UMICH MUSICOLOGY 346 FINAL

Stanley Kubrick

Director of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Obsessed with control over his product as an amateur.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Dir.: Stanley Kubrick

Prod. Co.: MGM

Composer: Alex North

Commissioned Alex North. North composed music. Kubrick used none of it

Temp Track Syndrome

The director likes the temp track so much that the original score cannot compete.

Composers: R. Strauss, J. Strauss, Ligeti. Khachaturian, various

Auteur Theory

"Theory of filmmaking in which the director is viewed as the major creative force in a motion picture" (www.Britannica.com)

What might be some failings of the auteur label?

- Assumption of value when someone is labeled as an auteur

Temp Track Syndrome

The director likes the temp track so much that the original score cannot compete.

Alex North

Composer for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Kubrick ended up using none of his music.

Gyorgy Ligeti

Lux Aeterna, Atmospheres, Reqiuiem, Aventures

- Kubrick used several of Ligeti's vocal pieces.

- Composed in "sound masses" that he would shift and manipulate.

- Notes are often moving close together, creating a cluster of sound. He called this micropolyphony.

- Often sounds like insects swarming.

The "Kyrie" from his Requiem (1965) was used to indicate the monolith.

"Kyrie, eleison" = "Lord, have mercy"

Also Sprach Zarathustr

- Translates to: "Thus Spoke Zarathustra"

- Tone Poem (a musical work that portrays a story)

Based on Nietzsche's novel of the same name (1891)

- The prophet Zarathustra dictates the evolution of the human species from ape, tohuman, to ubermensch (superman)

- In 8 parts; 2001 includes only the first part ("Sunrise")

The New Hollywood

The industrial re-organization of the industry into large, multinational entertainment conglomerates, leading to a marked shift towards "high concept" filmmaking. (High concept films: Blockbusters)

High concept film

1) Simple premises, easy to market

2) Facilitated ancillary tie-ins (cross marketing)

3) Potential to be made into a franchise

Cross-marketing

1) In late 1970s-1990s, rise in soundtrack as ancillary product

2) Compilation scores with popular music released as soundtrack albums

3) Popular song used to indicate setting (time and place) or inner thoughts of characters

4) Some scores were all pop, some were a mix of pop and orchestral underscoring

5) Some used pre-existing pop songs, and some used new pop songs composed specifically for the film.

Impact of television and VHS

1) Television was competition for big-screen films

Studios capitalized on TV by...

2) Conceiving films for small screen as well as large (for TV release)

3) Taking advantage of videotape (VHS) technology, (turning movies into a commodity that could be sold (instead of simply renting to theaters and through video rental stores)

4) VHS became the primary way by which audiences watched films

5) Films conceived for video release (for TVs with mono sound, limited frequency response)

The underscore as commodity

1) Soundtrack albums re-conceived as orchestral suites based on the score

2) Title themes as best-sellers (Star Wars, 1977)

3) Underscore becomes essential part of the franchise, reused in sequels

Music supervisor

Responsible for identifying and licensing appropriate popular music recordings; eventually also responsible for the overall musical content of a film or TV series

Uses of temp track

1) Testing how editing flowed (establishing a rhythm to the cutting)

2) Helping with spotting sessions (gives the composer an idea of what the director wants)

3) Used for film previews (while film score is being finalized)

Dolby Stereo and its aesthetic

1) Six-foot speakers

2) 4-track (left, center, right, surround)

3) Optical soundtrack

4) Increased dynamic and frequency range

5) Greater density of sound

S4OIG

Sound designer

Responsible for imagining and coordinating the production of the sound track (speech and SFX) as a whole SFX moved entirely to post-production

John Williams

1) Early 1950s: US Air Force

2) Late '50s-1960s: studio pianist in Hollywood

3) 1960s: composed for television series (Lost in Space, The Time Tunnel,etc.)

4) Also began to score feature films

5) The Long Goodbye (1973, Robert Altman, dir.)

