And Sound or Rather Music in Film

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Part 1
  1. An argument for the need to know your music as a film director.
  2. The Theory behind Film Music
  3. Music in Film Studies
  4. Aaron Copeland Five Ways in Which Music Serves the Screen.
  5. Michel Chion and Audio-Vision.
  6. An Introduction to Ear-Vision
  7. Main Take-aways

Film is a medium of communication and artistic value and every artist chooses a medium to confront his audience. It obviously follows that an artist must be sensitive and knowledgeable about other art forms, especially if one wants to incorporate these into one's medium of choice. This implies that no film director will be successful if one is not sensitive and knowledgeable about the other artistic forms one incorporates. A good director must therefore be artistic in nature, knowledgeable, sensitive and intuitive to acting, literature, art and music together with the mechanics of film making, like editing, montage, lighting and effects. Indeed, anyone in film making must respect all elements that go into a film. This is basically  why I decided that I could not make music for film if I did not immerse myself into all the elements that go into film making. 



These distinguished analysts have brought many an issue about Cinematic essence to the table. 
  • Béla Balázs states that silent film is not bound by language barriers. 
  • Rudolph Arnheim understands that a silent image or object still 'talks' to us. 
  • René Clair believes that the face of the listener is as eloquent if not more eloquent than the image focussed on the speaker. 
I will try to give you a musician’s perspective of music and its role in Image and Sound. Try to imagine how a musician might feel if he or she had to meet one of these influential people and find that that they have little to say about Music in film if at all? 

The musician’s perspective realises that these statements may also reflect how music works in the Cinematic image. Music is not bound by language barriers. In fact, most film music does not use words and even when it does, it does not create a barrier. Music also 'talks' to us in ways that the image cannot and may at times be more eloquent or as eloquent as the most intriguing image. 

On the other hand, when Music is mentioned, Sergei Eisenstein, V. I. Pudovkin, René Clair, and Alberto Cavalcanti deplored films that employed sound in a slavish, unimaginative way, by matching every sound to its on-screen source. but admitted that the addition of music, sound effects, and even the spoken word could potentially enhance the power of the film image if most of the sounds were non-synchronous that is in counterpoint to the image, creating a clash, a felt disparity, between what was seen and what was heard.

It is a little bit harsh to be told that sound, including music is there to either match or simply to enhance the film through its asynchronous use. Have I dedicated my whole life to create something that aids, colours or augments film, rather than creating an art in its own right? This problem became evident as more and more music found itself into film.




  • André Bazin sees sound (music) as A Cinematic natural extension of what he calls its 'inherent realism.' 
  • Karel Reisz likewise relegates music to enhancing Cinematic realism and aiding the narrative.
Paradoxically, these positive comments are indeed negative because they try to find a role for music to play in the cinema, one inferior to that of the image. The musician’s perspective remains that music, like cinema is an art that should stand on its own feet. 

A Disclaimer

This is where, some knowledge of the history and theory behind Image and Sound comes in handy. From an analytical viewpoint, Cinema was already problematic at its very conception. Unlike the other arts it relied on modern technology which was a hell for technophobes – perhaps a concept as alien as AI for some people today for example. To make matters worse it would not stop at innovations in image technology but moved on from added live musical accompaniment to the incorporation of sound into film. For these pioneering analysts, the fact that the photograph came first, and the moving image came second was extremely important. Obviously nowadays, we understand the fact that silent films were never silent, and we obviously value the partnership of an intermeshing of image and sound. My contention remains that early theorist’s negative approach to sound still affects film studies with less curriculum material dedicated to sound and more to the image.

Check this summary of a History of Music in Film

Music in the Field of Film Studies.
The video below is a brief summary of how film studies stereotypically approach the role of music in film. (John Nugent is a journalist and editor, based in London. He is currently Reviews Editor at Empire Magazine, the world's best-selling movie magazine.)

 


This video essay by John Nugent understands that music has always accompanied film, at least in the shape of a piano player who played improvised or score sheet music to accompany the film. The essay hones onto the use of a diminished minor chord for the villain's entry, an uplifting anthem for the hero, fast tempo for chase scenes and slow sombre melodies for sad scenes. The essay then goes on to illustrate how this still happens in contemporary cinema. At first glance the essay seems to be very convincing but as a musician I would find such instructions confusing.





What makes a diminished minor chord eerie? Many composers have given us their most soulful and beautiful pieces in diminished minor chords.
What music defines an anthem? If one listens to various anthems, one will find all sorts of chords and tempos being used.
What is a fast tempo? Tempo is about Beats per Minute, but I could play one long note for the duration of a 180BPM beat which would make the music feel slow or staccato notes on a slower 70BPM beat.
If you are a film director, I strongly recommend giving your Sound or Music Director better instructions than sombre, sad, fast etc. In the field of music as in the field of language, these are vague and subjective terms. 


