Aha: Even if Zimmer <i>thinks</i> his entire score comes from Piaf, perhaps the Schubert was cunningly planted in his mind by a team of ace musicologist-inceptors and then morphed into a progression Zimmer only <i>thought </i>was his own idea. . .<div>
<br></div><div>Laurel<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 10:43 AM, Laurel Parsons <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:laureljparsons@gmail.com">laureljparsons@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<span style="font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19px"><p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0.5em;margin-left:0px;line-height:1.5em">Hello, Inceptionites.</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0.5em;margin-left:0px;line-height:1.5em">Zimmer's claim aside that all of the score originated in the Piaf song, I can't help but hear in this progression echoes of the bleak and sinister 4-chord progression that opens Schubert's <i>Der Doppelganger</i>. <span style="font-family:arial;font-size:small;line-height:normal">Here it is as diegetic film music:</span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0.5em;margin-left:0px;line-height:1.5em"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size:small;line-height:normal"><br>
</span></font></p><p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0.5em;margin-left:0px;line-height:1.5em"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:small;line-height:normal"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKDFGmf9XJk" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKDFGmf9XJk</a></span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0.5em;margin-left:0px;line-height:1.5em"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size:small;line-height:normal"><br>
</span></font></p><p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0.5em;margin-left:0px;line-height:1.5em"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:small;line-height:normal"></span>Like the <i>Inception</i> progression, it can be divided into two halves, each of which involves melodic (and bass) motion by descending semitone; in g minor, the outer voices of <i>Doppelganger'</i>s first two chords move from G-F#, as they do in <i>Inception</i>; in both progressions, a single tone is held in common throughout -- g minor's dominant in Schubert, and its 3rd in Zimmer; and despite the straightforward tonic-dominant alternation in Schubert, the diminished fourth leap in the outer voices from F# to Bb between chords 2 and 3 creates a moment of strangeness analogous to the Gb-Eb progression at the same point in the Zimmer. Moreover, the tempo, meter, and rhythm are virtually identical. </p>
<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0.5em;margin-left:0px;line-height:1.5em">Finally there is Heine's text, about the moon confronting a man with his own <i>doppelganger</i>, an obvious parallel with the multiple dream-reality versions we see of Cobb (and the other characters); the setting in the neighbourhood and outside the house where the narrator's lover once lived but is now long gone; and the theme of being tortured by memory. </p>
<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0.5em;margin-left:0px;line-height:1.5em"><br></p><p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0.5em;margin-left:0px;line-height:1.5em">
"The night is quiet, the streets are calm,<br>In this house my beloved once lived:<br>She has long since left the town,<br>But the house still stands, here in the same place.<br></p><p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0.5em;margin-left:0px;line-height:1.5em">
A man stands there also and looks to the sky,<br>And wrings his hands overwhelmed by pain:<br>Upon seeing his face, I am terrified--<br>The moon shows me my own form!<br></p><p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0.5em;margin-left:0px;line-height:1.5em">
O you <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppelg%C3%A4nger" title="Doppelgänger" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(6, 69, 173);background-repeat:initial;background-color:initial" target="_blank">Doppelgänger</a>! you pale comrade!<br>
Why do you ape the pain of my love<br>Which tormented me upon this spot<br>So many a night, so long ago?"</p></span><div class="gmail_quote"><div><br></div><font color="#888888"><div>Laurel Parsons</div><div><br></div>
<div><br></div><div>
***</div><div><br></div></font></div><div><div></div><div class="h5">Laurel Parsons, Ph.D.<br>Tutor in Humanities (Music)<br>Quest University Canada<br>3200 University Blvd.<br>Squamish, BC<br>VB8 0N8<br><a href="mailto:laurel.parsons@questu.ca" target="_blank">laurel.parsons@questu.ca</a><br>
<a href="http://www.questu.ca" target="_blank">www.questu.ca</a><br><br>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Laurel Parsons, Ph.D.<br>Tutor in Humanities (Music)<br>Quest University Canada<br>3200 University Blvd.<br>Squamish, BC<br>VB8 0N8<br><a href="mailto:laurel.parsons@questu.ca">laurel.parsons@questu.ca</a><br>
<a href="http://www.questu.ca">www.questu.ca</a><br><br>
</div>