Angelo Badalamenti's Soundtrack from Twin Peaks 9781501323010, 9781501323041, 9781501323027

Table of contents :
FC
Praise for the series:
Forthcoming in the series:
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Acknowledgments
Track Listing
Welcome to Twin Peaks
Beautiful Darkness
There’s Always Music in the Air
Falling
Wrapped in Plastic
She’s Full of Secrets
Freshly Squeezed
I’ll See You Again in 25 Years
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography

Citation preview

Soundtrack from Twin Peaks Praise for the series: It was only a matter of time before a clever publisher realized that there is an audience for whom Exile on Main Street or Electric Ladyland are as significant and worthy of study as The Catcher in the Rye or Middlemarch … The series … is freewheeling and eclectic, ranging from minute rock-geek analysis to idiosyncratic personal celebration — The New York Times Book Review Ideal for the rock geek who thinks liner notes just aren’t enough — Rolling Stone One of the coolest publishing imprints on the planet — Bookslut These are for the insane collectors out there who appreciate fantastic design, well-executed thinking, and things that make your house look cool. Each volume in this series takes a seminal album and breaks it down in startling minutiae. We love these. We are huge nerds — Vice A brilliant series … each one a work of real love — NME (UK) Passionate, obsessive, and smart — Nylon Religious tracts for the rock ’n’ roll faithful — Boldtype [A] consistently excellent series — Uncut (UK) We … aren’t naive enough to think that we’re your only source for reading about music (but if we had our way … watch out). For those of you who really like to know everything there is to know about an album, you’d do well to check out Bloomsbury’s “33 1/3” series of books — Pitchfork For reviews of individual titles in the series, please visit our blog at 333sound.com and our website at http://www.bloomsbury.com/ musicandsoundstudies Follow us on Twitter: @333books Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/33.3books For a complete list of books in this series, see the back of this book

Forthcoming in the series: The Raincoats by Jenn Pelly Colossal Youth by Michael Blair & Joseph Bucciero Bizzare Ride II the Pharcyde by Andrew Barker Homogenic by Emily Mackay Uptown Saturday Night by Will Fulton & Patrick Rivers Workbook by Walter Biggins & Daniel Couch Boys for Pele by Amy Gentry Return to the 36 Chambers by Jarett Kobek Okie from Muskogee by Rachel Rubin Tin Drum by Agata Pyzik Peepshow by Samantha Bennett In on the Kill Taker by Joe Gross 24 Hour Revenge Therapy by Ronen Givony Transformer by Ezra Furman Switched on Bach by Roshanak Kheshti and many more…

Soundtrack from Twin Peaks

Clare Nina Norelli

Bloomsbury Academic An Imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Inc 1385 Broadway New York NY 10018 USA

50 Bedford Square London WC1B 3DP UK

www.bloomsbury.com Bloomsbury is a registered trade mark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2017 © Clare Nina Norelli, 2017 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Norelli, Clare Nina. Title: Soundtrack from Twin Peaks / Clare Nina Norelli. Description: New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2017. | Series: 33 1/3 | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: LCCN 2016034722 (print) | LCCN 2016035348 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501323010 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781501323027 (ePDF) | ISBN 9781501323034 (ePUB) Subjects: LCSH: Badalamenti, Angelo--Criticism and interpretation. | Television music--History and criticism. | Twin Peaks (Television program) Classification: LCC ML410.B17375 N67 2017 (print) | LCC ML410. B17375 (ebook) | DDC 781.5/46--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016034722 ISBN: PB: 978-1-5013-2301-0 ePub: 978-1-5013-2303-4 ePDF: 978-1-5013-2302-7 Series: 33 1/3 Cover design: 333sound.com Typeset by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NN

For Ben

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Contents

Acknowledgments viii Track Listing ix Welcome to Twin Peaks 1 Beautiful Darkness 9 There’s Always Music in the Air 21 Falling 35 Wrapped in Plastic 51 She’s Full of Secrets 69 Freshly Squeezed 91 I’ll See You Again in 25 Years 115 Appendix 125 Notes 137 Bibliography 147

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Acknowledgments

Thank you to Bloomsbury for commissioning this book, and to my editors Leah Babb-Rosenfeld and Michelle Chen. To my partner, family, and friends: thank you for your love, patience, and for supporting my various musical endeavors and writing projects over the years. To my wonderful friend and fellow music theory nerd, David Howell, thank you especially for your expertise and assistance. Many thanks to Brad Dukes, Josef Woodard, Peiter Dom of the Welcome to Twin Peaks online community, and Ross Dudle of Twin Peaks Soundtrack Design for their helpful websites and for answering questions I had whilst writing this book. Thanks to David Lynch, Mark Frost, and all of the Twin Peaks players for creating such a timeless and inspiring television series. And of course, most importantly, thank you to Angelo Badalamenti for composing such beautiful, life-changing music.

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Track Listing

1. “Twin Peaks Theme” (Instrumental) (4:45) 2. “Laura Palmer’s Theme” (Instrumental) (5:08) 3. “Audrey’s Dance” (Instrumental) (5:15) 4. “The Nightingale” (Vocal by Julee Cruise) (4:54) 5. “Freshly Squeezed” (Instrumental) (3:48) 6. “The Bookhouse Boys” (Instrumental) (3:24) 7. “Into the Night” (Vocal by Julee Cruise) (4:42) 8. “Night Life in Twin Peaks” (Instrumental) (3:23) 9. “Dance of the Dream Man” (Instrumental) (3:39) 10. “Love Theme from Twin Peaks” (Instrumental) (4:34) 11. “Falling” (Vocal by Julee Cruise) (5:18)

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Welcome to Twin Peaks

A place both wonderful and strange

A bass sounds a twangy, resonant low F accompanied by a barely there, quarter-note cymbal ostinato. An F(add2) chord follows on Rhodes, warm and inviting, like a secret confession. Straining for resolution, the chord descends to settle on a straight F chord, its downward trajectory forming the musical approximation of a lovelorn sigh. The pattern is repeated, but two steps lower, beginning on a D in the bass. Suddenly, a wash of synthesized strings and French horn pours over the mix accompanied by a cool wave of guitar tremolo, oscillating between B-flat(sus2) and B-flat major chords and then sliding up to C(sus2) and C major. The melody in the synth-strings and French horn swirls, as if caught in a whirlwind, and then begins to rise, starting on E and joined by another twang in the bass on C. Up the melody moves to F, then G, A, B-flat, each note full-bodied and determined in its ascent, until it finally climaxes on C and then it all comes falling down again: Welcome to Twin Peaks. Population: 51, 201. What must the thirty-five million people who tuned in to the pilot episode of Twin Peaks in April of 1990  1 •

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have thought when they first witnessed the show’s opening credits? This haunting music, coupled with images of rural terrain and industrialization, must have belied audiences’ expectations. Who Killed Laura Palmer? What of the tantalizing murder mystery that had been promoted in the press? But those who were watching that night would soon learn how fitting this opening sequence and its soundtrack was. Twin Peaks was a town with secrets, a town whose wholesome Americana was merely a distraction from what was really going on. Twin Peaks: Like every town you’ve ever seen. And no place you’ve ever known. The announcement that the next project for cult film director David Lynch was to be a television prime-time soap opera was initially met with a degree of skepticism, with news outlets making proclamations such as “Is TV ready for David Lynch?”1 The director and artist was primarily known as a purveyor of postmodern weird—the term “Lynchian” since becoming pop-cultural shorthand for the decidedly unusual. How would a director known principally for his arthouse cinema possibly be able to operate within the confines of prime-time network television? David Lynch was introduced to Twin Peaks’ co-creator Mark Frost in the mid-1980s by the television agent Tony Krantz, who was working at Creative Artists Agency (CAA) at the time. Krantz had established a relationship with Lynch in the hopes of enticing the director to enter the world of television, believing that Lynch’s unique directorial style could bring something fresh to the small screen. Lynch and Frost—the latter of whom was already a seasoned television writer with the critically acclaimed  2 •

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series Hill Street Blues under his belt—began dreaming up various cinematic projects, including a film adaptation of Anthony Summers’ book Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe (1985). Though the film never came to be, its subject matter clearly left an indelible mark on the pair, and their discussions about ‘a woman in trouble’ eventually evolved into a concept for a television show. Originally called Northwest Passage, the show was to be centered on the murder of a teenage homecoming queen in a small Pacific Northwest town and the ensuing investigations into her death. At a time in which laugh-track television reigned supreme, no one could have predicted that a show as unusual as Twin Peaks would have the cultural impact that it did. But when it first aired on the US television network ABC (American Broadcasting Company) in the early months of 1990, the cult of Twin Peaks proliferated. Friends gathered for viewing parties accompanied by cherry pie, donuts, and coffee (dietary staples in the town of Twin Peaks) and speculated alongside the media as to the identity of Laura Palmer’s killer. Even the writers of television programs such as Beverly Hills 90210, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and Sesame Street made reference to Twin Peaks to either signify the offbeat and unusual or, if nothing else, to give their shows a shot of contemporary cool. In my small, isolated hometown of Perth, Australia, the reaction to Twin Peaks was much the same as it had been in the United States, and on the night of the show’s highly anticipated premiere in February of 1991 it attracted 42 percent of the viewing audience.2 Shortly after its Australian television debut, the single for the  3 •

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show’s theme song and its soundtrack album hit the number 1 spots on the Australian Recording Industry Association’s (ARIA) singles and album charts. Twin Peaks mania had found its way all the way to Australia. It would be a few years later before I was old enough to watch Twin Peaks, but its impact upon my moody teenage self was no less immediate. I was already a burgeoning cult cinema fanatic who was obsessed with Lynch’s first film, Eraserhead (1977), and when I discovered Twin Peaks I was instantly enamored with its peculiar amalgam of the everyday and the otherworldly. The show’s offbeat characters and visuals aside, what really captured my attention during what would be the first of many forays into the world of Twin Peaks was its soundtrack, composed by Angelo Badalamenti. Badalamenti, who has been active as a composer since the late 1950s, has composed in a wide variety of musical genres over the course of his career: pop, soul, musical theatre, jazz, and everything in between. Yet, despite his incredibly diverse compositional output, Badalamenti has primarily been associated with music of an indelibly haunting character since first collaborating with Lynch on the film Blue Velvet (1986) and on Twin Peaks a few years later. Often referring to his compositional style as bittersweet or “beautifully dark,” Badalamenti works with harmonic suspension, dissonance, instrumental timbre, and melody to create such a sound, and his music has the ability to romance or disturb the listener even when removed from the cinematic images it often accompanies. And, unlike most music for film and television, Badalamenti’s soundtracks are able to function successfully as stand-alone albums.  4 •

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When I first began watching Twin Peaks as a teenager, I played the show’s soundtrack album on repeat on my cheap CD player night after night. Lying on the floor of my room listening, I sang along and copied out the lyrics written by Lynch and sung by Julee Cruise into my journal, pondering their meaning and mining their imagery for inspiration for my own writing. The influence of the soundtrack eventually found its way into my musical explorations too. Sitting at my piano, I began to create my own improvisations over the walking bass line that permeates the cool jazz of tracks such as “Audrey’s Dance” and “Freshly Squeezed.” As I slowly began to find my own voice as a songwriter and composer during these formative years, the influence of Badalamenti and the Twin Peaks soundtrack upon my compositions was undeniable. Badalamenti’s music is still very much part of the soundtrack of my life, and the music that he created for Twin Peaks sent me on a path not only as a film music aficionado, but also as a writer of and about this largely under-appreciated genre of music. In film and television, music plays a vital role in anchoring narrative and assisting with the suspension of disbelief. It is, to quote the film director Francis Ford Coppola, “the big factor in helping the illusion of film come to life.”3 Successful film music works to enhance a film through unconsciously engaging the listener/viewer. Music is vital in establishing mood and tone in a visual narrative, whether it is barely perceptible on the periphery of the soundtrack or appearing during important moments to strengthen the power of on-screen action. Music can even take centerstage and be the focal point of a scene—a plot device with which to drive a story.  5 •

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There are a few technical terms that I will be using over the course of this book in order to explore ideas. I will discuss them as they appear, but one that is worth noting at this point is referring to the audience—as I have already done above—as the “listener/viewer.” I will do this on occasion when discussing Badalamenti’s music in Twin Peaks because much of this book will concern itself with how his compositions function in tandem with the visuals of the show, and I feel that using the words separately does not accurately convey the act of simultaneously watching and listening. After briefly discussing Badalamenti’s early career and how he came to establish a collaborative relationship with David Lynch as a matter of context, I will explore Badalamenti’s soundtrack for Twin Peaks. How does Badalamenti’s unique compositional language influence or strengthen on-screen visuals? What do the associations we unconsciously make with certain genres of music mean for their use in Twin Peaks? What commentaries of Twin Peaks and its townsfolk are present in the music? When one is writing about film music one has to consider two audiences: music fans and film fans (and often the twain shall meet). I have tried to write about Badalamenti’s music in such a way as not to alienate any readers. Though sections of this book involve musical analysis—which is necessary on occasion in order to understand how and why Badalamenti’s music works so well in strengthening the visual language of Twin Peaks— it is my hope that it is expressed in such a way that it is still accessible to those who have not studied a note of music. This book is an hommage to a highly original and  6 •

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inventive composer whom I feel is often overlooked by the greater public, and to Twin Peaks itself. It is also a book for Twin Peaks fans: a wonderfully diverse group of people united in their love for, and dedication to, a groundbreaking and utterly unforgettable television show. So without further ado … Let’s Rock!

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Beautiful Darkness

“I started improvising and writing down music when I was 10 years old … There is a mood to it, maybe even a darkness—a beautiful darkness…These things I wrote at 10 or 11 years old show that this has always been a part of me.” Angelo Badalamenti1

Angelo Badalamenti was born in Brooklyn, New York on March 22, 1937 and grew up in a household in which there was often music in the air. He began taking piano lessons at the age of eight and showed an early aptitude for musical improvisation and composition. The young Badalamenti would listen to the opera and classical music of his Italian family’s record collection and the jazz of his trumpeter brother, and the music stuck, leaving a lasting impression on the budding composer’s musical identity. He continued his music studies through high school and went on to study at a graduate level, earning an undergraduate degree at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. After attaining a Master of Arts majoring in composition, French horn, and piano from the Manhattan School of Music in 1960, Badalamenti  9 •

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then began his professional career as a teacher at Dyker Heights Junior High School in Brooklyn. Badalamenti took great pleasure in writing pop songs in his spare time and at the cessation of the school day he commuted into the city to shop-around his compositions. Composing under an anglicized version of his name, Andy Badale, out of commercial necessity, Badalamenti also placed wanted ads under this name in newspapers and magazines asking for lyricists interested in supplying words for his songs. This led to a creative partnership with the writer John Clifford, whose words Badalamenti found the most “intelligent” of all the lyrics he received.2 The Badalamenti/Clifford creative partnership proved particularly fruitful in the world of 1960s soul and R&B, and the duo composed songs that were subsequently recorded by popular artists of the time, such as “I Had to Know My Way Around” for R&B singer Della Reese. Three of their compositions—“I Hold No Grudge,” “He Ain’t Comin’ Home No More,” and “Another Spring”— even made their way into the legendary Nina Simone’s diverse repertoire, and are featured on her albums High Priestess of Soul (1967) and Nina Simone and Piano (1969). Of all Badalamenti’s early songs, it is the somber “I Hold No Grudge” that most embodies the “beautiful dark” sound that he has become known for, particularly in its opening section. The song consists of two contrasting sections that combine to create a ternary structure: an A section, a B section and a repeat of the A section to close. The downwards movement of its A section’s chord progression (Dm to Dm/C-sharp to Dm/C to B-flat) takes the form of a musical lament: a descending four-chord figure used to invoke sorrow. It •

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also bears a resemblance to a later Badalamenti composition, “Sycamore Trees,” that is heard in the final episode of Twin Peaks. “Sycamore Trees” follows a similar descending chord pattern beginning on an E-flat minor chord, but at a slower tempo, and features a commanding vocal performance by Jimmy Scott that is reminiscent of Nina Simone’s on “I Hold No Grudge.” Whilst working on a Christmas show at Dyker Heights in 1964, Badalamenti composed an original musical based on Charles Dickens’ novella A Christmas Carol (1843) for his students to perform. Badalamenti called on his songwriting partner Clifford to write the text, and the musical proved a hit with faculty and parents alike. The production was even broadcast on the New York television station WNDT-TV on Christmas Eve of 1964 at the encouragement of the local board of education. The New York Herald Tribune reported that the musical’s non-professional production values were “precisely the charm of the 45 minutes. It is what we see so seldom on TV—truly amateur work. It’s refreshing, even the fluffs and stumbles.”3 Composing this small school musical would prove a turning point in Badalamenti’s career. Soon after the musical aired he received a call from a music publisher named Frank Stanton. Stanton had been impressed with Badalamenti’s musical and convinced the young composer to leave his secure teaching position to become a full-time composer and partner in his business in New York City. During his time working alongside Stanton, Badalamenti continued to write songs and arrangements for other artists (the pair had a hit with Nancy Wilson’s “Face It Girl, It’s Over” in 1968), musical •

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theatre (they produced a musical starring Sir Winston Churchill’s daughter, Sarah Churchill, based on her children’s book The Boy Who Made Magic in 1973), and even advertising jingles. In 1966, Badalamenti undertook what appeared to be his first foray into film music. He is credited alongside Stanton with composing the English lyrics for “Our World,” a song that is featured in the 1967 US release of the schlocky Italian “shockumentary” Mondo Balordo (1964) (also known as A Fool’s World). In a rare vocal performance, Badalamenti can even be heard crooning the song earnestly during the film’s opening credits accompanied by the sort of electric-organ-heavy backing band that was everywhere in 1960s pop and rock music. Such a diverse range of musical assignments throughout the 1960s and 1970s would serve Badalamenti well as a film composer: a vocation that requires the ability and adaptability to write in a vast array of musical genres and styles. “If you want to be a film composer get involved with all kinds of music,” he would later advise composers starting out, “because when you get called as a composer a lot of films [require] different styles [of composition] and you have to be able to handle that.”4 One of the more unusual partnerships of Badalamenti’s early career was with the electronic music pioneer Jean-Jacques Perrey, with whom Badalamenti collaborated on advertisements, jingles, and instrumental pieces. One such instrumental, “Visa to the Stars,” is featured on Perrey and Gershon Kingsley’s cult 1966 album The In Sound from Way Out! and also appeared in an advertisement for the oil company Esso around the same time as the album’s release.5 The In Sound from Way Out! •

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follows in the tradition of musique concrète, a genre of electroacoustic music that originated in the first half of the twentieth century after the invention of the tape recorder. Characteristic of musique concrète composition was the splicing, mixing, and modification of recorded sounds to create new works or sound collages. A prominent composer of musique concrète works was Pierre Schaeffer, who trained as a radio engineer, not as a composer. As a musical novice he could approach musical composition as an “organization of sound” instead of as an arrangement of traditional musical notation. It was Schaeffer who introduced Perrey to tape manipulation. Perrey hand-spliced and arranged music and sound effects to create loops for The In Sound from Way Out! in a process that was incredibly time-consuming. Today, looping musical material is achieved easily through merely cutting and pasting on music editing software. For this reason alone, The In Sound from Way Out! cannot be dismissed as pure musical novelty, and its innovative synthesis of pop and musique concrète, as well as its introduction of the synthesizer to a wider audience, is why it has retained its status as an influential and important electronic music album. Badalamenti himself has created many pieces with David Lynch that have utilized techniques found in musique concrète. Since the early 1990s, the pair have recorded long pieces of music that they call “firewood.” These “firewood” tracks are then altered and sometimes mixed together to create different soundscapes for Lynch’s visuals. “Visa to the Stars” is the most homogenous in texture of all the pieces that appear on The In Sound from Way Out! in that it does not feature an abundance of electronically •

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driven sounds. There are no sudden blips or bleeps, or amusing sound effects overwhelming the piece’s sonic landscape. The only “unusual” instrument present is the Ondioline, an early synthesizer with an oscillating tone like that of a theremin. The composition consists of three sections (A B A), and features a simple melody performed by the Ondioline. It is accompanied by electric organs, a drum kit, and banjo rhythm section supplying a galloping rhythm that would not be out of place on the soundtrack of a Western film. What is most striking about “Visa to the Stars” is that in its B section (approximately a minute into the piece) there is a key change from C major to A-flat major, and a secondary melody emerges from the new harmony. At this moment the piece transforms into a very early incarnation of “Questions in a World of Blue,” a song that would later feature in the Twin Peaks universe. For about four bars, the Ondioline melody and its accompaniment is similar in its melodic and harmonic trajectory to that of Julee Cruise’s vocal line and Badalamenti’s synthesizer in “Questions,” though Cruise’s vocal line ascends in the fourth bar (see the boxed notes in Figures 1 and 2). Note that in “Questions in a World of Blue” the melody is augmented (longer) and that the whole song is performed a great deal slower than “Visa to the Stars.” In his musical collaborations with David Lynch, Badalamenti has adapted to the director’s predilection for “slowness,” and it is evident here in the elongation of the melody.

Figure 1  The Ondioline melody in “Visa to the Stars” •

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Figure 2  Julee Cruise’s vocal line in “Questions in a World of Blue”

Interestingly, in 1970 “Visa to the Stars” was re-orchestrated and arranged by another film composer, Ennio Morricone, and released under the title “Tiger Rally.” It is ironic that Morricone, best known for his brilliant score for the famous Western The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966), stripped away the brisk Western-style accompaniment of the original and instead slowed the piece down, allowing the melody’s romantic character to shine. His loungey interpretation of “Visa to the Stars” expands on the first section of the piece (the second section I describe above is not used) and strings perform the melody alongside the heavily reverbed vocals of I Cantori Moderni di Alessandroni, a choir who had worked with Morricone on some of his previous film scores. The singers slink in and out of the mix, sometimes solo, other times in harmony, occasionally elongating the “s” at the end of certain words to create a soft hiss. This wash of languid vocals coupled with the piece’s leisurely pace allows for a dreamy ambience to permeate Morricone’s take on Badalamenti and Perrey’s otherwise brisk original version.

