Film soundtrack
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A film soundtrack is the music that is from or inspired by a motion picture, or film.
It is likely the film soundtrack came into existence about the same time as the films themselves. Early films were silent, but were released with cue sheets or scores so that individual theater houses could play music, recorded or live, at appropriate places in the film. Recall the opening of Moulin Rouge starts with an orchestra playing the opening theme. This was actually done in the era of silent film. With the advent of talkies, music could be integrated into the actual reel itself, and the wide world of film soundtracks was born.
Soundtracks themselves are not limited to film. One may find soundtracks to television shows, ranging from ER to the anime Cowboy Bebop, and video games such as the Final Fantasy series.
Soundtracks themselves can be divided up by purpose and placement. As a general rule, soundtracks can be divided into the score and the songs from the movie.
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Background Music/Score
Background music (aka the score), arguably the most common type of music heard on a film soundtrack, is music composed and placed to enhance the desired emotion of a scene, be it positive or negative. The actors on screen are talking and moving normally, that is, they are neither singing nor dancing nor interacting with the music in any way (except in cases of a spoof). A person watching the movie may not be aware that anything is playing, but might comment on the poorness or flatness of a scene should the music be removed. The background music is usually orchestrated without meaningful vocals (with the exception of some chanting), and somewhat formless, based heavily on musical peaks and troughs that highlight the scene but which otherwise may be nonsensical or even boring when played alone.
Most background music follows a general pattern of instrumentation and technique to achieve whatever ends the composer desires. Common examples of such devices used in background music include trilling violins to indicate suspense, legato flutes to convey peaceful or pastoral setting, trumpet fanfares for military or martial scenes, and drumming for Asian or tribal events.
Movies with notable soundtracks consisting mainly of background music include the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy (Howard Shore, composer), Star Wars (John Williams, composer), The Mission (Ennio Morricone, composer) and The Piano (Michael Nyman, composer).
Themes
Closely related to a movie’s background music is the theme(s) of the movie. A theme is a particular melodic or rhythmic motif that appears in the music whenever a certain event, usually the presence or entrance of a major character, occurs (see leitmotif). Themes differ from background music in that they are usually tuneful and will stand alone if removed from the context of the movie. Also unlike background music, the song may often have purposeful lyrics.
The theme is usually repeated throughout the course of the film. Sometimes, it is introduced early and manipulated with regards to tempo, key, and instrumentation to fit the particular mood. For example, an upbeat theme may be played in a minor mode if the character it is associated with suffers or dies. It may be slowed down for a romantic moment or sped up for stressful emotions. It may be placed in counterpoint with another theme to show a relationship. A theme may also be hinted at as a character develops and be finally played in full when the character reaches a peak. For example, in the Attack of the Clones, when Anakin Skywalker makes the choice to exact revenge on the people who killed his mother, the Darth Vader march from Star Wars is played in full for the first time that movie.
A single movie may have one or many strong themes. Often, a movie will have a primary theme played during the opening and/or closing credits that is not heard in totality anywhere else in the film. In certain cases, this song may be sung (usually by a popular singer unrelated to the rest of the film) during the credits, but instrumented when inserted into the film. This is called the title song and is discussed later. A film may have an orchestrated theme as well as a title song, composed by different people with different results. Often, one will succeed commercially while the other will fail.
The theme of a film may eventually come to symbolize a character or the film itself, to the point where the original purpose of the theme may be lost. The opening strains of Also sprach Zarathustra and Blue Danube Waltz by Richard Strauss are inextricably linked to 2001: A Space Odyssey, though few can remember when in the film the themes were first played. Themes are usually titled for the movie they occur in, such as The Theme from Schindler's List or Theme from the Magnificent Seven, and may be distinguished as to why they occur, such as the Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet.
Title Song
A title song is a (almost always) sung theme associated with a particular movie that is heard in toto during the credits and rarely anywhere else in the film, except in the case of musicals. Usually the title song is composed for the movie itself, but sometimes existing pieces are used, especially when a current movie is set in a recent era that possessed stereotypical music, such as disco. The singer of the title theme is usually unrelated to the movie itself, with Barbara Streisand being a notable exception.
