Musical Storytelling

Interesting topic, but I'm struggling a bit to find the basic premise -- are you talking about a form of film musical onomatopoetikon? You know, like in BLADE RUNNER, where the non-diegetic bleeds together with the diegetic, and sound effects with music, to create this very specific sound world that encapsulates the dystopian landscape.

I see. I tend to need my parameters to be very narrow and defined in order to provide useful examples, but that would probably lead to less replies, I agree.

I tend to be more attracted to 'sound worlds' than specific narrative tools to connote specific narrative elements in a film. Like BLADE RUNNER, or the general feeling of 'sunset' and 'water' in BEYOND RANGOON.

But one such specific tool I can think of off the top of my head is the ice dance sequence from EDWARD SCISSORHANDS. As Kim ventures outside to see Edward creating the ice sculpture of her, the music communicates everything that the characters don't, at least not explicitly. It's an intimate moment between the two, but it's all in the music. With Edward's sharp hands, they can't touch -- Kim touching the falling iceflakes is an indirect form of intimacy, if you willl. Elfman's waltz uses two choral vowels ('ooohs' and 'aaaahs') talking to and responding to each other in lieu of verbal communication.

(of course, there's an intriguing topic here concering music's non-representability, i.e. how music doesn't really have meaning in itself, but that we read things into it, especially in a representative artform like film -- but that is a more adademic topic that is best suited for other venues, maybe).

Well, I never seperate the music from the film, so if a piece of music managed to represent the essence of the film then that is the reason why I like it.
This is not soley a thing the composer does. The way our mind percieves and - to an extend - constructs the film, is just as importand. This is hermeneutics and I won't go too deep into it. You mentioned STAR WARS. As for you for me "Obi Wan / The Force Theme" has always been that piece of music that delivered the essence of the whole saga in a nutshell. Yet for others that cue may be "Yoda's Theme" or "The Emperial March" or the main title fanfare. That probably depends on what aspect of the story one values most, the militaristic aspect, the idealistic aspect, the spriritualism or something else.
Another example: Dead Poets Society. I love that film to pieces. As a teacher I put into question some of the things my "colleague" John Keating does in that film. But as a film the whole thing is just brilliant. The film has very little original score (Maurice Jarre) and what it has is quite subdued. The whole magic lies in the final march "Keating's Triumph". Few pieces of film music have moved me that deeply.
Another exampe would be "Leaving Wallbrook / On the Road" from Rain Man (Hans Zimmer), "On Earth as it is in Heaven" from The Mission (Ennio Morricone) or "Main Titles" from Chariots of Fire (Vangelis). All these films clelebrate idealism and the spirit of man. Obviously that is something that resonates deeply with me.
Is that what you meant? Great topic!

Volker

I think the finest example for me -and I cite this one because even at impressionable age 13 this really stood out to me- is the final duel in Return Of The Jedi (sorry to have Star Wars dominate this thread a bit, but, well, you asked the question and you know your audience! ).

While there were allusions beforehand that Luke losing control would play right in the Emperor's hands, they were, in the script, at least ambiguous: Palpatine suggests that striking out would destroy Luke, but holding back might even be worse. He keeps Luke off-balance by his words, and we're never sure what the right thing to do is.
Until Vader provokes Luke into a furious attack.

Now think about it: Luke is taking on the worst villain in movie history. A genocidal, insane maniac on galactic scale.
And he is winning! He is beating this fiend to within an inch of his life.
...and ...it's not a good thing!

And how do we know this, even before Palpatine's triumphant laugh?
Williams' apocalyptic choir, that works its way to an mournful, almost funereal catharsis.
It suggests an unavoidable dark destiny.

Had this been scored any other way, we would not have known what's going on. In fact we would have cheered.
Now, we are plunged in sorrow and despair as the very worst scenario possible is coming to pass right before our eyes, while the hero is defeating the villain. That turnaround is almost solely due to the music that really enters the score as a prime mover.
(Of course the lighting and choreography do a lot to reinforce the message, without a doubt.
But the music is SO crucial here that I have no hesitation at all to put this one down as my prime example).

Is this the sort of thing you were looking for, Michael?

Yes, Williams is that aware of the architcture of the overall narrative, that he applies a unique theme to underline the singularity of the situation. Only when Yoda passes into the Force, that theme is preparingly hinted at.