The World of Cinema One of the earliest film scores Badalamenti composed was for the 1974 release Law and Disorder, a film about two men (played by Ernest Borgnine and Carroll •

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O’Connor) who join together to form a vigilante law enforcement duo. Badalamenti had been working as a television composer for Palomar Pictures in the early 1970s when he met Law and Disorder’s director, Ivan Passer. The meeting would prove fortuitous, as Passer had just finished work on the film. Badalamenti had seen the script on its travels around the Palomar offices and had already composed some themes for the film on spec to show the director. Managing to catch Passer at an auspicious moment, Badalamenti performed the themes he had written for the film’s two central characters and demonstrated how he could integrate the themes so they could work together in the film’s score. Passer was suitably impressed and agreed to have Badalamenti score his film. The composer’s recent electronic music collaborator Jean-Jacques Perrey even took part in the film, supplying “electronic music effects” for its soundtrack. Law and Disorder is out of print at the time of writing, but its trailer is viewable online and gives an impression of Badalamenti’s scoring for the film.6 Law and Disorder’s main theme features a mournful melody performed on a synthesizer accompanied by a quaint mix of woodwinds, strings, other keyboard instruments, a drum kit, and what sounds like a jangling triangle keeping time. When removed from the film’s trailer and its quirky orchestration, a stripped-down version of the theme reveals a melody that conveys a sense of longing: another early manifestation of the beautifully dark, or “bittersweet” compositional style that Badalamenti would later become known for. “I’ve always loved things that are bittersweet,” he reflected in an interview with the writer Josef Woodard. “Things •

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can get very melodic, but it never gets sappy. It grabs you without going over the top. A lot of things I write work out that way.”7 But just what is “bittersweet” in the context of musical composition? When Badalamenti describes his sound as “bittersweet,” it could refer to a few different aspects of his music, but in simple terms “bittersweet” can be taken to mean that although his music often possesses a sad quality it is still very pleasurable to listen to. One compositional device that assists Badalamenti in creating this “bittersweet” sound is his use of harmonic suspension which can be heard in the opening five bars of the melody from the “Theme from Law and Disorder.” If we reduce the theme’s score in these five bars down to a simple melody and accompaniment, we can observe a suspension in the third bar (Fig. 3). Western listeners grow up hearing music that is predominantly tonal, in that it is centered around a particular note called the tonic. A scale can be organized using certain pitches from this tonic which then informs a piece’s tonality (for example the key of C major or C minor). Certain notes are more consonant or stable within a scale, whereas others are dissonant, and there is an overall tendency for constant resolution to and reinforcement of the tonic note. A suspension occurs

Figure 3  Suspension in the “Theme from Law and Disorder” •

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when a note that is dissonant within a particular harmonic context is sustained before resolving (usually downwards) to a note that is more consonant. In the “Theme from Law and Disorder,” the sustained B note of the melody in the third bar creates a tension against the A minor harmony—in which it is a dissonant note—and resolves by moving down to the A (the tonic note) on the second beat of the following bar. Thus the tension created by the sustained B creates a feeling of restlessness in the listener who unconsciously desires resolution to the A. Law and Disorder was met with mixed reviews upon its release, with some critics noting that the film’s constant shifts between humor and heavy drama were disconcerting. Badalamenti’s work on the film went largely unnoticed, though the Australian critic Helen Frizell made positive mention of Badalamenti’s score in her review of the film, writing that although the film was muddled “Andy Badale’s music [was] bright.”8 Around the same time as Law and Disorder was in production, Badalamenti also had the opportunity to work on another film at Palomar Pictures, requiring him to compose in a very different style of music. Gordon’s War (1973), directed by Ossie Davis, also concerns several men taking the law into their own hands on the gritty streets of New York City. Once again the savvy Badalamenti approached the director to write the score for the film, showing Davis different songs he had written for each of the characters. Davis was initially apprehensive about hiring Badalamenti for the job (he had Barry White in mind to write the film’s music) but conceded after being impressed by Badalamenti’s stirring compositions. Badalamenti’s background in writing pop and soul songs •

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served him well for Gordon’s War, and the R&B singer Barbara Mason even performed the film’s tie-in single, “Child of Tomorrow.” The film’s soundtrack—which is co-written and produced by Badalamenti and Al Elias, arranged by Horace Ott, and performed by the studio band Badder Than Evil—is full of driving funk rhythms, clavinet punctuations, and wah-wah guitar, and has since become a cult record sampled by numerous hip-hop and dance artists.9 Despite delivering solid scores for both Law and Disorder and Gordon’s War, Badalamenti did not find himself working on further film projects during that latter half of the 1970s. Instead, he busied himself with writing songs and musical theatre pieces into the 1980s, and even had a minor country hit with the novelty instrumental number “Nashville Beer Garden” (credited to the Andy Badale Orchestra) in late 1979. His life as a composer would drastically change, however, in the mid-1980s when he was asked to assist an actress who was having a hard time transforming herself into a singer.

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There’s Always Music in the Air

“[Lynch] is a sound, mood and rhythm director.” Kyle MacLachlan1 “Angelo brought me into the world of music. I didn’t realize how much I wanted to go there till that happened.” David Lynch2

In 1986, Angelo Badalamenti received a call from a friend who was in North Carolina working on the new David Lynch film, Blue Velvet. Fred Caruso, the film’s producer, had suggested Badalamenti as a possible vocal coach for the actress Isabella Rossellini, who had been having difficulties in singing the song “Blue Velvet” in her role as nightclub singer Dorothy Vallens. In an interview for the documentary about the making of Blue Velvet titled Mysteries of Love (2002), Caruso recalled, “When it was time to pre-record Isabella … she couldn’t do it. She’s not a singer. She tried very hard, the piano player couldn’t get it in the right key … it just didn’t work at all. So I called a friend of mine, Angelo Badalamenti.”3 Set in the fictional town of Lumberton, Blue Velvet is centered on Jeffrey Beaumont (played by Kyle •

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MacLachlan), a young man who discovers a human ear in a vacant lot and then takes it upon himself to investigate the dark underbelly of his seemingly wholesome hometown. Lynch had been inspired to write the film by the pop song “Blue Velvet,” which was originally written in 1950 by Bernie Wayne and Lee Morris, and made famous by Bobby Vinton in the early 1960s. But in the world of Lynch’s Blue Velvet, the mournful love song’s romantic conceit is rendered grim and disturbing. Lynch had initially been dismissive of Caruso’s suggestion that Badalamenti assist Rossellini, but as they were not making progress with the recording of “Blue Velvet” for the film, Lynch finally acquiesced. Badalamenti made the trip down from New York to Wilmington to work with Rossellini, and together they rehearsed for a few hours on an arrangement of the song with just piano and vocals. Lynch listened to a recording made of the session and was so impressed with Badalamenti’s arrangement and success with Rossellini that the composer was enlisted to write further music for the film’s soundtrack. In one dreamlike scene in the film, Dorothy performs “Blue Velvet” at Lumberton’s local jazz bar, The Slow Club, whilst her soon-to-be accomplice in amour fou Jeffrey watches on, mesmerized by her enigmatic glamor. Badalamenti’s arrangement of “Blue Velvet” in this scene takes on a cocktail lounge sound—a piano, lightly brushed drum kit, guitar, saxophone, and upright bass supports Rossellini’s breathy vocals—and ends with a unique musical divergence from the original song. Just over a minute into “Blue Velvet,” we see the majority of Dorothy’s band suddenly disappear from the •

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screen, suggesting the passing of time, until only she and Badalamenti (in a brief cameo appearance) remain. In this moment, “Blue Velvet” transforms into a new piece that is titled “Blue Star,” and the mood of Dorothy’s performance immediately shifts from that of relaxed cabaret to doomed torch singer. The lyrics of “Blue Star” allude to a song from the mid-1950s of the same name, and also feature fragments of lyrical imagery that would later appear on Lynch/Badalamenti collaborator Julee Cruise’s song “Into the Night” from the Twin Peaks soundtrack. And this isn’t the only connection between “Into the Night” and Blue Velvet either. Several times in the film we hear Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper) state “Now it’s dark”: words whispered softly by Julee Cruise at the beginning of “Into the Night.” In “Blue Star” we hear Badalamenti’s bittersweet or “beautiful dark” in full effect, owing to a few compositional choices on the part of the composer. Firstly, there is a key change from C major in “Blue Velvet” to G minor in “Blue Star.” The most obvious difference between a major key and a minor key is the third and sixth notes of their corresponding scales. In a minor key, these notes are flattened. The G major scale for example, consists of the notes G, A, B, C, D, E, and F-sharp, whereas the G harmonic minor consists of G, A, B-flat, C, D, E-flat, and F-sharp. By simply flattening the B and E of the G major scale we are able to change its musical character. Western listeners are predisposed to hearing minor keys as “sad” and major keys as “happy,” and one reason for this is that years of experiencing certain genres of music in specific dramatic contexts have conditioned our emotional responses to such music. This may seem like •

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somewhat of a generalization, but consider the difference in how you feel when hearing Felix Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March” in C major (1842) compared with the gloom and doom of Frédéric Chopin’s “Funeral March” from his Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor (1839). Classical works such as these have become ingrained in Western cultural consciousness as definitive signifiers of joy and sorrow (think of how many films or TV shows have used the aforementioned pieces over the years) and film composers and pop songwriters have followed in the Classical tradition, composing music that works with, and reinforces, listeners’ associations between tonality and character. As neuroscientist Daniel Levitin explains in his book This is Your Brain on Music, “each time we hear a musical pattern that is new to our ears, our brains try to make an association … we try to contextualize the new sounds, and eventually, we create these memory links between a particular set of notes and [previous listening experiences].” 4 Another way in which Badalamenti creates his “beautiful dark” sound is through his use of instrumental timbre or color. Every musical instrument has its own unique timbre that differentiates it from others. An instrument’s individual pitch range also affects its timbre. For example, the low notes on a piano sound dark and murky, whereas its high notes are bright. Composers take this into consideration when writing for individual instruments. Certain instruments also bring particular associations with their use, just as major and minor keys do. A film composer may use an accordion in a film score to draw on moviegoers’ association of the instrument with France, or the city of Paris. This brings with it a •

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sense of time and/or place that can help to reinforce images on screen. When “Blue Velvet” segues into “Blue Star,” the warm sound of the jazz ensemble is replaced by a sparse, dissonant, high-register piano ostinato (a repetitive musical or rhythmic figure) accompanied by strings. Since the inception of cinema, the string section of the orchestra has traditionally been used by film music composers to accompany scenes of high drama, sometimes to the point of silliness, especially when heavy vibrato (a slight fluctuation of pitch) is employed. By simply replacing the jazz ensemble of “Blue Velvet” with the strings, and combining it with the abrasive piano ostinato, the composition signifies to the listener/viewer that there is a change in the atmosphere of Dorothy’s performance at The Slow Club and injects the scene with further drama. “Blue Star” also opens with a lament progression that is similar to that of the one heard at the beginning of Badalamenti’s composition for Nina Simone, “I Hold No Grudge.” The low register strings descend gloomily on the notes G, F, E-flat, D before the piece concludes on an unresolved Gmin9(sharp7) chord. In the middle-register strings we also hear a suspension, with an A being held over a G minor chord that finally resolves down to an F-sharp to create a D major harmony when the D is played in the lower register. This long suspension creates internal harmonic drama in its need for resolution. When the suspension is coupled with the dissonance that occurs between the C and D in the upper register of the piano and the unresolved final chord, as well as with the aforementioned choice of tonality and instrumental timbre, it creates an uneasy ambience. •

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Floating The unique creative relationship between Badalamenti and Lynch was born out of Lynch’s inability to secure the rights of a 1983 This Mortal Coil song he loved for use in Blue Velvet. “Song to the Siren” was originally written and released by the folk singer Tim Buckley in 1970, but the dream pop collective’s interpretation thirteen years later featured layered, heavily reverbed vocals by Elizabeth Fraser floating above the sparkling guitar of Robin Guthrie (both also members of the band Cocteau Twins). Occasionally, a ghostly vocal wail intrudes on the mix, aches to a climax, and then disappears into the audio ether, subsumed by an abundance of reverb that washes over the mix like an ocean wave. Unfortunately for Lynch, who had his heart set on the song, the synching rights of “Song to the Siren” proved far too expensive for Blue Velvet’s budget. Years later, Lynch would be able to feature the song in his film Lost Highway (1997), but for Blue Velvet it was simply not affordable. Fred Caruso had noticed that Lynch was always scribbling little fragments of words on paper, so he suggested to Lynch that he write a few lyrics to give to Badalamenti that could be used to compose a song in the same style as “Song to the Siren.” Lynch was not too keen on the idea, adamant that there was no way that the beautiful piece of music he was so in love with could be easily replicated. “David really knows what he wants, especially when he listens to existing records and he falls in love with those things. It’s very hard to turn David around into something new,” Badalamenti commented of Lynch’s obstinacy in an interview in 1990.5 But Lynch did as •

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Caruso suggested and a confused Badalamenti found himself stuck with a piece of paper bearing a few abstract lines of poetry. The composer was initially disappointed to find that the words—which bore no discernable rhyme or hook—were unlike any of the lyrics he had encountered in his long career as a songwriter working with lyricists. In an interview with Film Score Monthly in 2001, Badalamenti recounted his initial feelings on Lynch’s lyrical abilities, explaining that he had no idea what to do with the lyrics he had been given. He approached Lynch and asked the director how he would like the piece to sound, to which Lynch replied, “Oh, just make it like the wind, Angelo. It should be a song that floats on the sea of time. Make it cosmic!”6 Badalamenti was somewhat confused by Lynch’s abstruse instructions. But, ever adaptable, the composer took in the quasi-spiritualism of Lynch’s descriptions of nature and the universe and began to create a melody and arrangement that complemented the unusual lyrics he had been saddled with. As the pair discussed changes to the melody and sound of the piece, the seeds of a unique creative partnership began to take root, and soon a slow, stately song emerged from their dialogue. They gave it the title “Mysteries of Love.” Badalamenti had brought Lynch into the world of music, and Lynch had challenged Badalamenti to compose in a more impressionistic way, encouraging the veteran songwriter to eschew more traditional songwriting practices (such as following a verse/chorus structure and working with rhyming lyrics) in favor of creating a prevailing mood. Lynch and Badalamenti decided that a singer who possessed a voice “like an angel” would be needed to •

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bring the correct feel to the song in order to truly convey the piece’s cosmic identity. Badalamenti had worked with the singer Julee Cruise on various projects including a musical of his own entitled The Boys in the Live Country Band and enquired as to whether she knew of any singers who possessed the ethereal vocal quality required for “Mysteries of Love.” Initially neither Cruise nor Badalamenti had considered her for the gig, as Cruise was known for her ability to “belt.” The singer later admitted, “I’m a belter … I have a big voice. I’m a comedienne, and an actress, and a musician … but I am not an ingénue.”7 Cruise sent numerous singers to audition for the song but none of them was quite right. In the end, partly due to frustration, Cruise decided she would attempt to sing the song. Cruise went against her propensity to sing in a bold, musical-theatre style and instead sang very high and very soft in order to capture the celestial sound that Badalamenti and Lynch had been looking for. She explained of the difficulties she initially experienced in adapting her voice to the song: “There was just the hint of a melody, no breaks in the music, no place for a singer to breathe. At first I said I couldn’t do it. I didn’t think I could hold my breath that long.”8 Eventually Cruise found her “white angel” sound and she later reflected that it was necessary for her not only to sing differently, but to actually adopt a different vocal character. “David’s lyrics are so spacious and odd that I had to throw out my usual vocal technique and adopt a slight persona.”9 Imitating the hymn-like execution of This Mortal Coil’s performance in “Song to the Siren,” Cruise performs “Mysteries of Love” in a slow, deliberate •

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fashion, her vocal delivery wavering only to oscillate on the occasional word. The effect of the vocal movement on these words is referred to as a melisma in music, and is produced when multiple notes are attributed to a single syllable. For example, on the word “float” she uses seven notes—C-sharp, D-sharp, C-sharp, D-sharp, E, F-sharp, and E. In “Mysteries of Love,” Cruise’s use of melisma resembles the plainsong (also known as Gregorian chant) of Western liturgical music in that her vocal line moves slowly in a stepwise fashion between a limited number of tones and avoids large melodic jumps. On the word “float” the ascension of the melodic line is also a form of word painting, its upwards movement analogous to the physical act of floating. Further strengthening the song’s ties to Western liturgy is its spacious synthesizer and orchestral accompaniment, which swells and envelops Cruise’s voice like an immense pipe organ. In one scene in Blue Velvet, the metaphysical overtones of “Mysteries of Love” are literal. Jeffrey and Sandy (Laura Dern) sit in Jeffrey’s car outside a church as Sandy recounts a dream she had the night she met Jeffrey. As she describes the imagery of her dream, an instrumental version of “Mysteries of Love” is heard on the soundtrack featuring the sound of a church pipe organ. “Mysteries of Love” (in both its instrumental and Julee Cruise iterations) underscores scenes in the film that depict the burgeoning romance between Jeffrey and Sandy. In these scenes, the pair meditate on love and happiness, and their interaction provides a counterpoint to the contact that Jeffrey has with the emotionally damaged Dorothy and the seamy underworld of Lumberton. The love that Jeffrey has for the somewhat naive Sandy is in •

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conflict with the erotic longing he feels for Dorothy, and this is reflected in Badalamenti’s shifts between “light” and “dark” musical material. In contrast to Sandy and her association with “Mysteries of Love,” whenever Dorothy is on screen, the music we hear on the soundtrack is usually comprised of low-register orchestral rumblings that intone a sense of impending doom. And of course we cannot forget Dorothy’s sad performance of “Blue Star” or her subversive reimagining with Frank of “Blue Velvet” as a song with far more sinister implications than were surely intended by its songwriters.

A Perfect Marriage “The music has to marry to the picture. It’s an experiment to find those things that do that.” David Lynch10

After the success of Badalamenti’s work with Rossellini and the creation of “Mysteries of Love,” Lynch tasked the composer with the film’s entire score. Harnessing his ability to write in many genres of music, Badalamenti created additional music for Blue Velvet in the style of classic Hollywood scores, neo-classical music, and jazz. His dramatic piece for Blue Velvet’s opening credits twists, turns, and soars as the names of the film’s personnel appear over a soft wave of rippling blue velvet. At the end of the piece a two-note motif is heard in the brass section that is eerily reminiscent of what would later become a key piece on the Twin Peaks soundtrack: the opening of “Laura Palmer’s Theme” (see Fig. 5, p. 70). •

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Lynch had written the script whilst listening to the composer Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 15 (1971), and played the composer’s work on set to establish an atmosphere. When it came time to write the film’s score Lynch even requested that Badalamenti compose his music with the mood of Symphony No. 15 in mind. Lynch’s use of music on set was indicative of the way in which he, unlike many other film directors, would often use music to inform the action or mood on screen instead of having a score written or soundtrack placed after shooting had been completed. Consider the following popular sentiment about the role of the composer in film: It is the cardinal rule for the film composer that the visuals on the screen determine the form of the music written to accompany it … the film composer must take into consideration the form and rhythm of a scene established by the visuals. To do otherwise is to invite argument not only from the film itself but from the producer and director as well.11

Clearly this is not the case when it comes to a director such as David Lynch. Lynch’s subservience to music is but one of the many ways in which the director goes against traditional moviemaking practices. Lynch often discusses his films’ music with Badalamenti before production has commenced, and the composer has explained that “David’s visuals are very influenced by the music. The tempo of music helps him set the tempo of the actors and their dialogue and how they move.”12 Lynch wrote of using music during filming in his book Catching the •

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Big Fish (2006), noting that “hearing the music is just a verification that things are going the right way … it’s a good thing if you’ve got some music up front to play to see if the scene works.”13 Lynch delighted in the musical partnership that had emerged during Blue Velvet, reflecting years later, “[Badalamenti] was getting me to send lyrics and we’d sit and work together, and it was so much fun. And he didn’t mind me saying things. He liked me saying things.”14 “Saying things” would become a crucial part of their collaborative process. Sometimes Lynch would just present ideas on paper to Badalamenti with no musical direction, or on other occasions Badalamenti would sit at the piano and improvise with Lynch at his side vividly describing a scenario and its associated moods. The key to any great creative partnership is mutual understanding, and Lynch and Badalamenti are so successful as a director/composer duo because they are able to understand each other so implicitly. Badalamenti explained of their working relationship in an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 1990, “David describes the moods. They may appear nebulous; at the same time, they’re very specific … I listen to him and I start hearing things almost immediately.”15 The foundation for the Lynch/Badalamenti sound world had been established in the creation of Blue Velvet, and it would be one the composer and director would further explore during the creation of music for Twin Peaks. Blue Velvet’s transcendental “Mysteries of Love,” its American pop nostalgia, its ominous orchestral rumblings, and its hepcat jazz would all find their equivalents on the soundtrack for Twin Peaks. Badalamenti had •

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found the perfect cinematic environment for his moody compositions to thrive, and Lynch had discovered a musical partner who understood and enhanced the baffling and beautiful images he conjured up on screen.

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Falling

After the release of Blue Velvet, the otherworldly beauty of the song “Mysteries of Love” caught the attention of Warner Bros. Records; David Lynch, Angelo Badalamenti, and Julee Cruise were approached to produce an album for the label. The resultant Floating into the Night (1989), expanded on the moods and vocal character of “Mysteries of Love.” Badalamenti and Lynch collaborated again on the writing and production of material and Cruise was able to draw on her new-found angelic persona to perform the songs. The period that began with Blue Velvet and culminated in the release of Cruise’s second album, The Voice of Love, in 1993 was arguably the most fruitful of the Lynch/ Badalamenti creative partnership. To provide an understanding of the close proximity in which the diverse projects that Lynch and Badalamenti undertook occurred during this time, consider the following timeline: 1. Blue Velvet premieres in August 1986 at the Montreal World Film Festival, and then opens in the US in September 1986 and internationally in 1987. •

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2. Floating into the Night begins production in 1988. 3. Twin Peaks begins production early 1989. 4. Wild at Heart commences production in mid-1989 after completion of the Twin Peaks pilot. 5. Floating into the Night is released September 12, 1989. 6. The theater production Industrial Symphony No. 1 premieres November 10, 1989. 7. The Twin Peaks pilot airs in the US on April 8, 1990. 8. Wild at Heart premieres in May 1990 at the Cannes Film Festival. 9. The Twin Peaks soundtrack is released through Warner Bros. Records on September 11, 1990 just prior to the second season of the show airing later that month. 10. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me begins production in mid-1991. 11. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me premieres in May 1992 at the Cannes Film Festival. 12. The Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me soundtrack album is released through Warner Bros. Records on August 7, 1992. 13. Julee Cruise’s album The Voice of Love is released on October 12, 1993. The above list doesn’t even include the advertising work, television projects, and other endeavors that members of the so-called “Lynch Mob” undertook during this time! Songs from Floating into the Night appear in Twin Peaks and Industrial Symphony No. 1; musical cues and songs from Industrial Symphony No. 1 underscore Wild at Heart •

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and Twin Peaks; and songs from Industrial Symphony No. 1, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, and Wild at Heart show up on The Voice of Love. A brilliant cross-pollination of ideas occurred as a result of recording sessions and projects undertaken in such close proximity to one another, and from this cross-pollination bloomed a rich musical syntax that slipped effortlessly from one Lynchpiece to the next. The recording of Floating into the Night and later Twin Peaks sessions took place at the Excalibur Sound studio in New York City under the supervision of engineer Art Polhemus. Located inside a dilapidated building, Excalibur’s disheveled appearance and dark lighting served the character of Badalamenti’s music well, allowing a gloomy mood to prevail. Alongside Badalamenti on synthesizer and piano and Cruise on vocals, a group of talented session musicians were assembled for Floating into the Night that included Kinny Landrum (synthesizer), Vinnie Bell and Eddie Dixon (electric guitars), Al Regni (tenor saxophone and clarinet), and Grady Tate (drums). In an interview for the podcast The Brad Dukes Show in December 2015, Landrum described the musical arrangement process that took place during the recording of Floating into the Night.1 Badalamenti would first bring the musicians lead sheets* of his compositions from which * Lead sheets are a simplified form of sheet music distributed to musicians in an ensemble, and are most often used in jazz and pop music. They vary in their appearance but often offer a guide melody and lyrics with chord symbols. This format allows a degree of freedom in musical interpretation by performers as well as space for improvisation. •

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to work. He would then sit at the piano and perform a song prior to a recording session in order to communicate its particular mood or style. This allowed Landrum and the other musicians to “realize” the song’s basic character and intent, but in a way that left an interpretive space so that they could still inject some of their own musical personality into the recording. Lynch often attended these sessions, and in his role as producer would “[ask] for something not in musical terms, but in emotional or stylistic terms.”2 Sometimes Lynch’s requests were characteristically abstract. Cruise has joked in several interviews that Lynch once directed Al Regni to make his saxophone sound like “big chunks of plastic” on the song “Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart.”3 Regni achieved this by heavily accenting, or blasting, individual notes, and this can be heard from around 1:40 into the track. These noisy “chunks” aggressively penetrate the mix, disturbing the otherwise restrained character of the song. The sessions at Excalibur yielded an album that combined the sound of 1950s and early 1960s teen pop with surrealistic lyrics that seemed born in the vacuum of dreams. Commenting on the sedating quality of Floating into the Night, the writer Jack Barron even went so far as to describe the album as “the finest legal romantic narcotic of 1990 so far.”4 “Mysteries of Love” from Blue Velvet was included on Floating into the Night as well as the songs “Falling,” “The Nightingale,” and “Into the Night,” which would eventually appear on the Twin Peaks soundtrack release. Three other songs from Floating into the Night would also feature in one form or another in Twin Peaks: “Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart,” “The Swan,” and “The World Spins.” •

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Falling in Love The collaborative process that was established between Lynch and Badalamenti during the filming of Blue Velvet and further refined in the production of Floating into the Night continued to prove rewarding. Though Lynch was not a formally trained musician, he had learned to speak about music in such a way that was musical, conveying to Badalamenti the sound he wanted for a piece through a few carefully selected words. From these words, Badalamenti was able to intuit the particular compositional elements required for a piece, such as its tonality or tempo. In late 1989, the pair were commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music to stage two forty-five-minute performances as part of the line-up of that year’s Next Wave Festival. With only two weeks to write a theater piece, Badalamenti and Lynch worked quickly and came up with Industrial Symphony No. 1: A “triple-exposure dream. A dream of the broken hearted. A dream about floating and falling and rising upwards.”5 Separated into three sections—“Love,” “Nature,” and “Industry”—Julee Cruise featured prominently in the “Love” section of the piece, performing songs from her Badalamenti/Lynch catalog and even being suspended in mid-air whilst singing “I Float Alone.” Bathed in light and wearing dresses that would not be out of a place at a mid-century high-school dance, it would be a similar role to the one Cruise would be seen playing in the pilot episode of Twin Peaks the following February. Around the same time as the production of Industrial Symphony No. 1, Lynch approached Badalamenti to compose music for a television show he had been working •

