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Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)


Home > Film: Arsenic and Old Lace > Theme: Funeral March > Instance: 0:55:21




Instance
Theme name: Funeral March
Composer: Frederic Chopin
Start time: 0:55:21
End time: 0:56:27
Total duration: 0:01:06
Page #: 75
Measure #: 30
Scene: Reel 6 Part 2
Key: unstable - g - ab - unstable
Meter: 4/4
Tempo (bpm): 76
Instrumentation: orchestra
Description
On-screen: Teddy carries the body down the stairs
Description: Chopin's funeral march (a dirge) is parodied as he carries the dead body to the basement (over a two-note ostinato which begins as an oscillating tritone); the music descends as he goes down the stairs; loud crashing noise as Teddy falls down the stairs
Music annotations: [m. 30] a tempo / mf; [m. 32] mp; [m. 34] simile; [m. 38] much slower; [m. 40] molto rit; [m. 41] molto accell / sffz / fff / tutti; [m. 42] dim / ppp
Film annotations: [m. 30] 1st step; [m. 34] Legs and feet; [m. 38] Starts down; [m. 41] He falls down
Orchestration annotations: [m. 30] piano basses celli + 2 harps / timp; [m. 32] a2 trbs (felts); [m. 34] 4 horns (stopped) / gong; [m. 38] horns / bassoons / b cl / gong / 3 trb / add tuba / timp (ad lib.) (I'll talk to Frank); [m. 41] also Novachord / fff timp (ad lib); [m. 42] contra bassoon
Analysis: The second phrase modulates up a half step and is harmonized by chords derived from a descending chromatic scale in the bass; the "crash chord" is a AbM7#5; it is also played twice as fast
Tags

advance plot | brother | carrying | chromatic scale | corpse | crazy person | darkness | diminution | dirge | familiar tune | foreign key modulation | funeral march | linear chromaticism | ominous | ostinato | room | tritone | walking

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