Chapter 9 M U S I C F O R T E L E V I S I O N
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How Film & TV Music Communicate – Vol.1 Text © Brian Morrell 2013 Chapter 9 M U S I C F O R T E L E V I S I O N In this chapter I would like to examine some notable music for television dramas and documentaries. Key to the chapter is how music serves and enhances the narrative of the film and in particular how specific compositional styles, contexts, harmonies, textures and production methods work. Music analysed includes: 24 (Sean Callery) Waking the Dead (Paul Hart) Spooks (Jennie Musket) Torchwood (Ben Foster and Murray Gold) Survivors (Edmund Butt) Six Feet Under (Thomas Newman) Band of Brothers (Michael Kamen) Police Squad (Ira Newborn) This Is Your Life (Laurie Johnson) Vincent (Rob Lane) Sherlock (Michael Price and David Arnold) Rubicon (Peter Nashell) Walking with Dinosaurs (Ben Bartlett) Batman (Neil Hefti) Click (Kevin Leavy) Who wants to be a Millionaire? (Keith Strachan and Mathew Strachan) Frost (John Hiseman and Barbara Thompson) Golapogas Documentary (Paul Leonard Morgan) The Onedin Line (Aram Ilyich Khachaturian) GBH (Richard Harvey and Elvis Costello) In every successful composer’s work there is a consistency of stylisation, approach or method. Even within the most seemingly eclectic and varied music for television and film there is a consistency; a recognisable thread running through it. This consistency is usually the reason for a composer’s success. It’s not just that they are ‘good’ (because, in the final analysis, what is ‘good’?) it’s that they have a style which is effective, works and which is recognisable. Often a specific and identifiable harmonic approach is embedded in the score, and this can leave a composer relatively free to explore and utilise a different instrumental textures and sounds. Similarly if the recognisable aspect of the music is the ‘sound’ the composer might be free to explore a range of different harmonies. Listen to any television score and you’ll notice a defining identity, which is probably one of the following: • A style of instrumentation or ‘sound’ / density of textures • A specific type of production and/or use of technology • A specific and identifiable harmonic approach What often qualifies as being ‘recognisable’ sometimes goes beyond the music itself. Often the recognisable feature relates to how, and in way, aspects of a film are being dealt with by the music, e.g. the function of the music. Sometimes what’s important is not what the music is but what it represents; what it means in context of the film. This is its function. Sometimes when people refer to film or TV music being ‘good’ what they mean is that the function the music provided was good. Decisions about where to score music and what the music is actually supposed to be doing are as important as the music itself. As an example, the music for the television show Lost (which we examine in detail elsewhere) mainly plays the humanity and intrigue and not so much the science fiction. The show is science fiction only on surface level. Underneath it is about people and situations. This is what the music plays. This means the music is rarely guilty of needless italicisation and duplication. By contrast, the music to 24 mimics the show’s tense, real-time narrative. 24 Sean Callery Sean Callery spent his first post-degree working life as a product support specialist for Synclavier, which brought him into close contact with some major names in the music industry and film music industry such as Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Alan Silvestri and Mark Snow, for whom he worked as an arranger, programmer and assistant. Often part of his specialist skills enabled him to develop hybrid sounds, something which came in useful on 24 . To work on the show, Callery converted part of his property into a home studio, from which the music was created and recorded. At the core of Callery’s setup is a collection of mostly analog synths and samplers. While he uses dedicated high-end software such as Symphobia, it is in his analog gear that comes in most useful for 24. Callery is usually asked to write 41 minutes for typical 44-minute episode of 24 . 