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!
