On of the great things about writing music for short films is the brevity of the medium. Longer forms tend to require set structural archetypes in order to sustain interest over a large space of time, (such as ABA, sonata form, variations, collage etc). Short forms, (say 2-5 minutes) can get quite interesting, because they allow directors the chance to take more risks with the narrative, perhaps abandoning the conventional notion of plot altogether, as is often the case in the film festival / art house movie genre, (almost to the point of cliché, some might say). After all, it can be rather futile to try and spin a complex story in such a short space of time, so a director will often concentrate on other elements, such as characterization, cinematography, editing techniques etc. Likewise, for the musicians / composers, it can be quite tough trying to say something meaningful in such a short space of time, (remembering to leave room for the speech and ambient sound of course), so what is often called for, is some kind of soundtrack that defies the conventional approach to melody/harmony/rhythm.
What attracts me as a composer, is the way in which I can use non-standard instrumentation, (how about a 2 minute soundtrack just for solo snare drum? How many sounds could you get out of one surface?). Often, when I go to film festivals, I hear great music, but a great deal of it seems to fall into the “I say chaps, lets get some ambient beats going here” or “how about another 5 minutes of moody post-Philip glass piano arpeggios?” Admittedly, these cliches are successful because they connect with very strong western cultural archetypes that we are subjected to on a daily basis. However, I tend to find some of these ideas a bit lacking in terms of different emotional colours, especially when were are dealing with cinema that is working on a higher level of subtelty that our standard fare. Its like trying to paint the world in red, yellow and blue when there are infinite shades in between, some of which are really difficult to describe because they elicit quite equally varied responses in different people because they have not been exposed to these “signs” at the same level. Indeed, there is no law that prevents the soundtrack from suggesting an entirely different interpretation to the film itself, (although this is treading in risky waters). Quote Bill Evans:
“I believe that all people are in possession of what might be called a “universal musical mind.” Any true music speaks with this universal mind - and to the universal mind in all people. The understanding that results will vary only insofar as people have or have not been conditioned to various styles of music in which the universal mind speaks.”
“Consequently, often some effort and exposure is necessary in order to understand some of the music coming from a different period, or a different culture than that to which the listener has been conditioned”.
“I do not agree that the layman’s opinion is less of a valid judgement of music than that of the professional musician…. since the professional, because of his constant involvement with the mechanics of music must fight to preserve the naivete that the layman already possesses”.
- Bill Evans “The Universal Mind of Bill Evans, Rhapsody Films
Well, face it, you didn’t exactly come to the film festival to get the latest blockbuster action did you? Its a great medium for me to package so-called “contemporary” music in a form that will be circulated to a mass audience via internet / TV / festivals etc. As described earlier, I like to use the opportunity to try out new combinations of sounds. (2 piccolos and a tuba anyone? Seriously?) But, increasingly, I am open to the idea of using unconventional forms, colours, spatial arrangement, contrasting genres / media. Small musical microstuctures that are held together by their own internal “poetry”, and by the system of syntactic and semantic connections to the film on screen. This becomes is almost a kind of musical “haikau” at times, (think of those microcosmic orchestral gems by Webern). I also like the idea of symbolic references, for example, a particular chord or colour could be a re-occurring structural “signpost”, that itself may also hold extra-musical associations. Stop and consider the musical “cliches” again; what symbolic references might they hold, (cultural, psychological, physical, nostalgia?). Do these vary depending on the cultural “conditioning” of the viewer? Is this a bad thing, or a reflection of our multicultural society? Think outside the theory…
Also, there is the use of the studio to consider, spatial, effects, mixing etc… This opens up possibilities that are next to impossible in real life, for example, getting some electronic sounds going against an African Choir, perhaps some commercial music mixed in and out phase with abstract percussive sound improvisation? (Not saying it’s a given formula for success), but its good to be open to new ideas…
“…if modernism was the fiery death of classical culture, then by analogy post-modernism is playing with the crispy bits” – Nick Peck
To chart my thoughts on listening to a film soundtrack [one that I have just completed]; a panning shot of a locomotive is accompanied by dissonant brass chords which move from right to left following the motion of the train. To some listeners, the voicing and articulation of the chord might suggest the sound of a train hooter, (US horns are often tuned to a triad). Throughout the soundtrack, this right to left panning is explored by a number of other sound layers. In addition, lower elements of the music seem to be suggesting the “clack-a-tee-clack” motion of the rails, but at other times this could be suggesting the heartbeat pulse of our “hero”. Another element is a celeste, which plays an ostinato that sounds likes a nursery rhyme, (distorted in rhythm and harmony). As our hero awakes from a violent dream, and falls back to bed in relief, this suggests the sound of a music box that might lull a child to sleep. However, this gradually emerges as a distorted version of a Bach Chorale, that a small number of listeners might recognize as “Es ist Genug” (“It is enough…”), played in distorted rhythmic canon by an army of bells of various shapes and descriptions, as [in a later scene] our hero seemingly prepares to take his own life. Even to those viewers who do not recognize the chorale, this choice of a Western-sounding hymn tune suggests some form of spiritual redemption, that either in life, or through death he might find relief from the nightmares that plague him throughout the film. The treatment of this passage, however is not without strong tones of Eastern Gamelan music, thus breaking any sense of tie with any religious connection. I wanted to hint at a more spiritual, not religious sense of questioning, which, (given the fact that the supposed suicide is not seen or heard) , leaves us questioning the possible dual outcomes of the film, (but, with an unusual sense of calm, given the violent nature of the preceeding subject matter).
