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Posted: |
May 31, 2020 - 1:07 PM
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By: |
Howard L
(Member)
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That is the title of a second season Twilight Zone episode scored by Fred Steiner. I consider this score the finest ever written for a half hour TV show.
It starred Cliff Robertson as a man, together with his family, leading a small wagon train westward from Ohio. It is 1847 and they are in the desert within the territory of New Mexico. Desperate for water and game, he departs alone and on foot reaches the top of the title rim. What he sees over the rim—a paved highway and overhead wires-–sets the stage for the drama to come.
From the liner notes of the Varese LP cover written by John A. Vonde:
Steiner employs two extremely different orchestral ensembles. The first group features harmonica playing a simple folk-like melody with simple strummed chords played by acoustic guitar.
This is the music underscoring the episode's opening and 1847 setting. I'm guessing Tommy Morgan was behind the harmonica as he has other credits within the series.
The second group, utilizing such varied musical effects as: twelve tone rows, 13th chords and driving ostinato figures, is comprised of two pianos, two harps, two vibraphones, two chimes, cymbals and electric bass guitar.
This is for the music that underscores the present. From that first moment when Christian Horn (Robertson) reaches the top of the rim, what we next hear is music of the inexplicable. Little brushes and flourishes accompany Horn stumbling down those first hundred yards. It is a stunning effect achieved with an economy of instrumentation and it's just film with music. When Horn barely escapes from an encounter with a "monster," the bass guitar adds something sinister to the inexplicable as he journeys into the unknown.
Another set of flourishes and strums underscore the scene inside a diner where the owner and wife see to the shaken Mr. Horn. They are joined by the local doctor. When Horn flees, he ends up pursued by the sheriff's car. This is where the score takes off. All the elements of the previous scoring come together, dominated by tympani, bass guitar and marimba. The chase is on! As he re-reaches the top of the rim, a glissando or whatever is punctuated several times by a loud clang of the chimes. That clang sounds like what you hear in the old carnival strongman game. At least that's what it sounded like to this-then youngster and it remains a lifelong sound in the mind's ear. I mean Horn sees the calendar in the diner and it reads September, 1961. That's precisely when I headed into kindergarten for goshsakes.
When Horn has found his way back to the wagon train, he quickly looks back: The sheriff and proprietor are nowhere to be seen. ...the simple folk-like theme is heard again, followed by a tone row passage for harps, vibraharp and percussion, which brings this show to a fitting close.
Did I say the finest score ever written for a half hour TV show? Yeah. And yet I consider Mr. Herrmann's "Walking Distance" the finest TZ score. Gonna havta figure this out someday. 
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