SCORE: A.I. - Artificial Intelligence (John Williams) - A Complete Score Analysis

[Incanus 5,816]

Here is a revised version of the analysis I wrote, gosh, nearly 10 years ago. Again feedback and comments are more than welcome, especially on the technical side.
 

ANALYSIS UPDATED IN 2016 to take into account the LaLa-Land Records complete release of the score.

 

 

A.I. - Artificial Intelligence

 

A Complete Score Analysis

 

by Mikko Ojala

 

http://www.jw-collection.de/images/ai.jpg

 

 

Introduction

A.I. Artificial Intelligence was a project long nurtured (the idea was produced as early as 1980's) by the late director Stanley Kubrick but eventually he chose only to produce the film as he was busy with other projects and let his friend and fellow film maker Steven Spielberg step in the director's seat. The two further developed the material in collaboration over several years until the sudden demise of the great auteuristic director in 1999, certainly a setback for the production, but with Spielberg firmly at the helm the film went into production in spite of it. Before this film was a close collaboration but now it became a dedication of respect and in part an homage from Spielberg to Kubrick  (it is indeed dedicated to Kubrick's memory).

 

The origin of A.I. - Artificial Intelligence lies with two short stories by a British author Brian Aldiss (especially the other, Supertoys Last All Summer Long), whom Kubrick encouraged to expand his ideas but subsequently they were adapted by Ian Watson into a screen story and finally by Spielberg and Kubrick into script form. It is a tale of a robot boy named David, who was the first of its kind, built to feel affection and love for his owners, and his odyssey to try to become human and thus earn the acceptance and love of his human mother. Although set in the future, the film is essentially a fairy story with clear parallels to the classic tale of Pinocchio written by Carlo Collodi as the protagonist of that children's story also strove to become a real boy to win his father's love. The film follows the book’s plot only in the broadest sense however as both include a fantastical quest through various adventures and hardships .

 

The moulding of the final story was a gradual process during the 1990’s when Spielberg and Kubrick presented ideas to each other via fax and phone and the outline and script for the film evolved over the period of several years. Kubrick had also had the screen story partially story boarded so the world of the film was quite extensively visually defined well in advance of the shooting, which meant that even after the director's death, Spielberg was left with a clear idea of what Kubrick had wanted to achieve visually with the piece. By November 1999, Spielberg was writing the screenplay based on Watson's original 90-page story treatment, which made it his first solo screenplay credit since Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

 

The movie began shooting in August 2000 and finished post production in the spring of 2001 ready to open in the United States on June 29, 2001. Upon its initial release the film garnered generally positive reviews from critics and grossed approximately $235 million worldwide during its theatrical run, which made it a modest hit. But perhaps most importantly it yielded one of the most significant scores of the year (and could be said of the decade) that was composed by John Williams.

A.I. - Artificial Intelligence is the 17th collaboration between director Steven Spielberg and composer John Williams. Their working relationship is nowadays very mature one and Spielberg has perhaps served Williams music over the years better than any other filmmaker and inspired the composer to write some of the most memorable and iconic film music in the history of cinema. As Williams himself puts it, Steven Spielberg loves music and likes to use as much as possible of it in his movies. The composer has remarked on several occasions that the director always feels that music adds something to a film instead of taking away from the experience and his films seem to lend themselves very easily to and embrace and accommodate the use of music and it often becomes an important storytelling element, almost like another character.

Spielberg, who unlike many directors is in very close contact with Williams throughout the whole period of the compositional process, likes to hear the musical ideas early on and have constant dialogue about the music with the composer. Spielberg is described by Williams as a very supportive and musically knowledgeable director, who allows him a lot of creative freedom. The composer has often remarked how Spielberg discusses mainly about the pacing of the scenes, the rhythmic and kinetic aspects of the music, leaving the thematic material, ambience and emotion to Williams' expertise. This working method and their close friendship and camaraderie has yielded many memorable and intricate film scores in the past and their working relationship seems to grow stronger with each new score. This music is no different and shows the composer's understanding of the film and its message and how the music can aid in bring out the various subtexts of the story.

There is of course a flipside to this coin, this love of music. Because Steven Spielberg loves film music so much and directs movies almost with the composer and his dramatic input in mind, Williams is often called upon to write large amounts of music for his films. A.I. contains by the composer's own estimate well over two hours of score that went through a very extensive period of development evinced by the amount of alternate and revised material. While it is part and parcel of a film composer's job this is an admirable feat considering that Williams had another big project slated in 2001, the franchise starting fantasy film Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone based on the immensely succesful fantasy novel by J.K. Rowling. For Harry Potter he wrote also over a 2 hour score, not taking into account the Harry Potter and Philosopher Stone Children’s Suite for Orchestra which is an “Introduction to the Orchestra for Young People”-styled 9-movement suite based on the themes of Harry Potter, which was also recorded during the recording sessions of the film. And this hard work earned him 2 Academy Award nominations in 2002, for both of these scores but they lost to Howard Shore's The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring, which inarguably was a worthy contender alongside Williams' modern magna opera.

 

The film was certainly to some extent a departure from the usual Spielberg style, perhaps Kubrick's influence still hovering over the project after all, which might have contributed to the wide range of musical styles explored in the music. Williams' score orchestrated by Miriam A. Mayer, John Neufeld and Conrad Pope uses quite extensively the 20th century art music styles and techniques like minimalism in the spirit of Steve Reich and John Adams and atonalism and avant garde techniques of the Hungarian composer György Ligeti and his school, especially in the choral writing.

 

The score was performed by the Los Angeles Recording Arts Orchestra, which is in its majority made up of the film scoring musicians of the L.A. area. The composer has recorded several other projects with this ensemble since, including selections for the 2002 Call of the Champions Olympics album and the Yo-Yo Ma Plays the Music of John Williams disc featuring Williams' concert works. The L.A. Master Chorale under the direction of Paul Salamunovich provided the varied choral work for the score and the composer sought out the operatic soprano Barbara Bonney to lend her considerable vocal talent to the project. The score was recorded by Shawn Murphy at Sony Pictures Scoring Stage, Culver City, CA and at UCLA's Royce Hall in February 12, 13, 15, 16 and March 6, 7 and 15, 2001.

 

The music also quite surprisingly flirts with modern popular music with integrated techno beats and synthesizers at some instances, a rare occurrence in Spielberg/Williams scores in the past. Here the composer readily admitted that he leaned on the expertise of his son Joseph, who is an accomplished musician, singer and a music producer in his own right (having been e.g. the lead singer in Toto) with whom the composer has collaborated on several projects over his career including e.g. The Fury (1978), Return of the Jedi (1983) and most recently on the first two Star Wars Prequels Episode I The Phantom Menace (1999) and Episode II The Attack of the Clones (2002). Joseph Williams' job in all these instances was to provide pieces of diegetic music for these films, i.e. music heard from an on-screen sound source such as songs heard on the radio, played by on-screen musicians or from other sound sources. For A.I. Artificial Intelligence he composed several source pieces that range from funky saxophone passages to propulsive techno-beats for the Rouge City locale and most importantly he contributed a techno-industrial action music woven into his father's score for a Mecha hunting sequence in the second act of the film.

 

Despite the eclectic collection of stylistic influences at the heart of the score is the melodic and symphonic ingenuity of John Williams as he creates the varied soundscapes for the world of the film and captures the spirit, heart and subtextual meanings of the story with his central thematic ideas and orchestral moods. The composer has said that in his mind this score stands apart from his other works with perhaps the exception of Close Encounters of the Third Kind in it's timbral qualities and this is certainly true. In creating the often unsettling and haunting soundscapes he taps into not only the same avant garde but also the same human warmth as he did with the Close Encounters when expressing the slow transformation of fear into awe and wonder and tried to capture something profoundly spiritual about David's journey to gain his mother's love and so to attain some measure of humanity.

The Themes of A.I. - Artificial Intelligence
Several major themes and accompanying motifs capture the world and characters of A.I. and illustrate the journey, both physical and spiritual, that David the robot boy goes through in his search for his humanity. While Monica's Theme is the most significant of the major thematic ideas, it is noteworthy that the composer never assigns an overarching theme for the whole story but rather treats his musical ideas as an ensemble where each comes to the fore and receives development in different acts of the film. Most of the themes also relate to the main character of David in one way or the other, either by clearly attaching to him or being themes related to him through other characters in some way. This makes them less leitmotific as they do not seem to be connected to specific people, objects or places but rather to abstractions and are thus often more psychological in nature.

 

David
David's Theme
David, the main protagonist of the film, has two thematic identifications to describe his dual nature. The first theme is used to describe the more human side of him and his wish to be and become human. It is a wistful, playful melody full of tender innocence and it is in close connection with Monica's theme but also illustrates certain childish simplicity and wonder in its progression, linking mother and child. Williams uses it sparingly but effectively through the movie and it receives its final full rendition in the last scene of the film coupled with Monica’s theme, finally weaving together the two melodies as the characters are finally reunited.

 

NOTE: Jeff Bond calls this musical idea "The Parenting Theme" on the LLL set liner notes. While it does apply to some of the scenes where the theme appears, it usually has a much more direct connection to David himself, his journey and inner self than purely to his interaction with his parents and Dr. Hobby although it appears in scenes with both.

 

The Mecha Motif
The second theme/motif associated with David is a simple and clear 7-note synthesized piano motif to represent his robotic side, which cleverly resembles the first phrase of David’s Theme. It is stated often when David's Mecha origin is implied and creates a sort of minimalistic repeating inorganic robotic effect to remind the audience he is originally a machine, further enhanced by its use of synthesizers. This is the theme that is heard underscoring his first appearance and it creates a sense of curious wonder of the robotic child as it has a repeating searching quality to it, restated in an almost mechanic fashion over and over as David studies his parents and the world.

 

A Child Lost Theme:
Theme for both Monica's and Professor Hobby's longing for a lost child, in Monica's instance for Martin and in Professor Hobby's David (his dead son who was the model for this first Mecha child). This is a nostalgic melancholy melody most often voiced by a piano and appears throughout the first and second acts of the movie, tied dramatically firmly to the two aforementioned characters. The style of the theme is always wistful and slightly pensive, a delicate and warm reminder of a lost child with shades of loss colouring its contour.

 

In addition this melodic idea seem to represent an idealised and nostalgic image of a lost child and changes very little in mood as the emotion it illustrates is always the same. The musical theme drifts off into silence in the second act of the story as the character of Monica leaves the film until the finale and Dr. Hobby's longing for his child is not emphasized. Although we see him later in the film as he is actively trying to use the little robot boy for his own scientific and commercial ends, as good as they might seem, that are from the point of view of the boy highly questionable. A Child Lost Theme is also the only major theme to be left out of the original soundtrack album but can now be heard on the La-La Land Record's complete release in all its haunting delicate beauty.

