# 'The Taking of Pelham One Two Three' — atonal/serial film score



## Nawdry (Dec 27, 2020)

Researching issues about atonality and serial composition, I found the following interesting item posted within a discussion on the Quora forum:

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What is the appeal of atonality and serialism in music?
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-appeal-of-atonality-and-serialism-in-music
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[Posted by AJ]
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Twelve-tone music that doesn't sound like it's twelve-tone?
I think I have an answer. Well, it's definitely twelve-tone; I know it is because not only has the composer said so, I once transcribed the horn part and checked. But also, the chord sequence in the pastoral bit towards the end is based on the same row.
Ladies and gentlemen, David Shire's score for the 1974 movie The Taking of Pelham 123, as represented here by the end title music:
https://youtu.be/iqMl_vbDo0w

I don't think that this is the finest piece of twelve-tone music. That would be something by Schoenberg, in my book, probably a toss-up between A Survivor from Warsaw and the String Trio. But this is a piece of twelve-tone music that anyone can enjoy.​








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Listening to this excerpt from the film score, I was intrigued to realize that the composition was actually engaging and appropriate for this exciting drama premised on the hijacking (for ransom) of a New York City subway train. Not something I would usually expect from atonal/serial music. Here's further information and observations from an online article in Film Score Monthly:

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For the score, David Shire—then going through a brilliant stretch of work which included The Conversation, Farewell, My Lovely, The Hindenburg, and All the President's Men—came up with a stroke of genius. He wanted to do some kind of funk/jazz/big band, but wanted a way of making it dissonant and powerful—not too light, but not too random. So for his melodic materials he utilized the 12-tone method of composition, a technique devised by Arnold Schoenberg in the early 20th century in which you make a theme by using all 12 pitches in a specific order, and then create other themes by playing that "row" backwards, upside-down, backwards and upside-down, or transposed. Shire ended up with a monster two-note bass line with these 12-tone themes running on top.
https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/cds/detail.cfm/CDID/33/Taking-of-Pelham-One-Two-Three-The/​
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Shire's score was nominated for a British Academy of Film and Television Arts award. I can't think of another major movie score I've heard which used atonal/serial as the basis of composition, but are there more examples? I wonder if it was used throughout the film, or just for the screen credits and titles.


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## gregorx (Jan 25, 2020)

Planet of the Apes: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - Jerry Goldsmith (1968)


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## GingerOpera (3 mo ago)

Both Planet of the Apes and Pelham 123 are great examples. There's also plenty of Atonal scores by Leonard Rosenman. You could also try Images by John Williams which is so Atonal it's actually rather disturbing which is why I never listen to it. For a more recent effort try The House on Haunted Hill by Don Davis. In fact there are heaps of Atonal film scores out there. Another Goldsmith classic is his music for The Mephisto Waltz. Cheers R


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

"Mob Town" score not only atonal but uses alternate instruments.


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

That section you posted isn't technically atonal @larold. It is nicely tense though.


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## Forster (Apr 22, 2021)

Nawdry said:


> [...] I was intrigued to realize that the composition was actually engaging and appropriate for this exciting drama premised on the hijacking (for ransom) of a New York City subway train. Not something I would usually expect from atonal/serial music.


It just goes to show that the method of composition isn't necessarily what's relevant to its appreciation. I'm no musical analyst, but if the "melody" has been created using 12-tone, the context for the melody sounds to me as pretty conventional "big-band/jazz" and yes, well suited to the kind of political movies of the 70s that Shire was scoring.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

Robert Gerhard, great Spanish composer, composed the score for "This Sporting Life" (1961).


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

In the 1972 Robert Altman (mostly successful) psychological thriller, "Images", John Williams alternates between tonality and atonality to good effect.

The main character, well played by Susannah York, is going crazy, and hallucinating throughout the film.

A good example starts at about 10:40 minutes in.


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## ribonucleic (Aug 20, 2014)

Johnny Mandel in _Point Blank_ and Jerry Fielding in _The Mechanic_ are both excellent.


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