Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.
Today we're going to be listening to 10m2 Here They Come.
This cue is 76 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, immediately following the build-up from 10m1 Ben's Death. As the TIE fighters split, a staccato rhythm starts that will carry through the entire cue. This rhythm was written specifically for this cue, and was intended as a development on the Rebel theme - however it has since been quoted in several future scores enough times that it could probably qualify as its own mini theme.
The dogfight rhythm leads into the first statement of the Rebel theme at 0:09, which continues through 0:16.
More dogfight rhythm, and then more Rebel theme at 0:21. This time instead of ending after two statements, the first statement repeats three times, building in intensity for the third at 0:31. This helps to build tension, right as Han says "You hear me baby? hold together". The rebel theme statement ends at 0:38.
More rhythm, which builds into some celebratory music around 0:54-0:57 as Han and then Luke both destroy a TIE each.
As the celebratory strings continue we get more Rebel theme around 1:01.
Some transitionary brass around 1:08, and then we get our final and most intense dogfight rhythm from 1:11 as Han and Luke both take on the last two TIEs.
Some ascending brass begins around 1:19, which interestingly enough leads into the Death Star theme at 1:26 for the last TIE fighter exploding. You would think that defeating the TIE fighters would result in some celebration music, perhaps a happy Rebel theme or Luke/Ben's theme, I think it's very interesting that Williams chose to use a villain theme for this moment instead.
Shortly after the death star theme there's a percussion crash at 1:31, followed by a timpani roll, and the cue fades out ...
This cue was recorded on March 11, 1977, the fifth day of the recording sessions. It was the fourth cue recorded that day. Three takes were recorded, numbered 95-97. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used takes 95 and 97.
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 2:03-end of track 5 "Ben's Death and TIE Fighter Attack" on the 1977/2018 albums
From 2:03-end of disc 1 track 13 "Ben's Death/TIE Fighter Attack" on the 1993 album
From 2:03-end of disc 2 track 9 "Ben's Death/TIE Fighter Attack" 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 brickwalled. All sets appear to have the correct takes.
For the video above, I used the 2018 set with a faked clean opening.
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 11m1 Stand By. See you then!
