Chapter 5 DRAMA

Films and music analysed include:

Pierrepoint (Martin Phipps) Harry (Martin Phipps, Ruth Barrett, Pete Tong, Paul Rogers) Let Him Have It (Michael Kamen) About a Boy (Damon Gough, as Badly Drawn Boy) The Ides of March (Alexander Desplat) The Impossible (Fernando Velazquez) The Shawshank Redemption (Thomas Newman) Too Big to Fail (Marcelo Zarvos) The Last Days of Lehman Brothers (Kevin Sargent) Prime Suspect 7 (Nicholas Hooper) Olympus has Fallen (Trevor Morris) The Newsroom (Thomas Newman) Falling Down (James Newton Howard) How I Now Live (John Hopkins) Kon Tiki (Johan Söderqvist)

PIERREPOINT (Martin Phipps)

Albert Pierrepoint became one of Britain’s most famous hangmen; he was known for his efficiency and compassion and rose to become 'the best’. From 1933 until the end of his career in 1955 he executed 608 people, including infamous WW2 war criminals. He hanged Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be executed in Britain, but by then the public appetite for such draconian punishment had waned. Pierrepoint had changed too; in his retirement he became a prominent abolitionist. The film charts important moments in his life and work and is a poignant reminder of the history, evolution and controversies of the death penalty in the 20 th Century. It is also a journey through the life of an extraordinary man.

The following cue comes eleven minutes into the movie following an execution, overseen by Pierrepoint and an associate. The associate froze under the pressure of taking another person’s life, resulting in Pierrepoint having to take over. Afterwards on their way out of the prison the associate thrusts his own fee into the hands of Pierrepoint, shouting “I don’t want it.” As the man storms off the camera stays on Pierrepoint (played brilliantly by Timothy Spall) and the cue below begins. The piece starts on piano as we see Pierrepoint stood alone on an outside staircase. The scene cuts to the inside of Pierrepoint’s home as we see him return later that same day. This once again underpins one of the central reasons why music works; it creates a seamless continuation of the narrative. Without music the cut from the prison yard to the hallway of Pierrepoint’s house is quite abrupt; music makes the edit smoother and more natural. Although the addition of music in both environments is unnatural and against the reality, authenticity and believability of the scenes, had they were real, it emphasises and augments the reality and authenticity of the story as it is told on screen because it creates a bond between the viewer and the film. Film music is a paradox; it works when in theory it shouldn’t. As I have alluded to at other points in this series of books, life does not come with its own accompaniment but the telling of it in two- dimensional moving images needs music for it to be convincing; for it to connect with us and to forge an emotional bond. As I have said earlier the reason this works so well is precisely because music is so unknown . Most people cannot rationalise and understand how harmony works and creates an emotional reaction within them, which means they are influenced, persuaded, prompted, induced and ultimately emotionally manipulated by something they don’t get. If people were able to understand and interpret harmony in the absolute way they understand, say, colour, its effect would be less subtle, less delicate, too obvious, too absolute and too rapid. Pictures we interpret straight away; dialogue we understand immediately, but music is this strange, extra emotional additive which, although we don’t understand how or why, helps us subtly understand the story.

Fig. 01 Film - 00.14.10

Piano

Music which tries to make people think needs to provide time for this process to happen. It needs to breathe. It needs to contemplate, to deliberate. This is where the importance of phrasing and structure is almost more important than the statement itself. Sometimes music simply says too much, or what it says is spoken too quickly for its message to sink in. Sometimes there is simply too much music in music , which can overplay the emotion in a scene. Imagine the strange image below being a template for a musical idea; first we have the statement, followed by time for this statement to sink in.

If you apply this ‘map’ to the piece which accompanies the scene from fig.1, you can see the gaps, the pauses, which enable the music to convey its message (fig.2, below)

Fig. 02 Contemplation Contemplation Statement Reflection Reflection Statement

C & R Statement C & R C & R

Statement Statement

Contemplation Contemplation Contemplation Reflection Reflection Reflection

When the string section arrives it functions as an interesting textural evolution which deepens the mood; but essentially it is the same musical message. If we look at the same cue again, this time from a purely harmonic perspective, we perhaps begin to appreciate how the message is delivered; the 6 th interval (major and minor) has long been used in music to create emotion. Before we see how it is employed in the theme from Pierrepoint, let’s take a minute to observe how other composers have used it in perhaps much more overt ways.

Fig. 03

In fig.3 we have examples of the maj6 interval, contained in the opening bars to My Way (Paul Anka, Jacques Revaux and Gilles Thibault Claude Francois). Underneath we have the opening bars to Music of the Night (Andrew Lloyd Webber) from Phantom of the Opera . The third example is from Angels by Guy Chambers and Robbie Williams.

In fig.4 we have the opening bars to the theme from The Incredible Hulk TV Fig. 04 theme (‘The Lonely Man’ by Joe Harnell), a beautiful, haunting and emotional piece which makes great use of the min6 In fig.5 we have the opening bars to the theme from the movie 1492 – Conquest of Paradise, interval. by Vangelis In fig.5, which we also makes great use of the min6 interval. see the melody from Vangelis’ Conquest of Paradise How Film & TV Music Communicate – Vol. III – text © 2015 Brian Morrell

Fig. 05

So, having established the min6 and maj6 have a peculiarly emotional and beguiling quality, let’s look at how Martin Phipps uses them in the cue from Pierrepoint . Intervals can communicate a sense of character and emotion, horizontally as well as vertically. As we can see from the examples given above, it is the horizontal harmonic movement (the melody) which creates the distinctive min6/maj6 ‘sound’. With Pierrepoint (fig.6, below), apart from one or two examples (marked with ) most of the 6 th intervals (which happen almost on every note) are vertical, resulting in two-part harmony throughout (denoted by ). To ensure we don’t disappear completely up the emotional flagpole, there are a few isolated bits of vertical intervallic tension (denoted with ). Fig. 06

th th th 7 9 b9

9th

Rarely will you find a piece of TV drama music which communicates 6 th intervals so specifically but so subtly. As to why the intervals are so effective; the minimal two-part voicings italicise and exaggerate the character of the interval. The lack of a third voice in each vertical chord isolates the notes that are there. Also, with the 6 th intervals being so exposed, the individual chords they suggest or allude to are not quite as concrete as they would be with an emphatic three-part chord. At the beginning of the cue (transcribed yet again, fig.7, below), the 6 th intervals theoretically are suggestive of more than one chord. In the version below, the implied chord symbol is at the top as usual but underneath I have placed symbols in red to denote alternate chords that could be implied. So why don’t we hear the first chord of bar two as a Bb? And why don’t we hear the second beat of bar two as an Eb chord? The answer is that harmony communicates cumulatively.

Fig. 07 It is only the first quaver (A and D, bar one ) which acts as a chord V in Gm and the second quaver of bar two (the G and D creating a bare 5 th interval ) which tends to suggest an overarching Gm feel, and even Bb Eb F those chords are incomplete.

The point about this phrase, for the reasons I have given, is that it communicates harmonic colour softly, subtly, despite having a strong 6 th flavour, vertically. In many ways of course this is all typical of the way music communicates; the effects harmony creates in ‘colouring’ music are born partly of an immediate experience but also of a cumulative, gradual experience which radiates out through the course of music. Of course there are signposts everywhere telling us how to feel and how to react, but it is the cumulative experience which soaks into us and which we remember. How Film & TV Music Communicate – Vol. III – text © 2015 Brian Morrell

HARRY BROWN (Martin Phipps, Ruth Barrett, Pete Tong, Paul Rogers)

Harry Brown is a 2009 British vigilante film starring Michael Caine. The film centres on Harry Brown, a widowed war veteran living on a crime-ridden housing estate descending into anarchy. After his friend is murdered Harry takes the law into his own hands. A scene around sixteen minutes into the film depicts the hallway of the inside of a flat, in front of the letterbox, showing something burning on the mat. The implication is that this is a deliberate act, caused by someone placing a burning item through the letterbox to set fire to the flat. As the floor-level camera moves away from the fire, we hear the cue below enter.

Fig. 08 Film – 00.16.27 Audio - ‘Subway Surveilance’

Synth

The specific texture of the synth, being abrasive and possessing an odd ‘wind’ characteristic, making it sound like a ‘twisted trombone’, is definitely crucial in articulating the anxiety and fear in this scene. The scoring of this scene is significantly different to what one might expect in context of the somewhat clichéd way fear and anxiety are often articulated musically in film, and of course this sense of surprise and newness is also what makes it work. The semiquaver synth line alone would not have cut it; it needed the menacing octave bass to underpin the motif. Over and above all that we have the interval, which, like Peirrepoint , is based exclusively on the 6 th . We hear the minor 6 th interval between the E and G# over the C# bass, giving an overall C#m feel, but then, in a touch of class, we hear the A-F-A repeated semiquaver line, which functions as the 5 th and min3 rd (10 th ) of a Dm but still over the C# bass. The reason we hear these notes as 5 th and 10 th of a Dm chord is because the first time we heard the arpegiated motif we heard the E and G# as 3 rd and 5 th of the C#m chord. We therefore frame the second motif as identical to the first but a semitone up. We hear it this way despite the C# in the bass, which we hear as a separate thing. This is how the cumulative nature of music affects us.

