MUSICOLOGY 3TOPIC 1: FILM MUSIC

SOUND DESIGN AS COMPOSITION

SOUND DESIGN IN FILM

Film Date Director Sound / Music

Saboteur 1942 Alfred Hitchcock Frank Skinner

Forbidden Planet 1956 Fred Wilcox Louis Barron

THX 1138 1970 George Lucas Walter Murch

Alien 1979 Ridley Scott Jerry Goldsmith

Aliens 1986 James Cameron James Horner

Ian Underwood

Robert Garret

The Sacrifice 1986 Andrei Tarkovsky

Three Colours 1993-4 Krzysztof Kieslowski Zbigniev Preisner

NATURAL SOUND

• Sound on-set

• Foley sound

SOUND V MUSIC

• Normally sound is ‘reality’ and music is something

different

ALIEN (1979)

MUSIC: JERRY GOLDSMITH

ALIENS (1986)

MUSIC JAMES HORNER

SOUND (AUDIO + SYNTHESIS) IAN UNDERWOOD

(MOTHERS OF INVENTION)

ALIEN……SOUNDS: CHAINS, WATER

ALIENS…SOUNDS: WIND – OR NOT?

ALIEN…FINAL SCENE

FORBIDDEN PLANET1956

• Director Fred Wilcox

• Music/sound Louis Barron

FORBIDDEN PLANET…MACHINE

FORBIDDEN PLANET…TITLES

THX 1138 (1970)

• Director: George Lucas

• Sound: Walter Murch

THX 1138…MACHINES, SYNTHS OR ORCHESTRA?

THX 1138…COMPUTERS: SOUND OR MELODY?

THX 1138…INTERVIEWS: WALTER MURCH & GEORGE LUCAS

SOME FUNCTIONS OF SOUND DESIGN

• to be the imaginary sounds of non-existent

objects

• to alienate

• to create a world

• to blur the boundaries between ‘real sound’

and ‘music’…

…i.e. between the ‘natural’ and the ‘artificial’

KRZYSZTOF KIESLOWSKIZBIGNIEW PREISNER

1993-94

Three Colours Blue …liberté (freedom)

Three Colours White …egalité (equality)

Three Colours Red …fraternité (brotherhood)

…the colours of the revolutionary French tricolor

THREE COLOURS: BLUE…SOUNDS: CAR ENGINE, WHEELS

THREE COLOURS: RED…TITLES CUE

THREE COLOURS: RED…CATWALK CUE

ORCHESTRATION / PROCESSING AFFECTS PERSPECTIVE OF

MUSIC:

THREE COLOURS: RED

• catwalk: diegetic …orchestra

• car: non-diegetic …harp

• wet street: non-diegetic …distorted, inflected; distanced

• car radio: diegetic …static

• hits dog: non-diegetic …fragmented + string pedal

THREE COLOURS: RED…CATWALK CUE

SPECTRUM: FROM ‘MUSIC’ TO ‘SOUND’…

• Music …melody, harmony, rhythm etc

• Scoring …instrumental sound

• Production …dealing with sound in

mixing

• Sound Design …pure sound

THREE COLOURS: BLUE…ORCHESTRATION CUE

• Sound design can be used to situate the viewer in relation to

action, objects or environment…

• …a similar role to ‘presence’ or ‘perspective’ with music

soundtracks e.g. in The Sopranos

SABOTEUR

1942

• Director Alfred Hitchcock

• Composer Frank Skinner

SABOTEUR…CUE WITH SCORE

SABOTEUR…USE OF SILENCE

ANDREI TARKOVSKY

THE SACRIFICE

1986

THE SACRIFICE

• Alex and his family are on a remote Baltic island

• Over the horizon, nuclear war is destroying the world

• Alex makes a pact with God

• Suddenly it’s as if the war has never happened

• So Alex has to burn his house and all his possessions

THE SACRIFICE

• Natural sounds (thunder, planes, fire, breaking

glass)

• Distant raucous shouting / singing

• Bach: ‘Erbarme dich’ from St Matthew Passion

THE SACRIFICE…CUE 1: STRONG USE OF NATURAL SOUND

THE SACRIFICE…CUE 2: USE OF ‘STRANGE’ SOUNDS

THE SACRIFICE: ENDING

• We see the house collapsing in flames

• The camera pans to a different part of the island

• The child is watering a tree he and Alex has planted

• He doesn’t understand what has happened

• We are left with images of the tree, the boy and the

maid (who represents something unearthly)

• Bach’s music releases emotion built up during the film

THE SACRIFICE…CUE 3 (FINAL CREDITS): SOUND TO MUSIC