The Therapy Zone

Village Day Music Composition

    Since I've been listening to the 3cd soundtrack to 'the Prisoner,' I have realised just how close the composition of the soundtrack to ‘Village Day’ actually came to that of the Prisoner series. Of course the music is completely different, I mean the music in its composition. For example for ‘Village Day’ there are 3 separate and entirely different tracks of Drums in tempo. There are Trumpets, Whistles and Sweet Whistles, not forgetting Mysterious Village - Bells / Mysterious Village - Air / Mysterious Village - Organ  / Mysterious Village - Gothic incidental music of which are variations on a theme, some of which remained unused for ‘Village Day’ as was the case of some the incidental music composed for the Prisoner.

    So if once upon a time the track and their composition was something of a surprise to me, now after listening to the Prisoner cd soundtrack, I can compare the two, as the 3 Prisoner cd's contain such tracks as;

Drum FX-1 Low Timp - Slow

Drum More Menace

Small timp - slow

Small Timp - More Menace

Large Timp - Single Beats

    And of course there variations on a theme as in Pop Goes The Weasel {"Pop-Weasel"-Piano}

"Pop" Two {"Pop-weasel"-Piano, Block, Etc}

"Pop" Three {"Pop-Weasel" - Piano, Cymbal Etc} Not to mention two variations of "Boys And Girls Come Out To Play", which are but a small example of the 235 tracks on the 3 cd's.

  So all in all I am most gratified to see that the music composed for my Art House film Village Day, and the way in which it was composed, is very much in keeping with that of the music composed for ‘the Prisoner.’

    Just as a footnote, the composer of the music soundtrack for ‘Village Day’ could not have used the soundtrack music for ‘the Prisoner’ as inspiration, because back in 1997-98 there was no-way that Bruce Stringer could have heard any of the unused soundtrack music, as it has only in recent months been publicly available.

A Change Of Mind

    Subtlety seems to have been thrown out with the bath water in this episode, because this particular No.2 is happy to allow "mob rule" in the village. To borrow No.6's own words "Good old fashioned brute force can be very effective" as the citizens having finally had enough of his unmutuality, turn upon him with force and violence!

   Lashing out with their umbrellas, No.56 seems to take real pleasure from this, as No.6 is picked up, manhandled and dragged all the way to the hospital.

   Throughout No.6's ordeal in the Village, he's roughed up more often than not. And pictured here, No.6 has had to eat his own words as he takes a pounding. But don't forget, we mustn't damage the tissue...... oh they forgot!

Dance Of The Dead

    After No.6's first meeting with his observer No.240, she hurries away towards the Town Hall in order to take up her duties in the control room.

    No.6 takes it into his head to follow No.240, that's a good one, the observed following his Observer!

   But suddenly that white membranic Village Guardian has other ideas and impedes No.6's progress enough to give No.240 a head start. Then goes off for a second, allowing No.6 to mount the steps and follow in his observers footsteps. But then reappears again impeding No.6's progress along the cobbled path.

   No.240 approaches the pair of wrought Iron gates, the other side of those and the street lies the Town Hall. She looks back for a second, as she realises that she is being followed by No.6!

    But to save her there is again the village guardian, as it continues to impede No.6, and give No.240 time to cross the street and enter the Town Hall.

   There is no force used by this membranic being against No.6, nor does it emit its blood curdling roar, or attempt to suffocate No.6 into unconsciousness. It simply glides in and out of No.6's path at given moments, with gentle persuasion and a touch of agitation, slows No.6's progress enough to give No.240 time to enter the Town Hall.

Be seeing you