|
25-7-01
The class had a discussion as to the importance of music in
film.
Music
in Film
- What role does music play?
- Information through music:
- Historical:
intensifies and supports, eg: big band music in WWII movies
- Cultural: gives
you a sense of where it is coming from, eg: The melody of
“Deutschland über Alles” in a postwar film about Germany
adds a poitical dimension to the visuals.
- Narration: tells
what is going on, eg: through lyrics
- Symbolic:
information given to equate something with something else
- Feeling through music:
- Suspense
- Emotion
- Fear
- Humour
- Mood
- Tone
- Form through music:
- Transition:
snippets of a melody to bridge to the next scene
- Interest:
bringing us into the movie (is where feelings appear)
- The Reverse is
also true as music can push you out and realise that the film is
a construct.
- Music can also
disguise the disjuncture in film however.
- Other
- Preface/ intro
- Dance
- Tempo
- From the beginning of film, music
has been in film and by the twenties there were scores as to the
music that was to be played during the scenes to provide certain
emotive and informative forces
eg: orchestra to organ to piano depending on the venue
showing the film
- Music was to fill a void as people
cannot be deprived of sound and it is difficult to stare into
silence, it gives substance to a two-dimensional picture
Next we watched the
movie Metropolis
- Plot Summary:
Society
is arranged vertically with the working stiffs dwelling below the
city manning the massive machines, which run the city above.
Above ground lives the city's fathers.
These are the capitalists who lead lives of luxury born of
the work of the bottom dwellers.
Jon Frederson is "the" capitalist in this story.
He learns that his son, Freder, somehow got into the belly of
the city and witnessed a great explosion, which, quite literally,
gobbled up many workers. Distraught
that his son was allowed down into the pits of the city, he forbids
him from ever going back down there.
Freder disobeys and forms an alliance with Maria, the voice
of reason and conscience and the voice of the workers.
Frederson learns what his son is doing and decides to put an
end to the perceived danger by having evil scientist, Rotwang, make
an evil double of Maria to inspire revolution which could then be
squashed and order restored. The
rebellion nearly wipes out the workers' world and threatens the
entire city. It is at
this point that the real Maria convinces Frederson that it the
capitalists need to work with the workers and everybody will
benefit.
- First was from 1925 and had no
music
- The second had a soundtrack but had
little change in the music and many repetitions, the purpose of the
music was to pass time and offer a slight transition and to give the
people something to dance to
- The third track was from a version
produced in 1984 and the soundtrack was written for the picture; it
was eighties music and there was more colour on the prints; there
was more of a transition in the music giving it a rhythmic and disco
quality that did not seem to fit
- The fourth was from 1996 and the
music was more proper for the time than the previous but remained
quite similar to the second showing although it did provide a mood
and tone change for scenes for the viewer that the second didn’t
- The fifth was from 1999 and there
were different compositions for each of the distinct scenes
providing for further distinction and transition.
The music does what we expect film music to do today.
The melodies characterise a connection with the scenes that
you are viewing.
Next
we watch four films and TV shows that played the same hymn (Amazing
Grace) to see what role it played and how it was different.
- Roswell: scene was that there were
six friends and one had just died:
the song gave a familiar emotion in the song that was typical
for funerals and because it was familiar it was comforting for
viewers
- Homicide: scene was a community getting together to try and
prevent violence: the
music serves as a set-up for a shooting.
Viewers are lulled into a feeling of comfort and security and
when the unexpected happens, there is a greater impact for the gun
shot. Even if we know the shot is coming, and there are visual clues
that someone will fire a gun, our anticipation adds to the horror
when it finally occurs, particularly since we feel comfortable
because of the hymn.
- Star Trek: Wrath of Kan:
scene is Spock in a coffin and the bagpipes are playing the
tune; purpose of the music is the same as Roswell with a historical
and traditional aspect. Moreover,
the melody lends a touch of humanity to a character who is only half
human.
- Silkwood: scene
is of an activist against a nuclear power plant; the music provides
a foreshadowing to her death and the gives a symbolic significance.
The cyclical nature of the music turns Karen Silkwood into a
martyr. We know that
her union work will go on and her work will be accomplished.
It provides a full cycle in that the scene begins the same as
it ends.
|