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Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)


Home > Film: Arsenic and Old Lace > Theme: Jonathan > Instance: 0:18:54




Instance
Theme name: Jonathan
Start time: 0:18:54
End time: 0:19:13
Total duration: 0:00:19
Page #: 49
Measure #: 1
Scene: Reel 2 Part 4
Key: unstable
Meter: 4/4
Tempo (bpm): 88
Marking: Slowly
Instrumentation: woodwinds
Solo Instrument: contrabassoon
Description
On-screen: Jonathan Brewster's picture is shown
Description: When Aunt Abby shows Mortimer the baby picture of his brother Jonathan we hear a dissonant stinger in the woodwinds, followed by a sinister chromatic line in the contrabassoon which winds its way upwards and is slithery, like a snake
Music annotations: [m. 1] p; [m. 2] come sopra from Reel 3 Part 1 orig key; [m. 3] a tempo
Film annotations: [m. 3] Do you remember?
Analysis: The woodwind stinger consists of two dissonant sonorities: (013679) and (01248) [like a diminished seventh and a whole-tone chord with added dissonance]; the contrabassoon melody snakes around a diminished seventh arpeggiation
Tags

advance plot | aunt | conversing | diminished 7th chord | groom | leading lady | leading man | ominous | pc set | picture | room | sinister | stinger

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