(23 December 2012)
WHAT I THOUGHT OF IT
WHO COMPOSED THE CELLO THEME FOR THE EAGLE IN AIRWOLF?
It's a common question to ask "who composed the cello theme with the eagle?". Well, it wasn't some long-dead classical composer, or some obscure working resurrected for the show, it was our own Sylvester Levay.
The "EAGLE's THEME" from Airwolf's 'PILOT' episode and later the synth version from 'BITE OF THE JACKAL' performed by Mark J.Cairns and composed by Sylvester Levay from the Airwolf Extended Themes soundtrack
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The Music Teaser MP3 file (3-part suite - 27th July , 2013):
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| 1st Season Airwolf episode and fan-favourite, the cello solo that was the basis of the 'EAGLE's THEME' (aka "Eagle's Serenade" / "Hawke's Theme") with Hawke serenading both the lake's bald eagle and Gabrielle during the "PILOT" episode and used later in the season as a synth version in 'BITE OF THE JACKAL' episode. |
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| The "EAGLE's THEME" from both Airwolf's 'PILOT' episode and 1st Season episode 'BITE OF THE JACKAL' was always intended as Hawke's love theme for both Gabrielle and the eagle. Both original composer, Sylvester Levay and Creator & Executive Producer, Don Bellisario always referred to it as "HAWKE'S THEME" during actual production. |
This is probably the best known of Airwolf's 1st Season character themes with the famous cello solo and orchestral score for 'EAGLE'S THEME' (aka "EAGLE'S SERENADE" / "HAWKE's THEME") and probably Sylvester Levay's best-loved of his episodic theme music that even the general public remember.
Even though Sylvester did a cracker cello solo and orchestral with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra for the original Airwolf Themes 2CD, it didn't include the later synth version that was used during the 'BITE OF THE JACKAL' episode.
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| The synth version of the "EAGLE's THEME" can be heard during the sequence where Hawke is re-fitting the damaged tail rotor during the early 1st Season Airwolf episode 'BITE OF THE JACKAL'. There was just a hint of the flirtation with the female character of the week, Miriam Santos (played by 'RUTH BRITT'). |
So we brought in a live cellist to play the solo again with a slightly different performance to what the Munich Philharmonic did and a little closer to the original.
The last part, played totally by synth, creates a slightly dreamy sound, helped by some of the odd chords (I have Jan to thank for helping to decipher some of those) which added to the ambience of my original take done at Einstein in ProTools.
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Attracts eagles, girlfriends AND FISH! A little trout
jumps out of the water to hear the cello solo!
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WHAT I THOUGHT OF IT
Airwolf fans always love the "cello theme" as many call it, and even casual fans who sort of remember the show from an earlier broadcast seemed to connect with the emotional content of this piece and they remember in the back of the dusty brain matter somewhere. Jan-Michael Vincent really sold the emotional performance in his three outings with the cello during the 'PILOT' episode even if his finger place and bowing action and laughable to real cellists. Makes a lovely, memorable visual though.
WHO COMPOSED THE CELLO THEME FOR THE EAGLE IN AIRWOLF?
It's a common question to ask "who composed the cello theme with the eagle?". Well, it wasn't some long-dead classical composer, or some obscure working resurrected for the show, it was our own Sylvester Levay.
WHAT'S COMING NEXT?
I'm currently working on 'PROOF THROUGH THE NIGHT' and then 'THE HORN OF PLENTY' to finish off my CD2 of Airwolf Extended Themes 2CD Soundtrack. After that I'll be tweaking some of the other orchestral-heavy tracks to be even better.
"PROOF" though, is proving challenging, as there's another live cello solo in the last part of this one for the Russian 'Song of the Revolution' tune called "Polusko Polje". It's being mixed in with orchestral and will include the lab sequence at the start, the encounter with the MIGs and the tune when the Russians are closing in on Dom and Moses' position in the cabin, to finish with Hawke's cello rendition when Natalya Rostoff is singing her version of Polusko Polje (we've obviously left her voice out!). I've the first half mixed so far, as of today, the orchestral is proving harder than I thought.
JAN'S BLOG -- STATUS
As I said earlier in December, Jan's pretty much finished his CD1 for Airwolf Extended Themes (he created his final one in mid-December 2012 to take his tally to 23 tracks!), so go and have a listen to his various Airwolf Main Themes on his own: Airwolf Orchestrator's Blog.
For progress of were we are with the Airwolf Extended Themes project as a whole, please see the updated Pre-Production Tracklist here.
OUR AIRWOLF WEBSITE
OFFICIAL AIRWOLF DOCUMENTARY
Marty Grant's on-going progress as Producer & Director of the other big Airwolf creative project (which I'm Co-Producer on)... the official Airwolf DOCUMENTARY can be found on his Blog and if you haven't seen the cool Music Teaser Promo we did for the documentary were the original Airwolf cast and crew describe what they remember and felt about Sylvester Levay's music on the show, then go see the awesome 16:9 HD video on our YouTube channel. Make sure to change it to 1080p HD 16x9!
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