I’m revisiting a piece I did a few months back. It might be the piece I am most proud. I was taking Intro to Music Technology at the time and we occasionally would get assignments that were basically to create whatever we wanted using the tools and skills we were learning about. For this one, we were instructed to use the website freesound.org, a website with a huge collection of creative commons sounds. I hit Random Sample in the side menu about 25 times and downloaded all the sounds I got, which included boats creaking, footsteps in snow, a Chinese street performer, a ping pong game, and a French guy explaining what freesound.org is and how to upload files. I used all of these, sometimes looking for more similar sounds to use for more variety. I then processed these sounds in Logic and another great program called SPEAR and added some music of my own.

http://pathock.bandcamp.com/track/walking-sideways It’s a free download, by the way!

I tried to create a musical narrative. Though it’s not important to me how you interpret it, I think it’s interesting to consider what I was thinking during the process. The French man is recording a final diary entry before heading outside where air raid sirens are going off. He wakes up in China and walks through a town hearing lots of different sounds. This is a post-apocalyptic Matrix-esque scenario, suggested by the bleeps and bloops and other strange sounds suggesting glitches in the system. This all fades away, and we hear footsteps in the snow once more, as someone in the distant future stumbles upon the Frenchman’s house and plays back the diary entry, but can’t understand what he’s saying.

In retrospect, there are many things I would reconsider. What if a listener knows French and understands the opening monologue? It would be funny, yes, but it would also kill the mood I was aiming for. And at the end, the opening monologue is played in reverse, and that’s supposed to be significant. But on poor speakers, if you’re not paying close attention, and/or if you don’t know the language, you might not be able to tell that it’s any different from the beginning. I also could have done some sounds underneath him as he talks to set the mood right from the beginning.

Right before the footsteps come in, the attack of the winds is jarringly harsh. All of the wind sounds are actually the human voice saying “shh” but heavily processed. The footsteps start to run after the siren goes off and they’re supposed to run for a while then slow down. Instead, they just cut out pretty quickly. These three things were a product of being new to the software. I was very aware of them all at the time and struggled to fix them. Even the missing footsteps. I could not figure out why they weren’t playing.

The funky part at 2:25 is a telephone being hung up over and over. The part where the man says “raw-shep-she-oley” is too loud. I’m not sure how I feel about it actually. I forget now what it was, but that is just a normal word or phrase played backwards. I always thought it was funny but a little out of place.

I love the very drawn out crossfade of the Chinese street scene and the dark bass guitar part. I also really like how that last footstep at the end is really drawn out and also sounds like a door creaking open.

One way to interpret the story is that the man leaves but comes back at the end. That’s what the title of the piece is trying to capture. The idea that he didn’t really go anywhere. He was just walking sideways. That trip was a little diversion, but not movement either forward or backward. Now he’s back, and nothing has changed. Also, I couldn’t believe I found that photo. It was exactly what I was looking for. Beautiful.

http://www.casa.org/content/recording-review-simply-puts-simply-put http://www.simplyputacappella.com/Simply_Put/Welcome.html

Goldfinger (1964) Music by John Barry   The traditional opening with the Bond theme.

Beginning again inspired by bond theme, sometimes explicitly. Tons of gadgets here. 5 goldfinger theme in opening credits. While the From Russia with love theme sounded like a 50s jazz standard, this one sounds like bond. There are quotes of the bond theme in the backs. Heavy jazz brass. 7- music 9- First glance at Goldfinger cues his theme music Goldfinger theme plays as he takes the girl to bed. hmm… what does it mean? I guess she was Goldfinger’s girl… but why not the Bond theme? 15- music? lots tingy brass when we see the golden woman’s body 22- resembles the scene in From Russia with Love where the bad guys are training. Except here, the good guys are testing new equipment. Here’s another way where Bond is becoming more Bond. And a sweet new car. 25- triangle hit when we see Korean man. Very stereotypical and slightly offensive. But not more so than the rest of the early Bond movies… 30- pizzicato strings on goldfinger theme 31- korean magic theme 33- goldfinger’s leaving for Geneva, and so is Bond, so cue the goldfinger theme. Note once again the quote from the Bond Theme at the end of it. 38- after the typical absence of music for car sequences, ominous music plays when Bond looks at Auric Enterprises Suddenly, it’s nighttime, and the mood of the music shifts. It’s very sparse as Bond sneaks around. 41- When he is safely back in the forest, the music suddenly becomes more Bondsy. It’s chill. As per-usual, there is no music in the car chase. Car engines/tires, gunfire, and gadgets is plenty going on without it. Ends with an epic, exaggerated explosion, and we begin our explosion counter here at 1. 45- is this more Korean music? Another car scene with no music, but then music enters. The focus in this moment is not on cars. It’s on the fact that Bond will die in five seconds if he doesn’t do something. 49- what theme is this? Goldfinger theme comes over the top of it 57- epic Goldfinger. same key as Goldfinger. 59- korean magic! literally every time we’ve seen him. Goldfinger flying theme. 1:00 country music/banjo at the track. then full Goldfinger with Interlude underneath. first film where something besides the Bond theme defined the soundscape. Now obviously Bond’s theme influenced the Goldfinger one, but we literally haven’t heard the Bond theme since it opened the film. That answers my earlier question of why the Goldfinger song was used instead of Bond’s in a scene. Barry made the stylistic choice that we’ve heard enough Bond theme in the first two films. Everyone knows it and probably doesn’t even notice that it hasn’t been used yet. So in order to actually add something to the sound world of the series instead of rehashing, he is defining the score by what’s different in this film, Goldfinger, rather than by what stays the same, Bond. 1:06 Bond busts out music 1:11 the Goldfinger chords 1:13 Goldfinger. then BOND. Just for a second. And it’s ironic because it’s not really Bond they’re tracking anymore. Then back to Goldfinger and Interlude. The Bond and G themes overlay so nicely. 1:21 Gold chords 1:23 some goofy mickey-mousing. then she gives in Goldfinger variation during the Fort Knox raid 1:27 military sounding. snare. march-like. More intense as the bank is in sight. Explosion #2, the fence. Goldfinger has succeeded in breaking into the bank, so it goes into the Goldfinger theme. So this is the militarized variation of Goldfinger. 1:30 music changes as they use the laser. Sounds like something from a previous Bond movie. 1:32 really distorted Goldfinger when the real Goldfinger actually shows up. He’s a messed up guy. 1:35 no music in this fight, either. Not even any Korean magic. It’s all combat. And a buzz/humming, a gentle reminder to us and them that they’re about to die. 1:38 There’s the magic! 1:41 light music. This is a Bond movie, but it ends with him getting on a plane with an American flag to see the president so he can thank him personally. And the American military shows/wakes up to save the day. Intense music as the plane’s about to crash. Plane explosion. Goldfinger is a very metal heavy song. Barry received a Grammy nomination. Won an Oscar for sound editing.

