Notes on Film Music: Key Concepts, Figures, and Milestones
Film Music: Key Concepts, Figures, and Milestones (20th Century)
Film venues sustain classical music; its absence is felt.
Home viewing and video games significantly expand classical music consumption.
Copland’s Five Possibilities for Film Music (Aaron Copland, 1949)
1) Music creates convincing atmosphere of time and place.
2) Music reveals psychological refinements (unspoken thoughts, unseen implications).
3) Music serves as neutral background filler.
4) Music builds film continuity.
5) Music underpins theatrical buildup and provides finality.
Copland's insight: Music broadens narrative scope, deepens scenes, sharpens character insight, and links ideas and places dynamically, affecting pacing like film itself.
Music & Film: Historical Context and Origins
Film, a 20th-century art, uses music to articulate human drama, predating dialogue.
European symphonic traditions influenced American film's lush orchestration via classically trained composers.
Film Drama and Sonata Form; Leitmotifs
Film drama often mirrors sonata form:
Introduction: Establishes setting, mood.
Exposition: Introduces protagonist (first theme) and antagonist (contrasting theme), with conflict elements.
Development: Plot complications intensify drama.
Climax: High-tension moment.
Resolution: Problems resolved, loose ends tied.
Leitmotif: a recurring, transforming musical theme for specific story elements (e.g., Jaws' theme, Darth Vader's Imperial March).
Diegetic vs Non-Diegetic Film Music
Diegetic (source) music: audible to characters within a scene (e.g., Star Wars IV cantina band).
Non-diegetic (underscoring): from an unseen source, not audible to characters, shaping audience emotions (e.g., Star Wars V orchestral underscoring).
Underscoring acts as an invisible orchestra providing emotional foundation for the film.
The Silent Era and Early Technological Transitions
Early film music masked projector noise and added drama.
Kinetophone (1894): Edison/Dickson's early attempt at synchronizing Kinetoscope with phonograph.
Live music, often by Mighty Wurlitzer organs, prevailed in Nickelodeons due to sync/amplification challenges.
The Silent Era to Sound: Transition to Talkies
Western Electric's mid-1920s sound-film sync became Vitaphone, rapidly wiring 8,000+ theaters by early 1930s.
Chaplin's City Lights (1931) famously retained a silent aesthetic with his score, contrasting talkie embrace.
City Lights (Chaplin, 1931): Music and Scene Analysis
Chaplin's City Lights opens with a monument unveiling; music cues (Tramp's theme, fanfare, anthem) align with plot, shifting between underscoring and source music to convey narrative.
Mickey Mousing, Cartoon Scores, and Early Animation Music
Mickey Mousing: music synchronized with animation, key for agile scores, introducing classical music.
Disney’s Snow White (1938) had the first original soundtrack album.
The Cartoon Music Tradition: Disney and Warner Bros.
Carl Stalling, key to Disney/Warner Bros., popularized Mickey Mousing and invented "tick" tempo-mapping.
He scored over Warner Bros. cartoons, advancing synchronized animation soundtracks with Disney's The Silly Symphonies.
The Studio System and the Golden Age of Film Music
The Studio System (1935–1955) mass-produced films, employing over in music departments during popular movie-going.
Korngold and Steiner were key composers.
Korngold: The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and Leitmotif in the Studio Era
Korngold’s Robin Hood (1938), a Technicolor first, used the Merry Men’s leitmotif (agitated strings, then triumphant theme) to track character actions and narrative turns.
Steiner: Casablanca (1942) and Montage Music
Steiner’s Casablanca (1942) uses montage music during the Rick-Ilsa flashback: "As Time Goes By" (source music) expands to orchestration for memories, with brass fanfares marking Paris scenes.
Shifts between source and orchestral scoring punctuate narrative. Both Steiner and Korngold, Viennese-born, shaped symphonic film music standards.
The World of Bernard Herrmann and the Mystery/Terror Aesthetic
sBernard Herrmann (Citizen Kane, War of the Worlds) defined mystery/thriller scores.
