2. According to Copland, music
• Conveys a convincing atmosphere of
time and place
• Underlines the unspoken feelings or
psychological states of characters
• Serves as a neutral background filler
to the action
• Gives a sense of continuity to the
editing
• Accentuates the theatrical build-up
of a scene
3. Terminology
• Cue: stand alone section of music within a film.
• Diegetic: music emanating from within the film
• Non-diegetic: emanating from outside the film
itself
• Leitmotif: theme to associate with a character
on screen
• Underscore: to compose and add music to a
film. Usually music which underpins and
enhances the action and mood of the film.
• Image system: a director’s visual interpretation
of a concept or storyline
4. Claudia Gorbman’s seven
principles
• Invisibility: the technical apparatus of nondiegetic music must
not be visible
• Inaudibility: music is not meant to be consciously heard –
should be subordinate to dialogue and visuals
• Signifier of emotion
• Narrative cueing: referential (narrative cues) and connotative
(interprets and illustrates events)
• Continuity: fills gaps
• Unity: through repetition and variety, can provide formal and
narrative unity
• A film score may violate any of the above principles, providing
this is at the service of other principles
7. Process
• Rushes: unedited film clips
• Spot: to watch scenes in order to insert music
• Temp Track: a piece of extant music laid against
picture to give the composer an idea of what the
director requires, or to fill the soundtrack until the
composer has recorded the commissioned cue.
• Clicktrack: metronomic tempo click which aids
musicians and conductor (if there is one) during
session rehearsals and performance takes.
• Dub: the final sound mixing session which
combines dialogue, effects and music.
• Fine Cut: the final picture edit (and to a limited
extent, sound edit) of a film.
8. More Terminology
• Accenting (also known as 'Highlighting'):
musical emphases which accent particular
events or elucidate dramatic moments.
• Ambient Sound: background sound such
as distant traffic or wind noise.
• Bridge/Link: short cue which links two
scenes or sequences.
• Hit/Hit Point: a specific dramatic point or
action in the narrative that requires the
music to give it a synchronous impact.
9. Terminology Continued
• Incipience: the point of beginning or becoming
apparent. The point, for example, that the image
is flashed onto the screen.
• Main Titles/Titles/Credits/Opening
Credits/Closing Credits: description of a music
cue which covers the opening titles/credits or
closing credits.
• Pad: sustained bed of a single chord or simple
progression of harmony e.g. As in ‘string pad.
• Parallelism and Counterpoint: film score which
either follows the film's narrative or works
against it in some manner.
10. Terminology Continued
• Segue: to proceed from one music cue, without a
pause, into the next music cue. Usually at a change
of scene or sequence point.
• Soft Sync: the deliberate placing of the music
several frames earlier or most usually later than
the obvious sync point between image and music.
• Sting: short musical motive usually no longer than
a few seconds which 'hits' or 'stings' a specific
picture event.
• Titles Music/or 'Main Titles/or Signature Tune: the
music which opens a film or marks the opening
title credits and actor/production credits. In TV
music more commonly called a Sig Tune.
11. Use of Music
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1. DIEGETIC OR SOURCE
2. FEATURED
3. SONG
4. LOCATION
5. TEMPORAL
6. EMOTIONAL IMPACT
7. DRAMATIC IMPACT
8. ANTICIPATION
9. SYNCHRONIZATION
10. HIGHLIGHTING OR
ACCENTING
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
11. MOOD AND ATMOSPHERE
12. NEUTRAL BACKGROUND
13. ILLUSION OF CONTINUITY
14. CHARACTER
MOTIVE/THEME
15. PSYCHOLOGICAL
/SUBLIMINAL
16. HUMOUR
17. CHANNEL AND COLLECT
PREVIOUS CONTENT
18. MEANING AND
SIGNIFICATION
12. Early years
• 1896-1927: live music to accompany film •
Primarily non-diegetic
• Music provided ‘Mickey-Mousing’ – imitation of
screen action through musical devices
• 1909: emergence of ‘cue sheets’ – sheet music
published to accompany (and fit) a film or a series
of films
• Erno Rapée, Encyclopedia of Music for Pictures
(1925)
• Hans Erdmann and Guiseppe Becce, Allgemeines
Handbuch der Film-Musik
13. Into Sound
• Cinema music ranged from a pianist to a full
orchestra
• Birth of a Nation (1915): score by Josef Karl Breil
to be performed alongside the film
• Don Juan (1926): used discs for music
• The Jazz Singer (1927): synchronised
performances of songs and dialogue
• Non-diegetic music: practice established by Max
Steiner in Symphony of Six Million (1932) and
King Kong (1931)
14. 1930s
• A composer and MD would be assigned to a film
after it had been shot
• They would ‘spot’ the film by watching the
‘rushes’ to gauge appropriate moments for music
• A click track would be used to synchronise screen
action with music
• Both Max Steiner and Korngold used the
‘leitmotif’ to associate a theme with a character
on screen
15. 1940s and 1950s
• Bernard Herrmann: Citizen Kane (1940) and
Vertigo (1958)
• Jazz in film scores: Alex North’s music for A
Streetcar Named Desire
• Epic films: Miklos Rozsa’s music for Quo Vadis
(1951) and Ben Hur (1959)
• Leonard Rosenman: modernist score for East
of Eden (1955)
16. 1960s and 1970s
• Psycho (1960): Herrman created a string
ensemble to heighten the tension
• Emergence of Morricone
• Jerry Goldsmith: more lean and sparse scores
(e.g. for Chinatown)
• Use of existing music in film: such as Mahler in
Visconti’s Death in Venice and Strauss and Berio
in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
• Pop music by Michel Legrand in Thomas Crown
Affair (1968)
17. 1980s onwards
• Emergence of ‘cross-licensing’: films like Pretty in Pink
and Breakfast Club and St Elmo’s Fire contained tracks
from artists contracted to the sister companies of the
film producer (A&M Records)
• Emergence of compiled scores and music supervisor
• Emergence of electronic music in films (initially
involving composers such as Maurice Jarre and Gerry
Goldsmith)
• Director-composer collaborations – e.g. Nyman and
Greenaway or Knieper and Wenders (Wings of Desire,
1987)
18. Sources
• Buhler, James. 2000. Music and
Cinema. Wesleyan UP
•
• Cook, Nicholas. 1998. Analysing
Musical Multimedia. Oxford: OUP
Eisenstein, Sergei. 1986. The Film •
Sense. London: Faber
• Eisler, Hans and Theodor Adorno.
1995. Composing for the Films.
•
London: Athlone
• Gorbman, Claudia. 1987. Unheard
Melodies. Indiana: Indiana UP
•
• Kalinak, Kathryn. 1992. Settling the
Score. University of Wisconsin
Press Morgan, David. 2000.
Knowing The Score. New York.
Mera, Miguel and David Burnand.
2006. European Film Music.
Ashgate
Prendergast, Roy. 1977. Film
Music: A Neglected Art. New York:
Norton
Reay, Pauline. 2004. Music in film :
soundtracks and synergy. London:
Wallflower Press
Schelle, Michael. 1977. The Score:
Interviews with Film Composers.
Los Angeles
