Music in Film

Music in Film
Music in cinema is often heard and interpreted by moviegoers as mere background sound. Something that they eat popcorn with, as the movie progresses and as the incidental jingle that drones along with the visual, filling the holes of missing dialogue and ambient sound. It’s my intention to demonstrate the musical sound track is more than aural wall paper. It is a separate art form that creates a holistic experience and frames the narrative both subconsciously and consciously transporting the audience to a more inclusive film experience. An experience that adds layers of emotional cues and address the films narrative. This powerful tool which is created by the film composer’s imagination can carry the audience’s hearts and minds to a thoroughly new experience.
The musical score can be the solidifying agent that glues the films scenes with power and emotion. Each note and rhythm stitches the characters performance with feelings and passion. Without the musical counter balance, Technicolor films would seem “monochrome” and lifeless. Chase scenes devoid of the pounding back beat of a base electric guitar would crawl along at a snail’s pace. Love scenes lacking the quite violins serenading the embracing couple would seem unromantic and dull.
I will explore three distinct musical paths in cinema. First, the symphonic driven film score that is written and produced for the film. Second, a music sound track that uses both the classical musical form and pre-recorded music that takes a contemporary structure. And lastly a film score that incorporates pre-recorded music to set the tone and mood of the narrative.
In addition, I will show that these three differing types of compositions that are used to fulfill the films story invoking different emotional contexts for each of the films structure.
Music in cinema has progressed significantly since the days of silent movies. The Vitaphone, an early recording system using multiple discs, developed by Bell Telephone Laboratories and Western Electric to add sound to films was introduced. (Film Sound History).
During the silent movie age, the film projector was anything but silent. In fact one of the reasons live music accompaniment was introduced was to mask the forward sound of the clanking film projector (Cohen). Music was then played to enhance and accompany the narrative using distinct motifs for comedy, melodrama or horror. W.D. Griffith and other silent film directors of the early 20th century introduced original musical scores to reinforce their powerful monochromatic film images.
Also, in the silent age of movies classical music became an important creative tool. W.D. Griffith’s film Birth of a Nation used Mendelssohn’s Wedding March and Richard Wagner’s The Ride of The Valkyries, to fit the action and emotion of the silver screen. Griffith was one the first American directors to maintain careful control and selection of the musical accompaniment for his films (Anderson). As an early American auteur, Griffith was obsessed with his music. He even traveled with The Birth of a Nation with the orchestral parts in hand to distribute to each new theater and also oversaw the whole presentation (Anderson).
The mostly silent cinema world in the 1920’s was turned on its head when Alan Crosland’s, The Jazz Singer premiered in 1927. Based on Samson Raphaelson’s short story, The Day of Atonement, the Warner Brothers production featured synchronized dialogue and musical numbers by Al Jolson, virtually “silencing “ (and ending) the once powerful silent film industry (The Jazz Singer).
The talkies changed the way audiences reacted to the film narrative. They no longer had to interpret larger than life acting with over blown facial expressions and cue cards leading the emotional path of the melodrama. This new generation of film audience was experiencing an innovative approach to storytelling that added emotional dimensions to this bold new world of music and sound.
When we hear the Jaws theme music, written and conducted by John Williams wonderful orchestration, what emotions come to mind? Fear. Or when we listen to “Hedwig’s Theme”, composed by John William’s for Harry Potter and the Soccer’s Stone, what feelings are invoked? Magic.
For Harry Potter fans John Williams’ masterful motif for Harry’s white owl Hedwig is universally known and loved. Hedwig’s magical frame work is played on the harp, celesta and other orchestral instruments that invoke magical associations with historical music and drama. For instance composers before the age of film such as Tchaikovsky who used the harp in his ballets Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and the Nutcracker to support super supernatural characters, places and events which were techniques borrowed heavily by John Williams(Webster, Jamie Lynn) .
Williams’ magical motifs also become a signifier for the supernatural. Music accompanies magical characters throughout the Harry Potter series, but non-magical events and characters are not musically reinforced, contributing to the musical blandness and plainness of the muggel world.
For example in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, starts with a musical Prologue when we first see the Warner Brothers logo and continues thru to the fade to black and fades up onto Harry’s new home on Privet Drive. It is a dark and eerie night and the symphonic music swells when Albus Dumbledore played by the late Richard Harris arrives with his deluminator and starts removing the luminance from the street lamps. William’s again adds to the orchestration with a symphonic transition when the light is captured in his deluminator. But this musical “Mickey mouse” effect as it is called in the film industry, illustrates how a simple musical treatment can change the visual atmosphere to a complete visual and auditory sensation.
