DARK SHADOWS FORUMS
General Discussions => Current Talk Archive => Current Talk '24 I => Current Talk '02 I => Topic started by: Starlightexp on May 21, 2002, 01:45:42 AM
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?!?I'm hoping that some die hard fan of the show can help out this newbee. Josette's Music box's music in the beginning of the series is different then the later part. Does anyone know what the original version was? Who wrote in or what it was called?
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Robert Cobert wrote both the original music box tune and the revised, longer version. The music is entitled simply "Josette's theme."
I don't know for sure but I'd hazard a guess the reason the tune was expanded/re-written was because they came out with a soundtrack album of Dark Shadows music around 1968, and probably wanted to feature the Josette theme a little bit better.
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I'm not so sure that both were written my RC. I thought the first piece was a known classical piece and DS was going to run into a problem with copywrite. OK, where did I read that?! Time for some research. ?!?
Dawn
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I'm not so sure that both were written my RC. I thought the first piece was a known classical piece and DS was going to run into a problem with copywrite. OK, where did I read that?! Time for some research. ?!?
Dawn
Oh, that's interesting. I always assumed it was re-written for the album because the LP came out around the same time we first heard the revised version on the show. I know the second, longer version was written by Bob Cobert though - I have the sheet music. I'll have to check and see if both versions are in there. Thanks Dawn!
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I was too lazy to check this site, but there have been threads about this before. The first piece was written by someone else and most notably was used in an episode of The Prisoner (one of the best television series ever made). It was copyrighted and TPTB being the big spenders they were had Cobert compose a new piece to replace it. Stuart might know more--he's posted about this. I want to say the composer was Ron Grainger, but I could be wrong.
Luciaphil
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Thanks Luciaphil! I remember now about The Prisoner. I knew it was another composer though. Thanks. Dawn
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This had been discussed on the newsgroup, so I did a Google search and came up with this reply by Graeme to a query about Josette's theme.
>>For any DS fans that are also PRISONER fans, did you know Josette's Theme is used in the PRISONER episode "Dance of the Dead"?
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"Yes, I know. That's because it was written by Robert Farnon, who wrote some of the music for The Prisoner (including an unused main title song).
It's also the reason Dark Shadows abandoned it and replaced it with the later version, written by Robert Cobert. They wanted a version that they had the rights to.
Incidentally, Farnon's main title theme is NOT the one used in the Alternate version of the Chimes of Big Ben. That one's by Wilfred Josephs. And the main one is by Ron Grainer, who also did the Dr. Who theme.
Unfortunately, Farnon's version of Josette's Theme isn't on any of the three Prisoner albums. There are however, four other tracks by him."
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Sorry to post twice in a row (I'm only a guest, so I can't edit), but I thought some of you might be interested in hearing both versions for comparison. Just follow the link. Be patient while it loads.
http://members.aol.com/graemecree/josette.htm
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Sorry to post twice in a row (I'm only a guest, so I can't edit), but I thought some of you might be interested in hearing both versions for comparison. Just follow the link. Be patient while it loads.
http://members.aol.com/graemecree/josette.htm
It's no problem, Late Mrs. C. Thanks for the info!
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The piece was indeed a stock piece by Canadian composer Robert Farnon. It's worth remembering that the music box was the first time in the show's history that a piece of music was required as a thematic "prop", so I assume that it was time-related issues that prevented Cobert providing it initially.
Cobert's composition was not composed for the soundtrack album, which did not debut until nearly a year later.
I think they're both nice compositions -- Farnon's has a more delicate, spectral quality, whereas Cobert's is a starker, more melancholy tune.
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I was wondering why Josette's Theme sounded different in the Dream Curse episodes. I wonder why they used the Farnon episode in two recent episodes when they used the Cobert version in 1795 and afterwards. I never knew there were two versions until I saw the Dream Curse, during Julia & Mrs.Johnson's dream.