6) Mid 1970s:

- Stephen Spielberg

The Sugarland Express, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, Amistad, Saving Private Ryan...

- George Lucas

Star Wars franchise...

7) Has become the A-list composer in Hollywood, and has scored a wide variety of films, from adventure franchises (Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter) to comedy (Home Alone, Hook) to drama (Schindler's List).

Star Wars: A New Hope

Director: George Lucas

Composer: John Williams

Budget: $11 million

US Box Office Revenue: $460,998,007

Music in New Hope

Won 6 Academy Awards (one for the score)

1) Return to Classical Hollywood sound by borrowing from the styles of Elgar, Holst, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Mahler

2) Return to leitmotivic scoring (Luke, Leia/love, force, rebel fanfare, Darth Vader/Imperial March)

3) The title theme also returned to a familiar formula:

Dynamic march/fanfare themes, with contrasting sub-themes

Technological Anxiety

1) Our fears surrounding the advancement of technology and its effect on our world and on the human race

2) Technology:

- Lulls us into a system of consumption in which humans join nature and technology as resources to be harvested (Heidegger)

- Can have transformative power (destabilizing stereotypes; challenging hegemonies) (Haraway)

3) Tension between tech's danger and saving power opens up a productive space (Sims)

4) Science Fiction has long been wrestling with the "problematic nature of human being and the difficult task of being human." (Telotte)

Friendly vs. Hostile aliens/AI

1) Friendly:

Reflect aspects of humanity we admire

2) Hostile:

Reflect aspects of humanity we fear

Scoring techniques for AI

1) Topic (danger) and leitmotif

2) Electronic instruments

3) Avant-Garde and "mathematical" techniques

Parvenu

A character who moves from challenge to challenge in search of "success and self-validation according to modernity's unstinting standards... bombarded by the relentless pressure of self-improvement (Graham)

Star Trek musical AIs

1) Star Trek uses AIs to tell us what it means to be human

2) Underscoring: tells us how to interpret AI

3) Musicality: uses AI to emphasize positive human traits

Creativity, excellence, emotion, interpersonal connection, autonomy, self-hood

Star Trek's version of humanity

1) Excellence

2) Creativity

3) Emotion

4) Social connection

5) Autonomy

6) Self-hood

E C Em S A S

Cyberpunk

a sub-genre of science-fiction that tends to blend high tech and low culture

Responding to:

1) Information explosion

2) Punk culture and hacker culture

3) Growing city densities and urban sprawl

4) Removal of powerform the disenfranchised population

5) Theories about and realization of genetic engineering

I P G R T

The information age

1) We now live in a world where information is not concrete.

- Information can be manipulated

- Information empowers us and leave us powerless

- The single truth is less real than the illusions and subjective points of view with which we view the world

2) This leads to debates about postmodernity embodiment, identity, and the nature of truth itself

Blade Runner (1982)

Director: Ridley Scott

Composer: Vangelis (Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou)

Loosely based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Phillip K. Dick lol)

Set in Los Angeles, 2019

Nostalgia

A sentimental longing for wistful affection for the past (based on recollection, not reality)

Film noir

Stylish Hollywood crime dramas, cynical and often sexualized (a period in Hollywood that lasted between the 1920s and 1950s).

Orientalism

the imitation of aspects of the global East within art or literature.

Hybridity

A cross-cultural mix of musical markers (styles, timbres, etc.)

Musical Symbolism

A prolonged tone or chord will represent a stationary object or a changeless state, while a musical change of a given rapidity is a natural symbol for an external happening of related speed.

Ambient Sound

Background noise that helps to define setting, mood, and location.

Ambient Music

Gentle, often electronic music with no persistent beat; used to create or enhance mood or atmosphere.

Genre

a category of artistic composition, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter

Somatic

Relating to the body (as opposed to the mind)

Horror films aim to affect us physically, inflicting fear and unease

They seem to access some of our most primal and unconscious instincts

Grotesque

The comically or repulsively ugly or distorted

Horror plays off of our physical revulsion for the grotesque - mangled bodies, twisted realities, distorted features, disgusting fluids, etc.

