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1. I am certainly outside of film music scholarship. In my opinion, music is the jewel in the crown of cinema. It is the reason for which cinema is (imho) the greatest artistic expression. Film music is used (in the best use of it, in the way it should be used) as a mediator between the other aspects of films. It intervenes with dialogue, as it may alternate with it, sound during (as an adjacent) it, or even replace it. It affects the cinematographic experience too, as it can be composed in combination with the camera work (like in some films from Kubrick or Hichcock), or it may have to do with the overall visual impact (colour, decoration, clothing, and other stage aspects) as with Morriconne (for the two giant ones: Novecento and Once Upon A Time In America), or it may relate to the scene’s nature (length, importance to the film, amount of events in it, etc), as is used (although in a very banal way) in nowadays Hollywood’s irritating romantic comedies. It certainly affects theme, structure and plot, too. Theme is the main motive of the music’s score in auteur cinema. Structure can relate to music either sharing something in the form (both the structure of the music score and the structure of the film’s plot have a relationship in form, either of equality, inverse, or a reasoned inequality for the purpose of the work) or sharing something in the content (both the structure of the music score and the structure of the film’s plot have a relationship in content, either of equality, inverse, or a reasoned inequality for the purpose of the work). Finally, of course, the music score is also related to the nature of the film’s plot, with determinants such as time, space, type (comedy, horror…), purpose… A notable example (and not an exception, as many would think) is Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. Indie rock music from 90s and 2000s was used in its score, even though the time period didn’t match at all. But this must not be regarded as a failure in relating the music to the film: it is in any case a failure in equating the music and the film: but equating them wasn’t the aim of the filmmaker, nor is there a reason for which it should be. The artist (in this case, the filmmaker) must choose freely how the music should relate to the film, in order to give the work what s/he desires. So, in conclusion, I’m a strong believer in music’s importance in film, and I believe it is in fact the connector or factor or whatever you want o call it, that affects all the other aspects of music. Although of course the music should be chosen/composed in accordance to what is wanted for those aspects, never to build a film upon its music (although the music may be chosen before making the film, an example of which I will discuss later on, this would serve as a guide for the creation, but always the aspects of the film as the centre). I also believe that the music should not have any particular relationship with those factors, only the one (or various) desired by the filmmaker.

2. For this point I just have two examples to comment on which I find maximum achievements of what I described in point 1, that the filmmaker decided what music he wanted in order to give it the effect (on the aspects of the film) that he wanted. These are two of the best films by (imho) the two greatest filmmakers to date, Visconti’s Death in Venice and Bergman’s Smulstronstallet. Death in Venice is the example I mentioned in which the music score (Mahler’s 3^rd and 5^th symphonies) had already been chosen by Visconti before starting to make the film, when he only had a few other ideas about it. In the film, the music’s work as a ‘conector’ is outstanding: in relation to dialogue, it serves as a substitute for it, ‘saying what the words can’t say’, as Visconti would have put it; with the camera work, it is totally related, for the slow compositions add to the slow camera movement, a trademark of the director; the visual impact is definitely involved, as the images Visconti gives us with the help of Pasquale De Santis, Ferdinando Scarfiotti and Piero Tosi, are strongly related to the background of the film, the composer’s love for Tadzio, and this is only expressed with the emotions of the Adagietto; we have long, slow, important scenes all throughout the film, and Mahler’s symphonies simply add perfectly to the sentiment of those un-eventful scenes; the music matches the theme exactly; the structure of the music as it is played is very repetitive, as the same parts of the compositions are heard repeatedly, that is in order to emphasize on that particular sentiment that Visconti wants the music to give to the film, also stating that there is no change, the film is a continuum, not divided in parts, with no ‘structure’, as the scenes could be altered in order and the film wouldn’t suffer, excluding the first and last scenes, of course; and finally the nature of the plot is in complete harmony with that of the music, the idea of Visconti was that Mahler’s music in the score would be a way of saying that the protagonist was in a way Mahler himself, who was a contemporary and compatriot of the protagonist and similarly rejected for his music, and so the music is from the same space, time and type as the plot. With Bergman’s masterpiece something not too different happens, although I won’t comment extensively not to bore you and getting tired myself. I will just say that the theological/ethical/philosophical discussions between the two young men, whose name I don’t remember, and the effect of the memories of the protagonists on him, would be useless and ineffective without the extremely psychological unstructured continuous piano compositions by Nordgren.

3. For this point I only want to give a couple of thoughts. First, note that philosophy is thinking, and thus it gives us the concepts, points of view, relationships, ideas, etc, that serve as a background to study anything. In this case, the study of film and the study of music work with the conceptual background given by philosophy and philosophers. In that way, the study of music was given new space to discuss when, for example Theodor Adorno produced his philosophical reflections about music. And the study of cinema was amplified by Deleuze’s theoretical investigations regarding the cinema. That is one point. The other point is that the importance of philosophy as a way of understanding the place of music in film is thus fundamental. The theoretical background for studying film is given by philosophy. The theoretical background for studying music is given by philosophy. Moreover, study of film and the study of music are in a way (and most of them is composed of) philosophy itself, philosophical areas and philosophies. The thing is, the study of music in film, the philosophy of music in/and film, can be any of the following: a new type of philosophy, which is a product of the mixture of the philosophy of film and the philosophy of music; a combination but not a mixture, in which the philosophy of music and film would be a use of the philosophy of film and the philosophy of music, respectevily, in different areas depending on which of the two is principal; or, a philosophy/study which is new and is not related to the philosophy of film nor to the philosophy of music, but which gives new theoretical/conceptual background, for this new study. I don’t think it has to do that much with which of the three is right, but with which of them we should use, which is related with what you want to use it for. And this is something you must determine, for your thesis.

I hope this is the kind of answer you wanted, and I hope it helps you. I thank you for the questions, they have made me come up with all of this and make mi mind up about some aspects. Answer me to debate whatever you want, I am willing to do so. Good luck with your thesis, although it seems to be on the right way (if it is possible, could you post it or publish it on the web once you finish it?).

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Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2007 22:03:56 -0500
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Film Music and Philosophy
To: [log in to unmask]

Hello dear salon members,

 

I am currently finishing my PhD dissertation on film music using philosophy as a way to bridge the gap between film theory to music theory. My query is multi-partite. Please feel free to ignore any portion of this which is not of interest to you:

1. How do those of you outside of film music scholarship position and understand film music as it relates to the remaining elements of the filmic universe?
2. Can you share your thoughts on approaches to film music analysis or discussions of film music that you have found particularly successful?
3. What do you see as being the importance of philosophy as a way of understanding the place of music in film?

 

Any additional thoughts would be most welcome!

Thanks for your thoughts!!

Gregg Redner

 

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