06-3:15 (which is also wrong on the 1993 set), but which is correct on the 2018 set. So the video above uses a hybrid of the 1997 and 2018 versions, using the 1997 release for the entire cue except for the section from 3:06-3:15, which comes from the 2018 release.

 

The other major incorrect takes I noticed were on the 1993/2018 sets, which both have a different mix (more stereo separation than the 1997 set and film) for the final brass crescendo from 3:38-3:46, followed immediately by a completely different take for the Imperial theme statement.

 

Sidenote: I haven't gone into specifics on incorrect takes in my previous posts since it was only ever the 1993 set that had alternate ones. I did it this time since they affected all the sets. But is this a section you'd be interested in seeing more of in future posts?

 

Anyway, I'd recommend listening to this cue with either the 1997 or 2018 sets; they both get the same tier since they're both tied for the least number of wrong takes. That said, ideally you'd want to listen to this cue with a fanedit (or make your own) that combines the 1997/2018 releases in order to use all the correct film takes.

 

That's all I've got for today, thanks for reading! Bit of a long post today, but it makes up for the super short one last week. I'm not sure if I'll be free next weekend or not so I may be taking another break week.

 

Either way, next post we'll be analyzing 2m5R More Little People.

 

Wook comments

Spoiler

// I commented a week after posting:

Quote

 

By the way I forgot to mention it in the original post so I'll add it in the comments; this is another one of those cues that has officially published sheet music, though in modified form. There's a concert suite based on this cue - or at least there was. It's one of a few suites from this score that used to be part of the original Star Wars Suite for Orchestra that was available for rent, but was later removed. You can hear a few recordings of it on youtube though, here's John Williams conducting it:

 

 

 

The suite isn't 100% identical to the original cue, only bars 1-58 are copied from it. The suite has an extended ending in bars 59-74 (heard from 4:01-end in the above clip). The Imperial theme statement is lengthened, and instead of fading out it leads to one final Jawa theme statement (which itself is mostly copy pasted from bars 11-17).

 

Because the suite was removed from circulation unfortunately the full sheet music for it is not available to purchase

 

 

// @kingpiranha commented several weeks later the following:

Quote

 

Love your theory about the potentially missing cue R2-P4!

 

There is sort of evidence that they may have had an early idea of putting some music to the Death Star conference scene. This evidence along with a confirmation that they decided to scrap it can be found at the bottom of p. 1 of the spotting notes you attached in an earlier post (there is more to that page than what's visible in that picture, as you may very well know). Here is the rest of it:

 

As we can see they initially wrote that the cue R2-P3 (R2-P5 Rev More Little People) would start "on cut Motti & Vader under 'your sad devotion'". But this was later (but most likley still during the spotting sessions) crossed out, and replaced with "cut to R2 & 3P0". 

 

Here we can also see the note "maybe add ext shot sandcrawler at beg[inning]". This added exterior shot of the sandcrawler would not have been added until maybe mid-February or later since they shot the scene of the sandcrawler model between January and mid-February 1977 (and in a scene continuity list dated February 4, 1977, there is no mention that the sandcrawler shot has been added yet).

 

In the production cue sheets I have there's no mention of a cue R2-P4, but since there is an evident gap between R2-P3 New and R2-P5 Rev, two cues that plays almost back to back, there may have been an intentional reason for it (if it's not just a mistake, which could easly be the case due to the somewhat confusing and ambiguous rebalancing of the cue numbers).

 

If it was intentional then my theory is that they left an empty spot in the cue numbering (R2-P4) for potential music to be added later. But then probably just by the help of music editing, since the only scene that comes between the cues R2-P3 New The Little People and R2-P5 Rev More Little People, at this stage in the editing and score developement, is the exterior sandcrawler miniature shot, and they maybe already thought they could use something from another cue to fill that brief spot. Even if this sandcrawler shot was intended to have reused music from another cue it would still need a cue number for identification during the mixing and editing. 

 

We can see another example of this with the Cantina Band cues. For example Cantina Band #1; it has the cue number R5-P3/R5-P3A, which basically is two separate cue numbers since the track is broken up into two separate music cues due to the interruption caused by the "bar fight", to make it easier to identify and refer to during editing.

 

Hope you like my theory!

/av

 

 

// then I replied:

Quote

 

You raise a good point about the spotting sheet. It's possible that they opted to score the scene after all despite crossing that out, before scrapping it, or else as you said they either made a mistake or left it open for further expansion. That said, I find it hard to believe that they would've reserved an entire cue number just for one establishing shot of the Sandcrawler, especially with the note about possibly scoring it as part of More Little People before it was even written. 

 

Great observation about the Cantina Band cue though, I never thought about the interruption being the reason for the 5m3/5m3A split. I wish there was sheet music available for that cue.

 

 

// then @kingpiranha said:

 

Quote

 

Yeah I totally agree with you that it would be strange to reserve a cue number for just that shot, but if the gap for a R2-P4 was left there on purpose that's the only explaination I can come up with.

 

I would guess that JW did the revisions for this cue during the month of February (after the Jawa pick-ups were done, edited and added to the film), and the Death Star conference scene was moved and replaced with scene B32 ("Look sir, droids") prior to February 4, 1977 (according to the continuity list with that date). Therefore I suspect that the change/rebalancing of the number for this cue was made during the period when the conference scene already had been replaced, and thus the scene that would've been intended to be placed between the conference scene's replacement (scene B32, "Look sir, droids") and scene 25 (R2 & 3P0 inside sandcrawler) would be that exterior shot of the sandcrawler.

 

Sadly we will probably never know. But it sure is fun to investigate, speculate and discuss! 

 

 

 

#1.6 - SW (1977) - 2m5R More Little People (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello everyone and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

We're in for a long one again today - just like last week, this cue underwent rebalancing, revisions, and film edits, and also has interesting quirks in some of its releases.

 

But before we get into all that, let's start with the introduction:

 

The original cue 2m3 More Little People was scrapped before recording and replaced with its revision, 2m3 Rev More Little People. Then, when the cues before this were rebalanced, this was rebalanced as well, gaining its new and final title of 2m5 Rev More Little People.

 

Once again, both versions were orchestrated by Herbert Spencer, the original is 52 bars long, and the revision is 56 bars long.

 

Here's the top of the conductor's scores for the original and revised versions:



 

The main differences in the revision are as follows:

- new bars A through E replace bars 1-3 of the original

- minor instrumentation changes in bars 4-12

- new bar 12A is inserted between 12 and 13

- minor instrumentation changes in bars 13-16

- new bar 25A is inserted between 25 and 26

 

So in total that's 7 new bars, 3 removed bars, and 13 modified bars.

 

Presumably stuff like the additional bars was done due to picture edits (additional footage needing to be scored, perhaps due to a new edit or new footage from the January pickups), I'm not sure about the instrumentation changes.

 

Now let's listen to the revised cue together:

 

 

 

At 0:00 the cue starts with some hesitant flute material for C-3PO punching R2 awake.

 

Then at 0:10 the Jawa rhythm returns as the doors open and the Jawas come back. This is quickly followed by the Jawa theme A section at 0:16 for the Jawas looking at all the droids in the sandcrawler.

 

Then at 0:41 we get some Jawa theme B section for a montage of shots of the Jawas putting the droids on display. At 0:56 there is a reset and slight modification of the rhythm, the montage continues with 3PO and R2 among the droids.

 

At 1:03 the Jawa theme A section starts again, for the final bit of montage following the first wide shot. As the human characters appear at 1:15, the rhythm starts to fade away, first for some transitionary material at 1:20 (for the first closeup), and then for the A section of Luke's theme at 1:25 as he runs to talk to Aunt Beru.

 

I always thought this was a wonderful transition into the more human themes of the score. It's also a great way to communicate to the audience that this will be our main character, since the last time we heard Luke's theme was all the way back in the title crawl in 1m2 Star Wars.

 

After the more full Luke's theme statement at 1:34, we get the slightest Dies Irae reference around 1:47. By "Dies Irae reference" I am specifically referring to the first four notes of the Dies Irae Gregorian Chant, a funeral hymn which is famously referenced in many classical works and film scores. In this score, John Williams uses it as sort of a "fate" motif, it plays during lifechanging moments for Luke, particularly on Tatooine.

 

The cue ends with some sustained horns that trail off as Owen approaches C-3PO...

 

 

This cue is also edited in the film; mainly to add about 5 seconds of music for the sandcrawler establishing shot. For this they just copy pasted the Jawa rhythm intended for 0:10-0:16. It's very curious to me that this was done in editing; it's not like it was a new shot or a picture edit or anything. In fact, the first page of that spotting sheet that I shared all the way back in the Introduction of this series has a note regarding this exact shot: "MAYBE ADD EXT SHOT SAND CRAWLER AT BEG"

It's very strange to me that if the filmmakers wanted music on that exterior shot, and knew so back in the spotting sessions, that they wouldn't have asked Williams to add it during the revision, especially since that shot was filmed during the January-February pickups and would have existed at the time the revision was written, and one of the main things the revision did was extend the opening by a few bars. Regardless, it seems Williams was not told to score that shot, and it was left to Ken Wannberg to edit in some music instead.

 

 

This cue was recorded on March 15, 1977, the seventh day of the recording sessions. It was the fourth cue recorded that day, being recorded immediately after last week's cue. This is one of the only examples in this score of two sequential cues being recorded back to back.

 

Nine takes were recorded, 189-197. Of these, takes 194 and 197 were used for the final performance edit.

 

As with every cue we've looked at so far, this cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 2m5 Rev More Little People can be heard:

From 0:52-end of track 4 "The Desert and The Robot Auction" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 0:52-end of disc 1 track 4 "The Desert and The Robot Auction" on the 1993 album

From 0:00-1:57 of disc 1 track 5 "The Moisture Farm" on the 1997 album.

 

All releases have clean endings, but only the 1997 has a clean opening. The 1977 is of course a remix.

 

I noticed as well that the 1993/1997 sets have a very different mix from 1:25-end; the 2018 set appears to have the film mix. The mix is so different that at first I thought it was a completely different take, but one of my friends pointed out that the 1997 and 2018 sets phase if you overlap them in an audio editor (meaning that they share some waveforms), so they have to be the same take.

 

Regardless, because it's the closest to the film mix I would recommend the 2018 set, except that it doesn't have the clean opening. Ideally you'd want to listen to this cue with a fanedit that splices the 1997 and 2018 sets in order to have the clean opening and the correct mix. The video above uses the 1997 for the first 10 seconds and then switches over to the 2018 set for the rest.

 

That's all I've got for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions. Sorry for having to skip last week, these should be on a more regular schedule for the immediate future.

 

Next week we'll be discussing 2m6 R-2.

#1.7 SW (1977) - 2m6 R-2 (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hi everyone and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we're going to be looking at 2m6 R-2, which is by far the shortest cue in this entire score. This cue was orchestrated by Herbert Spencer, and is just 12 bars long.

 

Here's what the top of the conductor's score looks like:


 

Just like every previous reel 2 cue we've looked at, this cue was rebalanced from the originally intended 2m4 to its final position at 2m6.

 

Now lets listen to the cue together:

 

 

 

The entire piece is on woodwinds with some backing percussion. It feels very happy to me, almost like a celebration that R2 is joining 3PO and Luke. It's also completely athematic, its melody is never heard again.

 

Not necessarily music related but at 0:00 there's actually a continuity error in the video editing, the reaction shot of R2 to Owen saying "What about that blue one?" shows R5 behind him even though at this point R5 is near Luke and has already exploded. I would assume they ran out of R2 footage and didn't have a choice but to use this here.

 

 

This cue is used exactly as intended in the final cut, no edits were made between writing/recording and the final film.

 

This cue was recorded on March 11, 1977, the fifth day of the recording sessions. It was the tenth and final cue recorded that day. Four takes were recorded, numbered 123-126.

 

Of these four takes, the final performance edit uses take 126 in its entirety.

 

This cue has been officially released on only one album:

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

 

It is actually the first cue of this score that we've looked at that was completely excluded from the OST.

 

Fortunately, even though it's the only release, the 1997 set features a clean opening and ending, and fully matches the film take/mix.

 

So for these reasons I'd recommend listening to it with the 1997 set, which the video above uses.

 

That's all I've got for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any questions or comments.

 

Next week we'll finally be entering reel 3 with 3m1 The Princess Appears, which should hopefully have a longer post.

#1.8 - SW (1977) - 3m1R The Princess Appears (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hi everyone and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we're going to be looking at 3m1 Rev The Princess Appears. As the name implies, this cue had an earlier revision, 3m1 The Princess Appears, which was scrapped before recording.

 

Both versions were orchestrated by Herbert Spencer. The original was 27 bars long, and the revision was 28 bars long.

 

Here's the top of the conductor's scores for the original and revised versions:

 

 

The main differences in the revision are as follows:

- new bar 4A is inserted between 4 and 5

- new bar 5A is inserted between 5 and 6

- new bar 6A is inserted between 6 and 7

- new bar 17A replaces bars 18-20

 

We'll discuss what these changes actually sounded like in a second, now let's listen to the revised cue together:

 

 

 

The cue starts with a sudden cello sting at 0:00 for Luke falling and the hologram appearing.

 

This leads into some string and flute material that lasts until 0:31, with small pauses in between. Curiously, these pauses are actually the main change in the revision. The pauses from 0:12-0:16, 0:21-0:25, and 0:29-0:33 didn't exist in the original cue, these are bars 4A, 5A, and 6A respectively.

 

These additions are very curious to me both from a musical perspective (they feel like a natural intended part of the cue and not like a later addition), but also from a footage perspective.

 

I don't believe that any picture edits accommodated this change, due to the removed bars later on. The original and revised cues would probably be about the same length, had they both been recorded. By removing 3 bars later on and adding 3 bars early in the cue, the main effect is that the big Leia's theme statement (the one from 0:33-1:13 in the revision) starts and ends 12 seconds later than it was originally intended to.

 

So why was this change made? I actually have no idea. My best guess is that they wanted to give the theme more of an emotional effect by building up to it more.

 

Anyway, back to the main analysis. As I sort of just spoiled, 0:33-1:13 features one big sweeping Leia's theme statement, as C-3PO describes what little he knows about her, and elaborates on the message's intended recipient.

 

Bar 17A starts around 1:13, as Luke stands up talking about Old Ben Kenobi. It's made up of some transitionary material on the cello, which leads straight into a second Leia's theme statement at 1:20. Everything from here to the end is the same in both versions.

 

The Leia's theme statement continues through Luke's attempts to play back the entire message, until the hologram ends at 1:49, and the music fades out shortly thereafter. Thus, the cue ends...

 

 

This cue was recorded on March 5, 1977, the first day of the recording sessions. It was the fifth and last cue recorded that day.

 

Three takes were recorded, 21-23. Of these, the 1997 take documentation claims that take 22 was used for the performance edit.

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 3m1 Rev The Princess Appears can be heard:

From 0:00-1:51 of track 14 "The Princess Appears" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 0:00-1:51 of disc 1 track 6 "The Princess Appears" on the 1993 album

From 0:00-1:53 of disc 1 track 6 "The Hologram/Binary Sunset" on the 1997 album.

 

All releases have clean openings, but only the 1997 release has a clean ending. The 1977 release is of course a remix.

 

Curiously enough, I discovered that all three albums with the film mix actually have the same wrong take. The take used in the film (heard in the video above) is completely unreleased.

 

This implies to me that the take documentation (which I've been using as my primary source for the take numbers used in the final performance edit) is wrong. It's not at all uncommon for this to be the case, archival soundtrack engineer Mike Matessino has said in interviews before that he's stopped relying on take documentation, and reconstructs the performance edits himself by ear, because the documentation is almost always wrong. So while my information on what takes were recorded is correct, I'd take any claims about "xyz take was used in the final performance edit" with a grain of salt on my previous posts, those claims are only according to the available documentation, which evidently has been wrong multiple times now.

 

As a consequence of this, I wouldn't actually recommend any of the official releases for this cue. Hopefully one day Disney will release a proper expansion and we'll get the correct film take on an official album.

 

That's all I've got for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

I'm super excited for next week, where we'll be diving into 3m2 Rev Lost R2. See you then!

Wook comments:

Spoiler

// @kingpiranha wrote the following:

Quote

 

Hi there!

 

I really enjoy following this series of posts regarding the cues for this score! It's really inspiring, and I have learnt a lot, especially when it comes to the different versions of the album releases. Every week I'm looking forward to the next post!

 

I have also been studying and researching the score to Star Wars for several years now, and therefore I would love to share my reasoning regarding the added bars in the beginning and the removed bars later in the cue.

 

I believe the cut of the film that was presented to JW during the spotting session probably had a shorter close-up of Leia's repeating hologram (possibly due to unfinished special effects, or perhaps it wasn't even filmed yet, so they maybe didn't know how long they wanted it?). Then during a later stage in the editing process they made the close-up longer which would then call for a few added bars to the cue.

 

It is probably safe to say that the woodwind passage (bars 4-6 in the original version) was intended to start in sychronization with the cut to the close-up of the hologram and then be played for about 13 seconds at which then the Princess Theme (Leia's Theme) enters (the timing notes in the original score would suggest these two places as intended sync points, just as it is in the film). Later, because of the extended close-up shot, JW would add bars 4A, 5A and 6A after each corresponding bar, extending this part of the cue by about 12 seconds but still keeping the sync points.

 

The adding of these bars as a result of the extension of the close-up is supported by George Lucas' editing notes (included on p. 61 of Paul Duncan's The Star Wars Archives, 2018) where he writes "[Reel 3:] Add: Princess message repeats - 11 ft 1 fr" (see picture at the end of the post).

 

Now, regarding the removed bars later in the cue (bars 18-20). At the time of the spotting sessions the film was still edited more or less according to the script (there is evidence of this in some of the other original unaltered cues). In this scene, during the hologram message, Luke originally had a longer speech about Ben Kenobi. Here's an excerpt from the script:

It it unclear though if this whole passage was filmed, but most of it probably was. Looking at the original version of the cue one can see that bars 18-20 continues with the mysterious English Horn figure and ominous strings established in bar 17 (this is when Luke starts to talk about Ben Kenobi; the timing notes in the score and the timing in the film would support this as an intended sync point). This would indicate that Luke was originally going to talk a bit more about Ben (more or less like it is in the script).

 

Evidence for this, along with an explanation for the removed bars in the revision, can again be found in the already mentioned George Lucas' editing notes. There he writes "[Reel 3:] Cut Luke speech about Ben in garage after 'Hermit' - lose 16 ft exactly".

 

Here's the parts of GL's editing notes that I'm referring to:

 

That's my take on the reasons for the changes in this cue. I hope you find it interesting and maybe somewhat informative.

Thanks again for a great series of posts! Keep up the amazing work!

 

 

 

 

#1.9 - SW (1977) - 3m2R Lost R2 (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we're going to be looking at John Williams' original rejected attempt at scoring the famous binary sunset scene, the cue 3m2 Rev. Lost R2. I don't know if this is common knowledge or not, but Williams' original vision for the scene was completely rejected by George Lucas after recording, and a replacement 3m2 New Lost R2 was hastily written to replace it.

 

When most people think of "binary sunset", they almost certainly think of the latter. In fact the cue became so associated with with the scene that "binary sunset" is sometimes used as a synonym for "the Force theme" by more casual fans. So it might come as a shock that this original attempt has zero Force theme in it whatsoever. But more on that in a moment.

 

As implied by the name, 3m2 Rev. Lost R2 is itself a revision of the original cue 3m2 Lost R2, which was never recorded. Both the original and revised versions were orchestrated by Herbert Spencer, the former being 48 bars long, and the latter being 42 bars long.

 

Here's the top of the conductor's scores for the original and revised versions:

 

The primary difference between the two versions is that the revision drops the last 8 bars, replacing them with a shorter ending of just 2 bars. I believe that the original bars likely scored the quick Owen/Beru kitchen scene after Luke runs off. Unfortunately, as I said it was never recorded so there's no easy way to listen to it.

 

Now, without further ado, let's listen to the recorded revision:

 

 

 

 

At 0:00 we get a 3 note sting that's repeated a couple times throughout this cue. Technically a higher octave version also begins the replacement cue, but we'll cover that next week.

 

Variations of the 3 notes are repeated as Owen and Beru talk until 0:22, when we see the sunset. Then begins a repeating version of the dies irae Fate motif with an orchestral swell that grows stronger as Luke stares at the sunset, and then fades away at 0:56.

 

Then at 0:58 we get that 3 note sting again, with a couple variations as Luke looks for the droids.

 

At 1:08 3PO's appearance is accentuated, and then there's some soft material as he explains how R2 has run off.

 

Then at 1:21 as Luke runs outside, the repeating dies irae fate motif returns, and we also get a set of 9 transitionary notes, which will appear once more later in the score.

 

There's then some soft strings and woodwinds as 3PO and Luke discuss having to search for R2 in the morning. This fades out by 2:02.

 

Then at 2:02 we get one final string note for Owen stepping outside looking for Luke in the morning. Thus the cue ends....