The magical symphonic score continues thru the delayed title sequence until Harry Potter’s Aunt says “it’s time to get up Harry” some eight years later in story time. These first four and half minutes of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone sets the tone for the next eight Harry Potter movies. True to his own artistic judgment and guidance from Executive Producer and Writer J.K Rowling, William’s envisions the magic and intrigue that is needed to sustain the Harry Potter phenomenon. Indeed, under the direction of Chris Columbus’s, William’s created a musical score that reinforced the expectations of the millions of existing Harry Potter fans.
Additionally, in the musical prologue of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone the celesta plays an important role in establishing the magical atmosphere. This small piano like instrument sets the stage for William’s delightful motifs that changes from minor to major chords, depending on the desired emotional enchantments that need to be addressed.
William’s again surprises the audience when he includes a motif inside of a motif. When Rebues Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) arrives with the baby Harry Potter under his arm, the Celeste motif is replaced with an orchestration rendition, this time in a major key that reinforces and further establishes the Harry Potter signature melody.
There is a wonderment and awe when we listen to William’s orchestration. The celesta is used again in The Arrival of Baby Harry scene, when Dumbledore places a letter on the Dursley’s door step, introducing the muggle family to the orphaned Harry Potter.
In the next magical scene Harry and his muggle family visit the zoo. William’s composes an atmosphere of wonderment and discovery when Harry starts talking to the snake from Burma behind the glass enclosure. Harry asks the snake if he misses his family, the music changes to a minor key, reflecting the sadness in the snake’s reaction. Dudley, played by Harry Melling, pushes Harry aside to get a better look at the snake inside the cage. At this point Harry has his first major magical impulse and makes the glass disappear in the snake enclosure and Dudley falls into the snake pit as the snake escapes. The music changes with a swirl of violins, with musical flourishes similar to Fantasia’s, Mickey The Sorcerer's Apprentice, conducted by Leopold Stokowski, to emphasize the historic event in Harry Potter’s magical life.
The music continues thru the next scene when letters arrive for Harry, inviting him to the Hogwarts School of Magic. A number of owls descend on the Dursley’s home delivering letters that Uncle Vernon Dursley played by Richard Griffiths keeps tearing up. The Hedwig theme continues to play thru this scene, adding magical realism and reinforcing Harry’s magical potential. In the final chapter in this scene, hundreds of owls arrive suddenly with letters from the Hogwarts School. The celesta plays the Hedwig theme again when Harry looks out the window to see an army of winged owls. Letters then fly down the chimney flooding the house with magical letters, the Hedwig theme changes again to a more powerful orchestration, filling the Dursley’s home with the full orchestration of violins, horns and harps with a celesta crescendo as the house is now flooded with letters flying and encircling the Dursleys and Harry.
The audience in now under John William’s spell. The Prologue and Hedwig’s themes have been truly established. Williams in these first four and half minutes was able to establish the growth of Harry Potter. From a mere mortal to an enchanted eleven year old boy, the music reflects Harry’s coming of age, and the new responsibilities that are forth coming in Harry’s life. The music is Harry and all that he stands for. In a way, John Williams was able to get inside the characters head, reflecting his inner most thoughts and fears.
John Williams’ musical leitmotifs are so powerful “the music for Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone... works on several levels. It's a brilliantly constructed companion piece to the film, integrating seamlessly with every image and emotion. But most importantly, it captures the soul of the Harry Potter world”, as film director Chris Columbus notes from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Webster, Jamie Lynn).
I will have to concur with Jamie Lynn Webster in her doctorial thesis, The Music of Harry Potter:

Continuity and Change in the First Five Films, suggests “that Williams' music is the life-blood

that flows through the film, weaving emotion into the story much as arteries weave through the

body”. Williams’ music is so viable in the first two Harry Potter movies that it not only sustains the

visual narrative but may define characters and their emotions thru individual interpretation (Webster, Jamie Lynn)..
In the third scene of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Hagrid finds the Dursleys and Harry on a remote sea island trying to escape the magical letters that keep arriving at the Dursley’s home on Privet drive. Hagrid breaks down the door and gives Harry a birthday cake for his eleventh birthday. Hagrid then explains to Harry that he is a wizard. The celesta begins again with it’s now well established tune and escalates to a partial orchestration of Hedwig’s Theme, reinforcing the magical statement that Hagrid has just made. Harry now knows that he is different and his parents were wizards and did not die in a car crash that he was lead to believe. Harry’s world is turned upside down and his new realism is taking shape. The music coincidently fades to the abyss as Harry feels and interprets this new fact in his life. Harry now is a wizard and the musical silence is deafening.
