An Unhappy Marriage

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There is an old tradition that the better a motion picture score is, the less attention it attracts. This is one of the oldest superstitions in Hollywood and leaves me rather in the position of the king in the old fable who flattered himself on his finery when really he had nothing on at all. For I cannot bring myself to believe that the moment one becomes aware of the "background music" in a motion picture it has already ceased to fulfill its function. Source: Copeland, Aaron. The Aims of Music for Films. New York Times. March 10 1940

The question then is: What is the function of music? 'Five ways in which music serves the screen' is Aaron Copleand's attempt to define these functions.

  1. Creating a more convincing atmosphere of time and place.
  2. Underlining psychological refinement
  3. Serving as a kind of neutral background filler.
  4. Building a sense of continuity.
  5. Underpinning the theatrical build-up of a scene, and rounding it off with a sense of finality.

Arguably the most acknowledged authority on the subject is Michel Chion who introduced the idea of sound and music as offering

  • Added Value. When combined, sound and image create a total effect that is greater than the sum of its parts.
  • A Counterpoint and Companion.
  • Lending a Context

Michel Chion even thought of Music as a 2nd Keypoint of Sound. He claims that music may be used two ways in film: 
  • Empathetic (following the rhythms, tone, and emotion of the scene with which it is presented)
  • Anempathetic (music that proceeds steadily, indifferent to the scene which it is supposedly representing).
Michel Chion is also famous for his notion of Temporality
  • "Temporal animation," the ability of sound to change the viewers perception of the image from fluttering to static.
  • "Temporal linearization," sound giving comprehensive logic to a discombobulated and disconcerting order of action.
  • Sound "Vectorizes" scenes, driving them towards an ultimate goal or understandable ending.
Michel Chion slowly moved away from the concept of music as a function to music having an impact. He suggested 4 Ways Sound Can Impact Film 
  • Sustain: Varied or Regular
  • Predictability
  • Tempo
  • Sound Definition: Timbre or Frequency
Finally Chion introduces a Theory of Reciprocity where he admits that each (Image and Sound) changes the perception of the other, but always in an equal proportion. Thus, sound reaches its full potential only through the lenses of added value.

This marks one of Chion's important concepts that of Synchresis. The mutual marriage of image and sound.

The very notion of a marriage should reflect two partners that work in tandem. I have a problem with believing that any partner in such a bond would like to think of oneself as giving only an Added Value to give more authenticity, to help refine, to serve as a filler or background, to help continuity editing to the image as Copleland states. Chion comes closer although he relegates music to a companion, counterpoint - even as playing 2nd Fiddle to sound. There is another problem with the term Empathetic and Anempathetic because one cannot suppose that sound can be indifferent to the image because it has sewn into the edited fabric of the film. I see this marriage as one where Synchresis happens in an atmosphere of mutual orchestration that reflects harmony and disharmony between the two, but both steer towards that same ending and control the narrative. 

This sceptical view of accepted assumptions about film can be traced in the works of Claudia Gorbman Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music and Rick Altman's Four and a Half Film Fallacies. (Read the introduction below.) Both ascribe the failings of analytical and critical theory as being moulded on a history of technological innovation where image came before sound. This gives the image the upper hand over the sound in this uneasy marriage, rather than one of intermeshed partners with an equal potential to harmonise, compete or compliment each other. 

Source

  1. The Historical Fallacy
  2. The Ontological Fallacy
  3. The Reproductive Fallacy
  4. The Nominalist Fallacy
     4 ½. Indexicality. Half a Fallacy working on the Other Half

Synchresis by Mario Cordina (Anidroc)


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