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!
