BANDA SONORA

Sound Track and Music for Audiovisual Media

Manuel Garín i Júlia Vilasís

Tercer trimestre l Tercer curs

 0. GALLOP / RITORNELLO

INTRODUCCIÓN

Visionado Fantasía en colores (1949).

Nos está pidiendo que bailemos en clase. Ojalá haber hecho esto presencialmente.

Cuál es la diferencia entre música (per se) y música para las imágenes.

Deleuze utilizó y explicó la relación con dos conceptos: gallop y ritornello.

DELEUZE – TIME/MOVEMENT ARTICULATIONS OF FILM MUSIC

¿Qué significa hacer música para imágenes?

Fantasía en colores es un ejemplo extremo de convertir la música en imágenes. Lo llamaron

“música pintada”. Es el punto cero de una posible relación entre música e imagen.

Mayormente, lo que hace la música en el medio audiovisual es interactuar con CUERPOS, con
personas.

Medium specificity: ¿qué es aquello realmente propio y diferencial de la música para el

audiovisual? ¿En qué se diferencia, por ejemplo, a la música ESCUCHADA (radio) o a la música
LEIDA (en literatura)?

Especificidad del medio en la MÚSICA LEÍDA:

En busca del tiempo perdido (IV. Sodoma y Gomorra). “I went upstairs to my room, but I
was not alone there. I could hear someone mellifluously playing Schumann. No doubt it
happens at times that people, even those whom we love best, become permeated with
the gloom or irritation that emanates from us. There is however an inanimate object
which is capable of a power of exasperation to which no human being will ever attain: a
piano”

Incluso en la literatura, la música puede ser un detonante de los sentimientos humanos. Los
griegos lo llamaron “fármacon” (comprobar que se escribe así): propiedad terapéutica de la
música. ¿Cuántas veces nos hemos puesto una música para vivir un momento?

Fragmento de Elena et les hommes (Jean Renoir, 1956). El compositor es JOSEPH KOSMA. En la
escena, dos tipos de música que coinciden en un mismo espacio y al mismo tiempo. La música
que desata su cuerpo es la de fuera (Qu’elle est la belle musique?).

Music: a net around the visual signifier. La idea de la música como una red que se lanza alrededor
del personaje.

“A unique ability to control and limit the significance of the image […] Claudia Gorbman explains
how music throws a net around the floating visual signifier […] Noël Carroll stresses its modifying
role” [KATHRYN KALINAK [2010] FILM MUSIC : VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION]

Nos ha puesto un audio: imaginar cómo nos movemos, cómo es el ritmo, qué animal
asociamos a él. Contraponer dos audios, en estos apuntes les llamaremos AUDIO 1 y AUDIO 2.
La música para las imágenes tiene que ver con la danza del movimiento (hay un libro de esto
pero no he pillado cuál es). La idea del movimiento de las imágenes ya estaba en, por ejemplo,
el cine mudo.

AUDIO 1: el ritmo es lineal, va hacia alguna dirección. Pensamos en un caballo, un ratón, algo
que se mueve muy rápido hacia una dirección.

AUDIO 2: el ritmo aquí, en cambio, hace oscilar el cuerpo. Da una sensación más cíclica o circular,
de que se va a caer. Pensamos en un pájaro dibujando un círculo en el cielo, un elefante
(movimiento pesado), una serpiente (ondea), etc.

El Audio 1 es The Devil’s galop, de Charles Williams, pieza hecha para una serie radiofónica sobre
un espía. El GALOP es un baile tradicional, tiene un sentido del movimiento muy claro, muy
lineal.

El Audio 2 es Bolero de Maurice Ravel. La energía es completamente contraria en esta, parece

volver al inicio. Es más un loop.

GALLOP AND RITORNELLO

A TWO-SIDED CRYSTAL OF TIME → Espacio y tiempo en las imágenes en movimiento.

“The crystal-image is as much a matter of sound as it is optical, and Félix Guattari was right to
define the crystal of time as being a ritornello par excellence. Or, perhaps, the melodic ritornello
is only a musical component which contrasts and is mixed with another, rhythmic component:
the gallop. The horse and the bird would be two great figures, one of which carries away and
speeds up the other, but the other of which is reborn from itself up to the final destruction or
extinction (in many dances, an accelerated gallop comes as the conclusion of figures of rounds)”
[Gilles Deleuze, The Time Image, Chapter 4, p. 90]

(Un pájaro, realmente, no va a ninguna parte, solo crea la sensación de tiempo en el cielo).

One carries away and speeds / the other is reborn from itself

TWO PURE AND SELF-SUFFICIENT ENERGIES →

“Now, if we consider the problem of a specificity of cinema music, it seems to us that this
specificity cannot simply be defined by a dialectic of the sound and the optical which would enter
into a new synthesis (Eisenstein, Adorno). Cinema music, through itself, tends towards releasing
the ritornello and the gallop as two pure and selfsufficient elements, while many other
components necessarily intervene in music in general […] This is already true in the Western,
where the little melodic phrase comes as the interruption of galloping rhythms (Blowing Wild by
Zinnemann and Tiomkin); it is even more obvious in musical comedy, where the rhythmic
stepping and walking, which is sometimes military even for the girls, come up against the melodic
song” [Gilles Deleuze, The Time Image, Chapter 4, p. 93]

Fragmento de Las Aventuras de Tintín (Spielberg, 2011). El compositor es John Williams.

HASTENING of the PRESENTS → “The gallop and the ritornello are what we hear in the crystal,
as the two dimensions of musical time, the one being the hastening of the presents which are
passing, the other the raising or falling back of pasts which are preserved” [Gilles Deleuze, The
Time Image, Chapter 4, p. 93] → FALLING of PRESERVED PASTS
Fragmento de The Turin Horse (Béla Tarr, 2011). A trabajado con el compositor, MIHALY VIG,
durante décadas, y le pide q la componga antes de rodar la película. Tenemos un caballo, imagen
del GALOP, en una pieza de RITORNELLO. Algo q está muriendo, pero q a la vez siempre está
volviendo a la vida.

OFF-SCREEN Life in an APOCALYPTIC Loop →

“Vig’s music, even when he highlights the manifestly synthetic nature of a particular piece,
always displays a realism of its own, an organic quality : the accentuated wheeze of a saxophone,
the scrape of a bowed string reminds us that these are real instruments that we’re hearing, and
sometimes suggests that they’re being played by human beings who might well be on the edge
of physical or emotional collapse” [“Music That Plays in The Dark”, J. Romney Sight and Sound,
p.57]

THE FORCE OF LIFE / THE POWER OF DEATH → ¿es el GALLOP siempre el reflejo de la vida y el
RITORNELLO el de la muerte?

“In Ophüls, the two elements fuse in the identification of the round with the gallop, while in
Renoir and Fellini they are distinct, one of them taking on to itself the force of life, the other the
power of death. But, for Renoir, the force of life is on the side of the presents which are launched
towards the future, on the side of the gallop, whether this is that of the French cancan or the
Marsellaise, whilst the ritornello has the melancholy of that which is already falling back into the
past. For Fellini, it seems to be the opposite: the gallop accompanies the world which runs to its
end, the earthquake, the incredible entropy, the hearse, but the ritornello immortalizes a
beginning of world and removes it from passing time. Again things are never that simple, and
there is something inscribable in the distinction of ritornellos from gallops”

Diferencia y comparación entre Renoir y Fellini.

Fragmento de Le notti di Cabiria (Fellini, 1957). Música de NINO ROTA.

 1. MUSIC/IMAGE – TRAITS AND VOCABULARY

Today’s session is focused on musical components: rhythm, melody, harmony and timbre.

These are four key variables, and we will explore how they change when moving images is
involved.