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on. Describing the show as “Blue Velvet gone Peyton Place,”6 Lynch explained to Badalamenti that he wanted to create a piece of music that would encapsulate the essence of the series. So, during one particularly special songwriting session, Badalamenti sat at his old Fender Rhodes piano in the dimly lit office he used as a studio while Lynch sat by his side, and the two composed a piece. Lynch began by explaining to Badalamenti that the opening of the piece needed to be very dark and very slow, and that Badalamenti should imagine being alone in the woods at night surrounded by the sound of wind passing through the trees. Badalamenti began to play a repetitive C in the murky lower register of the Rhodes that lumbered on each beat as if it were part of a funeral procession. Soon an ominous motif that moved around the notes A-flat, G, and B-flat emerged, a little higher than the C. Badalamenti continued to repeat the motif for a little while until Lynch signaled that there needed to be a change in the music—a beautiful, sad girl was now beginning to materialize from deep within the darkness of the woods. Badalamenti’s motif then began to ascend, transforming into a beautiful melody that he complemented with a lilting accompaniment in the bass. As Lynch exclaimed that the troubled girl was getting closer and closer—each vocalization of “closer” becoming more and more ecstatic, more and more breathless— Badalamenti’s melody followed suit. It climbed further and further up the Rhodes, feeling unending, as if it would keep rising into oblivion. As Lynch reached fever pitch in his direction (Let it tear your heart out, Angelo!), Badalamenti finally allowed the melody to climax on a high E: Laura Palmer had arrived. •

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In just twenty minutes—one take—Badalamenti composed what was to become “Laura Palmer’s Theme.” Lynch loved what the composer had improvised, and implored Badalamenti not to change a single note: he had captured the spirit of the world that would become Twin Peaks. “Laura Palmer’s Theme” appears in two variations on the soundtrack release as “Love Theme from Twin Peaks” and “Laura Palmer’s Theme,” providing the emotional compass for Twin Peaks. Though the theme was conceived with Laura Palmer in mind and was initially anchored to her—appearing whenever she is mourned or when the circumstances around her death are discussed—it also took on a second life as the show progressed and new storylines emerged. Badalamenti was approached to write further music for the show when it was decided that a Twin Peaks pilot episode would be going into production, and the personnel from the Floating into the Night sessions were retained (with the addition of several other musicians) to record Badalamenti’s compositions. “Falling” had already been flagged in Lynch’s mind as the Twin Peaks theme song and it was reworked into an instrumental for the show’s opening credits. Using the original recording from the Floating into the Night album, Cruise’s vocal was omitted and replaced by Kinny Landrum performing its melody on his Emulator II synthesizer using a French horn sound.7 “Twin Peaks Theme” opens with a bass hook accompanied by reverberant chords on a Rhodes piano and a faint cymbal ostinato by Grady Tate. There have been varying accounts as to the conception of the famous “twangy” bass hook. Cruise recalls that Vinnie Bell •

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down-tuned his guitar to create the sound,8 whilst Eddie Dixon stated in a 2009 interview with Twin Peaks Archive that he performed the hook whilst working on Floating into the Night.9 In Brad Dukes’ comprehensive oral history of the show, Reflections, Badalamenti credits Landrum with coming up with the bass.10 According to Landrum, the sound was created using a retro guitar sample on his Emulator II synthesizer at the request of Lynch, who had wanted a “fifties” sound. Noticing that there was no bass part on the recording, Landrum performed the hook in a lower register to fill out the harmony and Lynch was immediately pleased with the results.11 Regardless of its origin, the Duane Eddy-inspired opening of the Twin Peaks theme is incredibly effective in that it brings with it certain cultural associations. Eddy was a guitarist who came to prominence at the end of the 1950s through such hits as “Rebel Rouser” as well as his famous guitar riff on the theme for the television series Peter Gunn (composed by Henry Mancini). His unique sound was created by playing a lead melody on the lower strings of his guitar which resulted in his signature “twang.” Added to this was a tremolo device he used on his guitar that produced a “growling” effect.12 So synonymous was he with this sound that he even released a record called Have ‘Twangy’ Guitar Will Travel in 1958. Eddy’s Gretsch guitar stylings and the genre of rock ’n’ roll and rockabilly they are associated with immediately signify the world of 1950s Americana to most contemporary listeners. This is owing to a multitude of films and television shows produced retrospectively that have been underscored with such music, resulting in audiences unconsciously bringing preconceived ideas of •

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musical meaning whenever they subsequently encounter classic rock ’n’ roll or rockabilly music. It is because of these associations that listeners/viewers immediately make a connection to Americana the moment the first bass note of “Twin Peaks Theme” resonates from the soundtrack ether. And it is a connection that is warranted. The world of Twin Peaks celebrates cherry pie, saddle shoes, love songs, and surly bikers. It has its origins in the wholesome Americana of Leave it to Beaver and Lynch’s own 1950s childhood in Montana just as much as it does in the supernatural or the dark underworlds of 1940s film noir and gritty mid-century whodunits—a thematic ambivalence Lynch also navigated in Blue Velvet. The theme’s subtle associations with Americana are further emphasized when it is coupled with the images of the rural Northwest shown in Twin Peaks’ opening credits: a native wren, industrial smokestacks and machinery, and the town’s Welcome sign. After the first bass note sounds in “Twin Peaks Theme,” the accompanying chords of the Rhodes reply, falling and straining for harmonic resolution. The warm timbre of the swelling melody that emerges in the lower register of the Rhodes accentuates the tranquility of the images in the opening credits, and the accompanying chords take the shape of a musical sigh, garnering a feeling of longing in the listener. How Badalamenti achieves this feeling of longing in the theme is through using suspensions in the middle of the chords. Badalamenti explains, “what makes it distinctively Angelo Badalamenti is the middle stuff, beautiful dissonant things that kind of rub you wrong. Sometimes they resolve, sometimes they don’t.”13 The suspensions, or “middle stuff that rubs you wrong,” can •

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Figure 4  “Falling” motif and harmony

be heard in the Rhodes chords at the beginning of “Twin Peaks Theme” (Fig. 4). The chords in “Twin Peaks Theme” move from F(add2) to F and then the pattern repeats two steps lower in the second bar, moving from a Dmin(add2) to D minor. The addition of the (add2) notes in the middle of these chords creates a tension against the harmony because it is not a note that features in the root chord. In the first F major chord the (add2) note (G) creates tension until it resolves through moving down to the F, the root note of the chord. The same tension and resolution occur with the movement between the E and the D of the D minor chords in the second bar. And therein lies Badalamenti’s “beautiful dissonance.” The composer and musicologist Norman Cazden explains of dissonance: In [Western] musical harmony the critical determinant of consonance and dissonance is expectation of movement … A consonant interval is one which sounds stable and complete in itself, which does not produce a feeling of necessary movement to other tones. A dissonant interval causes a restless expectation or resolution, or movement to a consonant interval … Context is the determining factor.14 •

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In “Twin Peaks Theme” our “restless expectation” for harmonic resolution results in a visceral feeling of longing, which we then transfer to our experience of watching Twin Peaks. Romantic longing is a key plot device in Twin Peaks and it is mirrored here, right from the very first chord in the show’s opening theme music. The descent of the chords is also analogous to the act of falling in love, and in Lynch’s world, the act of “falling”— in both its physical and metaphysical forms—is one of great significance. The composer and scholar Michel Chion notes that “[Falling] is a fundamental word for Lynch, who conjugates its various meaning in his lyrics as well as in his films. ‘I’m falling,’ Dorothy Vallens screams in Blue Velvet.”15 With this thematic idea in mind, a simplified motif can be extricated from the descending inner voice of the chords on the Rhodes (the G, F, E, D notes I have boxed in Fig. 4) that reflects this musically. Just over a minute into the track, synthesized strings appear in the mix and begin to ascend, building to a climax that eventually envelops the mellow sound of the Rhodes and takes over recitation of the “Falling” motif. The “Falling” motif appears again at the end of “Twin Peaks Theme” but this time it is heard four steps higher in the synthstrings on the notes C, B-flat, A, and G. When the track was used in the show’s opening credits, this section would often be looped. Television shows loop sections of their theme for different reasons. The Simpsons loops a section of its accompaniment at the end of its opening credits to enable the show’s running visual joke: its couch gag. The loop can be played as long as necessary, meaning the couch gag is not limited by any •

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time constraints dictated by the show’s theme music. The looping of the “Falling” motif at the end of Twin Peaks is not only a practical choice in that it allows for additional credits, but it also prolongs harmonic resolution and thus creates anticipation of what is to come; the listener/ viewer is caught momentarily in a swirling vortex of synthesizer drama until the original chords heard at the beginning of the credits return and slowly fade out as the episode commences. One of the many genres of television that Twin Peaks is associated with is soap opera, as much of the show’s drama is centered on the tumultuous love affairs of its characters. Some of Twin Peaks’ townsfolk are even shown watching their very own soap opera, Invitation to Love, during the first season of the series. Lynch has admitted in interviews that he became hooked watching daytime soap operas whilst working in a print shop as a young man and their influence can be seen in much of his work, particularly in Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks’ ties to this genre of television are further strengthened by its theme’s resemblance to another television theme song: the opening music of the classic soap opera The Young and the Restless. The theme for this soap (“Nadia’s Theme”), composed by Perry Borkin Jr. and Barry De Vorzon, uses the same downwards moving chords with an internal suspension that are heard in Badalamenti’s “Twin Peaks Theme.” The chords in the opening of the “Twin Peaks Theme” move from F(add2) to F to Dmin(add2) to Dmin, and “Nadia’s Theme” moves in a similar fashion: from Dmin(add2) to Dmin to C(add2) to C. Given the incredible popularity of “Nadia’s Theme” (it charted successfully, peaking at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in 1976) •

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and the daytime television ubiquity that The Young and the Restless has enjoyed since the mid-1970s, the original listeners/viewers of Twin Peaks no doubt made—and continue to make—an unconscious connection to the world of soap opera when they heard its theme song’s opening chords. Whether it was a conscious choice or not on Lynch’s behalf, such analysis suggests that the reworking of “Falling” was an inspired choice for Twin Peaks.

Something is Different Twin Peaks’ evocative theme proved immensely popular with viewers when the show first aired and, owing to its association with the show, Julee Cruise’s original version of “Falling” also found a second life. Floating into the Night had received positive reviews upon its release in 1989, but its critical success had not been reflected in record sales. The album had gone largely unnoticed until Twin Peaks mania took hold across the globe in 1990 and fans clamored for anything and everything related to the show. In the space of time between the airing of the pilot in April 1990 and the soundtrack’s official release in September 1990, there was a surge in sales for Floating into the Night, with the album entering the Billboard Top 100 albums chart in June 1990. “There was such a demand for the main title theme that radio stations were bootlegging it off the TV,” Badalamenti explained to the Edmonton Journal in 1990. “We started hearing the theme being played and there was no soundtrack released so Warner Brothers Records said, ‘Oh, oh, we better rush •

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out a single.’”16 The single was released as “Falling (The Theme from Twin Peaks)” and included both the show’s instrumental theme and Julee Cruise’s original version from Floating into the Night. After charting for several weeks, on June 30, 1990, the single peaked at number 11 on the Billboard Alternative songs chart. In September, the official Twin Peaks soundtrack album was released and entered the Billboard 200 at number 72 before peaking at number 22 on the week of November 3, 1990. At a time when albums by M. C. Hammer and Vanilla Ice were holding the top two positions in the album charts, this was no small feat for such an eccentric musical offering. Soon after the show’s soundtrack release Badalamenti was awarded a Grammy for “Twin Peaks Theme” in the “Best Pop Instrumental Performance” category at the 33rd Annual Grammy Awards, winning over industry giants Phil Collins and Quincy Jones, and the poster boy of ’90s adult contemporary pop, Kenny G. The soundtrack went on to chart well all over the world into 1991, and even made the number 1 spot on the Australian chart. The rush to release a Twin Peaks tie-in single and soundtrack album was initially met with some skepticism. Twin Peaks’ detractors chalked the release of the soundtrack down to the inevitable merchandizing blitz (T-shirts, the publication of The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, talks of Peaks-branded coffee mugs, etc.) that had begun at the onset of Twin Peaks mania. At the height of Twin Peaks’ popularity, the Toronto Star ran a review in November 1990 of a Cruise performance that compared Twin Peaks’ sudden success to that of the fervor surrounding the children’s cartoon juggernaut Teenage •

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Mutant Ninja Turtles.17 In his piece for the Star, Lenny Stoute discussed the ensuing soundtrack releases of the two vastly different fan bases, observing rather cynically that “the Mutant Turtles movement took the war onto music’s turf with their LP and a touring band … Lynch’s response was the release of the Peaks’ soundtrack album, followed by putting his touring arm, Ms. Cruise, on the road.” This is not to say that both brands have not enjoyed a pop-cultural legacy. But in retrospect, the demand for, and influence of, Badalamenti’s soundtrack both during and after the airing of Twin Peaks was far greater than that of its Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles equivalent. In 2011—over twenty years later—Lynch began releasing The Twin Peaks Archive, an “open album” of previously unreleased Twin Peaks music via his personal website.18 The fan excitement surrounding the release was testament to the enduring quality of Badalamenti’s compositions. By contrast, the soundtrack for the film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) features some strong pop tracks of its time, but is probably revisited largely for nostalgia by most listeners, and has not aged quite so well. It is understandable that the release of the Twin Peaks soundtrack may have initially been met with a degree of skepticism. Soundtracks for film and television have often proven to be cash grabs that feature unrelated tracks seemingly selected at the last minute, with the releasing record company simply adding tracks to showcase new music and artists on their roster. Consider how many soundtracks have featured music “inspired by” the film. In the early 1990s there had been an increase in the release of soundtrack tie-ins for television shows, both •

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good and bad (The Simpsons Sing the Blues anybody?). Badalamenti lamented this trend in an interview with the Sunday Times in 1990, his interviewer noting that “Badalamenti does not subscribe to the current vogue for soundtracks to consist of an unrelated group of songs thrown together with an eye on a hit single … It pains [him] that soundtrack albums are usually dismissed as musical wallpaper or simply considered a souvenir of the movie to go with the T-shirt.”19 A record store owner also interviewed for the Sunday Times piece observed that it was unusual for a television soundtrack to be so sought after, and that other Badalamenti soundtracks were also being requested. Badalamenti had become a composer in demand. “I’ve already turned down—I kid you not—12 offers within the last three weeks,” Badalamenti exclaimed in an interview in September 1990, “I never realized the power of television.”20

•

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On the night of April 8, 1990, thirty-five million American viewers encountered some of the most unusual network television of their lives. Written by David Lynch and Mark Frost and directed by Lynch, the Twin Peaks pilot episode begins with the discovery of Laura Palmer’s (Sheryl Lee) plastic-wrapped body by Pete Martell (Jack Nance) accompanied by “Laura Palmer’s Theme,” and concludes mysteriously with the dead girl’s mother Sarah Palmer (Grace Zabriskie) shrieking in terror over a cacophony of synthesizer dissonance. The viewer’s curiosity was piqued, and through its feature-length pilot the character of the show had not only been established dramatically but also musically. In early 1989 Badalamenti worked with Lynch to create key musical themes for the world of Twin Peaks. “My challenge … was in a very short period of time to write different kinds of music,” the composer would later recall.1 “I knew that Twin Peaks had to have a sound and its own musical identity. It’s so unique.”2 Badalamenti’s soundtrack featured cool jazz, classical, soap-opera melodrama, retro teen balladry, and everything in between. It was a postmodern melting pot of •

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musical genres and an unusually sophisticated outing for a television soundtrack. This synthesis of styles added to the anachronistic feel of Twin Peaks; we are never quite sure when the show takes place, and the world which its characters inhabit is splintered between the mundane and the mythical. Badalamenti’s ubiquitous soundtrack also helped in anchoring Twin Peaks’ oft-unhinged narrative, supplying a prevailing mood that consolidated the entire series. “[The music] helped create and support the mood of the show,” Frost later explained to Brad Dukes, “It gave you a very specific sense of time and place that felt outside of real time and real place. It helped elevate the show into the mythological realm that really separated it from the usual TV view of what the world is.”3 After the composition of their theme for Laura Palmer, Lynch and Badalamenti continued to meet at Badalamenti’s New York office to explore further ideas for the show’s soundtrack.4 Once Badalamenti had fleshed out and notated various themes for the show, he took his compositions to be interpreted by a group of studio musicians, the majority of whom were fresh from the stage and studio of Industrial Symphony No. 1 and Floating into the Night. The recording sessions for this small ensemble for the small screen occurred at the end of 1989 into early 1990. As Kinny Landrum explained in an interview with Keyboard magazine in 1990, all of the music had been recorded prior to the pilot being edited, with none of the musicians seeing any footage of the show whilst the recording sessions occurred. Badalamenti simply brought in his pieces written out for the musicians and Lynch described to them what would be happening on screen.5 For Lynch, it was more •

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important that the music created an overall mood than perfectly matched the on-screen action. From the pilot recording sessions, a technique emerged that would be used in subsequent episodes. While orchestrating the show, Badalamenti and Lynch developed a habit of recording the different instruments of the ensemble not only in combination but also solo, the tracks then being referred to as musical “firewood.” This “firewood” was then mixed and layered freely to create new pieces for the show. It was a practice that the pair explored further in their work together on the films Lost Highway (1997) and Mulholland Drive (2001). As well as creating full ensemble versions and solo takes, Lynch and Badalamenti compiled edits that featured different combinations of the composite instruments. Lynch and Badalamenti’s firewood technique allowed for instrumental timbre to be explored and exploited for maximum sonorous effect, resulting in multiple realizations of a single theme. Although this technique required Badalamenti to relinquish some creative control of his compositions over to Lynch, it meant that unexpected sounds could be discovered; warped instrumental timbre could be used in tandem with many of the show’s off-center visuals. One reason the Twin Peaks tracks were so easily mixed was because the majority of the music Badalamenti composed for the show was based in the key of C minor. This tonal homogeneity allowed for the thematic variations and individual instrumental tracks to be easily pieced together by the show’s sound editors and directors depending on the requirements of a scene. David Lynch’s music supervisor Dean Hurley explained in his •

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accompanying notes for the Twin Peaks Archive releases that a music editorial “kit” was created for the show that catalogued all the various possible cue combinations. This enabled an episode’s director and music editor to choose music more easily for their episode, due to the immense amount of material available.6 The Twin Peaks pilot episode opens with an extended credit sequence in which the show’s theme is given time to settle and establish an atmosphere, and when the first scene begins, we immediately hear the dark introduction of “Laura Palmer’s Theme.” Like the thematic material it underscores, Badalamenti’s music for Twin Peaks can be sorted into two factions: compositions which possess a light quality and those which possess a dark quality. The lighter music takes its influence from 1950s and ’60s teen pop, Americana, soap-operatic schmaltz, and fingersnappin’ jazz, while the darker musical material features synth soundscapes, cloying dissonance, and the moodier jazz pieces. Fittingly, “Laura Palmer’s Theme”—the musical crux of the show—oscillates somewhere between these two musical worlds. “For Twin Peaks,” Badalamenti would later explain, “I was very aware that [Lynch] wanted music that would be intensely evocative of pain and sadness but which was also quirky and playful, and so there are fusions; there are very ’50s melodies such as ‘The Nightingale’ and things like jangling guitars and tenor saxes for the main themes.”7 Around twenty individual musical cues are present in the feature-length pilot episode of Twin Peaks, and the way in which they were used and mixed with each other provided a blueprint for the selection, mixing, and placement of cues in subsequent episodes. It is useful to •

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delineate between a musical “cue” and musical “track” at this point. In the context of film and television the term “cue” has its origins in the music cue sheets of silent cinema. In early cinema, individual composers were not employed to write a film’s entire score. Movie theater pianists were instead provided with cue sheets by film production companies that outlined appropriate music to perform in a particular scene.8 The music that was featured in these sheets was usually gleaned from classical and popular music of the day and provided a means by which to establish continuity in silent film musical accompaniment. Modern cue sheets highlight when music appears on screen and provide information such as the name of the cue, its duration, and composer. In referring to the cues as they are labeled in both the pilot episode’s original cue sheets and the Twin Peaks Archive, as well as noting how they appear on the Twin Peaks soundtrack release as individual tracks or songs, we can better understand the original motivation for Badalamenti’s Twin Peaks musical themes and their evolution and usage in subsequent episodes of the series.9

She’s Dead … After Twin Peaks is introduced by its captivating theme music, the pilot episode opens with “Laura Palmer’s Theme.” In the production notes for the show, “Laura Palmer’s Theme” was separated into two cues: the “Dark Introduction” and “Love Theme from Twin Peaks.” These two cues can be heard combined on the tracks “Laura Palmer’s Theme” and “Love Theme •

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from Twin Peaks” on the soundtrack album. The “Dark Introduction” is fairly self-explanatory in its labeling. The cue functions as the first section of “Laura Palmer’s Theme” and Badalamenti’s droning use of harmonic suspension imbues the theme with foreboding. The “Love Theme” (henceforth referred to simply as the “Love” cue) is identified when the melody begins to rise and the musical character of the theme becomes more romantic. It is important to make the distinction between the two cues at this point, as they often appear independently of each other on the pilot’s soundtrack as well as throughout the series, snaking in and out of the televisual narrative. The “Dark Introduction” appears in the first scene of the pilot episode when Josie Packard (Joan Chen) is introduced. As she hums a faint, unrelated melody, the cue’s ominous character immediately conveys that something horrible is about to happen. The music continues as the scene cuts to Pete and Catherine Martell (Jack Nance and Piper Laurie) in their kitchen: a domestic setting rendered unnerving by Badalamenti’s synthesizer drone. Pete leaves their home to go fishing and discovers a body by the water wrapped in plastic. He returns home to inform the local law of his discovery and the “Dark Introduction” ends. The cue then returns when Pete escorts the police and Dr. Hayward (Warren Frost) to the location of the body. As the police take photos of the plastic-shrouded cadaver and Deputy Andy (Harry Goaz) breaks down at the sight of it, the “Dark Introduction” lingers, and its repetition helps the scene build tension (Whose body is this? What is happening in Twin Peaks?). Dr. Hayward suggests to Sheriff Truman •

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(Michael Ontkean) that they roll the body over in order to identify the victim, and as they do, the “Dark Introduction” immediately shifts into the “Love” cue. The distraught pair look on in disbelief when Laura Palmer’s face is revealed, and the theme plays off their sadness as it ascends to a heartbreaking climax. In just under five minutes Badalamenti has taken us on an emotional journey largely driven by the haunting theme for Laura Palmer, a piece of music that he had written alongside Lynch just over a year prior to Twin Peaks being aired. It speaks where characters are too shocked or saddened to express themselves, and allows the mystique of Laura Palmer to truly captivate us. We are left wanting to know more about this mysterious woman and the circumstances surrounding her death. Then the scene segues into Laura’s home where her mother is calling out for her to come downstairs, and the music follows suit as it begins its descent from the climax that had been built up upon the reveal of Laura’s identity in the previous scene. As Sarah Palmer’s iterations of her daughter’s name become more and more panicked, the theme then returns to its “Dark Introduction,” as if provoking Sarah further. When Sarah calls the Briggs’ residence enquiring as to Laura’s whereabouts, the cue stops abruptly as if to acknowledge that it has no place within the walls of the Briggs’ home. The first of several jazz cues enters when Audrey Horne (Sherilyn Fenn) appears on screen outside The Great Northern hotel. Grady Tate’s solo snare and cymbal improvisation underscore this intriguing young woman in saddle shoes, immediately bestowing her with an aura of cool detachment. Not long after Audrey is •

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shown outside The Great Northern, we are taken inside the hotel to witness a business meeting occurring between the hotel’s owner Benjamin Horne (Richard Beymer) and a group of Norwegian investors. Leland Palmer (Ray Wise)—Horne’s attorney and Laura Palmer’s father—is at Benjamin’s side until the meeting is interrupted by an urgent phone call from Sarah Palmer. As Leland makes his way to the phone, the “Dark Introduction” resumes its intonation of dread. Upon the arrival of Sheriff Truman at the hotel, Leland and Sarah simultaneously recognize that something terrible has happened. Leland moves the phone away from his ear and eventually drops it in shock, and as Sarah pleads with him to let her know what is happening the “Love” cue begins. Here the melodic ascent works in contrast to the sinking heartbreak that the parents are experiencing in this moment (recall the “falling” sensation discussed in the previous chapter). The theme climaxes when Leland utters the words “My daughter’s dead” and Sarah’s muffled cries can be heard emanating from the phone receiver. The “Dark Introduction” returns as the phone’s cord and receiver are shown in close-up, and combines with Sarah’s grief-stricken cries to create such discord that it almost sounds as if it will create a permanent tear in the soundtrack.

