this article examines the way
music is used in film, not just to create a ‘mood’ or ‘atmosphere’ for the
viewer, but how it evokes our emotional responses to certain images and how
those images are teamed with pop music and/or scores to enhance the viewers
enjoyment of the film. Points being reviewed are that of Claudia Gorbman, Simon
Frith, Max Steiner, James Buhler and Andrea Truppin. The role of ‘mood music’ and
how film music is used will be investigated in two example films Fernando
Meirelles’ City of God (2002) and Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas (1990). This essay will show
how film music can be used in many ways other than to just set the ‘mood’ or
atmosphere of a film, showing synchronous and non-synchronous music,
counterpoint and parallel concepts and continuity and sound bridge editing.
Gorbman provides us with evidence in her
work to show how ‘Mood music’ refers to music used in a film to evoke the viewer’s
emotions. ‘Mood music’ is not immediately noticeable, it is in the background
and can either assist or completely contradict the images seen onscreen. Frith
states that
The point
[...] is to stress that music is as essential to the perceived ‘truth’ of a
film as everything else, but the reality music describes/refers to is a
different sort of reality than that described/referred to by visual images.
Film composers themselves often take their cue on this from Wagner, who argued
that the purpose of music was ‘to amplify what can’t be shown’-and what can’t
be shown is regularly called ‘atmosphere’ or ‘mood’. Broadly speaking, two
strands of reality seem to be involved here.
(Frith, 1984, pg 83)
The two strands of reality that frith describes are the emotional
reality and the reality of time and space. Emotional reality is the idea that
music can show the emotional significance of the images seen onscreen and also
evokes the viewer to feel the emotions the character feels. Frith describes how
it shows us what is ‘underneath' or ‘behind’ a films discernable actions. For example,
in City of God (2002) after robbing
the hotel the character Shaggy runs to find sanctuary and he arrives at a door
in the slums. An older woman answers the door and as he tells her why he is running
he sees the woman’s daughter, who stands behind and lights a candle. He sees
her stood in candlelight, as he pauses we hear romantic sounding harp music and
he is fixated on her, until the mother says his name and she regains his
attention as he snaps back into reality. Alternatively in Goodfellas (1990) the ‘mood music’ that is used is a pop song and
as we see the images of a young child walking towards a pink car the camera
pans over the bonnet and round to the side window where we can see a couple
that have been murdered and left in their car. The shots then change to
multiple images of dead gang members that have been killed off for example, in
the bin truck and in the back of a meat van. This ‘mood music’, adds a hint of
sadness to the scenes of the executed gang members. The music still carries
over into shots of Henry and Jimmy laughing until Jimmy goes to the phone box
outside the music stops at this point and then Jimmy finds out the Tommy has
been murdered also. The music in City of
God shows the emotions and love that Shaggy felt for that moment until he
realised what trouble he was in, whereas in Goodfellas
it shows the emotional feeling of everyone involved, over various shots of the
murdered gang members. ‘Mood music’ can be used to evoke any emotion in film.
The role of film music extends beyond ‘mood’
status synchronisation of music and image is important to create a coherent
story world. The synchronisation of sound and image in film has been an
important practice since early sound film and it has been stated that
‘synchronisation is important to a perception of dialogue and sound effects as
‘spatially anchored’ to the diegesis.’ (Buhler in Donnelly, 2001, pg 45). The
synchronisation of dialogue, sound effect and music in film is essential to add
depth to the story world. Buhler states that
Yet what is
called the ‘synchronisation’ theory of film music holds that even such
non-diegetic music should, as Max Steiner put it, ‘[Fit] a picture like a
glove’ (Steiner, 1940). By this Steiner means music should take its impetus
wholly from the narrative: it should not stray from the images but reinforce
them.