The first part of the transcription below (fig.9) features the last two bar of fig.8 ( Subway Surveilance ). As I said, we hear the arpegiated notes (A and F) as 5 th and m3 rd (10 th ) of a Dm chord because the context. But if we look at bars four and five of fig.9, this is how the motif from bars one and two (fig.9) might look without the context of the whole of the cue, as if this were the only two bars in the piece. As we can see, without the context of the whole cue, the C# bass is now a Db and we now hear the F note not as a m3 rd of a Dm chord but as a maj3 rd of the Db chord. Further we hear the A not as the 5 th of a Dm but as the #5 of the Db chord. The point I make is that, had we simply heard the last two bars of the cue on its own, uncluttered by context, we would ‘hear’ the notes as different intervals. The last two bars aren’t actually that strange. It is the recontextualisation we apply to these notes because of the initial phrase we heard at the outset of the cue (bar one to three of fig.8) which make it strange. The important thing here – and this is why music is always more than the sum of its parts – is that our own interpretation decides the context of our aural perception. It isn’t the music that’s weird; it’s the context we Fig. 09 apply because of the way we listen.

5 m3 5 m3 5 m3 5 m3 5 m3 5 m3 5 m3 5 m3 5 #5 3 #5 3 #5 3 #5 3 #5 3 #5 3 #5 3 #5 3 #5

The following cue comes in the film as the police enter a crime-ridden housing estate and begin an operation which results in a full-blown riot. This section of the cue is preceded in the film by quiet as the police take up their positions prior to the major operation beginning. 00.33 into the cue comes when the police break down a door to a flat; this is where the violence comes. Musically this is scored very interestingly and again, not by resorting to cliché but by delivering a series of chords on brass and synths. The manner of the delivery of the chords and the effect they have on the narrative of the film is similar to John Powell’s music to United 93 , particularly the cue ‘2 nd Plane Crash’.

What’s particularly good here is the sense of angst, pain and fear delivered purely through a chord sequence featuring a succession of dense textural clusters created by harmonic tensions voiced well for instruments that articulate and convey the scene extremely well. Because the music has not resorted to cliché we are able to see past the immediate violence to the subtext; the rises, falls and swells of the accompanying melody-less music really serves the film well. The move from cliched scoring enables us to see beyond the scene; it enables us to look into the slimy underbelly of the narrative.

Fig. 10 Film - 01.16.00 Audio - ‘Riot’ (00.33)

The third bar chord is a masterpiece; This is a repeat of bar one In bar one the cluster of the top five notes the Gmaj7 is voiced low and dense The Cmaj9 is effective in but with the added textural creates an Am(add2/4) but the added This resolves to the with the major7 at the bottom of the countering the harmonic clarity and harmonic colour lumpy voicing between the two octave Es Em(add2) chord where the voicing, added to by the lower F# clashes of the previous few delivered by the top stave, and the A above create a real sense not F# is buried low clustered octave. This is a particularly ‘pained’ bars and acts a release from which brings the maj6 into just of tension, but of angst and pain. with the E and G. chord . the tension. the equation.

The cluster at the top [of bar nine] creates great harmonic and textural tensions. 4

The Bm(add4) works well; the add4 again brings a sense of angst and this is supplemented by the inversion at the bottom

LET HIM HAVE IT (Michael Kamen)

In 1950s England, Derek Bentley, a young man with learning difficulties, is influenced and led astray by a group of petty criminals led by Christopher Craig, a teenager with delusions of being a gangster. Chris and Derek’s friendship leads to their involvement in a crime which ends in murder. It became a case with a terrible legacy which would forever shake England’s belief in capital punishment. The movie is a sensitive and important portrayal of Derek Bentley and the absurdities of the English legal system at the time. The theme which opens the movie definitely exudes a sense of sadness and sorrow.

Fig. 11 Film intro Audio - ‘The Job’

(omit5)

Inversions play a big part here; these are important harmonic devices which slightly subvert the natural balance of harmony to alter the weighting of the chord. These are used all over music of every variety; the reason for mentioning them here is because they are an important characteristic of the slightly abstract chords used in various parts of this piece. Many of the chords are a little abstract, sometimes featuring partial ‘omit’ harmonies – these frequently appear on the ‘long chords’. In addition some use ‘ combination chords’ (where there is more than one extension). Combination chords work well but traditionally extensions are voiced sympathetically and sound like they belong together, such as the traditional way of voicing a b10 chord (below, bar one). Flat 10s and add9s perform fundamentally different tasks. They bring specific colour (omit5) Fig. 12 and normally they would rarely appear in 9 the same chord. The add9(2) is a subtle, b10 soft and romantic extension but the flat 10 causes colour and mild friction and is 1 frequently used in jazz. If we look at the 3 voicing in bar two if the main transcription (fig.11) and separately in bar b10 The oddness of the voicing, the mixture two of fig.12, we can see that the add9 is 7 of two extensions which don’t traditionally combine, the omission of on the top, clashing slightly with the Db 3 5 the 5 th and the employment of the (the b10) lying a b10 underneath, which th rd 1 inversion all conspire to alter the itself lies a flat 10 above the inverted 3 character of the b10 chord from jazz to underneath. abstraction.

ABOUT A BOY (Damon Gough, as Badly Drawn Boy)

Based on Nick Hornby's best-selling novel, About A Boy is the story of Will Freeman, a cynical, immature young man who lives off the royalties from a song written by his deceased father. In this sensitive film he is taught how to act like a grown-up by a boy, Marcus Brewer, who lives a solitary life living with and looking after his chronically depressed single mother.

Fig. 13 Film intro Audio - ‘The Job’

People referred to this piece as ‘mesmerising’ and ‘hypnotic’. But, given the repetitive nature of the piece, why call it mesmerising and hypnotic (entrancing, soothing) and not ‘boring’ and ‘tedious’ (repetitious, monotonous, tiresome)? The acoustic guitar is definitely soothing and a little enchanting but in order to find out why the endless repetition is heard positively and not negatively we need to look at the harmonies. How Film & TV Music Communicate – Vol. III – text © 2015 Brian Morrell

As we have observed at other points in this series of books, when we listen to melody and harmony we hear two different realities: what the notes ‘sound’ like (aurally, the pitch and the name we give the notes) and what the notes ‘mean’ (as intervals relative to the chord being stated or implied.

The intervals that the notes of C, G and A ‘mean’ are changed because the E notes (in bar one) change to F notes (in bar 2). Thus the change of just one note in bar two alters the entire collective ‘meaning’ and ‘sound’ of all of the notes. The reason this piece works so well – the reason it is mesmerising but not tedious - is because the real movement is not in the sound of the notes but in what the notes ‘mean’. The notes are repetitive but the intervals they occupy move.

Fig. 14 The notes C C C C C C C C highlighted (except A A A A A A A A the E in bar 1and F in bar 2. G G G G G G G G

The notes in bar 1 (except the E) as intervals 8 8 8 8 6 6 6 6 5 5 5 5 The same notes in bar 2 (except the F) as intervals 5 5 5 5 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 C C C C G G G G A A A A

C C C C G G G G A A A A

THE IDES OF MARCH (Alexander Desplat)

Ryan Gosling plays Stephen Meyer, an assistant campaign manager for a Democratic Governor trying to win the Democratic nomination for President (played by George Clooney). Meyer begins an affair with a 20-year old intern, who then becomes pregnant with the governor’s child. To prove his loyalty to the governor, he ‘deals with it’ by arranging for a termination. Eventually when he has been fired he confronts the governor and attempts to pressure him into hiring him back by threatening to ‘reveal all’. The film examines betrayal, infidelity, corruption, loyalty and disloyalty

Early in the movie Meyer is asked to a highly confidential and irregular meeting with the governor’s opposition chief of strategy, during which he is asked to ‘jump ship’ and come and work for the opposing candidate. What he doesn’t realise is that he’s being set up: having decided not to take the offer, the meeting will be leaked and he will lose his job, thus depriving the Governor of a brilliant strategist. The opposition’s idea was to get Meyer, and if they couldn’t get him, discredit and destroy him so the governor couldn’t benefit from his brilliance. Meyer had called his boss to inform him about the opposition’s request for a meeting and had left a message, telling his boss it was ‘important’. After the meeting has ended, in which Meyer refuses the opposition’s overtures, his boss calls him back. During the conversation his boss asks “what was so important” to which Meyer replies “nothing…figured it out.” This is an important moment because his one chance to truthfully reveal the clandestine meeting has passed. During this phone call a piece called ‘Paranoia’ has been playing. It is a great piece which adds to the whole furtive, clandestine mood. During the exchange between “what was so important” and “nothing…figured it out” there is the smallest of pauses to emphasise the importance of Meyer pausing and deciding not to tell his boss what’s just happened. A piano line (bar three, below, fig.15) comes in at this precise moment. This is a great example of the architecture and placement of music being as important as what you write. Jerry Goldsmith said “it’s not what you write; it’s where you write it”. I’m sure he would have realised that it clearly is what you write, but the point he was exaggerating is true. In a way if you get the geography wrong whatever you write is never going to sound good because the delivery is bad.