Cool, Cool Jazz Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook) and Shelly Johnston (Mädchen Amick) (who are secret lovers) drive away from the RR diner and encounter a police car with its •

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siren wailing. After it tears past, an indifferent Shelly takes a swig from a hip flask. As soon as she raises the flask a fast version of “Audrey’s Dance” emerges. Due to the connotative power of jazz—a music long associated with countercultural subversion in film and television—the use of this cue here helps in establishing the rebellious character of the couple. It is interesting to note that on the original cue sheets for the pilot episode all of the cool jazz cues were labeled “Cool, Cool Kyle” or “Bobby’s Theme,” and associating the music with Audrey appears to have been an afterthought. In the original cue sheet for this particular scene, the cue is titled “Cool, Cool Kyle,” suggesting that the piece of music named for Audrey on the soundtrack album was originally intended for Agent Dale Cooper, played by Kyle MacLachlan. This original intent is further evidenced in an interview Badalamenti gave with Entertainment Weekly in 1990, in which writer Ron Givens noted that “each of the scenes dominated by the young males in the cast is accompanied by what Badalamenti calls Cool Jazz. The exaggerated macho hipness of these characters is accentuated by finger-popping, cocktail-lounge electric piano, pulsing bass, and lightly brushed percussion.”10 Yet despite their early machismo-driven influences, Badalamenti’s jazz cues would go on to provide the perfect conduit for the dreamy sensuality of the sultry Audrey. Badalamenti’s cool jazz also appears at Twin Peaks High School, where there may or may not be music in the air. The scene opens with the moody cue “Bookhouse Boys” and on the original production cue sheet it is referred to explicitly as “James’ Theme.” In Twin Peaks, James Hurley (James Marshall) is somewhat of a biker •

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poseur; a handsome, soap-operatic James Dean who is often shown brooding and sulking over his romantic misadventures. James’ 1950s roots are hinted at by the Duane Eddy-style guitar of the cue and—as with the use of jazz cues in the earlier scenes—its bluesy riff is used to connote a sense of youthful rebellion. The music also serves to underscore the subversive intent of other characters, as is the case with Audrey who is shown smoking a cigarette brazenly in the school corridor and changing from her sensible saddle shoes into a pair of bright red high-heels. After James and Donna Hayward (Lara Flynn-Boyle) finish speaking, the scene culminates with a teenager dancing irreverently across the corridor. This is the first example of many in Twin Peaks in which music weaves in and out of the show’s visual “diegesis” or narrative. We assume that the “Bookhouse Boys” cue is appearing on a soundtrack audible only to us, but maybe it is piping out of the school’s loudspeaker system? The way in which the boy responds to the music—snapping his fingers and undulating comically to its rhythm— suggests that he too can hear what we are hearing. The effect this has on us as listener/viewer is that it challenges our confidence in what we are seeing and hearing. Can we really trust anything that seems to be going on this strange town? Is it real or just a dream? “The Bookhouse Boys” then segues seamlessly into “Audrey’s Dance” (owing to their shared key signature) as Bobby arrives at school. Badalamenti’s cool jazz continues to underscore many of the scenes in the school, including one in which Bobby is brought into the office for questioning. When combined with the jazz, the scene plays out like a film noir interrogation. But the “Dark •

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Introduction” of “Laura Palmer’s Theme” interrupts this atmosphere of cool after Bobby is told about Laura’s death and Principal Wolchezk (Troy Evans) makes an announcement about her passing over the loudspeaker. After the “Dark Introduction” loops for some time it makes way for the “Love cue.” The melodic ascent of the cue mimics Wolchezk’s rising emotions as he struggles to maintain his composure, and then climaxes after he finally bursts into tears.

Orchestral Rumblings in the Dark A more traditional film scoring device is used when Shelly and Bobby spy Shelly’s husband Leo’s (Eric Da Re) truck parked outside her home. Leo is unexpectedly back from a work trip on the road and his presence startles the lovers, the jazz cue immediately cutting to a musical “stinger.” In film and television music a “sting” or “stinger” is a jarring chord that is designed to work in tandem with action on screen. It can be used to elicit shock in the listener/viewer or to exaggerate or reveal something of importance on screen. In this scene Badalamenti uses a synthesizer drone that gives way to a dissonant chord in order to emphasize Bobby and Shelly’s shock at seeing Leo’s truck. The chord is held as a terrified Bobby reverses his car, sustaining the atmosphere of fear until the end of the scene. Later in the episode another stinger related to Leo and his truck is heard when Agent Cooper and Sheriff Truman encounter a picture of the vehicle in Laura’s copy of a Flesh World magazine. •

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The episode introduces a new musical idea that produces a similar atmosphere of unease when Ronette Pulaski (Phoebe Augustine) is discovered wandering in a daze along the railroad tracks. As part of the firewood technique established with Lynch, Badalamenti made long recordings of synthesized orchestral material for Twin Peaks that were used alone or in combination with other cues in order to heighten the mood of dread in a scene. These lengthy recordings were usually very slow and were made up of dissonant chords held for long periods of time. They were then altered by Lynch and other studio personnel, sometimes being slowed down to half their original speed or even reversed. On the Twin Peaks soundtrack, they can be heard in the montage piece “Night Life in Twin Peaks,” where the long synthesizer tracks are mixed with recordings of solo improvisation performed by woodwind instruments. The piece begins with a faint, low-register synth drone that creeps slowly into the mix. Around thirty seconds in, synthesized orchestral doom emerges, supplemented by a clarinet and bass clarinet, honking and moaning as if in pain. A flute joins in, seemingly indifferent to the dissonance of the clarinets, and offers a bluesy improvisation that would feel right at home in “Freshly Squeezed.” All of this is accompanied by Grady Tate’s kit explorations, which simmer underneath and provide a forward momentum, some semblance of control within the largely chaotic atmosphere of “Night Life in Twin Peaks.” When Ronette is shown in her disheveled state, the “Dark Introduction” of “Laura Palmer’s Theme” is heard, and underneath it rumbles a few seconds of a cue labeled in the Twin Peaks Archives as “Half Speed •

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Orchestra 1 (Stair Music/Danger Theme).” The rubbing together of these two ominous cues results in dissonance, due to the clash occurring in their respective harmonies, and produces a protracted stinger that responds on behalf of the audience to the shocking appearance of the blood-stained, semi-clothed Ronette. The “Half-Speed Orchestra” cue is also used in combination with “Bookhouse Boys” in the following scene, characterizing the drape-obsessed Nadine Hurley (Wendy Robie) as far more sinister than she would later prove to be.

Agent Cooper Arrives We first encounter FBI Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) driving into Twin Peaks, one hand precariously on his steering wheel and the other holding his tape recorder to his mouth as he speaks to the enigmatic “Diane.” He is immediately introduced with the fingersnapping, saxophone-driven cue that would become “Dance of the Dream Man.” As Cooper describes his reasons for travelling to Twin Peaks, the cool jazz heightens the big-city suave of the slick-haired, suitwearing Cooper. When he arrives at the hospital to meet Sheriff Truman the distant murmurs of the saxophone from the previous cue can be heard faintly echoing around the hospital halls until they slowly fade away—perhaps having used the exit door that is in shot! It’s almost as if the saxophone melody has followed Cooper from his car into the hospital, either as a tune stuck in his head or a ghostly musical talisman. When Cooper enters the room of the now-hospitalized Ronette, the breezy jazz is •

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but a distant memory, and, instead, a brief quotation of the “Dark Introduction” captures our attention. The reappearance of the cue when Ronette is on screen implies to the listener/viewer that she is involved in the events surrounding the death of Laura Palmer, but as to how we do not yet know. After viewing Laura’s body, Agent Cooper and Sheriff Truman make their way to the local sheriff’s station to look over evidence collected from Laura’s room at the Palmer residence. As they peruse Laura’s diary and other items, Tate’s solo percussion re-emerges, accentuating the passing of time and helping to create a sense of anticipation, infinitely looping and mirroring Cooper’s quest for answers (and our own) with its forward propulsion. Cooper and Sheriff Truman also begin their questioning of Donna at the station, who they have discovered was present at a videotaped picnic involving Laura and an unknown biker. During her questioning, we hear the second part of the “Laura Palmer Theme” (the “Love” cue) performed on a solo Rhodes piano. The use of the instrument’s warm timbre in isolation accentuates the beauty of the theme’s climactic rise and fall, and, coupled with Donna’s obvious distress, creates an atmosphere of overwhelming sadness that is not present when Bobby is similarly questioned (sans music). At the end of the scene, the “Dark Introduction” (also on Rhodes) is mixed with the “Love” cue to create an interesting composite version of “Laura Palmer’s Theme.” It doesn’t work quite as well as the combination of the “Dark Introduction” and orchestral synth drone discussed earlier, as the two cues are merely placed on top of one another in the mix and sound out of synch, •

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but it allows for variation, a fresh take on the music, and a technique for revitalizing the theme that would be used in subsequent episodes.

The Roadhouse As the episode progresses, the musical ideas established earlier in the pilot are repeated and reinforced. The ominous “Dark Introduction” seems to implicate James in Laura’s murder and also appears in combination with a second orchestral cue (“Slow Speed Orchestra 1–24 Hours”) during a search of an abandoned train car believed to be the scene of Laura’s murder. This mix is also heard later in the episode when Donna and James bury the half-heart necklace. Elsewhere, Badalamenti’s cool jazz underscores Bobby, Mike, and James’s stay in the local jail as well as Cooper’s continuing investigations. Cool jazz cues are also used for humorous effect when Nadine is shown fussing over her drapes, accompanied by Tate’s quirky solo kit work. In this scene Nadine’s drape obsession is rendered amusing instead of unnerving—a contrast from earlier in the episode when it is accompanied by the dark synth scoring. The “Love” cue from “Laura Palmer’s Theme” begins to underscore the burgeoning love affair between James and Donna (Laura Palmer did bring them together after all) and is heard on a solo piano when Dr. Hayward tells Donna that he is thankful to have a daughter like her. As night descends upon the town of Twin Peaks, some of the townsfolk meet at the Roadhouse. Here, Donna awaits the arrival of James while Agent Cooper •

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and Sheriff Truman watch on outside, and Big Ed Hurley (Everett McGill) meets with Norma, with whom he is having an affair. Amidst the busy activity of the Roadhouse, a leather-clad Julee Cruise (credited as “Girl Singer”) performs the original version of “Falling” on stage. Like the demented, howling pop song “I’m Hurt Bad” that Bobby plays on the RR’s jukebox earlier in the episode, the music is uncharacteristic of what would usually be performed in such a venue. Instead of hearing the sort of hard rock, head-kickin’ anthem that would traditionally be associated with biker folk, we are instead treated to two romantic ballads performed by a fragilelooking young woman bathed in soft light. Badalamenti explains the musical irony at work here: “sometimes music that works against the action … can be the best kind. You can be in this Midwestern bar where all hell is breaking loose, and you’ve got this lovely girl singer doing the most outrageous ballad on stage … I really love music that goes against what you’re seeing.”11 Lynch elaborated that “the idea [for this scene] was that the bikers in Twin Peaks were the intellectuals—the beatniks! The Jocks were the ones that were outside, listening to something completely different. They were very much a cerebral bunch of bikers!”12 As Cruise croons, bikers watch respectfully from their tables or engage in sedate slow dancing with their dates. When Bobby and Mike arrive and begin to hassle Donna, a fight breaks out as the delicate strains of the neo-retro love song “The Nightingale” waft around the Roadhouse, Cruise and her band seemingly unperturbed by the escalating brawl. “The Nightingale” is a song whose origins can be found in the pop music of the 1950s •

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and early ’60s, the time of Lynch’s youth, and features instrumentation (guitar tremolo, lightly brushed kit, Cruise’s saccharine vocals) typical of the era. The song also uses the same “doo-wop” chord progression (I–vi– IV–V using Roman numeral chord analysis) that was present in many popular songs of the time, such as The Penguins’ “Earth Angel” (1954), Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me” (1961), and The Marcels’ “Blue Moon” (1961). In “The Nightingale,” the chord progression (B to G-sharp minor to E to F-sharp-7, the final chord with an added seventh note) is used for the majority of the song, and is interrupted twice by two refrains with a different chord progression. The refrain progression begins instead on the G-sharp minor chord and then moves down to an F-sharp-7, then down again to E major, jumps up for a bar for to C-sharp minor, and back down to finish on the F-sharp-7 chord. Lynch often uses the 1950s/early ’60s pop sound in his work to connote innocence and love, or a sense of nostalgic longing, and it plays against Badalamenti’s darker compositions (such as the moody orchestral rumblings) to great effect. As the series progressed further, pieces composed in this style were featured in the show, such as “Hook Rug Dance” and “Just You,” the ballad that James, Donna, and Maddy infamously sing together in Episode 9.13 Cruise returned to the Roadhouse in Episode 14 as part of an incredibly memorable and important sequence directed by Lynch, this time performing another retrostyle love song, “Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart,” and the devastatingly beautiful “The World Spins.” In Episode 5, she is also heard on a record player in Jacques Renault’s (Walter Olkewicz) cabin that is looping “Into the Night” •

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as Agent Cooper and Twin Peaks’ law enforcement conduct an investigation of the site, implying that this haunting ode to lost love could very well be the last song that Laura Palmer listened to before her death. As the episode ends, a fragment of another Julee Cruise song, “The Swan,” is heard (a few chords on synthesized strings) as Sheriff Truman arrives at Josie’s home. Sheriff Truman remarks to Josie that it has been around twenty-four hours since Laura was murdered and the “Dark Introduction” of “Laura Palmer’s Theme” underscores the couple’s fearful ruminations. The introduction then segues into the synth-string cue “Half Speed Orchestra 1 (Stair Music/Danger Theme)” and the scene changes to the Palmer home where Sarah Palmer is shown resting on the couch. She suddenly sits bolt upright and the cue omits a dissonant stinger as we are shown her vision of a gloved hand removing the necklace that James and Donna had buried under a rock. Then, after Sarah Palmer screams, the episode’s end credits roll over Laura Palmer’s static portrait in close up as the haunting “Laura Palmer’s Theme” plays us out of the world of Twin Peaks.

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“Something she said, though, that stuck on my mind… after what happened to her, I can’t help hearing it in my head … like some haunting melody.” Josie Packard, Episode 1, Twin Peaks “The music … It’s got a beauty, but with darkness and sadness. Just as Laura Palmer is beautiful, there’s something menacing under the surface.” Angelo Badalamenti1

Throughout Twin Peaks’ thirty episodes (including the pilot),2 “Laura Palmer’s Theme”—the piece of music that captured the essence of the show—is a constant presence that helps the entire series cohere. The theme’s “beautiful darkness” reflects the double life of Laura Palmer and, on a macrocosmic level, Laura as metaphor for the dualities that permeate the series: life and death, love and evil, light and dark. Even as the memory of Laura gradually begins to fade once her killer is identified in Episode 14, “Laura Palmer’s Theme” continues to inject itself into much of the drama, transforming in order to adapt to new characters and storylines and presiding over the •

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soundtrack like a musical ghost, ensuring that Laura is never far from our thoughts. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly in 1990, Badalamenti described “Laura Palmer’s Theme” as having four distinct parts,3 and from these parts two cues were created that were used either in isolation or together, depending on the requirements of a particular scene. The first half of the theme is that which is referred to as the “Dark Introduction” in the previous chapter of this book. It appears in various guises throughout the series—alone, in fragments, combined with other cues— and can be stripped down to reveal a motif that oscillates between the notes A-flat and G (Fig. 5). “Laura Palmer’s Theme” is centered in the key of C minor and its entire “Dark Introduction” remains firmly rooted in the theme’s tonic chord (C–E-flat–G). When this section is heard in the series, it is sometimes preceded by an ostinato figure that appears in a low register of the instrument performing the theme. This takes the form of a repetitive C played on every beat and not only helps in establishing the theme’s tonality, but also in contributing to an atmosphere of suspense via its repetition and slow tempo. Time is distended through such repetition, and when this section of the “Dark Introduction” was used in conjunction with a particular scene in Twin Peaks, the action could feel unending. On

Figure 5  Part 1 of “Laura Palmer’s Theme” (“Dark Introduction”) •

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the Twin Peaks soundtrack album this ostinato can be heard as a barely audible murmur in the lower register of the Rhodes at the beginning of the track “Love Theme from Twin Peaks.” In the first bar of the “Dark Introduction” an expectation for harmonic resolution occurs due to the A-flat (the sixth note of the C harmonic minor scale) being sustained for two beats before finally resolving down a half-step/semitone to the G, allowing the full C minor chord to be realized. In the fourth chapter of this book, I discussed how the suspensions used in the show’s theme song evoked a feeling of longing in the listener/ viewer. In the first bar of “Laura Palmer’s Theme” the suspension created in moving downwards from the A-flat to the G instead intones a palpable sense of doom, owing to several differences between the two themes. The most conspicuous difference is their tonalities. “Twin Peaks Theme” is in the key of F major, whereas “Laura Palmer’s Theme” is centered in the key of C minor, which, given our innate association of minor keys with sadness, gives “Laura Palmer’s Theme” an overall gloomier mood. The suspension that occurs in the opening bars of “Laura Palmer’s Theme” between the A-flat and G is also given greater prominence than the “middle stuff” in “Twin Peaks Theme.” In the “Dark Introduction” the suspension is exposed in the upper voice of the piece whereas in “Twin Peaks Theme” the use of suspension is subtle: sandwiched between the more consonant tones in the middle of the falling chords. Added to this, the melodic line of the upper voice in the “Dark Introduction” never resolves to a C—the tonic or •

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root note of the theme’s key—and adds to the overall harmonic instability of “Laura Palmer’s Theme.” The writer Royal S. Brown explains of the role of tonality in music that “psychologically and aesthetically speaking, tonality sets up a certain order, creates a sense of loss and anxiety in its various departures from that order, and then reassures the listener by periodically returning to that order, which will generally have the final word.”4 Thus the avoidance of a “return to order” at the end of the “Dark Introduction” assists in establishing an atmosphere of dread in Twin Peaks. Not resolving to the tonic also allowed for the “Dark Introduction” to be looped easily in the show. For example, in Episode 5, the troubled Bobby takes part in a therapy session with Dr. Jacoby to discuss the problems he has been having with his family and school. When they begin to address Bobby’s tortured relationship with Laura Palmer, the “Dark Introduction” enters on the soundtrack. Bobby reminisces about the corruptive influence of Laura, giving us an insight into the crueler inclinations of her personality, and the cue loops for almost two minutes until he begins crying, and the next section of “Laura Palmer’s Theme” takes over. We desire to know more about this mysterious young woman as Bobby reveals aspects of her secret life, and our curiosity is further propelled by the forward momentum of Badalamenti’s unresolved, open-ended cue. Many television “viewers” experience television “aurally” as they undertake tasks around their homes, and for this reason a television episode’s soundtrack is vital in conveying information as to the on-screen action to a “viewer” who is in another room or has their gaze •

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fixed away from their television screen.5 When Twin Peaks first aired, viewers at home who may have been passively engaging with the show would have been immediately alerted to the fact that something sinister was happening, or about to happen, every time they heard the “Dark Introduction” from “Laura Palmer’s Theme.” The same could be said about viewers who revisit episodes on DVD or Blu-ray in this fashion. As proof of Badalamenti’s music’s effectiveness, in May of 1990, the talk show Donahue hosted a Twin Peaks special which featured Mark Frost and members of the cast answering questions asked by studio audience members. Several audience members specifically mentioned the show’s soundtrack, with one woman even revealing that Twin Peaks’ music scared her so much that she sometimes had to leave the room. Clearly referring to the “Dark Introduction” here, she elaborated that “the music—it’s what really gets everybody going in the show.”6

Falling into Love The second section of “Laura Palmer’s Theme,” the “Climb,” begins the second half of the theme and the cue I referred to in the previous chapter as the “Love Theme from Twin Peaks” (Fig. 6). I will henceforth refer to the piece as simply “Laura Palmer’s Theme” to avoid

Figure 6  Part 2 of “Laura Palmer’s Theme” (“Climb” to “Falling”) •

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confusion between the “Love Theme from Twin Peaks” in its cue form and the second version of the theme that appears on the soundtrack release under this name. The “Climb” is preceded by a transitory bar that facilitates a change of key from C minor to C major as the “Climb” begins. The melody begins on an E and moves steadily upwards in stepwise intervals in this section, and after one bar of C major the harmony changes suddenly to E major. After four bars of E major there is yet another key change to F minor. The melody continues its dizzying ascent for another three bars until we can almost bear it no longer and it finally reaches the theme’s pinnacle: the section Badalamenti calls the “Climax.” It is at this moment that “Laura Palmer’s Theme” “tears your heart out.” At the “Climax” an E reverberates in the melody that is two octaves higher than the original E that began the “Climb” section. It is held slightly longer than any of the previous notes in the melody, emphasizing its arrival and giving the note space to sound triumphantly. There is also a return to C major at the point of “Climax,” which resolves the harmonic ambivalence of the preceding bars and further strengthens the feeling of musical apotheosis for the listener/viewer. After the theme climaxes, it hints at a downwards movement over the course of four bars, hovering around the climactic E before finally allowing the “Falling” section to begin. Here, the relationship between “Laura Palmer’s Theme” and “Twin Peaks Theme” is further solidified through the use of the latter’s “Falling” motif (Fig. 4, p. 44). In “Laura Palmer’s Theme” the motif is extended and occurs twice beginning with the notes B–A–G–F and then E–D–C (minus the final note of the motif) as •

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the theme’s melody descends. In the musico-dramatic context of “Laura Palmer’s Theme,” the “Falling” motif not only denotes the act of falling in love (as discussed in the fourth chapter, “Falling”) but is also a signifier of sadness in that its descent is analogous to the sinking feeling one experiences with heartbreak or loss. An early demo that appears on the Twin Peaks Archive highlights the relationship between “Laura Palmer’s Theme” and “Twin Peaks Theme” even further. Entitled “Falling into Love Theme” and performed on a combination of Rhodes and piano by Badalamenti, the demo opens with the familiar “Twin Peaks Theme,” and after the melody’s upward climb it switches suddenly to the “Climax” of “Laura Palmer’s Theme.” This beautiful variant of the two themes in their developmental stages demonstrates once again the close relationship of the music Badalamenti’s wrote for Twin Peaks, particularly between “Laura Palmer’s Theme” and “Twin Peaks Theme.” The two pieces even appear together in an orchestral arrangement recorded by the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra for the album Angelo Badalamenti: Music for Film and Television (2010). The appearance of the final three sections of “Laura Palmer’s Theme” in Twin Peaks often mirrors the swelling emotions of a character shown on screen (particularly in the show’s earlier episodes) and in these scenes the arrival of the “Climax” is sometimes met with an exaggerated display of sobbing. This occurs in scenes such as the aforementioned therapy session between Bobby and Dr. Jacoby, the scene in the pilot in which Principal Wolchezk announces Laura’s death to the school, when Andy reacts to Laura’s body in the pilot, when he listens to a •

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discussion about the circumstances surrounding her death in Episode 8, and when Dr. Jacoby listens to the cassette recordings Laura Palmer had made him in Episode 1. The theme is also used to particularly heart-wrenching effect in scenes involving arguably the most emotionally unhinged resident of Twin Peaks—Leland Palmer. Apart from the scene in the pilot detailed in the previous chapter in which Leland first learns of his daughter’s murder, one of the most powerful examples of “Laura Palmer’s Theme” used in conjunction with Leland’s torment is in a scene in Episode 15. Cooper has deduced that Leland is Laura’s killer and has him thrown into an interrogation room at the sheriff’s station. After Leland—who is possessed by the malevolent entity BOB—is questioned and confesses to the murder of Laura, her cousin Maddy, and Teresa Banks a year prior, Cooper and his associates (Deputy Hawk, Agent Rosenfield, and Sherriff Truman) discuss his arrest outside the room as Leland is heard off screen moaning and muttering. Leland/BOB then interrupts the group’s conversation by loudly reciting the famous “fire walk with me” incantation of the one-armed man, Phillip Gerard/MIKE, until the sheriff’s station’s smoke detector sprinklers are set off by cigarette smoke. Leland/BOB immediately begins to howl as water cascades around him (we also see BOB in his true form as portrayed by Frank Silva in one shot) and a cacophony of string dissonance is heard on the soundtrack that mirrors the chaos of the moment.7 He then rushes at the heavy metal door and begins to repeatedly ram his head violently into it. Cooper and his men rush into the interrogation room as Leland lies dying on the ground, now free of BOB and •

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coming to the horrifying realization that he is responsible for his daughter’s death. Agonizing over his actions, Leland recalls how he came to be possessed by BOB as a child and “Laura Palmer’s Theme” appears on the soundtrack. As he implores that “God have mercy,” the theme climaxes and we watch the tragic Leland declare his love for Laura before the theme commences its “Falling” descent. The theme is then repeated as Cooper begins to guide Leland into the afterlife, and as Leland “moves into the light” the “Climb” accompanies his journey to the “Climax”: he joyously experiences a vision of Laura waiting for him. The entire scene is simultaneously heartbreaking and horrifying. If we ignore Leland’s claims that BOB was to blame for the abuse Laura suffered for years at the hands of Leland, the employment of “Laura Palmer’s Theme” in this scene is incredibly manipulative. We have come to associate the bittersweet beauty of “Laura Palmer’s Theme” with tragedy and heartbreak, and because of this we are made to feel compassion for Leland despite his horrible acts. Perhaps he really did love Laura, and was indeed possessed by the malevolent BOB when he assaulted her? The theme helps to reinforce the audience’s ambivalence about Leland’s role in Laura’s demise, and without it, the scene would not exude such pathos.

