Chapter 7 T H E H a R M O N I C P O W E R O F M U S I C
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How Film & TV Music Communicate – Vol.1 Text © Brian Morrell 2013 Chapter 7 T H E H A R M O N I C P O W E R O F M U S I C As discussed in other chapters, often what we ‘hear’ is surface level, but what ‘listen to’ is a combination of the sound the notes make and the harmonic context they represent (which we may not be conscious of ‘hearing’ but nevertheless ‘experience’). Our responses and various levels of perception enable us to enjoy the different levels on which music transmits or communicates. We all listen in subtly different ways; the variables are infinite because our emotional reactions are based on individual emotional, psychological, physical, biological and intellectual factors. There are, however, common denominators and common emotional reactions caused by specific musical devices which we can quantify and understand. This is how and why some elements of music communicate in ways we can identify. In short, although the manner in which we all hear and listen varies greatly, there are some musical devices and structures which are so strong, so popular, so ingrained or so utterly communicative that we all respond to them in a way which is similar enough for us to deduce a kind of universal meaning. This is why musical structures, traditions and tolerances are so powerful and is why we are able to identify, rationalise and learn from them. In this chapter I aim to address some of these complex issues by looking at the music to some notable films. Music analysed: Gladiator (Hans Zimmer) The Day After Tomorrow (Harald Klosser & Thomas Wander) Contact (Alan Silvestri) Aliens (James Horner) King Kong (James Newton Howard) The Long Good Friday (Francis Monkman) Pearl Harbour and Angels & Demons (Hans Zimmer) Chaplin, Out of Africa, Dancing with Wolves (John Barry) Defence of the Realm (Richard Harvey) GLADIATOR Hans Zimmer No book on film music would be complete without an analysis of the music for the film Gladiator, composed by Hans Zimmer. Analysing Zimmer’s music means examining specific, successful and identifiable harmonic devices and how they communicate a sense of emotion and even meaning to the audience. The most successful sections of the score are written as emotional commentaries on the story rather than functioning necessarily as explicitly synced ‘music to picture’. Freed often from the need to overtly italicise specific visual elements and respond to hit points all the time (which can sometimes punctuate the emotional impact and longevity of film music) Zimmer’s music provides an emotional musical narrative which is expansive, majestic and imposing. One of the things that make Gladiator a great movie and separate it from being just a film about violence and revenge is Zimmer’s music. Maximus is governed by a commitment that is of greater substance than a desire simply to avenge the deaths of his family, and the sensitivity of some of the music cues italicises this. Below I have transcribed the lead line and chords to ‘Now we are Free’, a piece which runs at the end of Gladiator over the credit roll. Audio, 01.00 ‘Now we are Free’ – Movie, End Titles 02.22.12 Fig.1 1 How Film & TV Music Communicate – Vol.1 Text © Brian Morrell 2013 Contours have been added which show variation in the way the melody and harmony interact; firstly we have contrary motion in bars two-three as the chords move upwards from D to E and the melodic line sung by Lisa Gerrard moves down. The same type of sequence happens in bars six-seven where the chord bass line moves upwards and the melody moves downward. By contrast the melody and chord movement in bars four-five and twelve-thirteen displays close, almost parallel, movement. Contrary motion might be an obvious observation but it underpins one of the main ways music communicates. To put it in more human terms, it could be said that this is one of the ways harmony subtly contracts and expands, or ‘breathes in and out’. This is one of the many aspects that make music something we can experience, respond to and enjoy; something we can listen to, rather than simply hear. In the same excerpt below, this time I have highlighted another important characteristic; the all-powerful and descriptive minor / major 3 rd intervals. Such intervals are profoundly descriptive; they literally colour a chord by determining its harmonic characteristic – e.g. whether it’s major or minor. As listeners we respond to these intervals; we gravitate towards them. They wield disproportionate power within a chord. The crucial area