Previous | Next

19

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)


Home > Film: Arsenic and Old Lace > Theme: The Old Maid > Instance: 0:04:17




Instance
Theme name: The Old Maid
Borrowed from: The Old Maid (1939)
Start time: 0:04:17
End time: 0:04:54
Total duration: 0:00:37
Page #: 16
Measure #: 50
Scene: Reel 1 Part 2
Key: Eb - Bb
Meter: 3/4
Tempo (bpm): 96
Marking: Modto (expressivo)
Instrumentation: strings
Description
On-screen: Mortimer talks to Elaine
Description: As Mortimer tells Elaine that he can't marry her, we hear a somber string melody that was borrowed from The Old Maid (1939); this is undoubtedly an inside joke since by not marrying Elaine, she would become an old maid
Music annotations: [m. 50] modto (expressivo) / a tempo / no sord. this time / come sopra from "The Old Maid!" 1/2 tone higher Reel 9 Part 1; [m. 58] poco appassionato / a little faster; [m. 65] this bar just like original - only in minor!
Film annotations: [m. 50] That's a pin I borrowed
Analysis: This romantic melody unfolds over a dominant pedal tone in the first two phrases, then over tonic pedal tone tinged with mode mixture; a diminished 7th chord in m. 62 is enharmonically interpreted to lead unexpectedly to a Gb triad, which becomes the bVI in Bb major; the cue ends inconclusively on a borrowed ii half-diminished 42 chord
Tags

added-note chord | arguing | conversing | enharmonic modulation | establish character | kissing | leading lady | leading man | marriage | mode mixture | office | parallel period | pedal tone | romantic | self-borrowing

Media