According to Alejandro Montiel, cinema is not a medium but a heterogeneous language. Its
formal variables are: photographic images, graphic traces, spoken language, music and noise
and sound effects.

What are the components of soundtrack. They are not only music, not only a score, they are
sound too. M. Fano (for the Nouvelle Vague) puts at the same level music and noise/sound.

(Songs, score and sound effects)

THE 4 MUSICAL COMPONENTS

Aaron Copland defines them as a net.

1. RHYTHM
“Liaisons between certain formal patterns with rhythmic ones and the natural
connections of bodily movements with basic rhythms, prove that rhythm is the first and
foremost of musical elements”.

2. MELODY
Capable of creating an intellectual emotion. “We can’t even say for sure what a good
melody is to start with”.

3. HARMONY
The relation between different sounds in simultaneity. It’s the study of chords
(production of simultaneous sounds, acords) and its mutual relations.

4. TIMBRE.
“Timbre in music is close to color in painting”. It is what gives the specificity (of genre,
of context, etc.)

So, what is the difference between, let’s say, concert music and music for films? What happens
to musical components when they merge with moving images?

My neighbor Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki, 1988). Composer: Joe Hisaishi. The scene first starts with
sound design, and then orchestral music starts. Mickeymousing: (musical imitation of
movement in cinema) strong, synchronic connection between music and body movement. This
is basically rhythm and timbre. When “little Totoro” appears for the first time, melody starts
with Totoro’s motive.
The mickeymousing is well-attached to Carl W. Stalling.

Psycho (A. Hitchcock, 1960). Composer: Bernard Herrman. The tension in the scene is created,
essentially, through timbre. The music is telling you not only something is going to happen
(suspense), but also the violence. It is very insisting, very penetrating. Starts raining. Voice itself
is like music in the scene. The windshield is marking the tempo. Here, music has synchronic with
image, soundscape and specifically, the rhythmic movement of the windshield.

SYNC-POINTS SYNCHRESIS

Mental fusion between a sound and a vision when they happen at the same time. Synchresis is
an acronym formed by telescoping together “synchronism” and “synthesis”. (Michel Chion).

From absolute sync to counterpoint (anti-sync) visual-sound.

(Abolute sync would be mickeymousing).

Chungking Express (Wong Kar-Wai, 1994). Composer: Michael Galasso. Very loopy. Extremely
simple motive. If we focus on the cinematography, music is creating this slight moments of
melody, but also the texture in the image. As simple as this music is, it is very complex in the
way it connects with the aesthetic of the film. It gives a structure and a sense of purpose to the
images.

RHYTHM

Speed/Pacing and structure. Can rhythm actually interpret/blend/modify the space/time of the
images?

Speed → Two videogames: Supermario Bros and Fez

Fez’s creator always quotes SuperMario Bros. It’s like an indie version of Mario, it allows
you to “stop and smell the grass”. What atmosphere do we want for our images?

Structure → Regular Time Signatures: rhythms that can be divided into equal parts: duple
meter, triple meter, etc. (undostresquatre, undostresquatre, …) the basis of the rhythm is
constant.

A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971). Composer: Edward Elgar. The shots
transmit perfectly simetrical spaces and orders: the power of a structure, a steady and
constant order

Street of cocodriles (Quay Brothers, 1986). Composer: Lech Jankowski. Lack of structure
at the beginning. Unique example of an experimental approach. Filmmakers, in these
cases, want a composition that is stable, that structures the image.

Irregular structure: LOTR (Peter Jackson, 2001). Composer: Howard Shore. There is a
sense of menace in it, it is something unnatural. It asks for a music that cannot be
structured or measured regularly.
TIMBRE

Rhythm and timbre are absolutely key when you come to think about cinema and how it shares
with music a dimension of time structure.

(O ha sudado de timbre o no me he enterado de res)

You’re my everything (The Miles Davies Quintet, 1956). He is basically playing a melodic line.
Miles doesn’t want this melodic line to do the beginning of the piece, he doesn’t ask for lines,
for a melody, he asks for blocks.

(Image in the next page)

MELODY and HARMONY

Going my way (Leo McCarey, Bing Crosby, 1944). At a moment were the world needed bonding.

The tale of Princess Kaguya (Isao Takahata + Joe Hisaishi, 2013). (Main theme, crec).

If we think of the different voices of the kids as the different elements in the moving image and
sound (image, texture, face expressions, space, music, soundspace…), a good thing of harmonic
intervention soundtracks is that it can be layered, you can add very different layers. Harmonic
cushions, harmonic backgrounds, allow to do this. When you want to add meaning to the images
but you don’t want to take the spotlight away from the image itself. (Algo així tampoc m’estic
enterant gaire ).

In Princess Kaguya, melody is telling us about her importance and the future of the film.
What happens to those melodies (?) with too many themes, too much ‘Hollywood style’, in the
bad sense of the expression.

Twin Peaks (David Lynch, Mark Frost + Angelo Badalamenti, 1990). Badalamenti combines a dark
harmonic texture with the light of Laura’s melody.

MELODY AS FIGURE and HARMONY AS BACKGROUND

2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick + Gyorgy Ligeti, 1968). A good example of the modern
uses of HARMONY in contemporary music. It can give texture and tension. Music here is actually
a layer of very complex microtonal dissonances, a super complex harmony. All of it doesn’t really
match, but it creates a cluster of energy. It reinforces the visual texture.

Adorno and Eisler, in Composing for the films, criticizes Hollywood for its romantic use of
harmony, wanting it to rely more in modern composers. “Sound is robbed of its static quality
and made dynamic by the ever-present factor of the ‘unresolved’. The principle of tension is
latently so active”.

TIMBRE

Assignment: watch A history of violence. Later on, we’ll discuss the timber of the film. Could you
identify the main timbers used in the score? Also sound design, maybe.

Timber is also absolutely key when you come to think about music in images.

Fantasia (Disney, 1940). A ‘joke’ on the possibilities of musical timbrical qualities as colors.

Relationship between TIMBRE and COLOR. Kandinsky talks about it. He is aware of the fact that,
depending on a lot of variables, the tone of an instrument can change a lot, that it is not
something automatic, but, still he thinks some of this relations are fruitful and useful to establish
a conversation between filmmakers and musicians.

Timbre can create atmosphere (also historical and geographical (?)). “Film music creates a
convenient and specific atmosphere of time and place. While many scores seem to be
interchangeable, it is key to find a concrete identity in terms of visual mood”. (Aaron Copland,
1957, What to listen for in music).

Fringe (Bad Robot + Michael Giacchino, 2008-2013). A very clear example. It’s a show with
parallel dimensions, it puts the characters in parallel realities. It had to let spectators know which
timeline the chapter was focused on. The music and visuals for the opening credits changed to
show the action was happening in the 80s. In sci-fi, music (and timbre) is key.

Bojack Horseman (Netflix, 2014-2020). The song has different versions depending on the
chapter.

We could call this timbrical clichés.

Fallout 4 (Bethesda, 2015).

You can go for musical contrast; the clash might make the audiovisual piece richer.
Timbre as a signifier of genre. “In 1933, Warner Brothers had 18 players under contract.
Orchestra size was influenced by genre, from the costume epics which warranted a big sound to
the contemporary dramas which evoked a leaner one”. (Kalinak, 1992, Settling the score: music
and the classical Hollywood film). Hollywood was using the illusion of an orchestra to combine
it with moving images.

