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
composer 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
Copyright Date: Feb. 9, 1959; Eu 561 560.
Renewal Date: May 22, 1987; RE-337-981.
Recordings:
Theme 2 (1960 - 1965): "Etrange #3" and "Milieu
#2"
[aka: "Etrange No. 3 (M & E Title)";
aka: "Twilight Zone Theme";
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 composer 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 composers 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 composer
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 composer 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";
Composer Constant went on to say 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 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 coresponding CBS library numbers, as in this excerpt from an
episode entitled, "Little Girl Lost":
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
"Twilight Zone (theme)" Copyright Date: Nov. 23, 1979; PA 54-066.
[part of a Performing Arts copyright for a motion picture filed as:
"King Nine Will Not Return, Episode of The Twillight zone
including Twilight zone theme", by Cayuga Productions, Inc.]
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: 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:
Recordings:
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