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austencello · 6 years

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Arrow Music Notes 7x01 - Inmate 4857

A new season has returned with Oliver in prison, Felicity and William in witness protection, and a new Green Arrow running around bringing vigilante justice to Star City.

Starting a new season is always interesting and a bit of an exciting challenge. What musical themes are brought back from previous seasons? What does that tell us about these characters and moments? What instruments and soundscapes stay the same and what changes? Are there new themes to discover for characters and places? Welcome aboard another year of speculation and observation with the musical themes of Arrow.

Oliver in Prison

Every season begins with running and/or fighting whether it is on Lian Yu, Ivy Town, or Star City. This year, instead of Oliver, it is William and Felicity who are running from Ricardo Diaz in Oliver’s recurring nightmare. The music begins with isolated percussion for a feeling of danger and a string pattern for running, combined with two notes in the lower brass when Diaz appears. What sets this scene apart from previous years is the lack of Oliver’s themes from the Arrow string motif to his hero brass themes. In fact, these themes are almost completely lacking throughout the episode excepting the opening title. Hints emerge here and there but his main themes never fully appear as he keeps his head down in prison.

I don’t usually talk about songs added outside of the original score, but I will say that the song Madness by Ruelle was very effective. The lower electronic slide and low bass beat fits with the tone of Neely’s score and the intensity and repetition of Oliver’s daily life.

Another thing that happens each year is a variation for the opening title. This year, it was introduced with sounds of the jail bars. It will interesting to see if that will happen each episode Oliver is in prison or just this opening one.

The music for Oliver and prison is harsher, reflecting more of Season 1 and 5. It has a similar soundscape to the Hood’s music: electronics, low electric bass, string patterns, percussion. It lacks heroic brass and sweeping melodies, reflecting the darker side and lack of humanity. One of the percussive elements used is a metallic clanging that appeared a lot during the Flashbacks, Season 1 while Oliver was kidnapped by Fyers on the Island: “Inhospitable Island”, “Friends in Arms”, Caged (1x05). Here it occurs to set the mood and stage as Oliver walks into the mess hall before Brick and company attack (with electric guitar) and when they visit in his cell (along with a new high electronic motif). It is music of being caged in, survival, and ruthless adversaries.

There are a few moments that include melodic (and minor) string chords which usually involve Stanley as he seeks protection from the Green Arrow, as Oliver regretfully walks away from Stanley being attacked, and after beaten Stanley talks to him in his cell, calling Oliver a coward instead of the hero he had thought he was. The last one includes a melody on electric guitar harmonics which is an instrument often used Oliver in the earlier seasons. As Oliver tells Stanley that he can’t do anything to be on the guard’s radar in order to get back to his family, low strings holds a tri-tone: one of the most dissonant intervals that usually resolve. These instruments and moments give little insights into how hard it is for Oliver to hear these thoughts and walk away since he just wants to avoid trouble to see his family again. It reflects the struggle of the man desperate for his family with the man he had been a hero fighting injustice.

The soundscape changes for Oliver when he receives visitors, first with John. The first part of the conversation is quiet to give focus on their friendship and vulnerable relationships that Oliver still has contact with. As they begin to talk about Oliver’s strategy to keep his head down and stay out of trouble, electronics and strings begin to play. Piano plays a motif as John worries about the emotional toll this will take on Oliver. Piano is Oliver’s instrument for his quieter and intimate moments and this motif is used both in 3x19 “Forgive Us” when Oliver believes Roy is dead in prison and then later for John and Andy’s relationship in Season 4. It reminds the audience of the brother relationship between John and Oliver here as well as the consequences Oliver is suffering for the sake of his family and friends, just the way Roy did in Season 3.

The Queen Family

Meanwhile, Felicity and William are in witness protection, laying low to avoid Diaz and his men. Felicity returns home to William after her shift and he asks her how long they have to stay there. As they talk about missing Oliver, “Big Mistake” begins which is William’s theme. Until now, it has always been Oliver and William’s theme but now it expands to the entire family as Felicity tells him “at least we still have each other.”

Felicity and Oliver both get ready for a new day. An electric beat gives a slight ominous undertone as they both do their same mind-numbing routine. What is fascinating is the use of electric guitar harmonics during Felicity’s sequence as she gets ready. This instrument is typically Oliver’s established in the pilot and the ascending 5th is the opening for his hero theme and Scars (1x01), both which are alluded to as Felicity quietly and sadly gets ready. It alludes to the scars that have formed for hiding for the past 5 months and what is about to happen.

The following fight scenes are brutal and intense with a soundtrack of percussion and electronics. It gets quieter with Diaz’s monologues accompanied by sliding electronic notes to give a sense of foreboding and danger. His low electronic glissando theme returns (first in 6x19 and used in moments of violence) as he pulls out his gun to shoot Felicity. The music then goes seamlessly back and forth in intensity between the two fights. Hints of the Arrow theme return in punctuated strings chords as Oliver is fighting near the end (used in a similar fashion in “Damaged” S1). The fighter in Oliver is returning before beaten down and told that Felicity was dead.