I’ll waste no time. We have a lot to talk about.

From Russia with Love (1963)

Music by JOHN BARRY

Fig. 1 The cello part in the opening. Click to enlarge.

Opening Scene

This scene is unbelievable. I absolutely love it. I watched it a dozen times because there’s so much to say. After a brief statement of the James Bond Theme (just the Guitar Part), the opening scene starts in silence. Bond is sneaking around and we only hear footsteps, birds, and crickets.

The bad guy steps on a twig- cue huge brass hit. Notice that it’s in the same key as the Bond theme. And this starts the music for the scene. It starts with a quiet, low, very slow cello line repeating six notes over and over (Fig. 1). It’s minimal to help us transition out of silence, but don’t take that to mean there isn’t depth. This is a simplified, slowed down version of the Guitar Part in the Bond Theme. What I mean by that is if you boil down the Guitar Part to its simplest form and leave out all repeated notes and chromatic passing tones, you are left with the pitches F G F Ab G F which is exactly what the cello plays. It’s no coincidence that’s the only part of the theme we’ve heard at this point in the film. It’s also still in the theme’s original key which makes the connection even stronger.

Then bond shoots his gun at the same time as another brass hit. After this hit, new music is used, this time inspired by the Interlude of the Bond Theme (see this article for clarification). The moving strings are moving chromatically, A A# G Gb A, just like the opening bars of the Bond theme. It’s still the same tempo as the cello part, but feels a bit faster because the cello played rubato (freely, with a flexible tempo), and it’s now a very strict 60 bpm, like a clock. After this, intensity is built with unison tremolo strings on the Dominant (which is A) and the brass hits increase their frequency.

John Barry really calculated the timing of everything. Notice how when the music first starts, the cello pattern is repeated four times, a standard number to repeat in music, the first two times with timpani hitting on the downbeat of each bar, and the second two times with a harp or something playing downbeats only on the first bar. When you’re watching it, you don’t appreciate the work that went into timing the music for this scene. Here’s how I imagine Barry approached it.

Okay, there are three points that I want to musically punctuate- stepping on the branch, shooting of the gun, and the death of “Bond”. How long is the whole scene, and how much time is between punctuation points? Exactly 30 seconds between each of them. Perfect! I’ll divide that by 4, 7.5 seconds, and write a lick inspired by the Bond Theme that fits this time requirement and can be repeated 4 times with slight variation. This will start at the branch snap. At the gunshot, I’ll write a new 7.5 second lick that can also be repeated 4 times with slight variation and will end at “Bond’s” death, which is punctuated with several brass hits.

I love the opening so much. Monty Norman didn’t have thematic development or really any creative scoring for me to look at. I can’t even get three minutes into this film and it’s already infinitely better than Dr. No. But alas, we must move on. Fortunately, the rest of the movie’s no slouch, either.   Opening Credits We made it! This music’s great. It sounds like Maurice Jarre, specifically Laurence of Arabia (1962), the Oscar winner for best score one year prior to this film, and of course another Russian movie, Doctor Zhivago (1965), also won the Oscar. At that time, you had to establish yourself as a composer before being nominated. And then when you finally win one, it’s for your collective contribution to Hollywood, not because that was your best score. Danny Elfman, regardless of what you think of him, is a great example of this. His classic early scores like Batman, Edward Scissorhands, and Nightmare before Christmas were snubbed. His film scores were nominated for three Grammys before being nominated for an Oscar. And it was only when he started doing a couple more serious films like Good Will Hunting and Milk that he got nominations. But today, the Academy loves fresh film scores like A. R. Rahman’s Slumdog Millionaire or Reznor and Ross‘ The Social Network (TRON was robbed, btw. Not even a nomination? Are you JOKING?!).

Back to Barry… So while today he’s tied for third most Oscars for best score of all time, it took him a while to start being recognized by the academy. He would get his first nomination and first Oscar in ’66 for Born Free. Curiously, after a bit of a slump for both he and Jarre, Barry would win for Out of Africa (1985) and Jarre for A Passage to India (1984). These guys love their ethnomusicology. And after a long retirement, Jarre passed away in 2009, and Barry in 2011. I’m loving this. Expect to see an article comparing these two geniuses in the distant future.

thoughts- belly dancer isn’t as random as I thought. russian theme- into bond theme. super cool hand move. Great theme song for the movie. You have the Bond theme and the From Russia with Love theme. But is it the Russian theme? Is it Tatiana’s theme? Spectre’s? Evil’s? Istambul’s? For now, I’ll refer to it as the Russia theme. That is something I intend to find out by seeing how the theme is used in Barry’s scoring. I believe the convention in later films was to play the title song in the opening, but in this one, it’s played in the end credits. Listen to this as you read to get yourself in the mood! Music by Barry, lyrics by Lionel Bart, and sung by Matt Monro.

If we try to apply it to Bond, then the lyrics are about how Bond was attracted to the Russian girl Tatiana, but was cautious because she was likely working for the other side. But in the end, she proves her love for him, and they can be together. It’s a great song to close the movie, and the melody works wonderfully as an epic orchestral theme as well.