The Unknown

Both SF and horror deal with content that goes beyond the natural - respectively, into the scientifically altered and the supernatural

Supernatural

A manifestation or event attributed to some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature

Alien

Dir.: Ridley Scott

Comp.: Jerry Goldsmith

Score nominated for Golden Globe, Grammy, and BAFTA.

score includes:

Avant-garde techniques: electronic, atonal, and dissonant sounds.

Unfamiliar tone colors: ram's horn, conch, serpent

Extended techniques: innovative bowing, clacking of keys

Musical silence: to emphasize scored sections

- Somatic Music and Sound

- Disturbing Timbres and

- Extended Techniques

- Anxiety-Inducing Atonality (dissonance)

- Strange or Otherworldly Ambiance

- Blurring Boundaries

Horror music and sound

Somatic Music and Sound

Disturbing Timbres and Extended Techniques

Anxiety-Inducing Atonality (dissonance)

Strange or Otherworldly Ambiance

Blurring Boundaries

S D A S B

Somatic Music and Sound

Horror employs sound and music that:

Imitate the sounds of the human body (heartbeats, breathing, screams, whimpers, squelching body fluids, crying)

Cause us to react instinctively and physically (suddenly loud sounds, animal roars, large machinery, children crying, unexpected footsteps)

Destabilize the boundaries between the human and the non-human (human and machine, human and dolls, human and monster, human and alien

Disturbing Timbres and Extended Techniques

Horror employs musical sounds that we find distressing.

Timbres that imitate screams, alarms, distortion, violent sounds, grotesque sounds.

It also uses extended musical techniques that create distressing sounds.

Playing musical instruments in non-traditional ways (clicking keys, playing with the bow on the bridge, adding material to an instrument so that it plays differently, etc.)

Distorting sound by altering playing technique (high volume, harmonics, multiphonics)

Anxiety-Inducing Dissonance

Horror uses atonality and dissonance to increase anxiety.

This builds off of our somatic responses to certain types of sounds.

We:

Respond emotionally and physically to certain musical characteristics (especially dissonance).

An example: Close dissonance rising in pitch and volume increases tension.

Are trained socially to understand that certain types of music are indicators of danger.

An example: We know that tremolo (quickly repeated notes) in the strings indicates impending danger.

Another example: We know that music that resembles the Jaws theme (with low, repeated rising minor 2nds) indicates that something dangerous is looming.

Strange or Otherworldly Ambiance

Ambient Sound: Background noise that helps to define setting, mood, and location.

Ambient Music: Gentle, often electronic music with no persistent beat; used to create or enhance mood or atmosphere.

Horror uses ambient sound and music to set the mood. Often, these sounds and music are unexpected or unnatural in some way, and/or strangely foregrounded.

Blurring Boundaries

Ambiguity is unsettling.

The Fantastical Gap (unable to determine the source or function of sound/music)

The space between soundscape and underscore (unable to determine if what we're hearing is music or SFX)]

Horror blurs these boundaries to make us uncomfortable, heightening the fear response.

TV I

Musical Practices draw from Hollywood film conventions

- Theme identifies the program

- Building action

- Mood and emotion

- Indicating setting

- Transitions, blackouts, and fadeouts

- Focus on leitmotives

TV II

Modern, using avant-garde techniques from film, while also demonstrating postmodern characteristics

Modernism

a movement in the arts that aims to break with classical tradition forms

Postmodernism

a movement in the arts that challenges modernism by foregrounding relativism, consumerism, and anti-foundationalism

- It relies on audience interpretation to create meaning, commodifies our everyday existence, and pushes back against presumed rules and master narratives

Modernism in TV II music (memorize and define all aspects)

1) Avant-Garde Styles (modern musical practices)

2) Rarefaction(the presence of music is limited; music is simplified or absent)

3) Proliferation/Re-Centering (the soundtrack is bombarded with music, and the music becomes the primary component of the soundtrack)

