Michael Chanan wrote:
> it [music] introduces the problematic of the supplement into the
diegesis
> itself - especially when it's music which pre-exists the film -
because
> it brings its own set of codes and connotations that come from outside
> and beyond the screen. But of course this is also true of all of a
> film's music, which is always already inscribed with the associations
> that belong to its afilmic cultural location.
Yes, but isn't this true of all elements of film? Misč-en-scene,
character behavior, lighting, colour
scheme ...
> At the same time, music also plays a role which shifts between that of
a
> supplement in the sense of something extra which is included, and a
> substitute, which provides something that is missing, For example, it
is
> commonly supposed that music expresses what is otherwise beyond direct
> apprehension - the inner feelings of the characters.
Surely this may well be one of its functions? The question is whether a
given expression is the
fictional truth of the situation.
> Actually music is
> much more subtle than this. Look at opera, where you frequently get
> situations which make the identification of character and music much
> more complex, often ambiguous and even contradictory.
Now we're getting into something really important.
> Take the notorious
> case of the Duke in Verdi's Rigoletto. When he dresses up as a poor
> student and seduces Gilda to the heart-melting strains of E il sol
> dell'anima, protesting that fame and glory, power and throne, are but
> human frailties, we know that that what he's feeling isn't love but
> lechery, because in Questa o quella, he's already told his courtiers
> that he's on the make. The music he sings to Gilda is thus a kind of
lie
> (although she can't tell, and falls for him anyway).
I don't hear "E il sol dell'anima" as genuine as genuine expression of
love, to me it is just the perfect seduction music. Thus, no lie in the
music. A more interesting
scene of seduction as regards deception is to my mind the duet of the
Count and Susanna in the third
act The Marriage of Figaro. I always find that at "Mi sento dal
contento" the Count really believes in
his feelings, however much he is a incorrigible ladies man and as
lecherous as any Duke. The music
tells us that the two sides coexist in his mind without too much
conflict (and isn't that just all
too human)
And what about Dalila's "Mon coeur s'ouvre ą ta voix". If that is not
genuine music of passion, I know
not what! Except that it is part of a ruse to destroy the all too
amorous and simple Samson. Could one
imagine a more powerful way to express Dalila's conflict than
musicdrama?
Can anyone think of scenes of similar power in the cinema? Probably not
in musicals, because the
musical expression of feelings tend to move on very obvious lines (but I
certainly don't mind being
corrected on this one). But what about background music in non-musical
films? On example I have
discussed previously is Visconti's Senso, where the music (from
Bruckner's Seventh Symphony) seems to
give credence to Livia's feelings while her actions are portrayed as
multiple betrayal of everyone who
trusts her, her cause, and of course herself.
Henry Bacon
Finnish Film Archive
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