 

 

This original cue was rejected by George Lucas shortly after it was recorded. Williams actually talks about this in the liner notes on the original 1977 vinyl:


 

I'm not actually sure what he means here by Luke's theme, because there is no Luke theme in this cue. But regardless, it would appear that George Lucas rejected this cue and asked for a complete rewrite using Ben's theme, because it would better serve the emotions of the scene.

 

I heartily agree. As interesting as this original version is, I'm very glad that the piece was replaced, and I think George's instincts were right here. I'm actually curious if this score and film would have been nearly as successful if the original piece had been used. The replacement cue is often considered to be the highlight from this score, and it's among the most popular film music of all time. I don't know that the binary sunset scene would've been nearly as memorable with this original piece.

 

 

This cue was recorded on March 8, 1977, the second day of the recording sessions. It was the fifth and last cue recorded that day.

 

Two takes were recorded, 54-55. The 1997 take documentation doesn't cover this piece as all since it was completely rejected. As a result I'm actually unsure which of the two takes the set presents.

 

This cue has been officially released on just one album:

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

 

More specifically, 3m2 Rev Lost R2 can be heard:

From 0:00-2:19 of disc 1 track 13 "Binary Sunset (Alternate)" on the 1997 album.

 

The 1997 release has a clean opening and ending.

 

That's all I've got for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be listening to the replacement cue, 3m2 New Lost R2.

 

Wook comments:

Spoiler

// @kingpiranha wrote:
 

Quote

 

Wonderful post! 

I really enjoy this cue for its mysterious nature  and the great story surrounding it. 

 

If it is okay I would like to share a thought of mine regarding this cue's original ending.

 

I feel that the original ending of this cue most likley was underscoring scene B32 (Stormtroopers/Dewback - "Look sir, droids"). Looking at the score pages, the original last 8 bars presents musical materials that are strongly associated with the Empire (Darth Vader's Theme and it's related martial accompaniment figure) along with the marking "With menace". Also, it is known that this scene originally wasn't in the place where it is in the final film (where it comes between scenes 20/21 and 25; i.e. at the end of the cue R2-P3 NEW The Little People). In the script this scene comes right after the kitchen scene with Owen and Beru (scene A32). 

 

So, I would suggest that in the cut from which JW originally composed this cue this scene (B32: Stormtroopers/Dewback) was placed right before the kitchen scene, and therefore at the end of this cue. As presented above, this is based mainly on the musical evidence found in the original version of the cue's score (which is reminiscent of how this scene is scored in the revised ending for R2-P3 NEW The Little People) and the original nearby location of the scene in the script.

 

That's my perspective, I hope it was a little bit interesting.

/av

 

 

 

#1.10 - SW (1977) - 3m2N Lost R2 (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we're going to be looking at what's possibly the most famous cue from all of Star Wars, outside of perhaps the main title. 3m2 New Lost R2 is the replacement cue John Williams wrote after his original attempt at the scene was rejected by George Lucas (see last week's post).

 

The short version is that after hearing the original, George Lucas asked him to rewrite it from scratch using Ben's theme as a base, since it seemed to fit the emotions of the scene better.

 

Unfortunately, I don't have scans of the handwritten conductor's score for this cue, so I have no idea who orchestrated it. I can at least tell you that it is 37 bars long, thanks to a typeset copy that I have.

 

Don't get confused by the lower number of bars, this cue is meant to be a drop in replacement for 3m2 Rev. Lost R2, it's only 5 bars shorter because it is meant to be played slower.

 

Without further ado, let's listen to the cue:

 

 

At 0:00 we get that 3-note sting again that was first used in the original version of the cue. It only appears once, almost immediately segueing into Luke's theme at 0:03 as he storms off. The soft woodwinds continue playing Luke's theme as Owen and Beru discuss his father.

 

Then at 0:22 we get a lead-in to Ben's theme on the bassoon, bouncing between two of the starting notes, before Ben's theme starts for real as an English Horn solo at 0:28.

 

This continues as Luke stares at the sunset, building into a climax with the rest of the orchestra at 0:44. Ben's theme then fades away as Luke walks inside.

 

Then at 0:59 we get some hints of the Rebel fanfare on the flute, followed by a sting for 3PO's reappearance at 1:08.

 

Then at 1:11 we get a string lead-in to more Luke theme as he seeks R2, which begins at 1:20 on the clarinet. This leads directly to another Ben's theme statement from the horns at 1:34 which continues through Luke and 3PO's discussion, all the way until 2:02 when we get a final string note for Owen's appearance, similar to in the original. Thus the cue ends...

 

 

There's a few interesting things of note with this cue from a large meta perspective. For one thing, most people today think of "Ben's theme" as "The Force Theme", even though Williams originally intended it as the former. Even Williams himself begins to treat it as the latter in his future scores. I think that this replacement cue was a huge contributing factor to this change in meaning, since at this point in the film Luke hasn't even met Ben yet.

 

I think that when this piece was written, Williams probably saw it as foreshadowing, similar to how he also includes the Rebel fanfare in it even though Luke hasn't joined the Rebellion yet either. But on reflection, it seems to evoke feelings of destiny and of the Force, moreso than foreshadowing the appearance of Ben. If there was one catalyst for Ben's theme becoming the Force theme, it was probably this replacement cue.

 

The other interesting thing to me is that this cue is one of the most popular and famous from this entire score. It made the scene hugely memorable, and likely had a large impact on the success of the movie. It really makes me wonder, if George Lucas had not rejected the original piece, would the film have been as successful as it was? I'm curious to hear other people's thoughts on this in the comments.

 

This cue was recorded on March 15, 1977, the seventh day of recording sessions, a full week after the cue it replaced. This means it's likely that this cue was written between March 8 and March 15, making it the last cue written for the film.

 

Five takes were recorded, 198-202. The 1997 take documentation says that the final performance edit used take 202 in its entirety. I think this is probably accurate since I found no take differences between any of the releases.

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 3m1 Rev The Princess Appears can be heard:

From 1:51-end of track 14 "The Princess Appears" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 1:51-end of disc 1 track 6 "The Princess Appears" on the 1993 album

From 1:53-end of disc 1 track 6 "The Hologram/Binary Sunset" on the 1997 album.

 

All releases have clean endings, but only the 1997 release has a clean opening. The 1977 release is of course a remix.

 

As I said above, all releases seem to present the same take, although the 1997 release is a little brickwalled. For this reason the video above is primarily the 1993 set, although it uses the 1997 for the clean opening.

 

Note: for anyone who doesn't know, brickwalling means the album mastering engineer amplified the music too much and cut off the peaks, limiting the dynamic range. This can introduce distortion. The 1997 set has a lot of this overamplification, so I try to use the other sets to replace it when I can.

 

That's all I've got for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be listening to 3m3 Rev The Sand Speeder. See you then!

#1.11 - SW (1977) - 3m3R The Sand Speeder (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 3m3 Rev. The Sand Speeder. This cue is a longer revision of an earlier cue, 3m3 The Sand Speeder, which went unrecorded.

 

Both versions were orchestrated by Herbert Spencer, the earlier version being 38 bars long, and the revision being 49 bars.

 

Here are the tops of the conductor's scores for both versions:

 

 

The only difference between the two is the insertion of 11 new bars between bars 24 and 25, presumably because of new footage being added.

 

This leads into an important point before we get into listening - this cue is the first we've looked at where the footage scored was substantially different to that which made it into the final cut. Over half of this cue was edited out of the film due to footage being cut, and the version of the scene that Williams scored has never been made available.

 

I have, to the best of my ability, attempted to reconstruct how I believe the scene was meant to play out based on the script, the sync points in the music, and the available footage (sourced primarily from the Blu-ray deleted scenes, the enhanced edition of the Making of Star Wars ebook).

 

That being said, I can't guarantee that this is completely accurate to what John Williams actually wrote and recorded against, there was a lot of guess work involved in the timings and even the exact footage used for the later half of the cue. Hopefully one day we'll get to see the rough cut version of this scene officially released...

 

With that disclaimer out of the way, let's get to listening:

 

 

 

 

At 0:00 the cue begins with some "bouncing" staccato horns and strings, not quite a melody, but a texture that Williams uses for the landspeeder. This texture will reappear multiple times throughout this cue and future cues.

 

At 0:10 we get a statement of Luke's theme as he and C-3PO ride through the desert. This fades away around 0:22 and we get more bouncing landspeeder textures. These build up to a climax at 0:33.

 

Then the cue switches gears with some loud brass as we switch to a wide shot with some Tusken Raiders, before the cue switches gears completely at 0:38, becoming much more percussion focused.

 

From 0:38 to 1:01 we get a lot of exotic and scary percussion and brass as the Tusken Raiders mount their Banthas and head off. The section from 0:38-0:50 in particular is the section added by the revision, the original 3m3 didn't have it.

 

Eventually the brass/percussion end abruptly, and there is one last string statement at 1:01 to end the cue, that trails off as Luke and 3PO find R2. Thus the cue ends...

 

 

Before moving on, I'll just list a few notes here about video editing, and why I made certain choices that I did in my reconstruction. The footage I used is as follows:

0:00-0:08 (final cut)

0:08-0:28 (Blu-ray deleted scene)

0:28-0:32 (still of unused landspeeder scanner graphic)

0:32-0:46 (final cut)

0:46-0:56 (Making of Star Wars ebook)

0:56-end (final cut)

 

I chose to open with the establishing shot from the final cut because it seemed obvious that that's what it was filmed for. It also has the added benefit that it makes it so that we hear Luke's theme under the first shot he's on screen.

 

I trimmed the opening of the Blu-ray deleted scene (Luke and C-3PO going "How's that?" "Yes, yes, that's much better!"), because it was completely unrelated to the scene and didn't fit timing-wise into the cue. I'm pretty confident that that segment was trimmed from the cut that Williams scored.

 

The Blu-ray deleted scene unfortunately ends early, but the final film uses the dialogue that would've played over 0:28-0:32 (inserted over the establishing shot), specifically Luke talking about a blip on the scanner that might be R2. To my knowledge, no footage has ever been released of this segment, but I was able to find a printed copy of the unused scanner graphic made by the same person who made the targeting computer graphics.

 

Next up, the sync from 0:32-0:40 seemed correct in the final film, so I maintained it. From 0:40-1:01 is the part I'm least confident is accurate, both due to the limited footage I had and the difficulties of the timing. The best I could come up with is that the rapid repeated drums from 0:45-0:49 were Mickey Mousing the one Raider running down the hill (a shot which unfortunately is cut short in the ebook, so I can't be 100% confident of the length), this had the added benefit of making the rumbling noise at 0:49 line up with the Bantha beginning to move, which made sense to me. Then I put the final cut shot of the Bantha turning around right after words to sync with the other rumbling noise at 0:56. This just left the rest of the final cut footage, which I placed at the start, making it so the closeup of the hill run led into the wide shot.

 

I'm not terribly confident that the Bantha climb/turnaround shots were separate in the cut Williams scored, but since they are in the final cut, and I had no other footage, I just left it that way.

 

 

Now that the video notes are wrapped up, I also want to mention the music edits made in the final cut. After most of the landspeeder footage was cut due to poor vfx, and it was also decided to trim some of the Tusken Raider footage, about half of the cue was cut out of the final film. Specifically:

 

The part intended for 0:00-0:04 in the original cut is used from 0:00-0:04 in the final.

The part intended for 0:26-0:30 is used from 0:04-0:08.

The part intended for 0:31-0:43 is used from 0:08-0:20.

The part intended for 0:51-0:59 is used from 0:20-0:29.

The part intended for 1:01-1:09 is used from 0:29-0:37.

 

Every other part I didn't mention was exised entirely.

 

 

This cue was recorded on March 11, 1977, the fifth day of the recording sessions. It was the second cue recorded that day. Six takes were recorded, numbered 87-92. According to the 1997 take log documentation, only take 92 was used for the performance edit.

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 3m3 Rev. The Sand Speeder can be heard:

From 0:00-1:01 of track 10 "The Land of the Sand People" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 0:00-1:01 of disc 1 track 7 "The Land of the Sand People" on the 1993 album

From 0:00-1:09 of disc 1 track 7 "Landspeeder Search/Attack of the Sand People" on the 1997 album.

 

I didn't notice any incorrect takes when comparing releases for this cue. As usual, the 1977 set is a remix and should be avoided. All releases have clean openings, but only the 1997 has a clean ending. That said, even the 1997 seems to fade a little early, so for the video above, I extended the ending using the film audio. I also used the 1993 set for the bulk of the cue, in order to undo some of the brickwalling on the 1997 set.

 

If you want to listen to this cue I'd recommend making a hybrid edit of the 1993 and 1997 sets to get the clean ending without the brickwalling.

 

That's all I've got for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Tune in next week where I'll be discussing 3m4-4m1 Rev. The Sandman Attacks.

#1.11 - SW (1977) - 3m4-4m1R The Sandman Attacks (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 3m4-4m1 Rev. The Sandman Attacks. This cue is a longer revision of an earlier cue, 3m4-4m1 The Sandman Attacks, which went unrecorded.

 

Both versions were orchestrated by Herbert Spencer. The original is 46 bars long, and the revision is 48 bars long.

 

Here are the tops of the conductor's scores for both versions:

 

 

The only difference between the original and the revision is the extremely minor addition of two new bars between 17 and 18. I'll point out where these were added in a moment.

 

Now, let's listen to the cue together:

 

 

 

 

At 0:00 we get some suspenseful strings as Luke realizes the danger of nearby Tusken Raiders and grabs his gear. The music quiets around 0:08, and we get some soft woodwinds as he watches some Banthas at a distance.

 

This changes at 0:19 as a Tusken Raider sneak attacks Luke at close range. Here we get some loud scary attack music, driven by a slap-stick. Again, this fades out pretty quickly, and by 0:28 the music quiets down. Curiously it seems the music quiets about a second before the picture changes, I'm not sure if this was intentional or if a sync point was missed,

 

Regardless, at 0:29 the music quiets again, and we get some slow steady strings with accompanying horn. This is where the additional two bars were added in the revision, bars 17A and 17B can be heard from 0:33-0:36. I think it's likely that the establishing shot that they score was added, and that is the reason for the revision.

 

Anyway, the strings and horns continue along, playing a hesitant melody as R2 watches the Tusken Raiders tear through Luke's landspeeder. This may actually be intended as a non-action theme for the Tusken Raiders, because it appears again when they're mentioned in the next cue.

 

This changes suddenly at 1:00, when we get a loud sting for Ben Kenobi's entrance, accompanied in the film by the infamous Krayt Dragon call sound effect that was replaced in some of the Special Edition rereleases.

 

Then at 1:06 we get these repeating woodwinds/brass statements, as the cloaked Ben approaches Luke and checks on him.

 

At 1:29, when Ben notices R2 (but before he removes his hood), we get some nice ascending harp, with some steady backing woodwinds.

 

This is followed by a statement of Ben's theme as Luke stirs awake at 1:38. Once Luke becomes fully conscious and realizes who saved him, the music fades out. Thus, the cue ends...

 

 

This cue was recorded on March 16, 1977, the eighth and final day of the recording sessions. It was the second cue recorded that day. This makes it the second to last cue ever recorded in the original Star Wars sessions. Five takes were recorded, numbered 210-214. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used takes 213 and 214.

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 3m4-4m1 Rev. The Sandman Attacks can be heard:

From 1:01-end of track 10 "The Land of the Sand People" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 1:01-end of disc 1 track 7 "The Land of the Sand People" on the 1993 album

From 1:09-end of disc 1 track 7 "Landspeeder Search/Attack of the Sand People" on the 1997 album.

 

The 1977 release is a remix and should be avoided. Every release has a clean ending, but none has a clean opening, although the 1997 comes close - except that its opening also uses the wrong take. Also, the 1993 and 1977/2018 sets are both completely missing the first 19 seconds of the cue.

 

That leads me to one weird thing I noticed while comparing this cue on the different albums and in the film, not only do the different sets have wrong takes, but also different edit points between the takes.

 

For example, on the 1997 set:

0:00-0:19 is the wrong take

0:19-0:56 matches the film takes

0:56-1:00 is the wrong take

1:00-1:19 matches the film takes

1:19-1:30 is the wrong take

1:30-end matches the film takes

 

Meanwhile, on the 1993 set:

0:19-1:00 matches the film takes

1:00-1:30 is the wrong take

1:30-end matches the film takes

 

Meanwhile, on the 2018 set:

0:19-end matches the film takes except for one transition point from 0:59-1:00, the 2018 set jumps between the takes earlier than the film does, making it 1 second shorter. This additional second can be heard on the 1993 set.

 

This isn't even the only transition point that differs between sources, although it is the only one that you'd have to fix yourself if you made your own edit. One big difference is the transition point at 1:30. The 1997 gets this part so wrong that it's an entire second shorter than the film here. I remember when I first tried to make a film edit several years ago using only the 1997 set as a source and I struggled really hard to get it to sync up, not realizing that it was literally missing material due to the use of wrong takes.

 

The result of all this is that recovering the original film performance edit using the commercial albums is a nightmare mess. For my edit in the video above, I used a film rip for the first 20 seconds, and the 2018 set for the rest, except for the missing second from 0:59-1:00, which mostly came from the 1993 set, except I used the film rip to patch the transition from the 1993 back to the 2018.

 

Hopefully one day the correct film take opening will get officially released. The 2018 set probably would've had it if it didn't replicate the 1977 microedits.

 

Anyway, that's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be discussing 4m2 Obi-Wan Kenobi. See you then!

#1.13 - SW (1977) - 4m2 Obi-Wan Kenobi (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 4m2 Obi-Wan Kenobi. This is the first cue we've looked at in a while that has no revisions or anything.

 

This cue is 32 bars long, and was orchestrated by Arthur Morton. I believe this also makes it the first cue we've looked at that was not orchestrated by Herbert Spencer.

 

Here's what the top of the conductor's score looks like:

 

Let's listen to the cue together:

 

 

At 0:00 the cue begins with some flute material as Ben recognizes the name "Obi-Wan".

 

This leads into a statement of Ben's theme at 0:09 as he talks about not having heard the name in a long time. The statement continues through him revealing that he used to go by Obi-Wan, and changed his name to Ben before Luke was born.

 

At 0:34 the theme climaxes into some ascending material for "I don't seem to remember ever owning a droid", before giving way for the return of that Tusken Raider melody from the previous cue at 0:45, right as Ben senses that they're on their way back.

 

Then at 1:00, the music switches again, repeating the melody from the unused 3m2R Lost R2, when Luke and 3PO run outside to look for the missing R2. It's unclear to me if this was meant to be a full theme, or just a quick callback.

 

I also think it's interesting that the string ostinato that immediately follows is sort of a reverse dies irae, ascending instead of descending, the exact opposite of when R2 was missing.

 

This builds up into the final transitionary material at 1:18. This covers Luke and Ben talking 3PO out of giving up, and lifting him before jump cutting to Ben's hut at 1:30, for one final string fadeout. Thus the cue ends...

 

 

This cue was recorded on March 11, 1977, the fifth day of the recording sessions. It was the ninth cue recorded that day. Six takes were recorded, numbered 117-122. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used just take 122.

 

Thanks to the JW Rinzler making of book, here's a photo from the recording sessions, seconds after one of the takes of this cue was finished:

 

You'll notice that the screen is in black and white, all of the conducting prints used for the OT films were black and white. These special prints also had various symbols (usually moving lines and flashing circles) in order to indicate sync points.

 

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 4m2 Obi-Wan Kenobi can be heard:

From 1:34-3:09 of track 8 "Inner City" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 1:35-3:10 of disc 1 track 9 "Inner City" on the 1993 album

From 0:00-1:39 of disc 1 track 8 "Tales of a Jedi Knight/Learn About the Force" on the 1997 album.

 

The 1977 release is a remix and should be avoided. The only release with either a clean opening or ending is the 1997, which has both. Every other release crossfades other cues at the beginning and end. All three releases with the film mix appear to have the same take, and the 1997 has no brickwalling this time around. For this reason I would recommend just listening to the 1997 set for this cue. The above video uses just the 1997.

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be discussing 4m2A The Force. See you then!

#1.14 - SW (1977) - 4m2A The Force (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue. Happy 47th Star Wars Anniversary!

 

Today we're going to be listening to 4m2A The Force. This is another straightforward cue, with no revisions or anything.

 

This cue is just 14 bars long, and was orchestrated by Herbert Spencer.

 

Here's what the top of the conductor's score looks like:

Now let's listen to the cue together:

 

 

At 0:00 the cue begins with a muted Imperial theme statement on the bassoon, as Ben explains how Luke's father was killed by Darth Vader, along with the rest of the Jedi. The theme continues with some harp flourishes beginning at 0:19, as Ben elaborates on his seduction by the Dark Side of the Force.

 

Then at 0:30, right as Luke asks "The Force?", Ben's theme kicks in on the horns, as Ben vaguely explains what The Force is. The cue slowly fades out from here, as attention turns to R2....

 

 

This cue was recorded on March 11, 1977, the fifth day of the recording sessions. Curiously, it appears to have been recorded multiple times non-consecutively on the same day. It was both the third and sixth cue recorded that day. Six takes were recorded, numbered 93-94 and 106-109. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used just take 109. Why it was recorded in two blocks like this is anyone's guess.

