Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue. Happy May 4th!
Today we're going to be listening to 5m1 Crash Landing.
This cue is 85 bars long and was orchestrated by Herbert Spencer.
Unfortunately, this is the other cue from this score for which I do not have a scan of the sketch, so I can only show you what the orchestrated score looks like:
Once again, as a result of not having the sketch, there won't be any sync marks written in the video when we listen to the cue.
Unfortunately this cue doesn't match the picture in the final film - several shots appear to be longer than they were in the scored cut. I've attempted to reconstruct the scored cut based on the audible sync marks in the music, but it's possible that I didn't get them 100% perfect.
With that out of the way, let's listen to the cue together:
At 0:00 the cue begins with some dark and mysterious brass and woodwinds for the wide shot of the Dagobah swamp.
Some lighter woodwinds at 0:10 for the cockpit opening, and then a soft brass rendition of Luke's theme at 0:16.
More ominous woodwinds at 0:25 as Luke starts to leave the X-Wing, followed by some softer for woodwinds for his dialogue at 0:34.
Suddenly, a loud string/brass figure at 0:41 as the X-Wing shakes and R2 falls into the water.
The relative silence of R2's disappearance is marked by the quietest of sustained strings, with a few staccato celeste notes sprinkled in, building anticipation for the ultimate resurgence of the droid theme for the appearance of his periscope at 0:58.
The droid theme starts out playful, gaining some sweeping string elements around 1:13, before turning darker and more ominous at 1:18 for the appearance of the sea creature.
This builds into some loud swirling strings at 1:31 as R2 is pulled underwater by the creature. Some more relative silence at 1:37, followed by a hint of the droid motif at 1:41.
Suddenly, more swirling strings at 1:47 as R2 is launched out of the water. A more fast-paced, almost action-y statement of the droid theme plays on brass as Luke runs to find R2.
Some soft strings at 2:03, followed by an endearing and almost melancholy rendition of the droid theme at 2:13 for their final conversation of the scene.
A sudden Imperial March statement at 2:39 for the scene transition, as we return to the Imperial fleet.
A hint of some atonal woodwinds at 2:57 for the lowering of Vader's helmet, followed by another Imperial March statement as his chair turns to face Piett.
Some short woodwinds for their conversation, and then a final descending brass line at 3:18, climaxing with the dolly zoom and Vader's pod closing. Thus, the cue ends...
As mentioned earlier this cue had a few picture edits in the film. Due to not having the sketch, I'm not completely certain what the changes were, but I made the following changes to get the music to sync:
I removed the 2 second shot of Luke jumping in the water at 1:17
I trimmed the first 2 seconds of the shot of Luke climbing out of the water at 1:24
I trimmed the last second of Luke stepping at 1:47
These edits led to the following music changes in the final cut:
0:00-1:19 = 5m1 Crash Landing 0:00-1:19
1:19-1:21 = 5m1 Crash Landing 1:18-1:19
1:21-1:30 = 5m1 Crash Landing 1:18-1:27
1:30-1:51 = 5m1 Crash Landing 1:26-1:47
1:51-1:53 = silence
1:53-end = 5m1 Crash Landing 1:47-end
It's also worth noting that this cue got partially used in a scene it was not intended for. Many entries ago when we talked about 1m2 Insert Bar 80 I mentioned that that insert went unused in the final cut, in favor of some tracked bars from this cue, 5m1 Crash Landing. More specifically, the final cut uses 3:18-end of this cue for the transition of Han entering Echo Base right after Luke gets attacked by the Wampa.
Unfortunately, due to not having any take numbers from the sketch, this is one of the only cues from this score for which we have zero indication of when it was recorded.
This cue has been officially released on two different albums:
2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set
3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set
More specifically, 5m1 Crash Landing can be heard:
From 0:00-end of disc 4 track 9 "Crash Landing" on the 1993 album
From 0:00-3:32 of disc 1 track 7 "Arrival on Dagobah" on the 1997 album.
Both sets have a clean opening but only the 1993 set has the clean ending. Neither album is remixed, but the 1993 set is slightly more brickwalled than the 1997 set.
Additionally, both releases of this cue play at the wrong pitch/speed, although this can easily be corrected in an audio editor:
1993 set has to be sped up by 0.750 to match film
1997 set has to be sped up by 0.750 to match film
For my edit I used a speed corrected copy of the 1997 set (for the slightly better dynamic range), spliced with the 1993 set for the ending only.
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 5m2 Yoda Appears. See you then!