The melody of the song follows Mozartian melodic writing guidelines. The contour created by the highest notes of the song gets gradually higher before coming back down. Love is on le, my is te, you is ti, travelled is do. to learn is te, and return is le. Unlike the first film’s sloppy cuts, this one has great transitions. That’s right, Barry actually wrote music specifically for the transition in the opening credits between the Russian and Bond themes! Even though there’s no place in the film to repeat that music, he did his job anyway. Crazy. (end of subtle Monty Norman jabs)

5- chess championship and we still haven’t seen Bond. These clearly aren’t real chess players. They move so slowly and take their time hitting the button after their move. Movie starts with, presumably, the Russians beating the Americans. I didn’t even notice it the first time, but music starts playing with the fall of the Queen. It gets covered up by everyone’s applause. More harp, like in the opening scene. It’s interesting, because it’s basically the only instrument not used in the Bond Theme that’s been used in the scoring. Sweeping strings in the transition, then back to the harp part. Petting the cat. 12- New these are guns! Not those silenced pistols from Dr. No. Istambul! Of course!

13- The Russian theme. Just the five note motive sung on the words ‘from Russia with love’. Played once in strings, like opening credits, and once in solo trumpet.

14- Slight variation in strings of the Russia theme. That’s a loud slap! 15 minutes in and we still haven’t seen Bond.

17- Just awesome. String swell into the transition, but then it fades into the radio playing it. We can hear the beginning of the song From Russia with Love played on the radio. Interesting that they play this to reintroduce Bond rather than the Bond Theme. Another loud slap. This time on the hand. Here we go! Gadgets. Or gadget, rather. A tricked-out briefcase. He signs the photograph ‘From Russia with Love’, but instead of that theme playing, it’s the Bond theme! Barry pulled a fast one on us.

28 bond theme, something, then bond theme. looks around hotel room like dr. No, but with bond theme rather than silence. Uses a gadget too.

30 bond hit on body

32- explosion with brass hit, transition harp Spectre theme, Russia theme eluded to, then played strongly in horn, but with harp under it. Was that a mashup? Or has harp always been a part of that theme? Explosion count- 1. In the last film, there were only two explosions, so I’m curious how many there will be in this one.

36- ? Attack, then Spectre theme. Held 5th/dominant. Then elaborates.

37/38 gypsy music. Dr. No was calypso. They embrace the ethnicness of bond’s locations of work. Phrygian.

40 abrupt cut off… Rare sloppiness.

41 fight music- more bond than gypsy, something? Makes it sound somewhat tribal.

Goes straight into gun fight. Girls were woodwindy, guns are brassy. But it’s the same material. Lydian. Very repetitive. Ends with loud fire covering up the end.

Transition music, then sweet, seductive guitar part.

46 playful licks in strings, trumpet, and guitar.

49- music? Escalates from doorbell to death, then Bond theme.

Held 5, Spectre theme. Is this from dr no?

Russia theme with bonds introduction to Tatiana.

Compare Russia and bond themes.

55 great music. ? Gets a half step higher.

Has boats, cars, helicopters, and planes, but they clearly not the focus. Bond rarely drives, there are rarely chaces.

1:02- time to execute plan, so cue bond theme. But the Spectre harp theme starts. Sounds like a cluck ticking as bond talks about the clock. It’s like a bomb ticking. Then the explosion. Gypsy/fight music. It’s just as chaotic as that other fight scene. Sounds like west side story. Explosion count is at 1.

1:04 music as we see the Spectre agent.

Clothes for Tatiana cues Russia theme. Seems to be tatiana’s theme, specifically used when romancing with bond.

1:11 Russia theme plays as Tatiana and Bond get ready for dinner as a couple.

1:14 horn variation on first five notes of Russia

1:15 cool horn thing as we see the SPECTRE agent walking by

1:17 same Russia variation on first five notes during a montage of the train zipping across the country

One itteration of the SPECTRE theme when we see Blondie

1:33 The first music in 15 minutes. It was just train sounds and fighting.

Bond Theme as he gets in the truck. They get off a train and into a truck, are pursued by a helicopter, and escape in a speedboat. But still has all the vehicles of the first one, but it has so much more.

Bond Theme ends as soon as helicopter enters. No music in the helicopter chase, just helicopter sounds. Grenades thrown at the car.

1:37 music enters when Bond whips out a gun. The grenade explodes inside the helicopter. Then it crashes and the helicopter explodes three times somehow, but I’ll only count it as one. Ignoring the grenades, 1 helicopter brings our explosion count to 3!

1:39 music plays as bad guy is kicked off the boat.

Harp music for SPECTRE scene

1:42 Speedboat chase. Again, there is no music to potentially distract from the sounds of the vehicles and weapons. It’s enough by itself. There will surely be music as Bond is about to win the fight.

4 barrels of fuel explode (I’ll count as 1), followed by 3 speedboats. That brings our final explosion count to 2 buildings, 1 helicopter, and 3 speedboats, so 6 as well aa handfull of grenades and missiles. Definitely more than Dr. No’s 1 car and 1 building.

Music enters right after the barrels blow up.

1:47 The final fight of the movie. Tense music starts after Tatiana hits ?. You’d think she had made up her mind as to who’s side she’s on when she hit?, but there’s still a moment where Tatiana appears to not know who to shoot. It is a big decision. The first was to protect a man she loves. But now she must act, and must either kill the man she loves or the woman who represents the country she loves. Killing ? is a much stronger action than saving Bond. Music ends as soon as she’s shot.

1:48 Immediately followed by full vocal version of From Russia with Love for the first time.

It feels strange to have it playing in the end credits. The vocal version doesn’t match the mood of the film nearly as well as the epic string version. The movie ends and we haven’t heard the Bond Theme in over 10 minutes. It just feels a little off, which is a sad way to end. but it’s okay.

