"Suspense" Motif
Like John Barry, David Arnold has left his own mark in the music of James Bond. In this case, he has established what can be called the "suspense motif", which is a descending, repetitive four-note motif that can be heard in most of the Bond movies he has scored, starting with Tomorrow Never Dies. It is usually an underlying motif playing under the main melody, and is usually orchestrated with piano trills, high strings, horns, blaring trumpets, and an underlying snare drum. This motif can be heard in:
- Tomorrow Never Dies — "Station Break", "*-3-Send", "Underwater Discovery"
- The World Is Not Enough — "Pipeline", "Submarine"
- Die Another Day — "Death of Moon", "Antonov"
- Casino Royale — "Miami International", "Dirty Martini", and very briefly in "African Rundown"
Read more about this topic: James Bond Music
Famous quotes containing the word suspense:
“Scepticism is an ability, or mental attitude, which opposes appearances to judgments in any way whatsoever, with the result that, owing to the equipollence of the objects and reasons thus opposed we are brought firstly to a state of mental suspense and next to a state of “unperturbedness” or quietude.”
—Sextus Empiricus (2nd or 3rd cen., A.d.)