 

This cue has been officially released on just one album:

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

 

More specifically, 4m2A The Force can be heard:

From 1:39-2:40 of disc 1 track 8 "Tales of a Jedi Knight/Learn About the Force" on the 1997 album.

 

The 1997 set features a clean opening and ending, is not brickwalled, and features the same take as the film, so I'd just recommend the 1997 set for this cue. The above video uses the 1997.

 

In the film, this cue segues straight into the next cue, which starts around when Leia's hologram appears. Fortunately, the album did not replicate this segue.

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be discussing 4m3 The Princess Reappears. See you then!

#1.15 - SW (1977) - 4m3 The Princess Reappears (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue. Apologies for the late post this week I've been a bit busy

 

Today we're going to be listening to 4m3 The Princess Reappears. This cue is just 11 bars long, and was orchestrated by Herbert Spencer.

 

Here's what the top of the conductor's score looks like:

 

Now let's listen to the cue together:

 

 

At 0:00 the cue opens with some sparkling celeste and harp, as the hologram reappears.

 

This leads into a statement of Princess Leia's theme from 0:06-0:38, as Leia talks. This statement is very similar to the one in 3m1R The Princess Appears from 0:31-1:01, just with some different orchestration.

 

Then from 0:38-end we get a lead-out, again with celeste and harp. Thus the cue ends.

 

 

This cue was recorded on March 9, 1977, the third day of the recording sessions. It was the fourth and final cue recorded that day. Five takes were recorded, numbered 68-72. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used just take 72.

 

This cue has been officially released on just one album:

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

 

More specifically, 4m3 The Princess Reappears can be heard:

From 2:40-3:31 of disc 1 track 8 "Tales of a Jedi Knight/Learn About the Force" on the 1997 album.

 

The 1997 set features a clean opening, but unfortunately it crossfades this cue into the next one, meaning it does not have a clean ending. Further, the film fades the cue's ending out a second or two early, meaning the film audio can't be used for the clean ending. Unfortunately this means that the clean ending of this cue is completely unreleased, you'll notice my video above cuts off early instead of fading out completely like it should.

 

Otherwise though, the 1997 set does seem to match the film take exactly, and it is not brickwalled, so it is currently the best available source for this cue.

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be discussing 4m4 Rev. A Home Destroyed. See you then!

#1.16 - SW (1977) - 4m4R A Home Destroyed (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 4m4 Rev. A Home Destroyed. This is a revision of an earlier cue 4m4 A Home Destroyed, which went unrecorded.

 

Both versions were orchestrated by Herbert Spencer. The original is 74 bars long, and the revision is just 16 bars.

 

Here's the top of the conductor's score of both versions:

 

You may be wondering, "why is the revision so much shorter?" The answer is quite interesting:

 

You may know that the scene order of the Imperial scenes was shuffled around quite a bit in editing. In the originally scripted scene order:

 

Scene 42: Luke and Ben talk in Ben's House

Scene A42: Leia is tortured on the Death Star

Scene B42: Luke and Ben stumble on the wrecked Sandcrawler

Scene BB42: Luke speeds home

Scene C42: Luke finds dead aunt and uncle

Scene D42: Death Star sets course for Alderaan

 

The original 4m4 A Home Destroyed was written to play from the last minute of Scene 42, all the way until the end of Scene C42. Scene D42 would be left unscored.

 

At some point while the score was still being written (according to the handwritten date on the revised sheet it was done before February 23/25), the scene order was altered to the more familiar final cut order:

 

Scene 42: Luke and Ben talk in Ben's House

Scene 22: Death Star Conference Room scene

Scene B42: Luke and Ben stumble on the wrecked Sandcrawler

Scene BB42: Luke speeds home

Scene C42: Luke finds dead aunt and uncle

Scene A42: Leia is tortured on the Death Star

 

As a result of this change, 4m4 A Home Destroyed was split into two revised cues; 4m4 Rev. A Home Destroyed and 5m1 Rev. A Home Destroyed.

 

4m4 Rev. A Home Destroyed is 16 bars long, and is made of bars 1-14 of the original 4m4, with 2 additional bars (14A and 14B) for a new early ending. This cue covers just the end of scene 42, and it's the cue we'll be listening to today.

 

5m1 Rev. A Home Destroyed is 63 bars long, and is made of old bars 31-42, new bars 42A-D, old bars 43-71, new bar 72, old bars 15-30, and new bar 30A. This cue covers scenes B42-A42, but we'll talk about it in much more detail next week.

 

Okay, so with that out of the way, now we can finally listen to 4m4 Rev. A Home Destroyed:

 

 

 

At 0:00, some surprisingly sad string music plays for Luke complaining about being unable to help due to his uncle needing him.

 

Then at 0:22, Ben's theme kicks in again as he implores Luke to learn the Force and assist him on his mission.

 

This transitions into a statement of the Death Star motif at 0:42 as we see an establishing shot of a Star Destroyer arriving at the Death Star immediately before the conference room scene. Thus, the cue fades out...

 

 

This cue was recorded on March 9, 1977, the third day of the recording sessions. It was the first cue recorded that day. Three takes were recorded, numbered 56-58. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used just take 58.

 

This cue has been officially released on just one album:

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

 

More specifically, 4m4 Rev. A Home Destroyed can be heard:

From 3:31-end of disc 1 track 8 "Tales of a Jedi Knight/Learn About the Force" on the 1997 album.

 

The 1997 set features a clean ending but no clean opening, and also is unfortunately brickwalled right around the Death Star motif. At least it does appear to match the film take exactly. The video above uses the 1997 set for everything, except for the clean opening which comes from the film itself.

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be discussing 5m1 Rev. A Home Destroyed. See you then!

#1.17 - SW (1977) - 5m1R A Home Destroyed (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue. I've been waiting for this installment for a while, as we're going to be talking about one of my favorite cues from this score.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 5m1 Rev. A Home Destroyed. As I briefly mentioned last week, this is the second cue that resulted from a revision of the earlier 4m4 A Home Destroyed, which went unrecorded. I highly recommend reading last week's post for context before reading this one, as there is a lot of information overlap.

 

Both versions were orchestrated by Herbert Spencer. The original is 74 bars long, and the revision is 62 bars.

 

Here's what the start of the conductor's score looks like for both versions:



 

You'll notice that the revision doesn't have a title at the top, rather it has all these writings in the middle of the page instead. This is because it technically starts at bar 31 of the original cue, keeping the original numbering and everything; it seems to have been done in a rush. The first two measures shown on the page are blank, the actual first bar is in the third measure slot.

 

You can also see that originally it was thought that this split would be called 4m4A, but at some point it got rebalanced to 5m1. I'm not entirely sure what initiated this rebalance, but it is the beginning of a long cascade of rebalancings that will continue through most of the rest of the score.

 

I mentioned last week how 4m4 was split in two due to a shuffling of scenes, from the original 42->A42->B42->BB42->C42->D42, to the new 42->22->B42->BB42->C42->A42. I also mentioned how 4m4R scores the end of scene 42, but nothing else. Today's cue covers scenes B42, BB42, C42, and A42.

 

I also briefly described the measure changes from 4m4 to 5m1R. Here they are in more detail:

5m1R bars 1-12 = 4m4 bars 31-42. These start at the beginning of scene B42.

5m1R bars 13-16 = new bars 42A-D. These cover the end of scene B42, leading straight into BB42

5m1R bars 17-44 = 4m4 bars 43-71. These cover BB42 and C42.

5m1R bar 45 = new bar 72, a transitionary bar between scenes C42 and A42.

5m1R bars 46-61 = 4m4 bars 16-30. These cover A42.

5m1R bar 62 = new bar 30A, for a new ending.

 

So with that out of the way, let's listen to the revised cue together:

 

 

 

 

At 0:00 the cue starts with some very sad, almost funeral-like trumpet, with backing strings. This plays as the heroes walk around the remains of the ravaged sandcrawler, and try to piece together what happened.

 

Some revelation music starts to play around 0:29, as Luke realizes that they might be after the droids. This fades out around 0:47.

 

At 0:47 starts my favorite part of the cue. We get some panicky strings as Luke sprints towards his landspeeder in order to head home and check on his family. Curiously, this section for Luke sprinting (0:47-0:54), was not part of the original 4m4, it's the added bars 42A-D. I'm not sure what picture edit resulted in the need for these additional bars. Perhaps this sprinting shot was not in the earlier cut that John Williams scored?

 

Regardless, at 0:54 the rest of the orchestra joins in, building to a powerful statement of Ben's theme as Luke races home. The theme climaxes at 1:04, just before we see the reveal of the distant burning homestead.

 

The music grows more sad as we can see more of the damage, building into another statement of Ben's theme at 1:30, as Luke realizes he no longer has a choice but to go with Ben to Alderaan. The theme climaxes at 1:48 (this is the new bar 72), before immediately segueing into the Death Star motif (beginning 4m4 bar 16).

 

This leads straight into an Imperial theme statement at 1:55 for Vader and the officers walking down the hallway toward Leia's cell. At 1:58, a short statement of Leia's theme, and then some ominous music as Vader and the torture droid enter the cell. This climaxes with some drums as the door slams shut, with one last string note to end the cue. This string note is intended to segue directly into the start of 5m2R A Hive of Villainy, but we'll talk more about that next week.

 

 

This cue was recorded on March 9, 1977, the third day of the recording sessions. It was the second cue recorded that day, immediately after last week's cue. Five takes were recorded, numbered 59-63. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used takes 62 and 63.

 

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 5m1R A Home Destroyed can be heard:

From 0:00-end of track 12 "The Return Home" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 0:00-end of disc 1 track 8 "The Return Home" on the 1993 album

From 0:00-end of disc 1 track 9 "Burning Homestead" on the 1997 album.

 

All sets have clean openings and endings, although the 1997 set is brickwalled. As far as I can tell, all sets use the same takes. For the above video I just used the 2018 set.

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be discussing 5m2 Rev. A Hive of Villainy. See you then!

#1.18 - SW (1977) - 5m2 A Hive of Villainy (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 5m2 Rev. A Hive of Villainy. This is a revision of an earlier cue, 5m1 A Hive of Villainy. Obviously it got rebalanced at some point from 5m1 to 5m2, perhaps due to the addition of last week's cue.

 

Unfortunately I don't have scans of the original cue, only the revision - so I'm not certain exactly how many bars it was. That said, the revision is 48 bars long. Both versions were orchestrated by Al Woodbury.

 

Here's what the top of the revised version looks like:


 

You'll notice that nowhere on the page does it actually mention being a revised version, but there are indications throughout the pages that it was revised. Notably, on page 8, the original score is physically pasted over by a new one starting at bar 25, which is labelled "NEW 25".

 

I believe the reason for the first page not indicating that it is a revision is that the final version is a copy of the original with the changes pasted over top, rather than being rewritten from scratch like previous revisions we've looked at.

 

Here's a list of all the bars in the revised section that are labelled "NEW":

25, 26, 38, 42

 

I'm unsure if these bars are completely new or if they're just rewritten versions of the corresponding ones in the original. There are also 5 bars after 14, labeled 14A through 14E, that seem to indicate an insertion after the original bar numbering. That said, unlike bars 25-43, there is no evidence of a physical modification to accommodate bars 14A-14E, they are just there. So it's possible that they were there in the original too, or that there were multiple rounds of modifications. Without the original cue to compare against it's difficult to tell.

 

Regardless, let's listen to the revised cue together:

 

 

 

 

At 0:00, we get a short ascending transition as Luke parks and get out of the speeder, before we return to the funeral-like music at 0:09, as the droids burn the dead Jawas.

 

At 0:31 we get a statement of Ben's theme on the horns as Luke says he wants to learn the Force and join Ben on the mission to Alderaan.

 

Then we get more ascending transition music at 0:42, which leads into a return of the bouncing landspeeder melody at 0:46 (last heard in 3m3R The Sand Speeder), as the heroes ride towards the city.

 

Then at 0:50, some ascending woodwinds, right before the reveal of Mos Eisley at 0:55, which is accentuated with brass and a loud drum hit. Some more woodwinds, and then at 1:07 we get more bouncing landspeeder for the drive into the city.

 

At 1:16 the music slows as the heroes are approached by sandtroopers. 1:21 brings a woodwinds statement of the Imperial theme, which builds into some mysterious music for Ben's mind trick at 1:30. Once they're let through, we get one final heroic statement of Ben's theme at 1:51, for the final drive toward the cantina. The music resolves at 2:00, just as the landspeeder parks. Thus, the cue ends...

 

 

This cue was used in the final theatrical cut without alteration. However, it was heavily edited for the 1997 Special Edition rerelease, and all future releases of the film. These music edits were primarily done to incorporate the new CGI footage into the Mos Eisley sequence.

The exact edits are as follows:

0:00-1:06 in the SE is 0:00-1:06 of 5m2R A Hive of Villainy, exactly as intended.

1:06-1:24 in the SE is replaced with 0:08-0:26 of 8m3R The Water Snake.

1:24-1:46 in the SE is replaced with 0:45-1:07 of 8m3R The Water Snake.

1:46-2:37 in the SE is replaced with 1:20-end of 5m2R A Hive of Villainy.

 

The reason the SE scene is longer is because there are multiple new CGI shots. The entrance into the city was almost completely replaced, which is the bulk of where the music was replaced. The music for the encounter with the sandtroopers is largely the same as the original, although there is one change: They didn't do a music edit to incorporate the new CGI shot after they're allowed to pass, meaning that in the SE the music stops before the landspeeder parks, breaking the original sync.

 

I personally much prefer the original music for the Mos Eisley entrance over the Special Edition version. The original brings back the landspeeder bouncing melody and fits the sound of a busy city perfectly. I think the music that they used in the Special Edition is far too tense and stressful - it was written for the scene where Luke is pulled underwater by the Dianoga in the trash compactor. It's really obvious that it wasn't written for the scene, because it doesn't fit the tone at all in my opinion.

 

 

This cue was recorded on March 15, 1977, the seventh day of the recording sessions. It was the second cue recorded that day.

 

Five takes were recorded, numbered 181-185. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used takes 184 and 185.

 

This cue has been officially released on two different albums:

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

 

More specifically, 5m2 Rev. A Hive of Villainy can be heard:

From 0:00-end of disc 4 track 4 "A Hive of Villainy" on the 1993 album

From 0:00-end of disc 1 track 10 "Mos Eisley Spaceport" on the 1997 album.

 

Both releases have clean openings and endings, although the 1997 is brickwalled (particularly around the reveal shot). The 1993 set has an incorrect take from 0:00-0:44. The video above uses the 1997 set for the first 44 seconds, and then the 1993 set for the rest.

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be discussing 5m3-5m3A, better known as the Cantina Band source music. See you then!

 

Spoiler

// @kingpiranha commented this:
 

Quote

 

Hi!

 

I have a scan of the original version of this cue. This is what I can say about it:

- The bars 14-A to 14-E are also present here. I would guess that these bars where additions made by JW before Al Woodbury orchestrated the cue. (Maybe they where added due to the Jan-Feb pick-ups of the landspeeder? It is possible since the orchestrated cue is dated Feb 11, 1977).

- The revised bars NEW 25 to 30, which replaces the original bars 25-30, are really different. Originally there were no Darth Vader's Theme (Imperial motif) for the stormtrooper encounter. Instead there is a sort of continuation of the bouncy horn material, with some more static bars inserted in between.

- The original ending is one bar shorter (originally bars 38-42), and are also very different. Ben's Theme is not present, and the overall orchestration is really different. Originally it wasn't as dense. It has the same kind of horn material as the revision, but with accompaniments only by bassoon and trombones together with pizzicato in celli/double basses. 

 

When it comes to these revisions, it is possible that they could have been done in England during or just before the recording. Since all of it (except for the last bar) just replaces already existing bars, I don't think the revisions are made due to any editorial changes (probably just due to pure musical reasons). And looking at the handwriting of the revised bars, it is quite clear it was written by Ernie Lockett (the british copyist used during the production). This could also explain the reason why there's no indication on the first page that revisions had been done to the cue.

 

There is though a possibility that there is/was a separate manuscript with just the revisions (done by Al Woodbury or maybe Herbert Spencer), just like earlier revised cues, which Ernie Lockett then trancribed and integrated with the rest of the cue. This is something he did with many of the cues' final revised scores.

 

Hope you find this interesting! 

/av

 

 

// I should also note that shortly after this comment was left I realized I also actually have a scan of the revision, I just missed it before making this post due to poor organization of my collection 😅.

 

#1.19 - SW (1977) - 5m3-5m3a ("Cantina Band") (Wook link)
 

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue. Apologies for not posting last week, I was really busy.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 5m3-5m3a. This is by far the most mysterious cue of the entire score. Not only do I not have scans of the sheet music, I genuinely have no idea what Williams originally titled it.

 

The cue number is known thanks to the typeset cue sheet, and also an Instagram post by JKMS which appeared to show a cover page of some kind, which provides cue numbers - but no title.

 

There's an in-depth discussion of the cue number discovery available here:

 

This post is a little confusing as well, because the same cover page lists both 5m3-5m3a and 5m4-6m1 (with the 4 and 6 accidentally swapped). I have seen the sketch for next week's cue, and I know that piece was numbered 5m4-6m1. Additionally, we know that last week's cue was numbered 5m2, and this immediately follows it; so it wouldn't make sense for this cue to be rebalanced. But still, the 5m3-5m3a number appears to have been crossed out, I'm not really sure why.

 

The cover page also includes some strange names above the instrument list, "Monkey Band", and "Jolly Jazzers". Before the sketch for next week's cue was revealed, people believed that these might've been the names of the two source cues; but now that we know the second cue is not titled either of these names, it's likely these are something else instead.

 

 

This is also the first cue we've looked at that is diegetic - that is, the characters in the movie also hear the music, it's not just for the audience.

 

In various interviews, JW has talked about how the source music for the cantina cues was primarily inspired by Benny Goodman's big band jazz music, which was used in the temp track.

 

In fact, next week's cue - the second cantina source, which I do have the original title for, was named after a piece of Benny Goodman music. I think it's likely that this first piece was also named similarly, but that's really nothing more than speculation.

 

Unfortunately, due to not having the original sheet music I can't tell you how many bars the cue is, or who orchestrated it, or any of the normal stuff I'd go over here.

 

There was some officially released sheet music back in 1978 for concert recordings, but unfortunately it's modified quite heavily from the original with large sections added, removed, and changed. Therefore, it wouldn't be useful for cue length information or anything like that.

 

 

With all of that out of the way, it's time to finally listen to the piece.

 

Just one last note: conventional wisdom has always been that these source cues were written wild, not synced to picture at all. However, when I lined up the music to the movie without edits, I found that it actually syncs up perfectly, both this cue and the next cue add up to the exact length of the cantina sequence, with the transition between them being exactly the spot where 3PO and R2 see stormtroopers outside.

 

Therefore, I'm inclined to believe that it wasn't recorded completely wild - I'm not certain if there were any sync points with the picture, but I believe the overall cue length was likely timed.

 

 

For the most part the cue sounds like improvisational jazz, but there is a repeated A, B, C melody.

 

The A melody kicks in at 0:00, followed immediately by the B melody at 0:15. Then the C melody starts at 0:29, before the A melody repeats at 0:43.

 

Once again the B melody follows it at 0:58, and then at 1:13 we get the C melody again.

 

Then at 1:29 we get something new, a very spirited and happy sounding section. I've always thought it was funny that this section almost sounds like it has Christmas bells ringing.

 

Then at 1:56 we get another new section, this was always one of my favorite parts. At 2:22, it almost sounds like the musicians preparing to reset, before starting back up with the A melody at 2:29, which plays until the end.

 

 

This cue was edited very heavily in the final film.

 

0:00-0:29 in the film is 0:00-0:29 of the original cue.

0:29-1:02 in the film was replaced with 1:57-2:29 of the original cue.

1:02-2:08 in the film was replaced with 0:00-1:06 of the original cue.

2:08-2:11 in the film was replaced with unknown (possible short/pickup ending, or alt take?).

2:11-2:25 in the film was replaced with silence.

2:25-2:43 in the film was replaced with 0:00-0:18 of the original cue.

 

As a result the section from 0:00-0:18 appears no less than 3 times in the span of 3 minutes, and the section from 1:06-1:57 is completely unused.

 

 

This cue was recorded on March 10, 1977, the fourth day of the recording sessions. It was the first cue recorded that day.

 

Eight takes were recorded, numbered 73-80. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used just take 76.

 

That said, the typeset cue list I have has some contradictory information on it which makes the mystery of this cue all the more confusing:

 

The actual length of this cue is 2:44, and the two sections of the film edit are 2:11 and 0:18. Therefore, the lengths in the typeset list don't appear to make much sense, particularly the 1:00 length for 5m3a. Also the fact that 5m3 and 5m3a are listed separately is curious.

 

I should note that this typeset list only lists the music used in the film, not the way it was recorded, so perhaps the separate 5m3a could be referring to the fact that the cue was split in half - except that the length doesn't make sense, and next week's cue doesn't appear to be separated in the list in a similar way.

 

The other interesting part is the mention of pick-ups, which aren't mentioned by the 1997 take log at all. Could these be where the unknown film ending of the first half comes from?