here is in bars four-five and ten-eleven, where the notes and the chords both move down but the intervals they represent remain 3rds. There is a richness to these bars in particular, not least because the emotional 3 rd features in all chords. Fig.2 A G# F# min3 rd maj3rd maj3rd A G# F# min3 rd maj3rd maj3rd In general musical terms the relationship between the musical sound and the intervallic meaning is one of the things that creates the distinctive emotional impact and aesthetic beauty of music. The relationship between what the melody sounds like (the notes) and what they represent as intervals is everything. The difference between the surface-level obvious musical analysis and a deeper contextual perspective is key to understanding what music is. In the figure below we see the musical notes (from the melody line in bars four-five and twelve-thirteen of fig.1 and fig 2) diagonally from top left to bottom right. I have also added an intervallic contour (bottom left to top right right). That these factors happen simultaneously explains the duality of experience enjoyed by the listener. This is a harmonic device which specifically finds its way into film music on a regular basis, as described elsewhere in this book. Fig.3 A rd Maj 3 rd Maj 3 rd Min 3 G# F# 2 How Film & TV Music Communicate – Vol.1 Text © Brian Morrell 2013 Fig.4 In the three bar excerpt in fig.4 we have another example of the interval being of more interest than the note; firstly, we have a note of C in context of an Am chord. By bar two the C note has become the sus4 of the Gsus4 chord. Then we have a Bb which rd F# represents the minor 3 of a Gm chord, which becomes the sus4 of the Fsus4. Note Interval Here is the same section in context of a larger excerpt from Gladiator . I have also highlighted the minor and major 3 rd ( ) intervals (which lend the piece a richness of emotion) and the contrary motion at work Fig.5 Audio, 02.38 ‘The German Battlefront’ Movie - 00.02.37 Section from fig.4 The 3rd intervals come at the beginning of each of the first three bars of fig.5 establishing a sense of warmth and emotion. The extra drama and gravity created by the inverted bass in bar four is also worthy of mention. The chord of C in bar three becomes a chord of F/C in bar four, then back to a chord of C in bar five. Such a simple observation belies the extent to which this dramatizes the moment. The use of inversions softens the extremity and squareness of the movement between chords of C, F and C, offering a common bass line. 3 How Film & TV Music Communicate – Vol.1 Text © Brian Morrell 2013 But what inversions also offer is drama. We hear the chord but are aware that something is different; there is a different harmonic weighting, a different distribution. Other notable tensions are to be found in bars thirteen-fifteen. Bar thirteen offers a Dm chord with an E-to- D downward counterpoint (2 nd to root) in the mid strings (top stave) with a G# to A (#4 th to 5 th ) upward melodic figure in the top strings. Much of what the harmony offers in counter-melodic terms can be considered inferred, implied, or almost ‘shorthand’. The E and G# (over the Dm chord) could also represent the 1 st and maj3 rd of an E chord, which means the chord almost functions as a polychord (containing distinct elements of E and Dm). I say this not because it is some vague theoretical possibility but because the fact that this can have two visual interpretations, or meanings, is one of the characteristics that make it work so well, especially as a brief passing chord. The final observation from this section is the glide upwards on the 8va strings (bars twelve to fifteen) especially the C# note which ties between its major 3 rd intervallic context in bar fourteen to its ‘destination’ intervallic context of a major 7 th over the Dsus4 chord. This skewing of context offers further reasons as to how and why the piece communicates so well. In fact if you observe the final C# in conjunction with the sus4 G note of the Dm (bar 15) what you actually have is a major 3 rd (C#) and 7 th (G) of an A chord. Again this is subtle polytonality What makes Zimmer’s music so effective is the difference between, on the one hand, the vast and subtle harmonic complexities and the often inferred and oblique nature of their delivery, and on the other hand, the texturally soft subtlety of his instrumentation, merged with the dense undergrowth of his samples. This is what makes the complex seem effortless; it is what makes the complicated appear simple and it represents perhaps the enduring aesthetic characteristic of his writing and production.