Shades of Laura Laura Palmer is characterized in Twin Peaks as having had the ability to make those who became intimate with •

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her fall instantly in love. She is a classic Lynchian woman in trouble: a beautiful woman with dark secrets whom some want to love, sleep with, save, or a combination of the three. Laura was also capable, no doubt due to the abuse she suffered, of being sadistic towards, and manipulative of, those who adored her. Her teenaged lovers Bobby and James were subject to her cruelty, the former forced into selling drugs whilst Laura was alive to support her escalating drug dependence, and the latter enduring her taunts whilst trying to help her through the emotional rollercoaster ride that was the final days of her life. In Episode 7, the perennially moody James even has to listen to a tape Laura had made for Dr. Jacoby in which she describes poor James as boring in comparison with a mystery lover who excites her. The adult men of Twin Peaks were also ill-equipped in dealing with Laura. They had fallen for her angelic beauty, almost as if under a spell, and were left broken by her death. Leland’s paternal love for Laura became incestual and homicidal; Dr. Jacoby’s professional relationship was obsessive and thus highly unethical; Harold, her agoraphobic Meals on Wheels client, committed suicide when he could no longer deal with the world that remained in the wake of her death. She was even able to captivate one of the town’s most morally bereft personalities, Benjamin Horne, who displays a photograph of Laura Palmer on his desk and, in Episode 14, breaks down after admitting to Audrey that he loved and had been intimate with Laura. “Laura Palmer’s Theme” is heard on the soundtrack when many of these men speak of her and heightens the emotional potency of their feelings for Laura. And yet, as is the case in scenes like the one involving Leland’s death, this theme is also a •

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beautiful-sounding distraction from the fact that many of these men used and abused Laura. To paraphrase Bobby’s accusing cries at Laura’s funeral in Episode 3: everybody knew she was in trouble but nobody did anything. In the early episodes of Twin Peaks, “Laura Palmer’s Theme” is associated primarily with the life and death of Laura Palmer. It functions as a requiem for her: serving to preserve her memory and provide the equivalent of a sonic comforter as we witness Laura’s friends and family’s distress over her murder. In some scenes the mere mention of her name summons from the auditory ether some combination of the sections of the theme discussed earlier. Badalamenti recorded numerous versions of “Laura Palmer’s Theme” that featured an array of instrumental color and two of these are featured on the Twin Peaks soundtrack album. “Laura Palmer’s Theme” combines synth-strings with acoustic piano, whilst “Love Theme from Twin Peaks” utilizes the warm sound of Rhodes, alto flute, and lighter synth-strings which allows for a more mellow rendering of the theme. Varying the theme in this way reinvigorated “Laura Palmer’s Theme” with every new quotation in Twin Peaks and allowed the theme to adapt to the different moods and situations as they were introduced into the show. In Episode 1, Dr. Hayward presents the results of the post-mortem work that was done on Laura’s corpse to Agent Cooper and Sheriff Truman. As he details with great discomfort the activities of her final hours, the “Dark Introduction” is heard on the low register of the synth-strings accompanied by a piano punctuation on a low C. This use of the murky low register of the synthesizer and piano augments the ominous quality of the •

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“Dark Introduction” and heightens our response to Dr. Hayward’s shocking revelations. Elsewhere in the show the “Dark Introduction” again appears in this form when the life Laura had led before her death is acknowledged. In Episode 6, for example, Donna, Maddy, and James listen to a tape of Laura they have stolen from psychiatrist Dr. Jacoby’s office. On the tape Laura describes her “naked secrets” and her ability to manipulate men easily, and as the trio listen to her voice, visibly distressed by this side of their friend’s life, the “Dark Introduction” plays underneath Laura’s confessions. In Episode 7, we hear it when the sleazy Jacques Renault tells Agent Cooper (who is in disguise at the brothel One-Eyed Jacks) about the debauchery of Laura’s last night alive. In all of these scenes, those who care about Laura are forced to confront her double life, which is reflected in the two contrasting sections of her theme, and the inherent dread of the “Dark Introduction” mirrors their anxieties over learning about Laura’s past. Throughout Twin Peaks, the “Dark Introduction” is also heard on a variety of synthesizer patches. Commenting on the unreal quality of the electronic timbres of Twin Peaks, the writer John Rockwell noted in a piece for the New York Times in 1990 that the use of the synthesizer on the Twin Peaks soundtrack “[invests] everything with an electronic glow, as if the music were radioactive.”8 The otherworldly, “unnatural” timbre of electronic instruments (in that their sound is not achieved through traditional means such as plucking, striking, or blowing into the instrument, i.e., not man-made) has long been exploited in both horror and science fiction films. From classical Hollywood sound films (roughly the •

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late 1920s through to 1960) to the present day, electronic sonorities have often been used by film composers to signify the “Other” (that which is not human or “normal”) or to emphasize psychological disturbance on screen. Bernard Herrmann exploited the wavering frequencies of two theremins in his score for The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) to accentuate the alien Klaatu’s otherness, his being non-human. In John Carpenter’s score for Halloween (1978) an urgent, repetitive piano motif is played against the unsettling lower register of a synthesized orchestra to mirror the evil Michael Myers’ stalking of Laurie and his bloody execution of her friends. In Twin Peaks, various synthesizer pads are used to underscore the supernatural and mythological aspects of Laura Palmer’s death and the town at large. In Episode 1, we see the picnic videotape of Laura and Donna twice. It is shown to James whilst he is being interviewed by Agent Cooper and Sheriff Truman, and also in isolation. In its second appearance, the video reveals Laura and Donna dancing and giggling in happier times, and the melody of the “light” half of “Laura Palmer’s Theme” (where the “Climb” begins) is heard on a solo airy-sounding synthesizer pad, performed slowly and deliberately. Each note of the melody sounds as if it has been reversed; there is a delay in the initial attack followed by a short crescendo. This makes each tone sound like it is rising upwards slightly, as if it were floating over the grainy, slow-motion footage of Laura that appears on screen. The theme climaxes as the camera lingers in close-up on Laura’s face, all the while accompanied by a windy ambience that surrounds Laura in the video and suggests that her image has been ripped •

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from another dimension. Suddenly we hear Laura’s voice implore “Help me” though her lips do not move in the video footage. We are not sure if someone is watching the video and imagining that Laura’s is asking them for help at this point as the video footage is sandwiched between two unrelated scenes featuring Bobby and Mike in jail and Donna conversing with her mother. It is almost as if the specter of Laura Palmer has momentarily taken over the televisual drama of Twin Peaks from her videotaped ether, rising up from magnetic tape and haunting the audio-visual space in a bid to bring peace to her spirit. The choice of a spooky synthesizer pad to perform this version of Laura’s theme further imbues Laura’s image with an uncanniness, and the cue’s title on the Twin Peaks Archive—“Laura Palmer’s Theme (Ghost Version)”—reinforces its allusions to the afterlife. The “Ghost Version” of the theme is used again in Episode 10 when Donna visits Harold’s home, and as she surveys his living room, the theme’s melody floats around her: a musical manifestation of Donna’s thoughts about Laura and her relationship with Harold. Amongst various objects and papers on Harold’s desk Donna finds a red book and opens it to discover that it is Laura’s secret diary. At this moment the ethereal tones of the “Ghost Version” are supplanted by a low synth stinger that emphasizes Donna’s shock. In this scene it is not Laura’s visage that haunts the visual space, but her written words. Solo instruments allow for the beauty of Badalamenti’s “Laura Palmer’s Theme” to truly stand out in such moments. We hear this theme not just on various synthesizer pads but also on solo instruments like the clarinet and piano, which garner a warmer, earthier tone. In •

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the episodes in which Leland Palmer is on trial for the murder of Jacques Renault (Episodes 11 and 12), the theme’s stark appearance on a heavily reverbed solo piano is particularly powerful. It reflects the solitary stand that Leland is taking against the Twin Peaks police when he is accused of killing Jacques, who is believed to be Laura’s murderer. “Have you ever experienced absolute loss?” he asks plaintively as the piano accompanies his pained admission of guilt. The reverb builds an acoustical blanket around the heartbroken Leland, and the stripped-down beauty of the theme complements without overwhelming Leland’s poignant monologue.

Doesn’t it Sound Almost Exactly Like Laura Palmer? The use of “Laura Palmer’s Theme” as a musical constant in the series serves not only to unify the show’s narrative (particularly in some of the more harried storylines that followed the death of Leland Palmer), but also as a dramatic chorus, guiding and conveying to listeners/ viewers the emotional intent of a particular scene. The universality of the theme—in that its contrasting dark and light sections reflect the dichotomies of good/bad, love/ death, and so on presented on the show—also allows for the theme to extricate itself from Laura to a degree and roam freely within the show’s other storylines. As early as the pilot episode, the theme migrates from Laura and her dalliances to Twin Peaks’ other romantic entanglements. Borne of their involvement with Laura, a relationship between James and Donna transpires soon after her murder. (In fact, they waste little time and have their •

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first kiss the same day her body is discovered!) Initially the pair bond over having lost a lover and best friend respectively, but as they delve further into Laura’s death, they inadvertently discover they have feelings for one another. In Episode 1, James visits the Hayward family for dinner and as James and Donna nervously smile and hold hands across the table—unable to say much to each other due to the presence of Donna’s parents—the second section of “Laura Palmer’s Theme” appears on solo piano. Here only the “Climb” and the first note of the “Climax” is heard. It’s as if the theme is mirroring this nascent love affair through not being fully realized. In Episode 2, however, the dinner scene from the previous episode continues, and after Dr. and Mrs. Hayward leave Donna and James alone, the two discuss their emerging romance. This time the entire second half of the theme (again on solo piano) is heard, and as they begin to kiss the theme culminates with the first two notes of the “Dark Introduction” (the “Doom” motif from Fig. 5), suggesting to us that Donna and James’ relationship may be ill-fated. “Laura Palmer’s Theme” is also used in conjunction with the relationships of other townsfolk such as Josie and Sheriff Truman, Agent Cooper, and Pete and Catherine Martell. For Pete and Catherine, a different synthesizer pad version is heard that the Twin Peaks Archive refers to as the “Guardian Angel Version.” This breathy pad sounds similar to the one used for the “Ghost Version” of “Laura Palmer’s Theme,” except there is no delay as each note is played, and the melody does not appear in solo. In the case of Cooper, the theme is used in relation to two different women, but in both instances a clarinet performs the melody. The warm, •

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resonant tone of the instrument, especially in its lower register as used here, is particularly suited to performing expressivo melodies such as that in the second part of “Laura Palmer’s Theme.” In Episode 4, Cooper and the Twin Peaks law enforcement crew hit the pistol range to undertake firearm training. Sheriff Truman enquires as to whether Cooper has ever been married and Cooper answers vaguely that he was once close to someone and understands the “pain of a broken heart.” As he alludes to this past love the clarinet melody of the “Climb” is heard accompanied by synth-strings and, as in the scene I discussed previously involving Donna and James, ends abruptly on the first note of the “Climax.” At this moment Cooper stares ahead with deadly intent and begins firing at a target, the sound of gunfire taking over the soundtrack and obliterating the clarinet’s musical materialization of Cooper’s memories. Many episodes later we discover who Cooper had been talking about in this scene. In Episode 21, Cooper is asked by Truman as to the nature of his relationship with the mysterious Windom Earle and Cooper admits that Earle was his ex-partner and that he had an affair with Earle’s wife Caroline, whom Cooper believes Earle then killed in revenge. As Cooper fearfully recounts the events of the past, a woman’s ghostly face appears and then dissolves beside him, and a variation of the “Dark Introduction” of “Laura Palmer’s Theme” is heard on a soft bell-like synth pad, its ethereal quality heightening Cooper’s painful invocation of Caroline. Early in the series we are teased by a possible romance between Agent Cooper and Audrey Horne. The pair flirt •

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and longingly stare at each other in the early episodes of Twin Peaks, usually accompanied by Badalamenti’s cool jazz compositions. At the end of Episode 5, Cooper returns to his room at The Great Northern to discover a sobbing, naked Audrey Horne waiting for him in his bed. As she cries and begs for him to not have her leave, the clarinet melody from the cue used in the pistol range scene in Episode 4 is heard again but in this quotation without the synth-string accompaniment. The episode then ends with both the scene and the cue left unresolved, and one can imagine that when the episode first aired, viewers would have been waiting anxiously to see what developed between Audrey and Cooper in the next episode. Despite their obvious chemistry, however, Cooper and Audrey’s relationship remained purely platonic over the course of the series; in the continuation of the scene in the next episode Cooper and Audrey resolve to remain friends. In this scene “Twin Peaks Theme” is instead heard on the soundtrack. It is interesting to note that although Twin Peaks’ theme song is occasionally used in association with romance in the show (particularly in regards to the love triangle between Big Ed, Norma, and Nadine) it is more commonly heard in scenes such as this that depict platonic love between friends and family. Scenes in the series involving Donna and her mother, Shelly and Norma, Benjamin Horne watching home movies, and the friendship between Agent Cooper and Sheriff Truman are all accompanied with variations of “Twin Peaks Theme” on instruments such as synth-harp, guitar and Rhodes, as well as by the theme in its original form as heard in the Twin Peaks opening credits. One of the •

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most memorable uses of the show’s theme in this way is when it appears in a scene in Episode 10, in which the prickly Agent Albert Rosenfeld is threatened with physical violence by a frustrated Sheriff Truman, with whom Rosenfeld has had a strained relationship since his arrival in Twin Peaks. Rosenfeld counteracts Truman’s aggression with a beautiful speech about the virtues of passive resistance, and as his words become more and more impassioned, an alternate version of the “Twin Peaks Theme” swells up from the soundtrack, climaxing as Albert boldly announces to Sheriff Truman that he loves him. Just as “Laura Palmer’s Theme” is associated with love in the series, it also became a harbinger of doom, signifying a character’s ill-intent, the presence of dark forces or the corrupt activities undertaken in the town of Twin Peaks. In the show’s first season the unscrupulous businessman Benjamin Horne vies for control of the Packard Saw Mill owned by Josie Packard, who inherited it after the death of her husband Andrew Packard. Benjamin has also been involved in an affair for some time with Catherine Martell (Josie’s sister-in-law and the operator of the mill), with whom he is co-plotting to have the mill burned down. Of course the drama doesn’t end there, as the duplicitous Benjamin is also in cahoots with Josie to remove Catherine from the picture. The “Dark Introduction” can be heard in scenes in which Benjamin and Catherine discuss burning down the mill (Episode 1), when Catherine listens in as Josie tries to locate a ledger book of the mill’s falsified accounts that Catherine has hidden (Episode 3), and when Catherine meets with an insurance agent to discuss a life insurance policy that •

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has been set up by Benjamin and Josie (Episode 6) in order for the pair to become Catherine’s beneficiaries. In the two latter scenes a variation referred to as the “Baritone Guitar Punctuation” by the Twin Peaks Archive is used that features the famous “twangy” bass sound of “Twin Peaks Theme” joining synthesized strings in the bass line of the “Dark Introduction.” The “Dark Introduction” also underscores several other storylines that are unrelated to Laura Palmer, including the terrorization of Twin Peaks by Cooper’s adversary Wyndham Earle, James’ involvement with Evelyn Marsh, the re-emergence of Andrew Packard, and the ongoing tension between Norma and her estranged husband Hank. Even additional cues such as “Packard’s Theme” and “James and Evelyn” that were written by Badalamenti for these new characters bear a resemblance to “Laura Palmer’s Theme.”9 As the memory of Laura’s death ventured further and further into the periphery of such storylines, “Laura Palmer’s Theme” became more aligned with Twin Peaks’ soap-operatic melodrama. In some scenes in the show a two-note motif that I have referred to as the “Doom” motif (Fig. 5) was extrapolated from the theme’s “Dark Introduction” and utilized as a dramatic stinger to draw attention to a “shocking” development. As early as Episode 6 we hear the “Doom” motif when Audrey signs a contract to work at One-Eyed Jacks, the brothel owned by her father. But it was more commonly used as a stinger later in the series, in scenes such as one involving Benjamin and Josie (after Benjamin says, “Well played, Josie” in Episode 13) and several in which Cooper receives threatening correspondence from Wyndham Earle (Episode 18 and Episode 26). It is also heard in one of the show’s •

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most soap-operatic storylines: a paternity dispute between Benjamin Horne and Dr. Hayward. In the latter half of the second series of the show, Donna discovers that her mother Eileen once had an affair with Benjamin Horne and that he may in fact be her biological father. In Episode 25, Donna follows her mother to The Great Northern where she is meeting Benjamin. There Donna runs into Audrey and the two spy on Benjamin and Eileen discussing a love affair they once shared, with Eileen spurning Benjamin’s advances and telling him to stay away from Donna. As Audrey and Donna watch their parents’ passionate discussion, the “Dark Introduction” is heard on the soundtrack. Later in the episode Donna questions her father as to Eileen’s relationship with Benjamin and Dr. Hayward attempts to evade her scrutiny. During Donna’s interrogation of her father, a flower delivery conveniently arrives for Eileen from an unknown admirer, and the two-note “Doom” motif/stinger appears, emphasizing Dr. Hayward’s concern over the situation that is emerging between Donna, his wife, and Benjamin Horne. In the final episode of Twin Peaks, “Laura Palmer’s Theme” makes its last appearance in the show in a scene in which the paternity saga involving the Hornes and the Haywards comes to a head. Literally. Benjamin Horne turns up at the Hayward residence to try to address the situation that has escalated in regards to the identity of Donna’s real father. As Donna runs to the door to leave, Dr. Hayward and Sylvia Horne (Benjamin’s often-absent wife in the show) arrive at the Haywards’ and immediately realize that Benjamin has confessed something to the distressed Donna. In an unusual display of aggression •

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Dr. Hayward then attacks Benjamin with a sudden punch that causes him to fall back and hit his head on the mantelpiece. Benjamin is knocked out as a result and falls to the ground with a bleeding head wound, and Dr. Hayward cries out in anger as Sylvia, Eileen, and a sobbing Donna watch on. The whole scene moves incredibly quickly and is, in typical Lynch-fashion (he directed the final episode), imbued with a hyperrealism: it is soap opera viewed through the absurdist’s lens. The “Dark Introduction” underscores the action until Dr. Hayward hits Benjamin, and a dramatic synth-string cue takes over that ends with a dissonant cacophony of sound as Dr. Hayward drops to his knees and bawls in an overtly theatrical fashion. “Laura Palmer’s Theme” had begun its journey in Twin Peaks as an ode to a dead girl. A haunting melody that, like Laura Palmer, never really left the town of Twin Peaks. It had transformed itself throughout the series, weaving in and out of the narrative in various forms, until it uttered its final ominous note as a player in a soap-operatic cliffhanger. And, like the storyline that the theme accompanied, there was never any resolution.

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Freshly Squeezed

One of the most memorable and iconic elements of Twin Peaks is the show’s use of Badalamenti’s cool jazz cues on its soundtrack. Compositions such as “Audrey’s Dance” and “Freshly Squeezed” work with the cultural associations of the genre and affix themselves to a wide variety of situations and characters in the show’s narrative. In Twin Peaks the role of jazz runs the gamut from signifier of cool to emphasizer of wanton sexuality and on-screen slapstick. When it is heard in the Red Room, jazz even aligns itself with supernatural malevolence.