 

NOTE: Jeff Bond on the La-La Land Records release liner notes identifies this actually to be David's Theme. While it does represent the boy to Monica and professor Hobby especially, I would argue that the music is almost in all instances more linked to the longing and memory of a child than the actual character of David as the robot boy evokes various feeling in these two characters that relate to their flesh and blood children, not always the Mecha David.

 

Monica's Theme:
This melody is associated with Monica and David, David's love for his mother and Monica's feelings toward David. A warm tenderly lilting theme with a touch of lullaby to it is the real centerpiece of the score and the thematic core (alongside with the Blue Fairy's theme) of the last third of the movie. Williams and Spielberg mention in a DVD documentary interview how they searched a long time for the correct melody for the last scene with Monica and David and Williams wrote 6 or 7 melodies and played them to the film to find one that would be just right. Eventually this one piece seemed to feel right and it became the cantilena-like Monica's theme.

 

The theme itself is a long melody with multiple sections that is applied to the mother/child relationship as soon as Monica imprints David to herself and thus it has the character of a love theme, not of romantic love but of child's love for his mother and vice versa. The theme begins more as a love theme from David's perspective as he is imprinted to Monica but in the end it can be seen as an expression of mutual love and affection between the two. Williams’ orchestrations for this theme range from delicate chimes and string readings to the lullaby waltz on piano for the film’s finale and a solo soprano interpretation for the end credits.

 

Abandonment/Lost
This theme comes represent the fear and apprehension humans feel toward Mechas, which is also then tied to the jealousy and malice that Martin, the son of Swinton family, feels toward David. To him David is a rival for his mother’s affections and as he is artificial, Martin regards him more as a strange and curious toy than a person. All the animosity will eventually lead to David's expulsion from the family as Martin's attempts to oust the robot boy finally succeed and Williams presents the theme full-fledged in the abandonment sequence where it describes David's horror, shock and desperation of being abandoned by his mother and Monica’s inner turmoil since she has genuinely become emotionally attached to this robot child.

 

There is subtly ominous malevolence in this music, which goes from the uncomfortable foreboding in the early dinner scene between Monica, Henry and David (Williams' unused original version) to the tracked statement during Martin's return to operatic heights in the abandonment scene but its message is always that of impending sense of dread and tragedy.

The Blue Fairy/Humanity:
The second central cantilena-like theme Williams composed for the movie is for the character taken directly from the story of Pinocchio and she is the person who first breathes life into the wooden puppet, when Gepetto the carpenter wishes to have a son and finally transforms the puppet into a real boy after his long adventure-filled journey. In the film Monica reads the story of Pinocchio to David and Martin and it is then that David gets his childish idea of the Blue Fairy being a key to his salvation. The theme portrays gentleness and awe of the character of the Blue Fairy from David's perspective but also on a deeper level David's wish to become a real boy and the hope of reuniting with his mother but most importantly it is connected with his hope of achieving humanity.

 

The Blue Fairy's theme has a gentle fairy tale-like quality and like Monica's theme it resembles a lullaby, being a broad, slow and song-like in its melodic contour and full of warmth but also sorrow, for it implies that David’s hopes are ultimately impossible through the Blue Fairy, who is not real. It is one of the most touching themes Williams wrote for the movie and has a spiritual depth which is further enhanced by the use of solo soprano voice during its pivotal appearance. The soprano soloist Barbara Bonney’s voice seems to be keyed to the Blue Fairy in the music as she gently hums and sings in the scenes involving the character.

Cryogenics
This minor thematic idea is performed solely on strings and connects subtextually with the Cryogenics Institute and the unchanging and unending cryogenic suspension it provides for the terminally ill. This minor mode melody minimalistically repeats and alternates around a core of constantly rising and falling series of six and seven note patterns. This creates a very uneasy, emotionally detached, mechanized and unchanging atmosphere, very like the containment where Martin, the Swinton family's real boy, is kept. Interestingly there seems to be a faint echo of Williams' music in The Empire of the Sun here, where he responded with similarly Aram Khachaturian-styled despondency to another broken family and feelings of isolation. The motif is later reprised for uneasy effect when the score draws parallels between Monica's bedtime stories at the Cryogenics and when she reads them to both David and Martin.

 

The Mecha World/Travelling Theme
This is a collection of minimalistic and orchestrational devices representing the futuristic modes of travel in the world of A.I. The musical ideas for both major travelling montages in the film consist of repeating motifs on percussion, most pronouncedly marimba, and strings augmented by ostinati from the whole orchestra.The composer uses these figures to represent the high-tech mechanized age of the future and these ideas are used whenever David is seen travelling in the various vehicles (namely in the cues The Journey to Rouge City and To Manhattan) on his journey. Williams varies this musical idea in the travelling sequences and the minimalistic repetition of these musical cells in the style of Steve Reich and John Adams adds to the feeling of movement and busy atmosphere that drive the travelling sequences. These ostinati patterns would also become prevalent in several scores of the composer in the new millennium as Williams answered the new film scoring challenges with a touch of minimalism.

***

 

The original soundtrack album containing 60 minutes of Williams' score and two different versions of the song For Always was released in conjunction with the film in 2001. Shortly after in 2002 a For Your Consideration Oscar promotional 2 disc set compiled from the score (still incomplete) surfaced and started making rounds in the collector circles. This apparently was created in error as the composer had not authorized such extensive promotional release for the awards season and subsequently also a single disc promotional CD appeared (with content matching the soundtrack album). Finally the full score was released by the La-La Land Records in 2015 on a lavish 3 disc set providing the fans of the composer and this score the complete release of the film's music on first two discs and another disc's worth of alternate material from the lengthy score making it one of the most extensive John Williams releases in history with more than three hours of music.

 

The actual cue titles in the below analysis are available on the 2015 La-La Land Records 3 disc release of the score and they are provided along with the slate numbers for each cue. Similarly I provide information where this music can be found on the previous existing releases.

 

 

 

TRACK-BY-TRACK ANALYSIS OF THE FILM SCORE

 

The movie opens with silence and the gradually emerging sounds of crashing waves as Ben Kingsley's narrator voice presents a prologue describing the world of the future, where polar ice caps have melted and seas have swallowed up the coastal cities, causing displacement of millions. The richest nations soon developed laws to control birthrate of their people to conserve the now limited and contested resources.  In the wealthier countries robotics have advanced to a whole new level and people now employ human-like robots called Mechas as menial labour and servants to make up for the lack of a larger work force mainly due to the fact that they do not consume resources beyond their original manufacture.

 

The scene shifts to a meeting between professor Allen Hobby and his colleagues at Cybertronics robotics company where they discuss the nature of Mechas, their capabilities and defects and finally Hobby's proposition to build a robot child that is capable of love, one trait a Mechas have lacked in the past. His colleagues express skepticism at his idealistic proposition, which also presents the moral dilemma of what would be the human responsibility to these robot children who would become imprinted on their parents. As the question is left hanging in the air, the score begins as a cue called Cryogenics opens with cold dispassionate strings, that are used in conjunction with the image of a Mecha woman detachedly applying make-up despite being stabbed in the hand by professor Hobby earlier in his demonstration and after just being an unconcerned witness to this debate concerning her kind.

 

The film then cuts to Monica (Frances O'Connor) and her husband Henry (Sam Robards) driving out to visit their son Martin (Jake Thomas), who is terminally ill and is therefore in cryogenic suspension in the Cryogenics company's facilities. Here we hear first a snippet from Waltz from Sleeping Beauty by Pyotr Tchaikovsky as a source cue when Monica approaches her son's suspension pod and starts to read the story of Robin Hood to Martin though the music is cut around Williams' first cue:

1. Cryogenics (1mA) (3:30) (OST track Cybertronics, LLL set D 1, Track 1, D 3 Track 2 (Alternate). OST track Cybertronics, Oscar Promo Disc 1 track 2😞
This piece is in essence a long nearly concertized development of the Cryogenics Theme. As mentioned above it is played solely on strings and features a continuous slow ostinato figure of 7-notes and a series of 6- and 7-note fragments ascending and descending to create a clinical cold and mechanized atmosphere. It seems like music without passion, repeating slowly, difficult to read emotionally yet slightly thredonic, even a bit sinister but ever calm. This is the scene where Dr. Frazier of the Cryogenic institute suggests to Henry the horrible possibility that Martin may be never healed and the composer hones in on the emotional strain of both Monica and Henry, whose son has been in cryo-suspension for five years because of his incurable illness.

 

Around 1:47 a central searching 6-note melodic fragment appears to create the sense of unending cryogenic sleep, the mood cold and full of unease but the scene soon intercuts with professor Hobby and his assistants, who are with nearly equal dispassion selecting a candidate for the parent of the first robotic child with an imprinting protocol among the workers of Cybertronics employees and Henry's name has come up. With this cue Williams establishes minimalism as one of the main musical elements of the score, gives a nod Stanley Kubrick's musical tastes with the use of Aram Khachaturian-like musical approach (Gayane Suite to be exact) and adds a subtle layer of uncomfortable mood and psychological meaning to the scene. The score is almost asking a question when desperate Henry ponders on his family's possibilities.

 

In the Making

John Williams named this composition Cryogenics on the cue sheets but Cybertronics on the original soundtrack album. Beyond a simple oversight in the naming the reason for it might simply be that this piece of music actually plays during scenes taking place in the cryogenics facility and at the Cybertronics where professor Hobby is selecting the parents for the new child Mecha.

 

The composer wrote also an alternate variant of this piece that can be heard on the LLL set (D 3 Track 2), which basically has some sections of the cue shortened and runs for about half a minute less than the film version, which itself is edited around the Sleeping Beauty snippet so this cue is never heard in its full intended form in the film.

 

2. Henry Is Chosen (1m2) (1:54) (LLL set D 1, Track 2) (Music for a deleted scene?)

A cor anglais solo opens the piece as the music subtly hints at David's Theme in the extensive searching woodwind line, presenting fleeting snatches of the melody as it proceeds in enigmatic tones and suddenly ends in forebodingly ebbing and flowing high string idea accompanied by a harp and contrasted by slowly rising low woodwinds. This short piece of atmosphere setting scoring went entirely unused as the scene for which it was composed was most likely cut from the final film. One can suspect it was a scene involving professor Hobby interviewing Henry just as he requested at the end of the previous scene.

 

3. David’s Arrival (1m3/4)(3:50) (LLL D 1, Track 3, LLL D 3 Track 3 (Alternate), Oscar Promo Disc 2 track 3 (Alternate))
Off-screen Henry makes the decision to bring the Mecha child home and to surprise Monica despite the risk of her reacting badly to the situation. The film version of the music is created editorially by using the original version of the piece and tracked music from a later scene 2m1 Reading the Words.