 

Regardless, due to its nature as a jazz piece, rather than an orchestral one, this cue (and next week's) were recorded with a different group of players than the rest of the score. As a result, this day of the recording sessions, March 10th, was devoted entirely to the jazz sessions with this group.

 

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 5m3-5m3a can be heard:

From 0:00-end of track 9 "Cantina Band" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 0:00-end of disc 4 track 10 "Cantina Band" on the 1993 album

From 0:00-end of disc 1 track 11 "Cantina Band" on the 1997 album.

 

All releases have clean openings, but the 1977/2018 albums both fade out early, where the 1993 and 1997 sets have the full ending. All releases have the same takes. The above video just uses the 1997 set.

 

I find it curious that the 1977 OST album included this cue in the first place. John Williams usually avoids including source music on his OST albums, and often will even veto its inclusion on expansions. This is one of the only cases I know of where he intentionally included it on an OST album.

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be discussing the second cantina cue, 5m4-6m1 Don't Bee That Weigh. See you then!

 

Wook comments:

Spoiler

// @kingpiranha commented the following:

 

Quote

 

Great post as usual!

 

According to my scans of production used cue sheets (made by the copyist Ernie Lockett) this cue is 96 bars long. 

But in the Star Wars: Deluxe Souvenir Folio from 1977 (which includes some edited/transcribed sheet music selections) the 4-staff sketch score of the Cantina Band has 100 bars. This sketch score does follow the recording. 

 

This makes me think that it maybe originally was composed to be 96 bars long, but that they added 4 extra bars during the recording session (my guess is that they added these bars right at the end, to extend the drum fill slightly, or maybe during the earlier improv sections). 

 

In the production used cue sheet the name "Monkey Band" is present as a sort of collective headline for both Cantina Band cues. And since this name is also present on the cover page in the JKMS post (which also looks to be in Ernie Lockett's handwriting), I just think it's a collective name Ernie gave these cues, eirher just for fun, or maybe to clearly separate them from the rest of the cues.

 

Also I'm pretty certain, based on my sources and research, that this and the next cue never was properly orchestrated like all the other cues. It most likely stayed as a sketch since it's composed for a much smaller group of musicians. So the orchestrator would basically be John Williams himself.

/av.

 

 

// then I replied:

Quote

 

thank you so much for the additional info!  

 

I never even considered getting bar information out of a piano arrangement; but if it's accurate to the original sketch that's a really clever idea.

 

Is your cue sheet handwritten? It can't be the same one I posted in the Introduction, right?, because that one skips over the cantina cues entirely. 

 

Also, if "Monkey Band" refers to both cues, any idea what "Jolly Jazzers" might mean? I saw some people on jwfan speculate it might refer to the musicians themselves. I did also notice that the handwriting for the two names is different ("Monkey Band" is cursive and has lowercase letters, while "JOLLY JAZZERS" is all uppercase and is not cursive.

 

And yeah great observation about the source music, that makes a lot of sense. If there's no "orchestra", there's no real need to "orchestrate". Lol.

 

 

// then @kingpiranha wrote:

Quote

 

Actually, the sheet music I'm referring to from Star Wars: Deluxe Souvenir Folio is not the piano arrangement, it is a 4-staff score reduction with more or less the accurate instrumentation. I haven't looked up how the piano arrangement is in comparison. Will do that though. 

 

Yeah, the cue sheet I have is the same as  the one you referred to in the introduction. It is actually 3 pages; 2 pages for "A" orchestra and 1 page for "B" orchestra (which is for smaller orchestras or groups). And the Cantina Band cues are on the "B" orchestra page. 

 

I've also thought that "Jolly Jazzers" was referring to the musicians (like maybe they where an established jazz group?), but when I tried to research it I couldn't find anything. There is though a group called "The Jolly Jazzers", but I have asked them and they don't have anything to do with the recording of Star Wars. 

 

Really enjoy discussing these things with you

/av. 

 

 

 

I should be posting the next entry both on Wookieepedia and in this thread some time later today.

Also @kingpiranha I didn't copy any of your comments over since I didn't write them (meaning my replies as well) but if you're okay with mirroring those here I can copy them over as well

EDIT: NEW POSTS START HERE

 

 

#1.20 - SW (1977) - 5m4-6m1 Don't Bee That Weigh (Wook link)
 

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 5m4-6m1 Don't Bee That Weigh, the second of the two cantina source cues. Just like last week, I do not have any sheet music for this cue, however the original title was revealed just a couple months ago on May 4th by Mark Graham on Instagram, in a post where he showed off the first page of the sketch:

 

 

Apparently the title "Don't Bee That Weigh" is a reference to a popular Benny Goodman song, "Don't Be That Way". John Williams has talked repeatedly in many interviews about how George Lucas wanted the Cantina Band music to sound like Benny Goodman's big band jazz music; it's possible, if not likely, that this particular song was used in the temp track for this cue.

 

 

 

Once again, since I don't have the sheets for this cue, I unfortunately can't go into detail about things like how long it is or who orchestrated it, assuming it was even orchestrated. @Kingpiranha brought up a good point last week in saying that it probably wasn't - since these source cues were written for a much smaller band and not a full orchestra, it's likely that the sketches themselves were enough to conduct off of, and orchestration would have been unnecessary.

 

Also like last week, while conventional wisdom holds that these cues were not written to picture, I've found that it syncs up perfectly with what remains of the cantina scene, so I'm inclined to believe that it was at least timed to the scene length, if not scored to projection.

 

With that out of the way, let's listen to the cue together:

 

 

 

 

Like the last cue, while mostly sounding like improvisational jazz, there are a couple repeated sections.

 

At 0:00 we get the A section, followed immediately by the B section at 0:04. This lasts until 0:25, when the C section starts, leading into a reset around 0:35.

 

Then at 0:37, the A section begins again, leading into a modified B section at 0:41. Then at 0:51, a new ascending D section, followed by another new section at 1:03. This section is sort of similar to the B section, but with a completely different melody. This lasts until 1:43.

 

Then we get another reset, followed by a variant of the A and C sections at 1:48. This leads to another reset around 2:08, and then a repeat of the original A section at 2:11, followed by the original B section at 2:16, and the original C section at 2:36.

 

At 2:47, the A section again; 2:52, a B section variant; 3:02, the D section. Then at 3:11 we sort of get a repeat of the section at 1:03. This continues all the way to the end, as the cue fades out. I'm actually unsure if the original recording continues or not, but every commercial release (and the film) has a fadeout.

 

 

Just like last week's cue, this cue was edited very heavily in the final film.

 

0:00-0:04 in the film was replaced with silence

0:04-0:14 in the film was replaced with 0:04-0:14 of the original cue.

0:14-0:15 in the film was replaced with 3:00-3:01 of the original cue.

0:15-0:47 in the film was replaced with 2:15-2:47 of the original cue.

0:47-2:16 in the film was replaced with 0:00-1:29 of the original cue.

2:16-2:22 in the film was replaced with silence

2:22-3:19 in the film was replaced with 1:33-2:30 of the original cue.

3:19-3:44 in the film was replaced with 2:31-2:56 of the original cue.

 

 

This cue was recorded on March 10, 1977, the fourth day of the recording sessions. It was the second cue recorded that day, immediately following last week's cue. Once again, it was recorded with a special jazz group instead of the full LSO.

 

Two takes were recorded, numbered 81-82. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used just take 81.

 

This cue has been officially released on two different albums:

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

 

More specifically, 5m4-6m1 Don't Bee That Weigh can be heard:

From 0:00-end of disc 4 track 12 "Cantina Band #2" on the 1993 album

From 0:00-end of disc 1 track 12 "Cantina Band #2" on the 1997 album.

 

Both releases have clean openings, but both releases have fadeouts. As I mentioned above, I am unsure if the original recording continues past the point the 1997 set fades out. The 1993 set absolutely has a fake fadeout, it ends about 8 seconds earlier than the 1997 set does. I think it's likely that the 1997 set's fadeout is also fake, but it is possible that it's baked into the recording. If the former is the case, no clean ending is available. Both releases have the same takes. The above video just uses the 1997 set.

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll finally be returning to underscore with 6m3R The Inner City. See you then!

 

 

#1.21 - SW (1977) - 6m3R The Inner City (Wook link)

 

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

Today we're going to be listening to 6m3 Rev. The Inner City. This is a revision of an earlier cue, 5m6 The Inner City.

 

Clearly the cue got rebalanced from 5m6 to 6m3 at some point which is interesting for a couple of reasons; firstly, it would seem that the original cue number didn't account for the second cantina source that we looked at last week, unless that was also rebalanced, which there is no evidence of. Secondly, the rebalanced cue number skips over 6m2 completely.

 

It is a complete mystery as to why this is the case; my only guess is that maybe they left space for the "set your course for Alderaan" scene to be scored? But the scene is only a few seconds long, and it was moved here in editing pretty late during the scoring process.

 

Whatever the case may be, the original cue is 46 bars long, and the revision is 36 bars long. Both versions were orchestrated by Herbert Spencer.

Here's what the tops of the original and revision look like:

 

 

Interestingly, you'll notice I don't actually have scans of the final version of the revision; notice there is no large number in black marker like we've seen with previous cues, and there's no indication that the cue was rebalanced. However, on the final cue sheet this is listed as 6m3, so it was definitely rebalanced before recording.

 

The only difference between the original and the revision is the deletion of 10 bars from 25-35 of the original. These bars would have originally scored the deleted scene where Vader talks to the commander while walking down the hallway. A mockup of this short section was made a couple years ago by BrotherSound:

These deleted bars aren't terribly interesting, mostly just some percussion not too dissimilar from what we'll hear in 7m2 The Mouse Robot in a few weeks. However, the existence of these bars is interesting because they sort of give a timeline for the deletion of certain scenes.

 

In the original script the scenes progressed like this:

Scene C50 = 3PO and R2 hide from stormtroopers searching an alleyway

Scene 53 = Ben and Luke discuss selling the landspeeder and walk down alley while being followed

Scene AA53 = Han/Jabba scene

Scene BA53 = Vader/commander hallway scene

Scene 56 = Ben and Luke walk towards Chewbacca, continue being followed

Scene 58 = Falcon reveal

 

The original version of 6m3 The Inner City scores scenes C50, 53, BA53, 56 and 58, but not scene AA53. This indicates that by the time the score was being written the Jabba scene was already cut. However, the Vader hallway scene (BA53) was not cut until during scoring, but it was still cut early enough that John Williams was able to alter his music before recording instead of it needing to be edited later. Therefore, the Vader hallway scene was likely cut sometime during February 1977, whereas the Jabba scene was likely cut before January 1977.

 

Okay, now that we have all of that out of the way, we can finally listen to the revised cue together.

 

 

 

At 0:00 we get some ascending woodwinds as the droids hide from the stormtroopers. Then, at 0:06 there's some more ominous woodwinds for the stormtroopers knocking on the door, before the ascending woodwinds return at 0:13 as the droids re-open the door.

 

More ominous music for their discussion, and then at 0:32 the music transitions into Luke's theme as Luke and Ben walk down the alley. 0:44 gives us a short ominous motif for Garindan, and then at 0:53 the music ascends, getting ready for a transition. At 0:59 the music changes to Luke's theme again, as they continue to walk down the alley. In the original cue, 0:59 is the point where the Vader hallway scene would've occurred instead.

 

Luke's theme continues until 1:10, when we see Garindan again, and hear more of his motif. This then builds into a crescendo at 1:18 for the reveal of the Falcon. Thus, the cue fades out....

 

 

In the final theatrical cut, this cue is used exactly as intended. However, in the Special Edition releases, a new version of the cut Jabba scene with a CGI Jabba is inserted at 0:59, leading to some music edits.

 

In the Special Edition cuts:

0:00-0:58 is 0:00-0:58 of 6m3R The Inner City

0:58-1:20 is 0:30-0:52 of 4m3 The Sarlacc Pit from Return of the Jedi

1:20-1:37 is 0:21-0:38 of 2m5 Jabba's Prisoners from Return of the Jedi

1:37-2:30 is 1:00-1:52 of 2m5 Jabba's Prisoners from Return of the Jedi

2:30-end is 0:58-end of 6m3R The Inner City

 

This reuse of Return of the Jedi music in the special edition cuts is, in my opinion, extremely jarring as it doesn't really fit with the rest of the score. It doesn't help that the jump cuts in the music are extremely obvious and bad sounding. That said, it is interesting that, as I talked about earlier, the unrevised 6m3 The Inner City was originally intended to be split up like this, just with the Vader hallway scene in between instead.

 

 

This cue was recorded on March 12, 1977, the sixth day of the recording sessions. It was the eighth and final cue recorded that day.

 

Three takes were recorded, numbered 173-175. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used take 175.

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 6m3R The Inner City can be heard:

From 3:07-end of track 8 "Inner City" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 3:09-end of disc 1 track 9 "Inner City" on the 1993 album

From 0:00-1:34 of disc 2 track 2 "The Millennium Falcon/Imperial Cruiser Pursuit" on the 1997 album.

 

All sets have clean endings, although only the 1997 set has a clean opening. The 1977 set is as usual a remix and should be avoided. All of the albums appear to have the same take

That said, the 1977 and 2018 albums are missing a large chunk of the cue, they edit out 0:48-1:17:

For these reasons I can only recommend the 1997 set for this cue, which is what I used for the video above.

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

Next week we'll be discussing 6m4 Blasting Away. See you then!

 

 #1.22 SW (1977) - 6m4 Blasting Away (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue. Apologies for the late post this week, I was extremely busy this weekend.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 6m4 Blasting Away.

 

This cue is 68 bars long and was orchestrated by Herbert Spencer.

 

Just like last week you can see that the cue got rebalanced, going from 6m1 to 6m4. And once again, just like last week, my scan doesn't show it because it's not the final version with the big number in marker.

 

Now let's listen to the cue together.

 

 

At 0:00 the cue begins with a marching variant of the Imperial theme as the stormtroopers head down the street, leading into one last hint of the imperial spy motif from last week's cue at 0:04. 

 

Then we get some tension building at 0:10 as the stormtrooper run towards the hangar, before the brass kicks in with a bang at Han's wide eyes at 0:15.

 

As the shooting begins, the orchestra roars to life, leading to a Force theme statement at 0:19, climaxing as Luke and Ben belt themselves in around 0:29.

 

Then we get three brass sustains at 0:33 for the Falcon flying off, followed by some tense ascending music at 0:38 for Han piloting in the cockpit. 

 

Underneath this plays another Force theme statement at 0:41, both of which build into some fast paced brass at 0:59 for the Falcon speeding off. This is quickly joined by a percussion hit at 1:03 as the Star Destroyers pursue. 

 

At 1:07, more tense cockpit music for Luke and Han's argument. Then a return of the repeating fast paced brass at 1:20 as the Star Destroyers start shooting at the Falcon. Then at 1:23 we get some intense brass build up with backing strings as Han discusses what's needed to jump to lightspeed. This builds up to a statement of the Death Star motif at 1:56. 

 

The music then starts to trail off around 2:01, with soft woodwinds to emphasize the defenselessness of Alderaan on the viewscreen. Thus, the cue ends....

 

 

This cue was mostly used in the theatrical cut as intended, as far as I can tell. There is a 1 second section from 0:33-0:34 that was snipped out of the film, as you can see I don't have any video for that section. My guess is that the shot of the Falcon flying off was originally longer, but I don't have any definitive proof of that. However, I believe it to be the case because the cue appears to sync correctly with all of the footage in the final cut both before and after that shot. 

 

Curiously, this sequence was actually altered quite heavily in editing, but I believe most of it was done before the cue was written, for the reasons I just explained. That said, there are some interesting continuity errors in the final edit that result from them shuffling shots around. For example, the shot of Luke and Ben buckling in at 0:26 was originally supposed to come after Han's line "strap yourselves in, we're going to make the jump to lightspeed" at 1:47. Further, the shot of Han in the cockpit at 0:38 shows Ben leaving the cockpit, a direct continuation of the shot at 1:47. 

 

As a result of these shots being moved around, we see Luke and Ben strap themselves in, followed by Han sitting alone in the cockpit with Ben leaving it, followed by Ben and Luke running back into the cockpit and arguing with Han for a bit, before being told to strap themselves in and leaving it again.

I'm not really sure why these shots were shuffled around so much, but as I said it doesn't affect the music so for the purposes of this series it's just a fun curiosity.

 

Anyway, in the Special Edition of the film, this sequence is mostly unchanged, however the shot of the Falcon taking off is replaced with a longer CGI shot where you can actually see it lift out of the Mos Eisley hangar. 

As a result of this new shot, the cue's sync breaks, resulting in a couple loops and snips to try to sync it up again. In isolation it sounds pretty terrible. Here's a breakdown of the music edits:

The section from 0:00-0:33 was unchanged.

The section from 0:33-0:35 was cut.

The section from 0:35-0:38 plays three times in a row, with the third time being cut off early by the section from 0:39-end.

 

This cue was recorded on March 16, 1977, the eighth and final day of the recording sessions. Seven takes were recorded, numbered 203-209. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used takes 205, 206 and 209.

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 6m4 Blasting Away can be heard:

From 2:01-end of track 11 "Mouse Robot and Blasting Off" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 2:01-end of disc 1 track 10 "Mouse Robot/Blasting Off" on the 1993 album

From 1:34-end of disc 2 track 2 "The Millennium Falcon/Imperial Cruiser Pursuit" on the 1997 album.

 

All sets have clean endings, however only the 1997 set has the opening. Notice I didn't say clean opening, I said opening; every set other than the 1997 chops off the first 16 seconds of the cue. 

 

For the remainder that is available on all three sets, the 1993 and 1997 sets are both brickwalled. They all appear to have the same takes though. The 1977 is of course a remix and should be avoided.

 

For all of these reasons, the video above ended up being a hybrid edit that uses the 1997 for the first 16 seconds, and then switches over to the 2018 for the rest. Fortunately, the opening of the cue is quieter than the rest, so these opening 16 seconds are not brickwalled on the 1997 set and sound just fine. 

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be discussing 6m5N The Destruction of Alderon. See you then!

 

#1.23 SW (1977) - 6m5N The Destruction of Alderon (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 6m5 New The Destruction of Alderon.

 

The cue number might make you think this cue was completely replaced from scratch, like with 3m2 New. However, I don't believe this to be the case.

 

Rather, as evidenced by the way it's written on a couple other cues we'll look at in the coming weeks, I believe 6m5 New is labelled as "New" in order to indicate that it was rebalanced. Just like last week's cue was originally 6m1 and got rebalanced to 6m4, this week's cue was originally 6m2 and got rebalanced to 6m5. 

 

This cue is 32 bars long and was orchestrated by Al Woodbury. 

 

One other thing you've probably noticed is that the name Alderaan is spelled wrong in this cue title. Unfortunately since I don't have the sketch I have no idea if this error was introduced by John Williams or by Al Woodbury. I don't believe this spelling was intentional because all of George Lucas' scripts even going back to the first treatment used the spelling "Alderaan". Also, as we'll see as this series continues, this is far from the only JW cue to have a name spelled incorrectly.

 

Okay with that out of the way, let's listen to the cue together:

 

 

At 0:00 there's some initial low brass followed immediately by some hesitant woodwind figures at 0:02 for the reveal of Alderaan. These almost sound like the dies irae material from earlier in the score except they're two repeating notes instead of four.

 

The tension builds at 0:13 as Tarkin approaches Leia. "I grow tired of asking this, so it'll be the last time. Where is the rebel base?" The ascending brass leads into a more direct dies irae quote at 0:23, as Leia looks upon her homeworld, carefully considering her options.

 

Then at 0:26, some sad strings, as Leia defeatedly says they're on Dantooine, and Tarkin announces that Alderaan will be destroyed anyway. 

 

At 0:36 we get some ascending strings as Tarkin's lie is revealed, which build tension before the demonstration. At 0:46, the tension builds to its highest point with loud repeating lower brass, and the return of the dies irae material on the upper brass. This continues as the operators pull levers until the beam fires at 0:58. 

 

At 0:58, we get a short four note sad string melody as the planet explodes, variations of which repeat throughout the rest of the cue. There crop up at 1:02, 1:06, and 1:11. The last two of these occur as we switch to the interior of the Millennium Falcon, where Ben sense the planet's destruction through the Force. Thus, the cue ends...

 

In the final cut the cue is mostly used as intended, however the section from 1:00-1:11 is dialed out due to the overwhelming presence of the sound effects.  Interestingly, this is the only cue in the entire score that was intended to play when a lightsaber was onscreen, and that section was muted in the film in favor of the lightsaber sfx. 

 

David Collins mentions at 58:24 of Star Wars Oxygen episode 5, that on this first film they were afraid that the lighsaber sfx was too tonal and that it would clash with the music. My guess is that this fear was established during the spotting sessions, because every section involving a lightsaber in the film (Ben's hut, training ball on the Falcon, Ben vs Vader) went unscored with the exception of the 4 seconds of this cue where Luke's lightsaber was still on. 

I assume that at spotting they decided that either the quiet strings wouldn't conflict, or that they'd skip lightsaber sfx here, or that the segment was so short that it didn't matter; but on the editing stage they ultimately decided to drop the music instead. 