The orchestration composed by Williams is part of an historical continuum of narration and musical scores. Great films scores are now as popular as celebrated opera works were in the 19th century. Both are loved and appreciated all over the world, from Puccini’s, Madame Butterfly to Max Steiner, Gone with the Wind.
Steven Spielberg’s films also greatly benefit from the contribution of a talented composer that rivals some of these remarkable Operatic opuses. Spielberg’s musical vision eclipses and transforms the landscape of music and sound by creating a hybrid sound track, one that incorporates the classical form scored exclusively for the film, famous in the Hollywood narrative and contemporary music that is selected from modern day or popular music of the narratives time period.
The subtext of Steven Spielberg’s grand auditory cinematic vision creates settings and backdrops that define new boundaries for artistic cinematic expression by blurring the lines between diegetic and non-diegetic. Spielberg produces a hyper-diegetic synthesis of music, sound and dialogue that resonates at perfect pitch. If you watch and listen to many of Spielberg films, a catharsis is cast over you, engulfing you in his creative diorama.
In E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial , Spielberg is casting his imaginative web, in which emotions are trapped by this auteur’s craftsmanship. Spielberg palette is not new, since he follows the rules and regulations of old Hollywood.
As a director and composer that loves films and music, Spielberg and John Williams pay homage to other great composers. In E.T. you hear remnants of Miss Gulch on her bicycle from the Wizard of OZ as Elliot takes off on his bike is search of ET (E. T., the Extra-terrestrial) . In another scene, we hear one of the boys whistling the Twilight Zone theme, as they look for ET in the backyard. We also hear tributes to Cecil B. de Mille’s Ten Commandments in the opening space craft scene when ET first arrives on planet earth ( E. T., the Extra-terrestrial) .
Spielberg, carpets E.T. with wall to wall music. This isn’t just any carpet of sound, it’s a fine Persian fabric hand crafted in the Ottoman Empire. Spielberg mixes diegetic and non-diegetic forms, which are barely detectable.
E.T., has no dialogue for the first eight and half minutes. Ambient sound and music fills the screen. Musical parameters are established to capture the viewer’s attention.
John Williams musical compositions in E.T is established early. Williams’, famous motifs are used to determine good and evil. The close up of the keys, dangling by a mystery person, searching for the Extra Terrestrial is punctuated by Williams’ famous ominous measures.
Spielberg subtlety sets the tone by auditory suggestions by inserting Jim Carol’s song, People Who Die, in the establishing exterior scene of Elliott’s house there a presumption and foreshadowing that everyone will die because this extra terrestrial has been left behind to fend for its survival. Spielberg also use’s the Persuasions song, Papa Oom Mow Mow, to establish an ambient layer of looseness and middle class harmony in the family room interior scene. Elliot’s brother Michael sings Elvis Costello’s song, Accidents Will Happen in the family’s kitchen, when moments later, Elliot introduces Michael to the extra terrestrial (E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial).
Spielberg also mixes media in a very clever way by using the sound from PBS’s television children’s show, Sesame Street to set the mode of the kitchen and family room scene. When E.T. discovered the refrigerator and drank a number on beers, becoming intoxicated and wondering the house in a flannel bathrobe that is too big for him. With the television set on and blaring, a Sesame Street character is reciting the letters of the alphabet. Gertie (Drew Barrymore) is also trying to teach ET the alphabet by reciting the letters in front of the television set. The smart little ET creature instantly starts talking. The use of an existing media- diegetic to interact with the Gertie and ET is pure Spielberg genius (E. T., the Extra-terrestrial)
In 1967 the opposite approach to the interwoven symphony score is this use of popular music which is best demonstrated in the film The Graduate. It was a tumultuous time for America with the Vietnam War was in full operational mode and San Francisco was bursting out with the Summer of Love, and race riots along with urban tensions were ravaging across Americas inner-cities. In the backdrop, The Graduate, explores several coming of age issues. With a large number of baby boomers entering adulthood, thoughts of family, love and mortality consumed the age group.
The white youth of American cinema was being treated to a creative revolution, a revolution in the film and music industry that we still feel today. Mike Nichols, the director of the Graduate, choose to forgo the traditional route of using an orchestral film score, but instead used previously recorded popular music for his film. The Graduate opens with the Simon and Garfunkel hit song, Sounds of Silence, which had been released three years earlier in 1964.
According to David R. Shumway, the song Sounds of Silence claims a greater share of the viewer attention in the opening sequence than Dustin Hoffman’s character on a moving sidewalk at the Los Angeles International airport (Shumway).
