The Twilight Zone (fantasy/science fiction anthology, hosted by Rod Serling)

    (CBS Primetime, 1959 - 1965)

    [One of the most notable fantasy/science fiction anthology programs
     in TV history was created by veteran radio/TV writer Rod Serling,
     who narrated the opening, and even appeared before a few of the 
     early episodes introducing the story ala "Alfred Hitchcock Presents."
     
     The quality of the writing and other production values including music
     was evident throughout this show's six-season run. Along with original
     underscores, some tracking (using pre-existing library tracks) was
     done in accordance with an agreement between CBS and the musicians'
     union. 
     
     So too were elements of the 2nd-season Theme which had been written
     by French avant-garde writer Marius Constant. These elements
     appeared in the CBS "Foreign" Music library, which was largely 
     composed and recorded overseas for tracking in CBS Dramas and Westerns.
     
     Following the release of "Twilight Zone: The Movie" in 1983,
     CBS attempted to revive the TV series for the 1985 - 1986 season
     under the title "The New Twilight Zone", with new color episodes
     and a THEME which was a broad (and weak) improvisation on Marius
     Constant's THEME #2 by the rock group, "The Grateful Dead" (Jerry 
     Garcia et al.) The color series revival only lasted one season,
     and went into short-lived reruns after that.]


Theme 1 (1959 - 1960): "Twilight Zone Theme"

    [above is the title as filed for copyright...
     aka: "Twilight Zone Main Title/Closing Theme";
     aka: "Twilight Zone Theme Main Title";
     aka: "Twilight Zone Theme End Title";

     This imaginative piece, which was only used for the first
     season of the series, uses an imaginative technique of 
     alternating polytonal harmonies -- Chords of E minor above
     a D# minor which alternates with the D# minor above the
     E minor in the lower notes...and all of this shifting
     over a changing bass line of G, E and C# for a very unique 
     uncertain effect...to match the misty visual opening.

     In Herrmann's manuscript in the CBS Collection at UCLA,
     the Closing Theme uses the same score as the Main Title,
     but has a second ending which extends the piece a few
     more bars, resolving finally on a unison E bass note;

     The THEME Herrmann composed has a decided similarity to
     many of the compositional devices used in the beginning
     of the movement "Neptune, The Mystic" from "The Planets"
     Suite (composed 1914 - 1917) by Gustav Holst in England;
     Herrmann was quite an Anglophile, and even lived in that
     country toward the end of his life; 

     In his biography "Heart At Fire's Center" it is described
     how Bernard Herrmann had access to many scores (like "The
     Planets" no doubt) and other pieces available to study at
     the CBS Network music library for which he served a long
     and fruitful apprenticeship as a young conductor and
     writer of scores for radio drama...]

     Composer: Bernard Herrmann (ASCAP/BMI)

     1978 Publisher: April Music Inc. (ASCAP)

     2000 Publisher: EMI-Blackwood Music Inc. (BMI)
                     c/o EMI Music Publishing
                        of New York, NY

    [1st registration filed in 1959]:
     Unpublished Copyright Date: Feb. 9, 1959; EU 561 560.
     Unpublished Renewal   Date: May 22, 1987; RE-337-981.
     
    [2nd registration filed in 1960]:
     Unpublished Copyright Date: Jan. 26, 1960; EU 610 447.
     Unpublished Renewal   Date: Dec. 19, 1988; RE-407-945.
          
     Recordings:


Theme 2 (1960 - 1965): "Etrange #3" and "Milieu #2"

    [aka: "Etrange No. 3 (M & E Title)";
     aka: "Twilight Zone Theme";
     
     Verified as the THEME in TV Guide article "Looking
     For A Lost Chord?" April 28, 1962, pp. 12-13;

     In 1960, CBS Music Director Lud Gluskin was asked to find a 
     new Main Title/End Credits THEME for the second season of 
     the series, to replace the original THEME written by veteran
     radio/TV/film scorer Bernard Herrmann. The problem was thought
     to be that the Herrmann theme was considered "too down" according
     to music supervisor Don B. Ray, quoted in the book "TV's Biggest
     Hits" by Jon Burlingame. However new visuals had been created,
     with some bizzare items floating around in the style of a
     Salvador Dali abstract painting, so that required a new 
     scoring approach...if for no other reason;

     So several new THEMEs were commissioned and recorded for CBS
     including two new THEMEs submitted by Bernard Herrmann,
     one by Jerry Goldsmith, another by Leith Stevens, and a 
     few other writers familiar to CBS; but none of these was
     deemed suitable...(they were eventually incorporated into the
     CBS Cue Library and used to score episodes of "Twilight Zone"
     and other shows...)
 
     Finally in desperation, Lud Gluskin tried splicing together two
     short cues written by a French Avant-Garde classical author
     Marius Constant -- who had composed them for CBS to use
     as backgrounds for episodes of "The Twilight Zone", and then 
     recycled in the network cue library. CBS had a policy in those
     days to have music composed and recorded overseas to skirt 
     US Musician Union re-use fees which were 100% of the original
     session fee for any subsequent re-use. This policy was intended
     to keep producers from using recordings over and over, but it
     had the opposite effect -- inspiring producers and networks to
     find alternatives and music packagers who recorded outside the 
     U.S. so they could use "track" (re-cycle) cues...

