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Bill Wrobel |
TIME AFTER TIME |
Lead | |
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Below is my own personal research hand-copy of a portion of the "Time Machine Waltz" in that Reel 6/1 scene when Amy and H.G. have lunch on a rotating restaurant on top of a building.The initial tonality seems
to be the simple G maj (G/B/D). Pleasant background score. I am reminded of what Steiner did in a similar vein in his movies, adapting a basic theme in a given
movie into a waltz or ala fox trot or whatever in a dance scene, say, or the background orchestra in a party supposedly playing it. Parrish comes to mind, especially the Reel 9/3 Paige Valse Music scene with the lovely sounding orchestration of two alto saxes, tenor sax, bass clarinet, harp, piano,
guitar, 6 violins, 4 (or 2) violas, 2 celli, 1 bass. Scene: The party music right after Edgar gives his (forced by Parrish) welcome speech.
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Bill Wrobel |
"Search for the Ripper" cue | ||
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Below is my hand-copy research cue of the "Search for the Ripper" cue of Time After Time. Scene: The police arrive and search the premises. The music starts when a
constable finds Stevenson's bag. For this stress suspense cue we find Rozsa's approach to be bitonal chords of half note tonalities of Bb maj 2nd inversion (F/Bb/D) and F augmented (F/A/C#). The
stopped effect adds to the alarm or urgency emphasis. The trombones are sords also adding to the unusual effect. Very
admirable music for the scene. Rozsa was certainly one of the Big Boys in Hollywood then, one of the very last remaining of the Old Boys too. Herrmann and
Steiner and Newman and Tiomkin were gone.
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Bill Wrobel |
"The Vaporing Equalizer" cue | ||
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Below is my personal research hand-copy image of "The Vaporizing Equalizer" from Time After Time. As I
wrote in my rundown:
"Scene: Naïve Wells tells all about his machine and its secrets to his dinner guests. Wells then explains to John that the vaporizing equalizer enables the time traveler to travel with the machine; otherwise without it he travels thru time without the machine and cannot return to the point of departure. Our dear friend H.G. (in this rendition) was a blabbermouth, but this character flaw also was a key action in the domino of effects that eventually led him to Amy." Also later on: "...Now: As mentioned above, there are plenty of tritone intervals in this cue. A# to E and C# to G are examples of the diminished 5th variety of tritones, while E to A# and G to C# are augmented 4th versions. Incidentally, the tritone interval is part of the Dominant seventh structure (if you recall, he used only Dom 7th in the earlier "Farewell" cue). The tritone was once considered the "diabolus in musica" interval and it was never used in Gregorian music. The tritone is considered the most dissonant interval, bestowing an unsettling, restless, sometimes ambiguous quality that yearns for resolution or rest. It splits up an octave exactly in the middle (3 whole tones) and its presence is quite conspicuous. If the dim 5th version, then it is minor third related and tends to be interpreted as "heavy" or "dark." If the aug 4th version, it is major third related and tends to be brighter" yet somewhat biting and certainly adds "spice" to the tonality. Rozsa was an astute musician because he immediately saw the connection between the tritone and the villain in this movie (Jack the Ripper). The tritone is the "devil's note" or the "wolf" and with Rozsa's associative/musical mind, he saw that Jack was a devilish character, a rather demonized figure (portraying evil). So with his typical "harmonic acerbity," Rozsa employed the use of the tritone to depict various aspects of the storyline. He did not want to use minor seventh chords to depict Jack because there is no tritone interval in a min7th chord. However, dissonant Dominant seventh chords do indeed include tritones. There is a great deal of tension generated with the frequent use of tritones that at least subtly fosters a restless feeling, and so Rozsa's music in this score masterfully "sets-up" the listening audience for an unsettling experience through various chapters of this movie. ..."
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Bill Wrobel |
"Prelude" | ||
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The two images below are hopefully the complete top and bottom halves of the first seven bars of the "Prelude" to Time After Time. Palmer orchestrated with long 32-stave paper so it is difficult to fully scan my research hand-copy in most
machines, and even if I could the reduction would make it harder to read the smaller print--so I decided to do the top and bottom halves as best I could
accommodate. The orchestrated score is transposed for the transposing instruments such as the B-flat clarinets and horns--NOT a "C" or concert pitch
score that you often see these days (such as Elliot Goldenthal full scores, and Alien3 comes to mind).
Rozsa's time machine figurations (four 32nd notes figure to rinforzando 8th note) are abundantly obvious in this Prelude, and evident in other cues as a motif designed by Rozsa to signify the time machine and its associations. As I wrote in my rundown: "...Max Steiner's famous brassy Warner Bros fanfare preludes the prelude. This three-bar fanfare is not incorporated in the full score. A separate page photocopied from the W/B library is used. The third bar is marked "overlap" (overlapping Bar 1 of Rozsa's Prelude) and features the tutti sounding of the rinforzando ( accented or > glyph over the notes) Eb maj (Eb/G/B) whole note triad....Obviously Rozsa would begin the Prelude on Eb major since the Steiner fanfare ends (or rather overlaps) on that chord tonality. I wonder what he would've preferred to do if Meyer hadn't insisted that the Warner Bros fanfare be used? ..."
