GunnLace.com and Spotting Letter

Compiled by Lukas Kendall

Two items today. First the latest installment from a fellow film music webmaster, as I've invited those who run soundtrack websites to contribute guest columns here on Film Score Daily. Tom Hoover at GunnLace has contributed more of an editorial rather than a review from his site, but that's fine too!

To start off with, I don't profess to be utterly knowledgeable on music composition, or of what it takes to write a difficult piece, I only know of what sounds good to me. To that end, I also have strong opinions on what does or does not work in a given picture, and I pay more attention to results then technique. To be frank, in this current era of fast-food filmmaking, good results are hard to come by, and I don't blame the composers. I blame the filmmakers.

I am basically writing this article to vent. In this era, there are many composers out there who are enormously talented in what they do, and it pains me to know that these maestros are not given a chance to strut their stuff. Gone are the days of sweeping themes and grand melodies, replaced by incidental music that dares not overshadow the film itself. And that is for a reason. In my opinion, there are quite a few hotshot directors (both mainstream and in the Independent genre) in our midst that view the music as an intrusion on their picture. In short, it seems to me that there is a new breed of directors out there, many of whom do not embrace the music as a strong component to the piece they are trying to represent.

I believe it was George Lucas who said that music is half the film going experience. If that is the case, where has half of our pie disappeared to? I grow weary of trudging into the local multiplex and hearing monstrous sound effects, horrid dialogue, and a barely audible score. I tell you, I can't remember the last time I left the theater humming the title tune from a movie! What is this madness all about? Well, for one, the composer's canvas has been shrunk. Bottom line. What a chore it must be to squeeze any bit of quality music with the studio eye bearing down on you, dismissing any musical originality for a ìsafeî approach. Couple that with the less than inspiring images on the screen, the inclusion of commercial songs, and you have yourself one hell of a dull score on your hands.

Unfortunately, we can only blame the filmmakers only so much. They are making money at a record-setting pace, and they're going to keep on keeping on. I fear that until we, as the movie going audience, stop buying into the constant mediocrity that Hollywood keeps serving up, then our music will fade away as fast as the great movies have. And we all know that is not an option we'd relish.

Tom Hoover

www.GunnLace.com/tracks/scores.htm

From: "Semih U. Tareen" <semih@u.washington.edu>

There are movie music lovers who like to listen to certain decades within film music history, the 50s, the 90s, etc; and there are movie music lovers who enjoy almost every period. There are obvious differences in how film music was used through out its history. Some new aproach comes along and changes the way we think of the function of music on film. First there was musical accompaniment that was live, usually with a solo piano or organ, performing a repertoir of pre-composed music that was assigned to certain emotions or actions. After a while you would know what you would hear if there is a murder on the screen, or two pairs of longing eyes looking at each other, or a wedding, or a ship with the Brittish flag. Then, with the advancement in recording and audio technology we started to have music recorded for films and composers hired specifically to do this. After that film music changed with technology, with ground breaking compositions, and with expectations of the audience and of the studio.

I can talk about differences within each period for hours and hours. Instead I want to write specifically about the process of spotting (deciding where the music starts and stops, etc.) I chose to write about spotting because I noticed that spotting is one important aspect of film music that has really changed when compared to the golden age.

When you watch the movie "Captain Blood", composed by Korngold, you get to hear what 'wall-to-wall composing' really is: Music that pretty much begins with the main titles and continues all the way until the end titles. The music changes its color throughout the film, depending on the films needs, but it is pretty much always there. You wonder why such an approach was used at the time. Ofcourse you can see that people thought of 'the art of film' differently then, than they do now. But that still doesn't answer the question. I think that during the golden age films were more similar to art forms like the opera or ballet than they are today. In the opera you have your prologue (like the main titles of a film), you have your arias (like the distinct melodies in a film scores for scenes with defined action or emotion) and you have your recitatives (the music that connects those well defined scenes together). That ofcourse is a very rough analogy but I think it makes its point. That during the golden age you have much more music than you do today because film could have been seen as an art form closer to opera than it is today.

While the sound of Hollywood films get defined by the music of Korngold and Steiner, then something very interesting happens: Silence becomes a part of film music! I don't know exactly when this happened but I will give you some examples: This is where I really think the art of spotting evolves.

Hitchcock didn't want any music for the famous shower scene in Psycho. He knew that silence could sometimes have its own powers too. Herrmann thought otherwise, and now the shower scene can't be thought of without its famous shrieking bird like strings. Later came "North by Northwest" with its famous scene of Cary Grant out in the crop fields. Now THAT scene is powerful because of the presence of silence. There is not a single note of music until the plane crashes into the truck and explodes. That's where the music comes in and resolves that chapter of the film.

So what made film makers start using silence like that? Well, I think film became an independent art of its own by then. And film makers realized that films can tell alot more through its visuals than an opera, a play, or a ballet can. And I think that's also when the art of directing and cinematography branched out as an art of its own because of them gaining independence from assisting forces like music and vice versa.

The idea of where to use music in films have changed so much. Now even the regular movie audience knows that a movie like the Blair Witch Project is better off without music. Even more sad is the fact that people are OK with hearing a pop song when a girl is crying for her lost love, while it would have been not acceptable or even laughable a few decades ago.

To wrap it all up, when and where to use music is changing. But the change has gone far enough that the question isn't where to have music but whether to have Shania Twain's latest song at that scene and Puff Daddy's song at the other. There was a time where the scene would rather be left without music than trying to fit in as many songs as you can. Feel free to send in comments...

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