Keep Cool While writing his music for Twin Peaks, Badalamenti was asked by David Lynch if he could compose some “cool jazz” music that conveyed a dark mood and sounded “slightly off-center.”1 Cool jazz (also known as “West Coast cool”) came to prominence in the early to mid-1950s and is characterized by a lighter sound than the 1940s bebop from which it originated. Cool jazz is also distinct because of its integration of other musical •

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styles and instrumentation not traditionally associated with jazz. There was also a degree of restraint in the improvisations of its soloists, whose playing eschewed the wild, high-velocity improvisations of the bebop musicians. Compare Al Regni’s controlled saxophone performance on “Dance of the Dream Man” to the chaotic sax shredding of Bob Sheppard (as mimed by Bill Pullman) on the soundtrack of another work of the Lynch oeuvre, Lost Highway, and you can get an idea of the difference in sound. Badalamenti had grown up listening to both of these subgenres of jazz and looked to the music of legendary figures such as Miles Davis (often considered one of the key players in bridging bebop and cool jazz), Oscar Peterson, Charles Mingus, and Charlie Parker for inspiration whilst composing his Twin Peaks score.2 The demo of the piece Badalamenti wrote as the blueprint for Twin Peak’s jazz, “Slow Cool Jazz,” can be heard on the Twin Peaks Archive album performed on Badalamenti’s Rhodes piano. What binds Badalamenti’s jazz in Twin Peaks, and provides a foundation for improvisation, is his use of a distinctive “walking” bass line that is found in jazz music (Fig. 7). A walking bass line is characterized by its repetitive, stepwise melodic movement that occurs on each beat: its rhythmic alternations imitative of the movement of feet when one walks. Badalamenti’s Twin Peaks walking bass line varies the rhythm slightly in parts and moves down and then back up, chromatically,3 over the course of an octave starting on C. Many of the instrumental improvisations that accompanied the bass line hover around the six notes of the C blues scale: C, E-flat, F, F-sharp/G-flat, G, and B-flat. This way, the •

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Figure 7  The Twin Peaks walking bass line

various jazz themes could be mixed easily with the other C minor-based compositions written for the show. Just as “Laura Palmer’s Theme” had been orchestrated in a multitude of ways to allow for variation, so too were the jazz themes and motifs for Twin Peaks. Solo tracks of an assortment of instruments can be heard on the Twin Peaks Archive album: shrieking clarinets that border on sound effect, quivering synthesized vibraphones and Rhodes lines, mellow saxophone improvisations, and even soft flute melodies. The Archive also includes numerous recordings of jazz drummer Grady Tate’s mesmerizing kit work. Tate is best known for his versatile session drumming, and since the 1960s he has performed on bop, soul, and pop records as well as working with legendary artists such as Quincy Jones, Sarah Vaughan, and Ella Fitzgerald. Tate has also had a successful career as a vocalist, and his soulful baritone voice can be heard singing jazz and R&B numbers on his solo releases Windmills of My Mind (1968) and TNT (1991). The solo recordings of Tate’s drumming that feature in the Twin Peaks Archive showcase various aspects of his technique in isolation, such as his highly nuanced brush work on the snare drum and his timbral explorations of the cymbals. Throughout the series, Tate’s kit spits, sizzles, and dances on the show’s soundtrack, injecting scenes with, paradoxically, both a sense of urgency and a laid-back tranquility. It was Tate who was responsible for much of Twin Peaks’ mood of cool. •

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Also present in Badalamenti’s jazz are its trademark finger snaps: an instantly recognizable cultural signifier of cool. Using such a sound effect not only ties the music to the cool jazz of the 1950s—where musicians and audience members alike snapped their fingers in time with the music—but also to the subculture of the Beats, or “beatniks,” who aligned themselves with the music and musicians of jazz. Recall Lynch’s likening of the bikers of Twin Peaks who frequent the Roadhouse to the world of beatniks (in Chapter 5, “Wrapped in Plastic”). It was common practice during beatnik poetry readings and performances at coffeehouses to snap one’s fingers in lieu of applause, and this originated not in a desire to appear hip, but to reduce noise so as to not bring the wrath of indignant neighbors and police upon the venue.4 When the subculture went mainstream at the end of the 1950s, it became greatly lampooned in pop culture, with bereted, poetry-spouting, finger-snapping beatniks satirized in comics, pulp novellas, television shows, and “beatploitation” films such as High School Confidential (1958) and The Beat Generation (1959). The use of finger snaps can also be heard in the film adaptation of the musical West Side Story (1961) during the song “Cool.” The song’s vocal line is accompanied by a pressure cooker of a jazz combo which erupts whenever one of the performers on screen loses their cool, and the connection to beatnik culture is further solidified through the presence of bongo drums and a variety of beat-speak in the song’s lyrics. The film also stars none other than Richard Beymer and Russ Tamblyn: Twin Peaks’ Benjamin Horne and Dr. Jacoby. •

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In an interview in 1990, Kinny Landrum revealed that there was an intentional referencing of West Side Story in Twin Peaks’ cool jazz: The finger snaps were completely my idea. David and Angelo resisted it. I have to admit that part of it was because Richard Beymer was on the screen, and I was thinking about [“Cool” in West Side Story]. I said, “David, just let me put some finger snaps on the backbeat. If you don’t like them, you can wipe them …”5

Though somewhat of a parody, the finger snaps were an inspired choice on the part of Landrum and it is hard to imagine the world of Twin Peaks without them. So synonymous are finger snaps with Twin Peaks that, in celebration of the Twin Peaks Blu-ray release in 2014, the Welcome to Twin Peaks online community created a fan-sourced music video for “Dance of the Dream Man” that compiled footage of fans snapping their fingers in time with the music.6 From the dancing teen in the corridor of Twin Peaks High School in the pilot episode to Laura Palmer snapping her fingers at Cooper in the Red Room in Twin Peaks’ final episode, finger snaps even appear on screen as a narrative device. After Bobby discusses his whereabouts the morning of Laura’s murder in the pilot episode, he states that he didn’t go to football practice because he didn’t feel like it, insolently hits his palms on the table, and then snaps his fingers, setting off “Audrey’s Dance” on the soundtrack. In Episode 2, Agent Cooper’s finger snaps are also tied to Badalamenti’s music, this time in a more explicit way. At the end of the episode Cooper dreams of the Red Room at the Black •

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Lodge where he and Laura Palmer watch the Man from Another Place dance mesmerizingly to “Dance of the Dream Man,” his body undulating in time to Regni’s weaving sax line and Tate’s kit. When Cooper wakes from the dream he immediately calls Sheriff Truman and excitedly tells him that he knows who killed Laura Palmer, and the music can still be heard, though barely discernable, as if still playing in Cooper’s mind. After putting the phone down, “Dance of the Dream Man” begins to crescendo on the soundtrack and Cooper begins snapping his fingers along with the music, staring intently as he focuses on recalling his dream. Where Bobby’s finger snaps were a call to action in regards to the appearance of music, Cooper’s snaps are a reaction, helping him to focus on the information he was given in the dream. Jack Kerouac wrote of finger snaps in a similar way in his bible of Beatdom, On the Road (1957). While driving into New York, the narrator, Sal Paradise, mournfully recalls a conversation he had had with a friend before the trip about an ominous dream. “Just about that time a strange thing began to haunt me. It was if I had forgotten something … I kept snapping my fingers, trying to remember it.”7 In his essay “Against Cool,” the novelist Rick Moody explains that jazz “serves not only as the locus for the meaning of the word cool, but also as a laboratory for the way in which the term gets disseminated: loosely in an improvisatory fashion, as a delineator of passions and moods and styles.”8 In Twin Peaks jazz does just this, taking many forms to assist the differing characterizations of cool on screen. As I discussed in the •

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fifth chapter, when Badalamenti initially composed his themes for Twin Peaks the use of cool jazz was primarily associated with the show’s young male characters. The music is especially prevalent in scenes involving Bobby. From the pilot episode to later episodes of the show’s second season, alternate versions of “Audrey’s Dance” are periodically used in association with Bobby in the show. The stripped-down “Audrey’s Dance” (Clean) (title as per the Twin Peaks Archive) features a Rhodes piano instead of vibraphone and is heard several times in the pilot when Bobby is on screen: during the aforementioned interrogation scene and also in several others when Bobby and his crony Mike are harassing James and Donna. In these scenes, the connotative power of jazz—a music that has, historically, been aligned with rebellion and subversive behavior, particularly in the medium of cinema—supports Bobby’s rebellious characterization on screen. The cue “The Bookhouse Boys” (not to be confused with the soundtrack album’s track of the same name, where the cue is mixed with other music from the series) was originally associated with James in the pilot but is also used in conjunction with Bobby in the series. “The Bookhouse Boys” is centered around a slow C minor guitar riff performed by Vinnie Bell and is heard in the show either solo or combined with Tate’s kit work, the finger snaps, and walking bass rhythm section. In “The Bookhouse Boys” jazz meets the guitar-driven swagger of Duane Eddy, and the cue injects a macho potency into the on-screen action through its bluesy guitar tremolo. Each projection of the full C minor chord at the end of the riff feels like a disorientating punch to our eardrums. •

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The most rebellious character trait of James is his being a broody biker, but other than this he does not project the same degree of reckless cool as Bobby. Superficially James’ 1950s greaser aesthetic (motorbike, leather jacket et al.) characterizes him as a bad boy, and though he may have initially been conceived this way, the majority of James’ storylines in Twin Peaks instead involve his romantic pratfalls. There is nothing particularly rebellious or disruptive about James and this is because he tries too hard to do the right thing: he’s an occasional rebel with due cause. Conversely, with his intense, defiant gaze and unpredictability Bobby exudes a devil-may-care attitude to danger. For this reason, “The Bookhouse Boys” seems more in tune with Bobby in the earlier episodes of Twin Peaks (he does mellow as the series progresses) and this is probably the reason why the cue largely extricated itself from use with James after its initial association with him in the pilot episode. A personal favorite “Bookhouse Boys” appearance of mine is when it is heard during a scene in Episode 3 involving Bobby and Major Briggs. Bobby, who is waiting to go to Laura’s funeral, is standing in his family’s dining room facing a large wall-hanging of the Crucifixion that is surrounded by palm branches. He stretches out his arms in imitation of Christ and then reaches out to the cross as if to grab it. Angered by the death of his girlfriend, Bobby is challenging Christ and, by association, the authority figures of Twin Peaks in this moment. They did nothing to help Laura and as far as Bobby is concerned they were complicit in her death. As soon as Major Briggs enters the room to speak with Bobby, the boy turns quickly to reveal a cigarette dangling from •

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his mouth (the Major is not a fan of Bobby’s smoking), answering the Major’s questions obstinately. Here the use of the resplendent “The Bookhouse Boys” on the soundtrack both administers a shot of additional gravitas to Bobby’s Jesus Christ pose and aligns itself with youthful rebellion through Bobby’s contempt for both his father and the establishment.

Northwest Noir Agent Cooper is cool in a very different way from Bobby and the younger denizens of Twin Peaks. He is cool more literally: under pressure, in dangerous situations or whilst keeping a distance despite Audrey’s advances. With his super-slick hair and suit he is, at least initially, a fish out of water in the town of Twin Peaks, a character who has more in common with the detectives of gritty film noir cinema than simple small-town law enforcers like Sheriff Truman and Deputy Hawk. Jazz and film noir are often associated with each other and Twin Peaks contains many allusions to the cinema of film noir, the most obvious being that it is concerned, at least initially, with the investigation of a crime that is being undertaken by a male detective. Both Mark Frost and David Lynch were fans of film noir, and several characters in Twin Peaks were even named in reference to classic films of the genre.9 Laura shares her name with the eponymous character of Laura (1944), which centers around another dead woman, and Waldo the bird is named after the character of Waldo Lydecker from the same film. Gordon Cole is a reference to Sunset •

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Boulevard (1950) and Walter Neff, Catherine Martell’s insurance agent, is named after an insurance agent in Double Indemnity (1944). Interestingly, although jazz is associated with film noir, it was not actually prominent in the scores of such films. The orchestral scores of the classical film noir period (the early 1940s to the late 1950s) were largely modernist in sound, their dissonant harmonies and use of dark instrumental timbre working to support the gloominess of the visuals on screen. Compared with the romantic scoring that permeated the cinema of the day, film music writer Mervyn Cooke explains that Miklós Rózsa’s score for Double Indemnity was “markedly different in its creation of a brooding, claustrophobic atmosphere perfectly attuned to both setting and plot, and its tendency to disturb rather than romanticize.”10 The darker sections of the score for Lynch’s neo-noir Blue Velvet evoke just such a sound, and it can also be heard in the cloying dissonance of “Night Life in Twin Peaks” on the Twin Peaks soundtrack release. There are numerous reasons as to why audiences have come to associate the music of jazz with the cinema of film noir, and its usage as a signifier of the genre has become somewhat of a film music cliché. During the era of classical Hollywood, jazz held largely negative connotations due to its affiliation with bordellos, striptease, and generally seedy environments. This is not to mention the inherently bigoted attitudes towards the music that was prevalent at the time. The film music writer Katherine Kalinak explains that during this period, jazz was employed to connote “otherness,” as for white audiences “jazz represented the urban, the sexual, and the decadent in a musical idiom perceived in the culture  100 •

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at large as an indigenous black form.”11 When jazz did appear on a film’s soundtrack during the early years of Hollywood cinema, it was largely as part of the film’s diegesis: relating directly to the action in the form of live musicians or emanating from a source on screen such as a record player. It was not until the 1950s that scores for film would be written which were explicitly influenced by jazz forms, though often in combination with more traditional film scoring. The scores of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), for example, both incorporate characteristics of jazz such as swung, syncopated rhythms (playing off the beat) and melodies based on the blues scale. They also deal with less “wholesome” subject matters than many other Hollywood films of their time. A Streetcar Named Desire presents raw sexual passion in balmy New Orleans, whilst The Man with the Golden Arm is centered on a jazz drummer played by Frank Sinatra who is struggling with heroin addiction. In his book Jazz Noir, David Butler notes that modern audiences’ association of jazz music with film noir probably has its origins in the hardboiled crime films and television shows that were incredibly popular in the late 1950s.12 Television series such as Peter Gunn and Johnny Staccato both featured jazz not only on their soundtracks but also on screen as part of their visual narrative. Johnny Staccato’s eponymous detective even supplemented his income as a jazz pianist in a Greenwich Village club! Peter Gunn first aired in 1958 and over the course of its 114-episode run featured elements of film noir (voiceover narration, sultry women, a largely nocturnal setting) as well as a cool jazz soundtrack composed by Henry  101 •

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Mancini. One of Mancini’s compositions for the show (“The Floater”) even featured finger snaps. The show’s titular character is also a particularly well-dressed, slickhaired investigator whose style bears a resemblance to Twin Peaks’ own Agent Cooper. Though Cooper does not frequent the jazz bars that his Peter Gunn equivalent does (at least, not that we know of!), he is similarly underscored by jazz, particularly in the earlier episodes of Twin Peaks, and Badalamenti’s jazz cues complement Cooper’s cool, seemingly detached approach to law enforcement. As he investigates and questions—alternating between good cop and bad cop and employing an assortment of unorthodox investigative methods—syncopated rhythms sputter from Tate’s drum kit, or solo instruments comment on the proceedings with their bluesy refrains. Some of Twin Peaks’ most humorous scenes involve Cooper’s eccentric approach to law enforcement or his quirky colleagues’ hijinks. Whether it’s Cooper throwing stones at bottles to deduce suspects in Laura Palmer’s case (Episode 2), Sheriff Truman trying to stuff a donut into his mouth as Cooper declares that he needs to urinate (Episode 1), or Deputy Andy being concussed by a wayward floorboard (Episode 8), Badalamenti’s cool take on crime jazz (usually heard at a faster, more energetic pace) is often present to underscore amusing scenes such as these in the show. Just as the use of jazz works with the trope of the film noir detective in Twin Peaks, it also works to characterize another hallmark of film noir: the femme fatale. The classic femme fatale of cinema is usually a beautiful woman who seduces and destroys her male victim, usually for financial gain. Her amoral behavior is often  102 •

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her undoing and she is punished for her transgressions. Many of the women of Twin Peaks embody some combination of the qualities that make up the femme fatale: they are beautiful, scheming, have dark secrets, and engage in doomed romance. Even in later episodes of the second season new female characters were introduced into the show to maintain the femme fatale production line in Twin Peaks. Evelyn Marsh schemed to seduce James so that he would unknowingly aid in the murder of her husband, and Lana Budding Milford possessed the ability to captivate any man she came across, usually with dire consequences. These women, however, particularly Lana, seem more of a parody; a clichéd rendering of the femme fatale rather than a nuanced representation. It is characters such as Laura and Audrey who best embody the spirit of the classic femme fatale. We learn through the recollections of Laura’s friends, family, and lovers, as well as through her secret diary excerpts, that she possessed the same charms as that of the sirens of classic noir cinema. Though the enigmatic Laura is closely aligned with such femmes fatales, it is not jazz music but her ubiquitous theme that is most used on the soundtrack in association with her. Within the series (the film Fire Walk with Me is another matter) Laura’s sensuality is heightened by Badalamenti’s jazz only in scenes that take place in the Red Room of the Black Lodge, which she inhabits after her death. Cooper has his first dream vision of the Red Room at the end of Episode 3, and there he meets Laura who is dressed in a black 1940sstyle gown, her lips painted red and her hair cascading over her shoulder like the classic noir icon Veronica Lake. “Dance of the Dream Man” is heard on the soundtrack,  103 •

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and as Regni’s saxophone croons and swoons over the walking bass line, finger snaps, and Tate’s kit, Laura saunters over to Cooper and the couple share a lingering kiss before she whispers the identity of her killer in his ear. Early in the second season, Twin Peaks’ resident girl next door Donna Hayward tries her hand at playing the femme fatale, and the catalyst for her sudden change in behavior appears to be a pair of sunglasses that once belonged to Laura. In Episode 8, Maddy meets Donna at the Double R Diner to give her the sunglasses and “Freshly Squeezed” can be heard on the soundtrack featuring a bass clarinet improvisation in place of the vibraphone melody that appears on the Twin Peaks soundtrack album version. Using the bass clarinet here produces a sultrier rendering of “Freshly Squeezed,” owing to the warm sound of the instrument’s middle range. When Donna tries the chic black sunglasses on she begins to exude a mysterious aura, almost as if she has been taken over by Laura at this point. It’s worth noting that in the prequel film Fire Walk with Me Laura becomes incensed when Donna puts on one of her sweaters. Laura screams at Donna that she is never to wear her belongings, as if she is afraid that in coming into contact with her clothing Donna will follow in her footsteps. Smoking her cigarette as she discusses James and her investigations into Laura’s death with Maddy, Donna is both femme and detective in this scene, and her dialogue is uncharacteristically terse. Later in the episode Donna (wearing the sunglasses) arrives dramatically at the Twin Peaks sheriff’s station where James is being detained and is met with a wolf whistle by an unknown admirer off screen and the bluesy cue  104 •

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“Night Bells” on the soundtrack.13 As Donna smokes her cigarette seductively, Lucy looks on confused and Vinnie Bell’s guitar softly moans, its tone fluctuating and reverberating, seemingly woozy in response to Donna’s provocative new appearance. When she enters the holding cell area to see James, “Night Bells” is replaced by the same version of “Freshly Squeezed” that is heard in the diner (for continuity perhaps) and Donna walks in slowly still wearing the sunglasses. James whispers “wow” upon seeing her, excited by her vampy entrance. Donna then brings a cigarette to her lips and answers James’ questions slowly, with a breathy intonation. James is simultaneously aroused and displeased by Donna’s new-found sexual aggressiveness, and, in this moment, our long-held association (or stereotyping) of jazz music with sex intensifies Donna’s behavior on screen.

Isn’t it Too Dreamy? Arguably the coolest of all of Twin Peaks’ denizens is Miss Audrey Horne, and it’s telling that one of the jazz tracks on the Twin Peaks soundtrack is named after her. The dreamy ambience of “Audrey’s Dance” most resembles the original “Slow Cool Jazz” demo that Badalamenti wrote at Lynch’s request, and is the place on Twin Peaks’ soundtrack in which cool jazz and Badalamenti bittersweet converge. “Audrey’s Dance” opens with a chord that is heard throughout the piece that I will henceforth refer to as the “Audrey” chord (Fig. 8). The “Audrey” chord is comprised of the notes G–C–F-sharp and immediately establishes a mood of unease due to the  105 •

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unresolved dissonance that occurs with the inclusion of the F-sharp, which strains for resolution up to a G. In Western classical harmony, the interval that occurs between the C and the F-sharp is referred to as a tritone interval (an augmented fourth/diminished fifth). When two notes that form this interval are played together it garners a highly dissonant sound. Because of this, the tritone was avoided by composers of medieval music and even nicknamed the diabolus in musica (the devil in music). The association of the tritone with the devil, or malevolence, continued well into the nineteenth century (Camille Saint-Saëns, for example, used the interval in the opening of his Danse Macabre (1874) in reference to death) but by the twentieth century the interval was utilized by Western composers more for its ability to unsettle than as a programmatic tool. In “Audrey’s Dance” the role of the tritone is that of saboteur, a harmonic insurgent (a troublemaker—like Audrey herself!). It takes the place of the third in the harmony of the “Audrey” chord, the determiner of major or minor, and thus supplants tonality and sets up a harmonic ambivalence not only in the chord, but in the entire piece. At the beginning of “Audrey’s Dance,” the “Audrey” chord is heard on a synthesized vibraphone flanked by finger snaps, and Grady Tate’s hypnotic circular brush work on the snare. The inherent instability of the chord is heightened due to the unsteady timbre of the

Figure 8  The “Audrey” chord  106 •

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vibraphone, which garners a dizzy feeling in the listener as its quivering tone moves quickly between channels in the stereo mix. It is similar in its effect to Vinnie Bell’s tremolo on “The Bookhouse Boys.” When the quivering tone of the vibraphone is combined with the synthesized big-band brass blasts and dissonant clarinet slides, the resultant moodscape is not only dreamy but downright spooky, and it feels as if one has been placed under some sort of nightmarish trance. What’s more, the otherwise breezy walking bass line and finger snaps are disrupted not only by the claustrophobic dissonance of the composition’s harmony and its woozy instrumental timbre, but also through the use of fragments of another piece from the Twin Peaks soundtrack—“Laura Palmer’s Theme.” Around forty seconds into “Audrey’s Dance” the first two notes of the “Dark Introduction”—A-flat and G, which I have previously referred to as the “Doom” motif (Fig. 5, p. 70)—are heard atop the chord progression on the vibraphone as clarinets snake in and out of the mix and synthesized brass shriek in reply. At approximately 1:17 into the piece the extended “Doom” motif is then heard on vibraphone. The motif is not only present in the upper voice of the vibraphone chords on the notes A-flat–G–B-flat–G, but also in the lower voice using the notes A–G-sharp–B–G-sharp, and results in a jarring sound due to the harmonic clash that is occurring between these two voices (Fig. 9).

Figure 9  The “Dark Introduction” in “Audrey’s Theme”  107 •

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There is also added dissonance created through the tritone intervals that are occurring in the lower and middle voices of the chords (A and E-flat, G-sharp and D, B and F). At 1:40 the piece slowly crescendos as further synth and mewing clarinet tracks are layered in the mix, culminating in a near-deafening cacophony that slowly winds back down to the slinkiness of its opening. Then at 2:35 the crescendo layering commences once more, to a greater extent, and the “Dark Introduction” of “Laura Palmer’s Theme” is heard very clearly in the upper register of the clarinets. The vibraphone even begins the “Climb” section of “Laura Palmer’s Theme” as the last thirty seconds of the piece plays, stopping short of climaxing and instead repeating the “Doom” motif on G and G-flat atop its chords. When the piece ends, “Audrey’s Theme” is left hanging on a highly dissonant chord (C–G–D-flat–G-flat) instead of resolving to a C minor chord. With such extreme dissonance and fluctuations in volume it is no wonder that an already stressed Benjamin Horne’s patience is tested in Episode 1 when he encounters Audrey listening to the “racket” in his office. Even though the piece was initially associated with Agent Cooper in the pilot and also used in scenes with Bobby, it is almost inseparable in the viewers’ minds from the image of Audrey Horne moving hypnotically to its dreamy pulsations. The aforementioned scene in Episode 1 opens with the camera panning up Audrey’s body as she is shown with her eyes closed, lost in the music and swaying sensually in a fixed position to its languorous beat in her father’s office. We are not sure as to whether the music exists only in Audrey’s mind  108 •

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until Benjamin Horne enters and walks over to a record player in the corner, switches it off, and admonishes Audrey for her habit of dancing in his office to loud music. In Episode 2, we are again treated to Audrey dancing to the piece in one of Twin Peaks’ most iconic scenes. Arriving at the Double R Diner, Audrey immediately programs “Audrey’s Dance” into the jukebox and the piece is then heard playing in the background during her conversation with Donna, who is at the diner with her family. Like “I’m Hurt Bad” which is heard at the Double R in the pilot episode, it’s an unusual piece to have playing in a rural diner. The pair giggle over Audrey’s interest in Agent Cooper and discuss Laura’s involvement with Audrey’s father until Audrey utters her famous line, “God, I love this music. Isn’t it too dreamy?” She then proceeds to get up and dance to the music in the middle of the Double R in the same way as she had in her father’s office, in an almost possessed state, as Donna and her parents look on with a mixture of concern and amusement. “She’s in her own world,” Badalamenti explains of Audrey’s response to his music, “and the music seems to work very well when she’s in her little naughty mood.”14 “Audrey’s Dance,” like “Into the Night,” which loops on a record player in Jacques Renault’s cabin, actually exists within the Twin Peaks universe. Audrey, like many other teens who become obsessed with a particular song they adore, just can’t seem to get enough of the spooky muzak. And it isn’t just Benjamin Horne who dislikes the piece, as a scene involving Shelly and Bobby in Episode 9 suggests. The couple are parked in Bobby’s car by the woods and “Audrey’s Dance” (featuring Rhodes in place  109 •

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of the vibraphone) is heard on the soundtrack. We are then made aware that the music is actually emanating from the car’s radio when Bobby asks Shelly to change the music. In place of “Audrey’s Dance” the couple listens to the bluesy stomp of “Drug Deal Blues,”15 nodding their heads in satisfaction to its beat and agreeing that it is a better choice of background music. Clearly Bobby and Shelly, unlike Audrey, prefer bluesy, countrified rock ’n’ roll to dreamy lounge music! Jazz, unlike bluesy rock, is a music not typically associated with small-town USA, and thus the scenes above highlight Audrey’s otherness. She is unusually sophisticated for her age and out of place in the rural town, and this is evidenced in her taste in music. Other jazz pieces also accentuate Audrey’s playful charm. In Episode 1, Audrey enters the dining room of The Great Northern Hotel underscored by a short flurry of Grady Tate’s cymbal work before sauntering over to Agent Cooper to the strains of “Freshly Squeezed,” which features an improvised synthesized vibraphone solo by Kinny Landrum that is reminiscent of Al Regni’s saxophone solo on “Dance of the Dream Man.”16 The ensuing dialogue between Audrey and Agent Cooper is heavy in innuendo and features a line that subsequently gave “Freshly Squeezed” its title. As the pair flirt the jazz music helps in firmly establishing the precocious Audrey as the town’s resident tease: a role she would continue to inhabit in further episodes of Twin Peaks. Who could forget Audrey’s infamous knotting of a cherry stem with her tongue in a bid to persuade Blackie to employ her at One-Eyed Jacks in Episode 6, the naughtiness of the moment being accentuated by a bluesy riff on a lone clarinet?  110 •

