1. Introductions
Welcome!Welcome to Roger Bellon's "Highlander-The Series" Music FAQ. This document has been provided as a service to the fans of "Highlander-The Series" who have been sending email to Roger and/or visiting the alt.tv.highlander and rec.arts.sf.tv News Groups, asking for information pertaining to various aspects of the music from "where can I get a copy of that?" to "what was the name of that song in..." Hopefuly, as this document grows, it will provide answers to all of these questions.
This document is not meant to be distributed in the same fashion as many FAQ files currently available, and is protected and covered by the same guidelines as the rest of the Web Site (www.bellchant.com) that it is a part of. It of course might go without saying that it is perfectly OK for you to print or save any of this information for personal use, but it's distribution as a file or printed document or other means of transferrence through any medium for any commercial or non-commercial derivative work is expressly forbidden. Please see credits.html for complete official information regarding ownership of this document and it's use.
If you ask nicely, I'm sure Roger would love to give you permission to distribute this document in some form in a relevant forum.
What's Not Here...And where to get it...
This Web Site (www.bellchant.com) is here to promote and provide information regarding Roger Bellon and his musical projects. (Most notably at this time "Highlander-The Series") Therefore, this FAQ is an attempt to further that cause by providing information relating to the music of "Highlander-The Series".
What you will not find here:
- Airing Schedules, Episode Guides or Character Synopses.
- Information about the Highlander Feature Films or the Highlander Animated series.
- Information, News or Bios about the Actors and Actresses appearing in "Highlander-The Series".
- Information regarding Highlander Fan Clubs or Merchandise.
This isn't because we're mean. It's because there are other, far more complete, sources of information pertaining to those aspects of the "Highlander" universe. Rather than compete with those site, and have to maintian information we don't specialize in, we thought it best to simply tell you how to get to them.
Bounce on over to the Bellchant Music, Inc. Managerie O' Highlander Links - A side door to "Highlander" Web Site Links grouped by Commercial Sites and Fan Sites. It doesn't have everything there is, but it does have those who do have everything there is...
For immediate participation in active discussion of "Highlander-The Series" topics, definitely visit alt.tv.highlander - A Usenet Newsgroup focused entirely on "Highlander-The Series" ask a queston there, and you're bound to get an answer. Very Informative, Friendly and Flame Retardant.
Music Cues and Cue
Sheets-The Official Music Paperwork
First of all, a Cue is an individual instance of music, which in a film produciton (as opposed to radio, which has no picture) starts at a designated TimeCode Number for visual reference, and is usually relevant to a particular action or dialog viewed on screen. Hence a Cue Sheet is a listing of all of the instances of music found in a given production.
Additionaly, the Cue Sheet is the Official Music Use Report created by composers or music editors of a production for reporting the use of music in all broadcast formats including television, radio, and theater. For "Highlander-The Series", a Cue Sheet for each episode is distributed world-wide to those involved in the production of "Highlander-The Series" and to various Performing Rights Societies (such as BMI and ASCAP in the USA, and SACEM in France), to track the performance of music (and payment of royalties) in each episode of "Highlander-The Series" aired on any station anywhere in the world. These forms are standard in the industry for all manner of films, radio and television which include music of any type. Hopefully, you can use these sheets to help yourself to the answers you are looking for pertaining to the music pieces you are interested in.
"Pieces are listed in order of appearance in the episode, and the names that I have chosen for each 'Cue' usually pertain to the scene it is in or a piece of the dialog spoken by one of the characters. If a particular piece is listed as having a composer other than myself, then that piece was chosen by the powers-that-be to be used for specific reasons usually requiring a recognizable tune such as popular radio, period (jazz/swing/classical), etc. which they required for that particular scene rather than the background that I provide." (thanks- Roger) These kinds of Cues are called Source Music.
Often questions are posted in Usenet Newsgroups or sent to Roger in Email asking about various pieces of music heard in "Highlander-The Series" everything from what is the name of that song that has the words "Princes Of The Unvierse..." to "who-wrote-that-piece-I-heard-in-that-episode...", to "where can I get a copy of that song but I don't know the name of it..."
For the fan of "Highlander-The Series", Cue Sheets provide a perfect way of researching the titles and composers of any piece of muisc used in "Highlander-The Series" categorized by episode. This provides you with instant access to whatever information you need about what is what in the score of "Highlander-The Series".
See the snipped image below of the Cue Sheet for "Highlander-The Series" Season
Five's first episode 'Prophecy' for an example. If you are using a text only
browser, hopefully the link will allow you to download this small image for
viewing off-line:
FYI The spelling of Macleod as MC Cleod in the above Cue Sheet has everything to do with the powers-that-be and nothing to do with a typo in the Cue Sheet or the lack of knowing how to spell it.
Staring at a certain point, they are all that way.
As you can see, the pieces are listed in order of appearance according to the name of the individual "Cue". Also, the title for each piece is named, with the composer, the publishing company, Performing Rights Society affiliation, and duration, as well as the the type of use of the individual Cue. Most music is called underscore, with the Theme music called a "Title". Pieces where you can see someone playing an instrument, singing or dancing, as well as when it is obviously supposed to be playing from a radio or CD player, etc. are called Visual Cues with a short description of which kind of visual that Cue is.
