Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.
Today we're going to be listening to 4m3 The Asteroid Field.
This cue is 164 bars long and was orchestrated by Herbert Spencer.
Here's the tops of the sketch and orchestrated score:
Now let's listen to the cue together:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvxmX2dAFao
At 0:00 we get some quick descending woodwinds for Luke's X-Wing flying off.
Then at 0:04, a sudden Imperial March statement for the Falcon fleeing a star destroyer. This fades away to some woodwind trills at 0:14, as we re-focus on Chewbacca inside the Falcon cockpit.
Some ascending, determined strings at 0:20 for the reverse shot where we can see two more Star Destroyers in the distance.
These build into some aggressive brass at 0:27, which in turn leads into more Imperial March at 0:33 for the Falcon diving away from the Imperial ships.
Some quieter rhythm at 0:37 inside the Star Destroyer bridge, and then the March statement continues at 0:43, leading into some final ascending brass at 0:48.
We return inside the Falcon at 0:51, and more ascending strings and brass build up to nothing at 1:02 as the Falcon fails to enter hyperspace.
The strings (and woodwinds) return at 1:04, building into a climax at 1:12 as Han gets up.
Fast brass at 1:13 for the Falcon being chased by TIE fighters, which accompanies some interesting and strange sounding string figures at 1:18 as Han tries to fix the ship.
Some quick ascending strings at 1:34 leads to a loud brass sting at 1:36 for the gag of the toolbox falling on Han's head. Another more aggressive string figure at 1:41 for an even stronger jolt.
More ascending strings for Han running to the cockpit at 1:46, and then some ascending brass as he takes a seat at 1:53.
A crash for the POV shot of asteroids at 1:59 is followed by some strange, almost atonal woodwinds/brass music as the Falcon weaves around various asteroids.
Then at 2:18 we finally get a big statement of the Asteroid Field set piece theme, as Han successfully gets two of the TIE fighters to crash into asteroids.
The almost atonal woodwinds music returns briefly at 2:41, before we get a strings intro at 2:58, leading back into another big statement of the Asteroid Field theme at 3:06, which climaxes with the explosion of the last two TIE fighters at 3:14.
A statement of the Han/Leia love theme at 3:25 for Han landing the Falcon, which leads into some ominous brass and woodwinds at 3:42 as they descend into the cave.
This transitions smoothly into some final strings and woodwinds as we return to Luke at 3:53 for his arrival at Dagobah. Thus, the cue ends...
Just like several of the cues we've looked at so far, the film appears to have undergone multiple visual changes after the scene was scored, most of which led to music edits in the film. The picture edits made for the final cut were as follows:
The Star Destroyer shot at 0:12 was shortened by 2 seconds. Interestingly the storyboard I have for this shot says that it should've been 37 frames longer, but the music sync implies that it would've been more like 54 frames longer. I went with the latter in my edit above. It's possible that either ILM made a longer shot than originally planned, or more likely that the scored cut added a reused shot to the end of this sequence to extend it by 17 frames.
The shot of Han getting up at 1:13 was extended by 1 second
A 2 second shot was deleted at 1:16. Again this shot is not in the storyboards and the previous shot is the correct length, so this was most likely a reused shot, perhaps of the Falcon from behind.
A short shot of Chewie roaring was added at 2:58, potentially replacing the start of the next effects shot (though the storyboards show the same frame count as the final shot, but the music doesn't sync without a gap here)
As a result of all these picture changes, the following music edits were made:
0:00-0:27 = 4m3 The Asteroid Field 0:00-0:27
0:27-0:28 = 4m3 The Asteroid Field 0:28-0:29
0:28-2:52 = 4m3 The Asteroid Field 0:30-2:54
2:52-4:07 = 4m3 The Asteroid Field 2:56-4:07
The cue fades out about 7 seconds early in the final cut. As you can see, not all of the music edits are at the same points as the picture edits, and so several parts of the cue actually play out of sync in the final cut. Thankfully the sketch provides the intended sync points.
Despite not having a recording log, we know that this cue had to have been recorded on either the first or second day of the recording sessions, December 27 or December 28, 1979. We know this thanks to the take numbers on the sketch, and the cue with take numbers immediately before it was recorded on the 27th, and the cue with take numbers immediately after was recorded on the 28th. 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 28 and 29.
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, 4m3 The Asteroid Field can be heard:
From 0:00-end of track 10 "The Asteroid Field" on the 1980/2018 albums
From 0:00-end of disc 2 track 9 "The Asteroid Field" on the 1993 album
From 0:00-end of disc 1 track 6 "The Asteroid Field" on the 1997 album.
Every release has a clean opening and ending. The 1980, 1997 and 2018 sets are all remixes, but fortunately the 1993 set has the film mix. All sets contain the complete cue without edits, however the 1997 release is brickwalled.
Additionally, all releases of this cue play at the wrong pitch/speed, although this can easily be corrected in an audio editor:
1980 set has to be must be sped up by 0.525 to match film
1993 set has to be sped up by 0.456 to match film
1997 set has to be sped up by 0.325 to match film
2018 set has to be slowed down by -0.430 to match film
For the video above I used a speed corrected copy of the 1993 set.
One last thing to note with this cue is that John Williams wrote an expanded concert suite based on it, released under the same name "The Asteroid Field". This was intended as the third movement of his Empire Strikes Back suite, and has been recorded several times by various conductors. Here's the Charles Gerhardt recording:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA-t0X1btew
0:00-0:09 and 4:00-end are both unique extensions written solely for the suite, and the rest is material adapted from various parts of the film cue, reordered and repeated in various ways.
I personally think it's a much worse listen than the original cue, it's far too repetitive and doesn't have nearly as much buildup or as satisfying of a payoff. Additionally, several of the "edits" made to the sheet music are pretty obvious and don't sound particularly great, say for example the transition at 2:25. I don't see why the original cue wouldn't work better in a concert setting.
Here's a rough breakdown of all the "edits"/adaptations:
0:00-0:09 = unique concert intro
0:09-0:13 = adapted from 1:59 to 2:03 of film cue
0:13-0:20 = adapted from 2:45-2:52 of film cue
0:20-0:38 = adapted from 1:13-1:31 of film cue
0:38-2:25 = adapted from 1:19-3:06 of film cue
2:25-2:38 = adapted from 1:19-1:32 of film cue
2:38-2:53 = adapted from 1:19-1:34 of film cue
2:53-3:03 = adapted from 1:49-1:59 of film cue
3:03-3:28 = adapted from 2:04-2:29 of film cue
3:28-3:47 = adapted from 3:06-3:19 of film cue
3:47-3:57 = adapted from 2:42-2:52 of film cue
3:57-4:00 = adapted from 2:57-2:58 of film cue
4:00-end = unique concert ending
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 Luke's arrival on Dagobah with 5m1 Crash Landing. See you then!