AO4: Film Music 🎞️

Question 1

Leitmotifs

Answer 1

A tune that returns throughout the film.
Represents a particular object, idea or character.
E.g. Lord of the Rings - Fellowship of the Ring, or ‘Hedwig’s Theme’.

Question 2

Repetition

Answer 2

Sometimes themes are repeated at the end of the film to provide a triumphant ending.

Can create tension and suspense.

Question 3

Pop songs to gain publicity

Answer 3

E.g. Pharrell Williams’s ‘Happy’ used in Despicable Me.

Question 4

Traditional instruments

Answer 4

(to give a sense of time and place)

Question 5

Unnatural sounds

Answer 5

• Unusual harmonies. Can you think of an example? E.g. Chromatic, dissonance (creates a scrunchy sound with clashing notes)
• Strange time signatures. E.g. 3/2, 7/4, 5/4

Question 6

What features belong to happier sounding music?

Answer 6

High tessitura
Thick texture/Polyphonic
Bright sound

Major
Diatonic

Short note values.
Staccato.
Fast - Allegro (lively), Presto

Nice - ‘lyrical’ - stepwise maybe? (has a better flow)

Loud ‘forte’

Question 7

What features belong to sadder sounding music?

Answer 7

Low tessitura
Thin texture/monophonic
Mellow sound

Minor
Chromatic/dissonant/discord

Long note values/more sustained.
Legato.
Slow - Largo, Adagio

Leaps - ‘angular’ (haphazard with lots of jumps - large intervals) melody

Quiet ‘piano’

Question 8

Music shows you what is not on screen

Answer 8

Things used to make you feel uneasy.

Question 9

What is ‘Diegetic music’?

Answer 9

It is the music the characters can hear.
Not actually part of the story.
Just put ‘over the top’ to increase the effect of the film.

Question 10

Early video game music was very simple

Answer 10

Due to limited technology - it could only have a couple of different instruments or parts, so was often monophonic.

Tended to be based on short melodies or motifs on a loop.

Music wasn’t usually played throughout the game and would just be used as the theme tune at the start.
E.g. Space Invaders by Tomohiro Nishikado.

Question 11

Video game music developed as technology developed

Answer 11

Synthesizers to create and manipulate synthetic sounds.
MIDI allowed video game composers to write for a range of instruments that played back consistently on different pieces of equipment.

Video games in the 1990s created higher quality music with more realistic instrumental timbres due to sound processors.

Question 12

Game music uses motifs

Answer 12

• Sequencing
• Inversions
• ‘Retrograde’ rhythms
• Augmentation or diminution
• Leitmotifs
• Polyrhythm, cross-rhythm and syncopation create a sense of urgency or uncertainty.
• Texture can show how the story is progressing in a game.