 

The cue begins quietly with austere hollow glassy electronic sounds and high strings, creating an understated uneasy underpinning to the moment when Henry brings the Mecha boy in and David (Haley Joel Osment) steps into the room. A Child Lost Theme is heard for the first time but in a halting fragmented form on celesta as Monica gazes at the boy in amazement and slight disbelief which is followed by a reflective cor anglais melody to underscore her sadness and emotional confusion when Henry tries to calm her down by saying he can always take the robot back to Cybertronics is she doesn't want to keep it. From now on cor anglais becomes Monica's musical voice in many of the subsequent scenes as Williams doesn't unveil her own theme until the imprinting of David as it relates as much to him as it does to her in the musical narrative.

 

As she claims that the boy is not real, Henry concurs saying that he is a Mecha child and we hear David's Mecha Motif for the first time informing us of his robotic nature as it appears curiously out of the orchestral texture on synthesizer. A Child Lost returns and this time in a more developed guise on solo piano with a little more warmth to it as the couple notices David watching the family pictures of Monica, Henry and Martin, the music drawing a connection to their real son and the open wound of his absence and Monica's longing for her boy. This cue continues to the next one without pause.

 

In the Making

Williams wrote at least two different versions of the cue, neither of which were used in their entirety in the film:

 

David's Arrival (1m3/4) (2:44) Original Version (LLL D 1 Track 3)

The original take begins the same as the film edit but we hear first Mecha Motif on the synthesizers interspersed with a short rendition of David's Theme on oboe to announce his arrival. The music continues warmer and inviting on strings with the cor anglais presenting a long melodic line as Monica meets David, but the Mecha Motif repeats as if to remind that this real looking child is a robot and suddenly as she acutely recalls her own child A Child Lost Theme sounds on the piano that ends the cue with delicate sense of sorrow. This version of the cue found its way to the Oscar Promo as well.

 

David's Arrival (1m3/4) (3:10) Alternate Version (LLL D 3 Track 3)
Similar cold synthesizer sounds which sustain the apprehensive mood open the alternate version before Mecha Motif appears, just like in the original version but in this take the oboe solo of David's Theme interwoven with it is lengthier and emphasized in the mix, presenting the entire melodic line before the yearning delicate strings from the original version come in and the piece proceeds to the cor anglais solo voice which represents Monica in several scenes. This version creates slightly more sympathy for David on Monica's behalf although it also ends with the Mecha Motif and A Child Lost Theme on solo piano to remind of how torn Monica is of this turn of events and the halting theme suddenly just ends mid-phrase. This is an alternate beginning of the piece which Williams wrote after the original version (marked on the score 1m3 New start) which segues to the original version at bar 21 but they ended up using the original composition's opening in the film.

 

4. Of Course I’m Not Sure (1m5) (2:41) (LLL set D 1, Track 4)
Another cor anglais melody and soothing strings reflect Monica's initial apprehension of taking David in and cold electronics describe her discomfort and doubt as Henry tells her of the imprinting protocol which supposedly will make the robot to identify to a person like to a real parent, simulating love and affection in their programming. He also emphasizes that if they are ever going to return an imprinted Mecha to Cybertronics it will be destroyed as it cannot be resold. Strings and woodwinds continue creating an airy atmosphere where the tone shifts from familial warmth to hesitant uneasiness as David asks Monica to dress him in pajamas when it is his bedtime and she declines and flees outside the bed room leaving his husband to take care of the boy.

 

In the Making

The film version dials out the middle portion of the cue from 1:01 to 2:01 and continues to the end as written. The LaLa-Land release contains the complete cue.

5. Hide and Seek (1m6) (3:23) (LLL set D 1 Track 5. OST track Hide and Seek (3:03), Oscar Promo Disc 1 Track 3)
Monica spends a day with David and as she does the household chores the curious robot follows her silently everywhere observing her constantly in silence which makes her uncomfortable. This starts Monica's bonding with David after feeling reluctant to be a mother to a robot boy and this awkwardness creates many humorous situations for both of them and Williams' cue captures the light-hearted and tenderly playful nature of the scene perfectly.

 

The composer continues to illustrate the dichotomy of David by counterpointing the Mecha Motif with David’s Theme. He creates a duet of synthesized piano playing Mecha Motif which forms the ostinato that drives the scene and real piano and orchestra playing David's humane theme, harp and light woodwinds and strings twirling about airy figures to depict the gradual disappearance of Monica’s apprehension towards David and the relationship that is slowly forming between the two while the piano and synthesizers bring the cue to a calm close with the mischievous Mecha Motif ostinato twinkling in the background.

 

Soundtrack Album VS the Film Version

The version of this piece found on the soundtrack album has been slightly truncated, omitting about 20 seconds of material from the full cue.

6. David Studies Monica (1m7) (2:01) (Unused in the scene, LLL set D 1, Track 6, Oscar Promo Disc 2 track 5):
Lengthy and ominous introduction of the Abandonment Theme on strings, subtle synthesizers, woodwinds and harp underscores a quiet dinner scene with Henry, Monica and David, who starts to observe and imitate his foster mother as she eats. This provokes some unintentional humour with spaghetti and also a mechanical bout of laughter from David, which in turn provokes nervous giggles from the parents at the absurdity of the scene.

 

Williams originally coloured the uncomfortable atmosphere of the scene with the Abandonment Theme, delving again into the psychology of the moment, forming a link to the family that was and how the parents still feel uneasy with the robotic boy who after all is mechanical. His tone for the scene is ominous and while the strings momentarily present soothing chords in the end they swell chillingly and an almost sinister rendition of the theme on celesta, harp and oboe ends up underscoring the laughter which leaves the listener subtly perturbed at the event, hinting at the unnaturalness of David as a Mecha, the still lingering apprehensions Henry and Monica have although the image might at first glance tell otherwise.

This cue went unused in this scene as it was left entirely unscored in the finished films, letting the awkward and uncomfortable feel come from the silence and actors' performances rather than enforcing it with music.
 

7. Reading the Words (2m1) (3:34) (LLL D 1 Track 7 (original version 5:58 of which 0:00-1:15, 2:50-end is used, Oscar Promo Disc 2 track 4 (4:00) (Edit):
The film version is a shorter edit of the full lengthy composition, which removes a good portion from the middle of the cue. The below analysis refers to the complete version Williams originally wrote.

 

This cue starts of with the harp playing gently the A Child Lost Theme to express Monica's longing for her son and need to have a child in her life as she tucks David in his bed at night. English horn solo with harp, bells and string backing is heard expressing warmth and affection Monica is gradually starting to feel for the Mecha child. Suddenly the cue receives hollow and glassy synthesizer colourings as Monica's conviction wavers when her thoughts turn to her real son and she feels like she is betraying him.

 

After this we are presented with some unused material as a fragment of A Child Lost Theme sounds again on ghostly celesta as we see how torn she is between her need for a child and the thoughts of Martin. Eerie electronic effects and glinting of celesta chords continue to hint at the A Child Lost Theme and another motherly cor anglais solo and a wash of synthesized voices create a quiet sense of conflict and suspense to the scene. The music is reminiscent of the dramatic underscoring of the previous cues, reflecting apprehension and longing in equal measure, organic acoustic instruments and the synthesizers providing musical dichotomy, but went unused in the film.

 

The score in the film continues with hushed coolly detached synthesizer chords, piano, oboe and pensive harp all performing slow deliberate progressions to further suspensefully underscore the sequence and finally as the moment when Monica imprints David is reached the melody of Monica's Theme kindles for the first time on light tender piano backed by synth celesta to imply David's awakened love and affection for her as he looks at her for the first time as his mother. It is in essence a love theme, dreamy and innocent, depiction of child’s love for his mother. And it is at this moment that Williams begins the thematic development of the most central idea of the entire score, which is initially very sparsely used but will grow to dominate the last third of the film.

 

In the Making
Williams' original version of this cue can now be heard on the LLL release which runs for nearly 6 minutes. The opening 1:15 is used in the film before a long part lyrical part haunting segment is left entirely unused (1:16-2:50). In the movie the 1:15 opening section is edited into the extended atmospheric middle section (2:50-4:48) of the piece and this atmospheric music for the imprinting then flows into Monica's Theme at the end as it does in the film.

 

This lengthier version would indicate that the composer originally wrote his music to a longer cut of the scene or that the music 1:16-2:50 might be some sort of alternate for the imprinting sequence which later got replaced with the largely atmospheric material. The Oscar Promo contains an alternate edit of this cue which uses the first 2:50 of the composition and then goes to the Monica's Theme which starts at 4:49.
 

8. Wearing Perfume (2m3) (4:13) (LLL D 1 Track 8, Oscar Promo Disc 1 track 8):
The Swintons are leaving for a party one night and David is left home alone for the evening. The robot boy observes Monica applying some perfume and as Henry complements her for it, David decides to imitate to win his parents' approval. Synth celesta glistens with ethereal crystalline tones as he pours the whole bottle on himself and we hear an oboe soliloquy alternating with the Mecha Motif, the music reminding us of his naiveté and robotic way of thinking, and as Monica notices this, celesta, xylophone and lyrical cor anglais representing Monica interplays with Mecha Motif on glockenspiel, strings and harp accompanying tenderly until David suddenly inquires from her mother ”Will you die?”

 

As Monica answers Williams presents here the lengthiest development of the A Child Lost Theme on piano full of melancholic yearning (marked gently in the score) as Monica explains to him that she will live for many many years, but yes, she will eventually die. The music offers heartfelt commentary on the notion of mortality but very much tinged in sorrowful longing, the score drawing again the memories of Martin to the fore, the lost child, David's sudden understanding of the possibility of losing his mother and Monica's underlying guilt which still battles with her sense of loss and yearning to have a child.

 

And so to comfort the now somewhat shocked boy Monica produces Martin's old toy bear, a super toy named Teddy, from the closet to keep him company and oboe introduces a new playful element, a lilting little melody full of childish whimsy, the piano, strings and harp taking over the music and carrying it to a delicate finish.

9. Martin is Alive (2m4) (0:50) (Film Edit):
David’s life changes rapidly when out of the blue Swinton's real son Martin is suddenly cured and brought home. And as Martin returns, he immediately feels jealous towards this new family member. Gradually the boys begin to compete for their mother's affection and even Monica is at a loss to how to deal with this. The film version of the music starts as Henry in frantic haste calls Monica and she hears that Martin has awoken and cured.

 

This scene underscored by subtle up-and-down moving piano motif which has an ever so slightly ominous edge to it and as the Martin is brought home in a wheelchair accompanied by nurses cor anglais introduces the Abandonment Theme after which the music turns dark as the glittering rambling cold piano notes describe the threat David now suddenly feels. This film version of the cue was created editorially, a composite of two different segments edited together, taken from the cues Monica's Plan (3m6) and the original Martin Is Alive (2m2) composition.

