Episode 12: Back To The Future

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.

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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

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