Love In The Open Air – Exploring McCartney’s First Film Theme

Posted On May 25, 2020

Love In The Open Air is the name given for the principal theme that formed the soundtrack of the 1966 film The Family Way. Although the music went on to win an Ivor Novello award for Best Instrumental Theme, McCartney’s involvement did not get off to an auspicious start. As George Martin explained:

I went to America for a time and, on returning, realised we needed a love theme for the centre of the picture, something wistful. I told Paul and he said he’d compose something. I waited, but nothing materialised, and finally I had to go round to Paul’s house and literally stand there until he’d composed something.

Martin added:

Paul created the tune and played it to me on guitar. I listened and wrote it down. It is a fragile, yet compelling, melody. I arranged it for woodwinds and strings, and we called it Love In The Open Air. It’s quite haunting.

Instrumentation

It is indeed a compelling melody. But Martin forgot to mention that brass instruments form a key part of the arrangement. As McCartney explains:

For the film I got something together that was sort of ‘brassy bandy’, to echo the Northernness of the story, and I had a great time.

The Family Way was largely filmed in Bolton, as the story was based on a Bill Naughton’s television play All In Good Time. Naughton hailed from Bolton. ten miles to the north of Manchester.

Love In The Open Air begins with the unusual combination of classical guitar and the mellow tones of a cornet, a stalwart of British brass bands. (I initially identified the instrument as flugelhorn and it’s hard to be completely certain. Two other musical friends identified a cornet).

We don’t know who the guitar player is, but interestingly, s/he plays with bare fingers and not nails and fingers, as had become the norm by the 1960s. We can perhaps therefore assume the player is a general session man/woman, rather than a classical guitarist by training.

Musical Detail

Love In the Open Air is a timeless and haunting melody. What is it about the piece that evokes such tender expression?

The first obvious observation is that the piece is in a 3/4 time signature and moves along at the fairly relaxed paced of 96 bpm.

More importantly than the time signature, the melody progresses at a slow pace; the first notes is a dotted minim, followed by a standard minim/half note. The harmonic rhythm (rate of chord change) is also a slow and steady one chord per bar.

Key Signature

It is in the key of E minor, which is perhaps the most idiomatic key for the classical guitar, and we can surmise that Martin remained faithful to McCartney’s original guitar rendition.

(As an aside, it is interesting to note that McCartney has had a long-standing interest in the classical guitar and set to work on composing a guitar concerto with the English guitarist Carlos Bonnell in the new millennium but this work has yet to materialise.)

The key of E minor only partially explains the song’s prevailing sad mood. It’s a beginner’s cliche to say that music in a minor key is “sad” and major is “happy”.

Thinking of McCartney’s own music, the track Mrs Vandebilt is in a minor key and both For No One and Fool on the Hill are in major keys. Looking further afield, the Joy Division track Love Will Tear Us Apart seems to be almost drenched in despondency, but is in fact in the key of D major.

Descending Bass Line

Looking past the key signature, one musical device that has been used by a whole host of composers to evoke sadness is the descending bass line.

In fact, the technique can be traced back as least as far as Henry Purcell (1659-1695). Listen to melancholia of Dido’s Lament from the opera Dido and Aeneas, which is based on a descending bass in G minor.

Paul McCartney shows an awareness of the mournful potential of the descending bass in countless songs in his career, both during and after The Beatles. The song Dear Friend from Wildlife (1972) springs to mind, as does For No One (Revolver) and the opening chord sequence for Michelle (Rubber Soul).

Love In The Open Air is also based on a descending bass line in E minor. As the bass descends by step, the chords form inversions (also know as “slash chords” because they incorporate the “/” sign).

Bars Four to Eight

We have established that first four bars are mournful in character due to the tune’s slow melody, slow harmonic rhythm and the use of a descending bass line.

Something interesting happens in the next four bars, where the cornet (or flugelhorn) is harmonised by an additional cornet.

The harmony moves to the subdominant of A minor, and the melody begins on a descending phrase from E5. But there seems to be a glimmer of hope on the horizon from the next bar (0:12). The chord of D7 guides the listener to expect a modulation to the relative major of G major, but instead (at 0:16), we are given the original tonic of E minor.

In emotional terms, we are offered a moment of hope that is summarily dismissed by the interpolation of a minor chord. This passage can also be understood as an interrupted cadence in G major. Classical composers have been using interrupted cadences since time immemorial to build-up, and then to let down, our expectations.

But the phrase does end on a major chord, albeit a second inversion of G major (G/D).

Major/Minor Duality

The despondent nature of in Love in the Open Air can be partly attributed to the duality of major and minor chords. Major comes to represent the interjection of hope, whereas minor symbolises a return to the original feeling of dejection. A minor key signature offers a great deal of scope for switching between parallel major and minor chords. For example, the chord of A major can be formed from the melodic minor scale of E minor, whereas A minor results from the harmonic minor scale.

Bars Eight to Sixteen

In these bars, the duality of major/minor or hope/dejection is further explored by McCartney. The passage begins on the chord of A major and the sudden lifting of spirits is palpable at 0:20. But at 0:24, the tonic chord of E minor raises its head again, which suddenly puts paid to the sense of hope represented by A major.

At 0:28 the four-bar phrase is repeated, but this time it begins on the chord of A minor. Can you hear the loss of hope as the melody fails to rise triumphantly, but instead falls dejectedly at 0:32?

Comparison With Schindler’s List

Great composers tend to use the same methods. John Williams’ theme from Schindler’s List (1993) is in the key of G minor, but here it is transposed to E minor and we can recognise similar harmonic devices at work. It is the regular switching between major and minor that imbues the work with a bittersweet quality.

By the second bar of the main theme, Williams has modulated to G major (Bb major), only to plunge the listener back to E minor (G minor) by 0:34. Can you hear the fleeting moment of hope at 0:32? This major/minor duality continues through the length of the main theme.

Conclusion

Although this blog post is necessarily only a brief insight into Love In The Open Air, several key points emerge:

• The theme’s brass-based orchestration helps to convey the film’s north-England theme.
• The minor key signature, moderate tempo, slow melody and slow harmonic rhythm help to set the mood of the track.
• The melancholy ambience is reinforced by the use of a descending bass line.
• The bittersweet nature of the track is reinforced by the use of interrupted cadences that lead to E minor instead of the predicted G major, but G major does arrive at the end of the phrase.
• The dichotomy of major and minor is an important feature of the track, especially in the switches between A major and A minor.

The film’s soundtrack consists of thirteen untitled tracks, which are variations on the original theme by George Martin. It is worth listening to these in full – they can all be accessed on YouTube and a mono CD was released in 1993 of the original recordings.

New Version

In 1995 the guitarist Carl Aubut was joined by Claire Marchand, André Moisan and the Claudel String Quartet to produce a new version of the soundtrack for CD release. This version begins in D minor and it is interesting to compare it with the original version by McCartney and Martin:

Finally…

A special thanks to David Llewellyn for managing to find the sheet music for Love In The Open Air and Russell Kenyon, Charles Gaskell and Michiel de Boer for offering advice on the use of brass on the original film soundtrack.