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For Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Birds' JoSSIT1 Journal of Sound, Silence, Image and Technology December 2019 | Issue 2 | Published by the Sound, Image, Silence and Technology research group New listenings, new narratives P7 Symphony of Noises P17 Sounds evoking the zeitgeist of the eighties P27 Jamming Giant Women P43 Music and images in French TV P53 Musical travelling P65 The visual album as transmedia project 2 The scientific publication the Journal of Sound, Silence, Image and Technology (JoSSIT) grew out of the research group of the same name (SSIT), which is linked to the TecnoCampus centre as part of Pompeu Fabra University (UPF). The journal seeks to bring together academic debate and scientific research on the relation of sound as a broad concept with an audiovisual context. Issue 2 | December 2019 ISSN 2604-451X Coordination of Issue 2 “New listenings, new narratives”: Dr. Daniel Torras i Segura Dr. Jordi Roquer González Editorial Team Editor: Daniel Torras i Segura Director: Jordi Roquer Sotsdirectora: Lídia López Gómez Secretària Editorial: Anna Gabriel i Rovira Editorial Board Dr. Jordi Soler i Alomà MBA. Mauricio Rey MBA. Santos Martínez Trabal MBA. Anna Tarragó Scientific Editorial Board PhD. Philip Tagg, University of Salford PhD. Michel Chion, Université de Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle PhD. Nicholas Cook, Cambridge University PhD. Nessa Johnston, EdgeHill University Dra. Teresa Fraile, Universidad Complutense de Madrid Dr. Josep Lluís i Falcó, Universitat de Barcelona Dr. Manuel Garín, Universitat Pompeu Fabra Dra. Matilde Olarte, Universidad de Salamanca Dr. Jaume Radigales, Universitat Ramon Llull Dr. Robert Bartí, ESUPT TecnoCampus Dr. Francesc Cortés, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Dr. Àngel Rodríguez, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Dra. Emma Rodero, Universitat Pompeu Fabra Dra. Isabel Ferrer, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Dr. Enrique Encabo, Universidad de Murcia Design and layout Manuel Cuyàs Clara Miralles Translation Kirsty Morgan Sound, Silence, Image and Technology Grup de recerca 3 New listenings, new narratives Issue 2 of the Journal of Sound, Silence, Image and Technology (JoSSIT) focuses on new forms of listening and the new narratives emerging from technological mediation, both in terms of the use and reception of music and new academic approaches to its analysis. From this point of view, the articles collected here offer a perspective bringing sound and music theory from the audiovisual sphere into contact with emerging theories on sound discourse and pop production, whilst also linking ideas about technologically mediated listening with analytical models and theses drawn from ethnomusicology. In “Symphony of Noises: Revisiting Oskar Sala’s ‘Geräuschmontage’ for Alfred Hitch- cock’s ‘The Birds’ (1963)”, Julin Lee presents an analysis of this unconventional soundtrack, supported by a theoretical basis in which sound studies and theories on the role of sound and film music are blended with ideas on the organology of the synthesizer and the use of spectrograms. Silvia Segura presents a reflection on nostalgia and the pop sound of the eighties in an article that encompasses the latest theories on sound discourse in popular music and sound production tools. Titled “Nostalgia ON: Sounds evoking the zeitgeist of the eight- ies”, she develops a theoretical framework beginning with a reflection on the sound composition of pop music, along the way taking in ideas on technological mediation before ending with the construction of the ‘retro sound’. “Jamming Giant Women: Narration through song in Steven Universe”, by Andrea Meseg- uer and Margarita Fernández de Sevilla, analyses the different functions of the songs for narrative development in Steven Universe, an animated television series created by Rebecca Sugar. Guylaine Gueraud-Pinet’s contribution focuses on the integration of pre-existing music in French non-fiction television programmes. His article uses an info-communicational approach and a perspective that spans socio-economics and semiotics to reflect on the relationship between music and television. 