{"id":21,"date":"2010-05-31T09:00:04","date_gmt":"2010-05-31T08:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/?p=21"},"modified":"2010-05-31T11:58:11","modified_gmt":"2010-05-31T10:58:11","slug":"emotion-on-tap-the-appeal-of-film-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2010\/05\/31\/emotion-on-tap-the-appeal-of-film-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Emotion on tap: the appeal of film music."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Whilst listening to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/music\/joining\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">University Concert Band<\/a> performing a suite from the score to the film <em>Gladiator <\/em>at a recent concert, I was struck anew by the allure that film music has for me. On browsing through my array of CDs later on, I realised that a large part of my listening library is devoted to film scores, from the spooky Classicism of <em>Hannibal<\/em> to the robust menace of <em><a href=\"http:\/\/play.last.fm\/preview\/121462008.mp3\" target=\"_blank\">Gladiator<\/a><\/em> and <em>Jurassic<\/em><em> Park<\/em>, the ethereal mystery of <em><a href=\"http:\/\/play.last.fm\/preview\/1446483.mp3\" target=\"_blank\">Solaris<\/a><\/em> or the innocent jollity of <em><a href=\"http:\/\/play.last.fm\/preview\/2894676.mp3\" target=\"_blank\">Amelie<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"kent-video-wrapper\"><span class='embed-youtube' style='text-align:center; display: block;'><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text\/html' width='474' height='297' src='https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZKVOLND7ZEM?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen='true'><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>What is it about film music that appeals ? On reflection, I\u00a0suspect it might be the immediacy of the emotion it conjures, the instant creation of a mood or effect. Unlike traditional classical music, film scores don\u2019t rely on musical form and architecture in the same way as, say, a symphony or a piano sonata. Film music, at least non-diagetic film music, is used because a director wants to enhance the emotion of a particular scene, and the music has to respond immediately. There is no room for traditional forms such as sonata form \u2013 exposition, development, recapitulation \u2013 which is all about presenting ideas, developing them, setting up tonal or harmonic relationships, and then providing a resolution in a coda. Think of the menace of the creeping semi-tone in <em>Jaws<\/em>, or the shrieking strings in Bernard Hermann\u2019s music to <a href=\"http:\/\/play.last.fm\/preview\/12912405.mp3\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Psycho<\/em><\/a><em>:<\/em> the effect is immediate.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, diagetic music can do this as well: I\u2019m thinking of that scene in Riidley Scott\u2019s beautiful <em>Hannibal<\/em>, where the sound of the theme from Bach\u2019s glorious <em>Goldberg Variations<\/em> seeps into the soundtrack, and the camera tracks across the room to reveal Lecter himself playing the piece as he muses on the letter he has just written to Starling. The piece is a favourite of Lecter\u2019s, as we know from <em>The Silence of the Lambs<\/em> when he plays it on a tape-recorder in the prison-cage. The beauty of Bach\u2019s melody stands in stark contrast to the environment in which it appears: Lecter\u2019s private residence, or the cage-prison, and the figure of Lecter himself. (This video of Gould performing the Aria uncannily mirrors something of the tracking effect Scott uses in the film: I wonder if he&#8217;d seen it ?).<\/p>\n<div class=\"kent-video-wrapper\"><span class='embed-youtube' style='text-align:center; display: block;'><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text\/html' width='474' height='297' src='https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Gv94m_S3QDo?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen='true'><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>So what film music looms large in your library, and why\u00a0?<\/p>\n<p>(Audio excerpts from preview tracks at <strong>LastFM<\/strong>).<\/p>\n<ul class=\"kent-social-links\"><li><a href='http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2010\/05\/31\/emotion-on-tap-the-appeal-of-film-music\/&amp;t=Emotion on tap: the appeal of film music.' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-facebook' title='Share via Facebook'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='http:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=Emotion on tap: the appeal of film music.%20https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2010\/05\/31\/emotion-on-tap-the-appeal-of-film-music\/' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-twitter' title='Share via Twitter'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='https:\/\/plus.google.com\/share?url=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2010\/05\/31\/emotion-on-tap-the-appeal-of-film-music\/' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-google-plus' title='Share via Google Plus'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='http:\/\/linkedin.com\/shareArticle?mini=true&amp;url=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2010\/05\/31\/emotion-on-tap-the-appeal-of-film-music\/&amp;title=Emotion on tap: the appeal of film music.' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-linkedin' title='Share via Linked In'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='mailto:content=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2010\/05\/31\/emotion-on-tap-the-appeal-of-film-music\/&amp;title=Emotion on tap: the appeal of film music.' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-email' title='Share via Email'><\/i><\/a><\/li><\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whilst listening to the University Concert Band performing a suite from the score to the film Gladiator at a recent concert, I was struck anew by the allure that film music has for me. On browsing through my array of CDs later on, I realised that a large part of my listening library is devoted &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2010\/05\/31\/emotion-on-tap-the-appeal-of-film-music\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Emotion on tap: the appeal of film music.<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":620,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1110],"tags":[919,920,922,921],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/620"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":44,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1187,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions\/1187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}