In an earlier film (Two Glasses), I attempted a similar form of abstraction. The film was only 4 minutes long and involved no dialogue, portraying a potential marriage breakup between husband and wife. A reoccurring sound that we hear throughout the piece is a high pitched whistle, (which is in fact a single accordion note, sampled and filtered to isolate all but the highest harmonics). This sound might be familiar to some listeners who have tried the old party trick of rubbing a moistened finger over a wine glass, (a glass harmonica – another reference to the title of the piece). Also the “glassy” stare that the wife gives her deceiving husband at the start and close of the movie. At an earlier point in the film, the husband is portrayed making his way to the apartment of his secret lover. As he opens the door, the scene is accompanied by a crescendo on a single shaker. Why I chose this sound to build tension, I can’t remember, but in retrospect it bears a resemblance to the sound of the rattlesnake, (entering the viper’s den?), or could it be hinting at some kind of subliminal samba beat (frivolity?) Earlier, as the husband is seen making his way through a back alley, he is accompanied by a theme emphasizing 3rds and 7ths played by marimba and accordion. In this respect, the marimba plays a resemblance to its smaller cousin, the xylophone - an instrument often heard accompanying the mischievous antics of Cats & Mice in countless 50’s cartoons – the lightness of the percussive attack suggested gentle footsteps on a dangerous path of depict.
Once again, the fact that some sounds / events may suggest different interpretations to different viewers is all part of the fun for me. I like the idea of something that might suggest differing outcomes, perspectives and moods.
I want to stress that these are my observations on watching the films after having finished the soundtracks. This is just a kind of “after-the-fact” analysis from a semiotic perspective.
Does this kind of semiotic analysis deserve more of a place in our musical education? Or, on a more personal note, should this be more of a concern in our creative considerations as regards “Jazz” (or whatever improvised music is called these days). In some colleges, our analysis of “Jazz” often seems to be centered around a concept of “language” that is often little more than a kind of painting by the numbers. True linguistic analysis involves a deeper understanding of “assumed knowledge”, phrase structures and contours and that, in turn implies a study of semiotics. The best musicians develop an innate grasp of this concept regardless, but it strikes me that a music that tries to ignore any concept of this is, well… bound to die anyway…
“In the 1990’s jazz’s blood squirted all over the floor of American culture and its body and soul slowly escaped, leaving an empty shell twisted in the throes of death.” Watrous,“The Nineties” JazzTimes Sep. 2000
Or did it? It seems, (more so, in the last decade) that a new “wave” of thought has emerged, whereby a track is less of a structure for “blowing” and more about creating an instance of a mood. I would cite, as a well-known example, John Scofield with Medski, Martin & Woods on the album “A Go-Go”, in which each track acts as an attempt to conjure up a specific scene, (just like a series of short soundtracks for a surreal cartoon…. Ren & Stimpy hit Funkytown USA for a wild night of furball regurgitation, illegal meat products and corn-related humor). For instance, the track “Kubrick” is less than 2 minutes long, and features no “improvisation”, in the conventional sense (save murmuring tom-tom figure). As another example, the trio “The Bad Plus” have evolved a performing and recording style which, (as an antithesis of the jazz tradition), features strong doses humor, pop cultural references, extra-musical effects… suggesting a new paradigm for jazz whereby the sum total of the parts (i.e. the concept of the “track” as a single entity) is more important than everyone just tearing off a great string of solos…
Or on a bigger scale, the music of Maria Schneider, contains a large number of symbolic references, integrated into a large scale-developmental form, (which Maria readily cites as influences when describing the compositional process). Some of these are immediately apparent, such are bird calls heard on “Cerulean Skies” , some are more subtle; the irregular meters of “Hang Gliding” describing the heart pulse of a hang glider pilot preparing to launch into flight. Of course, a Jazz orchestra still has a fairly defined “sound”, (inherited at some distant level from Duke Ellington), but after all, wasn’t it Ellington who said that Jazz was a feeling, not an intellectual theorem?
Speaking of Ellington, I might even hazard a suggestion that increasingly, “jazz” is returning to the pictoral concept of earlier players? Tell the story of people, moods, cultures, ages. This is not a critic of anything that has happen since, and I am certainly not advocating any form of historical re-enactment. On the contrary, armed with new resources, the music still has the power to instantly tell the story of our age and the world we live in.
One of the occasional hazards of “art” is the need to admit to an overwhelming sense of humility. The more you think you are finding your feet, the more you are stuck by the enormity of the whole concept. The moment you think you have your “sound”, something else comes along. Of course there are no-out-of-the-box solutions. Here I am, somehow brought up on very structuralist musical post-Schoenbergain values (no idea why, seeing as I didn’t exactly grow up listening to Beethoven), calling some of those values into question. Schoenberg lamented the demise of “structural listening” amongst concert audiences, but taking my music appreciation into consideration (and rumor has it that I have musical education), I doubt if, ever, my primary motivation for attending a concert of Western Classical music has been to sit there clocking the instances of themes, development / forms etc. I am, of course, more interested from a sensual, not structural perspective, as are, I expect, the vast majority of audience members. However, Schoenberg also proposed a model of musical evolution within a particular culture whereby successive generations expand upon differing elements of the music. We now live in a culture where music, (including a great deal of experimental/contemporary music) is increasingly about creating short instances of a “feeling”, rather than a musical/artistic concept. I don’t feel that this was the case 10 years ago. Perhaps this is a product of the internet revolution, (music finding new outlets as bandwidth-friendly “soundbites” or as mass-produced library music for films and presentations?) As you can see from my thoughts on my film music (above), I am on the fence, and I try to work on both levels when creating music. Where do you stand? I hearby throw the debate open…
, but it really does help start the blood flow to the arms and fingers and gets the relevant tendons ready for action.