1. Sci-Fi and Fantasy

How Film & TV Music Communicate – Vol. III – text copyright © 2015 Brian Morrell Chapter 1 SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY This chapter deals in detail with the sci-fi / fantasy genre and analyses the music for a number of films where music plays an integral role in articulating the story and the underlying context and narrative. Films and music analysed include A Perfect Sense (Max Richter) Contagion (Cliff Martinez) K-Pax (Edward Shearmur) Limitless (Paul Leonard-Morgan) The Mothman Prophecies (Tomandandy) Shore) The 13 th Floor (Harald Klosser) Pleasantville (Randy Newman) Signs (James Newton Howard) The Adjustment Bureau (Thomas Newman) The Core (Christopher Young) The Village (James Newton Howard) Volcano (Alan Silvestri) The Event (Scott Starrett) Super 8 (Michael Giacchano) A PERFECT SENSE Max Richter A Perfect Sense is a story about two people who fall in love just as an epidemic begins to gradually rob the world’s population of their senses, one by one. The epidemic sweeps the globe, gradually rendering the public unable to function. First, people start crying for no reason. After drying up their tears, they notice they have lost their ability to smell; this is followed eventually by a loss of taste, hearing and finally, sight. The epidemic itself is not given a major part in the movie. The film focuses instead on the two lovers and the rest of the people dealing with the situation. This in part explains the functionality of the music, which is meant to underpin the emotional context of the movie, rather than the science fiction. The main protagonists are a scientist (Susan) and a chef (Michael). Susan is part of a scientific team trying to understand the epidemic. The movie is helped by Susan’s regular voice-overs which provide a running narrative and context behind the on-screen chaos. Described as a ‘post-apocalyptic reality check’, the movie provides moral and ethical questions, the most poignant of which appears to be, do we make the most of our existence? Do we appreciate life? Stephen Holden of the New York Times defined the film as ‘a solemn sci-fi parable set in present-day Glasgow, whose deepening sense of foreboding is sustained by the enigmatic, pseudo-biblical reflections of an unseen narrator.’ The music chosen to accompany the film is composed by Max Richter. Blending classical, electronic, and rock influences into a style he calls ‘post-classical,’ composer/programmer Max Richter’s music is an inspired choice for this movie. Richter has a habit of ignoring traditional boundaries. Born in Germany but brought up in Britain, he was listening to the canon of classical music, as well as modern composers including Philip Glass, whose sound was a major influence on Richter. The first track to examine is called ‘Luminous’, which essentially bookends the film. People described this track variously as ‘beautiful’, ‘enchanting’ but also ‘monotonous’. This underpins the important point that sometimes words take on a different meaning when used to describe the emotional impact of music. Monotonous is not normally a word which one would want describing one’s own music, but in context of music that is not neccasarily designed to entertain or be consumed in the traditional music industry sense, but instead provides emotion, expression and depth, ‘monotony’ sometimes works well, creating a trance-like mesmerising feel. Fig.1 Movie - 00.04.40 / 01.19.47 Audio – ‘Luminous’ How Film & TV Music Communicate – Vol. III – text copyright © 2015 Brian Morrell One of the most important characteristics of ‘Luminous’ is it’s occasional hazy feeling of harmonic vagueness and opacity. Although it is arguably difficult to conceive of something which is harmonically ambiguous having a discernable sense of identity, sometimes the this is true; indistinct and hazy harmony is sufficiently different from the norm to create its own colour. Into the realm of indistinctness comes a disproportionately higher level of inclusion and engagement from the listener. Every time we listen to music to varying degrees we subconsciously work to categorise and classify the harmonic flavour of what we’re listening to. We do this by comparing it to other music we’ve listened to. These experiences gradually conspire to create what could loosely be termed as ‘listening abilities’. With music that is less defined and doesn’t fit as easily into our preconceptions we are forced to work harder than normal to distinguish and distil its characteristics. How Film & TV Music Communicate – Vol. III – text copyright © 2015 Brian Morrell I don’t mean to suggest that ‘Luminous’ is full of baffling dissonance, more that there are tiny, subtle harmonic oddities which, when listening to it, can account for the slightly hazy feeling we get. I mention this because when we experience music which