This is where dialogue and music fuse Fig. 15 Film 00.23.14 Audio ‘Paranoia’ together as one.

“What was so important”? “Nothing…..figured it out.”

Another good thing about this cue is the way it has a presence but allows the pictures to speak and the film to breathe. The bass is the only instrument actually creating the minor chord in some bars; this is why I have called some of the chords minor and then ‘omit3’. Technically they are minor because of the brief inclusion of the 3 rd in the bass line but in terms of the middle-stave voicings there are some voicings with no 3 rd . The synth chords are frequently bare, suspended or incomplete, which makes them slightly less obvious. How Film & TV Music Communicate – Vol. III – text © 2015 Brian Morrell

Absolute minor chords or absolute major chords ‘colour’ films unequivocally; they offer a definite opinion and because we have heard them a thousand times before we are influenced by what would be an obvious, brash interpretation. But if we use suspended, incomplete or bare chords, they don’t sound so obvious, so noticeable, so recognisable. Whilst not being overtly dissonant (which would provoke, distract and disorientate) they are slightly harder for listeners to rationalise which means they open us up to the act of interpretation and analysis, which brings us closer to the film.

If we write something people are going to understand immediately then sometimes we’re simply writing music which ‘accompanies’. There’s nothing wrong with that unless the scene and the movie want more from the music; perhaps they want something deeper or want to create an emotion the film itself is incapable of articulating. If we write music which needs a dissertation to explain what its intentions are, it will sometimes distract. But if we get in the middle and offer something which makes us think, this can be the holy grail of film composition because it is there to distil our reactions, to mediate our responses. When the scene is pensive, absorbed, obscure or ‘furtive’, as it is in the one we’ve just looked at, we often need the strangeness and incongruity that suspended or incomplete chords bring. They are unsure, uncertain, fractured. This makes us, the viewers, unsure and questioning. It makes us examine, question, analyse.

Thus when you examine chords and what certain types of chords or extensions actually do, you realise they are communicating just like the film, only with slightly less certainty. Sometimes you don’t need the complete certainty words usually bring. Even pictures frequently don’t leave much to the imagination. Music is absorbed by people who begin to feel a certain way without ever knowing or understanding how or why or when it happened. Composers need to figure out what feelings and emotions would be appropriate for a scene – either to italicise and reinforce it, or to counter it - and then figure out the chords that will deliver these feelings and emotions and in what way they will be delivered.

If, as a budding film composer, you watched the next scene you could be forgiven for missing not only the hit point, but also how it is acknowledged, such is the subtlety. Music written to italicise a specific moment or, as in this case a specific piece of pertinent dialogue, can be very effective; when it is done as subtly as this it can be sublime, because it is not even noticed ‘as music’ but becomes simply a subtle nuance of the film which makes its point without anyone even realising there was one.

In this scene Molly – Meyer’s girlfriend – gets a call late at night from the governor on her mobile phone, which Meyer sees. He quizzes her and then it all comes out; the affair with the governor and the subsequent pregnancy. She tearfully explains her situation; “I needed nine hundred bucks” says Molly, to which Meyer replies, “for what?” After a pause she says, “I can’t go to my dad….[pause]….we’re Catholic.”

Molly needs to have a termination and she cannot go to her family. The key point is when she says ‘we’re Catholic’, at which point the chord moves from a succession of sparsely and lightly voiced E omit3 chords to a deep, low-mid voiced and texturally warm Cmaj7 chord.

Fig. 16 Movie 00.46.33 It is this change , this reaction and ultimately the sense of release (from the tension created by sparse, repetitive ‘omit’ chords to the “I needed nine hundred bucks”… full, deep and resonant maj7) that makes the music become part of (Molly) this scene, rather than simply accompany it. This sequence of “For what”? “I can’t go to my dad…..we’re Catholic harmonic and textural change really makes the scene speak in a way it (Meyer) #omit3 (Molly) could never have done without music.

The next scene sees Meyer collecting Molly to take her for termination of her pregnancy. He has secured the nine hundred dollars from election cash funds. The previous scene shows Meyer in a hotel room with a colleague. He sees a message on his phone from Molly and the music cue ‘Molly’ begins. How Film & TV Music Communicate – Vol. III – text © 2015 Brian Morrell

The interesting thing here is the device which has been used for years; one where we hear the music for the next scene before the scene starts. The first two bars of the cue are therefore pre-emptive and anticipatory in function. When I say regularly that film music is ultimately a production of its function, this is a perfect example. The scene where Meyer sees the message on his phone would be lost in translation were it not for the music that begins at that point, which is light but urgent.

The scene cuts to Meyer sat in his car outside Molly’s hotel, by which point the music is on bar three. If you think about it, scene changes to different locations in time and geography should theoretically be quite unsettling and counter-intuitive. Our normal physical lives do not operate by moving vast distances in time or space and yet a scene change expects us to accept this. Years ago scientists used to term the experience a ‘jolt’ – where we saw something change rapidly on screen in a way which forced our attention to be wrenched from one thing to another unnaturally. These are unusual experiences so in most cases we will hear music to gloss over the edit. The point is, of course, what does the music play? If the music is supposed to make the experience easier and yet all it does is duplicate, it too will change at the same time as the picture, so we don’t make it better, we simply augment the problem. Often what the music offers is either neutral music which could apply to both scenes, or it will play the subsequent scene and then acknowledge the actual visual edit. Therefore when the scene actually switches to Meyer in his car outside Molly’s hotel, the acknowledgement is the piano motif (the harmonic and textural and rhythmic context had already begun two bars earlier when Meyer was in his hotel room at a previous time and location.

Cut to Meyer in car waiting outside Molly’s hotel Fig. 17 Film 00.55.14’ Audio ‘Molly’

#11 Meyer in his hotel room sees the text from Molly 8 8 maj 7 7

Definite Definite Definite Definite Definite Definite Definite Definite

Ambiguous Ambiguous Ambiguous Ambiguous Ambiguous Ambiguous Ambiguous Ambiguous

Definite Definite Definite Definite Definite Definite Definite Definite

Ambiguous Ambiguous Ambiguous Ambiguous Ambiguous Ambiguous Ambiguous Ambiguous

Definite Definite Definite Definite Definite Definite Definite Definite Definite Definite

Ambiguous Ambiguous Ambiguous Ambiguous Ambiguous Ambiguous Ambiguous Ambiguous Ambiguous Ambiguous

Definite Definite Definite Definite Definite Definite

Ambiguous Ambiguous Ambiguous Ambiguous Ambiguous Ambiguous

The mildly dissonant elements of the melody line clearly give the piece an element of strangeness and the relentless repetitive nature of the triplet movement gives the piece a very slight furtive, surreptitious and clandestine feel. But it isn’t just because the line moves up and down chromatically; it is a combination of the note and the supporting chords. When we hear the melody line move (E, D#, E, D#, D etc) there is a tendency to attempt to rationalise it in context of the first chord that appears (Em), but of course the chords underneath bar four move from Em to Am to Em. This means that the D# isn’t heard as a maj7 over an Em chord but is instead heard as a #11 over an Am/E chord. What might seem like a purely theoretical observation is actually a little more than that: we are used to hearing notes in context of certain harmonic situations; in almost any situation we might imagine, a line that starts above an Em chord and goes from E to D# to E to D# to D will in all probability move over the same Em chord. But when the same line moves over chords that alternate between Em and Am/E, the note moves at one rate (chromatically – E, D#, E, D#, D etc) but the interval, rather than moving from 8 to maj7 to 8 to maj7 to 7) actually moves from 8 (E over the Em) to #11 (D# over an Am chord) back to 8 (E over the Em) to #11 (D# over an Am chord) to 7 (D over an Em chord). The supportive chords are a mixture of ‘straight’ unambiguous chords and vague, indistinct chords. I have marked these on the transcription as ‘definite’ and ‘ambiguous’. Part of what keeps the piece ‘on the straight and narrow’ is that the first and third beats all state a clear chord, whereas beats two and four state varying degrees of ambiguous harmony. All these things conspire to create an extremely effective accompaniment for this scene; again, music perhaps opens us up emotionally because of harmonic events