(Buhler in Donnelly, pg 45)
This technique of matching image with sound has been named as the
‘Mickey-Mousing’ technique, as in film actions are matched with sound, just as
they are in cartoons. Sometimes the music acts as an ambiguous guide giving the
viewer clarity of the events and the narrative. In City of God synchronous sound is used and in the first scene we
hear the sound of a knife being sharpened then we hear a hard samba beat start
and as the image cut between shots of the drummers hands and the chickens that
are ready to be slaughtered, the music volume changes between shots, the music
is louder when we see the images of the drummer, and quieter when we view other
images. One of the chickens escape and the music stops for a few seconds and
the gang chase the chicken. As the chase commenced the music started again and
the fast paced samba beat is perfectly synchronised with the images of the
chase and the samba music teamed with fast paced images gives the viewer a
feeling of adrenaline so we feel what the chicken and the gang members feel. In
Goodfellas when Henry and Karen go on
their second date to the Copacabana club we once again hear pop music as they
walk down the steps and through the back corridors of the club, through the
kitchen and into the main room of the club. The viewer feels the rush in
movement and the excitement that Karen feels as she is moved through a world
she is not used to. We are encouraged to feel this way due to the way the music
is synchronised with the image, perfectly synchronised. Non-synchronous image
and music can also be detected in both films.
In Goodfellas we see a repeat of the first scene but this time there
is no music to accompany the images and link the two scenes, whereas in City of God the samba music that we hear
at the start we also hear again when the images are shown for a second time.
The music connects the two scenes for us, guiding us to use our memory of the
first scene. In the second viewing the music is sped up as the images are sped
up. The viewer witnesses the first scene at a faster pace and the music is
slightly distorted and non-synchronous and is adapted to fit the images. Goodfellas
also shows us a scene that is intentionally distorted and non-synchronous. An image of Tommy shooting a gun, from the
scene in which he shoots Stacks –another gang member, is slowed down and the
viewer sees Tommy in slow motion but the music stays at the same speed. Goodfellas
uses this approach to make the viewer feel like it’s a memory, a dream state,
whereas The City of God uses this
technique to remind us of an earlier scene.
Synchronisation is used in every film but
there is also an opposing technical theory, counterpoint. Using counterpoint
provides the viewer with an alternative feeling such as, hearing happy playful
music over violent scenes. Gorbman states that narrative and music
relationships seem to be limited largely by parallelism and counterpoint
concepts. Parallelism ‘’imitates’’ the images whereas counterpoint completely
or slightly ‘’contradicts’’ the images giving a different ‘mood’ or atmosphere
to that of the images seen. For example,
Siegfried
Kracaucer [...] writes that counterpoint occurs when music and picture convey
‘’different meanings’’ that meet in a montage effect: ‘’imagine the close-up of
a sleeping face which appears to the rhythms of nightmarish music: it is all
but inevitable that the intriguing discrepancy between these sounds and so
peaceful a picture should puzzle us’’.
(Gorbman, 1987, pg 15)
Kracauer shows us in his examples how the viewer defines what is going
on in the film by the images we see and the music we hear. An example of
counterpoint from City of God would
be the various shots showing Shaggy running from the police. The viewer hears
sad slow doomy music as we see Shaggy running through the city to catch up with
the car his girlfriend is in whilst he is being shot at by the police chasing
after him. There is no fast paced music here to show Shaggy’s running pace and
adrenaline rush like you would expect. Instead the music is of sadness and fear
rather than adrenaline. There is also evidence of the parallel concept such as,
when Shorty buries his wife alive under the flooring in his house; the slow
doomy sad music we hear guides the audience into feeling sorry for him but also
making us aware of the violent situation at hand. There is a point in City of God when a piece of music
starts out as counterpoint and becomes parallel to the images. As Shaggy states
his love for his girlfriend a slow doomy drum beat is heard, then maracas and
then faster paced music as they kiss, the scene cuts to a montage of shots
showing the police busting houses in the city and Rockets voice-over is layered
over the music and guides us by explaining the images we see.
The sound bridge
used here cleverly transforms from doomy drum music over a romantic moment to
doomy music over violent and fast paced images, so here we go from one mixed
emotion to an obvious one. In Goodfellas an
example of counterpoint would be the scene in which Henry speaks about burning
down the restaurant. The viewer hears an upbeat, fun comedic song as they
prepare to burn the restaurant down in which the pair also argue over a date
that Tommy has set him up on. Parallel film music in Goodfellas is used as an off screen as we see Henry and Karen at
the leisure club having a drink then the image cuts to the Copacabana where
Henry is with his mistress and the singer is singing Roses are Red which is the
same song we had heard in the earlier scene. Both films use counterpoint and
parallel film music in their narrative plots. Any music can be applied to a
scene and it will have some effect, but it is the type of music and even the
lyrics that can obtain the best emotional response from the viewer Gorbman
states that ‘’any music will do (something), but the temporal coincidence of
music and scene creates different effects according to the dynamics and
structure of the music.’’ (Gorbman, 1987, pg 16) the music has to fit the image
or the story so that we can make sense of the actions we see.