Akasen Chitai (“Street of shame”) (Kenji Mizoguchi + Toshiro Mayuzumi, 1956). It’s about
prostitutes. There is a shift in the genre, it is not just melodrama. It is not exactly the color of
melodrama. The music is charging, it’s a big crescendo at the end of the film. The emotions of
the women are not something to just be sad about, but also, they are actually horror.
Unacceptable, terrible, a social issue, political… This movie, supposed to be a
drama/melodrama, he reaches another layer of critique by the timbrical strength of the signifier.
It has to be harshly criticized, so it reflects in the music. It’s way more subtle than the
interpretation. Anyways, at the end, the message they are sending is clear. The music being a
problem of the images, of the film, of society.

The Alphabet Murders (Frank Tashlin + Ron Goodwin, 1965) → Timbrical clichés:

Extreme example of “timbrical mikeymousing”. Cliché for France: accordion. Cliché for the Fat
Englishman: tuba.

The timbrical danger of clichés: “the use of clichés also affects instrumentation. […] These trashy
devices intended merely for effect have long since become unbearable both to artists and to the
audience, so much so that sooner or later no one will be able to enjoy clichés. When this happens
there will be both need and room for other elements of music.” (Adorno & Eisler, 1947,
Composing for the films)

There are also musicians that can use clichés in a very good way. Ex: ALEXANDRE DESPLAT.
Essentially a timbrical composer.

Salvados (La Sexta, 2015). A timbrical cliché can also have negative connotations.

Otoshiana (Hiroshi Teshigahara + Toru Takemitsu, 1962). It is an uncanny timber, but in a

realistic way, that allows the silence of the image, creating a different approach.

Timbre and materialized sound indices: “M.S.I. are sonic details that ‘materialize’ or ‘de-
materialize’ the sound of moving images. Abundance of M.S.I. can pull the scene toward the
material and concrete. Scarcity of M.S.I. can lead to a perception of the characters and the story
as ethereal, abstract and fluid […]. In ‘classical’ musical traditions, perfection is defined by an
abundance of M.S.I., the musician’s or singer’s goal is to purify the voice or instrument sound of
all noises of breathing, scratching, any other adventitious friction or vibration linked to
producing the musical tone. African musical traditions strive for the opposite: the instrumental
or vocal performance enriches the sound with supplementary noises, which bring out rather
than dissimulate the material origin of sound”. (Michel Chion, 1990, Audio-Vision: Sound on
screen).

The world is dirty, the world has noises.

There is no such thing in life as perfections, not even in music. So why does a certain Hollywood
music mock these imperfections?
How SILENCE is music. It can also be a musical timbre in audiovisual. It is also a choice of
orchestration. When musicians aren’t using a sound, that is also a music strategy. Timber is also
absolutely key when you come to think about music in images. Music being silent for other
sounds to come ahead.

“If the eye is entirely won, give nothing or almost nothing to the ear. One cannot be at the same
time all eye and all ear. When a sound can replace an image, cut the image or neutralize it. The
ear goes more towards the within, the eye towards the outer […] If a sound is the obligatory
complement of an image, give preponderance either to the sound, or to the image. If equal, they
damage or kill each other, as we say of colors […] Image and sound must not support each other,
bust must work in turn through a sort of relay. The eye solicited alone makes the ear impatient,
the ear solicited alone makes the eye impatient. Use these impatiences […] Against the tactics
of speed, of noise, set tactics of slowness, of silence” (Robert Bresson, 1975, Notes on the
cinematographer)

Kiki’s Delivery Service (Hayao Miyazaki + Joe Hisaishi, 1989). Even a film that goes for a mass
appeal, it can also be complex in the way it treats sound and music with silence. Then again, we
don’t need dead silence, there can be musical silence for other sounds to be heard. Most
composers would be trying to show off in some of these moments, but it is much more
intelligent and rich to do what these moments do: a score made of sounds. At the end, there is
a sense of relief.

[ BRESSON ] SILENCE AND THE PIANISSIMO OF NOISES “Silence never ceases to imply its opposite
and to depend on its presence: just as there can’t be “up” without “down” or “left” without
“right”, so one must acknowledge a surrounding environment of sound or language in order to
recognize silence […] The artist who creates silence or emptiness must produce something
dialectical: a full void, an enriching emptiness, a resonating or eloquent silence. Silence remains,
inescapably, a form of speech (in many instances, of complaint or indictment) and an element
in a dialogue” (Susan Sostang, 1969, The Aesthetics of Silence)

The importance of silence being dialectical.

A modern use of timbre that can also express through absence.

 2. THE THEMATIC STRUCTURE – MUSIC AND NARRATIVE

Shift from music specific variables to the thematic structure, the storytelling structure of music
in audiovisual media. A structure is a placement, and a certain kind of relations that can trigger
meanings, possibilities, questions… for the audience.

Kenzo Ad, Spike Jonze → declaration of standpoint to start with it. We cannot really conceive
thematic structure like it was conceived 25 years ago. We have to keep in mind the hybridation
of genres and projects. We cannot forget popular music. (Spike Jonze is the creative director of
Vice lol). He acknowledges that music can go in and out of the film.

If we think of it solely as leitmotiven, original music, it is a very isolated conception.

STRUCTURE, THEMES, HIERARCHY: REPETITION / DIFFERENCE

The basic questions are: when does music appear in a film and how this apparitions and re-
apparitions structure the movie and its meaning.

Two kinds of relations: INTRA-TEXTUAL and INTER-TEXTUAL

Intra-textual:

Thought and created specifically for the image. It has been far more defended by historians and
critics. It’s a paradigm: original music for an original film.

Inter-textual:

Compilations. More related with meanings and ideologies. If you use a recognizable piece, will
it interrupt the flow of the film?

One of the historians that defended this option the most is Anahid Kassabian. Basically, her point
is that music is all around us, and music is really populating almost all living experiences in the
XXI century, so how can we ask films to ignore this?

2 TYPES-ORIGINS OF MUSIC FOR AUDIOVISUAL (PREEXISTING / ADAPTED / ORIGINAL)

The compose score creates assimilating identifications, that means driving audiences into a set
of relations within the film, almost abstract, because they are not related to any real, historic
experience. The traditional Hollywood scores. It fails to create an identification between
audience and characters, we don’t know the music.

The compiled score creates affiliating identifications, they cannot escape the references and
identification values of this music because we are already familiar with it. Even if there’s a danger
of interrupting the film, the strategy itself is more complex and, in a way, more natural to the
way we live music in contemporary society. How could we possibly isolate the world within a
film with just originally composed music?
2001: A Space Odysse, Stanley Kubrick, Alex North → He used a TEMP TRACK (temporary track),
it goes for the pieces that montage editors use before they have an original soundtrack to work
it. Temp love: when someone falls in love with a pre-existing track and the original cannot match
the specificity of that one before. Kubrick was listening to the pieces as temp tracks, but he
didn’t tell Alex North he would never use the originals.

QUOTATION / Quote to a preexisting musical element (partially or whole) in the film’s

soundtrack. But it doesn’t have to be a traditional compiled score with renown musical hits, such
as Forrest Gump; it can also be used in more subtle quotes likes the ones in Shutter Island, an
“apparently” composed score

ALLUSION / A specific type of quotation used to refer to another text or narrative. It might be
argued that allusions are quotes to musical genres, but the main point here is “the specificity of
allusions to preexisting narratives”, excluding the use of songs unless they belong to wider
narrative universes. The case of Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries and its problems

LIETMOTIV / This ever-present term can be used to refer to musical elements “inside the film”
(more intra-textual, not inter-textual) and works as a key structural pattern: “music refers to
other musical events within the film as an identifying or cueing mark”. Think of the THEME-
SONGS

ONE-TIME MUSIC / Music that has not been heard before and that will not be heard again
throughout the soundtrack (inside or outside of the film). This term is less biased than others
like “pure”, “unique” or “non-referential”

(Kassabian concepts)

INTER-TEXTUAL LOGIC:

AFFILIATIONS – Music beyond the soundtrack

Mommy, Xavier Dolan, Oasis (2014) → when a filmmaker has a song in mind, and when he has
the certainty that his images are powerful enough, you can use a song as famous as this one. It
achieves the complexity Kassabian talked about. The change of the ratio aspect can also be read
as a metaphor for a widening in favor of inter-textual music. It creates a moment of structural
synchrony between the characters and the audiences.

