Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

Today we're going to be listening to 10m1 Ben's Death.

This is the final cue to have undergone rebalancing from this score, simply going from 9m3-10m1 to 10m1. From this point onwards there was no need for rebalancing since the cue numbers have synced up.

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:

https://youtu.be/KA9LH6-gtnk

10m1 Ben's Death - Star Wars (1977)YouTube

At 0:00 we get the first phrase of Ben's theme on a horn, followed by an abrupt note at 0:06 for Ben's death, followed immediately by the rest of the orchestra joining in, building to a sweeping version of Leia's theme at 0:11.

This is one of the most interesting scoring choices in the entire film - we're at the most dramatic point, our mentor has died, and our main character is recklessly shooting without cover out of anger. Yet rather than scoring this with a sad version of Ben's theme, or an angry version of Luke's theme, instead we get a desperate version of Leia's theme.

Williams had this to say about the choice back in the 1977 liner notes:

"For Ben's Death, I used part of the Princess theme in the beginning. I felt it had the most sweeping melody of the themes in the score. This wildly romantic music in this tragic setting represents Luke's and the Princess' reaction to leaving Ben behind."

At 0:36, once Luke finally decides to run, the music changes into the Rebel theme rhythm, with the Rebel theme kicking in at 0:39. A more powerful statement at 0:48, as the Falcon finally pulls out of the Death Star. It marks an interesting parallel to the Rebel theme statement used when the Falcon first arrived at the Death Star back in 6m3 Rev. Is It A Bird?.

Once they're finally clear of the Death Star at 0:57, the Rebel fanfare gives way to a sad version of Ben's theme as Luke and the droids stare at the table in mourning. Leia does her best to comfort him.

At 1:32 the music abruptly changes as Han runs into the room, exclaiming that there are TIE fighters on their tail. We get some bouncing woodwinds with some accompanying plucked strings and percussion.

The woodwinds slowly ascend, building to a climax at 2:02. This is intended to segue immediately into 10m2 Here They Come, but we'll look at that cue next week...

This cue has two minor edits in the final cut: A 7 second loop at 0:37, and a 1 second loop at 1:43.

The 7 second loop seems to have been introduced in order to accommodate extra footage of the falcon escaping, while it's unclear exactly which shot was added, in my edit above I removed the last shot of the Falcon leaving at 0:57, as this shot matched the length of the snipped section and seemed to me to be the least important.

The cause of the 1 second loop is far less obvious, the looped section is very short and the scene is made of lots of intercutting. In my edit above I removed the shot of Chewie and Leia in the cockpit at 1:56, as it seemed to be the least important for the continuity of the scene. This was purely a guess though, I'm not certain what the actual added footage was that led to the loop.

This cue was recorded on March 5, 1977, the first day of the recording sessions. It was the third cue recorded that day. Five takes were recorded, numbered 11-15. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used takes 13 and 15.

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, 10m1 Ben's Death can be heard:

From 0:00-2:03 of track 5 "Ben's Death and TIE Fighter Attack" on the 1977/2018 albums

From 0:00-2:03 of disc 1 track 13 "Ben's Death/TIE Fighter Attack" on the 1993 album

From 0:00-2:03 of disc 2 track 9 "Ben's Death/TIE Fighter Attack" on the 1997 album.

All sets have the clean opening, but none of them have a clean ending. The 1977 set is of course a remix, and should be avoided. The 1997 set is brickwalled, and both the 1993 and 2018 sets have wrong takes.

More specifically, the 1993 set has wrong takes from 0:29-0:37 and 1:32 to end, and the 2018 set has wrong takes from 0:00-0:27 and 0:37-1:32.

Additionally, on the 1997 set, one of the channels is inverted, and the track needs to be sped up by 0.19.

For the video above, I used the following sets:

0:00-0:29 : 1993 set

0:29-0:37 : 1997 set

0:37-1:32 : 1993 set

1:32-end : 1997 set

The 2018 set could also be used in place of the 1997, however the 1997 wasn't brickwalled in those spots so I went with it instead.

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 10m2 Here They Come. See you then!