seems ‘hazy’ invariably we usually assume this is down to texture and production. Fig.2 Bar four of fig.1 (notated separately in fig.2 – left) is interesting in that although the chord on the lower strings is clearly a C#m, there are tiny splashes of colour which imply a different chord. The descending quavers on the top line feature G#, E, A and E. Over and above the slight clash between the top G# and the lower A (highlighted with arrow), the horizontal harmony created by the first four quavers suggest an Amaj7/E. Add to this the F# on the third stave down, which functions as an add4. This is more than an idle, geeky theoretical point; although non-musicians would not understand the theory behind the point, they hear it happening and are beneficiaries of its effect. Fig.3 Similarly in bar twenty of fig.1, and highlighted separately in fig.3 (right), there is a B chord (maj 3 rd D# on violin) playing at the same time as the descending piano line which contains to add4s (Es) which serve to make the chord a little muddy and vague. The textures and production of the instrumentation does play an important part; there is a deliberately grainy textural quality to the production which occasionally comes across of distortion but which in reality is an interesting and effective part of the sound. The second track to analyse is ‘A Lover’s Complaint’, which comes twice in the film. The first time we hear it is during a scene which shows a bus pulling up abruptly; passengers disembark abruptly and the camera moves to show the bus driver crying uncontrollably, accompanied by off-screen narration from ‘Susan’. As the scene develops we see other random people in the street breaking down in tears for no reason. These scenes are powerful and are made more effective by Richter’s music, which has a captivating mesmerising monotony, created by the regularity of the piano movement and the gently descending chords. There is, however, a subtle strangeness to the piece which makes it penetrate: the phrases are interrupted; the ‘4/4 followed by 3/4’ sequence is repeated four times during the first time round the repeated section. The second time bar features 7/8 bars, which, again, manage to punctuate the sense of monotony, ensuring it penetrates the scene. How Film & TV Music Communicate – Vol. III – text copyright © 2015 Brian Morrell Fig.4 Movie - 00.13.00 / 01.23.55 Audio – ‘A Lover’s Complaint’ CONTAGION Cliff Martinez Contagion is a medical thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh. The story documents the gradual spread of a virus and the attempts by medical researchers and public health officials to identify and contain the disease. The film portrays the inevitable panic and loss of social order but ends with the introduction of a vaccine to halt the spread of the virus. Soderbergh makes use of a ‘hyperlink narrative’ (where we follow several interacting plotlines), a style used in several of Soderbergh’s other films. Soderbergh’s research was extensive; to devise an accurate picture of a pandemic they consulted with representatives of the World Health Organization as well as other medical experts. The film was well received by critics, who praised the narratives and the performances of various actors. It was also well received by scientists, who praised the realism and accuracy. The music is composed by Cliff Martinez, who has been Steven Soderbergh’ main composer ever since the director started out and has scored Traffic and Solaris . Contagion features an astute blending of tones, textures and harmonies that create a world of fear, apprehension and suspense. Martinez’ approach delivers music that evokes a feeling of technology and science, which makes it work well in the film. The score suggests ‘science fiction’ and ‘thriller’ and the dark, brooding, menacing and ominous music works extremely well with both the pictures and the underlying narrative of abject fear. The score creates a distinct and unique voice for the film and creates a musical and textural world for the story to be told in. This is an extremely atmospheric score, filled not so much with tunes or tradition but with modern textures and evocative harmonies which are brilliantly sculptured. As ever our analysis poses the question ‘what is the music doing’? What is its function, emotionally? The gloomy and ominous tone of much of the film is at least partly down to the tone the music sets, which isn’t dark in an overt way but nevertheless conveys a deeply disturbing feel. Looking at a track entitled ‘the birds are doing that’ (below, fig.5) we can see that it has, like many pieces we’ve looked at, a sparse delivery style, thanks to a minimal arpegiated line; the harmony is ‘spread’ horizontally rather than vertically in the shape of chords. How Film & TV Music Communicate – Vol.

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