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Art of the Score

Episode 12: Back To The Future

Art of the Score

Nicholas Buc

Education, Tv & Film, Music

5624 Ratings

🗓️ 18 October 2017

⏱️ 107 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

After a short hiatus, we’re Back – from the future – with a good look at Alan Silvestri’s score to the Robert Zemeckis time-travel classic. Back to the Future is, at its core, about a small group of characters, and yet it possesses a huge scale of feeling and mood, much of which can be attributed to Silvestri’s impressive orchestral score. Join us as we take in the jazz roots of this classic, the fanfares and motifs, and of course, the classic hit songs that power the film. Episode notes: 0:45 – We’re back, from the future 4:40 – Following in the Spielbergian mould 13:10 – Romancing the Silvestri-Zemeckis relationship 16:10 – The main theme 20:00 – Asking questions through tritones 26:00 – Mysterious origins of the time machine 29:14 – Main theme variations 32:32 – Going through the gears 39:41 – The main theme, romantically 41:47 – Marty’s theme 44:39 – The time motif and the Back to the Future sound 49:05 – Doc’s turning wheels 53:00 – The octatonic scale 55:02 – The Biff motif 57:08 – Back to the Predator 59:33 – Art of the Score dissects the climactic suite 1:07:00 – Is it the best climax suite in film music? 1:09:54 – The songs! The Power of Loving Back to the Future 1:15:50 – Mister Sandman 1:26:10 – Night Train 1:32:13 – Earth Angel 1:37:19 – Andrew’s Johnny B Goode telephone authorship theory of doom We love to hear from our listeners – get in touch via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and if you like The Art of the Score, please take a moment to subscribe, rate and comment.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to Art of the Score, the podcast that explores, demystifies and celebrates some of the

0:18.8

greatest soundtracks of all time from the world of film,

0:21.6

TV and video games.

0:23.4

I'm Andrew Pogson.

0:24.5

And in each episode, we'll be joined by Daniel Golding and Nicholas Buck as we check out a soundtrack we love,

0:30.1

break down its main themes, explore what makes the score tick, and hopefully impart our love of the world of soundtracks.

0:47.4

Music and hopefully impart our love of the world of soundtracks. Andrew? Dan, is that you?

0:52.0

They're there now. Just relax.

0:57.0

You've been away for almost two months now.

1:01.4

I had a horrible nightmare.

1:05.2

Dreamed you guys.

1:06.3

I've recorded an episode without me.

1:08.8

It was terrible.

1:10.9

Well, you're safe and sound now back in the good old studio and here to record episode

1:17.6

12.

1:19.0

Episode 12!

1:22.7

Yes, that's right.

1:24.1

In episode 12, we explore the music from one of the icons of 80s pop culture,

1:30.1

the 1985 film Back to the Future, directed by Robert Zemeckis and Score by the great Alan

1:36.5

Sylvestery, a wonderfully fruitful director-composer collaboration that still continues to this day.

1:42.3

Back to the Future is at its core,

1:46.4

a film that concentrates on a small group of people,

...

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