How Film & TV Music Communicate – Vol. III – text © 2015 Brian Morrell Chapter 7 IN SPACE EVERYONE CAN HEAR THE CHORD CHANGES (part 2) This chapter carries on from ‘In Space Everyone can hear the Chord Changes’ (chapter 5, vol. 2). We continue to examine how music for ‘space movies’ works, looking closely at stylisation, instrumentation, orchestration and production. We also look closely at the relationship between music and the narrative structure of the films. We look at how music succeeds in telling the stories. The films and music examined are: Gravity (Stephen Price) Avatar (James Horner) Man of Steel (Hans Zimmer) Alien (Jerry Goldsmith) Armageddon (Trevor Rabin) Prometheus (Marc Streitenfeld) Solaris (Cliff Martinez) Deep Impact (James Horner) Sunshine (John Murphy) GRAVITY (Stephen Price) Gravity was directed, co-written, co-produced and co-edited by Alfonso Cuarón. It stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as astronauts involved in the destruction of a space shuttle and shows their attempt to return to Earth. Composer Stephen Price, talking to Rolling Stone Magazine , said “we used lots of elements and a lot of layering so that things would move around you all the time.” This is one of the reasons the music’s ‘function’ was markedly different from many other films set in space; some of the music was quite texturally and harmonically dense and harmonically unspecific. Gone were the larger-than-life, overt themes and distinct sci-fi harmonies. This score is not so much about themes but is instead a tapestry of evolving music which is possibly more a product of its ‘sound’. Music is not neccasarily used to italicise a specific moment (although this does happen) but to offer gently suggestive moods which convey feelings of suspense, anxiety, warmth, romance, right through to terror. Price said “The writing of those elements was always influenced by what Ryan [Dr Stone, played by Sandra Bullock] was feeling and where she was emotionally in the whole thing.” This is an interesting point because often in the various volumes of this book we have spoken about music having a harmonic ‘centre of gravity’. Invariably this happens in most pieces of music and indeed it sometimes can apply across an entire film. But, as Price alludes to, films sometimes have a narrative centre of gravity; it might be a particular event or scene, or, as in this case, a character for which most of the music relates to. Price went on to say that music might change subtly depending on “where the camera was, where things were moving and what point of view the camera was facing, whether it was looking at them or kind of looking through their eyes.” So although the music changed, it was reacting through the character of Ryan. Talking about how to score fear, Price said “Fear is one of those really primal emotions [in] which you don’t want to have incredibly exciting modulations and complex harmonies and all that kind of stuff.” This approach definitely works for Gravity but can’t be seen to be indicative of all movies. Often abject terror or fear has to be harmonically ‘painted in’ forensically by colouring chords with specific extensions, voicings or instrumentation. There is a famous scene in Exorcist III (the ‘nurse’s station’ scene) where a nurse on duty late at night on a hospital ward looks inside a room, checks it is empty, closes the door, locks it and begins to walk away. As she walks away the camera rapidly pans toward her and we see a huge cloaked figure behind her clutching a giant pair of secateurs. Perhaps not surprisingly, given the film, he uses them to decapitate the woman (something we don’t actually see but instead imagine - which in a way is worse). The point is that during that final moment there is a loud, dissonant, chord played. It sounds calamitous, primeval but without it the scene is less emphatic and a lot less scary. Returning to Gravity, the questions we ask are to do with the music’s ‘function’: how does the music work, why is it there, what does it do that words and images alone can’t do, how does it make you feel and how does it bring the film closer to you? How does it do all these things? Is it through melody, texture, orchestration, harmony, production? Lets’ begin at the beginning and look at the first track, which is used during the movie’s opening sequence. How Film & TV Music Communicate – Vol. III – text © 2015 Brian Morrell Fig.1 Movie opener Audio – ‘Above Earth’ – 00.11 n.c 00.50 Starting with the obvious stuff, we have the textural and harmonic drama of the consistent double octave figure which comes three times underneath