The presence of / attention to film music: “The music in a given film scene relates to the
narrative world of the film, and to other music; it also interacts with other aspects of the scene.
How much attention do viewers/listeners give to the music, in comparison to the dialogue,
visuals and other elements? Again, a highly complex and indeterminate quality is at issue.
Attention to music depends on many factors, including the volume of the music, its style, and
its “appropriateness” in the scene. The degree of attention given to the music can be anywhere
along an infinitely divisible continuum from none to all; rarely, if ever, does an instance of film
music belong to either end of the spectrum”

ANAHID KASSABIAN [2000]

HEARING FILM: TRACKING IDENTIFICATIONS

IN CONTEMPORARY HOLLYWOOD FILM MUSIC

How much can an audience be aware of a preexisting tune? The point is, when played well, the
result can be immensely rich.

The Palm Beach Story, Preston Sturges + Victor Young, 1932 → Pushing the genre to its limits.
His sequence challenges the idea of marriage itself. The fact that these extremely recognizable
pieces are compiled with some darker ones, it’s a very challenging, contemporary decision. Using
clicés, for a movie that is trashing the institution of marriage, it needs those clichés, those pre-
existing evidences. It questions not only the marriage of the characters, but also the marriages
of those in the audience. It is a prime example of going in and out of the movie. It is bringing
added value.

The social histories of film music: “What does the music evoke in or communicate to us? […]
Film music engages its listeners in important processes of producing and reproducing meanings
and ideologies”

ANAHID KASSABIAN [2000]

HEARING FILM: TRACKING IDENTIFICATIONS

IN CONTEMPORARY HOLLYWOOD FILM MUSIC

This is key: the charges of connection to real life some musical pieces have. It doesn’t have to be
just a reference to alienate audiences, it can go beyond, it can challenge ideologies.

War at Distance, Harun Farocki + Richard Wagner, 2003 →A film against warfare, against war.
A female voice narrates the piece. The political weight of music within audiovisual media. The
ad could have played without the voice over specifying its music from an ad (Wagner’s), but
Farocki has to state clear it was not his choice. This is the power this musical piece has nowadays,
a symbol of capitalistic violence (one bomb-one target). Harocki doesn’t want to participate in
that logic or empower it, so he has to deactivate the music placement.

AURA: ON PERDORMATIVE AFFILIATIONS

What can be gained from using pre-existing music in soundtracks?

“A lo largo de esta tesis, hemos encontrado distintas facetas de David Bowie: un joven músico a
quien, a punto de agotársele el crédito, acertó su primera diana con una canción que tenía a
Kubrick como presencia sous rature; un creador ambicioso que decidió desaparecer en el
interior de un alter ego alienígena para su persona artística; ocurrencia que a su vez inspiraría
documentales y ficciones cinematográficas; alguien que, en definitiva, cuestiona la idea de
“autor” como expresión de una subjetividad, proponiéndose a sí mismo como un gesto en
desaparición, cuyas sombras (canciones, etc.) son completadas por el público que les da
significado. Una presencia influyente, que es requerida por cineastas veteranos y noveles,
aportando un aura de “estrella extraña” a la producción, y también alguien cuyas canciones son
un hiperenlace que, al entrar en contacto con la imagen cinematográfica, la dispara en múltiples
direcciones” – Gerard Casau (2019) La música pop en el cine contemporáneo. Presencia y
ausencia de David Bowie.

The songs, as shadows, have their meanings completed by the audiences. This is the power of
compiled soundtracks.

The audience has to complete, has to participate. Gestures of appearing and disappearing,
presence and absence… Music as a HYPERLINK that connects with images and blows out in
multiple directions. It doesn’t treat audiences as stupid (they won’t get distracted). Performative
strength.

Down by law, Jim Jarmusch + Tom Waits, John Lurie (1986) → Manuel won’t commentate on
this, it is for us to think through.

INTRA-TEXTUAL LOGIC:

Repetitions & Variations – Themes inside the film’s soundtrack

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Nintendo EAD + Koji Kondo (1998) → (No m’he entreat
aquí sorry )

SOUNDTRACK POSSIBILITIES:

A-THEMATIC soundtrack → (L’home qui ment) – Epidemic (maybe not really but is the one to fit
here)

MONO-THEMATIC soundtrack → (The Turin Horse) - The Naked Kiss

PLURI-THEMATIC soundtrack → (The good, the bad and the ugly) - An Affair to Remember

The Naked Kiss, Samuel Fuller + Paul Dunlap (1964) → This is what Deleuze, quoting Lévi-Strauss
calls ‘the power of difference in repetition’: “It is not the resemblances, but the differences,
which resemble each other […] An ideal multiple relation should be actualized in diverse space-
time relations, while its elements actually incarnate in terms and varied forms. Idea is therefore
defined as structure”

PLOT: Kelly is a prostitute who shows up in the small town of Grantville, just one more
burg in a long string of quick stops on the run after being chased out of the big city by
her former pimp. She engages in a quick tryst with local police chief Griff, who then tells
her to stay out of his town and refers her to a cat-house just across the state line.
Instead, she decides to give up her illicit lifestyle, becoming a nurse at a hospital for
handicapped children. Griff doesn't trust reformed prostitutes, however, and continues
trying to run her out of town. Kelly falls in love with J.L. Grant, the wealthy scion of the
town's founding family, an urbane sophisticate, and Griff's best friend. After a dream-
like courtship where even Kelly's admission of her past can't deter Grant, the two decide
to marry. It is only after Kelly is able to finally convince Griff that she truly loves Grant
and has given up prostitution for good that he agrees to be their best man.
This movie proves that, only by placing the exact same piece in two different moments it can
become two very different meanings, it implies a radical shift in the film itself. The power of
something being repeated, and because the images are changing, so does the music.

The structural repetitions of film music. Different ways a theme can change throughout a
soundtrack:

REPETITION When a theme sounds exactly in the same way in different parts of the film
It has an static nature, since it means exactly the same in diverse moments

VARIATION When arrangements and changes are applied to a theme so that it sounds
different than before when it is repeated. But straight variation does not imply changes
in the meaning, only of instrumentation: it is static as well

REPERCUSSION When a theme evolves and interprets the changes in narrative or

character development, creating new meanings. It has a dynamic nature: the music
carries a new significance in relation to the images and the overall context

An Affair to Remember, Leo McCarey + Hugo Friedhofer, 1957 →

PLOT: Nickie Ferrante (Cary Grant), a well-known playboy, meets Terry McKay (Deborah Kerr)
aboard the transatlantic ocean liner SS Constitution en route from Europe to New York. Each is
involved with someone else. After a series of meetings aboard the ship, they establish a
friendship. When Terry joins Nickie on a brief visit to Janou, his grandmother, when the ship
anchors near her home at Villefranche-sur-Mer on the Mediterranean coast, she sees Nickie
with new eyes and their feelings become deeper. During their visit, Janou tells Terry that Nickie
is a talented painter but destroys most of his paintings because they don't meet his standards.
As the ship returns to New York City, they agree to reunite at the top of the Empire State Building
in six months' time if they have succeeded in ending their relationships and starting new careers.

The opening credits are setting a mood. (No m’estic enterant de res xd MARIA FOCUS). There’s
an expectation created at this moment. Believing in the shot, in the presence of the characters;
the minimalism. It’s about love, but it is also about death, the weight of time is very present. The
siren of the ship, here, represents death. The sequence is very small, something precious,
something to cherish.

