film score music essay

Film Score Music
To say that music plays a large role in our
society would not do
justice to one of the most important and popular art forms of
yesterday and
today. We underestimate the effectiveness and power that music,
in any form ,
can have over even the most insensitive of people. In almost
everything we do
and see music is involved in some form or another. Be it a piece
played at a
wedding, a song played on the radio or even the music played in
the background
in a television commercial. The music is always there, reminding
us of past
experiences, making us smile and feel exhilaration and sometimes
even making us
cry. It is this power that music has over us that film score
composers take
advantage of when they are writing the music to accompany the
movies. As
listeners we often do not appreciate that the music that is
scored for films or
played in films is put there on purpose to create a certain
feeling, emphasize a
point, give more life to a character or sometimes to simply add
humour. What
the average moviegoer does not usually realize is that a great
deal of time and
thought goes into writing the score for a film and choosing the
background music

for a scene. None of the music is arbitrary; themes and sub
themes have been
created with specific ideas in mind and have been put in place
only to add to
the story and the characters. It is also important to
acknowledge that the
evolution into the type of film scoring that we are accustomed to
today was not
a quick or easy transition. It has taken almost a century to
develop the
specific techniques that are used in todays films. When the
first moving
pictures were seen they were known as silent films, although they
were not
actually silent. They contained a very primitive type of musical
accompaniment
that laid the foundation for what was to later develop. As time
passed the type
of music found in films developed into a fine art containing
specific
guidelines and techniques that most composers tend to follow.
The average
person does not usually pay astute attention to the music that is
being used in
a film, however, if it were to not be there the films would seem
empty and as if
something was missing. The actors, the writing and the direction
is what is
primarily noticed in a film but the music is the inconspicuous
supporter of all

of these elements. To create a film that will be effective it is
essential that
the film have a thoughtful score, and, as the audience, it is our
duty to
acknowledge the music in order to fully understand all that is
being displayed
to us in the film.
To realize fully the foundation of what we now
recognize as an
effective film score it is important to examine the music behind
a silent film.
No film was actually ever completely silent. There may not have
been a
soundtrack that we are accustomed to, however, the music was
always essential to
a movie, no matter how primitive it may be. In the earliest days
of film the
music was played on a phonograph. This was around the time of
Edison. The
phonograph was an invention that did not last long in the world
of film. The
next step was the use of a vitaphone, which also did not play a
lasting role in
the movie industry. The next step was not the use of a recorded
soundtrack but
rather it was the use of live musicians. The live music came
about as the
movies were becoming a little more common. The films began to be
played
commercially in Vaudeville houses, cafes, and music halls where

musicians were
already hired to play in the musical concerts that evening.
Because the
musicians were already there they were asked if they would play
along with the
film. In the Vaudeville houses there was no specific place for
them to sit so
they sat seated at the front , in front of the screen. Even
after theatres were
built to show the moving pictures a space was created at the
front where the
musicians were to sit. Because the musicians were inexperienced
with
accompanying films they played what they liked or what they knew.
This made it
uncommon that the music actually fit with the action on the
screen. The
musicians paid little attention to the film and played
arbitrarily. This meant
that often a serious or dramatic scene would be occurring on the
screen wile the
musician played something comical or something that belonged to a
scene with a
car chase. Sound-effects men were soon added to the sounds
behind a film. This
would be a man that created noises, erg. train whistles and
bells, fire engine
bells, gun shots, explosions, cannon fire, etc. in order to add
realism to the
film. This made movie-going more popular which in turn bettered

the standard of
movie-making. It was at this point that the musicians hired to
accompany the
films began to take the music more seriously. Set standards were
created but
the musicians job was to make sure that these standards did not
become
monotonous. They also began the use of simple motif that would
introduce a
character or foreshadow an event. The motifs are the elements of
the music that
are extremely important in shaping the characters and the theme
of the film. It
was the use of these motifs that made the music much more
sophisticated and
people began to take the films more seriously. The idea of
motifs did not
disintegrate but rather became an important technique in the
scoring of films in
the years to come. By this time the music was ceasing to be
merely and extra
job for Vaudeville musicians and had actually become an art that
needed and was
given thought. The house musician, which later became a small
ensemble and
sometimes even a large orchestra, was a valued addition to the
movie industry
and they could be found in hundreds of movie houses across
America. It was from
this point on that films were to always be accompanied by some

