Music In Film Notes

The Beginning:

    -Started with the composer Richard Wagner

                       a. Was on Opera Composer

                       b. Came up with Gesamtuknustwerk (which unified drama, music and art)

WAGNERS INVENTIONS:

    1. Auditorium darkening during performance

    2. Orchestra pit

    3. Audience not clapping during theatrical events

Wagner’s Music Drama’s

  

  -Wagner typically wrote his own librettos

                a. Libretto: Essentially the plot or musical plot of a theatrical performance.

  -He also directed his own staging, acting and visual elements

                b. Leitmotif: musical themes repeated throughout the drama

Drama and Film

THE FIVE CRUCIAL ELEMENTS TO DRAMA AND FILM

  1. PLOT

  2. CHARACTER

  3. SETTING

  4. THEME

  5. MOOD


PLOT

    -The essential structure of a story (basic framework of the story)

                a. Many films tend to be adapted from stories because of this


CAUSAL PLOT

    -Exposition: Background of the story

    -Complications: series of events stemming from conflict

    -Climax: the moment of greatest tension

    -Resolution: the end of the story, where the conflict gets resolved


EPISODIC PLOT

  -Contains a series of events that don’t directly build up to one another

            a. These plot’s typically contain flashbacks

-Because of the lack of direct connection between event’s we are left with two different types of timelines; Nonlinear and Linear

            a. Linear: Contains a strict chronological timeline

            b. Nonlinear: Contains illogical jumps of time

CHARACTER

-Someone inside of the story

            a. Protagonist: the principal character

            b. Antagonist: the character that usually sets the conflict

SETTING

-Refers to both the location and time frame where the story takes place

    1.Period Films: Utilize elements of a historical era. Paying attention to detail

                a. You can also have the opposite with futuristic time pieces

THEME

-The central idea of the story

          a. NOT ALL FILMS HAVE THEMES: ex: comedies and musicals

MOOD

-The quality of a film

        a. can be funny, sad, dark, etc…

-The most important tools used to create a certain mood of a film are visual elements and music.

ELEMENTS OF FILM

Two types of film:

                                    a. Nonfiction: documentary, propaganda, factual, instructional

                                    b. Narrative films based on genres, such as action, adventure, animation

FILM GENRES:

  1. COMEDY

  2. DRAMA

  3. HORROR

  4. MUSICAL

  5. MYSTERY

  6. ROMANCE

  7. SCIENCE FICTION

  8. WESTERN

CINEMATOGRAPHY

POINT OF VIEW: refers to the perspective of the camera

    -Omniscient POV: narrative film, camera moves at the will of the director

    -Subjective POV: cinematographer lets us see through the eyes of a character

ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

  1. Pitch: How high or low a musical note is

  2. Staff: 5 Horizontal lines containing musical pitches

  3. Clefs: Treble and Bass, indicates instrumental range

  4. Time Signature: how many beats are in the measure

  5. Melody: Tune of the composition

    1. Disjunct: moving in large intervals

    2. Conjunct: moving in small intervals

  6. Phrases: A succession of notes containing musical idea

  7. Motive: small melodic idea that can serve as part of a larger melody

  8. Texture: relationship of a melodic line to other musical material in a passage   

    1. Homophonic: dominant melody without accompaniment

    2. Monophonic: single line without any other musical material

  9. Harmony: two pitches produced at the same time simultaneously

  10. Chord: denotes the sound of three or more pitches

  11. Dissonant: harsh, disturbing chords

  12. Consonant:beautiful and pleasing to the ear

  13. Rhythm: element of music dealing with time

    1. Beats: reoccurring pulses

  14. Tempo: the speed at which pulses are heard

  15. Meter: Regular patterns of pulses

  16. Timbre: the color or tone quality produced by voices, instruments or a combination

  17. Orchestration: composers who write the score at the piano and then move those ideas to other instruments

FILM MUSIC LISTENING

    -Music often comes secondary to dialogue and sound effects

        -Placement

        -Borrowings

        -Styles

        -Function

        -Unity

PLACEMENT

    -Music can be put through multiple places in film such as:

       1. Opening Credits

        2. Closing Credits

        3. Throughout

-Can also be strategically placed at precise moments to add to tension and action

-SOURCE MUSIC: as part of the drama itself, ex: Musicians playing in a band on film

-UNDERSCORING: No logical source in the drama itself


BORROWINGS

-FILM MUSIC: either original or borrowed; original music is music created for the film itself

-BORROWED MUSIC:

    1. Arrangement: borrows melody from another source

    2. Adaption: borrows a complete passage from another source

MUSICAL STYLES

5 Basic Musical Styles in Film:

  1. Postromantic

  2. Modern

  3. Popular

  4. Historical

  5. Ethnic

    STYLES

-Modern: Generally refers to something from 1913 and on

-Postromantic: emphasis on melody and wide range of emotions

-Historical: Source music from a different time period

-Ethnic: Non-western culture music

FUNCTION

-To establish a mood

-Run counter to the action

MUSICAL UNITY

-Leitmotifs: Term created by Wagner. Themes identified with a person, object or idea in a story. For example, a simple chord played for a certain character on screen every time.

BIRTH OF AN ART FORM

-Eadweard Muybridge created the shutter for the camera that helped capture motion

-Thomas Edison proposed a cooperative creation of moving pictures and recorded sound

    -Muybridge rejected Edison, which led Edison to create his own invention, the Kinetoscope, which allowed for moving pictures without sound.

    -1894 the first Kinetoscope was created

    -1895 the the Kinetophone was created, which allowed for earphones

BIRTH OF FILM

-Georges Melies and Edwin Porter created narrative films

    -Porter creates: The Great Train Robbery, which was said to be the first major American Narrative film in 1903

MUSIC IN FILM

-Orchestras were introduced to theaters as a way to accompany silent films

-The First Nickelodeon was established in 1905

    -Films could either be in silence or added sound effects, narration or even lectures from a professor

-Music could be played in the background typically by piano, or a small number of musicians could perform with the pianist.

FOUNDATIONS OF FILM

-D.W Griffith created a score for the controversial movie “Birth of a Nation”

-By 1920, the organ became the most common movie theater instrument, musical ensembles expanded, compilation scores with excerpts from the 19th century became more common

COMPILATION SCORES

-Silent film music was divided into three categories:

  1. Adaptations of classical repertoire

  2. Arrangements of well known tunes

  3. Newly composed music

-Classical work was preferred for musicians due to large availability

VICTOR HERBERT

-Herbert was an Irish American cellist who conducted and produced the musical score for The Birth of a Nation

-First fully original American Film Score