Episode 3.3, "His Last Vow"

[Caya]

Here you go. He didn't learn to play the violin (that does indeed take years), just to reasonably fake playing it.

[Elementary]

Here you go. He didn't learn to play the violin (that does indeed take years), just to reasonably fake playing it.

 

Thanks for sharing! That was actually very fun to read. Some of it explains why I love the show, such as this part:

 

 In the big scheme of things the violin isn’t that big a deal at all- but the production value on this being as high as it is, attention is given to every detail… I feel the responsibility of “violin department’ on my shoulders.

 

The attention to detail and staying true to both reality and the original Doyle characterization is what I really love about this show!

 

The entire blog entry was very sweet.

 

Then, in her unmistakable ‘gentle lamb’ voice, “That smell isn’t my feet…it’s the fridge”.

 That was the first thing she said to me. Una Stubbs!  I couldn’t smell anything but was instantly in love.

 

That was adorable.

 

 

 Even though I am watching him, watching me, watching him and concentrating…and we’ve been doing the scene for a while and I’m standing on a high thing with wobbly walls, trying not to fall off.. even given all of that…when it comes to the close up of Sherlock’s face when he’s playing this sad theme- he looks so forlorn and so deep in his own sorrow that I get overwhelmed with sadness and fill up. That’s good acting that is.

 I tell him afterwards that he made me cry. He beams…. Pfft. Actors.

 

Cumberbatch makes even his violin teacher cry. He is so good.

 

Some more on the violin, and what gave me the impression that Cumberbatch did play some of the more simple pieces. I actually thought so even without reading the article because it seemed just a little bit flat and mechanic to my ears!

 

 

n Arthur Conan Doyle’s story The Cardboard Box, it transpires that Sherlock Holmes owns and plays a violin made by Antonio Stradivarius himself. The Sherlock production team, however, uses a different violin for each series (series three’s is a £1,200 Chinese-made Con Fuoco), all on loan from Cardiff Violins. (The shop’s website contains a sweet testimonial from a ‘Mr John H Watson’, thanking the staff for being ‘extremely patient’ with his friend: ‘He would thank you himself; only, well Sherlock doesn’t really do that sort of thing ...’) For season two’s on-screen violin scenes, Cumberbatch was taught how to play and ‘violin act’ by Eos Chater, a member of the classical group Bond. Although the actor played live on set, the playing heard on the soundtrack is by Chater. "Benedict had a week, and made a surprisingly good sound," she wrote of the experience on her blog. "I have no doubt he would be a good violinist if he had the inclination."

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10537064/Sherlock-facts-21-things-you-didnt-know.html

[jesskayding]

Thank you Caya. What would the forum do without you & Carol?

[T.o.b.y]

I am so glad they kept the violin and the musical side of Holmes in this version. I love the violin scenes and I want more of them!

And I'm still waiting for the "warbling like a lark" scene. Oh please, why can't they do that. In a taxi. I'd love to see the cabbie's face.

 

His Last Vow is a great episode (yeah, I think so, now), but it sadly lacks violin time.

 

 

[jesskayding]

You don't think that could make the show a bit predictable & we be like ok we know you play the violin dude, so on you go now, solve a crime & stop boring us kind of response.

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

i don't think so. Holmes did use his violin, a lot, just as Sherlock does...to help him think and such. I would truly, truly love to hear CB play a piece solo as Sherlock. There is a lovely scene in canon where at the end of a case Holmes tells Watson to lie down on the sofa and he will play for him. I am really hoping that they use that as some point.  I am waiting with Toby for the "Holmes warbling like a lark" in the cab as well.

[Elementary]

i don't think so. Holmes did use his violin, a lot, just as Sherlock does...to help him think and such. I would truly, truly love to hear CB play a piece solo as Sherlock. There is a lovely scene in canon where at the end of a case Holmes tells Watson to lie down on the sofa and he will play for him. I am really hoping that they use that as some point.  I am waiting with Toby for the "Holmes warbling like a lark" in the cab as well.

 

Ah yes! That part was in The Sign of Four. I am re-reading it right now (last time I read it was years ago) so now I can totally imagine BC and Freeman in the role. So cool. 

[Arcadia]

What is this "warbling like a lark" scene? Sounds very un-Holmesian!

[jesskayding]

.

 

This version of Sherlock:

 

Dr. Watson is so sensitive about everyone assuming they're a couple. Maybe he could play it to calm pregnant Mary. Or play the baby to sleep. I'm sure he'll be the godfather.

[T.o.b.y]

i don't think so. Holmes did use his violin, a lot, just as Sherlock does...to help him think and such. I would truly, truly love to hear CB play a piece solo as Sherlock. There is a lovely scene in canon where at the end of a case Holmes tells Watson to lie down on the sofa and he will play for him. I am really hoping that they use that as some point.

 

I think they have used it. When that happens in "The Sign of the Four", Watson drifts off to dream about Mary Morstan. I think the wedding waltz is the Sherlock version of that scene.

 

 

What is this "warbling like a lark" scene? Sounds very un-Holmesian!

 

No, it's very Holmesian, if you ask me. Holmes and Watson are sitting in a cab, and Holmes somehow gets onto the topic of an opera singer he admires (he seems to have a bit of a thing for those - Miss Adler used to sing professionally as well). He's remembering an aria, and then suddenly, right there in the cab, he leans back and begins to sing it, "warbling like a lark".

[jesskayding]

Sounds really romantic. Thanks Toby for your vast historical knowledge of Sherlock. I'm too Lazy to read thru that old school language, but I really love riding of the knowledge of those who have read & love the original stories.