1 How Film & TV Music Communicate – Vol.1 Text © Brian Morrell 2013 Between receiving the episode to delivery to the dubbing stage, Callery has only about five days to work. He says “If you have a three-minute scene, you cannot just continue the same idea for the whole three minutes; you have to contrast it, introduce new sounds. It’s a matter of finding the right textures and using them sparingly, and not fatiguing the ear.” Callery’s distinctive musical style lies in his integration of instruments and sound effects, some of which are created through elaborate sample manipulation. There are also elements of electro acoustic music. One of the most profound characteristics of the show is its real- time narrative. The musical solution to the ‘real-time’ nature and rapidly shifting narrative, which often comes with a split screen showing two simultaneous scenes, is to create a constant linear score throughout the pivotal scenes with few rises and falls. Music is therefore not impaled on a strict visual accompaniment and instead functions almost as generic ‘mood music’. The music on 24 was used almost as an extra level of sound design. It combines traditional harmony and melody with more abstract sounds, processed by samples and synths. The ‘time’ and ‘clock’ idea defined the show from an audio perspective. This was Callery’s idea; instead of a theme at the start we have a ticking clock. Some of the show’s music contains a great sense of propulsion and urgency. How does it do this? 24 – Season 1 - Episode 1 – 00.14.55 Fig. 1 This motif comes in during a visual edit around 00.05.50 in episode 1 of series 1. The idea comes numerous times in 24 and functions almost as a sonic logo. It is typical of the music which often accompanies the frantic dual-screen narrative of 24. The anticipatory nature of some of the phrase underpins its effectiveness in this kind of scene and yet there is more in terms of understanding the harmonies which accompany the rhythmic elements Fig. 2 F#m chord implied The main notes in the phrase are transcribed as simple crotchets in fig.2. The intervals that bring colour and th th therefore context to the phrase are the 9 and 11 . Without these the rapid, urgent rhythmic nature of the phrase would th th be fairly lost. The rather mesmerising and repetitive phrase 9 11 begins on the 9 th . The example below, 32 minutes into episode 1 of season 2, displays Callery’s writing style for a scene in which explores a subdued, reflective and evolving narrative. The only hit point is on bar five, where the Horn arrives at the same time as Jack Bauer arrives in the room. The music displays Callery’s more abstract writing and the harmonies used to evoke and stimulate listeners whilst not distracting them. Look closely and you’ll see there are no actual ‘tunes’ or passages that could be rationalised or digested as complete. Instead we have small bite-sized statements which glide in and out. 2 How Film & TV Music Communicate – Vol.1 Text © Brian Morrell 2013 Fig. 3 24 – Episode 1 – 00.10.00 1 Jack Bauer walks into CTU situation room Horn line (cont) Low strings If we look closely we can see the piece contains many compositional devices and approaches which can be rationalised, understood and evaluated. I have analysed several aspects of this short transcription to expose and highlight various reasons this piece communicates so well. Below I have isolated the string / synth line which utilises bare, almost parallel writing. The two-note line lacks formal harmonic identifiers (3rds) which prevents the piece becoming too ‘musical’ and distracting. Fig. 4 (nc) (nc) (nc) (nc) (nc) (nc) (nc) (nc) (nc) (nc) (nc) (nc) C# E D# B C# E G# F# A C# B G# The piano line underneath which accompanies the string parts, again, does not settle on any particularly identifiable melodic pattern. It stays clear of notes which would create (combined with strings) a clear chord. Fig. 5 The first actual ‘chord’ doesn’t appear until bars six, seven & eight. 3 How Film & TV Music Communicate – Vol.1 Text © Brian Morrell 2013 Fig. 6 F# C# A F#m The chord on beat 1 of bar nine (fig.7) is an F#m but beyond that the harmonies are more ambiguous both th th theoretically and in terms of how we hear them aurally. Beat 2 features what could be the 9 and 11 of the rd rd th F# chord minus its 3 . Or the same two notes (G# and B) could simply be the major 3 and 5 of an E chord over the F# chord minus its 3 rd . This potential ‘duality of perception’ isn’t just an idle theoretical debating point – it blurs our actual aural perception. In bar eleven the bare 4 th interval Fig. 7 (C# - F#) forms the basis of what we D E C#m D rationalise as an F#-based chord, over which we then hear chords of D, E, C#m and D. This subtle poly harmony is as effective here as it is in Thomas Newman scores such as American Beauty Horn line (cont) Low strings WAKING THE DEAD Paul Hart The theme from Waking the Dead is one of the most recognisable and communicative music themes in recent British television history.