Home Alone: "Paint Cans/Clothesline Trapeze” by John Williams (Score Reduction and Analysis)

[@DavidMcCaulley]

Note: The "noble melody" that I mention at 2:30 is actually John Williams's Star of Bethlehem.

[@MrRbjunior83]

A lot of Shostakovich like, but I feel unique style of John every bar! What a genius!

[@jasonbrandtcomposer]

This is great work Big Daddy Dave!! Keep doing it!

[@kevinthebeagle]

love this, i appreciate your excellent work, and JW's too!

[@alessandrospecialecomposer]

+Big Daddy Dave Hi!! Thank you so much for your great job! Where do you find the scores, if I might ask?

[@pabond008]

Ah, this is fantastic!

[@EvanMonheit]

These are so incredibly helpful, thank you for your hard work. Love getting the chance to see/study all this orchestration. Do you have any plans to do "The Arrival of Tink / Flight to Neverland" from Hook? That has to be one of the most magical / densely orchestrated JW cues ever written. I've looked at the concert version but it doesn't compare to the film. Not sure if you take requests, but that would be amazing to see!

[@DavidMcCaulley]

It seems that quite a few people have requested Hook, so I'll probably do it at some point in the near future.

[@ComposerConductor]

@@DavidMcCaulley, I am also requesting Hook, it's by far one of my favorite scores. The other one is music by James Horner from, "The Perfect Storm," or his famous, "Hard to Starboard" cue from Titanic.

[@MrRbjunior83]

Amazing! Fabulous!

[@SAPOINSATTE]

Thank you for posting all these reductions. I was wondering if you knew where to buy the full orchestra score to all the Home Alone cues as I have only been able to find a concert band version of a few songs. Thanks!

[@8dwms7]

These cues are excellent examples of Williams starting with a single harmony and spinning it out as the basis of the entire piece. The harmony used, the French augmented sixth chord, is placed on the sixth scale step of a minor key (think Faure and others of the late 19th century). In the beginning, e minor is the key implied by the sound of that first chord, and the bass tone and the the augmented sixth -- in the first bar, C and A# -- resolve outward as expected. Then Williams immediately follows it up with three more of the chords, but the bass follows the standard Fr 6th,--V--i of traditional use save for the witty insertion of a Fr 6th on G before the move to E in the second bar. From there, the piece just plays off the French augmented sixth chord used in non-traditional ways. The next to the last measure of the piece posted (the second cue) includes four more of the Fr 6th chords before a final chord that isn't one, a kind of musical wink to the audience.

[@DavidMcCaulley]

Excellent insight! Thank you.

[@BekircanSengezer]

what seconds ?

[@DavidMcCaulley]

0:16 and 2:02

[@BekircanSengezer]

@@DavidMcCaulley excellent !

[@CraigMcfly1985]

Fanastic!

[@frankibio]

Do some Hook please!

[@zoltan902]

Second time lucky.

[@Theomite]

I just want you to know, Big Daddy Dave--you sonofabitch--that because of you, I've now developed a keen interest in collecting film score sheet music (since these videos aren't available in PDF) for my library. The only reason I haven't is because I can't find them printed on acid-free archival paper. I DON'T EVEN READ MUSIC!!!! I AM MUSICALLY ILLITERATE!!! And I still want to to collect things I can't read because you made me appreciate them! #DamnYou

[@christianimations7853]

I’ve seen this movie and it was funny, John Williams did a stupendous job of composing. However, I’m uncomfortable of how said those swear words in this movie like the A word and the C word (poop).