it's impossible to imagine the
long-awaited sequel to Blade Runner
without some version of the iconic music
that Vangelis composed for the original
that's because the Blade Runner score is
more than a score
it's an indispensable element of the
movie I mean you could make that
argument about almost all film music of
movie - its music it's not the same
movie and that's true - if you were to
swap one kind of music for another
[Music]
in the video I did on Howard Shores
incredible light motifs in the Lord of
the Rings I tried to show how the score
helped guide and elevate the emotional
beats of the story it's great work from
a great composer and hugely influential
on the trilogy
I think blade runner's music is
different it plays a different role the
score isn't layed on top of the visuals
it's not a guide or an addition the
music is sort of baked into the DNA of
the movie itself all the audio that you
here including score sound design and
dialogue it's tightly integrated each
blurs into the others
[Music]
this integration is really what
separates Bladerunner from other science
fiction films after all electronic music
had been a staple of science fiction
cinema for three decades by then going
all the way back to Bernard Herrmann's
use of the theremin in the Day the Earth
Stood Still Hermann and other
revolutionary composers like Luis and
bebe Barron used winding bending
sputtering electronic sounds to evoke
alien planet Blade Runner is somewhere
in the middle between the a melodic
soundscapes of Forbidden Planet and the
grand symphonic themes of something like
Star Wars meg Ellis is pulling from that
same toolbox of electronic sounds but
these noises are put to use for a more
musical purpose in order to achieve that
dreamlike quality that the film has the
audience should be able to identify
where the music ends and the world begin
the atmospherics that infused this scene
or a good example of what I'm talking
about they sound a little bit like wind
chime something that could very well be
in the space and match pretty well with
the dancing light on the walls and yet
the sound is so layered with faint
computery noises that it could also be a
machine somewhere in the room it also
serves as a kind of atmospheric bed from
which the clearly non-diegetic not in
the world strings rise as Rachel enters
do you like I'll even the dialogue has a
lot of reverb giving it the same dreamy
quality as the score on the sound of I'm
Rachel record of course reverberation is
absolutely everywhere in Blade Runner
you could even say that it's the
manipulation of reverb that gives Blade
Runner its distinct ceiling and though
Vangelis is such a virtuoso at wielding
it the digital reverb that you hear in
this movie was something relatively new
to music at the time the world's first
digital reverberation machine the emt
250 was released only six years before
Blade Runner premiered in 1982 we all
have a natural sense of reverb we hear
it when we're in big spaces how our
voice reverberates and decays across the
room digital reverb uses algorithms to
extend that decay even more the lexicon
2 to 4 which is what Vangelis used for
Blade Runner could extend decays up to
70 seconds allowing you to make Spacey
ethereal sounds like this
[Music]
the emphasis on reverb accomplishes a
few things as essayist Andrew Stiller
noted heavy reverb because it implies a
huge enclosed hard surface space creates
a mood of mistery and paranoia and also
gives everything a feeling of distance
is that the audio is coming from far
away like in a dream finally
reverberation blends things together
this is one of the crucial ways Vangelis
folds separate audio sources into one
aural master track because that is the
goal here every scene is composed to
create this cohesive acoustic
environment sometimes the emphasis is on
dialogue or sound effects other times
it's on the nostalgic music that calls
back to classic film noir except that
solo saxophone was never actually used
in classic film noir which is a whole
nother video but anyway
[Music]
most of these scenes were interpreted by
Vangelis on the spot the way he composed
the music for Blade Runner was by
watching the freshly edited scenes on a
screen in his studio and playing
whatever they evoke did him at the time
he used primarily the yamaha cs-80 an
analog synthesizer featured so
prominently in Blade Runner that
Vangelis has his own section in the C
SAT Wikipedia page even today the C SAT
is prized among audiophiles it seems
like anybody who ever writes about it
describes it as a living breathing
singer that's partly down to the fact
that the keys were pressure sensitive so
the sound that it produced as a
marvelous acoustic quality in a way it's
the perfect instrument for Blade Runner
a machine with the ability to match the
emotional weight of the real thing scene
one in one go you can have from there to
there it's on to there which is
different sound to there which is
different again
as much as possible Vangelis used his
spontaneous first taped compositions and
the result is a deeply personal reaction
to the images a second vision that fuses
with the directors own Vangelis like the
great composer Edgard varèse before him
attempted to bring to life the complete
sound profile of the city interpreted
through the genres of Blade Runner
anybody who's lived in a large
metropolis knows that sound is a
constant feature there that night
you might hear a siren or a scream
somewhere in it we may not have wheezing
or sputtering machines but these days we
sure have a lot of beeping one Vangelis
strings all these disparate noises
together with musical themes that are
stunning and appropriate when the music
swirls says if it's coming from within
the characters themselves like an
internal cry or a relief
[Music]
unfortunately Vangelis isn't coming back
for Blade Runner 2049 his job is going
to go Han Johansen a great composer
who's worked with director Dan evil knew
three times before I don't envy him I
mean everybody is going to be waiting
for him to play someone else's iconic
music if I were him I'd resist the urge
to mimic Vangelis completely as much as
I'd like to hear every classic note
again the sequel deserves music as
personal and human as its original I'm
excited to hear Johan Johan 'sons
interpretation of a world that so many
of us are so eager to return to hey
everybody thank you so much for watching
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thanks guys I'll see you all next time