An essay written and compiled by
Mario Cordina 2016
(Other Pages)
The Role Of Music in Film 11 - 30
(11) Reality and Unreality: Music can make a film sound more realistic by using music that naturally fits into the scene in question. It can also make it unreal when it does not fit. The Girl in Red is
(12) Preconception: When a well known tune is used in the soundtrack, it’s connotations might lead an audience in the right or wrong direction. Who would connect the classic 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow," to a gunshot film as in 'Face Off' in the film below in a real life situation?
(13) Inevitability: When music must be part of the film, in a dancing scene, in a musical etc.
(14) Concentration: Music originally had a practical use: to keep the audience from talking and dull the sound of the noisy projector (Buchanan, 1974). Even today it can be used to keep the audience in focus.
(15) Manipulation: manipulating the audience's emotions and engendering in them the desired feelings. The selection of certain sounds creates feelings of happiness, fear or even panic. Science writer Philip Ball, author of "The Music Instinct," says our brain is hard-wired to respond in emotional ways: "Our response to certain kinds of noise is something so profound in us that we can't switch it off. Film composers know that and use it to shortcut the logical part of our brain and get straight to the emotional centers."
(16) Conditioning : Music works on and therefore stimulates our very basic emotions like fear and therefore evoke in a best case scenario every physiological consequence that comes with that emotion like racing heart and sweaty hands. Used extensively in thriller and horror genres volume changes make it impossible for the body and the conscious mind to detach from these emotions. Known as shock effects in scores together with terrifying buildups there are also more subtle uses of music to trigger us in other emotional directions.
(17) Psuedo Authenticity: Music that feels like a certain location, period or genre as opposed to the actual music that is usually heard at that location, period or genre. This is used to give a feel of being in China, when the film is being shot in Hollywood for example. It is like using a sound metaphor in an alien dimension. The following music for 'Shakespeare in Love' can hardly be authentic for many reasons yet Stephen Warbeck won an Oscar for best score with this in 1998.
(18) Anticipation: It can tell the audience to prepare for something unseen. A great example is the opening scene from Jaws. When "Chrissy" and her male companion are stripping down and running toward the beach, there isn't a soundtrack playing. All is well, or so we think. It isn't until we see a worm's eye view (fish's eye view?) of Chrissy swimming that we begin to hear some eerie music, which causes us to feel a little uneasy. Now we know something is wrong. We don't see anything that looks dangerous, but the music tells us that this girl is in trouble.
(20) Contradiction: Music can draw attention to a jarring situation, when the picture and the music are a direct contradiction. This contradiction can betray the hidden intentions of the character, can create parody, irony and satire.
(21) Propaganda: Many films feature national anthems to fuel propoganda material for political, national, religious reasons in particular.
(22) Unity: Just like national anthems, certain tunes or marches can unite an audience. This can also be domestic or restricted to certain groups of people. Oldies can unite the elderly, techno can unite techno lovers whilst Bollywood Indian music can unite a nation.
(23) Cover-up: Music, used skillfully, can help to hide weaker shots or editing problems. It can also be used as a Filler whereby music fills in the silence.
(25) Instrumentals: Most music in films can be heard in the background of a scene, or sometimes it takes center stage in an action sequence, but either way the right music does make a statement. The most common style of movie music is instrumentals because music with lyrics often distracts the audience from the intended storyline or dialogue.
(26) Lyrics: The music picked has a reason for being there. The song isn’t arbitrarily placed there because it sounds good aesthetically, but because its lyrics reflect something.
(27) Subject & Character: Music as the subject of actors’ lines (there is an actual online compendium of actor's lines in the movies), as part of the script, the musician as the character or the work as the subject, sometimes title of the film. Music as a character in itself. In the film Amadeus, two famous composers Mozart, Moglieri
and the Requiem itself is the 3rd if not the main character in the
scene below.)
(28) Retention: Music helps people remember and recall the film. The main theme or motif brings the film back to mind whenever the tune is played.
(29) Popularity: Both films and musicians have gained popularity because a given track was included in a film. Filmmakers use popular tracks to popularize their films and get seen, whilst musicians try to get their tunes on film to get heard.
(30) Prologue and Outro: The opening music often acts just like a Shakespearean prologue, foreshadowing what is to come. Music gives the film a sense of finality with the closing track. The audience knows that the film is coming to a close. The final score might echo a leitmotif, or a variation on musical themes in the film, it may like the prologue act as an ending note, a moral or final comment on the film.
Film Consequence
Once a piece of music finds itself within a film context the track is doomed. The original intent of the tune might be very different from that portrayed in the film. The tune and lyrics might just as well suffer a different interpretation far removed from that of its author’s. Film consequence might well be positive. A track gathering dust on a shelf might find new life, an hitherto unknown song new wings.
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