Rom-coms have actually to do with individual choices and the weight of time. The meaning
remains the same whereas the timbre, amongst others, might change. In a moment later in the
movie, after they don’t meet in the Empire State, the love theme is haunting him. The musical
strategy, in this case, is music being a memory of the character (extra diegetic music). We have
musical variation but, here, it is repercussion. The tune is going to keep evolving in the movie, it
will have more repercussions.

Epidemic, Lars Von Trier + Niels Vorsel (1987) →

PLOT: The film is divided into five days. On the first day the protagonists, screenwriters Lars and
Niels lose the only copy of a film script. They begin to write a new script about an epidemic: the
outbreak of a plague-like disease. The protagonist is a doctor, Mesmer, who, against the will of
the Faculty of Medicine of an unknown city, goes to the countryside to help people. During the
next days, the facts of the script join the real-life events in which a similar disease starts to
spread. Lars and Niels go to Germany, where they meet a man who describes the Allied bombing
of Cologne during the Second World War. After the trip, Niels goes to a hospital where he
undergoes a minor surgical procedure and while there tells Lars to go to see Palle, a pathologist
who is performing an autopsy on a man who has recently died of an unknown disease. The last
day, Lars and Niels have a dinner with their producer, to whom they reveal the end of the film,
that Mesmer and his medical kit have spread the disease.

The case of auteur (film) music:

“The digital revolution has made music ever more accessible and malleable as an
increasingly personal means of expression. It has abetted the tendency among auteur
mélomanes to take more active control of music, and element of filmmaking that
previously eluded them as they had to rely on specialists to fabricate it” → CLAUDIA
GORBMAN in BEYOND THE SOUNDTRACK [2007] VIVRE SA VIE - Commissions
Theme and12 Variations from Legrand, uses 1 min "Godard ended up with twelve
cadenceless measures which, like the film itself, form a kind of close loop capable of
indefinite repetition and manipulation by the director who, working alone, obviously
saw himself as the complete auteur”

Meta-conversation about the film and the musical theme. They are playing with the idea of a
leitmotiv that is spreading the virus. They make ironic comments on the use in leitmotiv in
scores. (Lo que dice Manuel de los cuatro clips me lo he saltado sorry)

Relations between themes in a movie:

Star Wars: Episode III, George Lucas + John Williams (2005) → How are tunes related to each
other.

A character is dying and a theme that symbolized her has an identifiable curve, a melody. It
allows an interaction between two other incredibly important themes. We get to hear two main
themes of the saga at the same time. Two different sections of the orchestra, different
instruments, are intertwining and transforming two main themes. The theme of Darth Vader is
being born by the mixing of two other themes: Padmé’s (burial) and the Skywalker one.
 3. SIGNIFIERS OF MEANING – FROM MOODS TO DISRUPTIONS

We’re going to discuss the musical meaning of images. How music can contribute or go against
it.

MOODS AND GENRES:

Opening reflection: The current editing of music in mainstream media abuses homogenizing epic
signifiers (examples of ads). It’s epic, it shouldn’t be used by default, it loosens its meaning.

BETWEEN ANCRAGE AND DISRUPTION:

“A unique ability to control and limit the significance of the image […] Claudia Gorbman explains
how music throws a net around the floating visual signifier […] Noël Carroll stresses its modifying
role”

“The further music drifts away from mutual dependency with the rest of the elements in a
narrative system, the more potential there is for disruption –and just not making sense. ” →
KATHRYN KALINAK [2010] FILM MUSIC : VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION

Music doesn’t always have to throw a pleasant/agreeable/comfortable net around the images,
it can try to create an effect of estrangement. How can found footage (as music already existing,
kind of a compilation maybe?) add meaning to the images. Does music have to stabilize images,
or can it disrupt them?

Two examples about ideology and the traditional image of family:

Passage à l’acte, (Martin Arnold, 1993) → He reappropiates and brings to the surface some
hidden meanings. It creates a problem to the audience, but at the same time it makes people
snap out of illusions (similar to Bertol Brecht). Just with images it can have an effect, but eith
music it gains a lot of power (in this example, it presents to the audience the lie of the perfect
family, the authoritarian -not caring- father figure…)

Where am I going, Aseckas (2016) → The epitome of family representation. This and Martin
Arnold are both re-apropiating family icons and changing its meaning through music.

THE SIGNIFICANCE(S) OF FILM MUSIC:

EMPATHETIC / It takes place when music is directly attached to the atmosphere or feeling
expressed by the scene or the characters: pain, emotion, happiness, unrest, etc. Most film music
operates in this way.

ANEMPATHETIC / An effect based on music expressing an opposed sense to the visual track, not
so much in terms of disruption but as distance: an indifferent attitude towards what’s being
seen: relaxed music in tense scenes, happy melodies for harsh images; or the other way around,
disturbing music for a perfectly peaceful landscape.

MICHEL CHION [1993]

LA AUDIOVISIÓN + LA MÚSICA EN EL CINE

Music can be empathetic, anempathetic or INDIFERENT.

Django, Sergio Corbucci + Luis Bacalov (1966) // Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino + Luis
Bacalov (2017) → What the theme appeals In Tarantino’s movie is rooting for the hero, the good
guy, whereas in Corbucci’s film it empowers the bad guys (and they are both torture scenes).

Music can go IN AND OUT of empathy. It can be different depending on the context, characters…

MORE (ANAHID KASSABIAN’S) VOCABULARY:

REFERENCE / Used to identify a recurring character, place, object, situation or idea within the
plot, but also historical periods, geographical factors and sociological elements. It all depends,
of course, on the knowledge of a given audience, but there are common sense agreements on
what means what. [ Saturday Night Fever not only the 70s but also working class music ]

MOOD / The most obvious but still hard to quantify aspect of film music. The big question is
whose mood is being expressed ? It is by far the most used function of film music in order to
accompany and reinforce images.

COMMENTARY / An extra layer of meaning beyond the images, like a counter-mood or even
Verfremdungseffekt (anti-identification, alienation, distancing effect). It is all about being kept
apart, alien, strange in the sense of transgressing the standard significance of images. It is a
much more rational, thought-based process than mood, because what we listen to questions
what we see, it turns it unnatural: Prevent us from becoming “absorbed” in the film.

The Sopranos, S03E13 → The series had an extremely intelligent use of the music. It talked about
the characters at the same time it created atmospheres, contributed to references… there were
a lot of layers to it. LAST SCENE OF THE SEASON. It is being almost kitsch. It is allowing a
commentary. There is an attempt to put the audiences in and out the images. It is questioning
the images (like if saying: don’t forget this is a fictional show). It ends with Los Panchos. It sends
the characters towards and also against the images. It shifts from diegetic to non-diegetic, but
it also shifts the meaning.

There is empathetic music, anempathetic music and IRONIC MUSIC

The whole history of film has to do with happy endings (and its negotiations), so irony is an
amazing creative tool.

How does irony work in music? :

1) The BALANCE between TEXT and AUTHOR oriented IRONY Points to the text itself or
to the ironist / Covert (disguised) vs. Overt (manifest)

2) The DEGREE of AMBIGUITY or AUDIENCE INTERPRETATION Meaning vs. Significance

/ To what extent the viewer’s reconstruction is stable

3) The SCOPE and AMBITION of the “TRUTH REVEALED” Ground covered by the
reconstruction or assertion / Local vs. Infinite (universal)
Hamlet Goes Business, Aki Kaurismäki (1987) → Adaptation about class. He uses music to bring
some of the layers of the play into the contemporary world, as he still mocks it. It has an ideology
behind. Hamlet is frustrated by Ophelia’s rejection, and this frustration is shown through the
change in music. The contrast is showing us that the High Class cannot have the down-to-Earth
sense of reality rock n roll (working class) has.