Here’s the structure of the whole theme-

Interlude, Guitar Part x2, Interlude, Trumpet Melody x2, Brass Bridge, half Interlude, Guitar Part, Ending.

The Interlude starts as the foundation of the theme. Other parts, like the guitar, are layered on top of it. The other two times it is used is as an interlude between sections.

Guitar Part- Starts at, ahem, 0:07. dum badadat dum ba da da dum badadat dum ba da dap bwee ahh doo-dle looo. This part is rhythmic and just really classy.

Trumpet Melody- Starts in the horns, but is in full trumpet glory at :54. This is the main melody of the theme.

Brass Bridge- Starts at 1:07. Comes straight out of the Trumpet Melody.

Ending- Starts at 1:35. The end is signaled by stacked, ascending brass licks. Four instruments each play four notes. Here’s the solfege for these licks- do me ti te, me sol re ra, sol te fi fa, do me ti te. This part’s actually really interesting, so let’s begin our analysis with the Ending.

* We are in the key of e minor, and the first note of each brass lick outlines an e minor chord.

* The four note lick played by the first instrument is the same as the first four notes of the Trumpet Melody. The lick played by the fourth instrument is the same as the first.

* The notes of each lick ascend, and each lick starts higher than the previous one. Said another way, each group of four notes ascends, as does the group of four licks. The small scale mirrors the small scale. This has been a common compositional technique since Mozart.

* It’s a sequence built on the first four notes of the Trumpet Melody (as described in bullet 2). A sequence is just a set of intervals that is repeated at least three times in a row, but with a different starting pitch every time. Here’s the four note pattern: note two is a third above note one. Note three is a major 7th above the first note, and note four is a half step below note three. Where it gets interesting is that the first half of the lick is a tonal sequence, meaning the notes stay within the key of the piece, and the second half is a real sequence, meaning the notes can leave the key. This is how you get the really interesting dissonances of altered 7ths, 4ths, and 2nds at the end of each lick.

* The guitar chord at the end is a summation of all the harmonies the Bond theme explores. The chord is minor with a major 7th and a 9th, or ‘do me sol ti re’. The Guitar Part emphasized all the notes of this chord. It starts on do, the first ‘badadat’ is on the 9th, the second one is on the minor 3rd, the highest note is the major 7th (followed by an altered 7th, taken from the third and fourth notes of the Trumpet Melody), and it ends on sol.

* Recall that the first two stacked, ascending licks right before the final chord are ‘do me ti te’ and ‘me sol re ra’. It’s no coincidence that the first three notes from both those licks make up the final chord. The fourth note isn’t used because it’s just an ornamentation of the third note.

* Another way to interpret the guitar chord is as two chords stacked on top of each other: a tonic and a dominant. The solfege for those chords is ‘do me sol’ and ‘sol ti re’.

* There is an interesting relationship between some of the notes in this chord. ‘Do’ and ‘ti’ are a half step apart, as are ‘me’ and ‘re’. This is inspired by the third and fourth notes of the Trumpet Melody, which are a half step apart.

* This whole piece is driven by half steps. Note that the most important element of the Interlude is the chromatic motion in the strings and horn. And in the Guitar Part, the first ‘badadat’ is a half step away from the second ‘badadat’. In the Trumpet Melody, the trombones are doing a lot of chromatic movement.

* Recall that the stacked arpeggios are a sequence built on the first four notes of the Trumpet Melody. The second half of it is a real sequence in order to preserve the half step between the notes. As with the previous point, this highlights the importance of the half step in the theme.

1. Background Information

2. Listening Guide

3. Recap

Dr. No and the Controversy over the James Bond Theme

We start at the beginning with Dr. No- the first entry in the James Bond film series. It stars Sean Connery with music by Monty Norman, who isn’t really known for anything besides this film and the James Bond Theme, which was introduced to the world in this film. Although Norman was technically given songwriting credit for the Bond Theme, John Barry claimed for years to have written it. He certainly played a role in its creation, but it was never clear to what extent that was true. 50 years and two court cases later, we have a pretty good idea of what happened. Norman had written a Bond Theme, but the producers didn’t like it, so they called in Barry to fix it. He was paid, but the songwriting credit stayed with Norman. Now this was very early in Barry’s career. Although would go on to be one of the greatest film composers of all time, at this point, he was just happy to be paid. But Barry never saw a cent of the royalties which led to legal battles many years later. At that point, Barry was a very successful film composer with plenty of money, so I prefer to believe he was more concerned about adding to his musical legacy than he was about royalties. And fortunately, despite losing the court case, we now know most of the facts and give Barry the credit he deserves. Barry took some ideas from Norman’s original version, added new material and a jazzy feel, made all orchestration decisions, and recorded it with his orchestra. If you analyze the theme, there isn’t much to it. What makes it work is that it’s catchy and has a great groove. From what I understand, Barry is solely responsible for that.

The James Bond Theme would immediately become a sensation, and because of its popularity, music plays a huge role in every other film in the series.The Bond Theme is made up of three parts: the Guitar Part, the Trumpet Melody, and the Ending. For a full analysis of the theme, look here.

Guitar Part- dum badadat dum ba da da dum badadat dum ba da dap bwee ahh doo-dle looo. This part is rhythmic and just really classy.

Trumpet Melody- This is the main melody of the theme.

Ending- The end is signaled by stacked, ascending brass licks.

Pre-Viewing Questions

So now onto the film! Here are a few questions I’m thinking about before I start watching.

Sound is hugely important in all modern action movies and Bond films. How sound has changed over 50 years with budgets that are literally 230x greater (Dr. No- $1 million, Quantum of Solace- $230 million)?

Is the theme used throughout the film? Or is it only used in the opening and closing credits? If it’s used throughout it reappear exactly as it did in the intro? Or does it influence the orchestral score as well?

Was music immediately an important element of the Bond series?

I saw Quantum of Solace’s network television premiere a couple days ago, which reminded me that I wanted to do this series. The explosions in that are frequent and epic. What were they like in the beginning?

