Steffen Schmidt - „tone and mood“ – Music in Film

„tone
and
mood“
–

audiovisual
and

intermedial
Constructions

of
musical

emotive

Narration

Steﬀen
A.
Schmidt,

Institute
Cultural
Studies

Zurich
Art
School,
Switzerland

Bette
Davis:

!  „
Am
I
walking
down
the
stairs
or
is
it
the
Score
of
Max

Steiner?“

!  (see
Scorsese
2005)

Film
noir

!  „Tone
and
Mood“
(Paul
Schrader
1972);

!  Films:
Classical
Period:
Maltese
Falcon
(1941)
–
Touch
of

Evil
(1958)

! Characteristics:

! Dark
contrasts
(Claire/obscure)

! Mysterious
camera
perspectives

Plot
Characteristics

! Diﬃcult
entangled
plots
(Flashbacks)

! Oedipal
Triangle
Plot
(Reference:
Tristan
und
Isolde,
s.

Bronfen,
Zizek)

!  Protagonist
(Detective),
Femme
fatale,
evil
Husband

! Characteristic
emotive
states
in
Film
noir:

! Loneliness,
Paranoia,
Resignation

Music
of
Film
noir

! Representation
of
the
emotive
states
of
Film
noir?

Musical
Function
in
Film

! Underscoring
the
plot

! Mood
of
the
people
and
situations

!  „
...
evidence
for
visual
primacy
and
the
typical

subservience
of
audio
to
vision
...
Thus,
the
emotional

meaning
of
the
music
is
directed
here,
because
it
is
useful

in
determining
the
meaning
of
the
visual
scene.“
(Cohen

2001:261)

No
audio-‐narrative?

! Yes,
there
is:
Leitmotiv

!  „
...
music
becomes
integrated
with
the
ﬁlm
and
enables

the
symbolization
of
past
and
future
events
through
the

technique
of
leitmotiv.
Mood-dependent memories

can
also
be
cued
with
the
emotions
established
by

music.“
(Cohen,
258)

Functions
of
Leitmotiv

! Recognizable
motivic
Stability

! Function
of
Memory
(Clockworks
Singin
in
the
Rain)

! Symbolic
Character

! Semantic
Loading

The
Leitmotiv
represents:

!  1.
Musical
Character

!  2.
Emotive
State

!  3.
Narrative
Function

Double
Indemnity

!  1944
–
Billy
Wilder
/
Miklos
Rozsa

!  Flashback
Narration
through
the
single
Perspective
of
the

Protagonist
(Brown
1994)

!  „A
man
loosing
his
moral
compass“
(Jarvie
2006)
–
Plan
of

Killing
the
Husband
/
Insurance
Betrayal

Second
Love
Scene:

Connecting
4
Leitmotives

2nd
Love
Scene
from

Double
Indemnity

Musical
Characters

!  L
1.
„Allegro
con
spirito“:
dance-‐like
light
movement,
open
motive

!  L
2.
„Misterioso“:
Deep
Strings,
Tritone-‐jump,
open
motive

!  L
3.
„Adagio“
-‐
„Love-‐Theme“:
:
High
Strings,
Major
Seven
Chords

!  L
2.

!  L
5.
„Pesante“:
Main
Theme
-‐
Murder-‐Theme:,
Minor
Cadence
with
dissonances,
closed
8
bar
structure

! Shape:
Rondo

2.
Emotive
States

!  L
1:
Desire
/
Drive

!  L
2:
Tension

!  L
3:
„Jouissance“

!  L
2:
Tension

!  L
4:
„Tragedy“

Narrative
Function

!  L
1:
Travelling
between
Present
and
Past:
Memory

Reﬂection:
Recollection
of
the
„Drive“
(Freud)

!  L
2:
Trespassing
the
Law

!  L
3:
Intimacy,
Romance,
Harmony
(???)

!  L
2:
Trespassing
the
Law
again

!  L
4:
Travelling
between
Present
and
Past:
Recollection
/

Reﬂection
of
the
Murder
Plan

Orphic
and
Oedipal
Narration

!  R.S.
Brown
(1994):

! Distinction
between
the
Time
Travelling
Motives

!  L1:
Orphic
-‐
Telling
the
Story:
Recollection

!  L4:
Oedipal:
Decision
of
Killing
the
Husband
(oedipal

Triangle)

Staging
the
Ritual
of

Recollection
through
emotive

Narration

! Reﬂection
of
„loosing
the
Compass“

! through
Desire
(L
1),
Trespassing
(L
2),
Jouissance
(L
3),

Trespassing

! Reﬂection
of

! Becoming
Guilty
(L
4:
Main
Theme)

Rozsas
Composition
...