IDENTITY /// DÉTOURNEMENT:

“Q: To you, what’s the function of music in film?

A: Throughout the years, I’ve thought about this a lot. Now I see it as what Guy Debord and the
Situationists called a détournement: picking up an element that has its identity and internal logic
and including it in your own work, where it resounds in a different way, and this combination
manages to transcend what the two signify as separate pieces. What I do is trying different tracks
until, all of a sudden, one of them makes the image look better, and the scene gives the music
another nuance. The result must be better than the sum of its parts” → Olivier Assayas
interviewed by Gerard Casau Against the soundtrack, 2017

Tishe!, Viktor Kossakovsky + Alexandr Popov (2003) → Manuel’s question: IS THERE A MOOD,
AN IDENTITY, A TEXTURE… INSIDE IMAGES, IS THERE SOMETHING THAT ASKS TO BE
REINFORCED, REINTERPRETED OR PUT FORWARD THROUGH MUSIC? As a documentary, it
respects the visual signifier, how to be in tune with them. To bring out the implied music of the
images.

FRUITFUL TENSIONS vs. TAMING EFFECTS:

“Music was introduced in films like an antidote for the image, to tame the fear and absorb the
shock. Film music is similar to the gesture of a kid singing in the dark […] Today film music
imitates the play on the screen, the picture, and yet the greater the effort to assimilate the two
media the more hopelessly they are split apart. The important task is to establish fruitful
tensions between them. A proper dramaturgy, the unfolding of a general meaning, would
sharply distinguish among pictures, words, and music, and for that very reason relate them
meaningfully to one another” → T. W. ADORNO y H. EISLER [1947] COMPOSING FOR THE FILMS

Kuhle Wampe, Brecht/Dudow + Hanns Eisler (1993) → It was banned in Germany just before the
nazi party rose to power.

“The film’s underlying radicalism manifests itself in the unusual construction of the plot.
That the son kills himself in the first section practically defies all German screen
traditions. Dudow once told me that, while preparing Kuhle Wampe, he was urged by
his producer and several advisers to shift this suicide episode to the film’s finale so as to
re-establish the natural order of things. In fact, since the early days of the German
cinema nearly all important films have ended with an act of submission, and the suicide
so frequent in them is nothing but the most extreme and dramatic form of this act. In
displacing the suicide motif, Kuhle Wampe disavows psychological retrogression. This is
confirmed by the relation between the son’s suicide and the song which exhorts youth:
‘Don’t be resigned, but determine to alter and better the world’. Significantly, the song
is reiterated at the very end, the normal place for suicides. Through these words as well
 as their position the film explicitly repudiates the submissive impulses which drive the
son to his death ” → S. KRACAUER, FROM CALIGARI TO HITLER

Kracauer is talking about the structural function of, in this case, suicide: DRAMATIC RELIEF vs.
POLITICAL AGENCY. (Això me sap greu pero he decidit que no ho escoltaré).

Music has a negotiation regarding political layers when united with images.
 4. DIEGETICAL GAPS – MUSIC IN AND OUT OF IMAGES

Discussion on how music can contribute to the story world, but also the creation, layers, gaps…
the ONTHOLOGY (the being) of moving images.

We should challenge the binarism of DIEGETIC and NON-DIEGETIC: give more layers to it. It is
actually a huge debate.

Music contributes in so many different ways when thinking and creating a movie. It’s a tool to
connect audiences with authors/filmmakers.

US Go Home, Claire Denis + Les Animals/Ronnie Bird (1994) → A French TV Channel accessed a
variety of filmmakers to make a series of projects about their teenage years. One of the
characetrs is humming a tune (the power of music to invade the room). The idea of tunes going
around bodies and spaces.

The question of what is (beyond) the diegesis? [in] MUSIC for A/VISUAL MEDIA AGAINST THE
BINARY LOGIC OF DIEGETIC vs. NON-DIEGETIC - Work with layers, gaps, cracks,
transformations

THREE CONCEPTS:

SOURCE-MUSIC, comes from a clear visual source (we may call it diegetic). It is key to distinguish
when it emanates from an implied source when the actual origin of the music is not seen but
only intuited from the context. Music responds to the visuals rather than matching the image
[Mos Eisley, Han Solo shoots and that stops/retakes the ambient music]

PURE-DRAMATIC SCORING, the term for non-diegetic music used by composers: The first note
you play represents total dramatic license. In that regard, Kassabian underlines that the degree
of music matching visual events is high and deliberate: rather than being organized as a reaction
to other events in the film, dramatic scoring moves concurrently with the action. [ Clichés ]

SOURCE-SCORING a middle-ground category among the two, in-between. Source music in its
content but tailored to meet scoring requirements. It may start as diegetic but then evolve
towards a dramatic license: It follows the framework of the scene more critically and matches
the nuances of the scene musically. It is frequently used to connect characters or places that
remain far from each other in terms of space and/or time.

Pride and Prejudice, Joe Wright + Dario Marianelli (2005) // Anna Karenina, Joe Wright + Dario
Marianelli (2012) → LAYERS OF THE DIEGESIS → The importance of the in sync. The source-
scoring is contributed by the visuals. Everything contributes to the idea of the work inside the
work (art design, lightning…), as it is a literary adaptation. With P&P it’s different: it starts with
what we could identify as source-music, but then it adds a score through source-scoring. Here,
it works to isolate the characters. How do visuals work here? There is a sound effect that’s
underlining a cut in the images. Music is doing something that the images are already doing.
Do we need to see and hear the change, the isolation of the characters? This is very obvious, but
does it mean it’s worse or poorly produced?

Atonement, Joe Wright + Dario Marianelli (2007) → The THEATRICALLITY. The artificiality of the
visuals can be underlined by the score, reminding us it is a fiction. Here, we have something
much more simple. We have a sound, an extremely metaphorical one, and it stablishes a way
more subtile connection with music. Music remains underneath when they have the
conversation. What is the authorial voice of creation, who is typing on the typewriter? – Then
again, it works much unconsciously than in the examples before. WHILE IMAGES DO THEIR OWN
THING, MUSIC CAN ADD LAYERS TO IT. WHAT ABOUT THE POWER OF MUSIC TO CREATE THE
WORLD OF IMAGES? WHAT ABOUT ITS POWER TO QUESTION THE NATURE, THE ORIGIN, THE
STATUS… OF A STORY?

We cannot take for granted that diegesis is stable.

Rez, United Game Artists (2001) // Sayonara Wild Hearts, Simogo (2005) → They actually prove
that music is all around the process of creating an audiovisual product. The distinction
between diegesis and non-diegesis is not really functional. SWH’s music is conceived as an
album that is being played. These videogames challenge the categories, understanding their
goals and uses.

What is a diegesis, to start with? Does it apply nowadays?

To what extent is music producing the diegesis, the audiovisual product, by itself?

