Quite so. Sometimes it's not even a tic but just the opening bar of a movement where you can hear the first one or two notes and know what it is. And how can that be? There are millions of many works opening with those same notes, whatever they are. But especially when it's an orchestral work, the scoring, rhythm and the attack will give it away. The first three half-tones of Brahms' First Symphony over the timpani pulsing below on that deep C are unmistakable after a first hearing, no matter who's playing the thing. The second time you hear it, you know it immediately, in the first two beats. It's those drums. Guy did his homework for 20 years before he went for a symphony, and it showed. Could make a movie out of how that work develops... someone should do it!
On Out of Africa: I liked the movie (Redford not so much) but then I read the book and liked the movie less... I liked inclusion of that comment that the Earth was made round so that we would not see too far down the road. That surely seems right on the money to me.
I've been re-watching Cool Hand Luke tonight... R.I.P. Harry Dean Stanton... thanks for @IronWaffle's posts and links on Stanton.