Martin Is Alive (2m4) (1:27) (LLL D 1 Track 9, Oscar Promo Disc 2 track 7):
The original version of this cue does not use Abandonment Theme at all and runs without themes as moody underscore. Bubbling clarinets under a wash of strings evoke the threat David feels, the echoing moaning synthesizer motif enhancing the fear and uncertainty for David. Chimes and a lone cold violin line and sparse piano and celesta notes try to announce a melody as Martin arrives but cannot and end the piece with a sense of unease. All will not be well in the Swinton family. The last 27 seconds of this cue made it to the film.

In the film most of the scene is underscored by the statements of Abandonment Theme tracked from the above mentioned cues, creating in the process a stronger melodic connection with Martin and his plan to oust David from the family, his arrival spelling foreboding from the start. This is a good example of how editorial process can affect the score as a whole and how music can be shaped to form narrative paths not initially intended by the composer.

10. David and Martin (2m5) (2:18) (LLL D 1 Track 10, Oscar Promo Disc 2 track 8):
Martin and David spend time together and Martin asks where David came from and who made him, obviously trying to belittle the robot boy. David answers that the first thing he remembers is a bird. Martin urges him to draw it. Music is very light and ethereal using oboe, flute, celesta, strings and electronics to create a suitably mysterious and airy atmosphere to complement the somewhat existential discussion of the two boys.

 

The music builds to a small crescendo with a bubbling clarinet line supported by the strings and a synthesized choir (1:33) that is cut off when Martin remarks on David’s origins making the robot boy ever more insecure about his status in the family. While the music is dialled out after this in the film the complete composition featured sinister high strings and celesta creating further enhancement to Martin's cruelty as we see him bringing Pinocchio to Monica to read to him and David. This means that the next cue would have continued without pause from the end of this one.

11. Canoeing with Pinocchio (3m1) (1:37) (LLL D 1 Track 11 and LLL D 3 Track 4 (Alternate), Oscar Promo Disc 2 track 9):
Martin, knowing how desperately David wants his mother to love him brings a book to Monica to read, knowing full well how hurtful it can be to the robot. It is Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. The mother looks worriedly at the cover of the book and as Martin with a smirk announces "He'll love it." Cryogenics is restated as if to remind of the time when Monica used to read to Martin in the Cryogenics lab but here it is also used to imply Martin's evil intent, where the innocent act of storytelling becomes another way of undermining David. The picture here is totally opposite of the music to suggest something is wrong as we see Monica reading to the boys in a boat bobbing on a pond on a sunny afternoon and yet we hear the coldness of the score.

 

Soon it subsides however as we see Monica reading by Martin's bedside and David listening on the floor. A soft and dreamily hopeful piano rendition of Monica's Theme full of emotion subtly supported by harp and calm strings expresses here David's awakened wish to become a real boy as she reads the segment where Pinocchio pleads the Blue Fairy for the same thing. And it is here that David’s first idea or dream of becoming real is formed through which he hopes will achieve his mother’s complete love.

 

In the Making

There exists an alternate take on this scene (LLL D 3 Track 4), where the musical content is mostly the same except that it uses an oboe and piano duet of David's Theme instead of Monica's at the end, shifting the focus of David's awakened wish to become human from Monica to the boy, emphasizing the David himself instead of his mother as the driving force of the whole notion.

12. David and the Spinach (3m1) (1:02) (LLL D 1 Track 12, Oscar Promo Disc 2 track 10):
The Swintons are having a dinner and Martin goads David into an eating contest with him. As the Mecha wants so very much to act like a real human child and possibly best his adversary, David gives in to Martin’s bullying. First the ever level-headed Teddy and then both parents try to stop it but David wants to show his mother he can eat like a real boy, so he in a moment of determined anger shoves a spoon full of spinach into his mouth. Suddenly he malfunctions and his face slackens and looks like it is melting down as he is not supposed to eat. This short cue is played mainly by the strings rising to a slow alarmed crescendo and develops a sense of urgency, shock and dismay as it swells while David's face prolongs horribly.

13. The Operating Scene (3m3) (2:07) (Unused in the film. LLL D 1 Track 12, Oscar Promo Disc 2 track 11):
Similar uncomfortable dark mood continues in this next piece as David is being cleaned after the dinner incident and the family has gathered around the operating table with two mechanics in nonchalant fashion chatting around the robot's opened machinery and chide him playfully for making a mess.

 

Ethereal frosty synthesizer sheen heard in previous cues to give a sense of alienness between humans and Mechas and subtle ghostly synth choir evoke the discomforting mood of the scene, sizzling of percussion, deep rumbling piano chords and growls from tuba all fashion a sense of apprehension and subtle horror, strings sliding slowly in high register, a cool and dispassionate portrait of this imagery of David with his chest cavity open on the table, technicians treating him like any piece of machinery.

The cue went unused in the movie as again Spielberg lets the scene again speak for itself without underscore. But yet again the film maker found another placement for this music, the cue appearing late in the middle part of the film as Gigolo Joe explains to David in Rouge City how humans hate the Mechas. It appears in the film tracked into this scene after the cue To Manhattan (5m8).

On the LLL release this and the previous short cue are combined.

14. The Scissor Scene (3m4) (3:46) (LLL D 1 Track 13, Oscar Promo Disc 2 track 12):
This dark, ambient cue underscores the scene where David out of the suggestion from Martin sneaks up to her sleeping mother at night and tries to cut a lock of her hair. This is because according to Martin she would love him for it, just like it happened in a story about the princess who loved the prince whose lock of hair she possessed. Martin also promises to tell Monica that he loves David so she'll love him even more.

 

With ominous orchestral rumble and very atmospheric orchestrations this music conveys perfectly the mood of the scene as David sneaks through the dark house towards his parents' bedroom. Skittering strings, halting echoing celesta and small chimes, rumbling piano, bass flutes all enhance the feel of something wrong in this whole scene.

 

Music turns more busy toward the end of the cue as Monica wakes up just as David cuts her hair and she gets a small cut near her eye from the frightened David’s scissors and panicking Henry shakes him angrily demanding an explanation. As Henry had already become suspicious earlier that David was trying to hurt them out of jealousy, he sees his fears confirmed. Monica still has doubts. Piano rises among the low strings and rubbed tam tam. Oboe, harp and chimes play a sympathetic yet disheartened line that suddenly ends in an ominous rumble. The music here tells the story from both sides, the distress and confusion of David and the shock of his parents. Teddy who is accompanying David on his nightly mission saves the now forgotten lock of Monica's hair from the floor.

15. The Pool Rescue (3m5) (1:41) (LLL D 1 Track 14, Oscar Promo Disc 2 track 13):
It's Martin's birthday and he and his friends are playing beside the pool in the garden. He is showing his robotic brother to his curious guests and because Davisd seems so human-like they want to see if he has DAS a Damage Avoidance System like other Mechas by stabbing him in the arm. Frightened David cowers behind Martin and grabbing him by the hand repeats: "Keep me safe Martin, keep me safe!" as the boys close on him with a sharp cake cutter. Martin tries to pull himself free from David’s grasp but stumbles right into the pool with David still firmly holding him.

 

The metallic body of the robot boy pulls Martin underwater and David ceases to function. The cue starts with slowly growing uneasiness in low strings joined by a skittering sounds of a tam tam as the boys plunge into the pool and alarmed high strings combine with deeper brass notes from horns as they fall to the bottom of the pool and watery dripping synthesizer sounds play as we see David still pulling Martin down and unsettling chorus of synthesized voices and ticking echoing synthetic piano effects play as David has fallen alone to the bottom of the pool and Martin is rescued by frantic Henry who is now sure that the Mecha boy tried to kill Martin.

16. Monica's Plan (3m6) (3:30)(LLL D 1 Track 15, Oscar Promo Disc 2 track 14):
Monica and Henry are now both certain that David poses a threat to their son and the whole family, so Henry proposes for him to be demolished at Cybertronics. But Monica has developed feelings for the boy and is hard pressed to carry out this plan. Torn between love and fear she finally comes to David and says they are going for a drive in the country.

 

This cue begins with a new, peaceful yet ominous piano motif that creates a sense of quiet unease as we see Monica persuading David to take a drive with her the next day. Then in the next shot Monica sees some writings and drawings David has made for her that almost break her resolve and A Child Lost Theme receives a yearningly tragic reading on solo piano with delicate harp accompaniment figures as Monica's inner conflict is conveyed musically, the theme transformed into a motif of Monica's awakened affection for David, and the strings swell ever so slightly in warmth but in the end she decides to go through with the plan.

 

Next morning the family car is speeding through the woods towards Cybertronics and Williams answers with a pinched oboe variation of the Abandonment Theme ghosted by the celesta and soon the composer speeds it up with the accompanying arpeggio figures rolling on piano and synthesizers to emulate the visuals of the spinning wheels of the futuristic car. Monica’s emotional conflict reaches its apex and in the end she decides to abandon the boy instead of taking him to be destroyed. Abandonment Theme begins on the synthesized piano, the melody finding new contours along the way but then the music steadies as does Monica’s resolve and grows to full force on lower strings that presage tempest as if to show that this was in the end Martin’s doing and to enhance the desperation she is feeling. She stops the car and drives to a different direction and as they stop in the woods, a segment of Abandonment Theme arpeggio up-and-down accompaniment figures is uncomfortably repeated on the piano and double basses until the cue ends abruptly.

17. Abandoned in the Woods (3m7) (3:57) (LLL D 1 Track 16, D 3 Track 5 (Alternate), OST track 10 Rouge City 0:00-2:00 and track 2 Abandoned in the Woods (Alternate), Oscar Promo Disc 1 track 5 0:00-2:00 and Disc 2 track 1 Abandoned in the Woods (Alternate)):

The music starts off with a subtle sonic alert of a threat as contrabassoons murmur ominously together with the double basses to warn of danger to come. Williams then presents heartbroken and despondent musical portrait as the strings in high register play a new tragic and searching melodic fragment somewhere between the A Child Lost Theme and Abandonment Theme as Monica leads the unsuspecting David into the woods. The music is generating a sorrowful sense of foreboding as an emotional version of the Abandonment Theme sounds vulnerable and touching on solo piano and strings as she struggle's to leave him and David pleads her not to. The theme conveys here both desperation and horror as suddenly the music gains a threatening and forceful edge when the terse high string tremolos lead the orchestra to a full reading of the theme and David finally understands what is happening as the swelling ebbing and flowing arpeggios gain more strength.

 

The strings section churns in minimalistic style reminiscent of Philip Glass, the woodwinds and brass presenting the Abandonment/Lost Theme on top of them, growing in intensity with each new iteration of the thematic line, the strings rising and falling mercilessly with the arpeggio figures like an oncoming storm. Horns makes subtle groaning utterances that add to the tension and tragic desperation of the moment. Finally as the melody rises to its peak of the it is joined by the rest of the orchestral brass and a synthetic choir. Struggling to get free from David's grip Monica pulls and tugs and the music grows louder showing both her inner conflict and the child’s confusion as she frantically gets to her car and drives away sobbing. And when camera pulls away and shows us David’s horrified expression through the rear view mirror of the departing vehicle the music reaches a shocking climax with hammered violent and cold piano notes.

