After a short hiatus, we’re Back – from the future – with a good look at Alan Silvestri’s score to the Robert Zemeckis time-travel classic. Back to the Future is, at its core, about a small group of characters, and yet it possesses a huge scale of feeling and mood, much of which can be attributed to Silvestri’s impressive orchestral score. Join us as we take in the jazz roots of this classic, the fanfares and motifs, and of course, the classic hit songs that power the film.

Episode notes:

0:45 – We’re back, from the future

4:40 – Following in the Spielbergian mould

13:10 – Romancing the Silvestri-Zemeckis relationship

16:10 – The main theme

20:00 – Asking questions through tritones

26:00 – Mysterious origins of the time machine

29:14 – Main theme variations

32:32 – Going through the gears

39:41 – The main theme, romantically

41:47 – Marty’s theme

44:39 – The time motif and the Back to the Future sound

49:05 – Doc’s turning wheels

53:00 – The octatonic scale

55:02 – The Biff motif

57:08 – Back to the Predator

59:33 – Art of the Score dissects the climactic suite

1:07:00 – Is it the best climax suite in film music?

1:09:54 – The songs! The Power of Loving Back to the Future

1:15:50 – Mister Sandman

1:26:10 – Night Train

1:32:13 – Earth Angel

1:37:19 – Andrew’s Johnny B Goode telephone authorship theory of doom

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