The 'Flash Gordon' project was a break from the kind of music they'd done in 'The Game', and from what they'd arrange in 'Hot Space'. Freddie's contributions to the soundtrack were themes for Ming and Kurgan, a catchy rock tune titled Football Fight and this short symphonic movement, where Howard Blake contributions were enormous.

Music by: Freddie Mercury
Arranged by: Howard Blake
Written: 1980
Length: 2:11
Released on: 8th December 1980

Produced by: Brian May & Reinhold Mack
Mixed by: Reinhold Mack
Engineered by: Reinhold Mack

Recorded: 1980
Recorded at: Anvil Studios, London

Keys: Am, Fm
Metre: 4/4
Form: ABA'

Synthesiser: Freddie Mercury
Orchestra: Howard Blake (Conductor)

Vocals: Freddie Mercury

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Born on 28th October 1938, this marvellous London composer was only given ten days to make all his work for the film. Mr Blake worked closely with Brian, who produced the soundtrack with Mack, and for this particular song he worked with Freddie.

As described by Howard in his website, "I remember Freddie Mercury singing the idea of Ride to Arboria in his high falsetto and I showed him how I could expand it into the orchestral section now on the film, with which he seemed very pleased".

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Being such a short two-movement piece, it's basically ABA'.

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Harmony's entirely diatonic there, and it's basically led by Freddie's siren-like vocals and synthesiser. After this section ends, orchestra enters.

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You can interpret the key as being maintained in Am all throughout, or as a i > vi modulation, quite an unusual kind, although Freddie had applied it before (Death on Two Legs, from Bm to Gm).

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Quite a strange chain of chords: Db > C > Db > F > B > Fsus4 > B > F. I personally think the key is Fm (from the previous section), the functions then being VI > V > VI > I > bV > I > bV > I.

That'd mean the unusual 'bV' function appears there (as in The March of the Black Queen) and the end is of course a Picardy Third. Check the movement of the orchestra parts:

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The modulation back to the original key is made through the Bb > E progression. Bb is 'IV' in the key of Fm, a function that'd appeared in some other songs by Freddie (e.g. Liar, Black Queen, Great King Rat), and 'bII' for Am (Black Queen, You Take My Breath Away, Death on Two Legs).

E, by its side, is the exotic #VII chord for Fm (again, the same function was used in The March of the Black Queen), and a perfect way to go back to Am (being its 'V'). In spite of being unusual, variants of the F > Bb > E > Am progression have appeared in different styles of music around the world. For instance, Chacarera de Santiago (by Ernesto Acher & Carlos Lopez Puccio) has both Am > B > Dm > E and Dm > Bb > E > Am (which, functionally, would be i > II > iv > V and iv > bII > V > i). Brian's White Queen has F > C > Bb > E > Am as well.

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Back to the main theme although with a nice variant, which could either be Freddie's idea or Howard's. Mercury built sections over i>iv progressions some other times (e.g. Lily of the Valley, A New Life Is Born, The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke).

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