1. Music and Media:
Film music
Lesson one – leitmotiv and composition

2. Do now – film music genres
On your whiteboards, write:
1: As many film genres as you can think of
2: An adjective that describes the style of music you might hear
in the genre
3: A technical term that might describe the music of each genre
Think, pair, share: what did you come up with? Feed
back in two minutes…

3. Learning objectives
• ALL: Will identify how film soundtracks and leitmotiv
contribute to the mood of a film in a range of genres. (L5b)
• MOST: Will explain how film soundtracks and leitmotiv
contribute to the mood of a film, and compare their use
across genres. (L5a)
• SOME: Will evaluate the effectiveness of film soundtracks and
leitmotiv in a range of genres. (L6c)
• GO FOR GOLD: 6C PLUS: PRODUCE AN INTERPRETATION OF A
GIVEN FILM MOTIF AND EXPLAIN YOUR CHOICES

4. LESSON
3
Order of the day:
• Find out about leitmotiv and how it is used in film
• Understand links between leitmotiv and the
advertising jingles we wrote last week
• Learn to play and adapt Darth Vader’s leitmotiv
• Analyse film music genres
• Existential moment: Who am I?
• Composing a leitmotiv that reflects YOU!

5. Listening to Film Music
 Films have always been associated with music, from the SILENT MOVIE to
ANIMATIONS, the HOLLYWOOD GOLDEN AGE to the MUSICAL.
 Many musical GENRES including: POPULAR MUSIC and CLASSICAL scores, as well
as WORLD MUSIC and ELECTRONICA
Complete your listening worksheet, answering as fully as
you can
 Can you determine any similarities or common themes
through the different examples?
 Be prepared to feed back!
Using music in films

6. Leitmotiv and jingle: linking to
last week’s learning
• Jingle
• A short, memorable musical ‘signature’ used to identify a
product in advertising
• Leitmotiv
• A sound effect or combination of sound effects that are
associated with a particular character, setting, situation or
idea in a film

7. 5 minute challenge – Darth Vader
theme
• See how much of the melody you can play in 5 minutes
• Work in pairs
• Use piano tone only
• Some of you may be able to start adding bass notes (ostinato)
G G G Eb G G E Bb G D D D Eb Bb Gb Eb Bb G

8. Leitmotiv: A History
• Originates from Motif ideas of Classical and Romantic Music
• Found in opera and symphony to identify characters and unify
musical ideas
• Wagner is most famous for using Leitmotivs in his operas
• Debussy, Schoenberg and Dvorak are also known for their use of
Leitmotiv
• From early on, film music used leitmotiv to reflect character, time
or place
To begin with, some GCSE-level musical analysis…

9. Some leitmotivs…

10. Wagner to Williams: leitmotiv in
German myth and outer space…

11. Leitmotiv in film: Darth Vader
and Goldfinger…

12. 10 minute challenge: Darth Vader
playing task
G G G Eb G G E Bb G D D D Eb Bb Gb Eb Bb G
Going back to your 5 minute challenge, develop your playing as follows:
Think about the character of Darth Vader. You can now develop your playing by:
• Choosing an appropriate TIMBRE or VOICE on the keyboard
• Choosing DYNAMICS and TEMPO for your melody
• Completing the boxes on your worksheet explaining your choices

13. Peer assessment…
• Listen to some of the performances. Write in your books:
• What did you think about the interpretations you heard?
• What was effective? What could be improved?

14. My leitmotif composition task
This is a task that builds a bridge between what you’ve learned today,
and the composition task we are undertaking next week.
• Who are you?
• Think of everything we have learned today. If you had to write a
leitmotiv that represents YOU, how would it sound?
• Think about the keywords below: