Ever taken the time to think about what goes in to creating a compelling film score or what defines it as a genre? that's right film score is a genre.
The boundaries between popular music and film score in recent years have been becoming increasingly indistinguishable and pushed to a point where more affordable methods of production including the use of synthesisers and sampling have allowed a broader range of composers to use sounds previously reserved for people who have access to a full orchestra.
pop and electronic musicians hove really only recently been started to be recognised as film composers in their own right with an example being that by Daft Punk's original score for Tron: Legacy (2010) breaking into the realm of film music composition.
Ever since sound was introduced to film, the role that music would have was firmly established with many traits directly relating to the days of silent films where, during this transition period, many films would have a hybrid approach to the way sound was implemented as part of the process, particularly with drama where they where traditional in the sense of them being silent but with the score overdubbed and spot effects added. Classical Era Hollywood film music was used to invoke emotion and a way to cue the narrative as a means of interpreting what was on screen, providing continuity between shots, aiding with transitions between scenes and aiding in the narrative overall.
Music was used to ease the audience into the world of the film during the early days, but another thing that music can do is place the geographical location of a film. one way of doing this is with the use of instrumentation or even the use of national anthems. For example, some of LaMarseillaise's bars are enough to move the action of a movie from Morocco to Paris (Casablanca (1942). Similarly, popular melodies and folk melodies evoke places. Depending on the instrument, the pentatonic scale may suggest either native or Native American forms and Dance like Waltz can locate action in a complicated, geographically (Austria -Europe), time (nineteenth century / first world war before the twentieth century) or even social class (bourgeois / nobility).
Max Steiner's Gone With the Wind (1939) is a good example, and John Wiliam's epics for the Star Wars series (1977-2002) and Indiana Jones (1981-1989) continued. Traditional custom. Music pieces like these songs rely heavily on the concept of melody without ending, music moving sinfully and developing with every turn and turning of the story. They tend to use the semi-symphonic, remix and modulation techniques, also show the complex and impressive usage of leitmotif In simple words, the leitmotif technique requires the composer to make a specific "signature" music for different characters, places, emotions and so on.
On a logical basis, whenever a character reappears, their musical motifs appear with them. Developing this further, the mind state of the character, or the state of whatever is mentioned, can be expressed by manipulating this musical gesture: the hero can be described by a noble arpeggio on French horns, but in him the predicament can be indicated by the repetition of the figure in a submissive sub-key or at a noisy, dissonant forte. Obviously, the motifs must match the characters they describe. It would be funny when Darth Vader walked onto the screen to a nimble trill on piccolo. Appropriately, he was given an impressive, explosive motif that was written for dense quadraphonic brass.
An alternative to scoring saturation techniques can be called "point" scoring, in which a series of distinct signals appear strategically on the soundtrack to enhance emotions, stress or any Other functions. The interval between the recorded parts is left, natural, no music. Although the score may lack some flow and the strong growth of the saturation point, this does not mean that it is built less logical, or it avoids the leitmotif technique. Instead, it is simply formed on a smaller scale and rejects any sense of musical accompaniment, and may also have few repetitions and variations of the subject material. Perhaps because of its Wagnerian ancestors, some big saturation points fit a monumental theme rather than a movie about anything else. Music that represents the majority of Classical Age writing can make people think that music is merely poor image building, While this is usually (to this day), music makes scary more intimidating, emotions affect more, it does not mean the whole story.
Our choice of instrumentation and composition in film can drastically change how the piece is digested, below is some further reading if you would like to know more about the concepts of writing music for film.
Bangalter, Thomas, and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. “Daft Punk - Derezzed (from TRON: Legacy).” YouTube, 7 Dec. 2010, youtu.be/m4cgLL8JaVI.
Brownrigg, Mark. “Film Music and Film Genre.” Https://Core.ac.uk/, 2003, core.ac.uk/download/pdf/40108516.pdf.
Flach, Paula. “Film Scoring Today - Theory, Practice and Analysis.” Http://Bora.uib.no, 2012, bora.uib.no/bitstream/handle/1956/6016/97122214.pdf.
Korngold, George. “The Empire Strikes Back: The Imperial March (From ‘The Empire Strikes Back’).” YouTube, 15 Sept. 2018, youtu.be/U4HZRlpS4nw.
Murphy, Scott. “Transformational Theory and the Analysis of Film Music - Oxford Handbooks.” Oxford Handbooks - Scholarly Research Reviews, 1 Feb. 2019, www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195328493.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780195328493-e-019.
Neumeyer, David. “Film Music Analysis and Pedagogy.” Scholarworks.iu.edu, 1991, scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/3522/NeumeyerFilmMusicV11.pdf?sequence=1.
Rouget de Lisle, Claude Joseph. “CASABLANCA (1942) La Marseillaise | Epic Rendition of French National Anthem | Morocco in Film (HD).” YouTube, 17 Dec. 2017, youtu.be/6P6kVocz_Uc.