Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music. By Claudia Gorbman. Music as a Narrational Tool
Claudia Gorbman comments on the fact that the introduction of music into film from 1927 to 1931 was a novelty that was not welcome by all. Silent films were still the norm and popular. Music often was included as a soundtrack and dialogue was omitted or intermittent. The 'Talkies' often did not include music and if they did it was of the accompanying sort. Few seem to have grasped the notion that adding music to film would have an appeal as strong, if not stronger as synchronised dialogue. Gorbman sets out to challenge established assumptions about soundtrack history and strongly places music as a narrational tool.
Music as entertainment was nothing new, so when silent cinema was added to the menu, it was natural for music to accompany it. From 1911 onwards cue sheets regularised music improvisation till technology made it possible to synchronise image and sound. Gorbman demonstrates how technological innovation history moulded sound theory in film. She ponders on theories that state that music came in handy to drown the noise of the projector or to re-animate the 'ghostly' images of photographed reality. She does not dismiss the technical and semiotic functions of film music but decides to explore music under a psychoanalytic lens.
Music as entertainment was nothing new, so when silent cinema was added to the menu, it was natural for music to accompany it. From 1911 onwards cue sheets regularised music improvisation till technology made it possible to synchronise image and sound. Gorbman demonstrates how technological innovation history moulded sound theory in film. She ponders on theories that state that music came in handy to drown the noise of the projector or to re-animate the 'ghostly' images of photographed reality. She does not dismiss the technical and semiotic functions of film music but decides to explore music under a psychoanalytic lens.
Points of Experience
Gorbman believes that music has to remain unnoticed to be effective and therefore seems to align herself to Chion's belief of sound as an Added Value. Her argument is based on the fact that music is cut and changed to suit the duration of a sequence and that music cues are determined by visual action. She suggests that music creates 'points of experience' just like the the image captures a Point of View. This shapes the viewer's or listener's reaction or reading of the film. Gorbman tries to trace recognisable and conservative stereotypes of music moods and emotion in a number of Hollywood films. She illustrates how soundtracks use themes to
Gorbman believes that music has to remain unnoticed to be effective and therefore seems to align herself to Chion's belief of sound as an Added Value. Her argument is based on the fact that music is cut and changed to suit the duration of a sequence and that music cues are determined by visual action. She suggests that music creates 'points of experience' just like the the image captures a Point of View. This shapes the viewer's or listener's reaction or reading of the film. Gorbman tries to trace recognisable and conservative stereotypes of music moods and emotion in a number of Hollywood films. She illustrates how soundtracks use themes to
- Provide continuity
- Provide topping and tailing
- Provide background
- Act as an alternative to verbal cues
- Provide a referent: e.g. through the use of the leitmotif.
Diegetic and Non-Diegetic
Gorbman also claims that there are two forms of music in film; The diegetic and the non-diegetic, but understands that there is too thin a line between the two as a pan or cut away from the sound source in the image immediately raises questions about whether the music is still diegetic or not. However, she shows how, whether diegetic or non-diegetic music usually is introduced to accentuate a specific action or sound-effect followed by a fade out or cut with a change in action or dramatic change. She also points out that there must be a moment of musical absence ( a time-lapse) before another piece of music can be introduced in a different key.
Possible relationships between the Music and the Image.
Eisler's Conventional Approach
Parallelism involves use of music to reinforce or 'enact' aspects of the action such as pace, upwards-and-downwards movement, acceleration, etc., and in marked forms is known as 'mickey-mousing', or comic mimicry.
Counterpoint, on the other hand, involves using music against the pace or mood of the action, and
in marked forms becomes either what Gorbman calls 'anempathetic' music, impervious to changes
in tone or mood in the image, or else 'political' soundtrack along lines proposed by Eisler.
Counterpoint, on the other hand, involves using music against the pace or mood of the action, and
in marked forms becomes either what Gorbman calls 'anempathetic' music, impervious to changes
in tone or mood in the image, or else 'political' soundtrack along lines proposed by Eisler.
Gorbman's Criticism of Eisler's Approach.
Mutual implication which is close to Chion's concept of added value. Music therefore adds an effect of
some kind, by interpreting the image in terms of emotion and cultural reference like a caption to a
photograph, narrowing and filtering interpretation and anchoring the image against polysemy. By
changing the music accompanying images and monitoring the effect, this complexity is very easy to see. These mutual implications clearly show what can happen when the conventions are disrupted.
Alan Durant from the University of Strathclyde states that 'The move from ideas of 'parallelism' and 'counterpoint' to 'mutual implication' is the most exciting aspect of UNHEARD MELODIES, even though it is not given particular emphasis or explored in depth. But it also marks the horizon of Claudia Gorbman's research, since the range of effects which become possible with 'mutual implication' suddenly overspill the necessarily simplificatory categories of her 'interpretative' descriptions. Musical connotations, for example, do not form a static social consensus in the way that UNHEARD MELODIES suggests they do (c.f. p.12, pp.17-18, or p.83): one person's agonising dissonance can be another person's trite nostalgia. If 'mutual implication' is to be a useful analytic concept, it needs to be worked out as a specific cognitive
process of combining inferences about meaning at filmic levels other than the musical with associations and inferences about musical connotation which are partly cultural and partly individual. The value of describing culturally established connotations is beyond doubt, since they define the area of shared social response which is a precondition of popular cinema's cultural and commercial success; but it is equally necessary to account for the interpretative latitude caused by differences in individual experience, associations and memories, which often lead collectively to very divergent, sometimes conflicting, feelings and responses.
The bottom line seems to be that there seems to be a problem with sweeping statements about any possible stereotypical response to music because music is subjective.
photograph, narrowing and filtering interpretation and anchoring the image against polysemy. By
changing the music accompanying images and monitoring the effect, this complexity is very easy to see. These mutual implications clearly show what can happen when the conventions are disrupted.
Alan Durant from the University of Strathclyde states that 'The move from ideas of 'parallelism' and 'counterpoint' to 'mutual implication' is the most exciting aspect of UNHEARD MELODIES, even though it is not given particular emphasis or explored in depth. But it also marks the horizon of Claudia Gorbman's research, since the range of effects which become possible with 'mutual implication' suddenly overspill the necessarily simplificatory categories of her 'interpretative' descriptions. Musical connotations, for example, do not form a static social consensus in the way that UNHEARD MELODIES suggests they do (c.f. p.12, pp.17-18, or p.83): one person's agonising dissonance can be another person's trite nostalgia. If 'mutual implication' is to be a useful analytic concept, it needs to be worked out as a specific cognitive
process of combining inferences about meaning at filmic levels other than the musical with associations and inferences about musical connotation which are partly cultural and partly individual. The value of describing culturally established connotations is beyond doubt, since they define the area of shared social response which is a precondition of popular cinema's cultural and commercial success; but it is equally necessary to account for the interpretative latitude caused by differences in individual experience, associations and memories, which often lead collectively to very divergent, sometimes conflicting, feelings and responses.
The bottom line seems to be that there seems to be a problem with sweeping statements about any possible stereotypical response to music because music is subjective.
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