Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.
Today we're going to be listening to one of my favorite cues from this score, 3m4-4m1 Luke's First Crash.
This cue is 150 bars long and was orchestrated by Fred Steiner (most well known for his work as a Star Trek composer). The orchestrated sheet is dated December 7, 1979.
Here's the tops of the sketch and orchestrated score:
Now let's listen to the cue together:
At 0:00 the cue begins with a string march as we get to see Leia and C-3PO in the control room, as Echo Base shakes around them from the impending ground invasion.
At 0:10, a drum hit for the cut to Han and Chewie, with the continuing march accompanied with some military drums as the rebel troopers run in the background.
C-3PO's goodbyes to R2-D2 at 0:23 are accompanied by a quick statement of the droids motif, before the battle music returns with some loud brass at 0:31, briefly hinting at the opening piano of the previous cue.
The music gets darker as the walker approaches, and it's clear that the Rebel trench is getting decimated. This builds to an Imperial March statement for the cut to Veers inside the walker at 0:53.
This develops directly into this cue's setpiece theme at 0:58, which continues to play as we refocus on Luke and the snowspeeders.
Some ascending strings at 1:10, which lead into some brass crashes for Rogue Two's death at 1:19, which build into more ascending brass as Luke loses control of his snowspeeder.
A quick statement of Luke's theme at 1:34 as he unbuckles and tries to get out. This is interrupted by a loud crash at 1:41 for the approaching walker. I've always loved how the crashes at this part line up with the walker's steps, you can hear it approaching in the music.
At 1:57 the music becomes more energetic as we switch focus back to Han trying to survive the collapsing ceilings. Luke's theme joins in at 2:04, alternating between the woodwinds and brass. At this point in the series, Luke's theme has started to become less of a theme about Luke and more of a generic hero theme for any of our protagonists.
The music becomes more aggressive at 2:15 as Han climbs over the rubble, leading into a big drum hit at 2:25 for the explosion. More Luke theme at 2:32 as Leia gives her final commands.
A sad rendition of the Force theme starts at 2:41 as the Rebels retreat from their trenches, and are fired upon by the ever-approaching walkers.
This builds directly into some heroic brass at 2:57 for Luke running toward the walker. Some mickey-mousing for the cable at 3:02, and then more ascending brass as Luke ascends the cable, incorporating a couple statements of the Rebel fanfare.
The brass quiets when Luke hits the ground at 3:19. After a couple seconds of silent anticipation, the orchestra builds back up with the first signs of explosion at 3:22.
Some heroic brass fanfare for the collapse at 3:30, which is immediately followed by more Imperial March as we jump back inside the AT-AT with Veers at 3:34. Some harp accentuates the explosion at 3:46, and some aggressive brass accompaniment joins in whenever the shield generator is shown. This leads into a final crash at 3:59 as the pilots admire the explosion. Thus, the cue ends...
Just like last week, the film appears to have undergone several visual changes after the scene was scored, most of which led to music edits in the film. The picture edits are as follows:
A 2 second shot of the AT-ST "Chicken Walker" was added at 0:53. The storyboards for these AT-ST shots are all dated 2-23-1980, which implies that these shots weren't even conceived of until after Williams had finished recording the music for the film.
Another 2 second AT-ST shot was added at 3:24
A 3 second shot of an AT-AT firing on retreating troops was added at 3:35. This shot doesn't really fit continuity wise with the preceding shot, since the collapsed AT-AT seems to have disappeared.
These edits led to the following music changes in the final cut:
0:00-0:34 = 3m4-4m1 Luke's First Crash 0:00-0:34
0:34-0:36 = 3m4-4m1 Luke's First Crash 0:33-0:35
0:36-3:45 = 3m4-4m1 Luke's First Crash 0:34-3:42
3:45-end = 3m4-4m1 Luke's First Crash 3:36-end
You'll notice that no music edit was made for the added shot at 3:24, as a result the music for 3:24-3:45 plays out of sync in the final cut.
Despite not having a recording log, we know that this cue was recorded on the first day of the recording sessions, December 27, 1979, thanks to the note on the orchestrated sheet. This makes it one of the first cues recorded for this score. I'm unsure how many takes were recorded, but according to the sketch the performance edit uses takes 15, 17, 19 and 20.
This cue has been officially released on four different albums:
1) In 1980 on RSO 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, 3m4-4m1 Luke's First Crash can be heard:
From 1:37-end of track 12 "Rebels at Bay" on the 1980/2018 albums
From 0:00-end of disc 2 track 7 "Luke's First Crash" on the 1993 album
From 7:39-11:42 of disc 1 track 5 "The Battle of Hoth (The Ion Cannon/Imperial Walkers/Beneath the AT-AT/Escape in the Millennium Falcon)" on the 1997 album.
The clean opening and ending is available thanks to the 1993 set. The 1980/2018 sets have the clean ending only, and the 1997 set has neither. The 1980, 1997 and 2018 releases are all remixed, but thankfully the 1993 set has the film mix. The 1997 release is also brickwalled.
The 1980 and 2018 releases are microedited, missing a large section of the cue:
The section from 0:31-0:58 wasn't released until 1993.
Additionally, all releases of this cue play at the wrong pitch/speed, although this can easily be corrected in an audio editor:
1980 set seems to be at two different speeds on each side of the microedit. The first part needs to be sped up by 0.300, and the second part needs to be sped up by 0.740.
1993 set has to be slowed down by -0.393 to match film
1997 set has to be sped up by 0.250 to match film
2018 set has to be slowed down by -0.400 to match film
For the video above I used a speed corrected copy of the 1993 set.
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 the third and final part of the Battle of Hoth, 4m2 The Rebels Escape Again. See you then!