Roger has a complete database of the Cue Sheets from "Highlander-The Series" available here on his Bellchant Music, Inc. Web Site. Follow the link to the database.html and follow the instructions provided. This database allows Cue Sheets to be viewed using Adobe Acrobat Reader 3.0 from your graphical Web Browser. If you don't already have Acrobat Reader 3.0, a link is provided from the page.
Why is Macleod spelled Mc Cleod on the newer Cue Sheets?
In the beginning, up to and including December 31, 1994 -when "Highlander-The Series" was new- the music was being published through an affiliate of the Performing Rights Society ASCAP, and the publishing company which owned the music copyright was named Connor Macleod Music. Then, the music publishing was changed to BMI instead of ASCAP. And the name of the music publishing company had to also be changed. The new name was Macleod Connor Music, a simple reversal of two words. And the Cue Sheets were filled out as such for quite some time. Then something happened. Apparently, the people who were responsible for changing the name had actually changed the spelling of Macleod as well as the word order. The Officially correct name registered with BMI was Mc Cleod Connor Music. No one seems to know why the spelling was changed, but that's the way it is. When the spelling error came to light, it was to late to redistribute the previous Cue Sheets worldwide, so it was decided to just switch to using the "correct" spelling for subsequent Cue Sheets.
For the record, BMI was nice enough to agree to recognize both spellings of Macleod Connor Music as pertaining to their Cue Sheet Database for "Highlander-The Series".
Source Music
What is Source Music?
Source Music is the name applied to any music heard in a production ("Highlander-The Series" is a 'production') that was "sourced" or "found" for use in a specific Cue. This often happens when the music of a specific style (such as classical) is requested to fit a scene from a certain time period and a specific Composer is asked for, or when a character is obviously listening to their favorite CDs, or is in a bar or club, and a song with words is needed. Usually production will find appropriate music in an estalished source music "library", a service that provides published musical works for use as source music. If suitable music is not found, then typically, between production and the composer (Roger in this case) they will look for music that fits the bill through contacts with other musicians they are familliar with.
Did Roger write "Princes Of The Universe"? (and other Queen Songs used in "Highlander-The Series")
Q: Did Roger write "Princes Of The Universe"?
A: No, here's why...
The theme song for "Highlander-The Series" is titled "Princes Of The Universe". It was written by the band Queen (credit is given to Freddie Mercury specifically) for the original "Highlander" movie. According to local Highlander lore, once the whole band had been exposed to the project, they loved it, and decided to write more songs for it. Of the songs used in the "Highlander" movie, only "Princes Of The Universe" and "Who Wants To Live Forever" (written by Brian May, Queen's guitarist) have been heard in "Highlander-The Series".
Next time you are watching an episode of "Highlander-The Series", note in the beginning credits that Queen is listed as the composer for the "Theme" music, and Roger Bellon is listed as the composer for the "Score". Now you know what that means!
If you are interested in getting these songs for yourself, try visiting Highlander-The Store, or look for the Queen album A Kind Of Magic. This Queen album has both of those songs and all of the rest used in the movies.
Lyrics to songs used in "Highlander-The Series"
Occasionally, Highlander fans have been know to request lyrics to songs they have heard in episodes of "Highlander-The Series". Sometimes this can be done, sometime it can't. Below are the details for now...
Due to copyright laws, it is not possible to post, send or otherwise provide works which are not specifically owned and controlled by Roger Bellon and Bellchant Music, Inc./Bellchant Records without prior permission. At this time, I don't believe that we are allowed to provide lyrics to anything. It is probably OK to give up the lyrics to "Bonny Portmore" because it is a public domain piece. I'm checking on it, and I'll post the results here in a few days.
List Of Source Music Heard in "Highlander-The Series"
I still have more database entry to do for Season 5 (now completed), after which I will be posting a complete list (possibly in a Filemaker Pro 3 format) to this FAQ. It will be ordered by Episode, with all pertinent information provided.
Stay tuned...
Roger Bellon's soundtrack album "Music
From Highlander-The Series"
The following will address some of the questions typically fielded in a day's Email regarding "Music From Highlander-The Series":
Is Bonny Portmore from the 'Homeland' episode on it? No. Here's why...
"Music From Highlander-The Series" was created between the end of Season III and the begining of Season IV. Because 'Homeland' was the first episode of the fourth season of "Highlander-The Series", it was done months after "Music From Highlander-The Series" was recorded.
For those people who bought "Music From Highlander-The Series" hoping to hear "Bonny Portmore" on it, I can say that we are running down every line of advertising we've got looking for the loose cannon that doesn't say up front that the album contains selections from the first three seasons...
Is Princes of the Universe or the other Queen songs on it? No. Here's why...
As in the description of source music above, "Princes Of The Universe" is not Roger's composition. "Music From Highlander-The Series" contains only choice selections of Roger's original score for the series episodes.
Bellchant Music, Inc.
©1996 - 1999 all rights reserved