There is a subtle hit point as Molly, travelling in the car with Meyer in silence, glances across and down at Meyer, a thoughtful, pensive and reflective look on her face. This is where the music becomes more ‘whole’ and uses more definite, evolving harmony. Unambiguous romantic contours colour this section (below, fig.18)

There is a great sense of evolution and motion as the bass descends. The descending bass Fig. 18 Film 00.55.55’ Audio ‘Molly’ is the only thing that alters the intervallic context of the supportive harmonies and the piano melody

10 9 10 10 11 8 9 10 1 5 5 8 3 7 5 1 The arpegiated piano maj 7 3 spends the longest amount 5 1 of time on the colourful 9 th 3 (B)

The next cue to examine comes an hour and twenty minutes into the film. Meyer has been fired as assistant campaign manager and Molly, the intern, has committed suicide. Meyer sees the governor and tells him he will ‘reveal all’ if he is not only reinstated, but given the senior campaign manager’s job. Meyer threatens to make public a note he says Molly left him which implicates the governor, but the governor suspects Meyer is bluffing. A tense conversation ends with the governor saying “there’s no note .” After a silence Meyer says “it’s your call, governor.” After another pause the cue below starts while the camera is still on the governor’s face. Then we cut to a scene showing the senior campaign manager, having his hair trimmed in a salon. The camera pans round to a side profile and then to a front profile before cutting to a scene showing the campaign manager walking out of the salon and standing on the sidewalk. It is this moment which is acknowledged by the low/mid cluster chord of trombones (bar nine, below). Again, it is worth italicising here the absolute importance of music in relaying the gravity of this part of the film. To cut from the conversation, to the salon, to the sidewalk involves a change in location and a time; but the whole experience is so effective because it is bound together by the music. The music is harmonically and texturally ambiguous until he steps onto the street; then it goes up a gear. The trombone cluster chord almost sounds like a growl, and announces perfectly the campaign manager walking outside to the street. He notices the governor’s car in a side alley and walks towards it. The governor winds the window down and says “Paul, you got a minute.”

Fig. 18 Film 01.20.03’ Audio ‘Fired’

(sus4) B7

Chords p(add2)artial, Clusters incomplete,Am fractured

Look closely and you’ll see the cluster chord is a combination of Em and Bm

“Paul, you got a minute” Governor

Film 01.20.50 Audio 00.53

From this section all we see is a front shot of the parked car, which we know contains the governor and the senior campaign manager. We know the governor is firing his friend and colleague but we simply see the front shot with the camera very slowly zooming in. The music tells the story

As I said earlier, from bar forty-two all we see is a front shot of the parked car with the camera very slowly zooming in. The music tells the story by texturally and harmonically growing the emotion and tension. The combination of the pictures, our imagination and the music delivers a fantastic cinematic experience. You won’t find a better

example of the power of music and

how it can tell a story in what are for

most people abstract terms, which

make perfect sens e.

The final cue from the film comes at the end of the movie. The movie is called ‘The Ides of March’. Beyond the obvious references to Shakespeare, it is actually an adaptation of a play called Farragut North written by Beau Willimon. In the film Stephen Meyer (Ryan Golsing) is Brutus and Governor Morris (George Clooney) is Ceasar. In Julius Ceasar Brutus betrays Ceasar; therefore the implication is that Meyer will betray Morris. The clue to this is right at the end of the film as Meyer is sitting in chair awaiting a live TV interview. Prior to this, as I said earlier, Meyer had been fired by the campaign manager (Paul Zara, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman). Meyer then essentially blackmailed the governor the get Zara fired and take his job. The assumption is that Meyer is ‘playing politics’, but this is not his motivation; he feels guilty about Molly’s suicide and his intent is to seek revenge by destroying the governor. The film ends just prior to the fulfilment of this act. The final shot we see is a front head shot of Meyer before going to blackout and credit roll. This final scene begins at 01.28.26 as Meyer enters an empty theatre and walks slowly and deliberately toward the chair in preparation for his interview. The sequence begins with a well-known dramatic chord change Fig. 19 Film 01.28.29 Audio ‘The Ides of March (Gm to C). We have referred to this in the past as the sci-fi chord change because that genre is where you normally find it.

But above all, when stripped of the Hollywood gloss of the full bombastic treatment, it conveys high drama and grandness for reasons you will find explained in vol.1.

min maj min maj maj 3 min maj 3

Great bass movement really Rapid fluctuation between different key centres is a great way to instil drama through mild disorientation. Also the captures the drama Db to A chord change is a way of using the #5 in a different, non-melodic way to instil a sense of strangeness.

To add to this the melody fluctuates quickly between major 3 rd and minor 3 rd , another disorientating and comparably rare event. In bar ten the last two crotchets imply a minor chord but accompany a major chord. How Film & TV Music Communicate – Vol. III – text © 2015 Brian Morrell The Abm to the Fb/Ab is an interesting Batman -esque sequence.

The moving bass line is effective from an orchestration and structure context, giving Although the second chord is an Fb/Ab, it is only one note away from the Abm so the piece a separate dimension which keeps it moving and keeps it dramatic we tend to hear the Fb melody note as a minor6, with all the tensions that brings

The Dbm chord links effortlessly The music is brought right down at bar twenty one, to allow Meyer’s mic test (“one two to the key of E thanks to the three four five six seven eight nine”) before resuming at bar twenty-two with a series of bars enharmonic Fb becoming the E which contain the almost unreal sounding relationship between major and minor Meyer mic test Film 01.29.32 Audio 01.10

THE IMPOSSIBLE (Fernando Velazquez)

Maria, played by Naomi Watts, and Henry, played by Ewan McGregor, along with their three kids - travel to Thailand to spend Christmas. Like hundreds of thousands of other people caught up in the disaster, a perfect paradise vacation turns deadly for the family. There is no time to escape from the tsunami; Maria and her eldest are swept one way, Henry and the youngest another. The film is an excellent and incredibly sensitive portrayal of the confusion, bewilderment, carnage, death and destruction visited on Thailand and many other areas on 26 th December 2004.

The beginning of the film is a triumph of the concept of sound design as music. Beginning with gentle sounds of the waves, it intensifies and becomes a powerful and horrifying audio enactment of the carnage of the Tsunami. This is set against the backdrop of back screen and various title cards, which makes it all the more poignant. At 00.06.31 into the film we hear an edited version of the main title theme for the first time, as a crowd on the beach countdown to Christmas day.

Some sections of the theme are referenced in the film (which we will look at after this cue). A fuller version of the main theme appears at the end of the film. The film version kicks in on bar five, at 01.42.43 into the movie. The version transcribed below includes the intro on the audio version.

Fig. 20 Audio - The Impossible Main Title

Film - 01.42.43

Before we analyse this track it might be useful to look at a selection of the hundreds of quotes that exist about the music from this film, from various corners of the media.

“….such a beautiful score that reaches the heart…” “…the most achingly heart rendering of compositions…”

“…It’s straightforward and direct, leaving no stone unturned in its quest to wash away every emotional barrier the listener may attempt to erect..”

“…one of the most beautiful film scores of all time…”

“This soundtrack is beautiful, and perfectly assists the film, which is nothing less than a cinematic triumph.” “I think I have just heard one of the most beautiful film scores of all time.”

“This is an extremely beautiful, very affecting score featuring a main theme that is truly outstanding. Despite the repetition, the theme never loses its power, its ability to be profoundly moving. It’s quite rare to hear such overt emotional manipulation from a film score these days.”

Most of the people who talk about this film score are principally referring to the beautiful theme in fig 20. Below the same transcription appears with various annotations to attempt to explain the reasons why this particular cue works so well. The downward and upward arcing contour of the bass is an interesting characteristic which gives the piece an insatiable and inexorable sense of inevitability. We hear the melody but we listen to the context; although the melody is what we consciously remember, the harmonic context is what frames the piece in our memory. There is a tendency with music, as with everything, to imagine that the bits that communicate are the bits we understand and/or remember. One of the most beguiling aspects of music is that often the things that speak to us are things we don’t consciously hear or remember.

Fig. 21 Audio - The Impossible Main Title Film - 01.42.43

Lumpy voicing in the intro What does lumpy voicing actually do? It prevents the flow of Denotes italicised 3 rd 2-part harmony draws total consonance and injects some sonically dense context. This creating a deep, warm feel, disproportionate attention; prevents the music becoming over-romantic and too ‘sweet’. especially on the cello the harmony is the piece

6th interval this low 6th interval this low creates tension creates tension

Romantic add 2 (A) over the inverted bass Inversions subtly re-orientate and reconfigure harmony, dramatizing and italicising the add2. The chord, especially because f the inversion and the add2, is actually only one note away from a Bm7.