Music can also be
used to give a feel of continuity. The music is coupled with the editing
technique so that there are no gaps in the shots. Without music we are more
likely to notice the shots changing but music helps the image flow into one
another and disguises the breaks. Without the film music ‘’the images seem
prosaic, mundane, even lifeless: with music however, the world of film comes
alive.’’ (Cohen, 2000, pg 361). The music pulls the viewer in and makes them
feel part of the action. Sound bridges are often used to connect shots by
bleeding music into the shots, either we hear the music before we see the next
shot or we see the next shot before we hear the music. Andrea Truppin explains
that
In addition
to the manipulation of spatial signature, parallel sound is produced by sound
bridges that join heterogeneous worlds, subverting our expectations of
conventional depictions of reality that the films initially seem to follow
[...] in some sound bridges, spatial signature at first seems to coincide with
the suggested space, but is then revealed to contradict both the first part of
the shot and the established spatial signature. (Truppin in Altman, 1992, pg
244-245)
Sound bridges are used in both the example films, in Goodfellas this technique is used often
and the music aids the process. Not only does the music sound over the image
but the music changes throughout this sequence. The gangsters kidnap the
postman and this is numerous shots of watching him, finding him and taking him.
The screen pauses as Henry’s voice-over speaks then the shot changes to Henry
going to Paulie's to run errands and the music changes again. Then it cuts to
Henry blowing up the cars and then to him at his mother’s where we then hear
Italian music being played. All these shots show what Henry did over the years
giving us some sort of time and spatial awareness. In City of God when the ‘Tender Trio’ and Lil Dice rob the hotel, the
music does not start until they head to the rooms to rob the guests, again
connecting image to image and stopping when Lil Dice shoots the window. Another
example would be the scene in which Angelica puts on a record then the shot
slides over to Lil Ze (Previously called Lil Dice as a child) in his flat
getting ready to go out. You can hear music very faintly from the last scene
but when Lil Ze leaves his flat and walks down the back alley the music gets
louder for the viewer and the viewer is aware that they are getting closer to
the music source, Bene’s party. In Goodfellas
as previously mentioned we hear the singer singing Roses are Red before we
see him performing in the club. At first we think the music is sourced from the
daytime leisure club until we cut to the next scene in the club, now late
evening. the structure of film music is played with during editing so that the
right music is chosen for the action taking place, giving the film the depth
needed for the viewer to successfully understand the coherence of the story
world.
Gorbman has established that ‘mood music’
extends beyond just ‘mood’ or ‘incidental’ music. Counterpoint can also provoke a mood that is
opposite to that shown in the images. Editing would not be complete without the
non-diegetic music that is layered over the shots. Both synchronous and
non-synchronous music have an effect on the way we see and interpret the images
and this helps us view a coherent story-world for us to follow. Sound bridges
help guide the viewer into the next scene and the sound bridge can sometimes foreshadow
an event that is just a few minutes away in film time but could be hours away
in the story. This helps create and provide the viewer with a time and space
awareness so that we can see for example in one shot it may be day and in the
next, night. The film music helps guide us through the plot and unravel the
story by experiencing the emotions of the characters.
Bibliography
Altman, R., (1992) Sound Theory,
Sound Practice. (Ed) London: Routledge.
Bordwell, D and Thompson, K., (2004) Film Art: An Introduction, (7th Ed). USA: McGraw-Hill.
Buhler, J., Flinn, C., Neumeyer, D., (2000) Music and Cinema, USA: Wesleyan
University Press.
Donnelly, K J., (2001) Film Music: Critical Approaches (Ed), Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press.
Frith, S., (1984), 'Mood music: An inquiry
into narrative film music', Screen,
Vol.25, 3, Oxford
University Press, pg.78-87.
Gorbman, C., (1980), 'Narrative
Film Music', Yale French Studies, Vol.60,
Yale University
Press, pg.183-203.
Gorbman, C., (1987) Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music, London: BFI.
Filmography
City
of God (2002) Fernando Meirelles [FILM] Brazil: O2 Filmes.
Goodfellas (1990) Martin
Scorsese [FILM] USA: Warner Bros pictures.
By Lea Weller
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