     Such commissioned cues were available to be shared by any 
     CBS series which needed them. The internal title for this 
     cue library was the "CBS Foreign Library".

     The cues which Gluskin spliced together were originally named
    "Etrange 3 (Strange No. 3)" and "Milieu 2 (Middle No. 2)". They
     were so fragmentary and unusual that they had not been used much.
     These were two of the six short dramatic cues Constant wrote
     and recorded with a small ensemble featuring a two guitars,
     percussion including bongo drums, a saxophone and French horns.

     They had never been designed to be a Main Title or End Credits 
     THEME. Spliced together by Gluskin, their unique qualities
     appealed to Serling, who was looking for something different.
     So TV history was changed when they became the new "Twilight Zone" 
     THEME from the 2nd season on...and now the most recognized by
     the bi-tonal guitar motif which opens "Etrange 3."

     In 1982 correspondence with Marius Constant, he explained
     that in 1959 he composed six cues at the request of Lud Gluskin 
    "for a few hundred dollars" to be part of the CBS Music Library; 
     He knew they were intended for their first use on a new show 
     described by Gluskin as "strange, incredible, bizarre, fantastic"; 
     
     Marius Constant went on to write that it wasn't until much later 
     that he learned that two of his cues had been spliced together to
     become its Main Title and End Credits THEME for this popular U.S. 
     Television series;

     Hopefully his ASCAP performance royalties as well as any
     mechanical royalties from future recordings helped soothe his 
     astonishment.
     
     The copyright for these two cues used as "The Twilight Zone" THEME
     was not filed by April-Blackwood Music in New York until 1979 when
     interest in TV Themes was being revived by new recordings and
     publications.
      
     In 2007, an item on eBay was advertised as "source of Twilight Zone",
     a 1964 piano transcription of an earlier piece Constant wrote for a
     chamber ensemble, "Ponant 19: Five Variations on the theme of Distress"
     (in French: "Ponant 19: Cinq Variations sur le theme de l'Angoiss.")
     This work had an alternate title when filed for U.S. copyright in
     1963: "Ponant 19: Dance Movement for solo piano and 19 instruments"
     (in French: "Ponant 19; mouvement choregraphique pour piano principal 
     et 19 instruments.") Unfortunately, a careful examination of this
     work does not find any similarities with the cues Constant wrote
     for the Gluskin "competition" that were adapted as "The Twilight
     Zone Theme." All that can be said for "Ponant 19" is that it was
     written in the general compositional idiom Constant used at the 
     time. But the two pieces have no themes nor motives in common.
    
     In cue sheets appearing on the website of the Bernard Hermann Society
     the two music cues used for the Marius Constant THEME are listed with 
     their corresponding CBS library numbers, as in this excerpt from an
     episode entitled, "Little Girl Lost". Note that "Etrange #3" only takes
     the first 9 seconds, and "Milieu #2" takes the other 21 seconds:
     
     13. Twilight Zone Theme - End Title
         Etrange #3  0:09 composed by Marius Constant; CBS library no. 11-58-813A
         Milieu #2   0:21 composed by Marius Constant; CBS library no. 11-58-811-16B
     
     Interesting to note a variation (perhaps due to the episode running
     long in editing) that the Main Title of episode "Little Girl Lost"
     only used Etrange #3 by itself...and NOT the cue Milieu #2.
     
     Another cue sheet for episode "I am the Night, Color Me Black" shows
     the Main Title Theme using both cues, as does the End Title Theme.]

     Composer: Marius Constant (ASCAP)

     1978 Publisher: April Music Inc. (ASCAP)

     2000 Publisher: Aspenfair Music Inc./Special Account (ASCAP)
                       c/o CBS Television,
                       of New York, NY
     
    [as "Twilight Zone (theme)" -- part of a Performing Arts copyright for
     a TV movie filed as: "King Nine Will Not Return, Episode of The Twilight zone
     including Twilight zone theme", by Cayuga Productions, Inc.]:
      
     Copyright Date: Nov. 23, 1979; PA 54-066.
     
    [Published sheet music first appeared, released by April-Blackwood
     Publications and Distributed by Bradley Publications, with a copyright
     notice date of 1979 on the sheet music]:
    
     Published Copyright Date: Aug. 18 1980; PA 76 746.

     Recordings:


Theme 3 (1985 - 1986): "New Twilight Zone Theme (Opening and Closing)"

    [an improvisation on Marius Constant's opening 2-guitar riff
     by members of the rock group, "The Grateful Dead" which was
     used briefly for the 1985 revival...]

     Composers/Arrangers: Jerome J. ("Jerry") Garcia (ASCAP),
                          Michael S. ("Mike") Hart (ASCAP),
                          William ("Bill") Kreutzmann (ASCAP), 
                          Philip ("Phil") Lesh (ASCAP), and
                          Robert Hall ("Bob") Weir (ASCAP)

     2000 Publisher: Aspenfair Music Inc./Special Account (ASCAP)
                       c/o CBS Television,
                       of New York, NY

     Copyright Date: [no separate registration found; probably an
                      arrangement of the Marius Constant THEME above]
     
     Recordings:


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