 

On the LLL release the complete version contains a previously unreleased and unused coda that contains frantic high string lines churning furiously as celesta and flutes inject quick cries, the piece coming to rest on pulsing low piano chords.

 

Soundtrack Album VS the Film Version

This cue is one of the few centerpieces of the score not released in it's original form prior to the LLL 3 disc set. All other versions are shorter and are missing the 0:00-1:51 portion from beginning half of the scene. The latter half of the film version of this cue is on the original soundtrack album and on the Oscar Promo, coupled on the OST track Rouge City with the music from that later travelling scene.
 

In the Making

There exists an alternate version of this cue that can be heard on the LLL set (D 3 Track 5), where the beginning of the piece is scored solely with ominous double bass figures with chilling high strings exchanging phrases with them instead of the double bass/contrabassoon material found in the film take. This take also also contains subtle performance differences in the various variations of the Abandonment Theme and a new dramatic desperate sounding string swell before the pounding piano chords for the moment Monica drives away.

 

 

And thus the film moves to its second act.

18. City source cue(1:29) (Unreleased)
There is a short saxophone lead techno/disco piece in the scene where Gigolo Joe (Jude Law) is introduced and it is continued further in the subsequent street scenes. This and other techno source music is composed by John Williams' singer/song writer/composer son Joseph. He is credited for three unnamed source cues on his resume on the Schwatz-Gorfaine agency’s site.

19. The Moon Rising (4m5) & The Biker Hounds Extensions (Joseph Williams' source music) (4M6) & The Biker Hounds (4m7) (7:48) (LLL D 1 Track 17 (4m5 & 4m7, 5:10) & D 3 Track 6 (4m6, 2:38), OST track 7 Moon Rising, Oscar Promo Disc 1 track 10):

The only all-action cue of the movie Moon Rising is actually divided into three separate cues, 4m5, 4m6 and 4m7. The sequence begins when the audience encounters David in the forest alone and wandering through the dark woods. He sees a garbage vehicle dumping something on the ground near him and suddenly he sees dozen of abandoned Mechas scavenging for parts from what seems to be a dumpsite for broken robots, a fate David has unbeknownst to him just barely avoided.

 

The Moon Rising (4m5) (3:25)

The music opens with dark slowly rising orchestral and synthesizer effects and a very low male choir expresses David's shock and amazement and the piece gradually builds into a booming choral, string and brass laden fulgurant crescendo that seems to express sheer horrific panic and violence when the lord Johnson Johnson's (Brendan Gleeson), a Mecha hating showman’s, Moonballoon rises over the edge of the hill at 1:50 and the hunt for the Mechas begins. Percussion, forceful brass and churning chaotic strings bark out rhythmic figures and roaring angry chords full of ruthless menace, followed by rambling low piano coda and a woodwind and brass finale accompanied by a steady metallic and threatening synthesizer staccato pulse before the score slows into...

 

The Biker Hounds Extensions (Joseph Williams' source music) (4M6) (2:38)

At 3:26 the Mechas escape through the woods, scored with whirling techno effects and driving beats, aggressive electric guitar and a lone male voice chanting in the distance. This section is the cue 4m6 and was co-written with the composer's son Joseph Williams who lent this project his expertise on a few modern touches and source pieces. In the following chase most of the Mechas are captured by the Wolfbikers (men with motorbikes and Mecha hunting weaponry) and while others try to hide in abandoned buildings amidst the trees they are soon captured. The piece as written is longer than this brief action scene and only a portion of the music is used, inserted editorially between John Williams' cues for the sequence.

 

The Biker Hounds (4m7) (1:43)

The orchestra returns with violent brass outcries, steely percussion and fervent strings playing rolling churning ostinati figures as bikers rip off the wall of the shack and net the helpless Mechas hiding inside, including David. The desperation and panic of the Mechas and the terrible efficiency of the hunters is depicted in the music that is full of sharp angles, growling percussion, churning string patterns and relentless angry brass sounds. At around 4:25 mark groaning double basses play repeatedly a 4-note motif which is then taken up by the lowest brass to create a threatening merciless drive as the Mechas are hauled into the Moonballoon of Lord Johnson Johnson. When it rises we spot Teddy hanging outside the net and when David can't hold on to him, his fall is underscored with swirling strings followed by a whimsical oboe melody which coincides with his safe landing and pursuit of the balloon on foot (or rather paw in his case). In the finished film Teddy's fall was left entirely unscored and the music dialed out.
 

Soundtrack Album VS the Film Version
The original 2001 soundtrack album version of Moon Rising switches the position of the three sections placing the furious music of the Mecha hunt at the beginning leaving a short portion of the Joseph Williams' techno beats and the solo voice in the middle and and ending with the original Moon Rising cue. It also omits the music for Teddy’s fall altogether. The LLL release combines Moon Rising (4m5) and The Biker Hounds (4m7) for listening purposes and provides Joseph Williams' composition for the Biker Hounds (4m6) on disc 3 as a separate bonus track that actually runs longer than the version heard in the film.
 

 

***

Gigolo Joe, a lover Mecha and David among other robots are carried off to the Fleshfair where disgruntled people who hate all Mecha related artificiality execute them on an arena for entertainment in the style and tradition of Ancient gladiatorial games.

The Fleshfair sequence plays without traditional underscore and all that is heard is source music, provided by a band called Ministry (Al Jourgensen, Paul Barker, Max Brody and Deborah Coon) who perform two songs, What About Us? and Dead Practice on-screen in the film.

When the time of David’s execution comes and he is brought to the arena to be destroyed, the audience, who has not seen a Mecha child before and does not even know they exist, demands for David to be set free and under the pressure from an outraged angry mob Johnson-Johnson has no alternative but to let David and Gigolo Joe go free.
 

***

20. Remembering David Hobbie (5m3) (2:20) (LLL D 1 Track 18, Oscar Promo Disc 2 track 15):
Joyous warm string melody with horn lines underneath plays as David and Gigolo Joe are freed from the Fleshfair, the music celebrating their freedom and relief. As the film cuts to Professor Hobby's facilities, where he is watching some photos of David (as we later find out his own dead son), the A Child Lost Theme makes its final appearance in the score, luminous piano and harp dueting in a nostalgic fashion. When his team informs him they have located David, the music continues optimistic and warm, a variation of the theme's melody passing to flute and ghosted by clarinet as we cut back to the woods, where Gigolo Joe and David are trying to make their way to the Blue Fairy.

 

Here can be heard a faint reference to the minimalistic figures of the Travelling Theme for the first time (1:28-1:39), presented on piano and glittering harp figures as David and Joe talk about the journey. A lyrical dreamily wandering oboe line scores a shot of the night sky and the moon but as David ponders if it is the real moon, remembering the Moonballoon, the music suddenly grows eerie with queasy strings and synthesizer tones darkening the mood.

21. The Journey to Rouge City (5m5) (3:51) (LLL D 1 Track 19, OST track 10 Rouge City 2:00-end (Album Edit), Oscar Promo Disc 1 track 5 2:00-end (Film Version)):

The Mecha World/Travelling Theme prominent in this scene is very effective describing the robotic and highly Mechanized age of the film but importantly provides dramatic propulsion for the journey montage. It also conveys the thrill and excitement of this futuristic travel and David’s marvel at all the wonders he is now experiencing.

 

A short lyrical oboe line backed by strings, solo horn and harp is heard when we see the moon far in the distance, the score conjuring a small but magical little moment of beauty before it flows into a rhythmic repeating motif that could be characterized as The Mecha World/Travelling Theme ticking away on marimba and other percussion and supported in its drive by the rest of the orchestra. A short optimistic interlude for woodwinds seems to remind us of the oboe ideas of the previous tracks before the travelling motif takes over.

 

Most of the cue consists of the development of the travelling music that steadily and minimalistically in the mode of John Adams and Steve Reich grows and modulates in orchestrations when David and Joe are seen driving towards Rouge City, an exotic den of pleasures and vices, to find Dr. Know and around 2:33-2:58 as their vehicle dives into a tunnel shaped like a woman's mouth that leads to the city the piece bursts into a grand rolling string statement of Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier waltz theme (taken from Der Rosenkavalier Suite Opus 59 and adapted for the scene by Williams). From here the cue winds slowly to a close, orchestration gradually becoming sparser until only marimba accompanied by synthesizers is left and fades into silence as the group arrives to their destination.

 

The Rosenkavalier waltz was the one piece of music Kubrick wanted to include in the film and as an homage Williams incorporated it into his score though not knowing where exactly Kubrick himself had planned to place it he chose this particular sequence to use it.

 

The Soundtrack Album VS the Film Version

The soundtrack album track Rouge City contains as an intro a part of the film version of the Abandoned in the Woods (3m7) and the Travelling Theme is cut short just as it would go into the Rosenkavalier waltz section. Most probable is that Williams didn’t want to present other composer’s work on his album or the rights of the music were an issue though you can clearly hear the clumsy transition from one part of the cue to the next on the soundtrack album. The LLL set contains the full cue. This is a good example of how differently the composer can reimagine his music for a soundtrack album for listening experience purposes.

 

 

22. Immaculate Heart (0:46) (5m6A) (LLL D 1 Track 20, Oscar Promo Disc 2 track 16)
Gigolo Joe and David arrive to the Rouge City and head for the cyber parlour called Immaculate Heart where the mysterious and sage Dr. Know can be found. The composer introduces the Blue Fairy /Humanity Theme here as it rises from a fluttering bed of strings on solo flute with ghosting clarinet and slightly comedic rhythmic backing, an inkling of what is to come, a fragment that has yet to reveal its true significance in the story but at this moment it reinforces David's wish of finding the Blue Fairy with Dr. Know's advice.

 

23. Rouge City source music (1:45) (Unreleased. Source music composed by Joseph Williams):
Techno flavoured and beat heavy source cue plays as David and Gigolo Joe are walking through the neon sign illuminated streets of Rouge City.

24. Inside Dr. Know's (4:32) (LLL D 3 Track 7)
Williams provides ambient and mickey-mousy quirky entirely electronic underscore for this scene where the animated Dr. Know, voiced by Robin Williams, is seen consulting David and Joe. This diegetic piece of music emanating from the Dr. Know interface (he is a database programme) with its different question categories, that launch various musical effects takes on a deliberately cartoony character that doesn't seem to stay in the same mood or style for long. There is also a repeating motif for the main menu of the programme David is using which bridges the gap between pure sound effects and underscore and Williams even finds a way to inject a little fragments of David's Theme into this colourful and playful musical collage.

25. To Manhattan (5m8) (1:27) (Unused in the film. LLL D 1 Track 21, Oscar Promo Disc 2 track 17):
As the curious exchange between Dr. Know and David comes to close the Mecha boy sees a puzzling message appearing on the screen that initially quotes Williams Butler Yeats' poem The Stolen Child:

Come away,O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a fairy, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping
than you can understand.