LISTENING GUIDE

Obviously there will be spoilers. I think the ideal way to experience this part of the article is to watch the film and use this as a listening guide. These are just the notes I jotted down while watching the film with a little analysis layered on top. Don’t expect it to be entirely cohesive. And I will not describe the scenes in enough detail that you can make sense of it without watching the film. That’s not what I’m trying to do. And I apologize if my minute marks don’t line up with yours. They should just be used as a guideline to help you follow along.

Opening Sequence

3 songs- Bond Theme, bizarre drumming dance music, calypso song ‘Three Blind Mice’. Mashed together without transitions. The Bond Theme is a little weird. It takes a while before it actually starts, and once it does, it starts in the middle and doesn’t play that great, crunchy guitar chord at the end. Instead, it sloppily cuts straight into the next song. Really though, what’s up with that drumming song while colored silhouettes rub up on each other? I like the calypso song introducing Jamaica and TRANSITIONING into the movie. That’s right, there was actually a transition this time.

You can read my full analysis of the Bond Theme here, but here’s the essential information. The Bond Theme reappears throughout the film, and for simplicity, I will name describe each of its three main parts now.

Guitar Part- Starts at, ahem, 0:07. dum badadat dum ba da da dum badadat dum ba da dap bwee ahh doo-dle looo. This part is rhythmic and just really classy.

Trumpet Melody- Starts in the horns, but is in full trumpet glory at :54. This is the main melody of the theme.

Ending- Starts at 1:35. The end is signaled by stacked, ascending brass licks. Four instruments each play four notes. Ends with a crunchy guitar chord

4 min- Those are guns? They sound like balloons popping. The assassins use pistols equipped with suppressors which make almost no noise. That’s the opposite of modern film convention of making violent acts way bigger and louder than they are in real life. 5 shots in the back, then a car races on.

When the woman is attacked, it’s really clear that this is before the big, epic sound that Bond music is famous for. It just sounds like a typical 50′s film score inspired by the likes of Max Steiner and Alfred Newman. Listen to those flutes. I bet there isn’t another moment like that in the entire rest of the series. Brass is used, but not more so than any other instruments.

James Bond- Revealed

7 min- This scene is fantastic. You see Bond’s hands and cards and hear his voice before finally seeing his face and hearing his name. We also hear where the famous “Bond. James Bond.” line comes from. That’s how Sylvia Trench introduces herself. And as soon as he says Bond, the Bond Theme comes in exactly as it appeared in the intro. By that I mean it’s the same recording, unaltered, that we heard in the opening, as opposed to an orchestral variation or something of the sort. Only one iteration of the Guitar Part is heard before it cuts out. It comes back when he starts making plans with his lady friend, and gets louder as we move into the transition, where the Ending is played loudly as a musical transition into the next scene, location, and woman. If you recall, the final guitar chord was left out of the opening, so this is actually the first time we’ve heard that chord! So they saved it for after our introduction to bond rather than giving away the whole theme in the opening.

10- When I mentioned the music back when the first woman (Robert Redford) was attacked reminding me of classic scores of that era and earlier, the score for The Maltese Falcon came to mind. I should have mentioned it since Bond has a lot in common with Sam Spade, private eye (which I just realized comes from the abbreviation for private investigator, PI, or private I, yada yada yada…). That score is by Adolph Deutsch, who also did Nobody Lives Forever (which is completely unrelated, but sounds like it ought to be the name of a Bond film). It’s interesting because this scene where he flirts with the boss’ secretary reminds me of Spade. There are many connections.

In the conversation with his boss, there is no music or notable use of sound. The focus is on dialogue. Or laziness. Not sure which.

As he prepares to leave the office, he hands over his new gun to the secretary. Bond refusing the latest gadget? Strange.

15- Transition into this scene. Really important moment here. Right at the beginning, some of the Guitar Part is played slower in the horns. This is a rare instance of the Bond Theme influencing the orchestral score. There is no dialogue in this scene. The music continues and functions to make the audience realize that Bond thinks there’s someone in the apartment with him. It builds suspense and fills sound space in the absence of dialogue.

The Bond Theme comes back as he leaves the airport, again in identical form. We are 17 minutes into the film and have already heard it three times. It’s a little much, but it succeeded in drilling the amazing theme into audience’s heads. They weren’t tired of it because it was fresh. And hearing it over and over ensured that everyone left the theater singing it to themselves. It is because of its frequency of use in the first film that it became an iconic theme.

19- Jumping ahead, Bond gets in the car with the man, knowing full well that he is an imposer. As they leave, another man who had been following him around the airport gets in a car and begins following him. It isn’t clear if these two are working together or not. Here, the orchestral score returns for a moment. Is it a transition? It isn’t clear if these two men are working together. These cars are the loudest sound we’ve heard so far. Louder than the music, and louder than guns. The music in this fight is more  substantial than anything we’ve heard yet. It’s not the Bond Theme, but it again only lasts a moment.

The Plot Thickens

25- Interesting absence of sound when Bond is first in his hotel room. This draws attention to all the details of what he is doing because it is not immediately obvious why he is doing them. When he was sneaking around his place where Sylvia Trench was waiting for him, the music explained his motivation. But here, there is much more subtlety to his actions, and silence allows us to focus in on it. It’s also interesting because he’s not using gadgets. All of his techniques don’t require any special instruments. In fact, this Bond is not at all about gadgets. His boss had to pry his old gun out of his hands before he’d accept the latest model. He said his old gun had served him well for 10 years. The modern Bond would never resist change for the latest and greatest gizmo.

30- Those are some loud boxes

31- More calypso music

35- Some light music and cars.

43- Spider music. Provides the audible tension in what is otherwise a silent moment out of necessity. The impact here is in the juxtaposition of the big music against Bond laying perfectly still. Continues after he gets up, ending with orchestra hits synchronized with Bond’s swings of the shoe, crushing the spider. With the threat of the spider gone, we now hear the silence of the room. So the spider is gone, as is its music.