4) Narrative Commentary Over Dialogue (music is layered over speech)

5) Multilingualism(musical hybridity; diverse musical styles and topics are blended)

6) Submerged (music is submerged under a mass of SFX)

7) Unintelligible (the viewer is unable to follow or understand the music)

A R P N M S U

Postmodernism in TV II music (memorize and define five)

-Is in some way ironic

- Does not respect boundaries between practices of the past and the present

- Challenge barriers between highbrow and lowbrow

- Shows disdain for structural unity

- Questions the exclusivity of elitist and popular values

- Avoids totalizing forms

- Includes quotations or references to music of many traditions and cultures

- Technology is deeply implicated in the production and essence of music

- Embraces contradictions

- Disturbs binary oppositions

- Can be fragmented or discontinuous

- Can be pluralistic or eclectic

- Presents multiple meanings and temporalities

- Locates meaning in listeners instead of the composer, performer or musical score

Science vs. Religion in SF

Science is the Hero

1) Secular Humanism: "A rationalistic system of thought attaching prime

importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters" (Compact Oxford English Dictionary).

Religion is the Backwards Uncle

2) "Religion was essentially of the 'Other', the backward and the primitive, and its role in sf was either to be undermined or to indicate the level of civilization which any given alien race had achieved" (Mendlesohn).

Religion as Other

1) Religion (and especially ritual) becomes the set dressing for alien cultures (it exoticizes the Other)

2) It is often used to create a general sense of Other:

New swear words

A cursory wave toward "the Gods"

3) It is depicted as deceptive, leading humans (or aliens) away from reason and enlightenment

4) Sentient beings tend to be too weak-willed and gullible to reject it

5) Often, there is an "outsider" protagonist (missionary, explorer, journalist, anthropologist) who challenges the religious beliefs of the Other

Religion as a Power Discourse

1) Identifying humans as God/gods

(and therefore challenging the ethics of "God's" authority)

2) God/gods also treated as powerful Others

(more advanced/ultra-powerful humans/aliens)

3) The symbiotic relationships between humans and God/gods are explored

4) Paganism is often employed in SF as a sign of female power

5) Polytheism vs. Monotheism are placed against each other in a power struggle

Religion as Transcendence

1) Humanity surpassing current physical boundaries

2) The super- or post-human

3) This approach betrays a belief in the fundamental ability of humanity to overcome its moral and physical weaknesses through enlightenment or scientific advancement

Scoring the Supernatural

Borrowing from others. Slow tempo/drawn out. Eerie. They're borrowing from church music and religious music throughout the globe. Slow music that is reverential. Ethereal music and music that is floating angels and spirits

Joel Goldsmith

1) The Untouchables (1993-94)

2) Outer Limits (1997)

3) Laser Blast (1978)

4) Call of Duty 3 (2006)

With Jerry Goldsmith:

Logan's Run (1976)

5) Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

6) Background in production mixing, synthesizer programming, and electronic scoring.

7) Stargate soundtracks used a synthesizer to emulate an orchestral sound

Scoring religion in Stargate: SG-1

1) The Goa'uld

- Symbiotic. Gain power by posing as gods. (Often Egyptian.)

2) The Ascended Ancients

- Benevolent. Ex-human. Morally and physically transcendent.

- Immortal, with god-like powers but with strictly enforced rules.

3) The Ori

- Ascended beings who do not follow the rules.

- Trick the non-ascended into worshipping them like gods.

UK vs. US television formats (historical and recent)

Recent: Streaming is making everything come together. More likely to have Netflix show that runs on the series

US shows are more music-heavy

US has a timeslot with seasons and thought about fiscal year.

US has more commercial breaks therefore

UK is more into realism , cliffhangers are more applicable

UK shows tended to be 13 episodes long.

UK season means the whole year, not as continuous, mini-series or open blocks, a lot more fluid and less structured.

