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!