Tag: film

Voctave | Someday

The a cappella group (and MotD favorite) Voctave released a new album, The Corner of Broadway & Main St Vol. 2 earlier this month, featuring an assortment of Disney and Broadway hits. “Somewhere,” from Alan Menken’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, closes the album. Beginning in C major, the arrangement modulates to E at 2:11 before retreating back briefly to D at the 3:00 mark. A final shift to F occurs at 3:33.

The Blues Brothers | Rawhide

“Rawhide” was written by Ned Washington (lyrics) and Dimitri Tiomkin (music) in 1958. “The song was used as the theme to Rawhide, a western television series that ran from 1959 until 1966. According to the Western Writers of America, it was one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.

The tune has been covered by Johnny Cash, The Jackson 5, The Dead Kennedys, Liza Minnelli, Oingo Boingo, Sublime, and many other artists. It was featured prominently in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers, where it saved the day as as a last-second substitute opener for an R&B/Blues band haplessly booked into a Country/Western bar. Fortunately, the band had a lot more chops than luck …

The half-step modulation is at 2:13 at the start of a short guitar feature. The tune itself doesn’t begin until the 1:25 mark. Many thanks to MotD regular Rob Penttinen for this submission!

Voctave | How Far I’ll Go (from “Moana”)

Featured in Disney’s 2016 animated blockbuster Moana, “How Far I’ll Go” serves as the “I Want” song (a common device used in musical theatre and Disney movies where a character expresses their fundamental ambition) for the title character in the film. Lin Manuel Miranda, who wrote and produced the track, claimed he locked himself in his childhood bedroom for a weekend in order to force his mind back to age 16 (the same age as Moana in the film) — a time when he was facing what seemed like an “impossible distance” between the reality of his pleasant middle-class childhood which had no connection to show business whatsoever, and his dreams of a career in show business. The song was nominated for Best Original Song at both the Golden Globes and Academy Awards, but ultimately lost both to La La Land; it was awarded Best Song Written for Visual Media at the Grammy Awards. Performed by MotD favorite Voctave, the key change is at 2:14.

Elmer Bernstein | Theme from “The Magnificent Seven”

Elmer Bernstein’s score for The Magnificent Seven (1960) was nominated for Best Score, Dramatic or Comedy at the 33rd Academy Awards, but was bested by the score for the film Exodus. The score was later ranked at #8 on the American Film Institute’s list of the Top 25 American Film Scores.

According to The Muse by Clio, the original review of the film in The Hollywood Reporter was ambivalent — although not about the film’s music: “The Magnificent Seven has the stars and the production values to open big, and probably will. But it is not a success, as a story or as entertainment…Elmer Bernstein’s music is truly memorable; the theme will stick.” The Muse continues: “Glenn Lovell’s 2008 book about the Magnificent Seven’s director, “Escape Artist: The Life and Films of John Sturges,” describes the film’s theme music as ‘arguably, after John Williams’ Jaws and Star Wars themes, the most recognizable overture in the history of the medium.’ Bernstein’s theme took on a life of its own after the film’s release, having its place confirmed as the soundtrack to American masculinity in the iconic Marlboro Man ad campaign, and even appearing in a shot of James Bond riding across a desert in Moonraker.“

The modulation hits right around 1:10. Many thanks to MotD regular Carlo Migliaccio for submitting this track!

Black Artists for Black Lives | Feeding Off the Love of the Land

As described by the performers, Black Artists for Black Lives, “This arrangement of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Feeding Off the Love of the Land’ was born out of grief, and evolved into a communal message of healing. In the midst of our grief, we sing with renewed strength and love. We sing for them… We sing for US.”

Stevie’s original appeared under the credits of Spike Lee’s 1991 film Jungle Fever, but didn’t appear on any of Stevie’s studio albums.

Starting with a gorgeous a cappella arrangement in B major, an instrumental accompaniment sneaks in at 0:30 and swells at the early modulation to D major at 0:48. The energy continues to build until the ensemble hits its fullest stride at 2:04.

Stevie’s original, which doesn’t include a modulation:

The Who | Joker James

The Who, already very well-established in 1973, indulged in an ambitious adventure: the rock opera Quadrophenia. The soundtrack spanned a full double album. AllMusic reports that the plot was “built around the story of a young mod’s struggle to come of age in the mid-’60s…re-examining the roots of (the band’s) own birth in mod culture. In the end, there may have been too much weight, as Pete Townshend tried to combine the story of a mixed-up mod named Jimmy with the examination of a four-way split personality (hence the title), in turn meant to reflect the four conflicting personas at work within the Who itself.”

“Joker James” begins in D major, loses a bit of steam as it transitions to the bridge at 1:46, and then returns with renewed energy as it modulates to E major at 2:02.

Many thanks to MotD fan Aaron for submitting this tune!

Whitney Houston | I Believe In You and Me

Originally released and recorded by Four Tops on their 1982 album One More Mountain, “I Believe In You and Me” was covered in 1996 by Whitney Houston and included the 1996 flick The Preacher’s Wife. Much more successful than the original, Houston’s rendition became a top 5 R&B hit in the US and topped many charts worldwide. The key change, in Whitney’s customary dramatic fashion, is at 2:52.

Bill Evans | Diane Schuur | Some Other Time

The most prominent image of Leonard Bernstein tends to be his dynamic presence as the conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. But his career also included his extensive composition for Broadway, including West Side Story, Candide, Wonderful Town, and many others. His tune “Some Other Time,” from the 1944 musical On the Town (lyrics by Betty Comden and Adoph Green), subsequently became one of the select few which made the leap from show tune to jazz standard.

One of the most noted instrumental versions of the standard is by pianist Bill Evans. His version includes an intro that approaches the musical equivalent of liturgy, serving as an intro across a broad variety of ballads by other artists. Pitchfork explains that “Evans’ art has endured in part because he has a brilliant combination of formal sophistication and accessibility; critics and his fellow musicians heard the genius in his approach to chords, his lightness of touch…while listeners could put on his records and simply bask in their beauty, how Evans’ continual foregrounding of emotion made the sad songs extra wrenching and the happy ones extra buoyant.”

On the Evans version, the intro and start of the melody are in C major. 1:30 brings the middle 8, which are in Ab major. There’s a return to C major at 2:04, completing the AABA cycle at 2:38 as the solo section begins.

Since the lyric is a very powerful one, we’re also including a vocal version by vocalist and pianist Diane Schuur. Her website details that she learned “‘What a Difference a Day Makes’ while she was still a toddler (and) developed her own rich, resonant vocal style at a very young age…(winning) two Grammy awards and three additional Grammy nominations” via her solo work and collaborations with the Count Basie Orchestra, B.B. King, Ray Charles, and Jose Feliciano.