Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.
Today we're going to be listening to 5m3 Yoda's Entrance.
This cue is 48 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:
At 0:00 the cue begins with some playful plucked strings as Yoda approaches Luke's camp.
At 0:10 this is joined by a staccato version of Yoda's A theme, as he picks up Luke's food stick and starts to eat it. This continues as he climbs the table and looks inside Luke's crate.
Then at 0:31, we get a playful rendition of Yoda's B theme, as he starts rummaging through all of Luke's stuff, throwing it everywhere and "making a mess".
This lasts until 0:52 when Yoda climbs back down from the table. Some more plucked strings are followed by swirling strings and woodwinds for R2 extending his arm at 1:02, which climaxes once he grabs the flashlight.
Some woodwinds accompany Yoda comedically hitting R2 with his stick, ending with some ascending brass at 1:16.
This leads immediately into some softer hints of the Yoda A theme on strings starting at 1:17. These continue as Luke asks for his lamp back and reveals that he's looking for Yoda. This ends with some harp at 1:44.
A return to the staccato strings as Yoda walks off at 1:48. Some hesitant strings and harp at 1:53, and then another brief statement of Yoda's A theme at 1:56.
Some hesitant woodwinds at 2:03 as Luke looks at R2 and decides to stand up and follow Yoda. This is followed by some more mysterious woodwinds for Yoda standing by himself, followed by some final timpani as we return to C-3PO and Han aboard the Falcon. Curiously, this timpani is not actually in the sketch or the conductor's sheet, so it was likely a podium change.
This cue went mostly unused in the final cut. There appear to have been no picture edits made to the scene, however the filmmakers evidently didn't like this cue - given that they asked for a revised ending, and ultimately dropped most of the cue in favor of silence.
The following changes were made in the final cut:
0:00-1:47 = silence
1:47-2:03 = 5m3 Yoda's Entrance
2:03-end = 5m3 End Fix
As a result, only about 16 seconds of this cue ended up in the final film. The end got replaced by the insert I mentioned, which we'll talk about more next week. It's possible that this insert was written due to further requested changes after the podium changes mentioned earlier.
Personally, I wish that they had left more of this cue in the final cut. I understand why they dropped at least the beginning with the playful strings, as they might've felt it made the scene too silly, but I really do like the Yoda's theme material when Luke talks to him about seeking a Jedi Master. Then again, perhaps they cut this part out too because they felt the musical hints would spoil the surprise later when this green creature turned out to be Yoda.
Despite not having a recording log, I think it's most likely that this cue was recorded on January 7, 1980, likely the next cue recorded after 11m1 Through the Window (which also doesn't have a confirmed date - but is immediately after a string of confirmed 12/29/1979 cues and is also the first to be pictured, given that all of the other session photos we have seem to be from the same week it seems likely that cameras were there for the first week of January, and since this is only the second cue in that block it must've been recorded the first day). I'm unsure how many takes were recorded, but according to the sketch the performance edit uses takes 104 and 105.
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, 5m3 Yoda's Entrance can be heard:
From 0:47-end of track 3 "The Training of a Jedi Knight" on the 1980/2018 albums
From 0:47-end of disc 2 track 12 "The Training of a Jedi Knight" on the 1993 album
From 0:00-end of disc 1 track 8 "The Training of a Jedi Knight" on the 1997 album.
All albums have the clean opening and ending. The 1980, 1997 and 2018 albums are all remixed, but the 1993 album appears to be the film mix.
This is the first cue we've looked at where the 1993 album replicates the 1980 album program (thankfully this cue was never microedited). Fortunately, perhaps due to the staccato nature of this cue, there is no audible overlap with the material of the preceding cue and so the 1993 album does indeed have a clean opening.
Additionally, most 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 sped up by 0.40 to match film
1993 set is the correct speed
1997 set has to be sped up by 0.325 to match film
2018 set has to be slowed down by -0.240 to match film
For the video above I just used 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 this cue's revised ending insert, 5m3 End Fix. See you then!