!  ...
is
precisely
reﬂecting
„tone

and
mood“
of
Film
noir
by
using
the

Leitmotives
with
an
emotive
Narration
of
Recollection.

! The
Main
Theme

(L
4)
represents
the
Reﬂection
of
the
Feeling
of

!  GUILT!

! The
Question,
which
is
not
answered
in
the
Film
is:
guilty
or
not.

! It
is
left
to
the
Audience

Film
Music
gives
...

!  ...
an
emotive
Narration,
which
delivers
a
contour
to
the

cinematic
Narration

! The
cinematic
Narration
speciﬁes
the
emotive
Music,

giving
it
a
certain
meaning;

!  In
the
Case
of
Double
Indemnity:

!  Ritual
of
Recollecting
(orphic)

! Reﬂection
of
the
Feeling
of
Guilt
(oedipal).

Schopenhauer
/
Metaphysik:

!  ...
In
der
Melodie
...
erkenne
ich
die
höchste
Stufe
der

Objektivation
des
Willens
wieder
...
Sie
erzählt
folglich
die

Geschichte
des
von
der
Besonnenheit
beleuchteten

Willens,
dessen
Abdruck
in
der
Wirklichkeit
die
Reihe

seiner
Thaten
ist;
aber
sie
sagt
mehr,
sie
erzählt
seine

geheimste
Geschichte,
malt
jede
Regung
...
Alles
das,
was

die
Vernunft
unter
den
weiten
und
negativen
Begriﬀ

Gefühl
zusammenfasst
...
(S.
374)

Cohen:
„Congruence-‐
associationist
framework“

!  „
...
information
of
the
musical
meaning
...
is
transferred

not
only
to
a
music
Short
Term
Memory
(STM)
but
also
to

the
visual
STM.
...
This
decision
is
supported
by
the

evidence
for
visual
primacy
and
the
typical
subservience
of

audio
to
vision
...
Thus,
the
emotional
meaning
of
the

music
is
directed
here,
because
it
is
useful
in
determining

the
meaning
of
the
visual
scene.“
(261)

Cohen:
Function
of
leitmotiv

!  „
...
music
becomes
integrated
with
the
ﬁlm
and
enables

the
symbolization
of
past
and
future
events
through
the

technique
of
leitmotiv.
Mood-dependent memories

can
also
be
cued
with
the
emotions
established
by

music.“
(258)

Other
approaches

! The
centre
of
a
narrative
ﬁlm
is
the
narration
itself,
which

shifts
between
the
visual
and
the
auditive

!  Michel
Chion
(2003):
Le
cinema
–
un
art
sonore:

! Language,
sound
and
music
are
building
a
narrative

acoustic
continuity

!  R.S.
Brown
(1994):
The
„orphic“
and
„oedipal“
narration
in

Double
indemnity

Intermedial
Counterpoint

!  Music
has
its
autonomus
Narrative
as
one
layer:
shape,

Leitmotiv

!  Music
is
linked
to
the
language
and
visual
narrative:

underscoring,
mood

! The
perspective
of
research
is
to
combine:
the
musical,
the

acoustic
(Language,
noise)
and
the
visual
in
cinematic

context

Double
Indemnity

! Audio-‐dispositive:
Three
layers

! Voice
over
(oﬀ)
–
narration:
recollection
–
Present
-‐
Past

! Dialogues
/
Sound
Design
–
Present
in
the
Past

!  Music:
From
past
to
present
–
Function
of
trespassing
time

–
travelling
through
emotive
memory
with
Leitmotiv
I-‐IV

Double
Indemnity
/
Rozsa

!  26:40
–
30:56
-‐
Musical
Narratives

!  Music
in
order
of
appearance:

!  Leitmotiv
II
(Narrative
II)
(Schubert‘s
Unﬁnished
open
motive)

-‐

!  Leitmotiv
IV:
Tension
motive
(minor
3rd,
tritone,
repetition)
-‐

action

!  Love
theme
(major):
Leitmotiv
III

!  Tension
motive:
Leitmotiv
IV

!  Leitmotiv
I
(Narrative
I)
(main
theme,
ﬁnishing
8
bar
phrase)