[T.o.b.y]

Sounds really romantic. Thanks Toby for your vast historical knowledge of Sherlock. I'm too Lazy to read thru that old school language, but I really love riding of the knowledge of those who have read & love the original stories.

 

You're more than welcome, believe me. And I wouldn't call it "vast". I have my favorite stories that I read over and over, and then there are some I never bother with. The thanks should go to my father, who gave me "The Hounds of Baskerville" for a teenage birthday and who fed me all kinds of detective fiction from an early age... Bless fathers who have good taste in books.

 

Yeah, romantic... You know, I laughed when Sherlock called John the romantic in The Sign of Three. I don't think so. Look at Sherlock with his waltz and his vow and his flair for drama. It's Sherlock who has the "heart of a poet" (I wouldn't love him so if he hadn't).

 

[jesskayding]

Hmmmmm. Sherlock's the romantic. Let me think on that one.

[Carol the Dabbler]

... The thanks should go to my father, who gave me "The Hounds of Baskerville" for a teenage birthday and who fed me all kinds of detective fiction from an early age... Bless fathers who have good taste in books.

 

Definitely! My father got me hooked on Nero Wolfe. 

 

[Arcadia]

Yeah, romantic... You know, I laughed when Sherlock called John the romantic in The Sign of Three. I don't think so. Look at Sherlock with his waltz and his vow and his flair for drama. It's Sherlock who has the "heart of a poet" (I wouldn't love him so if he hadn't).

Altho I think John does romanticize Sherlock, a bit.

[jesskayding]

I think the writers tend to romanticize a bit. Can we think of one episode thats not a bit romantic?

[Arcadia]

I can't!

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

Maybe the Waltz suggests it.....but it is not the scene. In "TSoT" it's Sherlock and Mrs. Hudson. I want to see it between John and Sherlock those lines....that scene...not just a suggestion of it. For those who have yet to read the story....they would never guess in a million years that beautiful imagery.

[jesskayding]

I can't!

Right. I've gone thru all of them in my head. Even in TGG & TRF Moriarty's the romanic (twisted romance that perhaps only Lady Gaga could relate to, romantic episodes non the less).

[jesskayding]

Maybe the Waltz suggests it.....but it is not the scene. In "TSoT" it's Sherlock and Mrs. Hudson. I want to see it between John and Sherlock those lines....that scene...not just a suggestion of it. For those who have yet to read the story....they would never guess in a million years that beautiful imagery.

 

I still say serenade the baby.

 

Hay I could do this kind of RP. I'll be the baby & you be Sherlock quieting me. Turned out to be really colicky.

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

That would be kind of sweet actually. Would like it to be the original but since John and Mary are already married that might have to do.

[Slithytove]

I agree with T.o.b.y that Sherlock is more inclined to romanticism than John. John is the realistic, pragmatic one - he could hardly be anything else, being a doctor and a soldier. Sherlock is the larger-than-life, imaginative and impulsive drama queen in the ultra-romantic, swirly black coat! He may consider himself devoted to cold, hard logic but his deductions actually rely heavily on an ability to think creatively, and he is clearly brimming with emotions, even if those emotions are frequently anger and impatience......It tends to be Sherlock, rather than John, who lets his feelings overwhelm him, and they eventually drive him to commit a terrible deed, i.e. the killing of a human being. Romanticism isn't always benevolent.

[Arcadia]

But I still think John romanticizes Sherlock, a bit. He seems to think Sherlock's somewhat superhuman. Of course, so does Sherlock.......

[Zain]

Well, is it really romanticizing? To me, it is more like John does not concede Sherlock the right to be flawed. In S3, that is. And Sherlock is flawed, no denying that. But John takes particular offense in Sherlock's being human, like when Sherlock forgets the room number, or when he did not see Mary's two-headedness. He takes offense in Sherlock's human limitations, which is the fading of knowledge, the filtering, and the disassociation to an issue that would need to be recognized. In a way, I am not sure if John is seeing Sherlock as superhuman at all. Again, strictly talking about s3. To me, it is more like John is denying Sherlock the right to anything that would classify as prototypically human, like human reactions. Maybe emotions, too, to a degree. And motive, as well. In TEH, for example, he is not interested in the motive behind the jump, only in the reason why he was kept in the dark. Maybe in his mind, Sherlock does not need a motive to do something like that. To "collaborate" against him.

I do not think John views Sherlock as something better than Sherlock actually is. To be honest, I think he is not viewing Sherlock at all during s3. He seems completely out of sync with Sherlock's emotional responses, to such a degree that in s3e2, Mary who knows Sherlock not as long as John recognizes much faster that Sherlock is nervous, for example. But that may very much be my subjective perspective and nothing more.

[sfmpco]

I think Mary keys into Sherlock pretty quickly in TEH when she says, "Gosh, you don't know anything about human nature, do you?"  But she has been getting clues all along and has been read already by Sherlock regarding her dislike of John's mustache, plus she interjects that bit about Sherlock would have needed a confidant (which annoys John to no end).  So Sherlock and Mary are picking up on each other right away and she likes him right from the start.

 

John is a little out of sync, which can also be expected, not only because of the 2-yr separation but also because Sherlock is also out of sync.

 

I think what we may see more of in S4 is Sherlock cracking open and being overwhelmed.  I don't want to compare him to Data is ST:TNG because Sherlock DOES have emotions and feelings, but they are sort of bi-polar in that he's mostly at one end of being emotionally detatched and then at the other end like shooting Magnussen of being completely emotionally unhinged to commit such an act.  And I think we're going to see the effects of that unhinging ripple through S4.