Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Music: The Sounds of
Hollywood
Lecturer: Keith McCuaig
General importance of music and sound in film
Ex: The Matrix (1999)
• Silent
• With sound
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxNiEEtYe4Q
• Start at :30
An approach to analysis
Ex: Phillip Tagg – “Intel Inside Analysis” (2008)
https://vimeo.com/150585474
Film and Film Music Resources
• Internet Movie Database (IMDB)
• YouTube
• Google Video
• Internet Archive (esp. for documentaries)
• Television Tunes
• Online periodicals:
• Film Music Magazine
• Film Score Monthly
• Soundtrack.net
• Lots of free (usually illegal) sources
How to “Audio‐View” Film and TV
Michel Chion’s term “audio‐viewing”
Sound Design: Three Elements
• Music
• Sound Effects
• Dialogue
Repeated hearings vs. Immediate effect
• Which is more decisive in analysis?
What to listen for
• How much music, or how little
• Silence
• Cues: When the music starts and stops; or, a
unit of music
• Number of cues
• Length of cues
Source of the Music
• Diegetic: onscreen source; radio, band, etc.
Ex: Casablanca (1942)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM‐E2H1ChJM
• Non‐diegetic: score, doesn’t exist in the world
of the film
Ex: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0APF3SO9tqE
Source of the Music
• Meta‐diegetic: music in the mind of a
character
Ex: Amadeus (1984)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNaXQQbcgw0
Source of the Music
• Acousmatic Sound: unknown source, then
shown
• Acousmêtre: unseen voice‐character;
disembodied voice
Ex: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) HAL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDrDUmuUBTo
Gesamtkunstwerk
• All or many art forms combined
• Associated with Richard Wagner’s operas
• Application to film
Discussing Musical Style in Film
• General: Classical, pop, jazz, etc.
• What type of classical, pop, or jazz?
• Variables: Time and place (1940s NYC, 1960s
California)
• Character themes: Star Wars – Luke theme,
Lea theme, Darth Vader theme
• Borrowings: Arrangements, adaptations or
compilation of existing pieces
Specific Musical Elements
Types of melodies or themes:
• Motivic: repetition of a motif (short musical idea)
Ex: Jaws (1975)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX3bN5YeiQs
• Lyrical/Melodic:
Ex: Jurassic Park (1993) start at :30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJlmYh27MHg
Specific Musical Elements
• Leitmotif: theme for a specific character, object or
place
• Thematic transformation
Ex: Star Wars (1977)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yys5iioLUNw
Relationship of music with drama
• Synchronization
• Does the music support the drama?
1. “Hitting the Action” aka Mickey Mousing
• Music goes right with actions and movements
• Warner Bros. cartoons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J7VDYYHA2s
Relationship of music with drama
2. “Phasing the drama”
• Music fits with actions, but not super close
with movements
• Most film music works in the this way
Relationship of music with drama
3. “Playing through the drama”
• Music is counter to actions
• Doesn’t “go” with action or narrative
Ex: Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CamXKi002Q
Use of Harmony
• Consonant or dissonant
• Stable or unstable
Ex: Planet of the Apes (1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj05OuIU3R0
Orchestration
• Instrument choice
• Tone colour/timbre (see next slide)
• Often not done by composer
Ex: Beetlejuice (1988)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaCYL04Kd8g
Danny Elfman (composer)
Steve Bartek (orchestrator)
Timbre
• Pronounced tam‐ber
• Tone colour
• Categories of Orchestral Instruments:
1. Strings (violin, cello, harp)
2. Brass (trumpet, tuba)
3. Woodwinds (flute, clarinet)
4. Percussion (drums, cymbals, piano)
Orchestral Instruments
1. Strings (violin, cello, harp)
Versatile: lyrical love themes, combat music,
tension, strong emotions
Ex: Psycho (1960)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwq1XHtJEHw
Ex: Return of the Jedi (1983)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNDwCsFzS8c
Orchestral Instruments
2. Brass (trumpet, tuba)
Power, force, marches, Ancient Rome