A repeated electronic note plays as Oliver paces in his cell reflecting his anxiety and then dissonant notes play together almost like a hum as he waits for his visitor, certain that it would be John telling him of Felicity’s death. This is subtle but very effective music-wise to describe Oliver’s state of mind. A french horn and strings quietly play and calm the scene as they both see each other for the first time in 5 months, both terrified for the other. The horn motif is part of the horn melody in “Returning Home” (1x01) emphasizing that Felicity and William are his home and his life.

Like John’s conversation, the first half of their conversation is in silence to help bring focus on this emotionally charged scene. Music enters the scene after Oliver asks Felicity to go back to witness protection. As Felicity answer that she is sending William to boarding school but staying to fight herself, the theme “Felicity pleads with Ra’s” (3x20) begins in the piano, strings and flute. While the instrumentation has changed to match these characters and setting (piano instead of Nanda Parbat crutales, flute instead of duduk), the emotional impact is the same. Felicity needing to fight for the man and family she loves. She is not willing to back down and while this breaks Oliver’s heart, he eventually says ok. Back in 3x20, Ra’s told Felicity to tell Oliver that she loves him and then let him go. In both cases, she does tell Oliver “I love you” and says goodbye but never lets him go. Here, she tells Oliver that she will always, always wait for him.

Felicity tells William she is sending him away for his protection and gives him the hozen as hammered dulcimer plays “Scars.” This is important for several reasons. This theme first appeared in the pilot, the same episode that he gave Thea the hozen for the first time, symbolizing re-connection. It was also used in 6x23 as Oliver asks Felicity to go into witness protection for their safety. Now, Felicity is doing the same thing for William. It is also the first time this theme is used for someone other than Oliver: his son. William has lots of emotional scars from the loss of his mom and his dad and now it feels like Felicity is abandoning him as well. Felicity promises that she will always be able to find him. I think it is quite possible that this music is also foreshadowing the last scene/reveal, being used for re-connection to the other person who received the hozen.

Meanwhile, Oliver wipes out the numbers on his wall, coming out to fight. The tone of electronics is different. It now sounds purposeful instead of menacing with the instrumentation adding brass, plus the hints of the Arrow rhythmic theme in string chords (like the fight before) announcing that the Arrow and hero is fighting back.

Star City and the new Green Arrow

A new Green Arrow emerges in Star City, first taking down someone on his list and delivering him to the police. Rene Ramirez is the next one to see him, trying to stop someone from his gym from buying guns. As Rene fights this gang, his theme comes back in full force “Time to Hang up the Hockey Mask” (5x02). This Arrow returns and saves Rene, stopping the selling of the weapons, introducing a new motif for this vigilante: a glissando or slide but distorted almost resembling a siren, sometimes going up, sometimes down. Similar but also clearly different from Oliver’s.

Dinah is determined as the police captain to take this new vigilante down, setting up to stop both the weapons deal and catch this new person. As the police surround this Arrow, lower electronics glide up and down before the previous Green Arrow motif comes back when Wild Dog covers for the vigilante to escape. A variation of this is heard one last time as the vigilante is shown to cross off names off a list at the end.

William and Flash-forwards

One fascinating story-telling device was the introduction of William in the future but looking like it was the past. The motif for Lian Yu returns as he heads towards it in a storm. As he looks for Roy, he comes across the graves including his grandfather’s: Robert Queen. The string melody of “Honor Memory” (1x02) plays, first heard when Oliver was at this grave after burying him with a different piano melody playing over it. This fooled me into thinking it was a son of Robert and half-brother of Oliver before it was revealed to be William visiting his grandfather’s grave while seeking to help his own father.

The music reveals Roy at the end with his horn motif “Try Roy Try” (2x02) as he confronts William about who sent him. William reveals the hozen and then Roy’s theme repeats with a little faster as Roy takes off his hood and we realize that that we are seeing an older Roy and William.

Extra notes:

- This year, Blake Neely is joined by Nathaniel Blume as co-composers for Arrow. Nathaniel has already been helping Neely’s team for several years with Arrow and joined co-writing the Flash last year. Last year, Arrow was the only show Neely was doing on his own, so I am not surprised that he officially added a co-writer this year with the amount of shows that he is writing. It will be interesting to see if there will be any significant changes. Blume has six tracks that he wrote for Arrow on his own website (nathanielblume.com) including Helix Headquarters from season 5, which stood out to me during that season. Most of the music he writes is fighting music while I believe Blake likes to write the emotional scenes.

- my next few weeks are really busy so I may just write highlights instead of a full review. Let’s be honest, I’m not good at keeping these short

- The new Arrow soundtrack is scheduled to come out tomorrow! It may take me a few weeks to write about it but I look forward to seeing what tracks will be on it.

- Glad to be back with a great first episode!

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#arrow 7x01 #blake neely #arrow soundtrack #arrow music notes #nathaniel blume #oliver queen #felicity smoak #william clayton #green arrow

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