Title songs are, by and large, vague in their references to the film’s particulars, focusing instead on general themes of love, loss, and betrayal. These songs often go on to be commercial successes even if the movie was forgettable, though the fate of both movie and title song are intertwined. One wonders if My Heart Will Go On would have become such a hit had not Titanic succeeded as well as it did. Ditto for I Will Always Love You and its corresponding movie The Bodyguard.
Occasionally, a film will have both a popular orchestrated theme and a sung theme. The James Bond films all feature the James Bond theme as well as a movie-specific title song, such as Carly Simon's The Spy who Loved Me (Nobody Does it Better).
The Musical
Many films made in the 1940s through 1960s especially were little more than filmed musicals, screen-based adaptations of popular staged plays. In the musical, important feelings, events, and conversations take place using song and dance rather than using dialogue and action. The resulting play is about half speech and half music.
There is also background music in musicals, but it is different than that of non-musicals. Since most of the action in a musical is accompanied by singing and dancing, the only parts scored with background music in the musical are dialogue and transition scenes. This music is usually composed entirely of the themes played earlier, only instead of being sung, they are orchestrated. This is called incidental music. Incidental music is non-interactive: the characters do not acknowledge it or use it.
Musicals usually have only one title song. However, that title song may mention elements of the plot and characters that the general public may not understand. As a result, a musical's most commercially successful song may not be the title 'song. Jesus Christ Superstar had a title song of the same name, but it was the piece I Don't Know How to Love Him that gained the most air play. In the case of Chess, the Act II song One Night in Bangkok was transformed into a 1980s hit by Murray Head, leaving the musical itself to languish in relative obscurity. The title song may or may not be sung by the actor/actress who originated the role.
Soviet cinematography traditionally relied heavily on songs with lyrics, even in non-musical films.
Modern films are rarely musicals, though recent films such as Chicago and Moulin Rouge seem to be reviving the trend. The closest Hollywood comes to producing musicals nowadays are animated films, though Bollywood still embraces the film musical as a viable form.
The Animated Musical
Most animated films produced by Disney are musicals. Indeed, almost every feature-length animated feature, excepting those of Pixar, which is not anime is a musical. Animated films share all basic characteristics with their live-action counterparts, except that the incidental music is more likely to be novel, i.e. in the tradition of non-musical film scores.
Title songs from animated musicals do sometimes go on to become commercially successful, a fact capitalized on by such singers as Elton John (The Lion King) and Céline Dion (Beauty and the Beast). The glory days of the Disney song might be considered to have come during the tenure of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman.
Songs from the movie
Existing in a similar place, but different class, as the score are the so-called songs from the movie, which will be abbreviated SFTM for now. SFTM are discrete songs, almost always not composed specifically for the movie, heard during the course of the movie itself. A SFTM may either be background music or semi-interactive.
An STFM used as background music functions much in the same way as an orchestrated piece would. It is added external to the movie and used to heighten the mood. The main difference is its existing as a full, independent song without being a theme (and thus played only once during the film), though a piece such as Shaft would traverse that boundary.
A semi-interactive SFTM is a song playing in the context of the movie, such as the background music in a club or a tune heard on the radio of a character’s car. When a semi-interactive SFTM is playing, it functions as background music, so it would be rare to see a gang fight scene with a giddy STFM unless the director were going for irony.
The average movie soundtrack will contain eight or so STFM by popular artists tangentially or unrelated to the film itself. Forrest Gump's soundtrack is one of the best selling of all times and reads almost like a laundry list of popular tunes from the Baby Boomer generation.
Songs inspired by the movie
A somewhat recent invention, songs inspired by the movie are almost always not actually played in the movie itself. Instead, as the title suggests, they are derivative of the musical, cultural, social, etc. themes of the film. This seems to be done primarily to capitalize on the success of a particular film. After the soundtrack to The Lion King was released to great acclaim, Disney released the follow-up album Rhythm of the Pridelands.