This is not just a theoretical point; the fact that one chord (having been tweaked and altered) sounds almost identical to a different chord means that it almost floats between the two; it blurs the distinction. Listeners don’t have to know the names of these chords to appreciate and experience the result

The same blurredness happens in bar fourteen, which has a G/F# - one note away from a Bm/F#

Cello

Strings

26 CelloHarp

Strings

Harp 10 9 10 5 9 5 1 1

An interesting orchestration observation is Rich chords in low string the way the string hits the root, 5 th , 9 th and writing often have root, 5 th and 10 th to release the richness of the chord as 10 th . This happens everywhere a slow-burn rather than instant and in music but the bar above, as simultaneous in bar twenty-eight and twenty nine delivers the intervals gradually, not as part of a chord

The next cue comes thirty minutes in post Tsunami; having been separated and badly injured Maria is alive, and, along with one her sons and a very young child they have found, is resting sitting on branches of a tree. The music is extremely understated and discreet. There are acknowledgement points if you look carefully, but these are so lightly sculptured that you would be forgiven for not noticing. A film like this is when music is at its finest – when the job it does and the function it provides is so subtly embedded in the film that it functions as part of it.

Camera pans up to Maria’s son smiles Fig. 22 Film 00.30.53 Audio – ‘If it’s the last thing I do’ The young child child’s face at his mother, who ouches Maria’s smiles back hand

This chord comes in as the young child touches the top of Maria’s head and strokes her hair. This extraordinarily touching moment is very lightly scored, something that italicises the moment gently Maj3 in melody line italics the warmth

Camera cuts to a wide shot ….close-up on ….close-up on of the devastation….. Beetle dead human body

Maria and her son are eventually found by locals, who take her to get help. Delirious with pain she panics when she cannot see her children. The piece that accompanies this scene is effortlessly simple in terms of textures and harmonies, but its effect on the scene is pivotal. There is no melody line as such in this cue, so what we react to is the chord changes, and yet these are very simple. In a very real sense chords are simply sounds; the music happens in the gaps, in the changes, in between the bars. What makes music such a beautiful experiences is the reactions it creates when one chord changes to another. In some respects music is not the notes and chords; it is the relationship between notes and chords. This is what we react to. This is a simple enough observation but it is surprising that more composers don’t examine why and how chords relate to one another. As we have often said before, notes and chords relate and communicate in different ways. We can refer to the ‘pitch’ as being what a note sounds like. We can refer to the note name (Bb, G, etc) simply being the classification; what we call it. The interval is what the sound and the note mean. Words mean nothing without a framework or context to put them into perspective. This is what intervals do to notes. An interval name is decided by its position in a scale and/or its surrounding context. In past volumes I have quoted some composers who have voiced their opinion about how there is simply too much information in music. Many composers have stated in the past how ‘music is on the move too much’ and that there is ‘sometimes too much music in music’. Less music (information) gives us disproportionate space to soak in the significance of what little information there is (i.e. the intervallic context).

1 m3 5 th Fig. 23 By way of a brief recap, if we examine the four bars in fig23, we see the note of G in four intervallic contexts (root, min3, 5 th ). The ‘meaning’ of the note is buried within the interval it states.

In the chord changes below I have added the interval names to some of the notes that stay physically static. It is this intervallic movement which we respond to; it is subtle and it requires our perception, awareness and acuity to reconfigure it in the new chord. The yellow blocks which phase in and out are meant to visualise the way we gradually hear the chords. As a new chord begins a common note begin mean new and different things. The chord sequence itself is taken from the main theme, which helps us subconsciously navigate to and from the main theme, which appears at the beginning and end of the film.

Fig. 24 Film 00.35.11 Audio – ‘My boys, I cannot see them’ The G note 5 3 3 1

Sweet anticipation: just the simple act of placing a long lone note prior to the 5 chord appearing can be a great harmonic device 3

The Bb note The Ab note 7 3

Contrary motion – ‘how music breathes’ 5

1 The F note

The add2 gives sweetness and romance to the chord but this is countered by the Sweet anticipation: placing a bar of low Cs which acknowledge the pain Maria suffers as she is moved silence helps the film breathe and helps the poignancy of the music ring through

(addm6) Gm

This great polychord fuses Gm and Ebmaj7. We rationalise the Eb as a min6 but the same note injects a whiff of the Eb chord There is a link between this music and Michael Giacchano’s music for Lost. Giacchano’s music is often slow, languid, graceful, elegant but also mournful. Some of his cues (examined elsewhere in this series) makes great benefit of intervallic relationships.

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (Thomas Newman)

The Shawshank Redemption is a landmark film; a seminal an uplifting cinematic experience; a deeply moving prison drama featuring fine performances, excellent direction and equally excellent music. The cue below comes during the scene which starts with Brooks leaving prison as an old man. We see him leaving the prison gates, travelling on a train, walking the streets, being shown into a halfway house by an obviously reluctant landlady and working in a grocery store where he is treated badly. Through these scenes we hear Brooks narrating. Brooks states he has trouble sleeping at night and that he has nightmares. He then says ‘I don’t like it here. I’m tired of being afraid all the time. I’ve decided not to stay’. We then see him carve ‘Brooks was here’ into wood and then hang himself. This is one of the saddest sequences you will find in a film, and it is accompanied and contextualised by music which in many ways defines and characterises the wonderful music of Thomas Newman. Look at the cue below and try to examine what the defining moments are.

Fig. 25 Film 01.00.54 Audio – ‘Brooks was here’

Piano

One thing the version above lacks is chord symbols, which I have added to the version below so we can look at

When people listen to this track they tend to focus on the piano sound and the other ethereal synth textures Newman uses in this piece and in many others he has written over the years. But if we focus on the harmony we realise it is defined by its lack of absolute clarity. Virtually all the chords are missing components. As we have discussed before, when we remove a 3 rd from a chord it can result in a lack of clarity and can sometimes lead to harmony sounding opaque, indistinct, vague and ambiguous. However, by far the biggest ‘omit’ is the 5 th . A lack of the 5 th interval is everywhere. The effect this has is slightly different to losing the 3 rd because most of the chords retain their colour but lack a little of their backbone. This act of deleting important structural intervals is very effective because it italicises the colour and warmth but also lacks intervals that would traditionally ‘normalise’ a chord. Leaving out the 5 th injects space where harmony used to be. It is partly these characteristics that give Newman’s music its distinctive ‘sound’.

Partial, incomplete ‘fractured’ chords Fig. 26 ‘Normal’ chords

By adding marks to denote the partial chords we can see how many there are, but we can also see the trends; there is a definite identity, and that identity, ironically, is the lack of clarity and structure that the 5 th would bring. We can also see the ‘normal’ root-positioned chords and more particularly, where they come, i.e. toward the end of each phrase. We can see also that the inversions are used only on the F or Dm chords. Is there a reason for this? Can we deduce a logic and rationale for this? Possibly: the F chord or Dm take us outside the A- feel key centre, so by inverting it we make it less obvious, less chromatic.

If we go one step further and now add the surrounding harmonic context, provided by the archetypal Newman accompanying synth chords, we can begin to appreciate how and why this is such an ethereal, almost ghostly experience. Fig. 27

The A-based chords play throughout the piece, fusing with the lower stave piano chords; thus a faint and distant feeling of polytonality pervades the piece beautifully. The effect of harmony is not only felt through single chords; it is mainly felt by the reaction between chords. Music is a series of reactions, relationships and responses. In Newman’s music chords bleed into each other which exaggerate this. Harmony glides in and out of consonance and clarity (denoted by the graphic underneath each bar once the piano arrives

In Newman’s music chords bleed into each other which causes momentary blurredness and harmonic obscurity, which creates a hazy, unclear, vague feeling How Film & TV Music Communicate – Vol. III – text © 2015 Brian Morrell

Heavy pedal use italicises the harmonic tensions too, as we can perhaps appreciate from the two examples below taken from bars eight & nine and eleven & twelve of fig.27.

Fig. 28 Fig. 29 12 8 9 11

The first chord relationship is a little The second faint chordal tension is uncomfortable because the C# note and between the G and the D chords. This the subsequent C note in bar eight. The is minimal as they are both from the second two chords create faint tension, same key centre, but the pedal still again, surprisingly because of the creates the hazy feel, especially as the memory of the C# (bar eight) alongside movement is parallel. the C in bar nine.

Every chord has a character; it exudes emotion and colour. Imagine the graphic below being symbolic of the different colour chords possesses.

Fig. 30

Now let’s examine what looks like quite a specific group of colours. Some of the coloured boxes are repeated and one or two come only once.

Fig. 31

Now if we think of specific chords having certain characteristics and emotions, and then purely for the purposes of classification, allocate a colour to that each chord/emotion, the link between harmony (above) and visual art (Monet, below) can be appreciated in terms of how both communicate a sense of emotion. Specifically if we look at how impressionist art makes a virtue of creating visually vague, opaque, unclear and dense images, and how Newman and others use the piano pedal to blur the sounds chords make (by accentuating the relationship between the chords) we can see and hear the similarities.

