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!