4 In “Musical travelling: Mediated music listening on public transport”, Marc Mariner proposes a fusion of perspectives from ethnomusicology and sound studies to address the issue of the symbolic creation of private space on public transport through the use of individual listening devices. Finally, Ana Sedeño reflects on a new type of media on the internet: the visual album, which she analyses as a resource that allows performers and bands to create open concepts and loose narratives, in what she defines as paraphonographies, metanarratives and storyworlds, and which they use to present their artistic ideas. This issue therefore takes a rather multidisciplinary position, which addresses what is currently a prevailing need in the academic world: to solidify the links between the perspectives, focuses and methodologies which, albeit from different spheres, are entirely complementary for these new approaches to music in the vast audiovisual landscape. We hope you enjoy it, The Editorial Committee Journal of Sound, Silence, Image and Technology 5 Issue 2 | December 2019 ISSN 2604-451X Contents Symphony of Noises: Revisiting Oskar Sala’s ‘Geräuschmontage’ 7 Julin Lee Nostalgia ON: Sounds evoking the zeitgeist of the eighties 24 Silvia Segura García Jamming Giant Women: Narration through Song in Steven Universe 44 Andrea Meseguer Fernández de Sevilla Margarita Fernández de Sevilla Martín-Albo The relationship between music and images in French TV programs 64 Guylaine Gueraud-Pinet Musical travelling: Mediated music listening on public transport 83 Marc Mariner i Cortés The visual album as transmedia project 102 Ana Sedeño-Valdellós Journal of Sound, Silence, Image and Technology 7 Issue 2 | December 2019 | 7-23 ISSN 2604-451X A Symphony of Noises: Revisiting Oskar Sala’s ‘Geräuschmontage’ for Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’ (1963) Julin Lee Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany [email protected] Date received:10-10-2019 Date of acceptance: 30-11-2019 KEY WORDS: FILM MUSIC | SOUND DESIGN | SOUND STUDIES | MATERIAL CULTURE STUDIES | ORGANOLOGY Journal of Sound, Silence, Image and Technology | Issue 2 | December 2019 8 A Symphony of Noises: Revisiting Oskar Sala’s ‘Geräuschmontage’ for Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’ (1963) ABSTRACT accompanying the title sequence has a The soundtrack of Alfred Hitchcock’s The formal structure which resembles a classical Birds (1963) is particularly remarkable, not Hollywood film overture, and takes on only because of the absence of a conven- several expositional roles conventionally tional orchestral underscore, but also assigned to a film’s opening musical pas- because the terrifying sounds of the sage. Furthermore, the gull cries adopt the aberrant birds were actually synthesized by function of a leitmotif, while the stylized bird Oskar Sala using the mixturtrautonium, an sounds perform emotive functions usually electronic musical instrument of his own ascribed to film music. In addition, the design. This paper explores the extent to hostile birds are characterized by electroni- which these electronically synthesized bird cally synthesized bird sounds – a representa- sounds go beyond their diegetic placement tion which can be understood within the as sound effects and take on the dramaturgi- broader context of mankind’s ambivalence cal roles usually ascribed to non-diegetic towards machines and technological film music. The more liberal definition of progress in general. The consideration of the music as “organized sound”, in use since the musical provenance and materiality of these 20th century; Sala’s musical background and bird sounds affords us a moment of reflec- that of the instrument; and the idiomatic use tion on the sound effect-music divide in film of electronic musical instruments in films to as well as on the perceived aesthetic values represent unusual phenomena are all of sounds in the noise-music continuum. considered. Drawing on the results of a detailed study of the film and referring to material produced by Oskar Sala housed at the Deutsches Museum Archives in Munich, this paper aims to explain how the bird sounds achieved their dramatic effect, and also to shed light on how Sala “composed” this soundtrack consisting of bird sounds. The examination of the film’s soundtrack has shown that Sala’s organization and use of bird sounds are akin to that of more conven- tional and tonal sonic material in Hollywood films. Firstly, the montage of bird sounds Journal of Sound, Silence, Image and Technology | Issue 2 | December 2019 9 A Symphony of Noises: Revisiting Oskar Sala’s ‘Geräuschmontage’ for Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’ (1963) The research for this article was facilitated by the funding provided by the Leibniz Association as part of the ‘Materiality of Musical Instruments’ project at the Deutsches Museum, Munich. Introduction “We certainly would be doing an injustice to The Birds if we failed to mention the soundtrack. There’s no music, of course, but the bird sounds are worked out like a real musical score” (Truffaut, 1967, p. 223). In this quote from his interview with Alfred Hitchcock, the film di- rector François Truffaut was referring to the array of bird cries and the flutter of wings which constitute the extraordinary soundtrack of Hitchcock’s 1963 film The Birds. The film follows the young socialite, Melanie Daniels, who travels to Bodega Bay in pursuit of her love interest: Mitch Brenner. There, she and the locals are mysteriously plagued by a series of
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