| Description |
| On-screen: |
Main title |
| Description: |
Main title theme for full orchestra, with a dramatic, serious tone; strong descending brass theme; eleven years later, Steiner would re-use this main title theme for another James Cagney gangster film, White Heat (1949) |
| Music annotations: |
[m. 5] fff; [m. 7] risoluto; [m. 8] simile / fff; [m. 9] molto marcato; [m. 10] sffz / gliss; [m. 11] sf; [m. 12] gliss; [m. 13] sffz; [m. 14] riten |
| Film annotations: |
[m. 5] M. Title; [m. 14] Fade |
| Orchestration annotations: |
[m. 5] timp / T.C. ;[m. 6] 2 harps, pianos etc / timp / cymbal roll; [m. 7] trpts / celli, bassoon, b. cl / trbs, tuba, etc; [m. 9] harps, pianos / T.C. with stick / timp; [m. 10] T.C. with stick; [m. 11] horns, celli, etc / trb, tuba / harps added; [m. 12] hns / trb / timp added; [m. 13] all str, W.W. / trpts / gong |
| Analysis: |
There are two important motivic ideas here: a chromatically rising string gesture and strong brass chords with a double-dotted rhythm; measures 1-2 are repeated sequentially up a half step; the music then seems to be moving towards Ab minor but returns to E minor in measure 12; Steiner then turns to D minor near the end, setting up the entrance of the source music hurdy gurdy in D major for the opening scene |
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| Tags |
bold | cast list | dark | foreign key modulation | main title | opening title sequence | sequence | title of film
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