Mus 1240 History of Music in Film Fall 2015 Professor Barbera
Review Sheet for December 4 Final Exam
Into the 1940s
New music styles employed by Hollywood
Pearl Harbor is attacked on December 7th, 1941, causing the US to enter into World War II. Hollywood flourishes and makes record profits during this time. War movies become popular. Non-war films tend to acquire war themes, or Axis villains.
Casablanca, 1942 - one of the most important films of the World War II era. Music by Max Steiner: borrowed and original underscoring. Principal popular tune: "As Time Goes By" by Herman Hupfeld.
Post-War Years and Trends
The 1950s
The 1960s
The 1970s
Eclectic Scores: lots of different types of music
Adapted Scores: borrowed music
Symphonic Scores: reviving Hollywood's traditional underscoring music
Postmodernism - rejects aesthetic principles govern modern arts for most of the 20th century.
The 1980s
The 1990s
The 21st Century
New music styles employed by Hollywood
- Expressionism - leading composers: Schoenberg, Stravinsky. Radical and extremely dissonant sounding music. An important film with music in this style: Hangmen Also Die, 1943
- American Nationalism - most closely associated with Aaron Copland, and his ballet Appalachian Spring. Strong intervals, modern yet conservative harmonies, syncopated rhythms, colorful orchestrations. Distinctive American style. Influenced John Williams. Important films with music in this style: Of Mice and Men, 1939; Our Town, 1940
- Film Noir - prevailing dark mood. Night scenes, mysterious plot elements. Music mixes the post-romantic style with elements of expressionism such as dark timbres and dissonance. Music is generally used sparsely. Bernard Herrmann is the first Hollywood film composer to incorporate modern concert music sounds consistently in film. Film noir often also incorporates elements of jazz. Important films in this stye: The Maltese Falcon, 1941; Citizen Kane, 1941; Laura, 1944.
Pearl Harbor is attacked on December 7th, 1941, causing the US to enter into World War II. Hollywood flourishes and makes record profits during this time. War movies become popular. Non-war films tend to acquire war themes, or Axis villains.
Casablanca, 1942 - one of the most important films of the World War II era. Music by Max Steiner: borrowed and original underscoring. Principal popular tune: "As Time Goes By" by Herman Hupfeld.
Post-War Years and Trends
- Significant changes and challenges to Hollywood
- Dark mood
- Films of the post-war period tended to deal with serious social issues
- Film noir becomes more significant, and its general style solidifies: dark, pessimistic moods, black and white cinematography, strong contrasts between dark and light, the use of voice-over narration (generally by one of the main characters), rainy urban night scenes, alluring and dangerous women. Plots often deal with detective stories/crime
- The traditional Hollywood happy ending is replaced by ambiguous and tragic conclusions, such as the one in Citizen Kane
- Disturbing musical sounds
- Minimal musical cues
- Orchestration for small ensembles
- Low registers and instruments
- Wavering pitches
- Dissonance and disjunct melodies
- Jazz is used more frequently
- TV establishes itself as a competitive force against the film industry
The 1950s
- Hollywood suffering from decreasing revenues and increasing costs
- Many film studios sold or converted to TV studios
- TV is now dangerous competition to the film industry
- Movie studios cutting expenses
- The House Un-American Activities Committee investigates several important Hollywood figures, under suspicion of ties to Communism
- Filmmakers continue to create excellent work. The American Film Institute includes 20 films from the 50s on its list of America's 100 greatest films
- Expanding use of popular music is an important 50s trend - less expensive than symphonic scores, and attracts younger audiences/creates additional revenue through record sales
- Introduction of electronic music into the avant-garde
- Late 50s: rise of the Blockbuster movie: lavish, long, expensive, spectacular films
- Religious epics begin to become extremely popular, such as Ben-Hur
- Important 50s films: The Ten Commandments On the Waterfront, The Day the Earth Stood Still, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Man With the Golden Arm, High Noon, Blackboard Jungle, Ben-Hur
The 1960s
- Psycho, 1960. Alfred Hitchcock. Purposefully black and white cinematography. Score by Bernard Herrmann for string orchestra. Music is harsh and percussive, with a limited range of timbral color, and a lot of consistent dissonance. Music does not change much during a cue, but remains repetitive and somewhat detached from the action, creating a single atmospheric mood and avoiding the standard Hollywood underscoring style
- The religious epics of the 60s weren't as popular or of the same quality as those of the 50s. Nonreligious epics, often lacking the optimistic mood of the 50s religious epics, such as Spartacus, 1960, became popular
- Lawrence of Arabia, 1962, another of the important new secular epics, features an exotic location, emphasis on realism, and relatively sparsely-used music
- Movie theme songs become popular, attract younger audiences (which now make up a huge market), allow for a potential additional oscar nomination: Best Song
- Rock musicians star in films, and rock music becomes integrated into film
- Music is generally used more sparsely, and the post-romantic traditional Hollywood style is used more and more infrequently
- Planet of the Apes, 1968 - commentary about race and nuclear war