Your quest will be perilous
Yet the reward is beyond price.
In his book
'How Can A Robot Become Human',
Professor Allen Hobby writes of
the power which will transform Mecha into Orga.

DAVID
Will you tell me how to find her?
DR.KNOW
Discovery is quite possible.
Our blue fairy does exist
in one place, and one place only,
At the end of the world
Where the lions weep.
Here is the place dreams are born.

The music would probably start just as the message appears, but since the cue went unused in the film, it is difficult to tell its exact placement in this sequence. It begins with swaying figure on the strings but turns into a lovely longing piano version of the Blue Fairy/Humanity Theme that suddenly ends unresolved as David’s hope of becoming a real boy is rekindled but the end of his journey still remains a mystery. Incidentally Williams named two consecutive cues, 5m8 and 6m3, To Manhattan on his original manuscript.

26. Amphibicopter Escape (source) (0:31) (Source music composed by Joseph Williams):
As soon as the pair exits the Dr. Know parlour the police are waiting outside as the law has finally caught up with Joe. Here a piece of threatening tracked material from Moon Rising is used. Another source cue begins here as tense synthesized drum beats go to a techno drumming and effects that underscore the hijack and escape in the police amphibicopter. This is another piece probably composed by Joseph Williams and resembles quite a bit his music for the Biker Hounds sequence.
This energetic passage is immediately followed by...
 

27. To Manhattan (6m3) (5:28) (LLL D 2 Track 1 (0:00-5:28), OST track 1 Mecha World 0:00-4:42, Oscar Promo Disc 1 track 1 0:00-5:14):
David, Joe and Teddy are seen flying towards Manhattan in the amphibicopter and Williams delivers a forceful variation of the minimalistically inspired constantly building repeating Mecha World/Travelling Theme, that seems like an extension and elaboration on the music of the previous travelling scene to Rouge City. With rhythmic tug of the strings and burnished steely fanfares from the trumpets and horns the ship is on its way. Long clear string and brass lines supported by the mechanical beat of marimbas and glittering harp underscore the ride of the protagonists through the skies.

 

It feels like the whole orchestra becomes a giant clockwork machine repeating and modulating the constant ostinato motif of the theme as it keeps building and building with propulsive brass, steady marimba pattern over continuous rhythmic string figures until it reaches a climax at the 3 minute mark with the combined forces of the orchestra, percussion and the electronics when the flying machine plunges into the full view of a skyscraper in the sunken Manhattan that indeed has gigantic lion statues on top of outlying buttresses “weeping” through their metallic jaws and eyes like enormous fountains. From here the music continues subdued as David and Joe land in the Cybertronics main building, the tone of the music turnining gentle with probing high strings, luminous sparkling harp and a dreamy solo horn line as the score voice the robot boy's excitement. David seems so close to his goal (or so he thinks) and the cue ends with clear tones of bell tree and celesta but the musical sequence continues on without pause to an interconnected cue...

28. The Reading Room (6m4) (3:13) (LLL D 2 Track 1 (5:59-end), OST track 1 Mecha World 4:42-end, Oscar Promo Disc 1 track 1 5:14-end):
After a probing light figure in string the music grows eerie with a cold electronic pulse, yawning ominous string figure and scraped gong as David steps into a room that is revealed to be a library. Just then one of the chairs turns and both audience and the robot boys see a David replica reading there calmly. Subtle yet hard edged cold string sustain and hollow synthesizer sounds underscore this revelation.

 

Baffled David is feeling confused and angry since he realizes that he is not unique and thus special any more, the ghostly synthesized voices and subtle icy twinkle of piano depicting his psychological state. Rubbed tam tam groans, strings and synthesizers rise and as David flies into a fit of uncontrollable manic rage as he thinks this clone is after his mother’s love as well, he in a moment of fury decapitates the robot with a table lamp.

 

Here the score turns from fear and confusion to rage and the woodwinds and strings swirl furiously, chirping and screeching, creating the confusion and horror while underneath the percussion hits imitate the blows of the lamp although they do not catch the on-screen action blow-by-blow. In this moment of madness proferssor Hobby appears out of the blue and stops David and calms him explaining the purpose of the Mecha child. He is the test version of imprinted robot capable of love and affection and that there will be many more of his kind for those who are unable to have a child of their own or have lost their own children. When Hobby mentions that David, his real son, was one of a kind, unique, in anguished tones, we hear David’s Theme sing out on compassionate oboe which ends the cue on a warm note which makes the next cue a sudden but narratively effective shift in tone.

 

Album Versions VS the Film Version
The music underscoring David's rage is included in the album version of The Mecha World but it is missing the atmospheric middle portion of David meeting his robotic clone. The Oscar Promo is missing the same section as the OST. The LLL release features the entire sequence as written, joining the cues 6m3 and 6m4.

29. The Replicas (6m5) & Floating Downwards (6m6) (5:58) (LLL D 2, Track 2, OST track 3 Replicas, Oscar Promo Disc 1 track 9):
This sequence is also composed of two continuous cues. Professor Hobby leaves David alone in the offices as he goes to fetch his team of scientists so they can start to analyze David, his data and his experiences to learn more from them in order to perfect their imprinting protocols. The robot boy wanders off into a workshop nearby and makes a startling find that brings home professor Hobby's words: A room full of Mechas, replicas of David, have already been manufactured and packaged for sale with female versions lined next to them. He is not unique, not like human children are.

 

The music starts very sparse and haunting as chilling treble voices of the women's chorus seem almost to moan as they murmur in high register, piano, sinister percussion, distant muted brass and high strings underscore the scene where David discovers the replicas. As he notices the packaged robots his horror and dismay increase and finally as the boy finally seems to lose all heart and his hopeless horror is revealed, the camera zooms to his eyes and the choir and orchestra build to a literal screaming halt around 3 minute mark.

 

Subsequent scene finds David sitting on a ledge high up in the Cybertronics building at the heart of sunken Manhattan completely heartbroken and forlorn, oboe and the choir now expressing his heartache in mournful and sympathetic tones. Finally in his despair the robot boy plunges down into the ocean that now covers all of New York (witnessed by Joe from the copter) and with this the music takes a sudden turn to ethereal and reflective with twinkling piano and luminous strings as David is seen sinking to the bottom through water pierced by clear shafts of sunlight from the surface.

 

Luminous high register orchestrations follow when a school of fish swim around him and he is carried on by them, the sunlight dazzling in the clear blue water, Williams capturing the lyrical atmosphere in his music. Subtle fragments of Monica's Theme can be heard amidst the music along with something that sounds like a slight nod to Albinoni’s Adagio for Strings (beginning at around 4:20), creating a spiritual almost religious musical tableaux. Just as David hits the ocean floor, Joe comes to his rescue and at that very moment David sees a glimpse of something that catches his eye in the water which animates the score on hopeful singing strings. He has seen the Blue Fairy!
 

In the Making

The LaLa -Land set (Disc 3 Track 8 includes an alternate take on the Replicas section of this sequence with notably enhanced brass starting at 2:20 mark with a disconsolate horn passage and a pinched trumpet cry during the choral crescendo.

 

Alas Gigolo Joe has been tracked by the police because he is wanted for a murder of a client and at this precise moment they descend on him in the Manhattan ruins and capture him. Saying quick goodbye to David, he in his last selfless act of kindness to his diminutive saviour activates the amphibicopter which plunges under the waves towards the place where the Blue Fairy lies!
 

30. Finding the Blue Fairy (7m1/2) (5:59) (LLL D 2 Track 3. OST track 11 Search for the Blue Fairy (Edit), Oscar Promo Disc 1 track 7 (Edit))
Music takes a murky, meandering underwater quality as David is seen slowly propelling past the old Coney Island amusement park buildings. Slow, deep orchestral sonorities, rumbling piano, tuba, double basses, lower woodwinds and deep horn lines all create the sense of antiquity and the ocean depths, the higher strings counterpointing the atmosphere with their colours. Williams even adds a carnival organ into the orchestral palette as a nod to the atmosphere of the amusement park, a ghostly musical reminder of the bygone eras, harp glittering like light through shadowy waters above the orchestral textures.

 

At 1:58 the music becomes more agitated and anticipatory. Barbara Bonney’s voice is heard humming softly under the coalescing orchestral forces as David closes on his goal with strings and bubbling woodwinds and a wash of sound from the bell tree heralding his arrival to the statue of Blue Fairy with their swirling excited textures.

 

Here the orchestra gives a way to a humming human voice, soprano Barbara Bonney, who performs the Blue Fairy/Humanity Theme. The soprano voice complements the orchestra with beautiful subtle wordless solos as Ben Kingsley's narrator voice continues David’s story. The whole scene is musically based on one long development of the Blue Fairy/Humanity Theme as David has reached the fulfillment of his dream. But since he cannot achieve his hopes, the theme is full of both hope and profound spiritual beauty but also quiet sorrow of unimaginable depth. There in the deeps of the sea the amphibicopter is stuck under the crumbling metal of a falling ferris wheel, trapping the robot boy and his teddy bear in their craft. And as the screen grows dark while the narrator tells us how David still continued to make his innocent plea to the statue that was standing right before him but beyond his reach, again and again praying to become a real child, the Blue Fairy/Humanity Theme fades softly away in tones of hushed sadness.

This cue along with the lengthy finale is one of the emotional centerpieces of the score. Williams has here captured all the spiritual depth of David's hope and faith and also the deep sadness of this search for something he cannot ultimately achieve and thus has created a moment that both rejoices and laments for David with profound sympathy. It is one of those unique opportunities where music can speak deeper than words and the composer captures the deeper subtext of the scene with poignant lyricism that reaches for the human soul. He gives David’s most fervent dream, his belief, and the character of the Blue Fairy a voice of her own.

 

In the Making

Although the music of this scene always used the broad cantilena melody of the Blue Fairy/Humanity Theme, the music itself went through several different versions before an edit of several takes and elements was used to compile the final cue heard in the film. Williams created at least a purely orchestral version (LLL D 3 Track 10 (Orchestral Excerpt)), an orchestral version with shimmering bell-like synthesizer accompaniment without vocals (LLL D 3 Track 9) where oboe takes the solo part and a combination of soprano soloist and orchestra (D 2 Track 3) before the film makers opted for an orchestra and subtle vocal accompaniment heard in the film.

There is yet another alternate version of this piece with the major difference being that the solo soprano is in the forefront of the composition. This is the concertized version of the Blue Fairy/Humanity Theme Williams reworked for the soundtrack album and there exist two different arrangements of it, one with and another without the soprano vocals (titled A.I. Theme (Instrumental Version) LLL set D 1 Track 22 (4:08) and A.I. Theme (Vocal Version) D 2 Track 11 (4:01)). In the end Williams chose to use the vocal version edited together with the film opening of Finding the Blue Fairy on the soundtrack CD. Bonney's voice conveys perfectly the feel and emotion of the scene and gives the piece a fairy tale-like quality but it also enhances the feelings of sorrow and loss in the scene, Bonney's voice echoing powerfully and operatically as if from the depths of the sea itself.