Ex: Apocalypse Now (1979)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6gcz4hdLA8
2:30, 3:20
Ex: Ben‐Hur (1959)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt5C9EruZ94
Orchestral Instruments
3. Woodwinds (flute, clarinet, oboe)
Usually mixed in with other instruments
Soft sound, often used for female leads’ themes
Ex: Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)
• Lea’s theme
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtkuZbcZO
RE
Orchestral Instruments
4. Percussion (drums, cymbals, piano)
Most percussion mixed in with other instruments
Ex: Birdman (2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p75qQgNdc‐0
Piano: many uses – jazz, pop/rock, lyrical love themes
Ex: The Piano (1993)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPNxRdx‐fqo
Other Instruments
• Popular Music, Jazz
Ex: Taxi Driver (1976)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbvWoruvf5c
• Saxophone
Popular music soundtracks
Ex: Dirty Dancing (1987)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiilV691CzY
Other Instruments
Electronic Instruments
Theremin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=‐zAE1HdzaSk
Ex: The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzRb1OVpat0
Synthesizers:
Ex: A Clockwork Orange (1971)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI‐mDTdeKR8
Other Instruments
“World” Instruments
Can take us to another time or place
Scottish bagpipes in Braveheart (1995)
Indonesian Gamelan in
The Year of Living Dangerously (1982)
“Orientalism” – term coined by Edward Said
Relationship of music with drama
Aural Gaze
• Gender studies and film theory
• Male Gaze
• Certain melodies for women or men?
• Instrumentation
Musical Form
• Repetition
• Variation
• Unity – themes repeated in new forms
throughout (Star Wars, Casablanca)
Overall critical evaluation
Questions to consider:
• Does the score work?
• Does it serve the film/narrative?
• Does it move us?
• Convincing/honest/original?
• Clichés, self‐plagarism
• Bad film, good music
• Film Music Similarities:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=‐tQpAPMT_Rc
How music is added to films
• One of the last elements added to a film
• Many individuals involved:
Composer, producer, director, music editor,
orchestrator, etc.
• Director/composer teams (Spielberg/Williams)
• Composers can be type cast (exotic, “African”etc.)
How music is added to films
• Time frame for composing:
• Usually 2‐6 weeks max. from first screening to
completion!
• Even less time for TV
• Time pressures
Pre‐composing
• Research for historical or geographical films
• Instrumentation
How music is added to films
1. Initial screening with temp track
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e‐QFj59PON4
Dan Carlin on role of music director:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnALh4k8QdU
2. Spotting Sessions
• Determining where in the film to put music
• When, length of cues, etc.
• Fitting it all together
How music is added to films
3. Timing Sheets
• Pre‐computer technology
• Music editor would provide details of timing
• Reel: Minutes: Seconds: Frames
• https://www.google.ca/search?q=film+score+timing+sheets&client=safari&rls=en&biw=1280&bih=688&source=lnms&
tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjg_6L1yoDRAhWCz4MKHYlNBWEQ_AUICCgB
4. Demonstrating to Director
• Generally a piano score with instrumentation notes
• Composer could still be fired after all this work
How music is added to films
5. Orchestration
• Tone colours added, often by orchestrator
• Composer/orchestrator teams:
• Danny Elfman/Steve Bartek
• John Williams/Herb Spencer
• Preparation of books for orchestra to play their
parts
How music is added to films
6. Recording
• No time for mistakes
• Print of film plays during recording
• Click track used for precision
• Streamers and punches for conductor
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tzy3Pw6cpnY
How music is added to films
7. Dubbing
• Final mixing of 3 sound elements:
Foley (SFX) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OONaPcZ4EAs
Music
Dialogue
• Film editor and sound editor mix multiple tracks of
sound
8. Final Screening
Adding Music to Film/TV
Ex: Michael Giacchino on scoring LOST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1K4Fsk3rG8