CBS Music Library Cue # System
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CBS Music Library Cue # System [completed July 29, 2018 at 11:13 am PDT] [Note: Special thanks to "Wild Tim" (Timothy A. Edwards), the super-friendly & helpful "go to" guy at UCLA while he worked there, who assisted me tremendously in pulling CBS boxes, giving loads of information & news, etc.] The official CBS Music Library cue numbering system (one digit to four-digits tied to specific music) for television lasted just over seven years. It was their version of a "Mood Music Library." I already discussed in great length content details of the CBS Collection 072 at UCLA in my online paper: http://www.filmscorerundowns.net/other/cbs_collection.pdf While I offered a comprehensive examination of many of the CBS boxes, I did not systematically present a detailed list of the cues in numerical order. This paper you are reading now pretty much remedies that. However, it will not be an exhaustive presentation of each & every cue in the CBS Music Library for television! For one thing, though I researched the written scores (and other documents) collection for many years since the spring of 1989, it would be a Herculean task to list everything that is available. Some scores and documents were missing, not found. Despite this, I do believe in this paper that I have provided a near-complete list, especially of the music that was routinely used by the music editors for various television shows such as, most prominently, Perry Mason, Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, Rawhide, Hotel de Paree, The Twilight Zone, and others. Starting in 1963, much of the Music Library material was loaned for The Fugitive popular series. Perhaps I cannot account for up to 12% of the cues at most so far. Realize, however, that there are anomalies. For instance, curiously, I have never found any indication of the existence of anything in the 900 series. Realize also that several scores and suites of cues for the first few years were not assigned, for whatever reason, official CBS cue # identifications. This included Bernard Herrmann's score for the Have Gun Will Travel pilot, "Three Bells To Perdido" written early 1957. Herrmann's 1 just earlier score for the Ethan Allen pilot similarly did not have official numbers assigned. Secondary or auxiliary numbering was used such as cue/reel numberings. Now: As a general rule, the CBS Music Library of cues are organized in the following seasons (fall thru spring) associated with a certain numeral classification: VII (7) = 1956-1957 Season [Binders # 38-39] VIII (8) = 1957-1958 Season [Binders 40-41] IX (9) = 1958-1959 Season [Binders 42-43] X (10) = 1959-1960 Season [Binders 44-45] XI (11) = 1960-1961 Season [Binders 46-47] XII (12) = 1961-1962 Season [Binders 48-49] XIII (13) = 1962-1963 Season [Binders 50-51] Notice the Binders' numbers in brackets. At the long period of my research there, and until at least the last several years (if not decade), there were a series of binders for these Music Library cues (and other CBS materials). Normally the binders were stored in the B-425 Special Collectors Reading Room of the Schoenberg Hall building (cramped in there as it was already!), usually behind & above the front desk where "Wild Tim" usually sat. At the time, there were two binders for each Season/Numeral starting with CBS VII. The larger black binder systematically described each and every cue classified in specific reel numbers. The smaller companion red binder that detailed cues under composers’ names. I do not recall the last period of time when I consistently researched there at UCLA, but I believe it was late 2004 or sometime into 2005. So at least for 15 years I was a faithful researcher there, especially in Room B-425. Remember, I was working at the Post Office so I could only research there on vacations and occasionally days off. Since my time there, researchers had to go to the Charles E. Young Research Library (located next to the campus cafeteria) to study the CBS Collection material. Relatively rarely in CBS cue sheets I would find a few references to CBS VI (6) cues, although I have never found a binder or otherwise series of listings derived from the VI season (ostensibly 1955-56). It would make sense that there should be because Gunsmoke started in the fall of 1955. I have never seen a Gunsmoke cue sheet of any episode from that first season 2 (or any other season), but I do have Twilight Zone cue sheets that occasionally indicate CBS VI cues. Here are most or all of the examples of such CBS VI cues listed in Twilight Zone episodes from the first three seasons: Examples of CBS VI Cues (Twilight Zone episodes): “Escape Clause” (1st Season) airdate November 6, 1959 9. Punctuation D2 & D 3 CBS 6-5 L. Moraweck :10 14. Comedy Tag # 4 CBS 6-21 Guy Luypaertz :04 “Long Live Mr. Jameson” (1st Season) airdate March 18, 1960 2. Gaudiamus Igitur CBS 6-18 Traditional :18 “The Mighty Casey” (1st Season) airdate June 17, 1960 6. Punctuation CBS VI-5 L. Moraweck :04 7. Knife Chord to Tail CBS VI-7 “ :03 8. “ “ “ “ :06 12. Osgood CBS VI-12 M. Carlton :08 13. “ “ “ :07 14. “ “ “ :06 “The Night of the Meek” (2nd Season) airdate December 23, 1960 15. High String Tremolo CBS VI-22-5 L. Moraweck :41 “The Mind and the Matter” (2nd Season) airdate May 12, 1961 29. Little Fugue CBS VI-29-935 Fred Steiner :04 “The Whole Truth” (2nd Season) airdate January 20, 1961 34. Neutral Pleasant CBS VI-13-M-9 G. Luypaertz :05 “Nothing in the Dark” (3rd Season) airdate January 5, 1962 3. Eerie Theme CBS VI-5-14-OW-23 L. Moraweck 1:52 “Changing of the Guard” (3rd Season) airdate 6-1-62 2.Gaudiamus Igitur CBS VI-18-6 Traditional :16 As part of the numeric cue system, each cue number had a companion music library year and Reel classification meant for a certain type of music. Below are the most-used descriptive reel titles: CBS Reel Classifications 3 -Reel 23 (Orchestral Composites) -Reel 24 (Harp Effects) -Reel 26 (Commercials) -Reel 27 (Period Backgrounds) -Reel 28 (Miscellaneous Soli and Orchestral Effects) -Reel 29 (String Effects) -Reel 31 (Snare Soli) -Reel 32 (Miscellaneous Percussion) -Reel 33 (Children’s Material) -Reel 34 (Religious Materials) -Reel 35 (Miscellaneous Tympani Effects) -Reel 37 (Fanfares) -Reel 39 (Nationalistic Music—Ethnic) -Reel 40 (Restaurant Music: Foreign, Piano, Solo Piano) -Reel 42 (Restaurant Music—Dance Band) -Reel 43 (Dramatic Bridges) -Reel 44 (Dramatic Punctuations and Flare outs) -Reel 45 (City Backgrounds) -Reel 46 (Dramatic Backgrounds) -Reel 47 (Sneaks to Dramatic Tags) -Reel 48 (Dramatic Tags) -Reel 50 (Descriptive Seascapes) (or simply “Seascapes”) -Reel 51 (Western Bridges and Backgrounds and Western Curtains) It is also called “Western Material” in some sheets. -Reel 52 (Comedy Material) -Reel 53-D (Western—Featuring Guitar: Gunsmoke Thematic Material) -Reel 54 (Comedy Tags & Curtains) -Reel 56 (Suspense Backgrounds and Bridges—Indian Suspense) -Reel 56-C (Suspense Bridges and Backgrounds) -Reel 57 (Romantic Material) Sometimes it is called “Romantic Bridges & Backgrounds.” -Reel 58 (Dramatic And Anthology Main Titles) -Reel 58-D-Three (Dramatic and Anthology Main Titles: Restricted Thematic Material) -Reel 58-D-Six (Hotel De Paree Materials) -Reel 58-E-One (Have Gun Will Travel) -Reel 60 (Comedy Main Titles) -Reel 61 Billboard Montages -Reel 62 Military and Cavalry Bridges and Backgrounds -Reel 63 (Descriptive-Pastoral-Landscapes (Dramatic Landscapes, Pastoral) 4 -Reel 64 (Descriptive Pastoral) -Reel 66 (Space Music and Fantasy) -Reel 70 (Single Instruments) -Reel 71 (Progressive Jazz) -Reel 72 (Copyrighted Dance Music) -Reel 73 (Serious Source Music) -Reel 74 (Panoramics) -Reel 75 (Indian Material) So, as an example, most of Herrmann's so-called Western Saga cues were classified under Reel 51 ("Western Bridges and Backgrounds and Western Curtains"). One of those cues is CBS cue #374 "Street Music" with the placement in 8-51-D-1. This means library VIII (roughly the 1957-1958 season) in Reel 51-D-1 (or 51-D-One ). Rene Garriguenc's reverential- sounding "Religious Procession [or Processional] cues were placed in Reel 34-D ("Religious Materials" reel). Most cues of a dramatic nature tended to be placed in Reels 43, 44 & 56. Many times the placements were subjective- -such as it "sounds" like jazzy metropolitan music, so placed in Reel 45 ("City Backgrounds"). 5 The main point is that the numbering system was meant as a systematic approach where specific music can be easily traced and used as identifications on official cue sheets to pay composers royalty money each 6 time their music was used in an episode of a series (I have seen $5 per use circa late Fifties in Herrmann's case in a few instances). Each placement has a cue number (normally) along with the associated music library/reel designation, title of the cue, name of the composer, publisher and timings. See a representative cue sheet immediately above from The Twilight Zone episode, "Night Call." 7 8 9 The two images immediately above show a representative CBS cue description sheet, followed by an example of transcription disc labels (the annotations on the right edge naming composers are my own). The purpose of a music library of this nature is for a music editor to easily find the "mood music" that best fits a scene or emotional ambience of that scene. A chase/pursuit scene in, say, a Perry Mason episode (such as the premiere one in 1957, "Case of the Restless Redhead") would require appropriate music. Choosing from Reel 57 ("Romantic Material") would definitely not fit.