TWO NEW TERMS:

SCREEN MUSIC / BACKGROUND MUSIC

“Theory and film history often use terms like «diegetic music» (present within the action) and
«non-diegetic» (coming from an imaginary source beyond the action). But for various reasons,
like the confusion about what diegesis actually means, I prefer to talk about «screen music» for
music that is clearly perceived as coming from a visible or implied source within the action: a
street singer, a phonograph, radio, orchestra, speaker or record player. Conversely,
«background music» is music that the audience perceives, logically, as coming from an imaginary
orchestra or musician in the background, which sometimes accompanies or comments action
and dialogue, without being part of them” → MICHEL CHION [1997] LA MÚSICA EN EL CINE

Cléo from 5 to 7, Agnès Varda + Michel Legrand (1962) → The music is growing around the shot.
We have a transition between the spontaneity and immediacy of the characters and a suddenly
change of mood. We first had an example of screen music to change and play with the idea of
source music. Music here OPENS A GAP. It gradually adds layers.
META-DIEGETIC & PSYCHOLOGICAL MUSIC

"The border region- the fantastical gap- is a transformative space, a superposition, a transition
between stable states […] These moments do not take place randomly; they are important
moments of revelation, of symbolism, and of emotional engagement within the film […] It is the
multiplicity of possibilities that make the gap both observable and fantastical -fantastical
because it changes the state, not only of the filmic moment, but also of the observer's
relationship to it” → ROBIN J. STILWELL in BEYOND THE SOUNDTRACK [2007]

“What Claudia Gorbman has called 'metadiegetic', 'pertaining to narration by a secondary

narrator […] The character becomes the bridging mechanism between the audience and the
diegesis as we enter into his/her subjectivity ”

Instead of thinking of diegetic and non-diegetic,

think about the space and how music transforms it.

Pather Panchali, Satyajit Ray + Ravi Shankar (1955) → Milestone for soundtracks in movies.
There’s a moment were, because voice (the diegesis) ceases to be enough to describe the
feelings, and so, after a silence (gap in the diegesis), music appears. Music is balancing that gap.

Once upon a time there was a singing blackbird, Otar Iosseliani + J.S. Bach (1970) → An example
of PSYCHOLOGICAL MUSIC (An affair to remember, at the end when Cary Grant goes back to the
house). Clear example of dis-notion, characters can be bridging mechanisms between the
audience and the diegesis. He is using the fragmentation of the music to make a premonition
for the character. It is a mind that cannot acquire focus. We find it impossible to locate the
music: is it really playing, is it in the character’s mind, is it nowhere to be found in the diegesis…?

We are changing from the characters to the filmmakers. The figure of the in-voice.

MUSICAL VOICES AND THE META-DIEGESIS:

“I will use the ter,m, in voice to refer to a voice that participates in the image, merges with it,
and has material impact on it by ways of a visual stand-in […] The in voice is the focal point of a
different but just as redoubtable form of power. What is presented as the emergence of truth
may well be merely the production of discomfort in the guinea pig forced to answer questions
as the viewer looks on. There are at least two other kinds of voices: those spoken ‘within’ the
image, either through a mouth (out voice)or through an entire body (through voice)” → SERGE
DANEY [1977] “BACK TO VOICE: ON VOICES OVER, IN, OUT, THROUGH”

Music and singing can become this sort of mediating voice, which can be emotional (Forty Guns)
or political (Deus e o Diablo na Terra do Sol)

Forty guns, Samuel Fuller + Harry Sukman / Jidge Carroll (1975) // Deus e o Diablo na Terra do
Sol, Gluaber Rocha + Sérgio Ricardo (1964) → The MEDIATING CHARACTERS, los juglares, is a
personification of the filmmaker playing music in the story, going in and out of the diegesis.
Their voices are helping the images come to shape.
A step beyond: filmmakers themselves breaking diegesis.

FILMMAKERS INSIDE-AS DIEGETICAL GAPS: Self-portraits and the body of authors as actors.

Prénom Carmen, Jean-Luc Godard (1983) → it is source music in a film that is questioning source
(takes place in a mental institution). Diegesis is created by people. So, why pretend there’s only
one layer?

«Vous m’avez demandé de préciser ma pensée. Vous aimeriez savoir par quel bout je vais
pouvoir prendre ce sujet. Moi aussi, je me sentirais mieux, plus tranquille, et aussi sans doute
moins intéressée par le projet. Parce que ce qui me fascine et m’effraie à la fois, quand je me
mets en tête de faire un documentaire, c’est bien de le découvrir ce documentaire, de le
découvrir en le faisant […] Parce que, en le faisant, je me laisse conduire, je dirais presque à
l’aveuglette, et je deviens une sorte « d’éponge-plaque sensible » qui aurait une écoute
flottante» → Chantal Akerman, Autoportrait en cinéaste, 2004, p. 45

Les années 80, Chantal Akerman + Marc Herouet (1983) → She was trying to get funding for her
musical Golden Eighties (1986). This was kind of an experiment. (Tampoc he escoltat moltíssim
aquí sorry estic cansada ja).

Manuel recommends to watch Distant voices, still lives, Terence Davies (1988).
 5. LAYERS & SPATIALIZATION – MUSIC LEVELS FROM VOICE TO SOUNDSCAPE

Discussion about the relations of levels, volumes, intensity… amongst four main aspects of the
soundtrack: music, soundscape, noise and voice. How music finds its space amongst all these
elements.

Which of these elements is the most important in a film? If signaling voice, Michel CHion calls it
“voice-centrism”.

Not I, Samuel Beckett → text that plays with the physicality of words.

VOICE DIALOGUE AND MUSIC LEVELS

“The intensity or the volume with which we actually listen to music in a film will be higher when
the more coincidental its articulation, timbre and register are with those of verbal dialogue. A
musical section with a register far from that of spoken words and with a different articulation
from voices, will undoubtedly gain more presence in the final mix. Conversely, if the selected
instruments move within the voice’s register and share a similar timbre, they will inevitably
influence the music’s overall level, much smaller in the final mix. If, on addition, the articulation
and musical phrasing is similar to that of one or two people talking, we should take into account
that the music’s level will be toned downed to nothing in the final mix” → JOSÉ NIETO [1996]
MÚSICA PARA LA IMAGEN

Le Grand Amour, Pierre Étaix + Claude Stiermans (1969) → A fragment that works by itself. It
works on what José Nieto was talking about.

FILM MUSIC LEVELS AND DIALOGUE

[Alfred Newman] “I have strong feelings about too much motion and elaborate counterpoint
under dialogue. It seems to me that dialogue furnishes rhythm, thus a minimum of orchestral
motion is desirable”

[Jerry Goldsmith] “Under dialogue, one must keep music as simple as possible, but while it may
sound contradictory, there are times when a certain emotional involvement of the music helps
too”

[Quincy Jones] “If it is a nonsensical kind of dialogue, there are many cases where you don’t
have to be as cautious as if its plot exposition”

EARLE HAGEN [1971] SCORING FOR FILMS

Alias, ABC (2001-2006) → The first scene is using a pop song with voice, something most people
wouldn’t recommend. There’s an overlapping. Still, here it is done on purpose: harmonically and
timbrically it is simple, but we are in a territory were the emotional involvement is much more
important than the dialogue, and the song is encouraging all the environment. In the second
scene, music is going very low and very high in the register, and it is giving a middle ground for
the voice of the character (Jack Bristow’s voice is, in a way, one more instrument). This second
scene is a cliché, but it is a well-used one.

SPACE BEYOND SCREEN: LIMITLESS SOUND

«The screen, the shot, is also a limit. That’s why I focus specially on sound, which expands and
overflows, without any limits. Sometimes the images continues through sound. I would like my
work to make people feel that there are other things, beyond the screen, that belong to the film.
Sound makes that possible and also allows for audiences to lose the conscience and the feeling
of a screen» → Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Cahiers du Cinéma

India Song, Marguerite Duras + Carlos d’Alessio (1975) // Son nom de Venise dans Calcutta
désert, Marguerite Duras + Carlos d’Alessio (1975) → They both use the exact same soundtrack.