- 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968 - Stanley Kubrick's epic scifi film, story of the evolution of man from pre-man into a higher form. Notable for its visual effects and the use of pre-composed music that is not tailored to fit the film directly, allowing the music to coexist with the film's visual elements
The 1970s
- Strong realism
- In the early 70s, traditional scoring is used even more infrequently in favor of modern or popular music
- Growing trends in the 70s - eclectic scores, adapted scores, symphonic scores
Eclectic Scores: lots of different types of music
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - eclectic score using contrasting styles to support the various environments and characters
- Taxi Driver - music by Bernard Herrmann: low, dissonant sounds and dark chords, blues and jazz, colorful orchestration
- Chinatown - "neo-film noir" - dissonant harmonies, unusual colors, 1930s blues style, modern styles, jazz, avant garde music, prepared piano
Adapted Scores: borrowed music
- The Sting - music borrowed is Scott Joplin's piano rags
- American Graffiti, Mean Streets - adapted classic rock
- The Exorcist - music borrowed from some of the most radical avant garde works
Symphonic Scores: reviving Hollywood's traditional underscoring music
- Rocky - symphonic score by Bill Conti with strong rock music influences. Music is used more often, rather than more sparingly
- John Williams - establishes himself as Hollywood's premiere disaster film composer in early 70s. The music for Jaws, 1975, demonstrates the growing popularity of and return to the traditional symphonic Hollywood score
- Star Wars - features a full traditional post-romantic Hollywood score, and a major, sensational return to this tradition. Marks beginning of neoclassic age in film - return to traditions of the classical period
Postmodernism - rejects aesthetic principles govern modern arts for most of the 20th century.
- Comes into prominence in the late 70s
- dismisses modernistic need for continual change and originality
- embraces entire spectrum of the arts, including the popular arts
- emphasizes the importance of emotional appeal - neoromanticism
- playful humor
The 1980s
- Sequels become popular, and many films are spawning them starting in the late 70s and into the 80s
- Synthesized scores - modern: electronic sounds, new colors, modern style and futuristic. Traditional: replace or augment sounds of the orchestra. Imitates post-romanticism. Popular: associated with rock/pop
- Blade Runner, 1982. Music by Vangelis featuring a modern synth score. A major achievement in film and film music
- The Shining, 1980. Mix of borrowed excerpts with original synth music by Wendy Carlos. Borrowed music is from 20th century modern concert music (Bartok, Ligeti).
- Exotic real world locations become popular in Hollywood - India, China. Ethnic instruments added to orchestras, along with ethnic playing styles
- Strong trend of casting TV comedians as heroes in comedic action films (Ghostbusters, Back to the Future)
- Emphasis on comedy, realistic and relatable characters, and relatively short films with scores featuring popular music either exclusively or in combination with orchestral scoring
The 1990s
- Increasing realism - graphic violence, historical dramas
- Dark themes
- Rock musicians such as Danny Elfman creating classical scores for dark films (Elfman, for example, worked extensively with Tim Burton)
- Escapist films also popular - Jurassic Park, Independence Day, Twister
- Comedies also popular, counterbalancing the prevailing dark moods of the decade. Comedies mostly employ popular music, but the most critically acclaimed comedies, such as Home Alone, with its John Williams score, and comedies that dealt with deeper issues tended to employ original symphonic scoring
- Animation - Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King - extensive and elaborate scores mixing underscoring and songs by prominent composers and songwriters
- Forrest Gump, 1994 - popular music mixed with traditional underscoring. Popular music used to establish setting, underscoring used to reflect Gump's gentle and unchanging view of the world
- Titanic, 1997 - major phenomenon, highest box office earner until 2009's Avatar. Strong sense of realism, elaborate details. Strong symphonic score and reliance on leitmotifs. Music closely follows and supports drama. Also strong use of source music. The underscoring morphs, at the end of the film, into the powerful love theme, "My Heart Will Go On"
- The Matrix, 1999 - blends science fiction and martial arts films. Features an ominous and intense eclectic score with original music by Don Davis. Seamless transitions between styles
- By the end of the 90s, Hans Zimmer and John Williams are established as the most notable symphonic composers in Hollywood
The 21st Century
- Hollywood delays production on many films in the wake of 9/11, and soon turns to 90s formulas of realism and escapist entertainment
- Realism mixed with war themes: Black Hawk Down, Pearl Harbor
- Kill Bill - realism, graphic violence. Variety of musical quotations, mostly borrowed music from other films that relate in some way to the film's various episodes
- Animation - Monsters Inc. and Finding Nemo were highly successful and creative films of the early 21st century, and animation as remained a strong force in film throughout the developing new century
- Popularity of escapist film franchises: Harry Potter and The Lord of The Rings, for example, are extremely popular films featuring extremely recognizable and strong traditional scoring
- All of the traditions established in film are recent history, and are in play in the 21st century, and the art form continues to evolve and innovate new styles and musical applications