Ben (Dustin Hoffman) is in the foreground as the cream colored background wall moves in unison while Ben looks lost and forlorn as he travels to pick up his baggage at LAX. Simon and Garfunkel’s song foreshadows Bens longing for clarity in his life after graduating with honors’ from an Ivy League university. Sounds of Silence sets in motion the angst Ben must experience in the next few days. Although the music is non-diegetic, the audience feels the pain and emotions that Simon and Garfunkel are conveying in their lyrics.
For example in the third verse of Sounds of Silence, Paul Simon writes, “People talking without speaking, People hearing without listening, People writing songs that voices never share, And no one dared, Disturb the sound of silence”. In the next scene the Sounds of Silence ends in perfect backed time fashion with Ben staring into the distance, with his own Sounds of Silence as he internalizes about his tenuous future (The Graduate).
In the Taking the Dive scene, Ben is 21 years old and his father (William Daniels) wants to do something special (The Graduate). Ben’s father, Mr. Braddock, is throwing a birthday party for Ben in the backyard swimming pool. Mr. Braddock has purchased a scuba diving outfit for Ben, to try out in the family swimming pool. The camera cuts to Ben wearing the scuba gear, the ambient sound disappears, and we only hear Ben’s forceful breathing. This obvious setup connects the audience to the Sounds of Silence and Ben’s further isolation of being at his parents’ house during his episodes of post college anxiety fears.
In the Fear and Lust scene Ben secures a hotel room for his affair with Mrs. Robinson, played by Ann Bancroft. Ben slams a door when Mrs. Robinson accuses him of being inadequate and a virgin. In the darkness of the scene we hear Sounds of Silence, “Hello darkness, my old friend, I've come to talk with you again. “ The segued music begins in black with montage images of Ben floating in the pool, drinking a beer. Ben gets out of the pool with the music still forward and puts on a white long sleeve shirt and walks into the house. The film cuts to Ben opening the bathroom door of the hotel room and lies down on the bed. Mrs. Robinson approaches him and takes off his shirt, before their affair officially begins, Ben gets out of bed and shuts another door, where his mother and father are symbolically eating dinner. All during the before mentioned scene Ben still has an empty and silent look about him. Ben’s face shows apathy that fits perfectly with the melody and lyrics of Sounds of Silence (The Graduate) .
In another change in the non- diegetic music, April Come She Will by Simon and Garfunkel is introduced as a visual and auditory montage to celebrate Ben’s and Mrs. Robinson’s successful carnal relationship. Nichols, subtly adjusts temporal and spatial interactions to increase the validity of April Come She Will montage. Suggesting in “April come she will, June, she´ll change her tune and August, die she must”, which clearly defines and establishes the arch of Ben’s and Mrs. Robinson’s relationship.
In Pressuring the Parents scene we circle back to another pool scene where Ben is floating in the pool. Ben’s father is pressuring Ben to ask out Mrs. Robinson daughter. Which Ben does not want to do, because he has promised Mrs. Robinson he would not go out with Elaine, (played by Katherine Ross). In frustration with the questioning, Ben dives under water with his scuba mask, to escape his parents monotony. Under water, ambient sound disappears and we and Ben experience diegetic silence and solitude. Another suggestive moment that alludes to the title song, Sounds of Silence.
The inevitable happens when Ben goes on a date with Elaine. Ben drives fast and reckless to a strip club where Elaine breaks down and cries at the intolerable circumstances of their initial date. Ben quickly apologizes outside the strip club for his rudeness, and they quickly embrace in a kiss. The camera cuts to the next scene where Ben and Elaine are eating hamburgers in a drive in restaurant. The diegetic music presumably coming from the car radio is The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine, written and performed by Simon and Garfunkel . The lyrics so aptly reinforce the narrative at this point in the film, “Do people have a tendency to dump on you , Does your group have more cavities than theirs,
Do all the hippies seem to get the jump on you, Do you sleep alone when other sleep in pairs”. The camera sits on a wide shot, when the music if brought up full, as we see Ben and Elaine engaging in full date night conversation. Again filling in the emotional holes, that the narrative leaves out.