BBC Radiophonic Workshop

1) Electronic music SFX

2) Using analog processes (cutting and manipulating tape; analog synths)

- Eventually digital processes (synthesizes, digital audio workstations)

3) Brought together to create sounds needed for certain radio shows and dramas, and eventually television shows

4) Influential on electronic experimentation and composition over the 20th century (avant-garde and popular music)

Doctor Who

Original show developed by Sydney Newman, head of drama at BBC. Educational, meant for a family audience.

Revision by Russel T. Davies (showrunner in 2005-2010)

Composer: Murray Gold (through 2017)

Current showrunner: Chris Chibnall

Current composer: Segun Akinola

Show-runner

A writer-producer who oversees the production of a show and who may write many of the episodes, keeping authorial control over tone and overarching story-lines.

Series arc

An extended story structure that stretches over the run of a show, or that provides a continuous situation over multiple episodes.

Music in Doctor Who (2005)

In comparison to the past music doctor who, the past music in doctor who was electronic and was built using Radiophonic workshop

Merry Gold started writing Romantic.

1) Romantic film orchestra

2) Music is more grand

3) Musical topics and leitmotifs

Afrofuturism

The reimagining of a future through a black lens, blending science and technology with black identity and art.

Sun Ra and his music

1) Music was essential to Sun Ra's cosmology.

2) Carried his message; was the means by which transmolecularization was achieved.

3) Styles: Swing, Be-bop, Free Jazz, Psychedelic Rock, Experimental

4) Rock and Jazz are employed to create noise, which is a sign of entropy. "Noise annoys and destroys" (Zuberi)

Minimoog

1) First portable, affordable, and really popular synth.

2) An important symbol/language of the counter-culture.

3) Ra "had taken this synthesizer and I don't know what he had done to it, but he made sounds like you had never heard in your life, I mean just total inharmonic distortion all over the place, oscillators weren't oscillating anymore, nothing was working but it was fabulous." (Jon Weiss)

Space is the Place

Written by Sun Ra and Joshua Smith

1) Directed by John Coney

2) Music by Sun Ra (and his Arkestra)

3) Sun Ra dukes it out with the Overseer (a black "devil-pimp" character) and the U.S. government over the fate of the black race as he recruits black Americans for a new utopian space colony. Music is a central recruiting tool.

The Brother From Another Planet

1) Written and Directed by John Sayles

2) Music by Mason Daring, John Sayles, & Denzil Botus (steel pan drums)

Black Panther

Directed by Ryan Coogler

- Music by Ludwig Goransson

- Field work in Senegaland South Africa (talking drum, tambin[flute], horns, polyrhythms)

- Supervising music editor: Steve Durkee

- Art directed by Alan Hook

- Costuming by Ruth E. Carter

- Evoked the Maasai, Hima, Dogon, Basotho, Tuareg, Turkana, Xhosa, Zulu, Suri, and Dinka people

Posthumanism

The idea that humanity can be transformed, transcended, or eliminated either by technological advances or the evolutionary process. (oxforddictionaries.com)

Cyborg

a person whose physiological functioning is aided by or dependent upon a mechanical or electronic device.

"Manifesto for Cyborgs"

1) The productive social space created by the messy, monstrous, and dangerous boundaries at the union of the biological and technological

2) The monstrous can let us explore or break down social constructs like gender, sexuality, race, etc

Battlestar Galactica (2004-2009)

1) Developed/Produced by: Ron Moore

2) Composer: Bear McCreary

3) Initial miniseries composer: Richard Gibbs

4) A revision of the 1978 series

5) Humans and Cylons battle each other in their search for Earth (the 13th colony)

6) Humans vs. robots (Cylons) and cyborgs (humanoid Cylons)

7) Hybrid cultures, religions, and mythologies

Bear McCreary

Composer for Battlestar Galatica

BSG leitmotives

1) Cylon theme (Japanese taiko drums; pots, pans, toasters)

2) Number Six's theme (Indonesian gamelan)

3) Starbuck's theme (Chinese erhu)

4) Adama family theme (uilleann pipe, Irish flute, lyrics in Irish Gaelic)

5) Roslin's theme (Latin & Armenian lyrics)

6) Tigh's theme (military hymn)

"All Along the Watchtower"

Based on your reading of Papanikolaou's article...

