Music and Cinema: Activities

December 28, 1895 was a red-letter day in the realm of human artistic endeavor. On that date, a captivated audience watched images projected on a screen by the Lumière brothers from a cinematograph. This initial film experience did not take place in total silence. A pianist improvised to the images flickering on the screen, partly to mask the intrusive noise from the projector, which had no soundproofing, and partly to provide the observers with a means to transcend their daily lives and enter another world.

With the advent of the “talkies,” piano improvisers were no longer needed, as sound was now recorded directly on tape, which became an essential and integral part of the process. Now it became vital for a composer to establish a close working relationship with the director before even thinking about what kind of music he was going to write. Above all, he had to understand the role music would play in a particular scene or episode. Music could by turns underscore the storyline, suggest movement, anticipate an upcoming event, depict a scene (introducing the listener to a particular cultural, social or historical milieu), provide a counterpoint to the storyline (either as a musical synopsis of or as a blatant contradiction to what’s on the screen), express the actors’ emotions, or serve as an emotional or symbolic guideline, much in the manner of Wagner’s leitmotifs.

The world of film music is constantly evolving. Thirty or forty years ago, when “serious” classical musicians talked about film scores, they made no effort to hide their disdain, calling it third-class music. Today, its quality is no longer in question, and one can speak of it as an art form in its own right. Hence, it is hardly surprising that a number of famous composers have considered it a worthy challenge.

As music speaks above all to the unconscious, the best film scores are often those that do not call undue attention to themselves, contributing an additional layer of meaning to the film without overpowering it. Nevertheless, there still remain those major scores that stay in our minds, sometimes for years after details of the film have faded from memory. Is this not how we remember the music of John Williams, winner of five Oscars and composer of scores to E.T., Star Wars, Harry Potter, Jaws and others?

Rather than collaborating with living composers, some directors prefer to draw upon the existing classical repertory to adorn their cinematography. Such is the case with Luchino Visconti and the famous Adagietto from Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, or the rosy, romantic scene in Elvira Madigan from the Swedish director Bo Widerberg, who used Mozart’s Piano Concerto K. 467. One work in the NAC Orchestra’s Collection has been used by film directors repeatedly over the years, the Adagio for Strings by American composer Samuel Barber. Ever since its premiere in 1938, music lovers have taken this powerfully moving work to their hearts. It has been used in such films as Oliver Stone’s Platoon, David Lynch’s Elephant Man and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amélie. The composer’s own arrangement for chorus was used in the video game Homeworld, and it has even been turned into club music for the benefit of late-night carousers.

In The Classroom...

Activity 1: The challenge of combining music and film

This activity is appropriate for Grades 9 and 10

For this activity, you will need to answer the following questions:

1. How does music influence our visual perception?

2. How is music used in film to advance the story and in advertising to induce us to buy something?

The class can begin by watching a fifteen-to-twenty minute segment of a film (it can be music-related or not) or television show (including advertisements), remaining constantly alert as to how the music being used. Then answer the following questions:

For a film excerpt:

1. Was music used continuously from beginning to end? If not, when?

2. Did the music tell you what was going to happen next? Did it add another dimension to the storyline?

3. Would you have treated the sound track the same way? If not, what changes would you have made?

4.  

For a television segment:

Same questions as above plus the following:

1. Some shows use a “theme song” at the beginning and end but not during the show. What is the function of this theme song?

2. What was advertised during the commercial breaks? Did music play a role? If so, what kind of music?

3. Why do you think this kind of music was chosen? What kind of audience was the advertiser trying to reach?

4. Do you think the musical selections were effective?

5. Sometimes advertisers use well-known music, often drawn from the classical repertory. Why? Can you think of an example?

6. When you hear that piece of music again somewhere, do you automatically think of the commercial?

Activity 2: Combining images with music

This activity is appropriate for Grades 11 and 12

Composers of film music generally do their work after the director has finishing shooting the film. But sometimes it works the other way around. For example, Walt Disney used classical music throughout his 1940 film Fantasia. A few years ago, when Disney Studios shot Fantasia 2000, they reused the sequence of Micky Mouse as the sorcerer’s apprentice, set to the music of Paul Dukas. Through the use of digital cameras and computer programs like iMovie or simply by using an image bank and a Powerpoint program, students can make their own films incorporating music as an important element. You can make a short film (or PowerPoint presentation) freely based on part or all of one of the following suggested musical selections. You might also use the music as the sound track for a televised promotion of the NAC Orchestra.

Suggested excerpts to use:

Beethoven: Violin Sonata No. 5 (Spring) (1st movement)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 (1st movement)
Bruch: Scottish Fantasy (Allegro)
Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 (New World) (2nd, 3rd or 4th movement)
Louie: Infinite Sky with Birds
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2 (2nd movement)
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons (any movement from any season)