Hero - Short Film Score - Walkthrough Pt.18 - M6 (Part 3)

In this part, we will have a closer look at the buildup towards the big climactic conclusion of the theme (and the movie) which starts at around 12:23 in the video.

All the previous parts of this series are available here. As always, Midi, Score Sheet and Orchestral recording attached at the bottom of the post.

I only had one spotting note for that section:

11:21:19 – start toward that grand finale with brother theme, a touch lighter

Now of course, a sequence like this is every film composer's dream. The last 4 minutes of that movie are simply music and images, no interrupting dialogue and barely any sound effects. The fact that the music is becoming the central character of the storytelling here is a very rare opportunity so I was very happy to be able to go "all in" with that sequence.

While we discussed it, the filmmakers jokingly said that that this was "like the ET goodbye sequence" which gave me exactly the right direction of what they were envisioning for that sequence. It was clear that the big target that the music and the movie was aiming for was the big sunset shot that was coming up and that the previous section was a buildup towards this.

So the general idea here was to create a very tender string driven section that would build over the entire sequence. In order to create that build, I wanted to also write a "written out" crescendo with staggered entrances of more sections of the orchestra, first starting out with strings, then joined by woodwinds and close to the climax by brass.

https://soundcloud.com/robin-hoffmann/hero-m6-bar-24-35/s-cyxF9vzl1SG

In the previous part we are in a basically C major tonality which leaves us in bar 23 at the subdominat of Fmajor. I decided to go for a dominant pedal point in the following sequence as this automatically creates quite a bit of anticipation. I also switched to a 3/4 meter as the main theme that hits at the climax was in 3/4 and I didn't want to change only then as this would have made the transition harder. Additionally, a 3/4 (or basically any ternary meter) often feels more "flowing" than a binary meter.

The harmonic progression in this part also includes a modulation towards F major which however is a bit deceptive but more on this later.

Harmonically, from 24-27, we sustain on that dominant pedal with the chords on top alternating between Dm and C. You could effectively understand the Dm/G as a G sus2 or sus4 chord so it is more or less like an expansion of that cadence from before which however doesn't get resolved.

Harmonically speaking, bar 28 is the pivot point that sets up the modulation. The harmony C/Bb implies a lydian scale over Bb which "carefully" introduces new scale material into the cadence. The pronounced C major chord over that Bb very strongly creates a "bridge" between these two tonal worlds to make that modulation as seamless as possible. From there on, the harmonic progression is based on a descending bass line over Bb, A, G, F, Eb, D and eventually C. Such a linear motion is very plausible for our ear so the chord progression feels very smooth. I mentioned it already several times before that it is generally easier to modulate towards the "flatter" keys than the sharper keys which is also obvious here as you can use the vehicle of modal interchanges from minor which always work very well. In this case, we could see the Bb chord also as a modal interchange which is the borrowed 7th degree of the C minor scale.

However, this new note of Bb already sets up the direction of the modulation as we now with this Bb lydian already have our scale material for the target F major in place. However, the following chord progression introduces another note in bar 32 where we reach that Ebmaj7 chord. It is introduced relatively straight forward without much of a surprise as it telegraphs already in the chords before this chord that we settled on Bb major. There is no Eb used in the chords before so it doesn't confirm that tonality completely but the chord of Bb or its counterpart of Gm appear quite prominently in the progression. So the Eb major chord becomes quite plausible. I could have replaced it with a C/E to strictly stay in the target tonality of F major but at this point that chord felt more forced than the Ebmaj7. So the Bb major tonality gets confirmed through the Eb chord and if the progression would go on as expected from there it would be followed by Bb/D, Cm(7) and F leading towards a Bb tonic afterwards. 

However, I decided to use a more deceptive way to modulate "back" to F which instead of using the Cm, I used a Csus followed by a C and creating a strong dominant towards the following F tonic. In a way, through that shift, I gain some more brightness as it pushes us back one degree towards the sharp keys in the circle of fifth which works quite nicely as a ramp towards the climactic next part.

So from the dramaturgy of the harmony we could say it starts out in C and gradually modulates from there to F and from there to Bb but takes a step back to F shortly before the new part starts.

This is of course a bit "overanalyzed" here as during the composition I was looking more for chords that I felt worked well and created the emotional quality that I was looking for but I was aware of this "Ok now I modulate here.... and next we go there but whoops... surprise, we go back to before".

Melodically there are two things going on here.

1.) There is an ascending 3 note motif that first gets established in the first violins in bar 24 and keeps "creeping up" towards the climax. It gets handed off into other instruments but stays relatively straight "on course". Ascending lines of course always create a sense of anticipation and increase of tension which of course was desirable here.

2.) On top of that I use motivic fragments from the main theme, which I intervallically repurpose to fit with the chords. I didn't want to establish any new thematic material here as the visuals obviously now are very much about the relationship between the two brothers so the use if the brother's theme was more than appropriate. But I also didn't want to take away too much from the climax that was following so I didn't want to play out the theme straight forward. So I chose a mixed approach of repurposing elements from the theme for that harmonic progression.

You might have noticed that in the piano reduction playback there are a few "clashy" moments (e.g. last beat of 30) which don't seem to be a problem in the orchestral recording. All of these clashes happen in quite different textures and balances which makes them considerably less rubbing and additionally are justified through a linear motion of the individual voices. So while there is some minor harmonic rub going on here and there it is by far not as dramatic as the piano reduction might make it seem.

From the orchesrtational standpoint, there is nothing completely unexpected happening. In 28 the Woodwinds enter and in 32 the brass, preparing for the climax.

I used a few melodic devices to heighten the anticipation towards the climax. Firstly the melody line moves upwards in stepwise motion in each bar (if you look at the overall gesture) and I use some rhythmical gestures like the sextuplet arpeggios that provide some momentum that prepares for the climax.