Why was the use of "All Along the Watchtower" odd in the context of the series' soundtrack?

Producer asked for cultural ties even though the rest of the track is hybrid.

All Along the Watchtower: Time people going to war/people pushing against government/bibilical ideas.

What is the song's origin, and what intertextual meaning(s) does it bring into the series?

Song's origin: Bob Dylan

Intertextual meaning(s): It becomes a musical signifier of American musical heritage, whose cultural codes cannot possibly be lost on the perceiver. The song also partakes of a specific cultural ethos.

Advantages of digital sound

1) increased dynamic and frequency range

2) eliminated noise and signal degradation

3) increased the speed of work

4) allowed for non-linear editing

5) new tools for sound manipulation (plug-ins, filters)

Music scoring companies & personnel

The rise of scoring companies, led by A-list composers. The most famous of these is Hans Zimmer's Remote Control Productions.

1) Music Supervisor (responsible for pre-existing music; legal needs)

2) Composer (original music; increasingly managerial; responsible for final recorded score)

3) Orchestrator (expanded role: last-minute composing adjustments; supervising the recording session from recording booth)

4) Music Editor (prepares film for recording session; facilitates recording)

5) Recording Engineers

6) New roles:

- Sampler

- Midi Orchestrators

- Synth Programmers

- Music Preparation Teams (due to rise of engraving software like Finale and Sibelius, no longer "copyists")

- Click-track operator

Music Supervisor

responsible for pre-existing music; legal needs

Composer

original music; increasingly managerial; responsible for final recorded score

Orchestrator

expanded role: last-minute composing adjustments; supervising the recording session from recording booth

Music Editor

prepares film for recording session; facilitates recording

New roles

- Sampler

- Midi Orchestrators

- Synth Programmers

- Music Preparation Teams (due to rise of engraving software like Finale and Sibelius, no longer "copyists")

- Click-track operator

Production sound and post-production sound responsibilities

Production:

1) Dialogue (clean, without ambient noise)

2) Ambient (room sounds, etc.)

Postproduction:

1) ADR (Automatic Dialogue Replacement; "looping")

2) Foley effects (human sounds)

3) Sound effects (other sounds)

D A ADR F S

Digital sound and musical aesthetics

Volume range increases

Frequency range increases

Variety of orchestration options

Large orchestra, synthesizers and virtual instruments, unusual or exotic instruments, compilation scores and compilation/original scores

Rock rhythms introduced for drive (especially in action sequences)

Rhythmic string ostinatos; foregrounded percussion

Eroding the boundaries of popular music

Used both diegetically and non-diegetically; moving back and forth between the two; more like traditional underscore

Action movies: Moving away from traditional leitmotivic approach to scoring for mood and affect

Underarticulated themes and driving rock-rhythm ostinatos

Retrofuturism

Broadly: The use of a style or aesthetic considered futuristic in an earlier era.

In Science Fiction: A conservative cultural impulse that demonstrates nostalgia for past dreams of the future while neglecting their social contexts.

A fascination with past utopian visions of the future that separates those past visions from their social contexts so that we can contend with the realities of the present.

Star Trek (2009) and main theme

Director: J.J. Abrams

Composer: Michael Giacchino

Video games, films, TV series

Sequels: Star Trek: Into Darkness, Star Trek: Beyond

Alternate Universe (timeline altered)

The Main Theme

Aspects of the original Star Trek fanfare:

Rhythms (dotted and triplets), instrumentation (horns), tempo (slow), topic (pastoral/heroic)

Represents the film, the ship, the crew, and Kirk

Deviates from the norm:

Simpler melody, straightforward structure, significant harmonic shift (from D minor to E-flat)

Original TOS title cue (space theme, fanfare, and beguine) return at the end of the film, blended with the 2009 theme, tying it to the original series