In another poignant scene in The Graduate, Ben confesses to Elaine that he is having an affair with her mother. Elaine screams at Ben to get out of her sight. The camera cuts to a shot of Mrs. Robinson, isolated in a corner of a room and the scene fades to black. The camera fades to a familiar scene of Ben in his bedroom with the aquarium in the foreground. Scarborough Fair/Canticle written and performed by Simon and Garfunkel is in the foreground as the camera cuts in montage style of Ben’s despair, longing for Elaine’s company. The lyrics reinforce Ben’s loss.” Are you going to Scarborough Fair? Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme .Remember me to one who lives there, she once was a true love of mine”. In perfect harmony with the story, Mike Nichols picks a wonderful sonnet to express Ben’s deep desire to be with Elaine. Ben’s frustration with his life and his carless relationship with Mrs. Robinson is clearly evident, in this remorseful song. As with all the montage sequences in The Graduate, the music is forward, without ambient sound, as not to interfere with the lyrics and help place emphasis on the visuals.
In a number of reprise musical passages of, Are you going to Scarborough Fair? Ben travels to Berkley to find his true love. The camera follows Ben’s red sports car across the Oakland Bay Bridge, as the helicopter shot zooms out in great 1960’s fashion to reveal the San Francisco Bay. In these scenes Ben has a determined look. A look of a man with purpose and desire as he searches for Elaine.
Clearly, Elaine’s emotional frailty is exposed as she can’t decide to marry Ben or Carl Smith (Brian Avery). In her emotional quandary some feminist film theorists would be annoyed with Elaine’s stereotyped character, especially since she fully understands and has experienced Ben’s neurotic behavior.
In the Multiple Proposals scene, Ben is thinking that he is going to marry Elaine and shops for a wedding ring and other pre-matrimony gifts. A whistling rendition of Mrs. Robinson is introduced to accompany Ben’s new confidence with Elaine. Although reminding the viewer of his affair with Elaine’s Mother. Ben’s mood is jovial and blissful, which is apparent in the joyful melody.
Director Mike Nichols and music editor Dave Grusin introduce the Mrs. Robinson theme a number of more times, finding opportunities to intertwine the altered thematic form throughout the remainder of the film.
In the Surprise Visit scene Ben frantically drives to find Elaine before she gets married to Carl. He drives from Berkeley to Los Angeles, then Los Angeles to Berkeley, with the guitar and scat overture of Mrs. Robinson forgrounded. It’s reasonable to believe that adding the Mrs. Robinson theme adds additional anxiety and tension to Ben’s back and forth driving, up and down US 101. These short renditions of Mrs. Robinson were also remixed to emphasize the acoustic resonance of the solo guitar, suggesting a slight influence of the protest songs of the 1960’s.
When Ben finds himself a few blocks from the wedding chapel, he runs out of gas. The acoustic guitar version of Mrs. Robinson slows down in time with Ben’s car coming to a halt. Again, adding to the already tense scene of Ben’s marauding up and down the California highway system in search of Elaine.
In the final scene, Ben arrives at the chapel a few seconds too late, the groom has just kissed the bride. Ben screams Elaine, Elaine, and Elaine for several moments. Elaine turns her head, stares at Ben for a few awkward seconds and screams back, Ben, Ben. Angry wedding guests chase the couple to the chapel door, Ben blocks the door with a metal cross he removed from inside the chapel. The newly married Elaine runs off with Ben as they hop on a Santa Barbra city bus. As they reach their seats in the back of the bus, Sounds of Silence is brought to the foreground. Both Elaine and Ben stare forward, glancing at one another occasionally. Ben’s stare is reminiscent of his blank expression as he rode the moving walkway at the airport.
In one aspect the Sounds of Silence in this final scene fulfills the apathy and mistrust of the 1960’s. The mistrust of marriage, of social norms and of the conventions of moral decency. With this unusual ending we cannot predict what will happen to Elaine and Ben. In the context of the 1960’s, I don’t think anyone really cared if they lived happily ever after. But with the Simon and Garfunkel sound track, I believe their haunting lyrics and remarkable melodies added another level of uncertainty to this dramatic fictional tale.
Music editors, directors and symphony composers can create a synergistic atmosphere for films in a variety of ways.
Some film directors still prefer the conventional style of the orchestrated sound track, using an original musical score that was completed after the final visual edit. Other directors, who may have a more contemporary sense, use modern or popular music to convey more current trends in there film narrative.
It’s a collaborative effort to achieve the directors artistic vision for the musical component of any film. Many composers have tried and failed in interpreting the director’s creative requirements.
Using popular music can be more challenging in creating a distinct filmic mood since the audience usually has found emotions and ideas associated with the films. In rare cases such as The Graduate, it can work and yet songs such as Sounds of Silence have a life beyond their own outside of the film as Simon and Garfunkel compositions. Only compositions as composed by the symphonic masters as John Williams can create a musical film experience that is permanently linked to the films such as Harry Potter and E.T.




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