 

This cue was recorded on March 12, 1977, the sixth day of the recording sessions. Five takes were recorded, numbered 168-172. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used just take 172.

 

This cue has been officially released on two different albums:

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

 

More specifically, 6m5 New The Destruction of Alderon can be heard:

From 0:00-end of disc 4 track 5 "Destruction of Alderaan" on the 1993 album.

From 0:00-end of disc 2 track 3 "Destruction of Alderaan" on the 1997 album.

 

Both sets have clean openings and endings, and they both share the same takes. However, the 1997 set is brickwalled, and for that reason I used the 1993 set for the above video. 

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be discussing one of my favorite cues, 7m1 New Is It A Bird?. See you then!

 

 #1.24 SW (1977) - 7m1N Is It a Bird? (Wook link)

 

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 7m1 New Is It a Bird?  This might actually be my favorite cue in the entire score.

 

This cue is 44 bars long and was orchestrated by Arthur Morton.

 

Just like last week, the "New" in the cue number is an indication that it was rebalanced. And unlike last week, this is actually pretty easily visible on the sheet music:

 

As you can clearly see this cue was rebalanced from 6m3 to 7m1, just like how last week's cue was originally 6m2 and got rebalanced to 6m5.

 

One other funny thing about the title is that it's a reference to the infamous "It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's Superman!" intro from the old 40s Superman cartoons. John Williams would go on to write the score for Superman only a year after Star Wars, in 1978. I'm curious if at the time this cue was written he was already in talks to score that film, or if it's just a coincidence.

 

Now it's time to listen to the cue together:

 

At 0:00 begins some ominous brass as the heroes first see the "small moon". I've always loved the tension built up by this. The melodic progression is interesting, sort of an ascending development of the Imperial theme.

 

This continues as the heroes discuss their approach, intensifying as they try and fail to turn around at 0:28. 

 

The horns restart at a higher pitch at 0:39, as the Death Star starts to become fully visible, and the reality of the situation sets in. 

 

This continues building up tension until 0:55, when the Rebel rhythm kicks in, followed quickly by the Rebel fanfare at 0:57. I always thought this was a really fascinating choice, the heroes get sucked into the maw of the beast, the domain of the villains, and rather than playing the villain theme Williams chose to play the most rousing rendition of the hero theme in the entire score.

 

I really want to call out the shot at 1:04 as well, it's always been super memorable to me, the Rebel fanfare against the Falcon slowly approaching the docking bay.

 

At 1:10 we get the final climactic Rebel fanfare statement as the Falcon fully enters the docking bay and lands.

 

This leads to some final percussion and brass figures as the stormtroopers run to the docking bay to greet the intruding ship at 1:22.

 

We get one final woodwinds note at 1:30 for Tarkin receiving notice of the ship's arrival. Thus, the cue ends...

 

In the final cut this cue is mostly used as intended, however there is an extra shot of stormtroopers being commanded to go "to your stations" that features a looped section of 1:22-1:28. I believe this footage was reused from another section of the film (perhaps the escape from the Death Star or the final trench run). Wherever it came from, the extra footage is the exact same length as the looped section, and doesn't seem to fit the continuity of the sequence, so it seems to be what was added.

 

 

This cue was recorded on March 5, 1977, the first day of the recording sessions. Three takes were recorded, numbered 8-10. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used just take 10.

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 7m1 New Is It a Bird? can be heard:

From 0:00-1:34 of track 8 "Inner City" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 0:00-1:35 of disc 1 track 9 "Inner City" on the 1993 album

From 0:00-1:39 of disc 2 track 4 "The Death Star/The Stormtroopers" on the 1997 album.

 

All sets have clean openings, however only the 1997 has the clean ending. As far as I can tell all sets have the same takes. The 1977 is of course a remix and should be avoided. The 1997 is also brickwalled. For this reason, I used the 1993 set for most of the cue except for the clean ending which came from the 1997 set.

 

One last thing to note is this is another one of those rare cues from this score to have had official sheet music published! The John Williams concert suite "The Battle" includes most of this cue as the first 39 bars of the suite, equivalent to bars 1-39 of the original cue. 

 

Unfortunately this suite is no longer available, this is another one of those suites that was only made available to orchestras many years ago. You can still listen to recordings of it on youtube though (the part relevant to this cue is 0:00-1:22):

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be discussing 7m2 New The Hatch Opens. See you then!

 

 #1.25 SW (1977) - 7m2N The Hatch Opens (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 7m2 New The Hatch Opens.

 

This cue is 42 bars long and was orchestrated by Herbert Spencer. 

 

Continuing the trend of the last few weeks, this cue was originally 7m1 but got rebalanced to 7m2, and a "New" was added to the end to signify the rebalance.

 

I actually have scans of it both before and after rebalancing. As far as I can tell no musical changes were made so this doesn't qualify as a revision.

 

But here's the top of the first page of both scans:

Now let's listen to the cue together:

At 0:00 the cue begins with a statement of Bernard Herrmann's 3-note madness theme from the film Psycho. Editor Paul Hirsch has said in interviews that a cue from the Psycho score was used in the temp track here, and Williams decided to pay homage to it in his cue for the scene. It is also worth nothing that Williams was good friends with Herrmann, and saw him as  a mentor.

 

Unfortunately the original recordings for Psycho have never been properly released in high quality, but you can hear the theme in its original context at the very start of the Joel McNeely rerecording of the cue "The Madhouse" here: 

 

Anyway, back to the star wars cue, the Psycho reference provides some tension as the heroes open the hatch. The tension releases when the reference ends at 0:06, as they see that it's safe and the coast is clear. The strings play a soft but still hesitant form of Ben's theme as Ben says he'll take care of the tractor beam.

 

Then at 0:26 the music changes gears, giving us some Imperial theme as the technicians bring over the scanning equipment. This leads into some ascending material at 0:40 as they climb the ramp and enter the Falcon. 

Then some hesitant figures as Han calls for help, leading to a loud brass and percussion statement at 1:05 as you hear a couple muffled blaster shots. 

 

Some quiet tension building from 1:10-1:19, and then the return of the Imperial theme as you see Luke descend the Falcon ramp in a stormtrooper suit pretending he has a bad communicator. There aren't any full statements of the theme here, but lots of repeating fragments.

 

Then at 1:32 there's some loud action-y brass for Chewbacca and Han attacking the imperials in the control room, followed by a happy statement of Luke's theme as the rest of the heroes enter the control roon. Thus, the cue ends...

 

This cue was recorded on March 11, 1977, the fifth day of the recording sessions. Five takes were recorded, numbered 110-114. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used just take 114.

 

This cue has been officially released on just one album:

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

 

More specifically, 7m2 New The Hatch Opens can be heard:

From 1:39-end of disc 2 track 4 "The Death Star/The Stormtroopers" on the 1997 album.

 

The 1997 set has both a clean opening and ending, and the takes are correct  to the film, however it is unfortunately brickwalled in some areas. The video above just uses the 1997 set.

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be discussing 8m1 The Mouse Robot. See you then!

 

 #1.26 SW (1977) - 8m1 The Mouse Robot (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 8m1 The Mouse Robot.

 

This cue is 54 bars long and was orchestrated by Arthur Morton. 

 

Continuing the trend of the last few weeks, this cue was rebalanced from 7m2 to 8m1, and presumably a "New" was added to signify the rebalance, although I don't have any definitive proof of this, hence I didn't add it to the title this week.

 

Unfortunately I only have a scan of the sheet from before the rebalance and not after, but we can be certain that it was rebalanced because 8m1 is its number on the final cue sheet, next week's cue is 8m2, and last week's was 7m2 already.

 

Here's the top of the first page of the non-rebalanced conductor score: 

With that out of the way, let's listen to the cue together:

 

At 0:00 we get some playful music on woodwinds and plucked strings for the gag involving Chewbacca and the mouse droid, for which the cue is named.

Then at 0:12, the cue switches to low brass and percussion as the scene gets more serious, as the heroes have to sneak in plain sight through the busy hallways in order to get to the detention block.

 

At 0:29 as they approach the elevator, some backing strings come in as the percussion/brass changes up a little bit. 

 

Then at 0:54, as they enter the elevator, we get a really interesting almost proto-Imperial March. The Imperial March theme of course wasn't written until The Empire Strikes Back, but this section of this cue always reminded me of fragments of it since it uses the same notes and has a similar rhythm. I can't help but wonder if Williams used this cue as an inspiration when writing it, or if it's just a coincidence.

 

At 1:06, while the proto-Imperial March continues, we get a quick reference to that playful mouse droid music from earlier in the cue as Ben sneaks around. 

After that, a little more proto-Imperial March for the Vader shot, some more plucked strings for the shot of Ben, and then at 1:23 we get some of Luke's A theme as Han and Luke discuss things at the last minute in the elevator.

 

When the doors open and the heroes step out, there is an ascending orchestral swell, followed by some quiet woodwinds, a brass/percussion hit at 1:50, leading to one final swell at 1:56 for the start of the battle. Thus, the cue ends....

 

 

In the final film this cue is used in the scene it was meant to score, exactly as intended. In the Special Edition, it is additionally tracked earlier in the film during the extended "look sir, droids" scene, but we already talked about that when it was relevant.

 

This cue was recorded on March 9, 1977, the third day of the recording sessions. It was the third cue recorded that day. Four takes were recorded, numbered 64-67. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used just take 67.

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 8m1 The Mouse Robot can be heard:

From 0:00-2:01 of track 11 "Mouse Robot/Blasting Off" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 0:00-2:01 of disc 1 track 10 "Mouse Robot/Blasting Off" on the 1993 album

From 0:00-2:01 of disc 2 track 5 "Wookiee Prisoner/Detention Block Ambush" on the 1997 album.

 

The 1977 set is of course a remix and should be avoided. All sets have the clean opening but none of them have the clean ending. As far as I can tell all takes are the same. The 1997 set is brickwalled. For the video above I ended up using just the 2018 set because it had the cleanest ending, aka it took the longest to segue to the next cue.

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be listening to 8m2 New More Rescue. See you then!

 

 #1.27 SW (1977) - 8m2n More Rescue (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we're going to be listening to the confusingly named 8m2 New More Rescue.

 

This cue is 67 bars long and was orchestrated by Al Woodbury.

 

Both the title and number are a little confusing. This cue was written after next week's cue despite being placed before it. As a result it's called More Rescue, while next week's cue is called The Rescue. Further, when this cue was added, next week's cue was rebalanced from 8m2 to 8m3, meaning that this cue was labelled 8m2 New in an attempt to not confuse it with next week's old placement.

 

This is the only cue in the score where I can actually show off scans of both the sketch and the orchestrated conductor's sheet. Here's the tops of the first pages of both:

 

Sketch:

Conductor score:

You can also see that on the sketch the original title was scratched out and replaced with "The Last Battle - Part I", presumably referring to its placement in the OST album.

 

Now let's listen to the cue together:

At 0:00 the cue pick's up right where the last one leaves off, starting with some loud brass for the start of the battle. This builds up to a statement of Luke's theme at 0:10, which leads into more action-y brass at 0:17.

 

This continues over a montage of battle footage until 0:33, when the music quiets down. and we get some hesitant music as Luke and Han talk.

At 0:45, some low strings to underscore Han's improvised conversation. It's a bit interesting that despite the humor in the scene, the music here isn't very "funny".

 

At 1:19, as Han yells that more troopers are coming, we get a drumroll; followed by the rebel rhythm at 1:20 and the rebel fanfare at 1:22 for Luke searching for the cell with Princess Leia. 

 

Then at 1:26, a quick woodwinds statement of Leia's theme for the shot of her laying there, followed by some strings for her insulting his height. Then some Luke theme when he removes his helmet at 1:40, leading to some final brass as they run out into the cell hallway.

 

Then we get one last string note for Vader and Tarkin speaking. Thus, the cue fades out...

 

 

This cue was recorded on March 12, 1977, the sixth day of the recording sessions. It was the fourth cue recorded that day. Five takes were recorded, numbered 150-154. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used takes 153 and 154.

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 8m2 New More Rescue can be heard:

From 0:00-1:58 of track 15 "The Last Battle" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 0:00-1:58 of disc 1 track 15 "The Last Battle" on the 1993 album

From 2:01-end of disc 2 track 5 "Wookiee Prisoner/Detention Block Ambush" on the 1997 album.

 

Only the 1977/2018 and 1993 sets have the clean opening, and only the 1997 set has the clean ending. The 1977 set is of course a remix and should be avoided. As far as I can tell all sets use the same takes. The 1997 set is brickwalled. For the video above I used the 2018 set for everything except for the ending, which came from the 1997 set.

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be listening to 8m3 Rev. The Rescue. See you then!

 

 #1.28 SW (1977) - 8m3r The Rescue (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 8m3 Rev. The Rescue.

 

This cue is 69 bars long and was orchestrated by Herbert Spencer.

 

This cue is an interesting case where I don't have scans of the completed revision, but only of the original and the separate revised portion with instructions on how to integrate them. Also, because they pre-date the final version and the addition of last week's cue, they aren't yet rebalanced so they're still labelled as 8m2.

 

Here's the tops of the first page of the conductor's scores of both:

 

As you can see, the revised page is labelled "New Introduction to The Rescue" and only includes the changed bars. The only difference between the original and revised versions is the complete replacement of bars 1-3, and the addition of 3 new bars (labelled 3A-3C) before bar 4. Bars 4-end are unchanged.

 

Other than being 3 bars longer, the revision adds some extra plucked viola and harp between the timpani hit and the start of the rest of the cue. My best guess for the reason behind this change is that the Ben sneaking around shot that it scores was not originally here when Williams first scored the sequence, but it was added in editing while Williams was still writing the score, and he had time to write a quick revision to incorporate it.

 

With all that out of the way, it's time to listen to the revised cue together:

 

At 0:00 the cue begins with some bassoons for the end of Vader's conversation with Tarkin, followed immediately by a Timpani crash as Vader turns around. 

 

Then at 0:04 we get some plucked viola for Ben sneaking around a hallway (these are the additional bars for the new shot as I explained above).

 

At 0:08 we get a brass hit for the camera pan to Chewbacca yelling the troops have arrived, and another at 0:12 for the pan to Han yelling the same thing. 

 

Then at 0:14 the orchestra starts building up after the explosion to a short statement of the Imperial theme at 0:16 for the stormtroopers in the hole. More ascending strings at 0:19, and then some loud brass at 0:22 for Chewie and Han retreating. 

 

At 0:29 the strings quiet down and start up a rhythm, which leads to the Rebel Fanfare on the woodwinds at 0:33. Another statement on the brass at 0:40, and then the woodwinds again at 0:44. 

 

Then a short interlude at 0:49, with slower woodwinds and brass for C-3PO's dialogue, which increase in volume as he realizes stormtroopers are at the door. 

 

At 1:02, the return of the faster paced action music, as the gunfight is still ongoing. The brass provides rhythm as the woodwinds slowly ascend, and the strings swirl around. This all builds up to them syncing at 1:24 for Leia taking charge, which in turn builds to more Imperial Theme at 1:31 as Leia slides down the chute.

 

Some more swirling strings at 1:38 as Han yells at Chewie to go down. The orchestra syncs again at 1:41 , and we get some climactic sounding brass as the stormtroopers become hidden by smoke. Finally this ends with a crash as Han falls into the water at 2:04. Thus, the cue ends...

 

 

This cue was recorded on March 8, 1977, the second day of the recording sessions. It was the first cue recorded that day. Four takes were recorded, numbered 24-27. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used takes 26 and 27.

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 8m3 Rev. The Rescue can be heard:

From 0:00-2:06 of track 7 "Rescue of the Princess" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 0:00-2:06 of disc 1 track 11 "Rescue of the Princess" on the 1993 album

From 0:00-2:12 of disc 2 track 6 "Shootout in the Cell Bay/Dianoga" on the 1997 album.

 

All sets have the clean opening, however only the 1997 set has a clean ending. The 1977 set is of course a remix and should be avoided. As far as I can tell all sets use the same takes. The 1997 set is brickwalled. For the video above I used the 2018 set for everything except for the ending, which came from the 1997 set.

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be listening to the only completely unused cue in the entire score, 8m4 Rev. The Water Snake. See you then!

 

 #1.29 SW (1977) - 8m4r The Water Snake (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue

.

Today we're going to be listening to 8m4 Rev. The Water Snake, the only entirely unused cue in the entire score.

 

This cue was rebalanced from 8m3 to 8m4, although the scans I have aren't final and only show 8m3. The cue list I have shows 8m4 however. 

 

This cue, both original and revised, is 29 bars long and was orchestrated by Herbert Spencer.

 

Here's the tops of the first page of the conductor's scores of both:

Only one change was made in the revision, which was some extra percussion added to bar 11, not all of which seems to have been used. I'm going to guess that this was further altered on the podium during recording. 

 

Technically there is no official confirmation as to the intended sync of this cue (due to it going unused), however I'm basically 100% certain that my placement is correct due to multiple sync marks lining up perfectly

 

With all that out of the way, let's listen to the revised cue together:

 

At 0:00 the cue kicks in with some ominous low woodwinds, just as the heroes hear the dianoga for the first time. 

 

Another shrill at 0:09 as Luke feels something by his leg, and then at 0:14 the cue starts building tension with some ascending figures. 

 

These peak and restart at 0:26, followed quickly by some percussion for the appearance of the eye at 0:30. This is the one change notated by the revision. The original cue has just piano and celeste here, where the revised cue adds a triangle, xylophone and tamtam. I believe this percussion was later altered at the podium during the sessions because some of these instruments (especially the tamtam) cannot be heard at all in the final recording.

 

At 0:36 the music slows down as the dianoga grabs Luke's leg and pulls him under. We get panicked woodwinds for Han and Leia desperately searching for Luke, until the ascending figures return at 0:45.

 

Shortly thereafter Luke reappears at 0:48, but nothing much changes in the music - the ascending figures continue as they desperately try to get the dianoga off his neck. 

 

The music slows down again at 1:06 as Luke disappears under the water again. This time it's some more peaceful sounding woodwinds with some quiet backing timpani. Is this the end? Has Luke been eaten?

 

The cue ends with a bang at 1:31 when Luke splashes back to the surface.

 

 

As I wrote earlier, this cue is not used in the final film at all. Evidently the filmmakers felt that the dianoga scene worked better without music. Most Star Wars fans have probably not heard this cue in its proper context before. You likely have heard the music itself though - as I mentioned way back in my post about 5m2 Rev. A Hive of Villainy, much of that cue was replaced in the Special Edition by this cue, which was reused to score the expanded intro to Mos Eisley. 

 

Personally I was not a fan of that Special Edition change since I felt the original music felt a lot better there. As for this scene, I can see why the filmmakers dropped it, there are definitely parts of the scene that I think work better without the music. I also think this cue probably takes away from the next cue, since in the final cut the lack of music before the walls start moving helps to build the tension when it does return.

 

I'd be curious to hear everyone's thoughts about whether the filmmakers were right to cut this music in the comments.

 

This cue was recorded on March 11, 1977, the fifth day of the recording sessions. It was the seventh cue recorded that day. Two takes were recorded, numbered 115-116. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used just take 116.

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 8m4 Rev. The Water Snake can be heard:

From 2:58-end of track 13 "The Walls Converge" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 2:58-end of disc 1 track 12 "The Walls Converge" on the 1993 album

From 2:12-end of disc 2 track 6 "Shootout in the Cell Bay/Dianoga" on the 1997 album.

 

All sets have the clean ending, however only the 1997 set has a clean opening. The 1977 set is of course a remix and should be avoided. As far as I can tell all sets use the same takes. The 1997 set is brickwalled. For the video above I used the 2018 set for everything except for the opening, which came from the 1997 set.

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be listening to 9m1 The Walls Converge. See you then!

 

 #1.30 SW (1977) - 9m1 The Walls Converge (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 9m1 The Walls Converge.

 

Similarly to last week's cue, this week's was rebalanced from 8m4 to 9m1, although the scans I have aren't final and only show 8m4. The cue list I have shows 9m1 however.

 

This cue is 56 bars long and was orchestrated by Herbert Spencer. 

 

Here's what the top of the conductor's score looks like:

Now let's listen to the cue together:

At 0:00 the cue begins with hints of what's to come as we get some repeating brass figures, not too different conceptually from the ones used in last week's cue. The ones in this week's cue are different because the individual figures are descending instead of ascending, and they're also faster paced.

 

After a good amount of tension-building as the walls begin to close in, the music changes at 0:40 to steady woodwinds as we get a shot of C-3PO's communicator resting on a table.

 

Once the door opens to reveal stormtroopers we get some Imperial theme at 0:47 with some brass and military drums. 

 

At 1:02 the rest of the orchestra joins in for another statement as the stormtroopers leave to chase after C-3PO's false information. The music fades back to steady woodwinds at 1:12 as the droids talk their way out of the room.

 

At 1:31, the repeating brass figures return as the heroes are struggling against the closing walls. These figures are the same as the ones earlier in the cue, but louder, and with some woodwind accompaniment.