THE SIZE OF MUSIC AND THE FRAME:

“ Music has its own specific codes to model space, and filmmakers have always used it to “make
see” the big open landscapes: the great orchestral scores of most westerns or the big adventure
films (Lawrence of Arabia). The sound space does not have limited boundaries, as opposed to
the image, which remains limited to the margins of the frame. Music allows to overflow that
frame, expanding the space in all its dimensions. Music deploys all its power when it helps
images reveal other spaces and other temporalities, allowing filmmakers to push the capabilities
of the medium endlessly” → GILLES MOUËLLIC [2003] LA MÚSICA EN EL CINE

All the four next examples have to do with the size of music in relation to the size of the frame:

Lawrence of Arabia, David Lean + Maurice Jarre (1962) // Gerry, Gus Van Sant + Arvo Pärt (2003)
→ LOA: the wide shot, the aspect of space, its danger of landscape. It is a trajectory from the
more abstract piece to the articulation of the rhythm of the main theme. Music is trying to
occupy the space, to fill in the void. G: The music in this scene is just going to the limits and
establishing very distant musical elements. It creates a very contrast from a very small size, but
anyways it is very extreme: compare the fragility of the tune to the size of the space. It is extreme
in becoming minimal.

MUSIC AND THE SENSE OF (WIDE) SPACE:

“Neil Lerner points to the sense of wide space in Copland’s music, resulting from the composer’s
disjunct melodies and widely spaced voicings… parallel diatonic harmonies, wind and brass
timbres and a fondness for fourths and fifths, both harmonically and melodically. Copland
resonated with composers of the western. While there are clearly exceptions to his influence
(post-war psychological westerns such as The Naked Spur for example), Copland exerted
something of a gravitational pull on composers of the genre and his influence is particularly
pronounced in the musical evocation of landscape” → KATHRYN KALINAK - MUSIC IN THE
WESTERN: NOTES FROM THE FRONTIER

A Bug’s Life, John Lasseter + Randy Newman (1998) → Newman is making a very open homage
to Aaron Copland. At the beginning it is kind of small, but when we actually see the ants working,
the music grows and it accompanies the movement of the shot when it pans.
FROM ACOUSMATIC TO VISUALIZED MUSIC:

“Acousmatic sound is sound one hears without hearing their originating cause –an invisible
sound source. Radio, phonograph and telephone, all which transmit sounds without showing
their emitter are acousmatic media. Off-screen sound in film is sound that is acousmatic, relative
to what is shown in the shot. In a film an acousmatic situation can develop along two different
scenarios: either a sound is visualized first, and subsequently acousmatized, or it is acousmatic
to start with, and is visualized only afterward. The first cause associates a sound with a precise
image from the outset. This image can then reappear in the audience mind each time the sound
is heard off screen. The second case, common to moody mystery films, keeps the sound’s cause
a secret before revealing all ” → MICHEL CHION – AUDIOVISION (EDITED EXCERPT)

Jurassic Park, Steven Spielberg + John Williams (1993) → we don’t see the dinasours first, we
listen to their music. It grows from what we cant see to what we see.

SOUNDSCAPE/S: THE TUNING OF THE WORLD:

“The soundscape of the world is changing. Modern man is beginning to inhabit a world with an
acoustic environment radically different from any he has hitherto known. These new sounds,
which differ in quality and intensity from those of the past, have alerted many researchers to
the dangers of an indiscriminate and imperialistic spread of more and larger sounds into every
corner of man’s life. Noise production is now a world problem. It would seem that the world
soundscape has reached an apex of vulgarity in our time, and many experts have predicted
universal deafness as the ultimate consequence unless the problem can be brought quickly
under control” → MURRAY SCHAFER [1977] THE SOUNDSCAPE

(Aquí Manuel se ha puesto a hablar del centro commercial Glòries y me pone sad y me aburre
así que lo pasamos </3)

MAPS AND CARTOGRAPHIES OF SOUNDSCAPE:

«Establecer relaciones entre la historia de los hombres, la dinámica de la economía y la historia
de la ordenación de los ruidos en códigos; predecir la evolución de aquella mediante las formas
de esta; interpenetrar lo económico y lo estético; mostrar que la música es profética y que la
organización social es su eco […] En ese mapa, y para abreviar, se verá que se pueden distinguir
tres zonas, tres etapas, tres utilizaciones estratégicas de la música por el poder. Una en la que
todo ocurre como si la música fuese utilizada y producida en el ritual para tratar de hacer olvidar
la violencia general; luego otra en la que se utiliza para hacer creer en la armonía del mundo, en
el orden del intercambio, en la legitimidad del poder mercantil; luego otra, por fin, en que sirve
para hacer callar, produciendo en serie una música ensordecedora y sincrética, censurando el
resto de los ruidos de los hombres» → J. Attali, Ruidos. Ensayo sobre la economía política de la
música, p. 40

Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar Games (2010) → Ai de veres ja no m’estic enterant de res no
puc més

MUSIC LEVELS AND SOUNDSCAPE - HIGH FIDELITY vs LOW FIDELITY:

«High fidelity, that is, a favorable signal-to-noise ratio. The most general use of the term is in
electroacoustics. Applied to soundscape studies a hi-fi environment is one in which sounds may
be heard clearly without crowding or masking» vs «Low fidelity, that is, an unfavorable signal-
to-noise ratio. Applied to soundscape studies a lo-fi environment is one in which signals are
overcrowded, resulting in masking or lack of clarity» → R. Murray Schafer, Soundscape,
Glossary, p. 272

North by Northwest, Alfred Hitchcock + Bernard Herrmann (1959) → We can listen to the sound
of the menace. We are much more involved in what the character is experiencing in the scene.
Musical silence.

KEYNOTE SOUNDS / BACKGROUND / FOND:

«In soundscape studies, keynote sounds are those which are heard by a particular society
continuously or frequently enough to form a background against which other sounds are
perceived. Examples might be the sound of the sea for a maritime community or the sound of
the internal combustion engine in the modern city. They have accordingly been linked to the
ground in the figure-ground grouping of visual perception» → R. Murray Schafer, Soundscape,
Glossary, p. 272

SIGNALS / FOREGROUND / FIGURE:

«Signals are foreground sounds and they are listened to consciously. In terms of the
psychologist, they are figure rather than ground. Any sound can be listened to consciously, and
so any sound can become a figure or signal, but for the purposes of our community-oriented
study we will confine ourselves to mentioning some of those signals which must be listened to
because they constitute acoustic warning devices: bells, whistles, horns and sirens» → R. Murray
Schafer, Soundscape, p. 10
Zidane, un portrait du 21e siècle, Gordon/Parreno + Mogwai (2006) // The Innocents, Jack
Clayton + Georges Auric (1961) → In the first, we get direct sound of the stadium. Mira esque
me la suda el futbol sorry.

SPACE /// PLAYING IN CIRCLES :

Dead Man, Jim Jarmusch + Neil Young (1995) → “I had the film projected on TV screens, and I
had, like, about 20 TVs all around me, big ones, little ones, tiny little portables, and wide screens
and everything hanging from the ceiling in a big semicircle all the way around me. No, in full
circle. And then I had my instruments inside the circle. So the instruments were always close
enough for me to go from one to another, and they were all set up and the levels were all set,
and everything was recording. So the film started, and I started playing […] The theme was very
simple. It only had three notes in it, so I just, you know, replayed it, repeated it in different ways
and explored it live during the playback of the film” → Neil Young about recording for Dead Man
(Jim Jarmusch), Fresh Air, 2004

MUSIC QUESTIONS VISUAL SPACE:

“Music has often been used instead of realistic sound to modulate space, using its own unique
codes: this is one of its main functions, that is rarely talked about. Cinema has the ability to
express a lot with close shots, far long shots, depth of field or, conversely, become flat, thus
modulating space. Sometimes, music expands what is seen, and suggests the space that images
can’t or don’t want to represent” → MICHEL CHION [1997] LA MÚSICA EN EL CINE

Du Levande, Roy Andersson + Benny Andersson (2007) → Non-professional actors, Andersson

made the castings in Ikea.