Not only is it the pinnacle of the original trilogy but of the saga as a whole. Hence Williams rightfully did not use that theme in "Battle of the Heroes", as was demanded by fans back then. What he did use, is a theme that is somewhat similar in style. So the musical connection between both scenes is much more subtle than it would have been had Williams scored them with the same theme.

I would suggest the true onomatoepeia in film music can mostly be found in Carl Stalling scored cartoons .

(I mean the whole trilogy)

Actually I meant to come back to it with another post this week to get it rolling again. Still it was meant to be more than a solo effort-- I was trying to get a sense of what people felt the best musical storytelling they'd experienced was. (Would people name the same titles, or would choices be more idiosyncratic.)

What you're describing there, James, seems to be a type of programmatic or 'concept' music idea that I also can relate to. Storytelling that way (and not necessarily the FILM's storytelling) is certainly a key component of my soundtrack enjoyment, but obviously not the only one. Sometimes it's just about revelling in a given mood or dechiffring abstract, tonal landscapes.

Personally, I think the appeal of soundtracks over classical or other types of concept albums, is its emotional immediacy within tracks -- it has to get to its emotional point more quickly because it adheres to specific scenes and timings -- while other concept albums are often more ornate and take a lot of detours to get to its point.

Not sure of this fits here.

There's one example which I liked a lot. About Syriana, Desplat told that what your hear is not always what you think it is. He sometimes doubled several instruments, for example cello and electric counterpart, but they sound the same. He wanted to show that nothing is black and white, nothing is what it seems to be. Is the guy working for the oil company a bad person? Is the person working for the oligarch evil? (He explained it a lot better). And that movie certainly has multiple layers like that.

So, musical storytelling... and a recent case where I felt there were some strengths to the storytelling, but a few confusing things as well.

Noah (Mansell & Aronofsky collaborating)

I ended up seeing this twice at the cinema. Not out of great love for the film, although it has some things worth seeing twice, but just due to circumstances. Something I found interesting in the score was the use a motif. You can hear it at the opening of the track 'For Seasons, and for Days, and for Years' or 1:20 in to 'The End of All Flesh is Before Me' - a glistening upper register idea. Synth flute? In any case, it brought to mind other 'musical devices that represent a call'. (The Green Light motif in Craig Armstrong's Great Gatsby score is another recent example.) The motif works quite nicely early on in the film suggest that Noah is being pulled by something. That his visions are more than nightmares, but warnings from the Creator. In doing so, the motif serves music's most important role in film storytelling: to give voice to the unfilmable. (It's also ripe for thematic transformation -- the sense that something is calling could easily be twisted into a question mark. Was there ever a call? But the film doesn't seem interested in going there, although you could argue it's going on at the end.)

I was struck however, particularly on the second viewing, on how this idea falls by the wayside in the film's second half. It plays no part in the music for the Creation story, an obvious place for the idea's own genesis. Noah is equally driven by a vision once the boat is under way, doing things that seem irrational and impossible to sympathise with. He thinks he's hearing from the Creator again, but because the motif doesn't appear, I doubt anyone in the audience really feels that he is. That sense of another voice speaking to Noah is gone. A bit like Patton, giving his poem about the past, but without those echoing trumpeting lending those words the sense that they might be more than madness.

And this could well be intentional - they didn't want to suggest that what led him to do unlikely things before (ie. build the Ark) was the same thing that was driving him now (and I won't say what action I'm talking about). Williams after all didn't score the Shark's threat when it was false in Jaws. (But he was saving up for stronger effect later in the same scene when the shark did appear...) Maybe this was Aronofsky and Mansell's intention in the way they designed the score. But it does mean there's a large stretch of the film where we're not sure why Noah is so convinced of something, and losing that connection with the protagonist is tricky when he's the strongest character in the film.

We are talking about the same thing. And while my instinct is that it's a call, it could easily be associated with the idea of floating. (Who can say what music means?) I think in the first vision it appears with the flower and the Mountain of Methuselah, before the water comes, but that rules out nothing. (It's last appearance is after Noah is reconciled with his daughter-in-law on the mountain.)

I noticed there is a plucked/strummed instrument (perhaps of Baroque origin) that's connected to the actual appearances of the Ark. It's very 'real', in contrast to this high register idea.

I wish I could say I loved the movie. There's some very interesting things in it, but there are long sections in the second half where even the fresh elements of the tale felt boring and awkward.

It's the drama in the last half that feels so forced to me. I wish he threw caution to the wind and ran away from story, because that's where he works best. (Black Swan is my favourite of his.)