Drama
narrative

! Walter‘s
obsession:
thinking
of
insurance
betrayal

(narrative
II
to
Tension
motive)

! Decision
to
kill
as
expression
of
loving
intimacy
(fullﬁlling

her
dreams)
–
love
theme

! Facing
the
plan
–
Tension
motive

! Having
made
the
decision
–
Narrative
I

Dramatic
situation

!  Ian
Jarvie:
„A
Man,
loosing
his
moral
compass“
(Philosophy
of
ﬁlm
noir,
2006)

!  Emotional
states
of
the
musical
form:

! Recollecting,
„arguing“
–
Narrative
II

!  Tension
(„twisted
up
inside“)–
trespassing
the
law
(dissonance)

! Dreaming,
loving
(„The
woman
I
love“)
–
major
love
theme

!  Tension
–
trespassing
the
law

! Judging
what
happened:
Resignation
and
Guilt

Time
travelling

! Present

! Voice
over
/
Narrative
II:
Past
–
Present

!  Tension:
Present
–
Future
–
Expectation

! Past
(becomes
present)

!  Love
Theme:
total
present

!  Tension:
Present
–Future

!  Narrative
I:
Past
–
Present-‐Reﬂection

Two
diﬀerent
musical
forms
of

memory-‐representation

! Both
themes
represent:

!  I
have
done
(representing
past)

!  Narrative
II:
I
will
have
done
(symbol
for
open
situation)

!  Narrative
I:
I
„had“
have
done

Two
diﬀerent
representations
of

emotive
memory

!  Narrative
II:
Desire
(„Honeysuckle“):
Process
of
doing

!  Narrative
I:
Guilt
(„Confession“):
Result
of
doing.

!  E.G.:
2nd
Love
scene:

!  Musical
emotive
narration:

! Desire
(narrative
II)
–
Tension
(tension
motive“)
-‐
„Dream

come
true“
(love
theme)
–
Tension
–
Guilt
(Narrative
I)

Conclusion

!  Cohen:
Strong
musical
function
of
emotive
narration
(through

memory)
-‐
modifying
A.
Cohen

!  Film
noir
a
genre
of
„Tone
and
Mood“

!  In
„Double
Indemnity“
the
„core
mood“
is
Narrative
I:

Expression
of

!  GUILT
through
recollection

! The
audience
has
to
decide;
Guilty
or
not
–

!  THANK
YOU!!!

Browns
Orphic
Narrative

!  „Neﬀ
arrives
back
at
his
oﬃce
and
brings
Phyllis
back
to

life
by
creating
a
narrative
(using
a
dictaphone),
just
as

Orpheus
uses
his
art,
music,
to
gain
entrance
to
Hades
so

that
he
can
bring
Euridice
back
to
life
...

Brown‘s
Meta-‐Narration

!  „Neff’s
behaviour
totally
doubles
that
of
the
filmmaker

and
gives
him
the
‚infinity’
that
Oedipal
mother
cannot

give.“
(124/5).

!  „...
the
ever
present
narration
theme,
which
turns
up
14

times
carrying
the
action
back
and
forth
between
two

narratives
and
two
narrative
times,
ultimately
providing

what
very
little
film
music
has
ever
provided,
namely

affective
backing
for
the
making
of
the
film
itself.“(133)

Emotive
Memory
and
Narration

!  „Emotive“
see
S.
K.
Langer
as
umbrella
term
for
emotion,

mood,
feeling

1.
Cultural
science
discourse
on
aﬀect
(m.
Bal)

! Cultural
Code

! 
of
musical
narration
in
history:

!  Schopenhauer,
Wagner,
Nietzsche

Function
of
musical
emotion

! Harmonics
–
major
/
minor,
con-‐/dissonance,
modulation

! Melody
–
Motive,
Theme,
melodic
line,
Speech,
„leitmotif“

! Shape
–
Phrase
structure,
ABA
–
forms

!  Instruments
–
violin-‐kiss,
tuba-‐walking

! Quotation

Musical
Mythology

!  Schopenhauer
/
Nietzsche:

!  Music
represents
not
one
speciﬁc
drama,
but

!  THE
drama:
Situation
–
conﬂict
–
solution

!  Music:

cons
(T)-‐
disson
(D)
-‐
Cons.(T)

! Shape
level:

A

B

A

! Sonata
form:

Expos.

Devel.

Reprise

Steffen Schmidt - „tone and mood“ – Music in Film

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