Fig. 32

Essentially Monet had his foot on the expression pedal when he painted and Newman accentuates the colour of the chords by blurring the distinction between them.

Below we have exactly the same series of coloured boxes from fig.31, this time laid over the chords from the cue ‘Brooks was here’.

Fig. 33

THE NEWSROOM (Thomas Newman)

This ground-breaking series is set behind the scenes at the fictional Atlantis Cable News (ACN) and revolves around anchor Will McAvoy, his old flame and executive producer MacKenzie McHale and other notable newsroom staff. In Season 1 each episode is built around a major news event from the recent past, such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill or the killing of Osama Bin Laden. These real news events are distilled into a fictional TV show about a news broadcasting company, making this an interesting show.

The stories act as a background for the drama by providing a sense of familiarity; the audience is likely to know the context of the news stories because the news stories are real and recent. Sorkin said that the show is a ‘romanticised, idealised newsroom, a sort of a heightened newsroom’. This comment about the romantic idealised newsroom ties into the theme, which, texturally and harmonically is a nod to an older, soft, sentimental and slightly schmaltzy approach to scoring. The slightly glossy theme in many ways counters the show itself; the music underpins an otherwise gritty, edgy viewing experience, complete with a socially and morally conscious narrative, razor-sharp wit and rapid, quicksilver dialogue.

Episode 1 begins with news anchor Will McAvoy creating a PR disaster whilst appearing at a college forum. A question comes from a student called Jenny, who asks, innocently, “Can you say in one sentence or less why America is the greatest country in the world.” Members of the panel answer with atypical answers such as ‘diversity and opportunity’ and ‘freedom and freedom’. Will says “well, our constitution is a masterpiece; James Madison was a genius. The declaration of independence is, for me, the greatest single piece of American writing.” The panel anchor, unsatisfied, says “I want a human moment from you.” After this Will enters into a rant where he focusses on what he sees as the bad things about America, its government and society. He says, in answer to a colleague on the panel, “You know why people don’t like Liberals?...because they lose. If Liberals are so fuckin’ smart how come they lose so goddam always? And with a straight face you’re gonna tell students that America is so star-spangled that we’re the only ones in the world who have freedom? Canada has freedom; Japan has freedom; the UK , France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia, Belgium has freedom…..there is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we’re the greatest country in the world; we’re 7 th in literacy, 22 nd in science, 3 rd in median household income, 4 th in labour force and 4 th in exports. We lead the world in only three categories; number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real and defence spending. So when you ask what makes us the greatest country in the world, I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.” Eventually he calms down and references some of the great Americans, becoming melancholy and saying things like, “first step in solving any problem is recognising there is one….America is not the greatest country in the world anymore”. It is during this milder section that we hear soft piano/string chords which reference some of the soft ‘add’ chords which come a few moments later in the actual theme, such as Cadd2, F/A Cadd2/G etc.

Shortly after this tirade the scene moves to a corridor outside the theatre where colleagues from the panel go for him. “What the fuck was that – are you out of your mind – that was a kid” and then “you can’t talk to me like that.” Then Will says “I’m sorry, I’m taking medicine for vertigo and I think it’s working because I’ve got it.” Then he says “what did I say out there?”

Then we cut to the intro graphics, film and titles, accompanied by Thomas Newman’s excellent theme, which, at that moment feels like it belongs to another TV show. The point is that the visual aspects of the show are glitzy and polished but the actual content is quite the opposite; what the show stands for is at odds with the glamourous exterior. So the music deliberately plays it soft, anodyne rather than ‘edgy’. This italicises that what the show looks like and what it is like are two different things.

There are essentially three main harmonic devices at work in this piece; firstly Newman accentuates the sensitivity and romance by italicising the use of the 3 rd . In addition he makes good use of the softness and colour created by the ‘add’ chords. Also he makes good use of the inversion – the great powerhouse of drama. In a way the use of the inversion and the employment of syncopation in the melody (and the occasional spicy #4) act to counter the otherwise quite soft, subtle and ‘pretty’ harmonic aspects of the piece. The inversions tend to come mostly at the end or the beginning; this is often the case, not because composers necessarily set out to do this consciously but because when people write music, certain things ‘work’ a certain way; this is the structure of music alive and well, casting its spell, spinning its web and influencing how composers compose by offering options, routes, paths and methods of navigation.

Inversion – the powerhouse of drama; come at the Fig. 34 Episode 1- 00.08.22 Audio – Newsroom theme beginning or the end of the bar for maximum impact

Great use of syncopation

2 3rd rd rd rd 3 3 3 #4 #4

2 3rd

These snippets of rhythmic tension create a slightly quirky feel which adds a sense of speed, uncertainty and drama to the piece

2 3rd

OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN (Trevor Morris)

Hollywood produced many cathartic post-WW2 movies retelling famous events in a patriotic way designed to reassure and comfort a paranoid, fearful post-war society. This was the subtext of many 1950s science fiction movies. We see an alien aggressor, who can be a metaphor for whatever threat is current in the actual world, and then we see the aggressor fail. In a modern, enlightened and balanced context this is sometimes seen by some as mild propaganda. Films like Olympus Has Fallen are seen by many in the same context; as essentially post-911 narratives designed to reaffirm power and greatness. The point is; what part does the music play? Most film scores for these types of films play it the same; we hear energetic and bombastic music for the drama and violence and we hear soft but often reverential, heroic music, designed to italicise bravery, courage and gallantry.

Looking at the cue below we can see the French horns providing a slightly military feel, which is followed by the snare, which although having clear military feel texturally, is slightly disrupted by the triplet quaver figure, which acts as a precursor to the main theme on trumpet/horns.

Fig. 35 Film - 00.00.09 Audio – ‘Land of the free’ The main theme comes as we see the aerial shot of the countryside as the camera swoops toward

Preceded by a long paused bare 4 th interval, the Horn line Camp David We ‘hear’ an F minor acknowledged the appearance of the film logo ‘Millennium accompanying chord despite it not Films’ being stated, thanks to the preceding Eb melody note, which does appear in a minor scale but not a major scale.

A disruption to the timing (semiquavers into quaver triplets and the move from 4/4 to 5/4) makes the piece less predictable and offers some separation between the opening and the ‘tune’.

The passing #4

Downward lines within the voicings create a feeling of movement

The scene switches to show the President sparring with his bodyguard and is acknowledged by a manouvre to a gentler pace, achieved by the softer textures, the 3/4 time and the use of 3rds in the melody

From one key centre… …. into another key centre ….back to original key centre

Minor and major 3 rd melodic intervals always make a piece sound warmer . This one italicises the 3 rd regularly

Slight tension

This is well-written cue which navigates effortlessly through the moving scenes from the initial ‘Millennium Films’ card right through to the scene where the president is sparring with his bodyguard. Firstly let’s look at some less obvious harmonic devices that help deliver the piece and guide the emotion. Why do we ‘hear’ Fm behind the initial Horn line despite the two-part string accompaniment stating the 5 th and the octave but no minor 3 rd ? This is where melody communicates harmonically but does so not by stating the minor 3 rd but by hinting at a minor key via the power of suggestion and innuendo. The line has no 3 rd but does have the 7 th and the 4 th delivered twice. Although the 4 th could figure in a major scale as well as minor, the 7 th only appears in the minor scale. And in any case the combination (the Bb and the Eb, which unilaterally is suggestive of an incomplete Eb chord) tends to throw us more in the direction of Fm, especially with the drama of the film opening being the visual accompaniment. Perhaps if we’d gone and seen Bambi and heard the line on flute instead of Horns, we might have been more open to suggestion. Chords and accompanying lines which don’t feature the 3 rd but feature different extensions typically found in minor or major keys can help us ‘feel’ the presence of a minor chord. This device has been used hundreds of times in movies. To anyone who suggests that the average listener cannot possibly be so ‘tuned in’ to pitch, we have to remember the power people have to retain information. We listen to intervals and extensions every day, and if there are patterns (i.e. melodies in a major key which don’t normally tend to feature the 7 th a lot because it doesn’t sit quite as well as other notes perhaps because it’s not in the scale) these trends will be picked up and distilled by listeners and referenced when we listen to music. As I have stated numerous times, we listen with expectation. The appearance of the Eb on Horns in the melody points us very, very subtly toward a minor accompaniment. If the accompaniment only features the 5 th and the octave, that’s no problem because we’ll simply fill in the missing notes, not literally by singing a note but by assuming it and feeling it. How Film & TV Music Communicate – Vol. III – text © 2015 Brian Morrell

Also, the way the cue creates a colourful accompanying musical narrative for the boxing ring scene by flitting from one key centre to another, shows a good understanding of how to read a film (bar thirteen onwards). Basically the F chord’s relationship with the Bm chord isn’t strong, and neither is the Am to Bm , which is better but still a different key centre. But when we navigate through stepping stones, the localised relationships work fine and take us on a natural journey; F to Am is natural, Am to G is natural, then G to Bm is natural.