sort of music.
The house musician remained in movie houses for many years,
however they
eventually disappeared to make way for the recorded film score,
known as a “
talkie” or “canned music”.
The 1930's was the time that saw the rise of the
symphonic film
score. This was the time in which many great composers began to
write the
scores for films. The scores were not simple little symphonies
or pieces but
rather enormous projects that took a great deal of time and
thought. It was
also in this era that the click track was developed. This was a
technique first
used in the scoring of cartoons, however as the scoring for life
action movies
became more complex the click track became vital to the
preciseness of the score.
A click track works to synchronize the music with the action of
the film with
the use of mathematics. The exposure of films is measured in
frames and there
are 24 frames a second, 1440 frames a minute. Holes are punched
into the film
to click at any given metronome beat. The composer measures this
beat by
dividing the figure, 1440, by whatever metronome speed that he
wants and the

resulting figure is the frame click beat. For example, if the
composer want the
metronome beat to be at 144, than he divides the figure 1440 by
144 and the
resulting figure is 10. This means that the holes punched in the
film should
click every 10 frames. The studio musicians would wear headsets
through which
they would hear a constant clicking sound, thus keeping them
precisely with the
score.
The major film score composers of this time were
actually European,
arriving in Hollywood to compose great works for film. The
European influence
gave the films scores that many of the elements found in the
romantic style of
the Viennese opera, eg. large orchestras, complex parts, lush
harmonies,
doubling of parts and full string parts, as well a influence from
many European
composers, for example, Richard Strauss. The composers that sat
at the
forefront of film scoring at this time were Max Steiner, Erich
Wolfgang
Korngold and Bertrand Hermann. These men wrote the scores for
many of the
famous films that came out of that era, eg. The Informer, Since
You Went Away,
King Kong, Casablanca, and Gone With The Wind (Max Steiner), The

Prince and the
Pauper, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Private Lives of
Elizabeth and Essex,
and A Midsummer's Nights Dream (Erich Wolfgang Korngold), and by
Bertrand
Hermann the infamous Citizen Kane. The films required a great
use of leitmotifs,
themes, and sub themes. It was these characteristics that gave
the music such
importance and helped make these films of the thirties become the
memorable
classics that they are. Some examples of the effective use of
themes and sub
themes can be found in the scores of Max Steiner's The Informer,
Since You Went
Away, and Gone With The Wind. Each of the scores that accompany
these films
have an enormous orchestration and key motifs as well as a blend
of different
types of music that creates a particular feeling or accentuates a
point. The
Informer is a film set in Ireland and tells the story of Gypo
Nolan who is the
tragic main character who is ultimately gunned down in the
street. The motifs
used in this film are of this tragic genre with Irish folk
melodies intertwined
with many of the main themes. One of the most effective uses of
symbolism in
the music of this film is found at the end when Gypo finally

meets his death.
After he is shot he makes his way to a small church nearby with
the sound of
heavy brass chords imitating his every plodding step. When he
reaches the
inside of the church he collapses only to see a nun who he thinks
in the Virgin
Mary. At the this point his face moves from darkness into the
light and a soft
hymn, “Sancta Maria”, written by Steiner himself emerges as the
more dominant of
the musical sounds. This whole scene symbolizes the passing of
Gypo into heaven
and the final acceptance of his soul by God. It would lose all
effectiveness if
the music was not as dominant as it is.
The film, Since You Went Away, has many similar
elements in the music
that make us feel and understand the feelings of the characters.
This film
contains a scene in which a young woman, Jennifer Jones, races
along the railway
platform alongside the train that is carrying her true love off
to war. Steiner
chose to use elements from familiar songs, “I'll Be Home For
Christmas”, and
Irving Berlin's “Together”, intertwined with a military sounding
symphony part
to exemplify to us the thoughts that were racing through the
minds of these two

character as they left each other , not knowing if it was to be
for the last
time. The effect that this music had on those who saw the film
was
unforgettable as Steiner portrayed emotions so poignantly through
his
orchestration.
Probably the most memorable film score to arise
out of the
1930's was the music to the epic Gone With the Wind. This film
begins with
many different themes being introduced, the most famous of which
is the theme
for Tara, intertwined with the strains of the Old South. Steiner
worked closely
with the producer David O. Selznick when he was writing the score
for this film,
however little of what Selznick asked for in the score actually
appeared in the
final movie. Selznick encouraged Steiner to use little original
score but
rather use prerecorded classical music with some Old South tunes
mixed in;
Steiner disagreed with his ideas. This was and is a common
occurrence with the
producers and the composers of movies, they rarely agree on the
same ideas for
how the movie will be scored. The producer wants to put his
ideas forth but
really, as producers, they are not adequately qualified and the