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Aside from being one of the most provocative of the Twin Peaks players (the living ones anyway), Audrey is also one its most enquiring. She takes it upon herself to conduct her own investigation into Laura Palmer’s murder and, like Donna at the beginning of Season 2, plays both femme fatale and detective. Born partly of a fascination with Agent Cooper as well as a curiosity over her largely absent father’s corrupt activities, Audrey begins to investigate the life Laura had led before her death. Like Laura did before her, she even secures a job at the perfume counter of her father’s department store that leads to her being interviewed for a position at One-Eyed Jack’s. During Audrey’s probing and questioning we often hear different versions of “Freshly Squeezed” on the soundtrack with varying instrumentation. A flute takes on the improvisatory melody of the piece when Audrey discusses her findings with Donna in the school bathroom in Episode 4, whilst a solo clarinet version underscores as Audrey threatens Emory Battis in Episode 5. Once again, the variation of instrumental timbre allows for a revitalization of the theme. Audrey’s investigations were such a prominent part of the Season 1 narrative that a separate cue was even written for her. Entitled “Sneaky Audrey” on the Twin Peaks Archive, the cue can be heard on the Twin Peaks soundtrack album at the end of the montage track “The Bookhouse Boys” mixed with a solo saxophone cut from “Dance of the Dream Man,” a kit improvisation by Tate, and the “Bookhouse Boys” cue discussed earlier in this chapter. “Sneaky Audrey” opens with the “Dark Introduction” of “Laura Palmer’s Theme” on synthesized strings and  111 •

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several quotations of Vinnie Bell’s C minor chord from “The Bookhouse Boys.” After the “Dark Introduction” is stated once, the synth drone holds its final G and a distinctive motif, which I will refer to as the “Sneaky Audrey” motif (Fig. 10), is heard on two clarinets. The motif is comprised of descending chromatic thirds whose downward, revolving movement seems imitative of the feeling one experiences whilst enduring a fainting spell. Because of this, it works particularly well in the scenes in which Audrey is shown being drugged by the unsavory characters of One-Eyed Jacks. The “Sneaky Audrey” motif is also reminiscent of the vocal melody of another David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti collaboration: the song “Up in Flames.” Originally performed by Julee Cruise in the duo’s theater piece Industrial Symphony No. 1, the song was also recorded by the blues singer Koko Taylor for the Wild at Heart soundtrack (albeit with an altered vocal melody). Indicative of the musical “bleeding” that occurred between the various projects that Badalamenti and Lynch undertook during this period, “Up in Flames” features a similar walking bass line to the cool jazz of the Twin Peaks soundtrack and an eerie siren-like accompaniment that is sonically akin to the wailing clarinets of “Audrey’s Dance.” For much of the first season, several versions of “Sneaky Audrey” were used to accompany both Audrey’s investigations into, and the goings on of, One-Eyed Jacks. We first hear a version of the cue, “Sneaky Audrey

Figure 10  The “Sneaky Audrey” motif  112 •

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(Audrey’s Investigations),” in Episode 2 when Benjamin Horne meets a new girl employed by One-Eyed Jacks. This version of “Sneaky Audrey” uses a different synthesized string pad and does not include the “Dark Introduction” from “Laura Palmer’s Theme.” It also features the soft sound of flutes performing the “Sneaky Audrey” motif in place of clarinets and the occasional chord on Rhodes piano. In the following episode, we then hear the version of “Sneaky Audrey” that is featured on the soundtrack album when Audrey is shown spying on her family through the peephole in her secret passage. Though initially associated with her naughtiness, the cue was often altered or mixed with darker-sounding cues as the show progressed and as Audrey’s curiosity led to her finding herself in some particularly precarious situations. Audrey remained a constant fixture of Twin Peaks over its thirty-episode run. Though she grew out of her saddle shoes and moved on from her schoolgirl troublemaking, she would always retain a little of the brazen naughtiness that made her one of Twin Peaks’ most beloved characters. And “Audrey’s Dance,” Badalamenti’s evocative musical tribute, would forever immortalize her as the sensual, swaying femme of Twin Peaks.

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I’ll See You Again in 25 Years

On February 15, 1991, after Twin Peaks had been broadcast for just over a year, ABC announced that the show would be put on “indefinite hiatus,” a decision that was widely speculated in the media as the beginning of the end for the series; Twin Peaks’ viewership had steadily waned since its pilot episode had aired in February 1990. After fans waged a vigorous letter-writing campaign in response to the network’s announcement, ABC agreed to air six more episodes to complete the season. Four episodes aired over March and April 1991 before the show disappeared again until the night of June 10, 1991. With only a handful of dedicated fans tuning in to watch it, ABC broadcast Twin Peaks’ final two-episode cliffhanger.1 Twin Peaks never returned for a third season, and the show’s fans were left with many unanswered questions. Was Audrey killed in the bomb blast at the bank? Is Agent Cooper now possessed by BOB? In the space of just over fourteen months the perception of Twin Peaks had shifted from that of groundbreaking television to pop-cultural fad. Indicative of the attitude prevalent around this time, the Encyclopedia of Pop Culture (1992)  115 •

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noted that “Twin Peaks did not change television … As for its legacy, there wasn’t much. The art of Twin Peaks, such as it was, was too easily rendered as facile artiness to have any real meaning.”2 Little did the writers (and many other Twin Peaks detractors) realize just how much of a legacy Twin Peaks would have, not only with fans, but in influencing the medium of serialized television itself. Shows like The X-Files and The Sopranos owe a debt to Twin Peaks’ groundbreaking treatment of the uncanny, the surreal, and the downright weird, and it could be argued that without a show like Twin Peaks there could not have been the wave of sophisticated, auteur-driven television we have been treated to in the last decade and a half. Twin Peaks took the boundary-pushing aesthetic of experimental cinema to a prime-time audience, and its “artiness” was not mere artifice. After Twin Peaks ended, David Lynch, by his own admission, was not yet ready to move on. “I happened to be in love with the world of Twin Peaks,” he explained later. “I wanted to go back into the world before it started on the series and to see what was there, to actually see things that we had [only] heard about.”3 In late 1991 the director began production (without Mark Frost) on Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, a feature-length film dedicated to the last seven days of Laura Palmer’s life. It was an opportunity to delve where the series could not, and it is telling that the film opens with a glowing television set being destroyed in its title sequence. Angelo Badalamenti returned to contribute music for Lynch’s disturbing opus and expanded on the themes and mood of his original Twin Peaks soundtrack, creating a sound world that reflected the darker subject matter of Fire Walk with Me.  116 •

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The film’s opening credits are accompanied by the “Theme from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me” and immediately set up a very different atmosphere from that of Badalamenti’s opening theme for the television series. The “Doom” motif from “Laura Palmer’s Theme” is heard prominently at the beginning of the piece on synthesized strings sitting atop gentle snare brushwork, moving from A-flat to G to form an uneasy Cmin(add2) chord. This is repeated four times at a very slow place— drawing out the feeling of impending disaster—until it makes way for a mournful, muted trumpet melody. The instrument’s dulled tone sounds resigned, pained, as if it is a stand-in for the voice of the tortured Laura Palmer herself. The strained synths that surround the mix threaten to overwhelm the jazz combo that fills out the rest of the accompaniment (guitars, Rhodes, and a creeping double bass), and the overall piece sounds as if it were the soundtrack to an evening spent at the most sinister lounge bar in town. There are other pieces informed by jazz on the Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me soundtrack, such as “Don’t Do Anything (I Wouldn’t Do)” and “The Pine Float,” but a decidedly more melancholic disposition is present in this music. They are slower in pace and their harmonies and instrumental timbre are much darker than that of the cool jazz on Twin Peaks. In the television series, pieces such as “Dance of the Dream Man” and “Audrey’s Dance” had a playfulness to their sound, which was reinforced through their association with characters such as Audrey Horne and Agent Cooper. The gloomy jazz of Fire Walk with Me, however, even when removed from the heartbreaking depiction of Laura’s final days on  117 •

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screen, still manages to convey an overwhelming sadness. Badalamenti’s jazz is no longer cool jazz, it’s doom jazz. Many of the pieces on the Fire Walk with Me soundtrack also borrow from, or are reminiscent of, the music from the series. The film’s theme is based on the harmony of “New Shoes” (Twin Peaks Music: Season Two Music and More), the melody and harmony of Julee Cruise’s “Questions in a World of Blue” bear a resemblance to “Audrey’s Prayer” (Twin Peaks Music: Season Two Music and More), and Jimmy Scott’s breathtaking “Sycamore Trees” is heard in the final episode of the series (with a cameo by the singer himself) when Agent Cooper enters the Black Lodge to retrieve Annie. A montage track (“Montage from Twin Peaks”) is also present, and moves from sweet pop nostalgia into string dissonance (the cues “Girl Talk” and “Birds in Hell”) before the second half of “Laura Palmer’s Theme” emerges and then segues into “Twin Peaks Theme.” Though not quite as popular, at least commercially, as the 1990 soundtrack release for Twin Peaks, Fire Walk with Me’s soundtrack is just as varied and satisfying a musical offering. Indicative of the music’s lasting popularity, the album was named in the number 1 position in a 2011 NME listing of the “50 Best Film Soundtracks Ever.”4 Post-Peaks, Angelo Badalamenti has continued to enjoy a great deal of success as a composer for film, television, pop music, and more. After achieving mainstream popularity through his soundtrack for Twin Peaks, the composer’s unique sound has been harnessed by a wide range of filmmakers and musicians, and, along with a diverse group of directors from all over the world, he has worked with everyone from Paul McCartney  118 •

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to Marianne Faithfull and even the thrash metal band Anthrax. Badalamenti co-wrote and arranged the song “Black Lodge” (an obvious reference to Twin Peaks) for Anthrax’s 1993 album Sound of White Noise. His characteristic synthesized string suspensions sit atop a sparkling guitar riff, later offset by guitar distortion and Charlie Benante’s driving rhythms. Other Twin Peaks musical alumni also took part in the recording of the song, with Kinny Landrum on synthesizer and Vinnie Bell contributing some “Bookhouse Boys”-style tremolo guitar chords. Around the same time as his collaboration with Anthrax, Badalamenti was commissioned to compose music for the opening ceremony of the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Though far more traditional than any of the music the composer had written in his collaborations with David Lynch, at the beginning of his piece for the lighting of the torch, “The Torch Theme (The Flaming Arrow),” we can hear Badalamenti’s beautiful, dark string suspensions showcased briefly before making way for a triumphant brass fanfare. Since writing the score for Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, Badalamenti’s diverse film work has included composing demented carnivalia for Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s La cité des enfants perdus (The City of Lost Children) (1995), a quirky score for Secretary (Shainberg, 2002), orchestral atmospherics for the horror film Dark Water (Salles, 2005), and, more recently, the score for the Russian war drama Stalingrad (Bondarchuk, 2013). Even in scoring for such a wide range of cinema Badalamenti’s compositions have retained the composer’s signature sound. The layered strings, the haunting synthesizers,  119 •

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and the climactic emotional heights of his Twin Peaks soundtrack can all be heard in his subsequent compositions for film. He has been rewarded for his talent too, winning not only a Grammy in 1990, but a Lifetime Achievement Award at the World Soundtrack Awards in 2008 as well as the prestigious Henry Mancini Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) in 2011. Of all of Badalamenti’s collaborations, it is the music he has created alongside David Lynch in the second half of his career that has become the most memorable. It is with Lynch that he has been able to explore and refine his signature “beautiful dark” sound. From the neo-classical noir of Blue Velvet (1986), the retro dream pop of Julee Cruise, the bittersweet ambience of Twin Peaks, to the tortured synth-string soundscapes of their last film together, Mulholland Drive (2001), the pair have forged an instantly recognizable sound that has gone on to influence many artists. The electronic musician Moby famously sampled “Laura Palmer’s Theme” in his 1990 single “Go.” Brooding singers such as Lana Del Rey and Skye Ferreira have featured references to Twin Peaks in their work, Del Rey’s breathy vocals clearly informed by the “white angel” vocal styling of Julee Cruise. More literally, bands such as Twin Peaks and Audrey Horne have taken their names directly from the show’s narrative.5 In 2015, a series of concerts paid homage to the haunting music of David Lynch’s filmography and featured a myriad of different musical artists from around the world. The In Dreams: David Lynch Revisited concerts were conceived by musician David Coulter in late 2014  120 •

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and showcased a wide variety of pieces from Lynch’s film and music back catalog at theaters and concert halls all over the globe. I was lucky enough to attend a concert at the Sydney Opera House in March of 2015, and the music of Twin Peaks was lovingly interpreted by artists such as the Australian chanteuse Sarah Blasko (“The Nightingale”), harpist Marshall McGuire (“Laura Palmer’s Theme”), and the Canadian singer and violinist Owen Pallet (“Twin Peaks Theme/“Falling”). In April of 2015 a concert took place at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles that directly involved both Angelo Badalamenti and David Lynch. The Music of David Lynch opened with Badalamenti and Kinny Landrum performing “Laura Palmer’s Theme” and featured a diverse line-up that included Karen O, members of The Flaming Lips, Duran Duran, and Lynch’s most recent muse, Chrysta Bell. In the twenty-five years since Twin Peaks originally aired, the show’s fan base has steadily grown as each new generation has discovered the eccentric, unclassifiable series for themselves. When my teenaged friends and I stumbled across the show in the latter half of the 1990s, renting cumbersome multi-VHS bricks from our local video stores adorned with Laura Palmer’s famous portrait, it was over six years since Twin Peaks had first appeared on television screens. And now, after years of poor treatment through its haphazard home video releases, the series can be viewed easily by fans both old and new on DVD, Blu-ray, and through streaming and rental services online.6 What is more, the series is set to return for a third season in 2017. On October 3, 2014, both David Lynch and Mark Frost cryptically tweeted on their respective Twitter accounts, “Dear Twitter Friends:  121 •

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That gum you like is going to come back in style.” The tweets came at 11:30 a.m.: the same time Agent Cooper drives in to Twin Peaks in the pilot episode. The internet was promptly abuzz with speculation as to whether the tweets implied that Twin Peaks would be returning to screens. Several days later, it was officially confirmed in the press: Lynch and Frost would be reuniting to write nine new episodes of Twin Peaks for the Showtime network, with Lynch to direct.7 After years of Peaks withdrawal, the show’s fans were ecstatic. Since the initial announcement there have been a few setbacks, most notably Lynch temporarily pulling out of the project at the beginning of 2015, but at the time of writing, eighteen episodes of the show are scheduled to air in the first half of 2017. Some original cast members will be reprising their roles, and in May of 2015, Angelo Badalamenti was confirmed to be returning as the show’s composer. At a Twin Peaks panel discussion with Sheryl Lee and Sherilyn Fenn that took place at the Crypticon Seattle convention on May 23, 2015, the revelation by Fenn that Badalamenti would be writing new music for the show was met with applause by audience members.8 At a separate panel discussion featuring Dana Ashbrook and James Marsden at the Living Dead Horror convention that took place later that year, a brief mention of Badalamenti’s return as composer brought excited gasps and applause from the audience.9 It was, and is, testament to just how special Badalamenti’s music is to the fans of Twin Peaks. Coinciding with the announcement of the show’s return was the news in February 2015 that both the Twin Peaks and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me soundtracks are scheduled to be reissued on vinyl,  122 •

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allowing fans of the music the opportunity to spin the previously very hard-to-acquire original LPs on their home turntables. There are many reasons that made, and continue to make, Twin Peaks one of the most memorable television shows in history, but without Badalamenti’s music it would have been a very different series. From his unforgettable opening credit music and tragically beautiful theme for Laura Palmer, to his cool finger-snappin’ jazz pieces, Badalamenti’s compositional character is all over Twin Peaks and his music was integral in helping to solidify the show’s aesthetic and cultural legacy. “It’s quite a compliment to know you’re evoking a special world,” Badalamenti reflected. “Through the years some people have told me that it was impossible to think of Twin Peaks without hearing the music … that really blows my mind.”10 It is indeed hard to imagine the world of Twin Peaks without recalling Angelo Badalamenti’s evocative soundtrack. All these years later, with his original compositions for Twin Peaks still haunting both screens and stereos and a new score in production for the upcoming continuation of the series, it seems unlikely that his music will ever lose its power or influence. May there always be the music of Angelo Badalamenti in the air.

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Appendix

Variations of central themes from the Soundtrack from Twin Peaks, as discussed in the book

Titles as per the Twin Peaks Archive

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“Twin Peaks Theme” Variation Instrumentation/ Commonly Example of arrangement associated scene(s) as characters discussed in the book “Twin Synthesizer, Various Norma Peaks twangy bass, and Big Ed (Alternate Rhodes piano. discuss their Version)” feelings for each other (Episode 5). Albert tells Sheriff Truman that he loves him (Episode 10). “Twin Synth-harp, synth- Benjamin Benjamin Peaks strings, acoustic Horne Horne Theme guitar, Rhodes. watches old (Nostalgia home movies Version)” (Episode 18).

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“Laura Palmer’s Theme”/“Love Theme from Twin Peaks” Variation

Instrumentation/ Commonly Example of arrangement associated scene(s) as characters discussed in the book

“Laura Palmer’s Theme (Piano A)”

Heavily reverbed Various solo piano, beginning with second part of the theme and ending with the “Dark Introduction.”

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Donna and Dr. Hayward (Pilot). James and Donna discuss their feelings for one another (Episodes 1 and 2). Leland Palmer arrested for the murder of Jacques Renault (Episodes 11 and 12).

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Variation

Instrumentation/ Commonly Example of arrangement associated scene(s) as characters discussed in the book

“Laura Solo synthesizer Palmer’s pad, no “Dark Theme (Ghost Introduction.” Version)”

Laura

“Laura Palmer’s Theme (Guardian Angel Version)”

Solo synthesizer pad, variation of the “Dark Introduction.”

Pete and Catherine

“Laura Palmer’s Theme (Clarinet Strings Bridge)”

Solo clarinet accompanied by synth-strings, no “Dark Introduction.”

Agent Cooper

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Video footage of Laura (Episode 1). Donna discovers Laura’s diary in Harold’s home (Episode 10).

Agent Cooper discusses heartbreak with Sheriff Truman at the pistol range (Episode 4).

A ppendi x

Variation

Instrumentation/ Commonly Example of arrangement associated scene(s) as characters discussed in the book

“Laura Palmer’s Theme (Clarinet Bridge)”

Solo clarinet, no “Dark Introduction.”

Agent Cooper

“Laura Palmer’s Theme (Caroline)”

Solo synthesizer pad, variation of the “Dark Introduction.”

Agent Cooper

“Laura Palmer’s Theme (Baritone Guitar Punctuation)”

Synth-strings, twangy bass, piano.

Various

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Agent Cooper discovers Audrey Horne in his bed (Episode 5). Agent Cooper tells Sheriff Truman about Caroline (Episode 21). Josie Packard looks for the mill’s accounts ledger (Episode 3). Catherine meets the insurance agent (Episode 6).

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“Audrey’s Dance” Variation

Instrumentation/ Commonly Example of arrangement associated scene(s) as characters discussed in the book

“Audrey’s Dance (clean fast)”

Synth-vibraphone, Bobby synth-bass, drum kit, finger snaps; faster speed than that of the version on the soundtrack album. Rhodes, synthBobby bass, drum kit, finger snaps.

“Audrey’s Dance (clean)”

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Bobby and Shelly driving away from the Double R diner (Pilot). Bobby being interviewed by police at school (Pilot). Bobby held at station with Mike (Pilot). Bobby and Shelly in parked car (Episode 9).

A ppendi x

“Freshly Squeezed” Variation

“Freshly Squeezed (Bass Clarinet)”

“Freshly Squeezed (Solo Clarinet)”

“Freshly Squeezed (Solo Flute)”

Instrumentation/ Commonly Example of arrangement associated scene(s) as characters discussed in the book Bass clarinet, Various Donna puts synth-bass with on Laura’s synth-strings glasses walking bass line, and visits drum kit, finger James in jail snaps. (Episode 8). Solo clarinet Audrey Audrey improvisation. threatens Emory Battis (Episode 5). Audrey ties knot in cherry stem with her tongue (Episode 6). Solo flute Audrey, Audrey tells improvisation. Agent Donna what Cooper she has discovered about Laura (Episode 4).

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“Dance of the Dream Man” Variation

Instrumentation/ Commonly Example of arrangement associated scene(s) as characters discussed in the book “Dance of Solo saxophone Agent Agent the Dream improvisation. Cooper Cooper Man (Solo meets Sax)” Sheriff (also used Truman in “The at hospital Bookhouse (Pilot). Boys”)

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A ppendi x

“The Bookhouse Boys” Cues featured in soundtrack montage track and their variations “The Bookhouse Boys”

Instrumentation/ Commonly Example of arrangement associated scene(s) as characters discussed in the book

Electric guitars, synth-bass, drum kit, finger snaps.

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James, Bobby

James talks to Donna and Audrey at school (Pilot). James talks to Big Ed at the gas station (Pilot). Bobby strikes a Jesus Christ pose (Episode 3).

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Cues featured in soundtrack montage track and their variations “Sneaky Audrey”

Instrumentation/ Commonly Example of arrangement associated scene(s) as characters discussed in the book

Clarinets, various synthesizer pads, synth-strings, electric guitar.

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Audrey

Audrey spies on her family through peephole in her secret hiding place (Episode 3). Audrey drugged at One-Eyed Jacks (Episode 11).

A ppendi x

Cues featured in soundtrack montage track and their variations “Sneaky Audrey (Audrey’s Investigation)” (variation of “Sneaky Audrey”)

Instrumentation/ Commonly Example of arrangement associated scene(s) as characters discussed in the book

Flutes, synthstrings, Rhodes.

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Audrey, Benjamin

Benjamin meets the new girl at One-Eyed Jacks (Episode 2). Audrey spies on Benjamin and Catherine through the peephole (Episode 5).

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Notes

All online material accessed between November 2015 and April 2016

Welcome to Twin Peaks 1. Steve Weinstein, “Is TV Ready for David Lynch?: The director of ‘Blue Velvet’ and ‘Eraserhead’ brings his unique vision to the prime-time soap opera ‘Twin Peaks.’” Los Angeles Times, February 18, 1990 [http:// articles.latimes.com/1990-02-18/entertainment/ ca-1500_1_twin-peaks]. 2. Figures reported in “Twin Peaks tops its TV rivals.” Canberra Times, February 20, 1991, 2. 3. “Tunes of Glory.” Sight & Sound, September 2004, 30.

Beautiful Darkness 1.

Michael Fensom, “Angelo Badalamenti: Boonton composer makes music for movies.” Inside Jersey, November 18, 2014 [http://www.nj.com/inside-jersey/index.ssf/2014/11/ angelo_badalamenti_boonton_composer_makes_music_ for_movies.html].  137 •

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2. Yelena Deyneko, “The Dream Man.” SpiritandFleshMag. com, undated [http://spiritandfleshmag.com/interviews/ interview-with-angelo-badalamenti]. 3. Quoted in Fred Guida, A Christmas Carol and its Adaptations: Dickens’s Story on Screen and Television (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2006), 192. 4. Angelo Badalamenti, interview by Dr. Stephen Marcone and Professor David Philp, Music Biz 101 & More, audio podcast, August 2, 2015 [https://soundcloud.com/ musicbiz-101-more/angelo-badalamenti-twin-peaksmusic-biz-101-more-podcast]. 5. The piece is discussed in “Jean Jacques Perrey: Favorite Top 20 Vanguard Tracks” on Jean-Jacques Perrey’s website, accessed January 14, 2016 [http://www.jeanjacquesperrey.com]. 6. YouTube, “Law and Disorder (1974) Trailer.” YouTube. com, December 1, 2011 [https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=jQOi3CXIYac]. 7. Josef Woodard, “The Sound of Twin Peaks.” Option, unknown month, 1990, 22. 8. Helen Frizell, “Films.” Sydney Morning Herald, July 29, 1975, 7. 9. Refer to the website whosampled.com for a full list of sampling from the Gordon’s War soundtrack.

