Music
Each show began with Host E. G. Marshall intoning, "The CBS Radio Mystery Theater presents...", followed by the sound of a creaking door slowly opening, seeming to invite listeners in for the evening's adventure. Three descending notes from the double basses introduced Marshall's sinister intonation, "Come in... Welcome." A stopped horn sting and timpani roll, then: "I'm E.G. Marshall." A low, eerie theme played by the bass clarinet followed as Marshall introduced the program. At the end of each show, Marshall delivered his classic signoff, "... inviting you to return to our Mystery Theater for another adventure in the macabre. Until next time, pleasant... dreams?" The door then creaked and slammed shut, followed by a repeat of the show's ominous theme music.
The opening and closing themes for CBSRMT are derived from an abbreviated form of the music from the classic Twilight Zone episode "Two", composed by Nathan Van Cleave. Series listeners will immediately recognize the 'RMT Theme' beginning about 1:35 on the "Two" soundtrack selection from the Twilight Zone CD boxed set. Other background tracks from the Twilight Zone music library, to which CBS owned full rights, were featured repeatedly in episodes of CBSRMT. The theme song and the other music was also previously frequently used in the 1950s and 1960s in other CBS-owned radio and television dramas (Perry Mason; Rawhide; Gunsmoke; Have Gun Will Travel; Suspense; Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar; etc.), in addition to Twilight Zone, as it was all owned by CBS.
Read more about this topic: CBS Radio Mystery Theater
Famous quotes containing the word music:
“If music in general is an imitation of history, opera in particular is an imitation of human willfulness; it is rooted in the fact that we not only have feelings but insist upon having them at whatever cost to ourselves.... The quality common to all the great operatic roles, e.g., Don Giovanni, Norma, Lucia, Tristan, Isolde, Brünnhilde, is that each of them is a passionate and willful state of being. In real life they would all be bores, even Don Giovanni.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)
“During the cattle drives, Texas cowboy music came into national significance. Its practical purpose is well known—it was used primarily to keep the herds quiet at night, for often a ballad sung loudly and continuously enough might prevent a stampede. However, the cowboy also sang because he liked to sing.... In this music of the range and trail is “the grayness of the prairies, the mournful minor note of a Texas norther, and a rhythm that fits the gait of the cowboy’s pony.””
—Administration in the State of Texa, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Through music the passions enjoy themselves.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)