Gone with the Wind

Tara, the O'Hara plantation, demonstrates the use of leitmotif to recall a person, place, or idea, often when that object is in sight. Very basically described, the Tara motif, which is always underscoring, is a brief combination of predominantly stringed instruments playing a soft, almost melancholy tune. Some instances of the leitmotif follow. The theme is played when Rhett leaves Scarlett in charge of Melanie, Melanie's baby, and Prissy. They are at a fork in the road, the last turn on the way to Tara, and the leitmotif shifts the focus from Rhett and Scarlett's intriguing farewell to the fact that Scarlett's sole mission is to get the four of them to Tara, an idealized concept that seems a panacea to Scarlett. After Scarlett has reentered Tara, she finds her father alive, and a few servants, and seems to underestimate the drastic changes at Tara since Sherman's March until her screams of anguish at her mother's death bed kickstart a much more somber, slow version of the Tara theme that more accurately represents the current state of affairs. The Tara leitmotif also ends the first half of the movie, given more powerfully with a strong brass element. We pick up the situation after the intermission with another slow, somber version of the theme as Scarlett attempts to teach the former household slaves to pick cotton and must even help in the effort with her own labor. Much later, the tense underscoring linked with Scarlett's nightmare shifts into a Tara theme as she talks of visiting Tara.

Two examples of stock music--most of which seems to be underscoring--used frequently in the movie are "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," "Maryland, Oh Maryland" and "Dixie." At the very beginning of the film, sometime during or just after the opening title credits, a short clip of "Dixie" is played to highlight that the film occurs in the South, in the mid-1860's. Later, a quicker version--too quick to represent anything well-calculated or unemotional--of the same is used alongside excited new Confederates: war has broken out, and the theme serves to illustrate the naive or emotional excitement over the frightening reality of war. When Rhett Butler is honored for his military bravery, "Maryland, Oh Maryland" plays in the background to represent patriotism. After news of Gettysburg hits home, an excerpt of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" provides an appropriately respectful yet disciplined background piece for the strife of the newly widowed. In the same scene, the military band plays a diagetic version of "Dixie;" this time, the overly quick and joyful pace contrasts starkly with the tears rolling down the band members' cheeks. They next play a rather unobtrusive "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" after "Dixie." Along with the boldly capitalized SIEGE title introducing us to Sherman's March, "Dixie" reminds us that the Southerners are our protagonists. Overlooking a field of wounded Confederates in the hospital, "Maryland, Oh Maryland" somberly reminds us of their extreme sacrifice, and "Taps" immediately follows concurring with the Confederate Flag, representing the impending death of the Confederacy. "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" is next presented alongside Ashley, a former Confederate soldier splitting a railroad tie through tough physical labor. This highlights his continuing patriotism and discipline, yet also contributes to a sense that "Johnny" has now come home, and the home he has returned to is like that of the ransacked Tara.

Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein

The title sequence of Frankenstein incorporates underscoring sounded along with stand alone credits, rather than credits superimposed on some opening scene. The style employed utilizes what seems to be generally accepted as forboding, tense music played by mostly brass and woodwind instruments. In the first scene of the movie, bells toll a diagetic dirge in the distance--meaning that the characters can probably hear this music--as a coffin is buried and a scientist, Dr. Henry Frankenstein, and his assistant, Fritz, look on from a furtive location. The bells have stopped by the time the two men have dug up and stolen the body. Next the two men find a hanged man and decide he could be the last piece of their monstrous puzzle, yet, as throughout the movie, no music is employed in this place with little dialogue that could potentially be complemented with some creepy mood music. Later on, a diagetic gong sound actually determines the course of the plot as its startingly report causes Fritz to drop the normal brain he is stealing. He then goes for the abnormal one, a decision not likely without the gong's contribution. The diagetic use of thunder during scenes in which Frankenstein works on his creation is not music per se but does fulfill the same job of setting a mood, ominous in this case.
The next use of music is the diagetic, happy music provided by violin and accordion as villagers dance, celebrating in anticipation of Frankenstein's wedding. Church bells, this time announcing a happy occasion, supplement this music. The violin and accordion abruptly stop when the players first spot a man carrying his murdered daughter, though the audience sees the man well before they notice, permitting a contrapuntal happy theme to continue in a time of sadness. The movie eventually fades out in a climax of action where the main character is wounded and his monster is engulfed in flames, yet no music accompanies these occurrences.
In Bride of Frankenstein, music that is nearly all underscoring, unheard by the characters, continues throughout the movie. The composer also employs crescendo and decrescendo in most instances, making the music more obvious than the constant bell tolling in Frankenstein. One specific instance of underscoring is the sequence with Dr. Pretorious' miniature human-like creations. Each is dressed to fit a part--king, queen, bishop, ballerina, mermaid--and each is accompanied by stereotypically appropriate music--happy, regal music for the royalty; reverent music for the clergy; harp for the ballerina, etc.
In the scene when Frankenstein's monster escapes from prison, quick tempoed music similar to the sound a bee's wings make contrasts the reality of the monster's escape with the official's reassurances to the crowd outside that he is chained up and incapable of harming anyone.
For the heart-starting sequence in which the "bride of Frankenstein" is given life, the composer uses a heart-throb-like drum beat that is the diagetic noise of her heart beating. This beats faster as she is lowered down from the electrical storm back into the laboratory in a conscious state. The beating of her heart may parallel increased heart rates among the two scientists witnessing the consummation of their work. These are a few examples of the many instances in which the composer uses mainly underscoring and some diagetic music much more frequently than in Frankenstein, demonstrating the broad possibilities and dispositions concerning when music should or should not be employed and also which kind best completes the story.