composers just
want to be left alone to do their what they were hired to do as
effectively as
they can. This disagreement during the scoring of Gone With The
Wind became so
intense that Selznick actually hired an additional composer to
write another
score in case he did not approve if what Steiner had written. In
the end
Steiner's extraordinary composing ability prevailed and it is his
fantastic
score that appears in this epic drama. In this score Steiner
manages to create
seven themes for the important elements of this film: Scarlett
O'Hara, Rhett
Butler, Melanie, a love theme for Melanie and Ashley, another
love theme for
Scarlett and Ashley, Scarlett's father (Gerald O'Hara), and
finally a theme for
Tara. The theme for Tara is the most effective because this old
plantation and
it's collapse in essence symbolizes the collapse of the Old South
after the
Civil War. This theme recurs throughout the film each time is is
modified
slightly to show to the audience the undying strength and
endurance of the proud
tradition of the Old South in the minds of the Southerners, even
if it's
foundation had crumbled. The music of this film is extremely

effective and
important even if we do not always notice that it is there. From
the beginning
of the film until more than twenty minutes into the picture the
music does not
stop. We often do not notice the music when it is there,
however, we would
surely notice it if were to be gone.
To construct an effective film score there are no
real rules but
rather a patterned set of guidelines that have become tradition
over time.
Certain types of musical themes have been used time and time
again to create the
style, mood or feeling of the film. For example, the type of
music that would
be used in a Western, or a Suspense-Drama or a Love Story varies
very little
from picture to picture. A theme found in a Love Story will not
always be the
same as the one before it, however, it will have the same style
or feeling to it
that creates the emotion of love in our minds. These ideas are
often modified
because of the intensity or seriousness of the film, however,
they are
essentially similar. The key to a memorable score is the
creation of an
effective main theme with equally effective sub themes. This
main theme should

be the connecting link between scenes but should not be over used
as not to
saturate the audience with it's melody so they become bored and
annoyed with it.
The introduction of the main theme followed by lesser sub theme
that are
juxtaposed and varied enough to teas the audience until it
reaches a climactic
final statement of the theme in it's entirety. The use of
leitmotifs to
represent characters and the intertwining of one character's
theme with another
is instrumental in telling the story of the film and giving a
full portrait of
the character and their relationship with others. It is also
important to
realize that different instruments and different colours of music
are used to
create a certain feeling. There are certain sounds that we are
used to hearing
that are effective in adding to the mood or feeling of the film.
Nothing in the
creation of a film score is arbitrary all of the music that we
hear has been
composed specifically to accentuate or punctuate what the main
idea that the
writing, acting and directing of the film is trying to show to
us.
Another aspect of the soundtrack to a film that is
not randomly

chosen is the use of source music and the unoriginal score.
Source music is
the music that can be heard coming from a radio, a dance club
band , a marching
band, etc. The music that is chosen to be played in these scenes
is put there
to accentuate the point of the scene, to add humour or even to
make the scene
seem ironic. This source music can also be used to foreshadow
upcoming events
and prepare us for the next scene. The unoriginal score is music
that has been
written by somebody else but has been placed in the scene to add
effect. The
music can be a part of the scene as in the scene with Tom Hanks
explaining the
story of La Mamma Morta to Denzel Washington in Philadelphia.
The music in this
scene has been added to create depth in Tom Hank's character and
to create a new
special bond between the two men. The other way that the
unoriginal score can
be used effectively is if the music is not actually in the scene
but is still
playing in the background as if it were in the minds of the
characters in the
scene. An example of this can be found in the film True Romance
where Dennis
Hopper's character is speaking to Chrisopher Walken and we know
that Dennis

Hopper's characters going to die. The music that is being played
in the
background of this scene is a faint opera, that adds peace to a
scene that
should not feel peaceful. The beauty of the music adds a certain
grace to the
scene and gives it more character.
To listen to the score of a film is to appreciate
fully exactly
what the film makers were trying to point out to us. The acting
and directing
and the writing are the element that primarily we remember,
however,
subconsciously we remember more that we give ourselves credit
for. A movie can
be seen once and already the themes are ingrained in our minds
and if we were to
hear them elsewhere we could identify them. Many themes of films
today are so
memorable that we can often sing them on cue, for example, the
themes to The
Godfather, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Jaws, Jurassic Park, etc.
Each of these
films has a theme that we remember even if we do not make a
conscious decision
to do so. It is far to often that the power of music is
underestimated and not
enough credit is given to the thought that was put into creating
an effective
film score. As an audience it is our duty, not necessarily to

always enjoy, but
to at least appreciate all elements of the film making process.
The scoring of
the film has always been a cornerstone to the success of the
film, no matter how
primitive the music may be.
Bibliography
Bazelon, Irwin. Knowing the Score. Van Nostrand Reinhold Co, New
York.
Hoffman, Charles. Sounds for Silence. DBS Publications, New
York.
Kalinak, Kathryn. Settling the Score. The University of
Wisconsin Press, U.S.A.
Manrell, Roger and John Huntley. The Technique of Film Music.
Focal Press, New
York.
McCarty, Clifford. Film Music. Garland Publishing Inc., New
York.