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I especially enjoy Sleigh Ride. For my money, it's the most beautiful instrumental of FYEO in the film, and thanks to you it's finally here in clean shape and with crystal clear sound!
I'm curious about a couple of things, if you can lend a hand:
1) I had transcribed a couple of these cues a while back, but never got them past that stage. The first part of Ferrara Killed... what's the time signature on the score book? And does it stay the same or does it vary between bars? I remember I used some signature changes in my transcript.
2) In general, does the book specify the synth patches used in each cue or are they left vague?
Thanks again!
I agree that Sleigh Ride is the best unreleased track, alongside the "Inside the Monastery" bond theme.
I'm very pleased to answer any question about this score, I spent so much time working on it that I need to share a bit ;)
1) Ferrara Killed has a confusing rhythm but it's actually notated as :
7 bars of 4/4
1 bar of 3/4
(then back to 4/4 for the Corfu part).
So it's quite simple but most of the notes don't land on beat 1.
For exemple the "second phrase" starts on the second eighth note of bar 2.
2) From the book : "The manuscript rarely specified the exact synthesizer and preset used. More specific information was not available." So for exemple at the start of "Sub vs. Sub" you get "Insect Sound". Well I hope I never come across any insect making this sound ;) "Spacey Celeste" is mentioned several time for the two high notes of the FYEO motif (for exemple at the start of "On the Terrace"). But that's about it :/
Thinking further about the score, I bet the Ski...Shoot...Jump sheet music must be particularly interesting to look at. I think it's a fascinating piece of music.
@vzok the casino music is a bit of a mystery (same as Octopussy!).
It is not included in the sheet music release. Though it does include some source music : "Ice Rink Practice" (released as "Bond Meets Kristatos" on CD) and "Ice Rink Waltz" (unreleased).
From Jon Burlingame's book : "Nearly six minutes of louge music (all Conti's) is heard in the casino scenes". So I don't know why it's not in the sheet music. I may try to ask the publisher at some point, I'm too curious.
Another quote : "At nearly 69 minutes of score, FYEO contained more music than any Bond since OHMSS".
Here's a little calculation :
- CD release : 59min
- Remove 3 min because the reprise of FYEO as the end title is identical : 56min
- Add the 7 minutes I reconstructed : 63min
- Add the 6 minutes of Casino Music : 69min indeed...
(edit : it does not really work, there is also "Ice Rink Waltz" which is 2 minutes + the casino cues are truncated. So I don't know, really)
Also, in the book, is "Sexy Record" the same as "Take Me Home"?
I love Stinger. Those mini-pieces of music can be so much fun. And I like the chord at the end of Divers Approach. I hear piano, horns, trombones and clarinets.
Thanks for pointing out the different film ending of Take Me Home, I hadn't noticed it. I imagine it was achieved simply through editing and omitting certain instruments from the mix.
Now that you mention it, here's a bonus for ice skating fans ;)
Yes. It seems to be the movie version because it has only 25 bars. From the book : "The film version cuts out almost a minute of the cue, suggesting that the longest version was recorded exclusively for the soundtrack." But both versions sound exactly the same so I think you are right, the movie version must be shortened via editing. Maybe they decided to record a longer version in the studio, while knowing they could edit it back to 25 bars for the movie... I don't know.
You're right! But also: flutes, oboe, english horn, bassoons, trumpets, tuba, harp, violins, viola, vioncello and double bass... This is where the music sheet comes handy! It's impossible to hear them individually (also, I'm not a mixing pro), but they all participate to the richness of the result.
I worked on some Dr. No reconstruction a while back and may re-do them at some points. This was by ear and I only used the instruments I was sure to hear. But I wouldn't apply the same principle after working on FYEO. I think I would just assume this is a common orchestra, and try different things until it feels right and "full".
So congrats again for your reconstructions by ear because it's much more difficult!
"Zorba Takes a Holiday", the library source music used in greece: https://www.dewolfemusic.com/search.php?id=28867238&code=8rXbC7
There are two others but I couldn't identify them.
I for one would love to hear some reconsonstructions of tracks from Dr No. It is so poorly served by the official album release.
I'm sure they do! That's a lot of instruments.
When I did my first reconstructions, I did the same thing: I just used whatever instruments I was absolutely sure of. This was a bit stressful, as I would sit there pondering things like: "okay, but am I hearing clarinets here or not?" Eventually, however, I came to understand, or accept, that this process is not one of exact copying, but approximation. To discover, with absolute certainty and solely by ear, every single note played by every instrument is a practical impossibility, even having multiple audio channels to listen to. Instead, one has to get as close as possible to the original piece using a combination of good ear, common sense and intuition, to reach the point where whatever differences between your version and the original are so negligible as to be imperceptible in a stereo mix (with an orchestra playing live in front of you, it might be a different thing, I don't know). And this process involves, as you very wisely say, trying "different things until it feels right and 'full'". This applies not only to instrumentation, but to chords, the voicing of chords, and other parts of the arrangement.