 

31. Journey Through the Ice (7m3)/Stored Images (7m4)(Film Edit)(~5:14):
Stored Memories forms one long 5 minutes track but was created editorially from two different versions Williams wrote of this cue. The film version opens with the original version Williams wrote but at around 2:25 mark it is edited into the ending half of the revised version 2 of the cue.

Both versions are analyzed separately below:
Journey Through the Ice (7m3) (Version 1) (4:43) (LLL D 2 Track 4, OST track 8 Stored Memories and Monica’s Theme 0:00-4:43, Oscar Promo Disc 1 track 4 0:00-4:43)
The piece starts directly after Barbara Bonney's and orchestra's last notes have faded as we now are introduced to the world of the far future and Manhattan all covered in ice 2000 years after David was trapped in the sea in front of the Blue Fairy. A solemn religioso piece for a mixed choir singing a long lined wordless melody underscores the flight of the futuristic Super Mechas over the glacier city.

As they land to the site where David has been found in the ice, the music remains mournful, almost like a funeral hymn and when the Mechas approach the amphibicopter and brush off a layer of snow to reveal David inside, frozen, still staring at the unattainable Blue Fairy standing before him, the statue by some miracle yet intact after two millennia. One of the Mechas reaches out and accesses David’s memories and reads them and twinkling piano and bell tree underscore his sudden awakening at 2:17-2:25.

Glittering celesta and other chimes play with the rising choral forces and strings spin luminous busy figures underneath as amphibicopter and David are melted from the ice, the musical atmosphere itself warming and lighting up. Clear flute and clarinet bubble to life as the ice melts and David with seeing eyes looks in astonishment at the Blue Fairy standing even after all this time before him. He steps slowly out of the amphibicopter and the music retains the sense of awe as the little boy approaches and touches the statue, an oboe’s warm voice greeting him over a bed of strings, pensive and lyrical.

 

But the statue falls apart under David’s touch and his horror but most of all his grief is announced when the choir repeats the mournful theme from the beginning of the piece almost as a quiet thredony, double basses ending the piece almost in mid-phrase as David notices the Super Mechas for the first time.

 

This original take on the material is much more sentimental than the revised version which explores the alienness of the scene. Williams scored David’s reawakening with empathy and pathos that was in the end perhaps considered a bit too emotional by Spielberg. The final version underscores David’s horror and discomfort and the ambience of the icy world is emphasized in the orchestrations and nearly themeless approach.

Journey Through the Ice Version II (7m3) (Version 2) (5:04) (LLL D 2 Track 5, Oscar Promo Disc 1 track 6):
This version of the piece opens with a high female chorus, shimmering bell tree, harp and celesta, the music very dispassionate and emotionally detached, depicting the icy world where the futuristic Mechas approach the excavation in the ice. The chorus becomes almost a drone and bell tree offers glinting icy accents with harp as the robots approach David, celesta presenting few scattered notes here and there and piano rumbling in the cold space. The opening 2:17 of the music was not used in the film.

At 2:18 icy strings, harp, orchestral chimes, bell tree and high female choir continue to enhance the alien and cold atmosphere as David stares out with seeing eyes first time in 2000 years. The Mecha child espies the statue of the Blue Fairy still intact and gets out vehicle and slowly approaches his goal just few feet away. As David feels the the frozen statue with his hand the hoarfrost covered edifice crumbles to pieces under his touch which is scored with subtle intensified orchestral rumble (3:20) but in the film sound effects take precedence over music, which is dialled out at this moment.

 

David is confused and horrified and icy piano plays fragmented pieces of the Blue Fairy/Humanity Theme as he suddenly becomes aware of the the Super Mechas around him and indeed the huge icy cavern they are in. The remainder of the cue continues eerie but now more luminous with women's choir singing in the background and Williams offers further fragmented readings of what sounds like both The Blue Fairy/Humanity and Monica's Theme on piano while the Mechas keep studying David's memories. This latter portion (from 2:18 onwards) was used in the film, where the cold and slightly alien atmosphere was favoured over direct emotionalism.

32. Stored Memories (7m4) (3:07) (LLL D 2 Track 6)

With clear peal of triangle and harp the Mechas start to read David’s memories and a lovely lilting duet for cello and piano performing full version of Monica’s Theme appears as images of her from David’s memory are projected through the glassy bodies of the super Mechas as they share the information among themselves.

 

Then in a flash accompanied by subtle sizzling high strings and icily coruscating synthesizer effects David appears to be at home again. In this familiar environment Williams again reiterates Monica's Theme on piano as David's hope of returning home to his mother seems to have come true and the piano enhances the simple direct emotion of the calming song-like theme. But soon the robot boy encounters someone unexpected.

 

33.What Is Your Wish (7m5) (4:12) (LLL D 2 Track 7, OST track 8 Stored Memories and Monica’s Theme 5:40-end, Oscar Promo Disc 1 track 4 5:40-end)

Then and there the David hears the unlikeliest voice in their house, the Blue Fairy (voiced by Meryl Streep), calling out to him as she has appeared as if by magic in the next room. As he goes to her, the source of his greatest desire and dream, a subtle soothing wordlessly sung melody of the gentle female chorus over a bed of warm string harmonies represents the Blue Fairy instead of her actual theme. Perhaps Williams is suggesting subliminally here that David's wish to become a real boy is not in the power of this enchanting figure as she is not real after all, only a figment of Super Mechas' doing, and can't grant him his wish in the way he desires.

 

The fairy then proceeds to explain the situation to David, about his mother and how he is the only living memory of human race left in the world while the music retains a sympathetic tone with the chorus intoning their warmly serene melody. She informs Monica cannot be brought back after such a long time, not without some trace of her physical being, a finger nail or hair, but Teddy, who has also been revived after his long journey with David, has saved the lock of hair the boy cut from Monica's head all those years ago. This means that she can be created anew from its DNA and so solo harp presents a meaningful and poignant melodic phrase (2:59) as we see David handing this precious memento to the Blue Fairy and Monica's Theme calls delicate out on celesta, softly played shimmering glockenspiel notes and glimmering bell tree. It is a moment of innocent hope and determination and the expectant rhythmic string chords that close the cue illustrate the boy's renewed faith.

 

In the Making
The version of this music found on the soundtrack album is slightly truncated. An alternate version of this piece can be found on the OST album and the Oscar promo that features Barbara Bonney's solo voice humming gently in the place of the chorus. This alternate is also presented on the LaLa- Land set (D 3 Track 11).

34. The Specialist Visits (8m1) (3:59) (LLL D 2 Track 8, Oscar Promo Disc 2 track 18)
We see David next in his old room and the harp plays a solo over a wash of gently dancing luminous strings and glinting chimes and for the first minute or so the music is ethereal, magical and calm as we are shown David calmly playing with his old toys again. Then crystalline musical tones usher in a Super Mecha, the Specialist (voice by Ben Kingsley), who we now find out has been the narrator of the story all along. And when he explains to David that they can bring his mother back for just one day and how it can be done only once (wish fulfilment in the best Spielberg fashion) Williams spins a beautifully heartfelt and delicate chamber-like variation of the Blue Fairy/Humanity Theme on strings, celesta, flutes and two harps that expresses sadness and tenderness in equal measure, the score capturing the sorrow and comforting wisdom of this futuristic being.

 

It is almost as if the score is preparing the listener for what is to come, singing a quiet lullaby to David but also in its poetic way extolling the human spirit, the Specialist viewing human fragility with sadness but also with wonder, their soul something he cannot fathom, nor their concept of love and what it can help them to achieve. Around the 3 minute mark a haunting sonorous voice of solo cello intones the theme for one final time with delicate lyricism signifying that David stands behind his decision to meet his mother for one last time even if it will be for only a single day. Here the Blue Fairy/Humanity Theme has fully changed from a theme for a character to a musical identification of David’s dream of reuniting with his mother, of achieving humanity, which his wish to become a real boy has actually been all along.
 

35. The Reunion (8m2) (7:29) (LLL D 2 Track 9, D3 Track 12 (Alternate), OST track 12 Reunion (7:45), Oscar Promo Disc 1 track 11(7:00) (Alternate))
After David has restated his wish to see Monica for one last time, the morning miraculously comes and as the sun rises Specialist urges David to go to his mother and spend a day with her. Williams uses a fleeting variation of the Blue Fairy/Humanity Theme here to signify that David's impossible dream has after all come true and from this point on piano takes the centre stage.

 

Accompanied by oboe, cello and strings a beautiful long development of Monica's Theme is first heard on the piano as David wakes Monica up and they sit together for a breakfast. The theme continues with oboe peacefully accompanying, cello ghosting the piano melody, adding a warm texture underneath as the two spend the day together, the music playing lullaby-like, lilting warmly and reassuringly in the background.

 

When David tells of his incredible journey to his mother (close to the 4 minute mark), with a shimmer of violins Williams weaves David's Theme together with Monica's and so these two musical ideas are finally united. David's melody continues on solo oboe in a bed of soothing string textures, harp effects and etheral celesta interjections as they celebrate the boy's first birthday as he has never had one before.

 

But eventually the night falls and the moment of their parting is drawing nigh. David tucks his mother to bed and as she finally says that she loves him, the everlasting moment that David has waited for so long comes. The composer presents a small anticipatory harp and string cascade when she finishes her sentence and the camera closes on them as they hug, the soloist beginning a rendition of Monica's Theme full of serene finality and acceptance, the hopes and dreams of David at last fulfilled. Monica falls asleep, never to wake again and David goes to sleep beside her, closing his eyes for the last time and Monica's Theme on the piano, harp and graceful warm strings brings the cue to a peaceful close, like a lullaby sending our small protagonist to where dreams are born.

 

In the Making

The film version of this piece is likely a hybrid edit of different takes of the piece. Neither the LLL set, OST version nor the Oscar Promo version fits the film’s running time or performance of the music completely. The OST performance is close to the film version in some portions while the Oscar Promo in others. The LLL set (and the Oscar promo) contains an alternate slightly faster version of the piece but Williams chose the slower lengthier performance as the one presented on the original soundtrack album and in the complete score programme on disc 2 of the LaLa-Land Record's release.

36. End Credits (Where Dreams Are Born) (8m3) - Opening End Credits/Vocal and Credits (4:24) (LLL D 2 Track 10, OST track 9 Where Dreams Are Born, Oscar Promo Disc 2 track 2):
For the film's end credits John Williams created this hauntingly beautiful and lyrical concert version on Monica’s Theme that features soprano Barbara Bonney singing the wordless cantilena version of the theme accompanied by piano, cello, oboe and strings. It is a fitting and poignant farewell to David, the score gently addressing his achievement of some measure of humanity at the end, Bonney's voice lending a spiritual depth to his character and the end of his quest with this gorgeous vocalize.