He used Theremin in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and collaborated with Hitchcock (Vertigo, Psycho) for dissonant, psychologically charged music, aligning with Expressionism.
The New Wave: Popular Music Influences and Genre-Defining Scores
Post-1960s, composers integrated popular idioms.
John Barry's Bond theme (1962) defined action-spy scores with its four-note motif, guitar, and brass.
Lalo Schifrin’s Mission: Impossible (1966) used jazz fusion and a meter.
Morricone/Leone's Spaghetti Westerns (1960s) created genre-defining sound with unique instrumentation (whistling, jaw harps).
The Godfathers of Modern Scoring: Williams and Zimmer
John Williams (Star Wars, Jaws) employs expansive leitmotifs and thematic transformation.
Hans Zimmer (Inception, Dune) uses economical, layered ostinatos.
Williams is thematic/symphonic; Zimmer is minimalist/process-driven.
Selected Highlights and Examples (Representative Works)
Williams: Star Wars, Jaws, Close Encounters, E.T., Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Patriot, Harry Potter series.
Zimmer: Rain Man, The Lion King, Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean, Inception, Interstellar, Dune.
Thematic Concepts and Terms to Know
Leitmotif: recurring musical theme for a story element; transforms with narrative changes.
Mickey Mousing: synchronizing music with on-screen movements, often in animation.
Diegetic (Source) Music: music characters hear within the scene.
Non-Diegetic (Underscoring) Music: music characters don't hear, guides audience emotion.
Kinetophone: early experiment for film/sound synchronization.
Vitaphone: Warner Bros. system for synchronized sound, aiding talkie transition.
Cue Sheets: pre-arranged musical excerpts for scene synchronization.
Tick Track: Carl Stalling's tempo-mapping method using metronomic click tracks for animation.
Quantitative and Technical Details (selected)
Over theaters wired for Vitaphone by early 1930s; studio music departments employed over .
Mission: Impossible theme uses a meter.
Stalling's 'tick' mapping and large orchestras mark classic Hollywood.
Star Wars and Morricone exemplify transforming leitmotifs and iconic textures.
Connections to Broader Context and Real-World Relevance
Film music defines cinema's emotional texture, subtly shaping audience perception.
Evolution from silent films to modern scores reflects technological, cultural, and audience changes.
Leitmotifs and thematic transformation act as narrative memory devices, providing continuity.
The 1960s shift to popular music in scores mirrors cultural, youth, and global cinema changes.
Ethical, Philosophical, and Practical Implications
Debates existed about sound technology's impact on artistic expression in the early talkie era.
Grand orchestral vs. minimalist approaches raise questions about accessibility, engagement, and taste.
Integrating popular music prompts discussions on originality, cross-genre collaboration, and commodification.
Lesson Summary and Learning Objectives
Understand 20th-century film music characteristics and identify key figures (e.g., Korngold, Herrmann, Morricone, Williams, Zimmer).
Classify film music examples by style/genre.
Define essential theoretical terms (leitmotif, diegetic vs non-diegetic, Mickey Mousing, cue sheets, tempo mapping).
Identify scores by listening and explain their narrative function.
Quick Reference: Key People and Works
Korngold: The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) — Robin Hood leitmotif, Technicolor.
Steiner: Casablanca (1942) — montage music, "As Time Goes By," source vs. orchestration.
Herrmann: Citizen Kane (1941); The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) with Theremin; Hitchcock collaborations (Vertigo, Psycho).
Williams: Jaws, Star Wars, Harry Potter series; heavy leitmotif use.
Zimmer: Inception; layered ostinatos; The Lion King, Gladiator, Interstellar, Dune.
Visual/Auditory References (for further study)
Star Wars: Diegetic vs non-diegetic, leitmotifs.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Morricone): innovative instrumental textures.
Fantasia (Disney, 1940): classical music/animation integration, early stereophonic sound.
Zoom and Bored (1957): exemplary Mickey Mousing.
City Lights (Chaplin, 1931): underscoring to source music transition