The essay tries to prove its argument by turning to Aaron Copeland's Five Ways in Which music serves the screen.



In all fairness, the essay does state that Copeland's statements cover music that is mainly used in the background. Once again, a musician's perspective is useful to define background music. Very often referred to as cocktail music it is meant to be played in an entertainment spot. The musicians are very careful not to be louder than the patrons, so as not to interrupt patrons socialising. They also try not to employ abrupt changes of tempo or rhythm, so as not to distract their audience or bring attention onto the music. This might not be very encouraging for a musician who wants to compose music that makes an impact, but it does shed a light on how music works in a film. The problem starts when the music used is not intended to stay in the background. 



Aaron Copeland's 5 ways are interesting and do reflect ways that music works in a film, but they are not adequate or extensive enough with regards to music that takes over the film and a history of film music that has challenged these ideas. To be fair, one must remember that Copeland was writing in 1949, a mere 22 years after the bonding of Image and Sound was launched in 1927 with The Jazz Singer. By the 1980's Michel Chion introduced the concept of Audio-Vision, rather than Image and Sound. There is no reference to music serving the image, but in music determining, influencing, making a difference and noticing something more or something else in the image. This is an approach where there is a synthesis, a marriage of cinematic elements. An understanding that these elements all work in tandem: Silence, Light, Darkness, Sound. 

Chion changed 'And Sound' to Audio-Vision; The term Audio underlines its various categories: Atmosphere, Dialogue, Sound Effects and Music. These may be Diegetic or Non-Diegetic, Onscreen or offscreen. Silence is another world in itself.  The cinematic world started to unravel the mysteries of this turbulent synchresis or marriage of Image and Sound.
I strongly recommend reading Michel Chion's The Voice in the Cinema and Audio Vision. 
Claudia Gorbman's Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music. 

An Introduction to Ear-Vision




This is why this argument here is Rather about Music in Film. In fact I want to try and transpose Chion's concept of Audio-Vision to the idea of Ear Vision by focusing solely on music.

  • Merleau-Ponty's concept of a ghost as ‘the kind of perception made by only 1 sense.’
  • Persistence of vision is an optical illusion where the human eye perceives the continued presence of an image after it has disappeared from view. This optical effect described by English-Swiss physicist Peter Mark Roget was adopted by Talbot and Gunning and later debunked by Film analysts. Today ‘“The persistence of vision” exemplifies . . . visual illusions as primarily a physiological phenomenon . . . As an explanation of the phenomenon of apparent motion it has now been basically discarded, but still must be dealt with as a revealing historical and cultural legacy (and one that displays its own phantom persistence . . .’ Fisher Anderson Joseph and Barbara. The Myth of Persistence of Vision,’ Journal of the University Film Association 4 Fall 1978. pp. 3-8 This is commonly referred to as Phantom Persistency. Perhaps Music is in itself a Phantom Persistence.
  • Chion draws on ‘The Invisible Man,’ where Griffin, like sound or music is invisible but always present. To leave an impression on film is to be stamped with the seal of death that film places on those it captures. (Chion. Pp.128)
  • The concept of the Acousmêtre in the music, as ‘an acousmatic character that involves a specific kind of ambiguity and oscillation.’ (Chion. Pp.128)
  • Perhaps music has the panoptic power of ‘seeing-all', an omniscience and ubiquity that allows it to traverse any boundary beyond the screen – but also has the omnipotence to act on a situation.
  • Perhaps music is what Chion calls a ‘paradoxical Acousmêtre,’ one that allows no complete understanding. Music indeed stubbornly refuses any resolution.
  • Chio describes the effect of Phantom Sound as a perception filled with all the micromovements in the image – and its associations.
  • Ridley Scott ‘The Ear that is the Eye.’
  • Goddard ‘Visualists of the Ear’ - ‘Auditives of the Eye.’
So let us move on from the theoretical to some hands-on aspects. Before we move on to film itself, I would like you to think about this question.

1 How does the ear see when vision is impaired?

What would you see if your eyes were blindfolded or if you realise that something is happening around you but your limited view does not allow you to see?

There sees to be this desperate hunting of the eyes following the ear's instructions.

2 How does Music allow the ear to see in the absence of the image?

Try to close you eyes or look away from the screen before playing the video below.
Answer these questions:
  • How do you feel when you listen to these sounds?
  • What thing can produce such a sound?
  • What type or genre of film could it be?
  • What is happening at the moment?
  • Can you picture the scene and the characters?