 

The music quiets down briefly at 1:56 for a brief shot of the droids attempting to locate them, before returning in full force at 2:06. We get another cutaway to the droids at 2:16, but the music continues to build in intensity as 3PO remembers to answer his comlink. 

 

The music enters a final phase at 2:37, as it seems all is lost and the walls can't close much further. We get some loud repeated ascending brass figures with a backing drum, which continue until the walls stop moving at 3:00. Thus, the cue ends...

 

 

This cue is used almost exactly as intended in the final cut, however the opening 40 seconds are replaced with silence. My guess is that the filmmakers felt the tension worked better if it was built up continuously, rather than having a large break from 0:40-1:31. 

 

Personally I can see both sides of this, the opening 40 seconds are unnecessary but they're not necessarily harmful either. The film edit doesn't sound bad at all since it's a natural separation point in the music, so I'm happy to listen to either version. 

 

I'm curious to know what you think in the comments, was this a good change?

 

 

This cue was recorded on March 11, 1977, the fifth day of the recording sessions. It was the fifth cue recorded that day. Eight takes were recorded, numbered 98-105. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used takes 101 and 102.

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

 

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 9m1 The Walls Converge can be heard:

 

From 0:00-2:58 of track 13 "The Walls Converge" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 0:00-2:58 of disc 1 track 12 "The Walls Converge" on the 1993 album

From 0:00-end of disc 2 track 7 "The Trash Compactor" on the 1997 album.

 

All sets have the clean opening, however only the 1997 set has a clean ending. The 1977 set is of course a remix and should be avoided. The 1993 set contains completely different takes from the film. The 1997 set is completely brickwalled, and is also the wrong pitch/speed. In audacity I had to multiply it by 0.991 in order to get it to sync with the other sets. 

 

For the edit above I ended up using the 2018 set for everything but the ending, which came directly from the film audio. I found the 1997 set to be unusable due to the brickwalling, there was no way for me to splice it with the 2018 set where it wouldn't be noticable. 

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

Next week we'll be listening to 9m2 Ben Creeps Around. See you then!

 

 #1.31 SW (1977) - 9m2 Ben Creeps Around (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 9m2 Ben Creeps Around.

 

Similarly to last week's cue, this week's was rebalanced from 9m1 to 9m2. Unlike last week, I actually have scans of the final version that shows the number change. 

 

This cue is 53 bars long and was orchestrated by Herbert Spencer.

 

Here's what the top of the conductor's score looks like:

 

This is not the first cue we've looked at that's had it's title scratched out and replaced with an album title, e.g. 3m3R had its title ("The Sand Speeder") scratched out and replaced with "The Land of the Sand People", which was the title of the track it was edited into on the OST.

 

This is a weird one though because it's scratched out and replaced with "The Princess Appears", which is not the OST track that this cue appears in. This cue appears in the OST track "The Last Battle", while the OST track "The Princess Appears" is made of cues 3m1R and 3m2N.

 

Perhaps there was an earlier draft of the OST where this cue was included in that OST track? Either that or it's a mistake, but it seems to be a pretty egregious one.

 

With all that out of the way, let's listen to the cue together:

 

The cue begins with some soft strings as Ben approaches the tractor beam controls. As he gets closer, around 0:08, some backing harp begins. This leads into a percussion hit for the wide shot at 0:18, emphasizing the height of the platform.

 

The strings and harp continue, with another percussion hit at 0:33 when the first control is lowered.

 

At 0:40, two more harp hits for the next control being turned, followed quickly by a few hits of the military drum for the display showing the power turning off. 

 

The instrumentation changes up at 0:45 for the scene change. Instead of high pitched violin/viola, we get woodwinds, and the accompanying harp is replaced by horns and a cello. 

 

The horns repeatedly play the same note 3 times in short succession, sort of as an ominous reminder of the looming danger, while the woodwinds sort of meander around through the argument, not going anywhere in particular. 

 

At 1:24 we return to the Ben instrumentation, beginning with a single piano key hit a few times as the stormtroopers approach. The viola/violin starts up again, and we get a percussion hit at 1:29 when Ben touches the last control.

 

More piano at 1:31 for the stormtroopers, and the harp begins again shortly thereafter. At 1:48, for the final shot of Ben's escape, a marimba kicks in, doing the same repetition as the horn earlier but with 4 notes instead of 3. 

 

At 2:01 the music changes completely, and we get a heroic statement of Luke's theme as the heroes approach a window overlooking the docking bay where the Falcon is landed. Rather than concluding, the statement holds around 2:05, building to a second statement at 2:11.

 

This leads to some exciting ascending brass at 2:18, which builds through the end of the cue as Han and Chewie run off after the stormtroopers. There is a cool moment here at 2:24 where the beat syncs with the shot changes for the closeups to the trooper and Han.

 

This leaves one last string note held as Luke and Leia run off in the other direction. Thus, the cue ends.

 

 

This cue was recorded on March 8, 1977, the second day of the recording sessions. It was the fourth cue recorded that day. Three takes were recorded, numbered 51-53. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used just take 53.

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 9m2 Ben Creeps Around can be heard:

From 1:58-4:26 of track 15 "The Last Battle" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 1:58-4:29 of disc 1 track 15 "The Last Battle" on the 1993 album

From 0:00-2:34 of disc 2 track 8 "The Tractor Beam/Chasm Crossfire" on the 1997 album.

 

Only the 1997 has the clean opening, and no set has a clean ending. The 1977 set is of course a remix and should be avoided. All takes appear to be the same. The 1997 set is brickwalled, and both the 1997 and 2018 sets are the wrong pitch/speed.

 

For the video above I primarily used the 2018 set, but I used the 1997 set for the clean opening, and for the ending. The clean ending in my edit is faked, I just looped the available clean material from the 1997 to match the audible length of the full ending. 

 

In order to splice the 1997 and 2018 sets, I needed to sync them, since as I mentioned they're both the wrong speed. In Audacity the 2018 set needed to be slowed by -0.110, and the 1997 set needed to be slowed by -0.007. Additionally, one of the channels on the 1997 set was inverted compared to the 2018 set and film. I fixed this by inverting the right channel of the 1997 set. Lastly, I also noticed that the left and right channels on both sets were out of sync with each other. To fix this I separated the left and right channels of the 1997 set and manually synced them with the left and right channels of the 2018 set before recombining them. It was quite the mess to figure out, but hopefully the end result sounds seamless.

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be listening to 9m3 The Swashbucklers. See you then!

 

 

 #1.32 SW (1977) - 9m3 The Swashbucklers (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue. Apologies for no post last weekend, I was super busy.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 9m3 The Swashbucklers. This is one of my favorite cues in the entire score.

 

Similarly to last week's cue, this week's was rebalanced from 9m2 to 9m3, and the scans of the final version show the number change.

 

This cue is 96 bars long and was orchestrated by Arthur Morton.

 

Here's what the top of the conductor's score looks like:

You can see that not only was the cue number rebalanced, but the overall sheet number was also changed from 30 to 31, I believe this occurred when 8m2 New More Rescue was written, all the cue numbers after it being rebalanced (as well as it's title) seem to indicate that it was a late addition.

 

With all that out of the way, let's listen to this cue together:

 

At 0:00 the cue begins with some repeating strings as Han chases the stormtroopers down the hall. They are joined shortly by some drums and then by a hint of the Imperial theme on the brass at 0:03.

 

Then at 0:05, the brass ascends as Han turns around and starts getting chased by the stormtroopers he had believed to have cornered. 

 

At 0:11 the Imperial theme material returns, played on multiple slightly overlapping instruments. The final statement as 0:16 builds into some ascending brass again, peaking at 0:24, when Luke and Leia appear trapped in the chasm with the retracted bridge.

 

At 0:24, some ominous brass for the wide shot of the chasm, as Luke and Leia look around and see no escape. 

 

The stormtroopers catch up at 0:27, and the repeating strings return with them, subsiding with some percussion at 0:31 when Leia closes the door. 

 

More ominous music as the stormtroopers reach the closed door, and Luke shoots the controls in desperation. before the music starts to turn hopeful at 0:38. The music continues to slowly ascend until Luke thinks of an idea at 0:47.

 

Before he can execute his plan, the action music returns at 0:49 as more stormtroopers enter the chasm from a different door and start shooting. We get a wonderful rousing rendition of Luke's A theme as he fires back, continuing again at 0:57. 

 

Then we get some of Luke's B theme at 1:06, as the stormtroopers retreat and Luke begins preparing to throw his grapple. This continues as another trooper arrives and Leia starts shooting to cover Luke.

 

Then at 1:19, some ascending orchestra before the low brass kicks in with Luke's A theme again at 1:24. At 1:29, more ascending orchestra, and then a short hint of Leia's theme at 1:33 as the grappling hook connects. 

 

A big swell at 1:38 for the big swing, and then the repeating chase strings start up again at 1:43 as the heroes run off. This fades away for some woodwinds Ben Kenobi sneaking music at 1:48, similar to some of the material from last week's cue. 

 

This then leads to a slower and calmer rendition of Luke's A theme as we check in on the droids again at 1:57. 

 

At 2:08, a return to the aggressive repeating chase strings, as Han and Chewie are still being chased down a hallway. These get more aggressive at 2:10 for the closeup of the stormtroopers, followed immediately by the return of the Imperial theme. Some ascending woodwinds at 2:19 for the door closing behind them, and then some relative silence for the "Open the blast doors! Open the blast doors!" joke.

 

At 2:24, we get some timpani as Ben Kenobi walks down the hallway with his saber hilt drawn. Some ominous woodwinds to accompany Vader's drawn saber at 2:28, and then some more timpani for his approach. Thus, the cue ends....

 

 

This cue was used almost entirely as intended in the final film, except for one edit at 2:10, you'll notice in my video there's a short 1 second black screen there, that's because half a second of music was trimmed there in the final cut. I'm not certain exactly what shot this would have scored, but presumably the Han/Chewie shot was originally longer and got shortened in the final edit.

 

 

This cue was recorded on March 5, 1977, the first day of the recording sessions. It has the distinction of being not only the first cue recorded that day, but the first piece of Star Wars music ever recorded. Seven takes were recorded, numbered 1-7. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used takes 5 and 7.

 

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 9m3 The Swashbucklers can be heard:

From 2:05-end of track 7 "Rescue of the Princess" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 2:05-end of disc 1 track 11 "Rescue of the Princess" on the 1993 album

From 2:34-end of disc 2 track 8 "The Tractor Beam/Chasm Crossfire" on the 1997 album.

 

All sets have the clean ending, but none of them have a clean opening. The 1977 set is of course a remix, and should be avoided. The 1997 set is heavily brickwalled, and the 1993 set has wrong takes. 

 

For these reasons, in the video above I primarily used the 2018 set, although I used the film for the clean opening. Technically, the film makes the same crossfade that the 1997 set does, however 9m2 is substantially more quiet in the film than it is on the album, and I was able to remove it completely via the Audacity noise reduction tool.

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be listening to 10m1 Ben's Death. See you then!

 

 

[Doo_liss 6,269]

The missing 8 bars of the original Lost R2 are more likely intended for the "Look Sir Droids!" scene, as indicated by the comic adaptation (though, It could be possible the Beru scene would have been part of it...)

 

Also slightly surprised you didn't mention the Dies Irae mixture with the Jaws theme in More Little People.

[kingpiranha 20]

@enderdrag64 feel free to copy my comments over here if you want to. 

[Chen G. 4,513]

2 hours ago, enderdrag64 said:

• It's also likely that Holsts' Mars The Bringer of War was temped into the first appearance of the Star Destroyer, as well as the part right before the Death Star blows up. (there is no specific firsthand source claiming this, but other than just the obvious similarities in sound, JW did mention Holst by name in the 1977 liner notes)

 

Also:

 

"Cruxifiction" from Franz Waxman's score to The Bride of Frankenstein, which was used in the opening of episodes of Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe: Lucas remembers in 1977 that he wanted to use Flash Gordon music, and its not without a passing resemblence to the Rebel Fanfare.

 

 

Liszt's Les Preludes (another Flash Gordon favourite, mentioned specifically by Lucas) for the prison break.

 

"Peaceful Mountain Pass Road" from Masaru Sato's score to Hidden Fortress for the Jawas: Hirsch in his book remembers them TRYING a Kurosawa piece here, and its damn close to the score in that part of the film.

 

[Doo_liss 6,269]

Sounds like the original version of Rózsa's The Desert from Ben-Hur as well

 

 

[QuartalHarmony 648]

Great write-ups & videos - as someone who loves the music but has never micro-checked it against the film, I’m learning a lot!

[ThePenitentMan1 1,012]

Taking the information from your post for More Little People and the image of the sheet music for the original cue, I attempted a mockup of the original intro, minus the instrumentation differences:

 

 

 

It is very possible that I might've gotten something wrong in the MIDI portion of the mockup—It's only my first one, after all—so any corrections would be appreciated.

[kingpiranha 20]

3 hours ago, ThePenitentMan1 said:

Taking the information from your post for More Little People and the image of the sheet music for the original cue, I attempted a mockup of the original intro, minus the instrumentation differences:

 

 

It is very possible that I might've gotten something wrong in the MIDI portion of the mockup—It's only my first one, after all—so any corrections would be appreciated.

 

Nice first attempt, but for me it doesn't really sound right. Here is my version of just the intro:

 

   

 

 

[enderdrag64 843]

#1.20 - SW (1977) - 5m4-6m1 Don't Bee That Weigh (Wook link)
 

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 5m4-6m1 Don't Bee That Weigh, the second of the two cantina source cues. Just like last week, I do not have any sheet music for this cue, however the original title was revealed just a couple months ago on May 4th by Mark Graham on Instagram, in a post where he showed off the first page of the sketch:

 

 

Apparently the title "Don't Bee That Weigh" is a reference to a popular Benny Goodman song, "Don't Be That Way". John Williams has talked repeatedly in many interviews about how George Lucas wanted the Cantina Band music to sound like Benny Goodman's big band jazz music; it's possible, if not likely, that this particular song was used in the temp track for this cue.

 

 

 

Once again, since I don't have the sheets for this cue, I unfortunately can't go into detail about things like how long it is or who orchestrated it, assuming it was even orchestrated. @Kingpiranha brought up a good point last week in saying that it probably wasn't - since these source cues were written for a much smaller band and not a full orchestra, it's likely that the sketches themselves were enough to conduct off of, and orchestration would have been unnecessary.

 

Also like last week, while conventional wisdom holds that these cues were not written to picture, I've found that it syncs up perfectly with what remains of the cantina scene, so I'm inclined to believe that it was at least timed to the scene length, if not scored to projection.

 

With that out of the way, let's listen to the cue together:

 

 

 

 

Like the last cue, while mostly sounding like improvisational jazz, there are a couple repeated sections.

 

At 0:00 we get the A section, followed immediately by the B section at 0:04. This lasts until 0:25, when the C section starts, leading into a reset around 0:35.

 

Then at 0:37, the A section begins again, leading into a modified B section at 0:41. Then at 0:51, a new ascending D section, followed by another new section at 1:03. This section is sort of similar to the B section, but with a completely different melody. This lasts until 1:43.

 

Then we get another reset, followed by a variant of the A and C sections at 1:48. This leads to another reset around 2:08, and then a repeat of the original A section at 2:11, followed by the original B section at 2:16, and the original C section at 2:36.

 

At 2:47, the A section again; 2:52, a B section variant; 3:02, the D section. Then at 3:11 we sort of get a repeat of the section at 1:03. This continues all the way to the end, as the cue fades out. I'm actually unsure if the original recording continues or not, but every commercial release (and the film) has a fadeout.

 

 

Just like last week's cue, this cue was edited very heavily in the final film.

 

0:00-0:04 in the film was replaced with silence

0:04-0:14 in the film was replaced with 0:04-0:14 of the original cue.

0:14-0:15 in the film was replaced with 3:00-3:01 of the original cue.

0:15-0:47 in the film was replaced with 2:15-2:47 of the original cue.

0:47-2:16 in the film was replaced with 0:00-1:29 of the original cue.

2:16-2:22 in the film was replaced with silence

2:22-3:19 in the film was replaced with 1:33-2:30 of the original cue.

3:19-3:44 in the film was replaced with 2:31-2:56 of the original cue.

 

 

This cue was recorded on March 10, 1977, the fourth day of the recording sessions. It was the second cue recorded that day, immediately following last week's cue. Once again, it was recorded with a special jazz group instead of the full LSO.

 

Two takes were recorded, numbered 81-82. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used just take 81.

 

This cue has been officially released on two different albums:

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

 

More specifically, 5m4-6m1 Don't Bee That Weigh can be heard:

From 0:00-end of disc 4 track 12 "Cantina Band #2" on the 1993 album

From 0:00-end of disc 1 track 12 "Cantina Band #2" on the 1997 album.

 

Both releases have clean openings, but both releases have fadeouts. As I mentioned above, I am unsure if the original recording continues past the point the 1997 set fades out. The 1993 set absolutely has a fake fadeout, it ends about 8 seconds earlier than the 1997 set does. I think it's likely that the 1997 set's fadeout is also fake, but it is possible that it's baked into the recording. If the former is the case, no clean ending is available. Both releases have the same takes. The above video just uses the 1997 set.

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll finally be returning to underscore with 6m3R The Inner City. See you then!

 

I've also added this to the main post. It's a little late for me right now so I'll probably copy the comments I mentioned over tomorrow 

[Schilkeman 1,294]

Cantina Band 2

 

Sorry, I find this form analysis a little confusing. In jazz terms, it would be more like this:

 

32 bar head with 4 bar intro and repeated intro - (intro) AAB (intro) A
8 bar transition
Solo Chorus abv. (16 bars AA*)
Arranger Chorus abv. (16 bar AA*)
Transition (4 bars)
Arranger Chorus abv. with 2 bar intro (16 bars BB)
Head and Solo Chorus repeat
Fade out on Arranger Chorus

 

I'm sure all the abbreviated choruses and odd intro repeats and transitions were due to time sync considerations.

 

[Doo_liss 6,269]

@enderdrag64 isn't Homage a Maxie from a KOTCS a source cue on an OST album?

[enderdrag64 843]

3 hours ago, Schilkeman said:

Cantina Band 2

 

Sorry, I find this form analysis a little confusing. In jazz terms, it would be more like this:

 

32 bar head with 4 bar intro and repeated intro - (intro) AAB (intro) A
8 bar transition
Solo chorus abv. (16 bars AA*)
Arranger Chorus abv. (16 bar AA*)
transition (4 bars)
Arranger Chorus abv. with 2 bar intro (16 bars BB)
Head and solo chorus repeat
Fade out on Arranger chorus

 

I'm sure all the abbreviated choruses and odd intro repeats and transitions were due to time sync considerations.

 

Thank you! Clearly I'm not used to taking about jazz 🤣

[enderdrag64 843]

#1.21 - SW (1977) - 6m3R The Inner City (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

Today we're going to be listening to 6m3 Rev. The Inner City. This is a revision of an earlier cue, 5m6 The Inner City.

 

Clearly the cue got rebalanced from 5m6 to 6m3 at some point which is interesting for a couple of reasons; firstly, it would seem that the original cue number didn't account for the second cantina source that we looked at last week, unless that was also rebalanced, which there is no evidence of. Secondly, the rebalanced cue number skips over 6m2 completely.

 

It is a complete mystery as to why this is the case; my only guess is that maybe they left space for the "set your course for Alderaan" scene to be scored? But the scene is only a few seconds long, and it was moved here in editing pretty late during the scoring process.

 

Whatever the case may be, the original cue is 46 bars long, and the revision is 36 bars long. Both versions were orchestrated by Herbert Spencer.

Here's what the tops of the original and revision look like:

 

 

Interestingly, you'll notice I don't actually have scans of the final version of the revision; notice there is no large number in black marker like we've seen with previous cues, and there's no indication that the cue was rebalanced. However, on the final cue sheet this is listed as 6m3, so it was definitely rebalanced before recording.

 

The only difference between the original and the revision is the deletion of 10 bars from 25-35 of the original. These bars would have originally scored the deleted scene where Vader talks to the commander while walking down the hallway. A mockup of this short section was made a couple years ago by BrotherSound:

These deleted bars aren't terribly interesting, mostly just some percussion not too dissimilar from what we'll hear in 7m2 The Mouse Robot in a few weeks. However, the existence of these bars is interesting because they sort of give a timeline for the deletion of certain scenes.

 

In the original script the scenes progressed like this:

Scene C50 = 3PO and R2 hide from stormtroopers searching an alleyway

Scene 53 = Ben and Luke discuss selling the landspeeder and walk down alley while being followed

Scene AA53 = Han/Jabba scene

Scene BA53 = Vader/commander hallway scene

Scene 56 = Ben and Luke walk towards Chewbacca, continue being followed

Scene 58 = Falcon reveal

 

The original version of 6m3 The Inner City scores scenes C50, 53, BA53, 56 and 58, but not scene AA53. This indicates that by the time the score was being written the Jabba scene was already cut. However, the Vader hallway scene (BA53) was not cut until during scoring, but it was still cut early enough that John Williams was able to alter his music before recording instead of it needing to be edited later. Therefore, the Vader hallway scene was likely cut sometime during February 1977, whereas the Jabba scene was likely cut before January 1977.

