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MohicanLand Musical Musings: The Music of The Last of the Mohicans


"Monro's Office/Stockade" is much more moving than the banal title might suggest. It is here that Cora is more or less betrayed by Duncan, who lies to her father about what he saw at Cameron's cabin and who basically relegates her defense of Hawkeye to being a purely emotional response based on her infatuation with Hawkeye. The music begins with an ominous cast––clearly saying all is not well––and quickly turns to sadness in the depth and softness of the strings, especially cellos and a slow gentle strum of the guitar. This is followed by a passage of controlled emotion, played once and then again several bars later.

The musical section that is specifically "Monro's Office" is used three times in the movie:

  1. A portion of "Monro's Office" is the background music when Hawkeye and Cora initially meet––when the three heroes agree to lead Cora, Duncan, and Alice away after their attack on the George Road; specifically, we hear the music from 0:47 - 0:58 on the CD, beginning when Cora picks up and pockets the pistol. From there, the music breaks straight into the "Main Title" at the opening of the River Walk scene.

  2. Cora in the SurgerySecond, the same portion is played when Hawkeye and Cora are looking at each other in the surgery ("I'm looking at you, miss..."). In this instance, we hear what would be 0:47 - 1:54 of "Monro's Office/Stockade" on the CD recording. However, the orchestration is different in this scene than the scene mentioned above and on the CD, as it is softened by the addition of a counter-melody played by wooden flutes (giving it a gentle and "native" sound).

  3. Finally, this is the music in Monro's office while Duncan, Cora and Monro are heatedly discussing Hawkeye's actions in helping the militia get away. The music here begins as it does on the CD right when Duncan says "You're defending him because you've become infatuated with him." It continues in its entirety through the end of the stockade scene.
  4. Following "Monro's Office" in Monro's office, and without any break in the music, "Stockade" begins when Hawkeye is in the fort prison cell and Cora says, "They're going to hang you" (on the CD, this begins at about 0:58). "Stockade" is easy to detect by a change in melody and by the entrance of the oboes––specifically, an English horn, also known as an alto oboe, which is lower and more mellow than a regular oboe. Oboes traditionally have been used as a way to evoke pathos (and the Oxford Companion to Music says of the English horn, "It excels in the interpretation of slow expressive melody" (Oxford, 1938 and 1995, pg. 697)), and in "Stockade" they do just that––they clearly reflect the sadness of the fact that Hawkeye had had the chance to save himself from being arrested (and hung) but he stayed, at the risk of his life. The music lends to the sense of the tragedy that after all Hawkeye and Cora have gone through, it may be her own father who causes them to be separated forever. This section includes the Hawkeye and Cora Theme, as discussed in the section on Themes and Motifs in LOTM.

    At 1:39 on the CD, the theme is repeated briefly but now played by several instruments in unison. The second half of "The Stockade" (beginning at about 1:55 on the CD) consists of the first melody overtaken by a reprise of a variation of the "Main Title" when Cora says "The whole world's on fire." This duplicates "The Kiss", in which the "Main Title" takes over for "The Gael" so that the scene ends with that sense of something greater at play where Cora and Hawkeye are concerned. The music is so rich and yet sad at that moment, clearing reflecting how they have come so far together but that something is keeping them apart.


    On to "Parley"
    Back to "The Kiss"
    Back to the beginning of MohicanLand Musical Musings


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