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Bill Wrobel |
"Time Travel" cue | ||
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Below is a large portion of the first several bars of the "Time Travel" cue of Time After Time that I
hand-copied for research. Again, due to the over-sized nature of the orchestrations, I could not easily fit the entire instrumentation. Two flutes are
col the violins starting in Bar 5. The
two-bar ostinato motion figures (con moto or with movement) remind me a lot of the figures used in Rozsa's Tumult & Commotion piece
played several times in the first season of the 1951 Superman series on television. It is a highly propulsive movement musically but this "time" it
is a furious movement thru time! I like the inclused of the woodblocks and marimba, somehow associated by Rozsa as a timely percussive musical effect. By Bar
9 the time machine figurations are heard with a vengeance, played by the woodwinds (see the next image).
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Bill Wrobel |
"Nocturnal Visitor" cue | ||
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Below is my own personal research hand-copy of the "Nocturnal Visitor" cue from Time After Time, Reel
11/1.Scene: It is 6:17 pm on the digital clock next to Amy's bed when she awakens sluggishly from her valium-induced over-sleep.
Jack is quite near! I thought I would add this beginning portion of the cue because the atmospheric opening is rather Herrmannesque to my ears. Perhaps the
nocturnal visitor, musically, is Herrmann! Also the music is immediately tritone infused. As I wrote in my rundown:
"....Ten violins I are divisi a3 playing pp sul pont starting on Line 1 A/Eb/Line 2 A whole notes bowed trem (repeat thru Bar 3). [Note that we see the dissonant tritone interval here of Eb up to A, and of course Eb backward to small octave A]. Then they play D/Ab/D in Bars 4-5 [Rozsa maintain the tritone pattern now with Ab up to D, and Ab back to D], Ab/F/G in Bar 6, and finally Cb/Ab/Bb in Bar 7. Violins II are div a3 bowed trem sul pont on Line 1 Bb/Line 2 G for three bars, then Eb/C in Bars 4-5, G/Db [tritone interval] in Bar 6 , and finally Bb/Fb [tritone interval] in Bar 7...."
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Bill Wrobel |
"2nd Bank Montage" cue | ||
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Finally tonight let's look at the first seven bars or so of the "2nd Bank Montage" cue from Time After
Time that I hand-copied at Warner Bros. years ago in my research project. As I wrote in my rundown:
"Scene: After eating his fries at McDonald's, he is outside a store looking at a turned-on television on display for $440. A commercial is playing ("Constipated?") similar to Pepto Bismol that seems, by association, to comment on the food at McDonald's (previous scene)! This is a delightful diversion of a cue in the movie...In Bar 5 (:10) the orchestrator wrote "H.G. Dumbfounded." ...A light version of the time traveler theme is played by the violins mf...."
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Bill Wrobel |
"The Fifth Victim" cue | ||
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Very nice cue; one of my favorites, actually, in this score. Below are images of my own personal research hand-copy of portions of the cue for educational
purposes. As I wrote in my rundown years ago:
"THE FIFTH VICTIM" [M9/3] Moderato in 4/4 time. 30 bars, 1:41. Located in track # 4 starting at 4:15. Scene: H.G. takes Amy on trip to the future (three days only to Saturday, November 10, 1979). She is disbelieving-until she sees a newspaper of that date in the lobby. She soon turns over the paper to see her own photo depicted as being the "5th victim" of the Ripper! This is a lovely, expansive rendition (at least temporarily) of the Amy/Love Theme. First, however, we hear (as Amy starts to walk into the lobby) the solo English horn playing the small octave F [written middle C a perfect 5th interval above] 8th crescendo in the grace bar..." (ETC.)
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Bill Wrobel |
More "Fifth Victim" | ||
Bill Wrobel |
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Sorry for the misalignment of top and bottom sections. It can be difficult trying to match them up perfectly from memory.
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Bill Wrobel |
"Jack!" | ||
http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/391/img0006sh.jpg http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/5273/img0007b.jpg The images above are my own personal research hand-copy of the "Jack!" cue from Time After Time immediately after the Prelude. As I wrote in my rundown: "Scene: Foggy London night street scene in 1893. Drunken Jennie leaves the tavern and staggers slowly down the street. Some is following her. It is Jack! The music ends when Jennie turns around and speaks to Jack (off screen). Unfortunately the music is barely heard on the vhs or off the movie screen until the very end of the cue, so you will need to listen to one of the compact discs. On the mono cd, go to track # 1 starting at 1:20 (it is erroneously titled "The Fog"). ..." Bassons/celli initially play the Jack phrasing later joined in Bar 5 by the deep tuba.Pos III, augmented by the other trombones shortly later. Rozsa's technique is to add layers as the scene progresses, a dynamic build or buildup to create more suspense and anticipation of the audience silently saying, "I don't get a good feeling about this!" as the scene unfolds. |
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Bill Wrobel |
"A New Victim" | ||
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Below are the top and bottom portions (hopefully aligned fairly correctly! : ) of "A New Victim" cue I hand-copied for study, research purposes
(my rundown analysis on my site a few years back). It is located on the mono track # 3 starting at 8:37 (I did not yet make dvd timings on the score). Here the
Amy theme is played in a rather fragmented manner. What I found interesting was the sul pont bowed trem chords played
by the violins and violas in Bar 5. Rozsa decided to employ all Dom 7th 1st inversion chords starting with G Dom 7th 1st inv (F/B/D/G). I'll have to check
out the dvd and re-watch this scene. I believe it is here that Amy's roommate is that new victim but I'm not sure. Rozsa ends the cue in Bar 7 with the
dissonant Gb/Ab and C/D M2 intervals, and the highly dissonant C to Gb and also D to Ab tritone intervals. With all this distressful music Rozsa adeptly
devised, you can be assured nothing good is going to come at the conclusion of this scene!
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