50- Bond Theme as he starts driving. This movie is more about cars than gadgets. When they really get moving, the music cuts out to focus on the sounds of the engine and tires skidding. The explosion is more audial than visual. It’s not terribly visually exaggerated, but it’s incredibly loud.

52- Guitar Part of the theme. Very soft. Plays as he’s talking to another female love interest.

56- Plays song on record player. First time we’ve heard Mango Tree.

Again, guns with silencers. What is this crap?

Fairly loud boat… this movie is about vehicles! Drumming in background.

1:01 – Mango Tree orchestral music. They’re on the island, local is drinking rum, but still only transitional

1:02- Woman singing Mango Tree, Bond joins in. That’s how we’re introduced to Honey, and this song represents her the rest of the way.

1:05 Boat comes by, orchestra comes in. Static strings, bouncy brass

Loud jungle sounds in transition, softer later

Orchestra enters as bad guys show up and protagonists have to be quiet, whisper

1:10 Another rare orchestral moment inspired by Guitar Part from Bond Theme

1:12 Loud music into transition

1:14- My favorite moment- “Do you have a woman of your own?” Bond thinking how to answer that, awkward silence. Quarrel interrupts. Hilarious.

The Lair

1:24- Dr. No enters. You can’t see his face, but music plays.

1:27- In the whole scene of dinner with Dr. No, there is no music. This is the first time we’ve seen the face of the villain after whom the film is named, and there is no music to accompany it. It’s a fine decision, as once again it keeps the focus on him- what he looks like and the details of what he is saying. But it just isn’t Bond.

1:34- He is crawling through tunnels trying to escape, and we still haven’t heard music in ages. It works great here because again, this is what he’s experiencing. Overwhelming silence, then a sudden, powerful rush of water.

1:39- The scene where bond has on the radiation protection suit reminds me of The Time Machine (1960, two years prior). That white, clean, minimalistic picture of the future with whirls, hums, bleeps and bloops. We haven’t heard any music since 1:24.

1:44- Music finally returns here. As Bond increases the power of the machine, the sound the machine makes gets louder and louder. When Bond throws the first punch, the manliest act he’s done in the past hour, music returns, albeit hidden under the sounds of the machine and everyone yelling.

The juxtaposition of the building getting ready to explode and the rocket taking off as well as the sounds of machines at danger level against the man on television describing the launch is incredible. Music is still playing here. It’s impossible to hear it clearly, but it definitely adds to the cacophony of sound and facilitates the chaoticness of the scene. This is the coolest use of sound in the film.

1:47- Then of course the whole building explodes at the end. Let’s keep track of explosions as the series goes on. In this film, there is one small car explosion, and one huge building one. I have a hunch that explosions will not be this scarce again.

Music suddenly resumes when the American rescue boat arrives. Why are the American’s greeted with such heroic music? Bond does all the dirty work and saves the day, but when the CIA shows up, the orchestra gives them all the credit. I’m only half joking. After the hero music, we go back to the Mango Tree inspired orchestral music as he kisses Honey.

Now here’s a goofy thing. The end credits start while they’re still showing the boat and playing Mango Tree. Then the orchestra fades out and has a very sloppy jump straight into the Bond Theme. It jumps to a black background and plays a very short version of the Bond Theme. The end of the credits is shown with silence. The end credits last 30 seconds- plenty of time to do a full run of the theme. Another interesting thing is that when the Bond Theme was used in the opening, it didn’t end with that great guitar chord. They didn’t finish the theme. They saved it for the end, providing real closure to the film.

RECAP

Unlike later films, the Bond Theme is used in the opening credits, rather than a theme song for the film. It comes back at the end, but neither time in its complete form. At the beginning, it gets cut off part way through and never ends. In the end credits, it starts in the middle and the film ends with the iconic final guitar chord.

Bond has not yet become the hero we know and love. He doesn’t have any gadgets and refuses to replace his trusty 10 year old gun with the latest model. Guns are quiet and explosions are not exaggerated.

The famous James Bond Theme is introduced to the world in this film. The Bond Theme is used only in its original form. It rarely and minimally influences orchestral moments. And the music throughout the entire film is just that- moments. It highlights important moments, fills in transitions and scenes that would otherwise be silent, and then when there is silence, such as , it is very noticeable. But the film lacks the iconic big brass and epic orchestral scores of its successors that John Barry is responsible for. Tomorrow I’ll be looking at the next film in the series, From Russia with Love, which is Barry’s first score.

At the beginning of the film, the Bond Theme is played every time he’s on screen. Later, it’s only when he’s chatting up/seducing women, sneaking around, driving (this movie is all about CARS), or doing something else especially Bondsy. It seems like overkill, but it’s also partially responsible for the Bond Theme catching on as much as it did.

This movie is about vehicles more than gadgets. Mostly cars. Thundering engines, car chases, boats, and a small explosion. It’s also interesting because he’s not using gadgets. All of his techniques here don’t require any special instruments. In fact, this Bond is not at all about gadgets. His boss had to pry his old gun out of his hands before he’d accept the latest model. He said his old gun had served him well for 10 years. The modern Bond would never resist change for the latest and greatest gizmo.

Explosions are not a big part of the film. Let’s keep track of explosions as the series goes on. In this film, there is one small car explosion, and one huge building one. I have a hunch that explosions will not be this scarce again.

The best scoring of the whole film is in the spider scene. There’s a great juxtaposition of the big music against Bond laying perfectly still. It continues after he gets up, ending with orchestra hits synchronized with Bond’s swings of the shoe, crushing the spider. With the threat of the spider gone, we now hear the silence of the room. So the spider is gone, as is its music. The room has returned to stillness, and the sound has returned to silence. All instruments are moving in half steps, just like the Bond Theme. Half steps are prominent in the entire orchestral score, providing a little cohesion to an otherwise jumbled mess.

Mango Tree is Honey’s theme song. She is singing it when we first see her, and it frequently influences the orchestral music when she is around.

