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!