Fig. 36 Bm Obviously Bm to F is unnatural but is made Am Am easier because we’ve heard the F once already G so we associate the Bm to F not ‘out of the blue’ but as a ‘return to base’. F F

The passing #4 th in bar nine is interesting because it injects a little bit of filmic drama, but the preceding note of G (last crotchet of bar eight) is a great choice because the two notes together form two thirds of a G/F chord, which is a great passing chord. In bar twenty there some nice mild tension between the C melody line and the low Es and B accompaniment; the initial G creates the warm, richly-voiced Em chord with the subsequent C clashing for the briefest of moments with the B.

The next track comes twice in the film. By this point the President and his staff are being held hostage, many people have been killed and parts of the White House are bullet-ridden, rendering the terrain more a war zone than a Presidential palace.

Fig. 37 Film - 00.40.13 film & 01.47.00 Audio – ‘Olympus Has Fallen’

We are used to intervals stated by slow melody notes having an emphatic meaning because melody is a defining feature/statement. In this case the melody intervals have two possibilities

6 8 3 or… 1

Look carefully and you’ll see this chord is mostly a combination of an Fm and Eb played simultaneously

The ethereal ‘dreamy’ feel (which this piece has) is often a product not just of textures and context but also of polyharmony which dislodges norms and disorientates listeners. This piece is a good example of subtle polyharmony; from bar seven Fm and Eb are gelled together to create a chord which is extremely effective (with the textures) in relaying the desolation and bleakness felt at that point in the movie. The trumpet, used earlier to signify military might and reverence, now appears in a different context.

The next cue comes toward the end of the film when, typically, the good guys win, the terrorists are killed and order is restored. An injured President is helped out by his bodyguard, who says “Sorry about the house, sir.” To which the President replies “It’s okay, I believe it’s insured.” As they stumble out of the building the piece comes to the section transcribed below. We can see and hear how harmony, instrumentation and textures create a definite mood. Viewers commented that this piece gave them a feeling of ‘conclusion’, of ‘satisfaction’ and ‘relief’. Let’s examine how.

Fig. 38 Film – 01.48.10 Audio – ‘Day Break / We Will Rise / End Credits’

Fluctuation between key centres creates drama

(8) (7) (9) (6)

rd The 3 and octave of an F chord

Harmonic blurring to stop The #4 it becoming too ’normal’

Same phrase as before but with chunks of time taken out

The use of intervals is important in this cue; the 3rd (denoted with ) is heavily used in the melody which garners warmth and emotion. The famously romantic 6th interval is used too. The top string note (Bb) in bar nine is also employed in the voicing of the next few bars, appearing as the octave, 7 th , 6 th and 9 th . The point is that this forges a relationship between the chords and creates a feeling of consistency but it also gives the Bb a journey of its own, which is an intervallic journey but one we still feel.

There is a nice touch in bar twelve when we briefly hear the A (Horns) with the F a 6 th above (but the stave below, strings). These function as the #4 and 9 th of the Eb chord but also, unilaterally, as the 3 rd and octave of an F chord. There is another nice touch that creates some mild tension in bar sixteen where we have the maj3 (C) against the 4 th (Db).

The big change happens at bar eighteen when we revisit the original theme from the main title, resplendent and powerful with the roots and 5ths in the melody, and no romantic 3rds in sight, until bar twenty four, when we revisit the other, softer motif from the main title theme, this time altered and quickened by the alternating 3/4 2/4 bars. How Film & TV Music Communicate – Vol. III – text © 2015 Brian Morrell

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON (Alexander Desplat)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a bittersweet American romantic fantasy drama film loosely based on the 1922 short story of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald . The film stars Brad Pitt as Benjamin Button, a man who ages in reverse. This is a deeply moving film, one with a refreshingly original story, deftly directed and wonderfully acted. The cue we will examine is the main theme, which comes at the end of the film as the credits roll. Normally music which comes at the end manages in some way to distil the movie’s narrative, its story and sometimes its subtext, either by exemplifying it musically or sometimes by drawing attention to it by deliberately countering it or ironizing it. In this case Desplat beautifully condenses the story into music by a selection of extremely effective choices and decisions regarding instrumentation and harmony. We will look at these and then try and fathom how they manage to acknowledge the film.

Fig. 39 Film – 02.32.45 Audio – ‘Postcards’

(Cm)

A chord over two separate bass notes

rd maj3 rd min3

Sometimes a combination of specific extensions create their own harmonic narrative, separate to the chord they are placed within. To put it simpler, two chords appear; the main one and another one buried within. Polyharmony is the name we give to this and the real reason this works is because two different chords coexist together, which sometimes means that some of the notes do two jobs; they exist as notes and intervals in the main chord and coexist also as notes (the same notes, obviously) but occupying different intervallic context in the second chord.

An example of this is the horizontal harmony Desplat creates on bar one, three, six, eight and ten. The horizontal chord of E is supplemented by the C (#5) and the D# (maj7). The thing is, if you place these two notes together they create two thirds of a Cm chord. This is not just theory for the sake of theory; this is theory to explain why something can sound strange, but in a specific and identifiable way. Non-musicians would simply by aware of the first bar having a ‘strangeness’ to it. But what makes it strange isn’t just the slight tension in between the low B and the C above. It isn’t just the fact that few chords contain the #5 and the maj7 (they perform different harmonic functions that don’t traditionally belong together); it’s because the two rogue notes form a different chord (Cm) one which would normally never be seen anywhere near an E chord. What makes it work at all, of course, is that both of the new notes work in both chords ; these are not just two extra notes that might work on their own but don’t work in their new context. They perform a double act. But their natural allegiance is as a couple, as two thirds of the Cm, so it is this feeling which creates the strangeness. The Cm is trying to get out. (b5) The chord in bar five (F#m7 /B/E) is again a horizontally formed chord but is a little blurred by the unconventional lower part of the chord. Normally slash chords (chords built over a different bass note which isn’t in the main chord) are built over one different bass note, whereas this is a situation where the ‘top chord’ is built over an E and B (two thirds of an E chord), which makes it a little more muddy. Obviously this effect is mainly felt when the harmony is vertical but to a much lesser degree the effect is still felt here.

The chord trick from bar thirteen onwards (C#m to C) is a well-known transition we have come across in countless films. The main benefit of this trick is that it has a faintly ‘out of this world’ feel to it. This is because the minor 3 rd (in this case the note of E) remains the same as the chord moves to Cmaj, but now functions as the maj3. The issue particularly is that the 3 rd of any chord is its centre of gravity in terms of colour. The 3 rd has disproportionate power in colouring a chord. Its presence radiates and resonates throughout the whole chord. Therefore if we ‘mess with’ listeners’ perception of the 3 rd it can sound odd. In this piece, as with thousands, listeners hear the same note functioning as a minor 3 rd then a major 3 rd without changing. Everything around it shifts, except the note itself.

PRIME SUSPECT 7 (Nicholas Hooper)

Helen Mirren returns for the final time as Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect 7 . Reluctant to take retirement but battle-scarred after years of overwork and alcohol abuse, Detective Superintendent Tennison’s career is about to wind down. As her career draws to a close the body of a missing schoolgirl is found, and the hunt for her killer begins. For Tennison the emotional fallout from the murder begins to take its toll. DC Tennison is not only dealing very privately with the imminent death of her father but also an addiction to alcohol she is desperately trying to keep hidden. But as the pressure mounts on all sides to secure a conviction on the high profile case, the cracks begin to show.

The film starts dramatically; after the title cards we see a man and woman running frantically through the streets; this cuts to a scene showing DC Tennison waking up in her flat suddenly from an alcohol-induced sleep. The music for this intro plays a huge part in the way the drama is conveyed; it conveys a sense of panic, urgency and anxiety that the pictures of the two people running doesn’t entirely achieve alone. The pace of the music continues as we cut to Tennison’s flat, where we see her wake up after a hard night’s drinking.

Let’s take a look at the transcription and see how Hooper’s approach works for this scene. Obviously the pace and energy of the piece is created by the constant semiquaver synth bass motif, but beyond this, there is a sense of anxiety in the harmonies.