37. End Credits part II (2:21) (Film Edit)
To accommodate the end credits' length music was tracked from the cue Journey Through the Ice (Version 1). It is the segment from the beginning of the cue until 2:20 where the choral section of the piece ends.

 

Abandoned in the Woods (Album Version) (LLL D 3 Track 13)

Originally John Williams recorded another version of the Abandoned in the Woods (LLL D 3 Track 13, OST track 2, Oscar Promo D 2 Track 1) to function as the second part of the end credits. He wrote essentially a concert version of this particular theme, which features more powerful full ensemble orchestrations for the material and the accompanying minimalistic arpeggio-figures than the film counterpart but it also adds a completely new coda after the crescendo after the 2 minute mark, which restates the Abandonment Theme on woodwinds and tense brass with the minimalistic string motif slowly winding down to silence. While it was ultimately unused in the film's credits, this version made it to the soundtrack album and the Oscar promo, while the film version of the film cue of the same name was finally released on the LLL set in 2015.

The Song
For Always (LLL D 3 Track 1 & 14 (Duet) (4:40)
Poet Cynthia Weil wrote lyrics to John Williams’ Monica's Theme and two different versions of the song were recorded, one with Lara Fabian and the other with Josh Groban and Lara Fabian singing a duet. Neither version of the song appears in the film and was created just for the soundtrack album.

Here follow the lyrics of the piece:
I close my eyes
And there in the shadows I see your light
You come to me out of my dreams across
The night

You take my hand
Though you may be so many stars away
I know that our spirits and souls are one
We've circled the moon and we've touched the sun
So here we'll stay
 

For Always
Forever
Beyond here and unto eternity
For Always
Forever
For us there's no time and no space
No barrier love won't erase
Wherever you will go
I will know in my heart you will be
With me

From this day on
I'm certain that we'll never be alone
I know what my heart must have always known
That love has a power that's all it's own

And for always
Forever
Now we can fly

And for always
and always
We will go on beyond goodbye

For Always
Forever
Beyond here and on to eternity
For Always
And ever
You'll be a part of me

And For Always
Forever
One thousand tomorrows may cross the sky
And for always
And always
We will go on beyond goodbye


© Mikko Ojala

 

 

[Jay 39,582]

Woah! Where did the cue list with slate numbers come from?

[Incanus 5,816]

There is no complete cue list or slate numbers available but I think there are some pieces of the sheet music floating around, only a few cues, and that's where I got those in the analysis.

I should have underlined that the cue names are my own and mostly used in the bootlegs and Oscar Promos. They are by no means official.

[crocodile 8,539]

Thanks again. I'm going to read that while listening.

Karol

[Jay 39,582]

There is no complete cue list or slate numbers available but I think there are some pieces of the sheet music floating around, only a few cues, and that's where I got those in the analysis.

I should have underlined that the cue names are my own and mostly used in the bootlegs and Oscar Promos. They are by no means official.

Yea I replied too quickly and didn't notice that you only had some cue names with slate numbers, and not all. For the record, this is the sheet music that is out there:

1m1A Extension [sketch]

1m2 Henry Is Selected

1m3 New Start [sketch]

1m3+4 David's Arrival

1m5 "Of Course I'm Not Sure"

1m6 Hide and Seek

1m7 David Studies Monica

2m1 Reading The Words

2m1 New Ending

2m3 Weating Perfume

2m4 Martin Is Alive

2m5 David And Martin

3m1 Canoeing With Pinocchio

8m2 The Reunion

Theme From A.I.

[Incanus 5,816]

Yes those are the cue titles I have. It would be nice if someone who can actually read this stuff do more of analysis on what do the the Extension, Sketch and New Start and New Ending on that list contain.

[John Dutton 7,420]

Wonderful read. It goes without saying you're a top JWFan poster.

[Corellian2019 419]

Yeah, in the scene where David is introduced, I think the underscore from 1m3/4 is replaced w/ a passage tracked from 2m1.

[Incanus 5,816]

Hey thanks for the info! I'll include that in my analysis.

[steb74 53]

I've only skimmed through this so far man but I look forward to checking it out in detail, good work

Perhaps I missed it but another cue name for you to include is - 1mA Cryogenics

[Incanus 5,816]

Great another cue name found! Now incorporated into the analysis.

Oh and can someone tell what is the cue 1m2 Henry is Selected? Is it on the Promo or OST?

[Corellian2019 419]

Hey thanks for the info! I'll include that in my analysis.

No problem, keep up the good work.

And, yes, where can anyone find 1m2? Is it possibly an unused cue?

[Jay 39,582]

Well we have the sheet music so somebody who can read sheet music and is familiar with the OST and promo should be able to find it if its on either.

[stewdog1 50]

Excellent analysis Incanus, to one of my favorites JW's scores of all time. It is up there with ESB as my favorite.

Unlike many, I actually liked the film. I am not close to my mother, so the theme of this film really resonates with me. The music for Monica's Theme and the Blue Fairy bring me to tears if I am in a certain mood. Now that I have children who are 6 and 8 now, this music gives a new meaning to me.

-dave

[JohnnyD 1,327]

Another terrific analysis!

By the way, for the cues with the actual titles, why have the name given on the Academy Promo?

Wouldn't it be better to have the actual cue titles only, similar to what you've done with you other analysis'?

[Incanus 5,816]

My logic was that since I did not have all the original cue titles I mentioned them in brackets for the pieces I knew them for rather than mixed both actual cue titles and names made for the promo or other sources we have. But I have made additions to the analysis when I have found new things about the music so I guess it would be more appropriate to move the cue titles in their right place as we know most of them.

[JohnnyD 1,327]

Hey, Incanus, what do you think of this?

I like to call the track "Mecha, Orga, Man or Woman" by the simple cue title "Gigolo Joe."

I also like to call the following cue, "Intro to," by the title "Towards the Moon."

[Incanus 5,816]

Good track titles in my opinion. I might incorporate them into the analysis.

[JohnnyD 1,327]

Sweet! Thanks!

[Incanus 5,816]

I have revised the analysis a little after getting a clearer picture of the how the original cues lined up with the film. I added a few new cues to the analysis based on their original intended placement in the film as it turns out that the film makers moved some cues around quite a bit.

[Hedwig 5]

That really is a fantastic analysis. I love this score dearly and some of the information, particullary about how the film came to be, was new to me and was very enlightening. The Blue Fairy theme, for me, is what made this score extra special. I just thought it was so fresh, in melodic terms, when I first heard it, and I still do. So beautiful. I wish that the theme was used more, just so I could hear more variations of it with different orchestrations. However I do believe it was used just the right amount for the film, that's just the John Williams fan in me talking

[Incanus 5,816]

The Blue Fairy Theme is indeed one of my favourite musical ideas in this score, the spirituality and lyricism of the idea superb and the wealth of emotion it conveys powerful, for in the sorrow it imparts lies also a fount of beauty.

[JohnnyD 1,327]

Interesting that the Maestro gave two different cues the same title (To Manhattan). I think the reason is because the two cues relate to the same idea of traveling to Manhattan.

[JohnnyD 1,327]

[JohnnyD 1,327]

Incanus, I think you should note that the following cue was mostly unused:

Of Course I'm Not Sure.

The last 36 seconds of the cue, which you labeled as "Intro to," was used, which then segued into the next cue, Hide and Seek.

Abandoned In the Woods (Album Version) is a concert arrangement rather than an alternate of the film cue of the same name.

Also, the film version of The Reunion could possibly be a combination of the two versions of the same cue, editorially of course.

[Incanus 5,816]

Thank you. Duly noted. I will elaborate on those observations later in the text.

[JohnnyD 1,327]

Hey, Mikko.

I need some clarification on something:

7m5 What Is Your Wish - What exactly is missing on the OST with this cue?

[Incanus 5,816]

It has been fairly long since I wrote the analysis so I had to check to make comparison. As far as I can tell Barbara Bonney's solo seems to be longer on the promo (about 50 seconds or so). The OST version clocks 10:56 and the promo 11:43.

[JohnnyD 1,327]

In addition to the instrumentation accompanying her performance, right?

[Incanus 5,816]

I would say that the mix is a bit different, her voice brought out a bit more on the promo take. I think we need to consult GoodMusician for these small details. He is a master when it comes to those.

[JohnnyD 1,327]

Okay, so is there anything micro-edited out of the cue on the OST?

Should I keep both the track on the OST and the longer version?

GoodMusician has not been here for a long while. How are we gonna consult him?

[Incanus 5,816]

Again this is probably not as accurate as you would like in actual details but I would go with the longer version since to my ears the OST version doesn't contain anything not included in the longer version.

[JohnnyD 1,327]

The longer version does not contain any loops or anything like that, right?

If it does not, then the only logical conclusion would be that the OST track is missing about 50 seconds of music that was recorded.

[JohnnyD 1,327]

Now that the complete score has been released, I guess a lot of this needs to be edited.

[Incanus 5,816]

Yes I suppose it does.

Although I will still stick to my own interpretation of certain themes.

[BloodBoal 7,541]

This shows a lack of intellectual rigour.

This is really amateurish of you, Inky.

[Incanus 5,816]

Thank you BB. I always appreciate your harsh and cutting critique.

[BloodBoal 7,541]

You're welcome.

[Code 000. Destruct. 0. 4,260]

Yeah, you suck, Inky! There's no room for slackers here at JWFan.

[Incanus 5,816]

I am totally unappreciated in my time. You can run this whole Reviews section from this room with minimal staff for years and years. You think that kind of automation is easy? Or cheap? You know anybody who can network review sites and messageboards and write 2 million lines of analysis for what I bid for this job? Because if he can I'd like to see him try.

[Code 000. Destruct. 0. 4,260]

I'm sorry about your financial problems, Mikko, I really am, but they are your problems.

[Incanus 5,816]

Thanks dad!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,420]

You got things wrong and will need to amand your report!

[Incanus 5,816]

I don't blame people for their mistakes. But I do ask that they pay for them.

[Code 000. Destruct. 0. 4,260]

Quiet, all of you!

I'm listening to this score.

[Josh500 1,616]

Makes one wonder when we will finally get the Expanded/Complete Jurassic Park.

[Incanus 5,816]

The analysis has now been revised so that it takes the LaLa-Land Records release into account. Again all suggestions and comments on improvements are welcome.

[Jay 39,582]

Well, time to read this awesome analysis through again, then!

[Incanus 5,816]

Hopefully it is of some entertainment and illumination to you!

 

I'll probably tinker a bit more with it (as I am wont) when I spot the inevitable typos and turns of phrase that need correcting or polishing.

 

Plus I haven't checked some of the material against the film to see how it lines up with it. I'll try to get to it one of these days.

[BloodBoal 7,541]

Will the original untouched edition still be available somewhere?