There’s Always Music in the Air 1. Jim Jerome, “David Lynch: The Brooding Filmmaker Behind TV’s Twin Peaks Lives Simply, But He’s Wild at Art.” People, September 3, 1990 [http://www.people. com/people/archive/article/0,,20118607,00.html]. 2. David Lynch and Chris Rodley (ed.), Lynch on Lynch, rev. edn (London: Faber & Faber, 2005), 133.  138 •

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3. Mysteries of Love. Directed by Jeffrey Schwarz (Los Angeles: Automat Pictures, 2002). Appears on the Blue Velvet DVD release included in the filmography. 4. Daniel Levitin, This is Your Brain on Music: Understanding a Human Obsession (London: Atlantic Books, 2008), 39. 5. YouTube, “Angelo Badalamenti Rare Twin Peaks Interview and Performance.” YouTube.com, April 8, 2015 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_KEnZ-dbfc]. 6. Daniel Schweiger, “The Mad Man and His Muse.” Film Score Monthly, September 2001, 25–6. 7. YouTube, “Julee Cruise discusses her first encounter with David Lynch.” YouTube.com, November 28, 2010 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww5_hK7iyfA]. 8. Greg Kot, “A Star is Born: ‘Twin Peaks’ Did For Julee Cruise What Her Record Alone Couldn’t.” Chicago Tribune, June 17, 1990 [http://articles.chicagotribune. com/1990-06-17/features/9002190295_1_julee-cruiseblue-velvet-angelo-badalamenti]. 9. Justin Mitchell, “Julee Cruise riding high with ‘Twin Peaks’ theme.” Telegraph, November 10, 1990, 11. 10. YouTube, “David Lynch In Conversation | Presented by QAGOMA in association with QPAC.” YouTube. com, June 15, 2015 [https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=jGd6lnYTTY8]. 11. Roy M. Prendergast, Film Music: A Neglected Art: A Critical Study of Music in Films, 2nd edn (New York: Norton, 1992), 227–8. 12. Brian Wise, “MUSIC; David Lynch’s Not-So-Silent Partner.” New York Times, May 22, 2005 [http://query. nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9900E6D71739F93 1A15756C0A9639C8B63]. 13. David Lynch, Catching the Big Fish: Meditation,  139 •

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Consciousness, and Creativity (New York: Jeremy Tarcher/ Penguin, 2006), 67. 14. Lynch and Rodley, Lynch on Lynch, 132. 15. Chris Willman, “Setting Lynch’s Muse to Music: Director, Offbeat Composer Have Struck a Common Chord.” Los Angeles Times, September 29, 1990 [http:// articles.latimes.com/1990-09-29/entertainment/ ca-1142_1_twin-peaks].

Falling 1. Kinny Landrum, interview by Brad Dukes, The Brad Dukes Show, audio podcast, December 28, 2015 [https://soundcloud.com/the-brad-dukes-show/ ep-4-kinny-landrum-twin-peaks-1]. 2. Reddit, “I am the Twin Peaks Synthesizer player (and more) Kinny Landrum. AMA!” Reddit.com, June 8, 2015 [https://www.reddit.com/r/Music/comments/391bfa/i_ am_the_twin_peaks_synthesizer_player_and_more]. 3. YouTube, “Twin Peaks Series Retrospective Week 7: Part 1.” YouTube.com, April 15, 2013 [https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=ltZtyYI-9Uc]. 4. Jack Barron, “Cruise’s Peak.” NME, December 1990, 16. 5. The program details can be viewed at: Sarah Gentile, “David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti’s Industrial Symphony #1.” BAMblog, April 29, 2014 [http:// bam150years.blogspot.com/2014/04/david-lynch-andangelo-badalamentis.html]. 6. Ron Givens, “The music of ‘Twin Peaks’: Angelo Badalamenti discusses his compositions for the show.” Entertainment Weekly, April 6, 1990 [http://www.ew.com/ article/1990/04/06/music-twin-peaks].  140 •

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7. Landrum, The Brad Dukes Show. 8. YouTube, “Twin Peaks Series Retrospective Week 7: Part 4.” YouTube.com, April 15, 2013 [https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=bQ_0pGSobDI]. 9. Twin Peaks Archive, “Exclusive Eddy Dixon Interview!” Twin Peaks Archive (blog), May, 2009 [http:// twinpeaksarchive.blogspot.com/2009/05/exclusive-eddydixon-interview.html]. 10. Brad Dukes, Reflections: An Oral History of Twin Peaks (Nashville: short/Tall Press, 2014), 135. 11. Reddit, “I am the Twin Peaks Synthesizer player (and more) Kinny Landrum. AMA!” 12. Charlie Gillett, The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll (London: Sphere Books Limited, 1971), 120. 13. Luke Lewis, “Angelo Badalamenti Interview – ‘Twin Peaks Just Will Not Die.’” The Movies Blog, NME. com, April 20, 2011 [http://www.nme.com/blogs/ the-movies-blog/angelo-badalamenti-interview-twinpeaks-just-will-not-die]. 14. Norman Cazden, “Musical Consonance and Dissonance: A Cultural Criterion,” Journal of Aesthetics IV (1945): 4–5, quoted in Leonard B. Meyer, Emotion and Meaning in Music (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961), 230. 15. Michel Chion, David Lynch, 2nd edn (London: British Film Institute, 2006), 111. 16. Bob Remington, “TV cashing in on mood music; Twin Peaks pirating triggers album.” Edmonton Journal, September 23, 1990. 17. Lenny Stoute, “Cruise’s music fit for elevator.” Toronto Star, November 19, 1990. 18. The Twin Peaks Archive open album was initially released in bundles (a few related tracks at a time) from  141 •

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2011 to 2012. At the time of writing it is available as a digital download online. 19. Rob Ryan, “Peak time for theme tunes.” Sunday Times, October 14, 1990, sec. 3, p. 3. 20. Remington, “TV cashing in on mood music; Twin Peaks pirating triggers album.”

Wrapped in Plastic 1. Secrets from Another Place: Creating Twin Peaks. Directed by Charles de Lauzirika (Los Angeles: Lauzirika Motion Picture Company, 2007). Appears on the Twin Peaks Blu-ray release included in the filmography. 2. Woodard, “The Sound of Twin Peaks,” 21. 3. Dukes, Reflections, 94. 4. Givens, “The Music of Twin Peaks.” 5. Jim Combs, “Wrapped in Plastic: Would You Believe Midi Cables?” Keyboard, November, 1990, 71. 6. Dean Hurley’s original notes for the Twin Peaks Archive have since been removed from David Lynch’s website but have been archived on both the Twin Peaks soundtrack design blog and the Welcome to Twin Peaks website. 7. Paul A. Woods, Weirdsville USA: The Obsessive Universe of David Lynch (London: Plexus, 1997), 105. 8. Mervyn Cooke, A History of Film Music, 3rd printing (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 15. 9. Some of the original production notes, including those for the pilot, were scanned and uploaded by user “thegreatnorthern” on February 11, 2011 to the forum at dugpa.com, an online community dedicated to the work of David Lynch [http://www.dugpa.com/forum/ viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2016].  142 •

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10. 11. 12. 13.

Givens, “The Music of Twin Peaks.” Schweiger, “The Mad Man and His Muse,” 26. Lynch and Rodley, Lynch on Lynch, 170. Both of these pieces are included on the 2007 album Twin Peaks Music: Season Two Music and More.

She’s Full of Secrets 1. Deyneko, “The Dream Man.” 2. I refer to episodes as they are labeled on the Twin Peaks DVD and Blu-ray releases: Pilot, Episode 1, Episode 2, etc. 3. Givens, “The Music of Twin Peaks.” 4. Royal S. Brown, Overtones and Undertones: Reading Film Music (California: University of California Press, 1994), 3. 5. Kathryn Kalinak, “‘Disturbing the Guests with This Racket’: Music and Twin Peaks,” in Full of Secrets: Critical Approaches to Twin Peaks, ed. David Lavery (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1995), 84. 6. YouTube, “‘Donahue’ with the cast of ‘Twin Peaks’ 1900-05-21 (Part 3 of 5).” YouTube.com, July 11, 2010 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjUy-K1UClU]. 7. This cue is titled “The Culmination” on the Twin Peaks Archive open album. 8. John Rockwell, “POP VIEW; The Music That Haunts ‘Twin Peaks.’” New York Times, July 1, 1990 [http://www. nytimes.com/1990/07/01/arts/pop-view-the-music-thathaunts-twin-peaks.html]. 9. Both appear on the Twin Peaks Archive.

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Freshly Squeezed 1. Richard B. Woodward, “Snapping, Humming, Buzzing, Banging: Remembering Alan Splet.” On Film (blog), The Paris Review, May 13, 2004 [http://www.theparisreview. org/blog/2014/05/13/snapping-humming-buzzingbanging-remembering-alan-splet]. 2. Kory Grow, “Dream Team: The Semi-Mysterious Story Behind the Music of ‘Twin Peaks.’” RollingStone.com, July 25, 2014 [http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/news/ dream-team-the-semi-mysterious-story-behind-themusic-of-twin-peaks-20140725]. 3. Chromatic movement refers to movement in semitones/half-steps, such as a white note to a black note on piano. 4. Paul Colby with Martin Fitzpatrick, The Bitter End: Hanging Out at America’s Nightclub (New York: Cooper Square Press, 2002), 37. 5. Combs, “Wrapped in Plastic” 72. 6. The video can be viewed at: http://welcometotwinpeaks. com/music/fansourced-twin-peaks-music-video. 7. Jack Kerouac, On The Road (London: Viking/Penguin Classics, 2000), 112. 8. Rick Moody, On Celestial Music: And Other Adventures in Listening (New York: Back Bay Books, 2012), 17. 9. Dukes, Reflections, 200. 10. Cooke, A History of Film Music, 111. 11. Kathryn Kalinak, Settling the Score: Music and the Classical Hollywood Film (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992), 167. 12. David Butler, Jazz Noir: Listening to Music from Phantom Lady to The Last Seduction (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2002), 150.  144 •

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13. The track appears on Twin Peaks Music: Season Two Music and More. 14. Jon Burlingame, TV’s Biggest Hits: The Story of Television Themes from “Dragnet” to “Friends” (New York: Schirmer Books, 1996), 129. 15. The track appears on Twin Peaks Music: Season Two Music and More. 16. Landrum, The Brad Dukes Show.

I’ll See You Again in 25 Years 1. The show’s final episode garnered an audience of 10.4 million people, less than a third of the number that the pilot episode had originally attracted in February 1990. 2. Jane and Michael Stern, Jane & Michael Stern’s Encyclopedia of Pop Culture (New York: HarperCollins, 1992), 541. 3. Scott Murray, “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me: The Press Conference.” Cinema Papers, no. 89 (August 1992): 28. 4. Lewis, “Angelo Badalamenti Interview.” 5. For a comprehensive list of Lynch-inspired band names see: http://rateyourmusic.com/list/monocle/ absurd_encounters__music_inspired_by_the_world_of_ david_lynch. 6. For a detailed explanation of the issues that have plagued the various home video releases of Twin Peaks see: http://dugpa.com/features/a-history-of-twin-peakson-home-video 7. Cynthia Littleton, “Twin Peaks’ Revival to Air on Showtime in 2016.” Variety.com, October 6, 2014 [http:// variety.com/2014/tv/news/twin-peaks-revival-to-airon-showtime-in-2016-1201322329].  145 •

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8.

YouTube, “Twin Peaks panel with Sheryl Lee & Sherilyn Fenn at Seattle Crypticon – 5/23/15.” YouTube.com, May 25, 2015 [https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=uNZSiYLOWXg]. 9. YouTube, “Twin Peaks panel at Living Dead Horror Con 11/14/15 – Portland, OR.” YouTube. com, November 17, 2015 [https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=VaN1kzg3iDI]. 10. Secrets from Another Place: Creating Twin Peaks.

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Bibliography

Books and articles Barron, Jack. “Cruise’s Peak.” NME, December 1990. Brown, Royal S. Overtones and Undertones: Reading Film Music. California: University of California Press, 1994. Burlingame, Jon. TV’s Biggest Hits: The Story of Television Themes from “Dragnet” to “Friends.” New York: Schirmer Books, 1996. Burns, Andy. Wrapped in Plastic: Twin Peaks. Ontario: ECW Press, 2015. Butler, David. Jazz Noir: Listening to Music from Phantom Lady to The Last Seduction. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2002. Cazden, Norman. “Musical Consonance and Dissonance: A Cultural Criterion.” Journal of Aesthetics IV (1945): 4–5. Chion, Michel. David Lynch, 2nd edn. London: British Film Institute, 2006. Colby, Paul, with Martin Fitzpatrick. The Bitter End: Hanging Out at America’s Nightclub. New York: Cooper Square Press, 2002. Combs, Jim. “Wrapped in Plastic: Would You Believe Midi Cables?” Keyboard, November, 1990. Cooke, Mervyn. A History of Film Music, 3rd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Dukes, Brad. Reflections: An Oral History of Twin Peaks. Nashville: short/Tall Press, 2014. Frizell, Helen. “Films.” Sydney Morning Herald, July 29, 1975.  147 •

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Gillett, Charlie. The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll. London: Sphere Books Ltd, 1971. Guida, Fred. A Christmas Carol and its Adaptations: Dickens’s Story on Screen and Television. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2006. The Harvard Dictionary of Music, 4th edn. Edited by Don Michael Randel. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2003. Hughes, David. The Complete Lynch. London: Virgin, 2003. Kalinak, Kathryn. “‘Disturbing the Guests with This Racket’: Music and Twin Peaks” in Full of Secrets: Critical Approaches to Twin Peaks. Edited by David Lavery, 82–92. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1995. ­­Kalinak, Kathryn. Settling the Score: Music and the Classical Hollywood Film. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992. Kerouac, Jack. On The Road. London: Viking/Penguin Classics, 2000. Levine, Mark. The Jazz Theory Book. Pentaluma, CA: Sher Music Co., 1995. Levitin, Daniel. This is Your Brain on Music: Understanding a Human Obsession. London: Atlantic Books, 2008. Lynch, David. Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity. New York: Jeremy Tarcher/Penguin, 2006. Lynch, David and Chris Rodley (ed.). Lynch on Lynch, rev. edn. London: Faber & Faber, 2005. Meyer, Leonard B. Emotion and Meaning in Music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961. Mitchell, Justin. “Julee Cruise riding high with ‘Twin Peaks’ theme.” Telegraph, November 10, 1990. Moody, Rick. On Celestial Music: And Other Adventures in Listening. New York: Back Bay Books, 2012. Murray, Scott. “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me: The Press Conference.” Cinema Papers, 89 (August 1992): 26–31. Prendergast, Roy M. Film Music: A Neglected Art: A Critical Study of Music in Films, 2nd edn. New York: Norton, 1992.  148 •

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Remington, Bob. “TV cashing in on mood music; Twin Peaks pirating triggers album.” Edmonton Journal, September 23, 1990. Richardson, John. “Laura and Twin Peaks: Postmodern Parody and the Musical Reconstruction of the Absent Femme Fatale” in The Cinema of David Lynch: American Dreams, Nightmare Visions. Edited by Erica Sheen and Annette Davison, 77–92. London and New York: Wallflower Press, 2004. Rodman, Ronald W. Tuning In: American Narrative Television Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Ryan, Rob. “Peak time for theme tunes.” Sunday Times, October 14, 1990. Sandall, Robert. “Whispery balladeer of the Lynch mob.” Sunday Times, January 27, 1991. Schweiger, Daniel. “The Mad Man and His Muse.” Film Score Monthly, September 2001. Stern, Jane and Michael. Jane & Michael Stern’s Encyclopedia of Pop Culture. New York: HarperCollins, 1992. Stoute, Lenny. “Cruise’s music fit for elevator.” Toronto Star, November 19, 1990. “Tunes of Glory.” Sight & Sound, September 2004. “Twin Peaks tops its TV rivals.” Canberra Times, February 20, 1991. Woodard, Josef. “The Sound of Twin Peaks.” Option, unknown month, 1990. Woods, Paul A. Weirdsville USA: The Obsessive Universe of David Lynch. London: Plexus, 1997.

Online material All material accessed between November 2015 and April 2016 “Angelo Badalamenti Rare Twin Peaks Interview and Performance.” YouTube.com, April 8, 2015 [https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=r_KEnZ-dbfc].  149 •

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Badalamenti, Angelo. Interview by Dennis Raimondi. Speaking Freely with Dennis, audio podcast, May 11, 2010 [http://speakingfreelywithdennis.com/angelo-badalamenti/]. Badalamenti, Angelo. Interview by Dr. Stephen Marcone and Professor David Philp. Music Biz 101 & More, audio podcast, August 2, 2015 [https://soundcloud.com/musicbiz-101-more/ angelo-badalamenti-twin-peaks-music-biz-101-morepodcast]. “David Lynch In Conversation | Presented by QAGOMA in association with QPAC.” YouTube.com, June 15, 2015 [https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGd6lnYTTY8]. Deyneko, Yelena. “The Dream Man.” SpiritandFleshMag.com, undated [http://spiritandfleshmag.com/interviews/interviewwith-angelo-badalamenti]. “‘Donahue’ with the cast of ‘Twin Peaks’ 1900-05-21 (Part 3 of 5).” YouTube.com, July 11, 2010 [https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=jjUy-K1UClU]. Fensom, Michael. “Angelo Badalamenti: Boonton composer makes music for movies.” Inside Jersey, November 18, 2014 [http://www.nj.com/inside-jersey/index.ssf/2014/11/angelo_ badalamenti_boonton_composer_makes_music_for_movies. html]. Gentile, Sarah. “David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti’s Industrial Symphony #1.” BAMblog, April 29, 2014 [http://bam150years. blogspot.com/2014/04/david-lynch-and-angelo-badalamentis.html]. Givens, Ron. “The music of ‘Twin Peaks’: Angelo Badalamenti discusses his compositions for the show.” Entertainment Weekly, April 6, 1990 [http://www.ew.com/article/1990/04/06/ music-twin-peaks]. Grow, Kory. “Dream Team: The Semi-Mysterious Story Behind the Music of ‘Twin Peaks.’” RollingStone.com, July 25, 2014 [http:// www.rollingstone.com/tv/news/dream-team-the-semi-mysterious-story-behind-the-music-of-twin-peaks-20140725]. “Jean-Jacques Perrey: Favorite Top 20 Vanguard Tracks,” on  150 •

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Jean-Jacques Perrey’s website, accessed January 14, 2016 [http://www.jean-jacquesperrey.com]. Jerome, Jim. “David Lynch: The Brooding Filmmaker Behind TV’s Twin Peaks Lives Simply, But He’s Wild at Art.” People, September 3, 1990 [http://www.people.com/people/archive/ article/0,,20118607,00.html]. “Julee Cruise discusses her first encounter with David Lynch.” YouTube.com, November 28, 2010 [https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=ww5_hK7iyfA]. Kot, Greg. “A Star is Born: ‘Twin Peaks’ Did For Julee Cruise What Her Record Alone Couldn’t.” Chicago Tribune, June 17, 1990 [http://articles.chicagotribune.com/ 1990-06-17/features/9002190295_1_julee-cruise-blue-velvet-angelo-badalamenti]. Landrum, Kinny. Interview by Brad Dukes. The Brad Dukes Show, podcast audio, December 28, 2015 [https://soundcloud.com/ the-brad-dukes-show/ep-4-kinny-landrum-twin-peaks-1]. “Law and Disorder (1974) Trailer.” YouTube.com, December 1, 2011 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQOi3CXIYac]. Lewis, Luke. “Angelo Badalamenti Interview – ‘Twin Peaks Just Will Not Die.” The Movies Blog, NME.com, April 20, 2011 [http:// www.nme.com/blogs/the-movies-blog/angelo-badalamentiinterview-twin-peaks-just-will-not-die]. Littleton, Cynthia. “Twin Peaks’ Revival to Air on Showtime in 2016.” Variety.com, October 6, 2014 [http://variety. com/2014/tv/news/twin-peaks-revival-to-air-on-showtime-in-2016-1201322329]. Reddit. “I am the Twin Peaks Synthesizer player (and more) Kinny Landrum. AMA!” Reddit.com, June 8, 2015 [https:// www.reddit.com/r/Music/comments/391bfa/i_am_the_twin_ peaks_synthesizer_player_and_more]. Rockwell, John. “POP VIEW; The Music That Haunts ‘Twin Peaks.’” New York Times, July 1, 1990 [http://www.nytimes. com/1990/07/01/arts/pop-view-the-music-that-haunts-twinpeaks.html].  151 •

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Twin Peaks Archive. “Exclusive Eddy Dixon Interview!” Twin Peaks Archive (blog), May, 2009 [http://twinpeaksarchive. blogspot.com/2009/05/exclusive-eddy-dixon-interview.html]. “Twin Peaks panel at Living Dead Horror Con 11/14/15 – Portland, OR.” YouTube.com, November 17, 2015 [https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaN1kzg3iDI]. “Twin Peaks panel with Sheryl Lee & Sherilyn Fenn at Seattle Crypticon – 5/23/15.” YouTube.com, May 25, 2015 [https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNZSiYLOWXg]. “Twin Peaks Series Retrospective Week 7: Part 1.” YouTube. com, April 15, 2013 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= ltZtyYI-9Uc]. “Twin Peaks Series Retrospective Week 7: Part 4.” YouTube. com, April 15, 2013 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= bQ_0pGSobDI]. Weinstein, Steve. “Is TV Ready for David Lynch?: The director of ‘Blue Velvet’ and ‘Eraserhead’ brings his unique vision to the prime-time soap opera ‘Twin Peaks.’” Los Angeles Times, February 18, 1990 [http://articles.latimes.com/1990-02-18/ entertainment/ca-1500_1_twin-peaks]. Willman, Chris. “Setting Lynch’s Muse to Music: Director, Offbeat Composer Have Struck a Common Chord.” Los Angeles Times, September 29, 1990 [http://articles.latimes. com/1990-09-29/entertainment/ca-1142_1_twin-peaks]. Wise, Brian. “MUSIC; David Lynch’s Not-So-Silent Partner.” New York Times, May 22, 2005 [http://query.nytimes. com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9900E6D71739F931A15756 C0A9639C8B63]. Woodward, Richard B. “Snapping, Humming, Buzzing, Banging: Remembering Alan Splet.” On Film (blog), The Paris Review, May 13, 2004 [http://www.theparisreview.org/ blog/2014/05/13/snapping-humming-buzzing-banging-remembering-alan-splet].

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Selected filmography Blue Velvet, special edition. Directed by David Lynch, 1986. Beverly Hills, CA: MGM Home Entertainment, 2003. DVD. Mysteries of Love. Directed by Jeffrey Schwarz. Los Angeles: Automat Pictures, 2002. Video. Secrets from Another Place: Creating Twin Peaks. Directed by Charles de Lauzirika. Los Angeles: Lauzirika Motion Picture Company, 2007. Video. Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery. Los Angeles: Paramount Home Media Distribution, 2014. Blu-ray.

Selected discography Badalamenti, Angelo. Music from Twin Peaks. Warner Bros. Records 7599-26316-2, 1990, compact disc. Badalmenti, Angelo. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack). Warner Bros. Records 9362-45019-2, 1992, compact disc. Badalmenti, Angelo and David Lynch. Twin Peaks Archive. davidlynch.com, 2011–12, online release. Badalamenti, Angelo and David Lynch. Twin Peaks Music: Season Two Music and More. Absurda/David Lynch Music Company DLMC003, 2007, compact disc. Cruise, Julee. Floating into the Night. Warner Bros. Records 925 859-2, 1989, compact disc. Various artists. Blue Velvet. Varese Sarabande VSD-47277, 1986, compact disc.

Selected websites dugpa.com twinpeaksarchive.blogspot.com twinpeakssoundtrackdesign.blogspot.com welcometotwinpeaks.com  153 •

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