The black screen begins with the actor’s name then moves to the To start the piece title card as we hit the Dm chord. The ‘difficult’ chord comes as we with this chord Fig. 40 Film – 00.00.01 see the woman and her partner running frantically through the wouldn’t work streets . because it is too odd, but to evolve to it is a different thing; this works because the familiarity of the bass has been

established

Strings

Synth bass

The main thing that creates anxiety in this cue is the disorientation we feel from the rapid exchange from Dm to Dmaj. This is an uncommon type of transition. Minor to relative major and vice versa is common but a parallel modulation is a change which retains the same root and 5 th . Richard Strauss’ ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ is a well-known piece, used to great effect in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey . He uses a rapid semiquaver transition from C to Cm, then Cm to C. This is startling because the whole orchestra moves at the same time; Hooper’s piece is less startling and more disorientating and mildly confusing, which creates the mild anxiety required. At 00.03.00 we have a similar chord manouvre but this time extensions are involved in the major chord; this alters our perception not just of the major chord but also of the transition between the two.

Fig. 41 Film – 00.3.00

Fig. 42 Fig. 43

To the left in fig.42 I have In fig.43 I have transcribed the sequence of Dm to Bb/D. transcribed the normal minor to major sequence. This only this is a well-known sequence has one note that changes; each and has been used in F becomes an F#. hundreds of films such as Tim Burton’s Batman. Again,

there is only one note that moves, but this time the A Fig. 44 moving to the Bb orientates the rest of the notes In fig.44 the transition is a composite version of both of the above. intervallically. The 5 th becomes the #5 and the min3 becomes the maj3. Both of these notes move up chromatically. The exchange enjoys the freshness of the min-maj transition and the slightly sci-fi surprise of the #5. It is the combination of these two events which makes this such a great chord trick. In this context it is unnerving and unsettling but if you remember we covered the same chord trick in the chapter titled ‘In Space Everyone can hear the Chord Changes’ where we looked at the movie Deep Impact. Below I have pasted part of the transcription from that cue with a paragraph of the original text. How Film & TV Music Communicate – Vol. III – text © 2015 Brian Morrell

Fig. 45 Deep Impact Movie - 00.40.03 Audio - ‘Our best hope’

The first few bars accompany routine conversation but during the cue at the same time as members of the crew glance out of the window to observe the sight of the asteroid, Looking at the text written to causing one to say “Jesus, that’s big” and another to say “Holy shit”, the flavour and accompany the cue ‘Our best

character of the cue subtly changes from one of routine to one of anxiety. This kind of hope’, although the film is attention to detail is easily missed by viewers because of the ease by which the change science fiction, some of the grafts itself onto the movie. People would miss the music but if the same scene were played minus music it would be obvious. Thus sometimes music does not really observations about how the function ‘as music’ in a conventional sense; it is so completely and convincingly chords work with the scene, buried in the narrative of the movie that the character of the harmony becomes part of particularly about how the the character of the film; indeed it guides the way we interpret the film. in that exact moment when the crew glance out of the music, listen for the change in the music, not emotion of the chord is so to the movement or the architecture or the texture, but to the harmony, which shifts in great that it becomes part of gear slightly, almost imperceptibly, to become ‘anxious’. the fabric of the film.

One version of what we might Another version call this chord of what we might Fig. 46 call this chord Duality of perception

The same two chords from Deep Impact and Prime Suspect 7 are transcribed in fig.46. Bar one and two feature the two chords. Bars three and four feature the same two chords again but this time bar four is written slightly differently. It amounts to the same thing in terms of how it sounds but it has a different name and two notes are enharmonically changed (the F# becomes a

These are the same chord, Gb and the A# becomes a Bb). given different theoretical names / symbols

The interpretation of how a chord ‘sounds’ and ‘feels’ is partly based on its surroundings. Harmony is heard in vertical and horizontal contexts. Because there are two interpretations of the name and enharmonic spelling of the chords in bars two and four, there are two versions of aural perception. Chord symbols are more than names. They describe how something feels, how it sounds. Sometimes if there are two ways of describing a chord so there are two subtle ways of hearing it. If we play the chord in bar two to listeners, they will search for context to identify it, place it, categorise it; pigeonhole it. The vast majority of listeners would be unable to give the chord its two names but this does not mean that they do not feel the effect of the chord appearing aurally to be beyond precise rationalisation. After all, if a chord can be in two places at once, aurally speaking, then there is always going to be something nebulous about it. How Film & TV Music Communicate – Vol. III – text © 2015 Brian Morrell

The following scene is set in the police station when detectives are interviewing the father of a missing girl. The interview becomes tenser as the detectives ask more probing questions of the father. The same type of harmonic approach as was used in the intro plays over the following scene (rapid movement between Dm, D, Dm, D, Ebm etc). During the interview DC Jane Tennison is asked to come to the door and is given a message discreetly by another police officer. At this point the motif moves up an octave (bar one, fig.47) and becomes more prominent.

Fig. 47 Film – 00.44.21 As the room goes quiet and Tennison walks back toward the interview table, tremolo strings play this chord. The clash is obvious (between the Eb and the lower D) but it is the context that makes it unsettling and anxious rather than simply dissonant…..

We don’t hear what the police officer tells Tennison but we know from the …by ‘context’ I mean is that there are two harmonic events in close music that it isn’t good news proximity that you would normally never see within a mile of each other. The flattened 9 th is normally seen on a major chord which also contains the The red line makes the 7th . The reaction between the b9, the 7 th and the maj3 is absolutely key to connection between the D(b9) the chord communicating a very direct, almost theatrical sense of and the Ebm, two chords that romanticism. But placing a b9 in a minor chord is a different dynamic share two of their four notes completely, sounding dark and difficult. In other words, the maj3 is needed (the Eb and the F#/Gb). Again, for the b9 to function normally. So what this chord is doing is taking this is not just a theoretical components from other chords and assembling them in a way which is point; this is how music joins uncomfortable. Some might see the chord as an F7(omit5) voiced over an up ; this is how it makes sense A, built over a low D, but that chord is just as uncomfortable and how different sections relate to each other.

TOO BIG TO FAIL (Marcelo Zarvos)

The film looks behind the scenes of the American financial industry between late March and mid-October, 2008. The film focusses on Richard Fuld’s ultimately futile bid to save Lehman Brothers, one of America’s biggest investment banks, from collapse. The film is an interesting and accurate portrayal of murky and Machiavellian world of high finance and is an absorbing look at the whole financial crisis through the prism of the collapse of Lehman.

They key thing in this cue, as with others, is, what does the music ‘say’ that words and pictures cannot? Secondly, how does the music speak?

A physical sense of drama with the triplets creates a feeling of urgency, which suits the whole ‘corporate jungle’ vibe. The relatively small studio orchestra instrumentation gives it a slightly light and ‘TV’ context; anything heavier would perhaps be too cinematic. The harmonies create an uneasy tension when it gets to bar seven when the flattened 5 th is introduced. This definitely injects a sense of anxiety and even darkness into the piece. Part of the reason for the slightly murky harmonic feel is also the introduction of the F on the bass clef which creates tension by being only a tone away from the G. Just one note changes in bar eight (the F moves to the Eb) but this means that the Db (top stave) and the G and Bb (top stave) are heard differently because they occupy different intervallic contexts. This is an interesting point because our powers of perception and interpretation are required more if we have to reinterpret and existing note in a different context. This process can be felt stronger by the listener because they are more involved.

Fig. 48 Movie opener Audio - ‘The Banking crisis’ (opening)

Strings

7 7 7 7 7 7 b5 b5 b5 b5 b5 b5

1 3 1 3 1 3 3 5 3 5 3 5

When placed alongside the dialogue from this opening segment, with its powerful selection of comments from key political figures and the media, the music definitely injects anxiety and fear, especially toward the end when we have the dissonances at the top of the Gm chord between the 5 th and b5 just before the piece stops.

The following part of the same cue (at 01.39) changes pace completely and enters what could be described as a more melancholy, reflective feel, as we hear TV journalists discussing the mortgage meltdown and the consequences for the global banking industry.

Fig. 49 Movie – 00.01.39 Audio - ‘The Banking crisis’ (01.39)

“The news story? The mortgage meltdown.”

Strings / Woodwind

5 5 1 1 The pedal note and the pedestrian delivery help retain minimal movement at the bottom which helps the sombre feel of this piece. The intervallic context of the bass note alters throughout. This is one of the great uses of the pedal note in music; the harmonic juxtaposition of the consistent sound and the evolving harmonic context. The effectiveness of minimal physical movement in voicing allows you to state different chords much more subtly – maximum colour with minimal movement.

3 1 1

There is also feeling of emotional evolution and growth from bar five, and this is caused by the addition of more sounds but also an expansion of voicing. In addition to all this, the piece starts with a chord change we have seen hundreds of times and which we have called the ‘sci fi chord change’. This is where we go from a chord I to a minor chord V (C to Gm for example). We see this all over film music. In this piece it is a little different because the change is partly built over an inversion (i.e. E/B).Below, left, is a version of the chord shift in C, and below right the line of relative major chords is underneath with the minor chords on top.

Fig. 50 Fig. 51