 

Okay, now that we have all of that out of the way, we can finally listen to the revised cue together.

 

 

 

At 0:00 we get some ascending woodwinds as the droids hide from the stormtroopers. Then, at 0:06 there's some more ominous woodwinds for the stormtroopers knocking on the door, before the ascending woodwinds return at 0:13 as the droids re-open the door.

 

More ominous music for their discussion, and then at 0:32 the music transitions into Luke's theme as Luke and Ben walk down the alley. 0:44 gives us a short ominous motif for Garindan, and then at 0:53 the music ascends, getting ready for a transition. At 0:59 the music changes to Luke's theme again, as they continue to walk down the alley. In the original cue, 0:59 is the point where the Vader hallway scene would've occurred instead.

 

Luke's theme continues until 1:10, when we see Garindan again, and hear more of his motif. This then builds into a crescendo at 1:18 for the reveal of the Falcon. Thus, the cue fades out....

 

 

In the final theatrical cut, this cue is used exactly as intended. However, in the Special Edition releases, a new version of the cut Jabba scene with a CGI Jabba is inserted at 0:59, leading to some music edits.

 

In the Special Edition cuts:

0:00-0:58 is 0:00-0:58 of 6m3R The Inner City

0:58-1:20 is 0:30-0:52 of 4m3 The Sarlacc Pit from Return of the Jedi

1:20-1:37 is 0:21-0:38 of 2m5 Jabba's Prisoners from Return of the Jedi

1:37-2:30 is 1:00-1:52 of 2m5 Jabba's Prisoners from Return of the Jedi

2:30-end is 0:58-end of 6m3R The Inner City

 

This reuse of Return of the Jedi music in the special edition cuts is, in my opinion, extremely jarring as it doesn't really fit with the rest of the score. It doesn't help that the jump cuts in the music are extremely obvious and bad sounding. That said, it is interesting that, as I talked about earlier, the unrevised 6m3 The Inner City was originally intended to be split up like this, just with the Vader hallway scene in between instead.

 

 

This cue was recorded on March 12, 1977, the sixth day of the recording sessions. It was the eighth and final cue recorded that day.

 

Three takes were recorded, numbered 173-175. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used take 175.

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 6m3R The Inner City can be heard:

From 3:07-end of track 8 "Inner City" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 3:09-end of disc 1 track 9 "Inner City" on the 1993 album

From 0:00-1:34 of disc 2 track 2 "The Millennium Falcon/Imperial Cruiser Pursuit" on the 1997 album.

 

All sets have clean endings, although only the 1997 set has a clean opening. The 1977 set is as usual a remix and should be avoided. All of the albums appear to have the same take

That said, the 1977 and 2018 albums are missing a large chunk of the cue, they edit out 0:48-1:17:

For these reasons I can only recommend the 1997 set for this cue, which is what I used for the video above.

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

Next week we'll be discussing 6m4 Blasting Away. See you then!

Once again, I've added it to the main post. I'm also working on copying over those comments I mentioned right now. They should show up between all the posts as little bonus sections

Update: comments have been added for 1m2, 2m2, 2m3-2m4N, 3m1R, 3m2R, 5m2R, and 5m3-5m3a

[Chen G. 4,513]

1 hour ago, enderdrag64 said:

This indicates that by the time the score was being written the Jabba scene was already cut.

 

But not back during the time of the spotting session, presumably?

[Doo_liss 6,269]

@enderdrag64 according to the comic, Set your course for Alderaan, would have been between Luke finding Owen and Beru's dead (A Home Destroyed) and him returning to Ben (Hive of Villainy)

[enderdrag64 843]

41 minutes ago, The Great Gonzales said:

@enderdrag64 according to the comic, Set your course for Alderaan, would have been between Luke finding Owen and Beru's dead (A Home Destroyed) and him returning to Ben (Hive of Villainy)

Yeah I believe it's that way in the shooting script as well. But I believe it was already moved to its final location by the time of the rebalancing, as with all the other imperial scene shuffling's that resulted in A Home Destroyed to be broken up

1 hour ago, Chen G. said:

 

But not back during the time of the spotting session, presumably?

That I'm not sure about, although if he didn't include it in the unrevised cue I think it's likely that it was cut by then

[kingpiranha 20]

3 hours ago, Chen G. said:

 

But not back during the time of the spotting session, presumably?

If I remember correctly they had already removed the Jabba scene for the first cut in November 1976.

[Doo_liss 6,269]

1 hour ago, enderdrag64 said:

Yeah I believe it's that way in the shooting script as well. But I believe it was already moved to its final location by the time of the rebalancing, as with all the other imperial scene shuffling's that resulted in A Home Destroyed to be broken up

That I'm not sure about, although if he didn't include it in the unrevised cue I think it's likely that it was cut by then

The Novelization also matches.

[Chen G. 4,513]

9 hours ago, kingpiranha said:

If I remember correctly they had already removed the Jabba scene for the first cut in November 1976.

 

That's what I heard, too. And this would have major ramifications in terms of the way Lucas conceptualised the Jabba scene, because he says he didn't want to burden the stop-motion department with his (new) creature concept, but if this is true, the scene was cut BEFORE the stop-motion department was even established.

 

The only piece of evidence for Lucas wanting to turn Jabba into an alien at this time is that he crops up as an alien (although a perfectly humanoid one) in the Marvel strip from April. But then, Lucas only showed the Marvel representatives the cut in February, so the Jabba scene SHOULD have already been cut.

 

If it was also spotted around February, however, that might change things.

[GerateWohl 4,988]

Anyway, Lucas should never have brought back the Jabba scene to A New Hope. Beside the "Greedo is too dumb to shoot someone three feet in front of him" scene this was for me the biggest worsification of Original Star Wars Trilogy in the Special Edition. Third is Jedi Rocks!

[enderdrag64 843]

#1.22 SW (1977) - 6m4 Blasting Away (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue. Apologies for the late post this week, I was extremely busy this weekend.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 6m4 Blasting Away.

 

This cue is 68 bars long and was orchestrated by Herbert Spencer.

 

Just like last week you can see that the cue got rebalanced, going from 6m1 to 6m4. And once again, just like last week, my scan doesn't show it because it's not the final version with the big number in marker.

 

Now let's listen to the cue together.

 

 

At 0:00 the cue begins with a marching variant of the Imperial theme as the stormtroopers head down the street, leading into one last hint of the imperial spy motif from last week's cue at 0:04. 

 

Then we get some tension building at 0:10 as the stormtrooper run towards the hangar, before the brass kicks in with a bang at Han's wide eyes at 0:15.

 

As the shooting begins, the orchestra roars to life, leading to a Force theme statement at 0:19, climaxing as Luke and Ben belt themselves in around 0:29.

 

Then we get three brass sustains at 0:33 for the Falcon flying off, followed by some tense ascending music at 0:38 for Han piloting in the cockpit. 

 

Underneath this plays another Force theme statement at 0:41, both of which build into some fast paced brass at 0:59 for the Falcon speeding off. This is quickly joined by a percussion hit at 1:03 as the Star Destroyers pursue. 

 

At 1:07, more tense cockpit music for Luke and Han's argument. Then a return of the repeating fast paced brass at 1:20 as the Star Destroyers start shooting at the Falcon. Then at 1:23 we get some intense brass build up with backing strings as Han discusses what's needed to jump to lightspeed. This builds up to a statement of the Death Star motif at 1:56. 

 

The music then starts to trail off around 2:01, with soft woodwinds to emphasize the defenselessness of Alderaan on the viewscreen. Thus, the cue ends....

 

 

This cue was mostly used in the theatrical cut as intended, as far as I can tell. There is a 1 second section from 0:33-0:34 that was snipped out of the film, as you can see I don't have any video for that section. My guess is that the shot of the Falcon flying off was originally longer, but I don't have any definitive proof of that. However, I believe it to be the case because the cue appears to sync correctly with all of the footage in the final cut both before and after that shot. 

 

Curiously, this sequence was actually altered quite heavily in editing, but I believe most of it was done before the cue was written, for the reasons I just explained. That said, there are some interesting continuity errors in the final edit that result from them shuffling shots around. For example, the shot of Luke and Ben buckling in at 0:26 was originally supposed to come after Han's line "strap yourselves in, we're going to make the jump to lightspeed" at 1:47. Further, the shot of Han in the cockpit at 0:38 shows Ben leaving the cockpit, a direct continuation of the shot at 1:47. 

 

As a result of these shots being moved around, we see Luke and Ben strap themselves in, followed by Han sitting alone in the cockpit with Ben leaving it, followed by Ben and Luke running back into the cockpit and arguing with Han for a bit, before being told to strap themselves in and leaving it again.

I'm not really sure why these shots were shuffled around so much, but as I said it doesn't affect the music so for the purposes of this series it's just a fun curiosity.

 

Anyway, in the Special Edition of the film, this sequence is mostly unchanged, however the shot of the Falcon taking off is replaced with a longer CGI shot where you can actually see it lift out of the Mos Eisley hangar. 

As a result of this new shot, the cue's sync breaks, resulting in a couple loops and snips to try to sync it up again. In isolation it sounds pretty terrible. Here's a breakdown of the music edits:

The section from 0:00-0:33 was unchanged.

The section from 0:33-0:35 was cut.

The section from 0:35-0:38 plays three times in a row, with the third time being cut off early by the section from 0:39-end.

 

This cue was recorded on March 16, 1977, the eighth and final day of the recording sessions. Seven takes were recorded, numbered 203-209. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used takes 205, 206 and 209.

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 6m4 Blasting Away can be heard:

From 2:01-end of track 11 "Mouse Robot and Blasting Off" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 2:01-end of disc 1 track 10 "Mouse Robot/Blasting Off" on the 1993 album

From 1:34-end of disc 2 track 2 "The Millennium Falcon/Imperial Cruiser Pursuit" on the 1997 album.

 

All sets have clean endings, however only the 1997 set has the opening. Notice I didn't say clean opening, I said opening; every set other than the 1997 chops off the first 16 seconds of the cue. 

 

For the remainder that is available on all three sets, the 1993 and 1997 sets are both brickwalled. They all appear to have the same takes though. The 1977 is of course a remix and should be avoided.

 

For all of these reasons, the video above ended up being a hybrid edit that uses the 1997 for the first 16 seconds, and then switches over to the 2018 for the rest. Fortunately, the opening of the cue is quieter than the rest, so these opening 16 seconds are not brickwalled on the 1997 set and sound just fine. 

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be discussing 6m5N The Destruction of Alderon. See you then!

 

[ThePenitentMan1 1,012]

 

On 30/07/2024 at 10:51 PM, enderdrag64 said:

Then at 1:23 we get some intense brass build up with backing strings as Han discusses what's needed to jump to lightspeed explains why listing lazily to the left is a brilliant maneuver.

 

Fixed.

[Tallguy 4,268]

4 hours ago, ThePenitentMan1 said:

 

 

Fixed.

 

Adywan?

[enderdrag64 843]

#1.23 SW (1977) - 6m5N The Destruction of Alderon (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 6m5 New The Destruction of Alderon.

 

The cue number might make you think this cue was completely replaced from scratch, like with 3m2 New. However, I don't believe this to be the case.

 

Rather, as evidenced by the way it's written on a couple other cues we'll look at in the coming weeks, I believe 6m5 New is labelled as "New" in order to indicate that it was rebalanced. Just like last week's cue was originally 6m1 and got rebalanced to 6m4, this week's cue was originally 6m2 and got rebalanced to 6m5. 

 

This cue is 32 bars long and was orchestrated by Al Woodbury. 

 

One other thing you've probably noticed is that the name Alderaan is spelled wrong in this cue title. Unfortunately since I don't have the sketch I have no idea if this error was introduced by John Williams or by Al Woodbury. I don't believe this spelling was intentional because all of George Lucas' scripts even going back to the first treatment used the spelling "Alderaan". Also, as we'll see as this series continues, this is far from the only JW cue to have a name spelled incorrectly.

 

Okay with that out of the way, let's listen to the cue together:

 

 

At 0:00 there's some initial low brass followed immediately by some hesitant woodwind figures at 0:02 for the reveal of Alderaan. These almost sound like the dies irae material from earlier in the score except they're two repeating notes instead of four.

 

The tension builds at 0:13 as Tarkin approaches Leia. "I grow tired of asking this, so it'll be the last time. Where is the rebel base?" The ascending brass leads into a more direct dies irae quote at 0:23, as Leia looks upon her homeworld, carefully considering her options.

 

Then at 0:26, some sad strings, as Leia defeatedly says they're on Dantooine, and Tarkin announces that Alderaan will be destroyed anyway. 

 

At 0:36 we get some ascending strings as Tarkin's lie is revealed, which build tension before the demonstration. At 0:46, the tension builds to its highest point with loud repeating lower brass, and the return of the dies irae material on the upper brass. This continues as the operators pull levers until the beam fires at 0:58. 

 

At 0:58, we get a short four note sad string melody as the planet explodes, variations of which repeat throughout the rest of the cue. There crop up at 1:02, 1:06, and 1:11. The last two of these occur as we switch to the interior of the Millennium Falcon, where Ben sense the planet's destruction through the Force. Thus, the cue ends...

 

In the final cut the cue is mostly used as intended, however the section from 1:00-1:11 is dialed out due to the overwhelming presence of the sound effects.  Interestingly, this is the only cue in the entire score that was intended to play when a lightsaber was onscreen, and that section was muted in the film in favor of the lightsaber sfx. 

 

David Collins mentions at 58:24 of Star Wars Oxygen episode 5, that on this first film they were afraid that the lighsaber sfx was too tonal and that it would clash with the music. My guess is that this fear was established during the spotting sessions, because every section involving a lightsaber in the film (Ben's hut, training ball on the Falcon, Ben vs Vader) went unscored with the exception of the 4 seconds of this cue where Luke's lightsaber was still on. 

I assume that at spotting they decided that either the quiet strings wouldn't conflict, or that they'd skip lightsaber sfx here, or that the segment was so short that it didn't matter; but on the editing stage they ultimately decided to drop the music instead. 

 

This cue was recorded on March 12, 1977, the sixth day of the recording sessions. Five takes were recorded, numbered 168-172. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used just take 172.

 

This cue has been officially released on two different albums:

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

 

More specifically, 6m5 New The Destruction of Alderon can be heard:

From 0:00-end of disc 4 track 5 "Destruction of Alderaan" on the 1993 album.

From 0:00-end of disc 2 track 3 "Destruction of Alderaan" on the 1997 album.

 

Both sets have clean openings and endings, and they both share the same takes. However, the 1997 set is brickwalled, and for that reason I used the 1993 set for the above video. 

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be discussing one of my favorite cues, 7m1 New Is It A Bird?. See you then!

 

[enderdrag64 843]

#1.24 SW (1977) - 7m1N Is It a Bird? (Wook link)

 

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 7m1 New Is It a Bird?  This might actually be my favorite cue in the entire score.

 

This cue is 44 bars long and was orchestrated by Arthur Morton.

 

Just like last week, the "New" in the cue number is an indication that it was rebalanced. And unlike last week, this is actually pretty easily visible on the sheet music:

 

As you can clearly see this cue was rebalanced from 6m3 to 7m1, just like how last week's cue was originally 6m2 and got rebalanced to 6m5.

 

One other funny thing about the title is that it's a reference to the infamous "It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's Superman!" intro from the old 40s Superman cartoons. John Williams would go on to write the score for Superman only a year after Star Wars, in 1978. I'm curious if at the time this cue was written he was already in talks to score that film, or if it's just a coincidence.

 

Now it's time to listen to the cue together:

 

At 0:00 begins some ominous brass as the heroes first see the "small moon". I've always loved the tension built up by this. The melodic progression is interesting, sort of an ascending development of the Imperial theme.

 

This continues as the heroes discuss their approach, intensifying as they try and fail to turn around at 0:28. 

 

The horns restart at a higher pitch at 0:39, as the Death Star starts to become fully visible, and the reality of the situation sets in. 

 

This continues building up tension until 0:55, when the Rebel rhythm kicks in, followed quickly by the Rebel fanfare at 0:57. I always thought this was a really fascinating choice, the heroes get sucked into the maw of the beast, the domain of the villains, and rather than playing the villain theme Williams chose to play the most rousing rendition of the hero theme in the entire score.

 

I really want to call out the shot at 1:04 as well, it's always been super memorable to me, the Rebel fanfare against the Falcon slowly approaching the docking bay.

 

At 1:10 we get the final climactic Rebel fanfare statement as the Falcon fully enters the docking bay and lands.

 

This leads to some final percussion and brass figures as the stormtroopers run to the docking bay to greet the intruding ship at 1:22.

 

We get one final woodwinds note at 1:30 for Tarkin receiving notice of the ship's arrival. Thus, the cue ends...

 

In the final cut this cue is mostly used as intended, however there is an extra shot of stormtroopers being commanded to go "to your stations" that features a looped section of 1:22-1:28. I believe this footage was reused from another section of the film (perhaps the escape from the Death Star or the final trench run). Wherever it came from, the extra footage is the exact same length as the looped section, and doesn't seem to fit the continuity of the sequence, so it seems to be what was added.

 

 

This cue was recorded on March 5, 1977, the first day of the recording sessions. Three takes were recorded, numbered 8-10. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used just take 10.

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 7m1 New Is It a Bird? can be heard:

From 0:00-1:34 of track 8 "Inner City" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 0:00-1:35 of disc 1 track 9 "Inner City" on the 1993 album

From 0:00-1:39 of disc 2 track 4 "The Death Star/The Stormtroopers" on the 1997 album.

 

All sets have clean openings, however only the 1997 has the clean ending. As far as I can tell all sets have the same takes. The 1977 is of course a remix and should be avoided. The 1997 is also brickwalled. For this reason, I used the 1993 set for most of the cue except for the clean ending which came from the 1997 set.

 

One last thing to note is this is another one of those rare cues from this score to have had official sheet music published! The John Williams concert suite "The Battle" includes most of this cue as the first 39 bars of the suite, equivalent to bars 1-39 of the original cue. 

 

Unfortunately this suite is no longer available, this is another one of those suites that was only made available to orchestras many years ago. You can still listen to recordings of it on youtube though (the part relevant to this cue is 0:00-1:22):

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be discussing 7m2 New The Hatch Opens. See you then!

 

[Brando 2,112]

On 15/07/2024 at 6:52 AM, The Great Gonzales said:

@enderdrag64 isn't Homage a Maxie from a KOTCS a source cue on an OST album?

Yes it is

[enderdrag64 843]

#1.25 SW (1977) - 7m2N The Hatch Opens (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 7m2 New The Hatch Opens.

 

This cue is 42 bars long and was orchestrated by Herbert Spencer. 

 

Continuing the trend of the last few weeks, this cue was originally 7m1 but got rebalanced to 7m2, and a "New" was added to the end to signify the rebalance.

 

I actually have scans of it both before and after rebalancing. As far as I can tell no musical changes were made so this doesn't qualify as a revision.

 

But here's the top of the first page of both scans:

Now let's listen to the cue together:

At 0:00 the cue begins with a statement of Bernard Herrmann's 3-note madness theme from the film Psycho. Editor Paul Hirsch has said in interviews that a cue from the Psycho score was used in the temp track here, and Williams decided to pay homage to it in his cue for the scene. It is also worth nothing that Williams was good friends with Herrmann, and saw him as  a mentor.

 

Unfortunately the original recordings for Psycho have never been properly released in high quality, but you can hear the theme in its original context at the very start of the Joel McNeely rerecording of the cue "The Madhouse" here: 

 

Anyway, back to the star wars cue, the Psycho reference provides some tension as the heroes open the hatch. The tension releases when the reference ends at 0:06, as they see that it's safe and the coast is clear. The strings play a soft but still hesitant form of Ben's theme as Ben says he'll take care of the tractor beam.

 

Then at 0:26 the music changes gears, giving us some Imperial theme as the technicians bring over the scanning equipment. This leads into some ascending material at 0:40 as they climb the ramp and enter the Falcon. 

Then some hesitant figures as Han calls for help, leading to a loud brass and percussion statement at 1:05 as you hear a couple muffled blaster shots. 

 

Some quiet tension building from 1:10-1:19, and then the return of the Imperial theme as you see Luke descend the Falcon ramp in a stormtrooper suit pretending he has a bad communicator. There aren't any full statements of the theme here, but lots of repeating fragments.

 

Then at 1:32 there's some loud action-y brass for Chewbacca and Han attacking the imperials in the control room, followed by a happy statement of Luke's theme as the rest of the heroes enter the control roon. Thus, the cue ends...

 

This cue was recorded on March 11, 1977, the fifth day of the recording sessions. Five takes were recorded, numbered 110-114. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used just take 114.

 

This cue has been officially released on just one album:

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

 

More specifically, 7m2 New The Hatch Opens can be heard:

From 1:39-end of disc 2 track 4 "The Death Star/The Stormtroopers" on the 1997 album.

 

The 1997 set has both a clean opening and ending, and the takes are correct  to the film, however it is unfortunately brickwalled in some areas. The video above just uses the 1997 set.

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be discussing 8m1 The Mouse Robot. See you then!

 

[Holko 10,159]

Fantastic work!