This is a strange Bond film. He doesn’t use gadgets. The focus isn’t on violence. It has more in common with older films than later Bond films. And the music is used lightly and sparingly. The Bond Theme is used excessively, but not creatively. Silence can be an effective tool, but it is overused here. Dr. No was a successful experiment, but not yet a refined project. I’m really looking forward to starting John Barry films because I think he’ll fix a lot of what this one was missing.

I’m finally beginning my long-planned, frequently delayed James Bond film music project is finally about to begin! I’ll be looking at the use of sound and music and its evolution through the series. The first post will be tomorrow at 12:07 AM (0:07, if you will). I’ll be going in chronological order, so Part 1 is Dr. No and talking about the James Bond theme and Monty Norman’s score for the film. One of my inspirations was John Gruber, who is in the middle of a similar series, talking about each Bond film in order. I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time- ever since John Barry passed away on January 30th of this year. He did the score for 11 James Bond films and is responsible for establishing much of the mood for the series as a whole. But I don’t only want to look at Barry. What I’m really interested in is how the sound and music has evolved over the course of the series. There have been 22 Bond films over the past 50 years, which means there has been a new one almost every two years. That’s a remarkable pace and speaks to the tremendous following Bond has garnered. But in all those films, only one composer besides Barry has worked on more than one.

John Barry did the music for 11 Bond films- #2-7, 9, 11, and 13-15. Toward the end of Barry’s reign, there was a period where 5 different composers were given an opportunity to do a Bond film and make their mark on the series. This is a really interesting group of people. First is George Martin, the producer at Abby Road studios who produced all but one of the Beetles’ albums. He did #8 Live and Let Die. Next is Marvin Hamlisch, who is one of two people that have received an Oscar, Grammy, Tony, Emmy, and a Pulitzer Prize (the other being Richard Rodgers), and did the music for #10 The Spy Who Loved Me. Bill Conti of Rocky fame did #12 For Your Eyes Only, and pop/media composer veteran Michael Kamen did #16 License to Kill. Finally, someone named Eric Serra did GoldenEye, and I didn’t recognize any other work he’s done. So Norman did the first film, Barry did 11 of the next 14, 5 other guys were given a chance to do one film each, and now the last 5 have been done by David Arnold, who’s resume is filled with high-quality action movies.

No composer worked on all the films by any one director (that did more than one) or Bond actor, except David Arnold who has done both of Daniel Craig’s films. That seems likely to continue, but we’ll see. People often ask, “Who is your favorite Bond?” But no one ever asks who your favorite Bond composer is. Hopefully by the end of this series, we will be able to have that discussion.

I want to talk about sound as well as music in these articles, but I don’t really know what that will mean yet. I’m hoping that things will just jump out at me as I go along. Sound is hugely important in all modern action movies and Bond films, so I think it’ll be interesting to see how sound has changed over the past 50 years and with budgets literally 230x greater (Dr. No- $1 million, Quantum of Solace- $230 million).

I’m currently planning to write about one of the films for each of the next 22 days. This is ambitious and may be doomed to fail, but I only dream big!

Now download this app, make yourself a drink, sit down, relax, and enjoy. The countdown to 0:07 has begun.

I’m also music directing a very exciting show right now! I’m working with Emily Loesser (Frank Loesser‘s daughter) and Barry Kornhauser, TYA playwright extraordinaire, and a great director and production team to bring a collection of Frank’s unpublished songs to life! The songs were originally written for an animated film that was never made, and Barry’s written a new script to tie the songs together. The musical is called Of Mice and Manhattan and we are thrilled to be able to work on this amazing show! The performance is May 21 at noon.

One of the best ways to learn how to arrange, or to get better, is to listen to what other people have done. Listen to it first, then think about the questions posed below before proceeding to my analysis.

Did anything immediately get your attention/ get you interested/ engaged?

What was the coolest moment of the piece? Why was it the most effective?

Pick a section and listen for what exactly is going on. Try to identify about 4 different ideas that are going on at once. Now pick another section. Is anything the same? Are any parts derived from material in the other section? What changed? How do these changes affect the mood?

So to me what stands out about this song is that it starts good, but certainly not good enough to compel me to blog about it and use it as a great example arrangement. But at about 2:45, it becomes something very special. The way I understand this arrangement is that it all centers around that moment. Everything before it serves only to make that moment as impactful as possible. If you just jumped to that point in the song, it wouldn’t be powerful. I remember talking to my HS band director several years ago and he played for me his favorite moment in all of classical music- the final two minutes of Mahler 2. The symphony is almost an hour and a half long and the final movement is about half an hour. At the end, the chorus joins the orchestra for this huge, powerful ending. But without the context of the rest of the symphony, I didn’t see why my teacher felt so strongly about it. A few months later, I saw this piece performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and it was one of the most incredible musical experiences of my life, and now it’s one of my favorite pieces. You literally have to sit there for an hour and a half with your butt falling asleep (to be clear, the rest of it’s great too!) in order to appreciate the final two minutes. But after having done that, my teacher could isolate that part and it triggered the memory of what that moment felt like. That’s why he experienced something totally different than I when he played it for me.

End of tangent. In case you forgot what I was talking about, I was relating that story to how the first two forty-five of this song set up this awesome moment!

So let’s talk about what the arranger did. Now I don’t know the original Bieber song, so I’m just going to analyze it as a piece in its own right. It starts with three things going on.

Intro- oo chords/padding, oh oh ohohoh melodic/legato gesture, dun dah dun dah dun- short arpeggi.

No solo, no beatboxing, no bass line.