a more ‘dreamy’ top line. This cue is harmonically minimal in that we don’t have whole chords being stated; but we do have extensions such as the 9 th (bar two-three) and the 11 th (bar four). This effect, caused by using extensions without the normal accompanying contextual harmony, is something we’ve come across before. It is an effective compositional tool which can draw the listener in; robbed of the usual contextual harmonic surrounding terrain, the listener’s curiosity unconsciously searches the chord for its identity. Thus the effect of extensions without some of the usual context can be greater than when we actually have the usual harmony present (3rds, 5ths etc). In addition to this, is there an emotional hit point; an emotional / harmonic centre of gravity in this cue? We often find such things not, as one might imagine, in the strangest of places, but quite the reverse; embedded in a perfectly normal-sounding sequences. Take a look at bar eight-nine which contains Gm to Bb. This minor-to-major chord manouvre can be hugely uplifting but comparatively rare. Hundreds of thousands of pieces begin on major-to-relative-minor sequences; the sequence has been permanently grafted onto the collective consciousness of most listeners since the dawn of orchestral music and subsequently pop music. But the sequence in reverse is not nearly as popular and yet can offer a sense of mild euphoria and freshness. Whereas Bb to Gm sounds as if it is a natural, predictable sequence, the Gm to Bb doesn’t. Hans Zimmer uses the sequence in Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code to great effect. Fig.2 Angels & Demons movie opener Audio – ‘God Particle’ Fresh and uplifting How Film & TV Music Communicate – Vol. III – text © 2015 Brian Morrell Fig.3 The Da Vinci Code – 02.41.54 Audio – ‘The Da Vinci Code’ Fresh and uplifting At 00.08.16 into Gravity, well before disaster strikes and as he glances toward the serene and silent view of the earth from space, astronaut Matt Kowalski says to Dr Stone “You got to admit one thing; can’t beat the view.” In order to accentuate ‘the view’, ‘the music’ kicks in. It is an exceptional view but in a film context it needs the music to make people realise and acknowledge that it is an exceptional view. This is music’s great gift; it can accentuate a point brilliantly because it does so in a way that is not literal. No words or extra images, just something that communicates emotion without being understood. So, the ‘function’ of the music is to make the whole scene more poignant and memorable; the link between the obvious drama of the image and the just-as- obvious-but-less-understood emotion in the music becomes synchronised in the mind of the viewer. How does it do it? Fig.4 Movie 00.08.16 Audio – Above Earth 00.50 rd st G = G = 1 st Bb = 3 Bb = 1 3rd th rd D = 5 D = 3 st Bb =1 Bb and G Bb and G = 5 th & = 3 rd & 1st The section of ‘Above Earth’ where Clooney’s character stares at the earth comes around fifty seconds into the track. The chords are slow, meandering and deliberate. The power of the chords is, as always, in the changes, the manoeuvres, the reactions; but with this piece being so slow and ponderous and with the sounds being so soft and unobtrusive, the sonorities between the different harmonies glide over us like a soft blanket. They do not appear suddenly like most chords; they materialise. As in another movie we looked at (The Impossible) the music manages to make the Eb to Gm sound a whole lot lovelier than it normally sounds because the slowness makes us hear the intervallic changes more (detailed on transcription). With this kind of music we are listening primarily to the intervals, especially when the textures are so dreamy and nebulous. How Film & TV Music Communicate – Vol. III – text © 2015 Brian Morrell As stated earlier this track also features the uplifting manouvre from minor to relative majo (bar three to six – Gm to Bb). In the cue ‘Don’t let go’ (fig.5) there is one moment where the movie’s centre of gravity (the character Dr Ryan Stone) and the music touch each other gently; the change in the music alone is nothing without Stone hesitating and saying, “I had a daughter.” and equally the statement alone is a little dry without the music; the music italicises the moment like words and pictures cannot. As we have discussed at length elsewhere in these books, music manages to paint a different description of emotion than words and pictures do. This is in part because it is less understood than pictures and words, both of which tend to communicate quickly and emphatically to most people.