Hero - Short Film Score - Walkthrough Pt.20 - M6 (Part 5)

We're approaching the end of the cue and the score. In this part, we will look at the End Credits music of Hero which was specifically composed for them and not compiled from earlier cues.

The reasoning was that with that last shot that we had in the movie, we were having that classical Western visual and we wanted to carry that over into the credits, also to have some "emotional afterburn" after that quite intense ending of the movie.

We clearly wanted to reference the classical Western scores and I decided to go the Magnificent Seven route. I however wanted to adjust the main theme to that meter and rhythm so there was a bit of rhythmical rewriting necessary to make it work.

The End Credits sequence starts at 12:29 in the video.

As usual, score sheet, recording and MIDI attached at the bottom of the post.

Here's the recording of the sequence of today's excerpt:

https://soundcloud.com/robin-hoffmann/hero-m6-bar54-74/s-6eKJqO2j2nD

This transition part is setting the tone for the following part, almost working like an overture into the actual "Western Theme". Harmonically, it is pretty straight forward moving from a Eb tonic to the bVII(Db), bVI(Cb) to the V(Bb). So what I'm doing here is basically borrowing chords from the parallel minor of Eb which is a very common source for chords in the film music mode and could also be called a harmonic modal interchange.

On top of this chord progression there is a quick ostinato that basically outlines an Ebmaj7sus4/sus2 with the pitches of Eb, F, D, Bb and Ab which all (except for the D) work very well on top of all 4 chords. The D only works on top of the Eb chord, in Db it is a b9 and in Cb a #9 and it interferes as a 3 with the sus 4 in Bb. However none of that is really audible for several reasons.

• It moves very quickly so that the actual clash is not really that present in our perception
• The D is a cambiata which reduces its harmonic relevance in the harmonic context
• This ostinato feels like a different element and a separate layer to the chords below which increases our tolerance of dissonance

So in spite of this note being a quite considerable clash, I prefered to leave that ostinato intact as is without adjusting it to the underlaying harmony (by making that D into a Db).

The trumpets play a newly rhythmizised version of the main theme with accents on off beats which are stylistically common in these sort of "Western Score" fanfares.

Orchestrationally, there are no big surprises here. The ostinato is played in the high woodwinds (with dovetailing) and in the high strings, the trumpets play the theme and the rest play the harmonic accents.

When the progression reaches the Bbsus4 chord, the ostinato gets broken and transforms into ascending 4 note figures to target for the next downbeat. Also, the quite rhythmical underlaying harmony gets changed to sustaining chord with a fp<f dynamic envelope to also target the next downbeat. So we're setting up a quite strong V to the following I that starts the actual western theme.

The task here was to transform that flowing 3/4 main theme into a more rhythmically accented and pushing 4/4 western theme. Harmonically I stay relatively close to the progression that we had on the last shot in the movie but it was necessary to adjust the rhythm of the theme so it works with the general gesture of that passage.

Firstly, I changed the thematic structure from that one 8 bar theme by splitting off the first 4 bars and repeating them making it essentially into an AAB form. The second step was to extend the rhythm of the theme so it works in a 4/4 bar. I used a lot of the rhythmic model that subdivdes the 8 eighth notes in a 4/4 bar into a 3+3+2 rhythm which gives me 3 notes per bar which translate nicely from the former 3/4 meter. The accompanyment is based on off beat driven rhythms that play staccato chords which become more active whenever the theme get's to a longer note. These are basically blocky chords that spread out over the entire orchestra. However, especially in moments where the theme has a longer note, these accompanying chords have a top line that could be considered as a side line. The rhythmical accompaniment remains relatively similar regarding its rhythmic structure, however I try to add some variants by breaking up the rhythm once in a while as well as leaving free the downbeat.

In bar 70 I introduce another long note side line in the Horns which happens over the "B" part of that theme to create a bit more variety. If that theme had gone on for a bit longer, I would have needed to find another way to play it as the length that it currently has is in my opinion the maximum that this "horse ride accompaniment" carries without becoming boring.

Bar 74 serves as a transition as well as modulatory path to the next calm statement of the theme again. It goes back to half time tempo which always is a great way to switch tempi without being very noticeable and sets up a ii-V to Bb which is following afterwards.

In the next part we will look at that last bit of the score and have another larger look at this project and I will share a few thoughts about what I would have done differently if I were to score it again.