Those three things come in later, but this sets up so much material to work with. The rest of the piece, pre-climax, is just using different combinations of these things. So here’s the form, in terms of different melodic and textural ideas entering and exiting-

:00 Intro

:15 (verse 1) First solo, oo’s for chordal padding

:38 (pre-chorus) enter beatboxing and group responses

:50 (chorus) enter bass line, return of dun short arpeggi, no group responses, bass line drops out for last 4 bars

1:13 (verse 2) oo’s become oh’s, group responses return, a variation of dun arpeggi

1:37 (pre-chorus) dun’s drop out, back to oo’s but only in lower men, the high voices don’t oo to make their group responses really stand out

1:48 (chorus) repeat of 1:13, no dun’s, and return of oh oh ohohoh,

2:09 (bridge) first signs of genius but very brief, this change happens mid-phrase, oh oh ohohoh drops out, oo’s become pray and are fuller (retain chordal padding), solo in harmony and highest nots of piece so far, this is just a teaser for 2:44

2:21 backs off but is still bigger than anything prior to 2:09, pray’s become ‘oo I pray’ which combines padding with group response, ends on just oo’s to back off even further

2:32 (brief chorus) repeat of 1:13 but solo is doubled, dun’s, no ohohoh’s, also bass drops out for first half which is great for setting up the big moment which follows

2:44 (verse) Climax. padding on ah’s (or ‘my eyes’) which are the most open vowel padding we’ve had, oh oh ohohoh,

3:05 slight variation of 2:44. Slight mood change because the backs sing ‘I can’t. Close my. Eyes and sing without my clothes off.’ Or whatever the words are. The backs had been more ah padding before but are now that padding/group response mix which creates a new mood.

3:22 (end) comes way down for final 4 bars.

And of course the beatboxing evolves throughout the entire song to facilitate different characters/moods.

There are two more ideas I want to look at a little closer.

How does everything pre-2:44 facilitate the climax? It establishes ideas and patterns without ever repeating anything verbatim. For example, the chorus occurs thrice.

:50 beatboxing, first bass line entrance, oo’s, dun arpeggi, bass drops out for last 4 bars

1:48 beatboxing, bass line, oo’s, oh oh ohohoh, minimal solo harmonies, cut a little short

2:32 beatboxing, no bass line, oo’s, dun’s, cut very short

So when we talk about change, I mostly mean texture. This refers to the general feel of the accompaniment, whether that’s created by block chords, swooping/ascending/legato gestures, a staccato figure like in Fireflies, or anything else. Each combination of the ideas creates a unique texture.

Leading up to the climax, we get the fullest statement of the chorus, followed by the most dramatic moment of the song so far, the bridge.

We’ve heard the same progression over and over in the verse and chorus: vi – V or I64 – IV – I

But it doesn’t get old because he keeps changing the backs, the soloists are great, and it’s not too long (in that order of importance). The pre-chorus has a slightly different progression, but it only adds one new chord. The listener probably doesn’t even notice they’ve been hearing basically the same three chords for two minutes, but they do know that they feel a huge, dramatic shift at 2:09, and this is mostly caused by using brand spankin new chords and unified, open vowels in the backs. Now most of the song’s structure is probably drawn from the form of the original, but that doesn’t make looking at how it’s constructed any less valuable.

Some other things about the bridge- the vowel in ‘pray’ that the padding is holding is the most open vowel so far, and will only be surpassed by the ah’s of the climax. I also mentioned earlier that the solo is in real, full harmony for the first time, and that the top harmony has the highest solo notes we’ve heard so far. There may have been higher ones in the backs, but they’re backs so it’s not really relevant. Also, the bridge starts as an interjection to the chorus. It feels like a glorious slap in the face. At the end of the bridge, before 2:32, it comes way down on oo’s and the bass and beatboxing drops out. This is the smallest moment of the piece and is directly before the biggest. But there is a transition before the climax, the brief chorus at 2:32 where the beatboxing rejoins, dun’s return, bass returns for the final two bars before and the range between the oo’s gradually widens. And in the final bar, oo’s become ah’s for two beats, followed by silence other than a beatboxing crescendo. So on a macro scale, the song starts small, gets bigger at the bridge, and gets biggest at the climax. But on a micro scale, It gets big at the bridge, comes way down, builds back up in preparation for the climax, but then has a two beats of no singing before arriving at 2:44.

Now the other question- what makes the climax feel so good? Well part one of that answer is everything we’ve talked about so far. Everything that makes the bridge sound better makes the climax better. By having the bridge really interesting and brief, it acts as a teaser. It leaves you begging for more and wondering why they cut that section off so quickly. And while it isn’t terribly long, the climax really does explore a lot before it ends. It’s almost 4 times longer than the big part of the bridge. If you feel it in a slow four, there are four phrases- a phrase of four measures, a truncated phrase of three, and two phrases of four. That phrase of three is like many other parts of this song which seem so simple, but frequently surprise. The listener is relishing in this glorious sound, only to take another slap to the face from the instability created by a variation in harmonic rhythm (this is the only three bar phrase in the song). This idea is derived directly from the interjection you’ll remember at 2:08. The surprise there is not only that it comes out of nowhere, but also that it ends before we anticipated. When the listener doesn’t know what will happen, it keeps them engaged. And the piece ends right after the best part, so it leaves us satisfied, but wanting more.

Digging a little deeper into what’s actually happening at the climax, first of all, there’s a modulation up a half step. It starts with ah’s in the backs, but they become words. This is the most important element of this section. It starts with almost everyone singing big, open harmonies in the backs. Then they blur the lines between padding and group responses even further than before (for example 2:21). Also note that ‘and I pray’ is unison. The oh oh ohohoh’s are also still here, which helps to tie the whole thing together. A lot of this piece is about recontextualizing the three motives (very short musical ideas) from the intro.

That’s the end of my long-winded analysis. Hope you made it through and got a lot out of it! Please send me comments, questions, critiques, observations, or anything else. And let me know if you liked this article and want to see more a cappella analysis! I’d love to take song suggestions. Remember, if you digged it, buy the song on iTunes to help relief efforts in Japan!

www.youtube.com/user/pathock3

Update: The video from our Winter show are now up on our group’s official YouTube account. This show was even better!

www.youtube.com/user/NUUndertones

Update 2: Our Spring show is now up! This link is a playlist that has every song in show order.

www.youtube.com/user/NUUndertones#grid/user/0C99EA906F4875DE