Also, a crucial factor is of course, the style of the composer. Barry is easy for me to transcribe, as his music is never too busy. But imagine working on one of those John Williams action pieces. That would be a lot of work. I once started transcribing the Star Wars main title by ear, and I was doing okay, but clearly going at a slower pace than usual, because there are so many layers, so many notes. In that regard, Bill Conti's music is also more complex than Barry's.
Thank you very much! And thanks again for making the most out of the FYEO score book and turning into music we can listen to!
The wedding music is so beautiful. I'm gonna look into this subject.
Me too! The music right before the end credits is lovely: that cheerful martial ditty that segues into romantic strings and then the Underneath the Mango Tree instrumental, which itself leads into that brass-and-strings outro that's very lyrical and fifties-sounding (and yes, I'm aware this is a sixties' film).
Fabulous!
Thanks a lot, it's fascinating to read about your process about this, and it resonates a lot with my own. At some point you listen so closely to the poor version buried in the movie mix that you even start hallucinating instruments! So good ear, common sense and intuition are key, as you rightly said.
Even sheet music is not an absolute source of truth, there can be changes made during the recording sessions. I actually added/removed some instruments here and there to reach a balance between what was notated and what I was hearing in the movie. A good example is "Ice Rink Waltz" which has a rhythm of 120 bpm in the music sheet but was actually recorded at ~158 bpm, much, much faster. It could have been a (good) decision from Conti during the recording sessions, who knows.
Working on Williams must be very, very hard. Barry is indeed a master of "simplicity". That's why I always found it a bit strange when people say Arnold (whose scores I love) is the spiritual successor to Barry. Sure he loves Barry and pay hommage to him frequently, but his approach to scoring seems so different, his scores are so busy.
Great. It has lyrics, in greek I presume. So a greek speaker could probably help...
Indeed! And it's one the few where it's very very very unlikely that we'll ever get any new music from it. I may try to go back to it someday :)
Yes, it's impossible to know what to count as being a part of these 69 minutes of music, in the end...
"Flowers for Teresa" is an interesting case. The book mentions it a being an alternate take of "Take them down", and it's true that they share a lot of similarities. But "Flowers for Teresa" matches perfectly the scene where Bond's helicopter takes off. There are a lot of synchronisation points. You even hear the bells for the priest. So this looks a lot like an unused cue, rather than an alternate take. I feel like I saw a Youtube video demonstrating this, but I can't find it :/
Κερκυραϊκός (Ρούγα)
Kerkyraikos/Rouga
Traditional Corfu dance music, I'm told.
This other video says this: "Footage from the movie ''For your eyes only'' with Roger Moore agent 007, where the traditional dance group of Mr. Garouna with Yiannis Skolarikis participated in 1981"
Was the music recorded on location for the film? Probably. The video uploader is John Skolarikis, so he is likely related to Yiannis Skolarikis (Yiannis is the Greek form of John, too). He hasn't uploaded a video in ten years, but perhaps we could drop him a comment asking him if the dance group provided the music for the film as well as the dance footage. It would only make sense.
Apart from that, it could still be worth taking a look at the usual library music websites.
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I don't know yet what music the band is playing when they are dancing on the Corfu street.
Absolutely, haha.
Felix's death music reminds me of Beethoven's 7th symphony
I like "Bond at Cemetery" a lot. The mourful strings/horns in the first part, then the transition to the delicate piano of Vesper's theme. This was a very welcomed musical quote (contrary to some others). It seems that Vesper's theme is not simply tracked from Arnold's score but really included in the composition, that's nice.
I like the energy of "Bond in Plane".
I also like the "desperate" version of the bond theme bass line from "Madeleine Gets Captured".
Love the Bond Theme from "Bond Opens Door" too!
But apart from some nice bits, most of these unreleased cues kind of give credit to the idea that some of Zimmer tracks are just here to "fill" the void with sound textures sometimes. Granted, the sound quality is very poor, but it's hard to believe there is a lot of musical interest in tracks like "Breaking In" or "Bond Talks to Safin" (and these are long tracks). I hope I can revise my judgment if someday the tracks are actually released, but IMO this doesn't match the quality standard of most of the previous Bond scores, in which very little tracks can be considered "fillers". Barry or Arnold would not have stand it, even for "secondary" scenes. Each Bond they've done feels like a passion project for them, and I don't believe the same can be said for Zimmer.
With Spectre being a previous musical disappointment because of the re-used material, I hope that Bond 26's score will get all the time and investment it deserves.