There is no scientific explanation for what you think that you have experienced. The obvious explanation is the existence of preconceptions or pre-formed associations. Film and theatre have long established certain melodies to accompany certain scenes. Consensus on the type of film and scene imply pre-conditioning of the cinematic experience. A non-consensus boils down to personal and subjective pre-conceptions or associations through one's own musical experience.

3 What happens when Ear and Eye merge?

I would like to underline that we do not always see what we hear nor hear what we see. To use Chion’s own words there is always an Audio-Vision working in tandem within our life experiences. 


4 What happens when Music marries the Image?

Let us look at some explicit ways demonstrating how music affects the moving images. This is what happens when different music is applied to a scene. How does ear vision work?
Info: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. 2003. Gore Verbinski Director. Music: The Medallion Calls by Klaus Badelt Producer: Hans Zimmerman.


Does Music 
  • Determine the effect of a film?
  • Influences our perception of images? 
  • Make us notice different things in the same image when it is accompanied by different sounds? 
  • Make us notice otherwise insignificant elements of an image?
If I have managed to convince you that it does, it does not determine what is happening and why?

Triumphant music:

Captain Jack Sparrow is a definite hero. We follow his jump as he stomps in the water to bail the boat. The audience experience a long shot focus on the whole picture, but with Sparrow at the centre of attention.

Scary music: 

Eyes scatter all over the screen seeking something beyond the character. It seems to induce something similar to impairment of vision, although the image is clear. The camera movement and cuts become more visible. We anticipate more than follow. We are expecting a shark or something to jump out of the water. We linger on the dead men hanging. A wide shot, indeed, one that makes us 'look' beyond the screen. If only we has eyes at the back of our heads. It seems to unhook the screen in front of our eyes and makes us unhappy with the director's chosen framing of the scene. It is as if the director has put blinkers on our side to prevent us from seeing what we crave to see.

Comical music: 

Sparrow seems to be dancing. Our focus narrows on his facial expressions.Ear vision interprets mid shots into and long shots as close-ups. No threat here. All gestures seem to be overtly theatrical. 

Sad Music:

This works like the comical music close-up interpretation focus, but with a difference. The theatrical gestures have disappeared and the facial expressions automatically feel sad and nostalgic. This is a picture of a lonely sailor wistfully looking at his lost friends hanging in the breeze. 


5 What happens when Music divorces the film?

Let us look at the real music score lurking around a real film. In the following video, Richard Dreyfuss hosts John Williams to conduct a scene from Spielberg's 1975 film, Jaws 1. One can see what the scene looked like before the music was added and the end result.



The scene seems to drag. There is no momentum and the action turns flat. Interestingly I find myself paying more attention to different cuts, counter shots and montage. On the other hand, when the images marry Williams’ music (Much like Hermann’s Psycho mutandos and staccatos) they produce tension. The counter shots are in time with counterpoints in the music and look extremely natural. The scene runs faster and seems shorter. Once the barrel is in the water the music changes to an easier flowing rhythm introducing not only a new cut but a new mood and setting, i.e. a new narrative introduced by a new movement. 

Main Takeaways

If understanding Cinema is indeed possible, this can only happen through a phenomenological and analytical side to film. It needs to come from both an exposure to a cinematic experience and an exposure to analysis and theory. 

Music seems to thrive all around us. It is not simply a man's idle creation. It can be found all around us on earth, in the cosmos, under the sea and within molecules and cells. Our perceptions of what is music and why man is so attracted by it is unfathomable. Some will call it a universal language, others a science whilst many will refute either claim. Below is a list of indisputable facts, that I have compiled after some intensive reading into the matter.



  • Music is a universal medium of communication. 
  • Music may not always be comprehended but it 'talks' to our emotions, feelings, conscious and unconscious spirit. 
  • Music came before film. 
  • Music has always been incorporated into other artistic media and is the artistic medium that accompanies or enhances all forms of art. 
  • Biologically the sense of hearing is the one of the first senses to be developed by any mammal embryo. Most mammals are born blind – human infants need to train their eyesight to be able to see. 
  • Medically music has been proved to have positive and negative effects on all forms of life and can heal a variety of mental disorders. 
  • In the Bible God said, “Let there be light” but this implies the sound of the word before light, just as the aptly named Lumiere brothers gave light to the Movement image in 1895 long after music. 
  • Before man ever learnt to speak or to communicate, he could hear sound. He could distinguish that sound and he could produce any sounds that he fancied. 
  • Music is the control of waves which apply important principles of physics. (How Stuff Works) 
  • Music is a mathematical formula, an interaction of sounds, tempo and pitch. (BNB Music Lessons) 
  • Planets produce music in the cosmos, molecules and atoms produce sounds when they react. 
  • Music is a science that has still to be revealed. There are a lot of theories and a lot of experiments that have been put forward but it remains a largely unknown and un-mastered field. 

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