Unit 1 - Functions of Film Music
- 2. To Reflect Emotion
A device often used by composers of film music is to underscore the early parts of a film with a dramatic love theme.
Love theme as heard in the movie.....
- 3. Create Unspoken Thoughts of a Character or Unseen Implications of a Situation
A scene from the 1943 film The Song of Bernadette demonstrates such as case by composer Alfred Newman (1900-1970).
A wordless choir is used to give an ethereal, out-of-this-world implication of the moment. Newman scored this scene with religious-sounding underscoring.
A wordless choir is a common technique among Hollywood film composers for involving either religious themes or fantasy-type scenarios. The chorus sings without text and usually on the vowel sound "ah."
4. Parallel or Underscore the Action
Also known as "Mickey Mousing".
A scene from the 1959 film Ben-Hur depicts slaves rowing their oars inside the Roman galleys. As the Roman commander demands the slaves to increase the speed at which they row, the film music of composer Miklos Rozsa (1907-1995) also increases in speed (paralleling the action).
It is not unusual to have several functions of film music overlapping one another and coexisting within the same scene.
In cartoons "Mickey Mousing" is more greatly pronounced and parallels nearly every movement on screen.
Also known as "Mickey Mousing".
A scene from the 1959 film Ben-Hur depicts slaves rowing their oars inside the Roman galleys. As the Roman commander demands the slaves to increase the speed at which they row, the film music of composer Miklos Rozsa (1907-1995) also increases in speed (paralleling the action).
It is not unusual to have several functions of film music overlapping one another and coexisting within the same scene.
In cartoons "Mickey Mousing" is more greatly pronounced and parallels nearly every movement on screen.
- 5. To Create Atmosphere of Time and Place
Miklos Rosza lends the sound of ancient Rome to the event through the use of brass and Roman percussion.....