 

On 13/07/2024 at 7:49 PM, enderdrag64 said:

3m3 Rev The Sand Speeder (...)

 

I chose to open with the establishing shot from the final cut because it seemed obvious that that's what it was filmed for. It also has the added benefit that it makes it so that we hear Luke's theme under the first shot he's on screen.

Hmm, here to me personally this Luke's Theme seems to scream "cut to adventurous POV and wide without dialogue", would be a bit too much under the dialogue as you placed it.

 

 

On 13/07/2024 at 7:49 PM, enderdrag64 said:

3m4-4m1 The Sandman Attacks (...) by 0:28 the music quiets down. Curiously it seems the music quiets about a second before the picture changes, I'm not sure if this was intentional or if a sync point was missed,

We know from one of the docus (probably Empire of Dreams) that the Tusken in this shot originally just raised his stick in the air and they looped it back and forth in editing to make him appear to shake it victoriously, maybe that came after the scoring?

[enderdrag64 843]

10 hours ago, Holko said:

We know from one of the docus (probably Empire of Dreams) that the Tusken in this shot originally just raised his stick in the air and they looped it back and forth in editing to make him appear to shake it victoriously, maybe that came after the scoring?

Oh yeah great point that's probably exactly what happened

 

10 hours ago, Holko said:

Hmm, here to me personally this Luke's Theme seems to scream "cut to adventurous POV and wide without dialogue", would be a bit too much under the dialogue as you placed it

I thought that might've scored the POV shot but I couldn't get the sync before or after it to make sense that way

[Doo_liss 6,269]

My restores thread has my take on restoring that scene and cue.

[enderdrag64 843]

32 minutes ago, The Great Gonzales said:

My restores thread has my take on restoring that scene and cue.

Those links have never worked for me unfortunately, they always just say "you need access"

[Doo_liss 6,269]

10 minutes ago, enderdrag64 said:

Those links have never worked for me unfortunately, they always just say "you need access"

Google drive changed something after I posted those links, I guess I still have to fix them.

 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1r8NraErzYXfo8Cd9dyir9-uJP9_pJWU6?usp=sharing

[Tallguy 4,268]

1 hour ago, The Great Gonzales said:

My restores thread has my take on restoring that scene and cue.

 

That's pretty good!

[enderdrag64 843]

#1.26 SW (1977) - 8m1 The Mouse Robot (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 8m1 The Mouse Robot.

 

This cue is 54 bars long and was orchestrated by Arthur Morton. 

 

Continuing the trend of the last few weeks, this cue was rebalanced from 7m2 to 8m1, and presumably a "New" was added to signify the rebalance, although I don't have any definitive proof of this, hence I didn't add it to the title this week.

 

Unfortunately I only have a scan of the sheet from before the rebalance and not after, but we can be certain that it was rebalanced because 8m1 is its number on the final cue sheet, next week's cue is 8m2, and last week's was 7m2 already.

 

Here's the top of the first page of the non-rebalanced conductor score: 

With that out of the way, let's listen to the cue together:

 

At 0:00 we get some playful music on woodwinds and plucked strings for the gag involving Chewbacca and the mouse droid, for which the cue is named.

Then at 0:12, the cue switches to low brass and percussion as the scene gets more serious, as the heroes have to sneak in plain sight through the busy hallways in order to get to the detention block.

 

At 0:29 as they approach the elevator, some backing strings come in as the percussion/brass changes up a little bit. 

 

Then at 0:54, as they enter the elevator, we get a really interesting almost proto-Imperial March. The Imperial March theme of course wasn't written until The Empire Strikes Back, but this section of this cue always reminded me of fragments of it since it uses the same notes and has a similar rhythm. I can't help but wonder if Williams used this cue as an inspiration when writing it, or if it's just a coincidence.

 

At 1:06, while the proto-Imperial March continues, we get a quick reference to that playful mouse droid music from earlier in the cue as Ben sneaks around. 

After that, a little more proto-Imperial March for the Vader shot, some more plucked strings for the shot of Ben, and then at 1:23 we get some of Luke's A theme as Han and Luke discuss things at the last minute in the elevator.

 

When the doors open and the heroes step out, there is an ascending orchestral swell, followed by some quiet woodwinds, a brass/percussion hit at 1:50, leading to one final swell at 1:56 for the start of the battle. Thus, the cue ends....

 

 

In the final film this cue is used in the scene it was meant to score, exactly as intended. In the Special Edition, it is additionally tracked earlier in the film during the extended "look sir, droids" scene, but we already talked about that when it was relevant.

 

This cue was recorded on March 9, 1977, the third day of the recording sessions. It was the third cue recorded that day. Four takes were recorded, numbered 64-67. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used just take 67.

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 8m1 The Mouse Robot can be heard:

From 0:00-2:01 of track 11 "Mouse Robot/Blasting Off" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 0:00-2:01 of disc 1 track 10 "Mouse Robot/Blasting Off" on the 1993 album

From 0:00-2:01 of disc 2 track 5 "Wookiee Prisoner/Detention Block Ambush" on the 1997 album.

 

The 1977 set is of course a remix and should be avoided. All sets have the clean opening but none of them have the clean ending. As far as I can tell all takes are the same. The 1997 set is brickwalled. For the video above I ended up using just the 2018 set because it had the cleanest ending, aka it took the longest to segue to the next cue.

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be listening to 8m2 New More Rescue. See you then!

 

[Tallguy 4,268]

 

First off, while I'm thinking of it, @enderdrag64 thank you. This is becoming my favorite thread.

 

Second, what is a re-balancing?

 

On 13/07/2024 at 1:49 PM, enderdrag64 said:

Curiously enough, I discovered that all three albums with the film mix actually have the same wrong take. The take used in the film (heard in the video above) is completely unreleased.

 

So where did this come from?

 

I realized today that I've been following every subsequent post but I have not gone through all of the massive first post. I'll try to catch up this week.

 

 

 

[enderdrag64 843]

42 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

Second, what is a re-balancing?

It's just the term used when a cue number is changed. I think I've heard @Jay use it before a few times, he could probably elaborate better on why it's called that as opposed to renumbering.

 

43 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

So where did this come from?

It came from the film 

[Jay 39,241]

Back in the day movies had to be chopped up into smaller reels of physical film for shipping and because there was only so much room in the projection booths / the projectors themselves could only accept reels of a certain size.  Theaters would have two projects pointing to the same screen, one playing reel 1 and the second with reel 2 loaded up and ready to go.  When the projectionist saw the "cigarette burn" in the upper right corner at the end of a  reel, he'd flick on projector 2 and you'd (hopefully) get a smooth transition from one reel right into the next without anyone realizing it.

 

Because of the potential for the reel changes being different in every single viewing due to every projectionist hitting that button at slightly different times, filmmakers would try to choose points where one reel would end another would begin that would hide these transitions.  Maybe a fade to black, maybe near the end of a scene where there's not a lot of audio between two shots, etc.

 

Eventually, technology improved to the point where when the theater would get all the reels delivered, they could tape them all together to make one giant reel, so they only needed one projector per screen, and the projectionist would only have to start it up and theoretically not have to do anything until the movie was over.  But because every tape point could theoretically be a little bumpy, filmmakers still often tried to carefully choose reel change points.

 

Eventually technology improved again, and now films are just a digital file projected and there's no real need for "reels" any more, yet older filmmakers might still categorize their movies that way and composers might still number their cues that way too (Rise of Skywalker was this way).

 

 

Anyway, back in the day, when the movie is first being edited, its broken up into reels, and then when the director sits down with the composer to spot the film, the cue numbers are assigned everyone its decided that original score should go.  But then when the composer goes off to write the music, the director might be continuing to edit the film, and now the old reel/part numbers assigned to the music might not make as much sense.  So the term "rebalanced" is used when they sit down and change the reel/part numbers of cues to fit where the scenes are in a newer cut of the film.  I couldn't possibly tell you who came up with that term or if they had other specific reasons for using that term.

[Tallguy 4,268]

25 minutes ago, Jay said:

Anyway, back in the day, when the movie is first being edited, its broken up into reels, and then when the director sits down with the composer to spot the film, the cue numbers are assigned everyone its decided that original score should go.  But then when the composer goes off to write the music, the director might be continuing to edit the film, and now the old reel/part numbers assigned to the music might not make as much sense.  So the term "rebalanced" is used when they sit down and change the reel/part numbers of cues to fit where the scenes are in a newer cut of the film.  I couldn't possibly tell you who came up with that term or if they had other specific reasons for using that term.

 

You know there are movies where I can still "see" the reel change. Star Wars probably isn't one of them. But The Rocketeer and The Abyss are.

 

Anyway, so no change in music, just a change in the numbering?

[Jay 39,241]

oh yea there's plenty of times you can see the cigarette burns on home video versions, and fan-made scans of prints too.

 

I don't understand what you're asking with your last question

[Tallguy 4,268]

12 minutes ago, Jay said:

oh yea there's plenty of times you can see the cigarette burns on home video versions, and fan-made scans of prints too.

I meant that my brain still registers the reel change even though there is no evidence on the screen. Usually movies I saw a lot of times in the theater.

 

13 minutes ago, Jay said:

I don't understand what you're asking with your last question

 

For example:

On 04/08/2024 at 7:44 PM, enderdrag64 said:

I believe 6m5 New is labelled as "New" in order to indicate that it was rebalanced. Just like last week's cue was originally 6m1 and got rebalanced to 6m4, this week's cue was originally 6m2 and got rebalanced to 6m5.

 

 

Just the numbers change. But he didn't change any music.

[Jay 39,241]

13 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

I meant that my brain still registers the reel change even though there is no evidence on the screen. Usually movies I saw a lot of times in the theater.

 

Oooh, I know exactly what you mean!

 

13 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

Just the numbers change. But he didn't change any music.

 

Rebalancing means the cues got renumbered.  The music could also have to change as a result of changing edits, but that can happen whether or not cues are rebalanced.

[enderdrag64 843]

#1.27 SW (1977) - 8m2n More Rescue (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we're going to be listening to the confusingly named 8m2 New More Rescue.

 

This cue is 67 bars long and was orchestrated by Al Woodbury.

 

Both the title and number are a little confusing. This cue was written after next week's cue despite being placed before it. As a result it's called More Rescue, while next week's cue is called The Rescue. Further, when this cue was added, next week's cue was rebalanced from 8m2 to 8m3, meaning that this cue was labelled 8m2 New in an attempt to not confuse it with next week's old placement.

 

This is the only cue in the score where I can actually show off scans of both the sketch and the orchestrated conductor's sheet. Here's the tops of the first pages of both:

 

Sketch:

Conductor score:

You can also see that on the sketch the original title was scratched out and replaced with "The Last Battle - Part I", presumably referring to its placement in the OST album.

 

Now let's listen to the cue together:

At 0:00 the cue pick's up right where the last one leaves off, starting with some loud brass for the start of the battle. This builds up to a statement of Luke's theme at 0:10, which leads into more action-y brass at 0:17.

 

This continues over a montage of battle footage until 0:33, when the music quiets down. and we get some hesitant music as Luke and Han talk.

At 0:45, some low strings to underscore Han's improvised conversation. It's a bit interesting that despite the humor in the scene, the music here isn't very "funny".

 

At 1:19, as Han yells that more troopers are coming, we get a drumroll; followed by the rebel rhythm at 1:20 and the rebel fanfare at 1:22 for Luke searching for the cell with Princess Leia. 

 

Then at 1:26, a quick woodwinds statement of Leia's theme for the shot of her laying there, followed by some strings for her insulting his height. Then some Luke theme when he removes his helmet at 1:40, leading to some final brass as they run out into the cell hallway.

 

Then we get one last string note for Vader and Tarkin speaking. Thus, the cue fades out...

 

 

This cue was recorded on March 12, 1977, the sixth day of the recording sessions. It was the fourth cue recorded that day. Five takes were recorded, numbered 150-154. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used takes 153 and 154.

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 8m2 New More Rescue can be heard:

From 0:00-1:58 of track 15 "The Last Battle" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 0:00-1:58 of disc 1 track 15 "The Last Battle" on the 1993 album

From 2:01-end of disc 2 track 5 "Wookiee Prisoner/Detention Block Ambush" on the 1997 album.

 

Only the 1977/2018 and 1993 sets have the clean opening, and only the 1997 set has the clean ending. The 1977 set is of course a remix and should be avoided. As far as I can tell all sets use the same takes. The 1997 set is brickwalled. For the video above I used the 2018 set for everything except for the ending, which came from the 1997 set.

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be listening to 8m3 Rev. The Rescue. See you then!

 

[enderdrag64 843]

#1.28 SW (1977) - 8m3r The Rescue (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 8m3 Rev. The Rescue.

 

This cue is 69 bars long and was orchestrated by Herbert Spencer.

 

This cue is an interesting case where I don't have scans of the completed revision, but only of the original and the separate revised portion with instructions on how to integrate them. Also, because they pre-date the final version and the addition of last week's cue, they aren't yet rebalanced so they're still labelled as 8m2.

 

Here's the tops of the first page of the conductor's scores of both:

 

As you can see, the revised page is labelled "New Introduction to The Rescue" and only includes the changed bars. The only difference between the original and revised versions is the complete replacement of bars 1-3, and the addition of 3 new bars (labelled 3A-3C) before bar 4. Bars 4-end are unchanged.

 

Other than being 3 bars longer, the revision adds some extra plucked viola and harp between the timpani hit and the start of the rest of the cue. My best guess for the reason behind this change is that the Ben sneaking around shot that it scores was not originally here when Williams first scored the sequence, but it was added in editing while Williams was still writing the score, and he had time to write a quick revision to incorporate it.

 

With all that out of the way, it's time to listen to the revised cue together:

 

At 0:00 the cue begins with some bassoons for the end of Vader's conversation with Tarkin, followed immediately by a Timpani crash as Vader turns around. 

 

Then at 0:04 we get some plucked viola for Ben sneaking around a hallway (these are the additional bars for the new shot as I explained above).

 

At 0:08 we get a brass hit for the camera pan to Chewbacca yelling the troops have arrived, and another at 0:12 for the pan to Han yelling the same thing. 

 

Then at 0:14 the orchestra starts building up after the explosion to a short statement of the Imperial theme at 0:16 for the stormtroopers in the hole. More ascending strings at 0:19, and then some loud brass at 0:22 for Chewie and Han retreating. 

 

At 0:29 the strings quiet down and start up a rhythm, which leads to the Rebel Fanfare on the woodwinds at 0:33. Another statement on the brass at 0:40, and then the woodwinds again at 0:44. 

 

Then a short interlude at 0:49, with slower woodwinds and brass for C-3PO's dialogue, which increase in volume as he realizes stormtroopers are at the door. 

 

At 1:02, the return of the faster paced action music, as the gunfight is still ongoing. The brass provides rhythm as the woodwinds slowly ascend, and the strings swirl around. This all builds up to them syncing at 1:24 for Leia taking charge, which in turn builds to more Imperial Theme at 1:31 as Leia slides down the chute.

 

Some more swirling strings at 1:38 as Han yells at Chewie to go down. The orchestra syncs again at 1:41 , and we get some climactic sounding brass as the stormtroopers become hidden by smoke. Finally this ends with a crash as Han falls into the water at 2:04. Thus, the cue ends...

 

 

This cue was recorded on March 8, 1977, the second day of the recording sessions. It was the first cue recorded that day. Four takes were recorded, numbered 24-27. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used takes 26 and 27.

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 8m3 Rev. The Rescue can be heard:

From 0:00-2:06 of track 7 "Rescue of the Princess" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 0:00-2:06 of disc 1 track 11 "Rescue of the Princess" on the 1993 album

From 0:00-2:12 of disc 2 track 6 "Shootout in the Cell Bay/Dianoga" on the 1997 album.

 

All sets have the clean opening, however only the 1997 set has a clean ending. The 1977 set is of course a remix and should be avoided. As far as I can tell all sets use the same takes. The 1997 set is brickwalled. For the video above I used the 2018 set for everything except for the ending, which came from the 1997 set.

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be listening to the only completely unused cue in the entire score, 8m4 Rev. The Water Snake. See you then!

 

[ThePenitentMan1 1,012]

Here's the edit I made that approximates the original version of the cue:

 

 

 

When I made it, it seemed to me like the revised opening didn't have any other changes aside from that, and looking at it again, it still seems like there's no significant change to those opening bars.  (Please correct me if I'm wrong on that!)

 

Still, it's nice to have one of the Death Star action cues in the extended alternates section.

 

I was also surprised by what the revision was for next week's cue as well...  but now that I know, it totally makes sense!

[enderdrag64 843]

#1.29 SW (1977) - 8m4r The Water Snake (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue

.

Today we're going to be listening to 8m4 Rev. The Water Snake, the only entirely unused cue in the entire score.

 

This cue was rebalanced from 8m3 to 8m4, although the scans I have aren't final and only show 8m3. The cue list I have shows 8m4 however. 

 

This cue, both original and revised, is 29 bars long and was orchestrated by Herbert Spencer.

 

Here's the tops of the first page of the conductor's scores of both:

Only one change was made in the revision, which was some extra percussion added to bar 11, not all of which seems to have been used. I'm going to guess that this was further altered on the podium during recording. 

 

Technically there is no official confirmation as to the intended sync of this cue (due to it going unused), however I'm basically 100% certain that my placement is correct due to multiple sync marks lining up perfectly

 

With all that out of the way, let's listen to the revised cue together:

 

At 0:00 the cue kicks in with some ominous low woodwinds, just as the heroes hear the dianoga for the first time. 

 

Another shrill at 0:09 as Luke feels something by his leg, and then at 0:14 the cue starts building tension with some ascending figures. 

 

These peak and restart at 0:26, followed quickly by some percussion for the appearance of the eye at 0:30. This is the one change notated by the revision. The original cue has just piano and celeste here, where the revised cue adds a triangle, xylophone and tamtam. I believe this percussion was later altered at the podium during the sessions because some of these instruments (especially the tamtam) cannot be heard at all in the final recording.

 

At 0:36 the music slows down as the dianoga grabs Luke's leg and pulls him under. We get panicked woodwinds for Han and Leia desperately searching for Luke, until the ascending figures return at 0:45.

 

Shortly thereafter Luke reappears at 0:48, but nothing much changes in the music - the ascending figures continue as they desperately try to get the dianoga off his neck. 

 

The music slows down again at 1:06 as Luke disappears under the water again. This time it's some more peaceful sounding woodwinds with some quiet backing timpani. Is this the end? Has Luke been eaten?

 

The cue ends with a bang at 1:31 when Luke splashes back to the surface.

 

 

As I wrote earlier, this cue is not used in the final film at all. Evidently the filmmakers felt that the dianoga scene worked better without music. Most Star Wars fans have probably not heard this cue in its proper context before. You likely have heard the music itself though - as I mentioned way back in my post about 5m2 Rev. A Hive of Villainy, much of that cue was replaced in the Special Edition by this cue, which was reused to score the expanded intro to Mos Eisley. 

 

Personally I was not a fan of that Special Edition change since I felt the original music felt a lot better there. As for this scene, I can see why the filmmakers dropped it, there are definitely parts of the scene that I think work better without the music. I also think this cue probably takes away from the next cue, since in the final cut the lack of music before the walls start moving helps to build the tension when it does return.

 

I'd be curious to hear everyone's thoughts about whether the filmmakers were right to cut this music in the comments.

 

This cue was recorded on March 11, 1977, the fifth day of the recording sessions. It was the seventh cue recorded that day. Two takes were recorded, numbered 115-116. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used just take 116.

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1977 on 20th Century Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 8m4 Rev. The Water Snake can be heard:

From 2:58-end of track 13 "The Walls Converge" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 2:58-end of disc 1 track 12 "The Walls Converge" on the 1993 album

From 2:12-end of disc 2 track 6 "Shootout in the Cell Bay/Dianoga" on the 1997 album.

 

All sets have the clean ending, however only the 1997 set has a clean opening. The 1977 set is of course a remix and should be avoided. As far as I can tell all sets use the same takes. The 1997 set is brickwalled. For the video above I used the 2018 set for everything except for the opening, which came from the 1997 set.

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be listening to 9m1 The Walls Converge. See you then!

 

[Holko 10,159]

30 minutes ago, enderdrag64 said:

 

I'd be curious to hear everyone's thoughts about whether the filmmakers were right to cut this music in the comments.

Yeah, totally agree with you that it was right to leave it out. And I definitely remember 10 year old me being confused as hell why the Mos Eisley entry music was put in the middle of the music for the Death Star scenes on the 97 release!

[ThePenitentMan1 1,012]

On 14/09/2024 at 9:25 AM, enderdrag64 said:

The original cue has just piano and celeste here, where the revised cue adds a triangle, xylophone and tamtam. I believe this percussion was later altered at the podium during the sessions because some of these instruments (especially the tamtam) cannot be heard at all in the final recording.

Ah!  I never noticed until now that the original actually also had an accent for that!  I'd just assumed that there was no accent at all until the revision.

This edit is what I'd been using for that bit up until now:

 

So now knowing the truth about what's on the sheets, here's my new mockup of the original:

Treble Clef:

Transposed to match final recording: