The Mission (Morricone)

In The Mission, Morricone opts to forgo orchestral scoring in favor of a few strings, percussion, and woodwind instruments to create an atmosphere more concurrent with the native setting. Brass is used a couple times along with the antagonistic slaveowner. One of the instruments, which appears to be a recorder, ties in with the Jesuits because we see one of them playing it near the beginning of the film in order to win the hearts of the natives. Moreso than in past films, the ambient noises bleed through and often take the place of underscoring. These noises add to the mood better pure than underscoring might. For example, the rushing noise of the river as Rodrigo and some others filch gunpowder from the sleeping Portuguese soldiers is heard well over the faint, low string underscoring. The tension of the scene is obvious, because if the whole camp wakes up, Rodrigo and company will surely be shot to death. The music and ambience changes little even as they silence and stab to death a soldier who wakes up. Despite the continuous mood of the music here, we can clearly tell that the mood has become even more grave, without any stinger or crescendo to help us figure it out.

Morricone repeats "Ave María" throughout the movie, sung at least three times by the natives, always in an effort to convince the colonizers that they're worth protecting. The first time a young native boy sings it in front of the Catholic in charge in Asunción and he is very impressed. The cold-hearted landowners, however, say that even a parrot can be taught to sing. When the Catholic superior visits the Guaraní mission for the first time, he is thoroughly impressed as the whole native population sings Ave María beautifully for him outside their church. However, he sides with the powerful landowners because he thinks it will save the Jesuit order. The natives sing it diagetically once more during their final mass, outdoors, in sharp contrast to the slaughter surrounding them. Only once the soldiers begin shooting the women and children does the singing stop, but the procession continues regardless.

John Williams and A New Hope

Returning to a full orchestra in Star Wars: A New Hope, John Williams draws from Korngold and Steiner in the ways he uses themes and instruments. Though the spectacular opening music is not quite a traditional overture that contains bits and pieces of music to be used throughout the film,this "Main Theme" does become an underlying theme. Likewise, Williams uses a lot of music in comparison to films like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid(1969), returning to filler music that is not quite as rampant as that of The Bride of Frankenstein(Steiner). Also, brass is mainly highlighted in battle scenes and with the clearly evil Darth Vader as well as the Sand People.

Two of the most prevalent themes associated with Luke and his fellow allies, who, except for Han Solo, are presented as basically heroic, are variations on "Main Theme" and "Princess Leia's Theme." The first is the opening scene and reminds us of the narrative text following the opening that portrays the rebellion as just and courageous. Possibly the earliest reiteration of "Main Theme" occurs with R2D2 on the rebel ship because he holds the Death Star schematic crucial to the rebel's survival. There are many other instances of this theme with variations on the instrumental composition and tempo. For instance, the theme becomes urgent as Luke unwisely rushes back home in the landspeeder after he and Obi Wan conclude that the Storm Troopers have gone there to kill his aunt and uncle. "Princess Leia's Theme" debuts as Leia holds a blaster in anticipation of the Storm Troopers coming to capture her. It is a soft theme that is mostly strings, conforming with Hollywood standards on heroines even though she acts more like a manly hero than many heroines before her. The theme becomes more romantic as it's repeated while her holographic message to Obi Wan Kenobi entrances Luke, as well as when he rescues her from her Death Star cell.

2001: A Space Odyssey

2001: A Space Odyssey is an incredibly unique movie that does not bend to Hollywood's traditional use of music and excludes many common nonmusical elements that we have seen thus far. In 1968, Kubrick had a fair amount of special effects abilities, which he employed frequently--such as the rotating rooms, the floating pen, and the psychodelic graphic sequence used as David flies toward Jupiter. Also, there is no romantic female role, little dialogue, and little guidance as to how we should interpret the plot. As far as music is concerned, Kubrick uses existing music, and little music at all, so I will refer to him as the musical authority for 2001: A Space Odyssey as there is no traditional composer.

Kubrick takes a minimalist approach to 2001, employing only 5 songs. To begin the film he uses a mezzoforte "Thus Spoke Zarathustra," a classical orchestra piece with noticeable but not overbearing brass that build a couple of times and then slow but light drums to build a sense of wonder as we see visions of the Sun--rising--, Earth, and Moon line up in space. Then there is a noticeable void of music as we see terrestrial sunrises over vast, seemingly desolate plains. Here the noise of the wind in the background contributes to the feeling of desolateness and the utter lack of dialogue. The hooting and hollering of rival simian tribes later accentuates their primitivity without any music necessary or used. The next music is "Lux Aeterna," a rather quiet anti-climactic piece using long vocal notes and what sounds like a theremin also using long notes. This is the piece of music that will become the leitmotif for the mysterious rectangular prism that seems to represent knowledge and perhaps religion. This music stops abruptly as the scene changes and is not replaced by other music. Kubrick frequently drops music at the end of scenes without replacing it. "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" comes back as a primate discovers tools by bashing a skeleton with a femur bone. The other songs used are "Blue Danube Waltz," which accompanies the courting ritual of the space station and Floyd's passenger shuttle, "Requiem," which creates an eerie feeling as Jupiter and its moons come into view, and "Adventure," which might be the theme used when we are introduced to HAL's ship. Technically, HAL also sings a portion of "Daisy," a lubby-dubby song that he can only sing slowly and exhaustedly as David removes successful parts of his artificial neural processor. This represents how innocent technology can be when it is in a simple state; a sharp contrast to calmly, murderously obsessed HAL who kills off members of the crew to ensure the safety of the mission.

This movie has the least dialogue of any movie that I have ever seen, and Kubrick attempts to fill these spaces with appropriate mechanical humming noises, heavy breathing, and the like. These change with the camera location: in the infamous "Open the pod bay doors, HAL." sequence, space is realistically silent, the inside of Dave's pod cabin has some unobtrusive mechanical sound, and the inside of the ship with HAL has a faint mechanical droning noise that accentuates HAL's brevity and refusal to speak in the beginning of their "Open the pod bay doors" exchange because the audience is expecting some sort of dialogue but only gets the humming noise. Almost any other movie would have employed some form of music in at least a few of the tense sequences such as this exchange, HAL's disconnection of the hibernaters from life support, or HAL's eavesdropping. No evil theme is ever associated directly with HAL, implying perhaps that complex technology is sterile, devoid of emotion. All of the previous characters we have seen have been human, and perhaps Kubrick is trying to display the lack of humanity in HAL or even the crewmates by suppressing his musical themes. For instance, David does not cry or become visibly upset when he sees his crewmate floating dead in space, nor when he kills HAL.

Vertigo (Bernard Herrmann)

Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo features composer Bernard Herrmann and his ominous, suspenseful score. Like previous film composer, Herrmann uses leitmotifs meant to help represent an idea or a character. A couple obvious leitmotifs are the somewhat sappy strings used to represent Judy's complex character and the strings that buzz like bees during John Ferguson's most intense chase scenes which are directly linked to high-adrenaline moments evoking vertigo--when he looks down while hanging off the gutter, when he sees the stairs in the mission chasing after Judy, and when he has a nightmare about "Marilyn" falling out of the tower. The Judy theme is important because it is used at least once when she is not there, but John is in his car thinking about her after talking with Midge or looking at her old car after Marilyn's death: each of which provides some foreshadowing because Judy's still alive.

Herrman seems to employ some common film music techniques of the day--such as leitmotifs and turning diagetic music into underscoring (i.e. the church organ in the mission church)--, but he also uses some interesting interplay between instruments playing the same tune at different octaves and also often uses one instrument as a backdrop and then switches between other instruments intermittently to add meaning to this undertone. After John Ferguson talks to the concierge of the former Valdez house, Herrmann switches back and forth a couple times between trombones and then flutes playing a string of about 8 notes. This technique helps the music stay in the front of the viewer's mind instead of becoming easily unnoticeable background drivel. Yet it still remains subdued enough to allow the action to take center stage. Later on, Herrmann uses a modest harplike tune as a backdrop complemented individually by strings, then trombone, and then other instruments. The background music in turn can be viewed differently alongside stronger or weaker, deeper or higher instruments much as the plot can be viewed differently looking from different perspectives of each character. This may be a stretch, but I believe it is a valid interpretation because Herrmann uses this technique right after Midge visits Ferguson in the hospital and the direction of the plot is in a rather liquid, unpredictable state.

Citizen Kane

In Citizen Kane, music is mainly used to advance transitions and make montages flow. In the beginning of the film, a somber theme using low, quiet brass and strings as the camera slowly moves from the outside of the Xanadu fence at a low angle to the inside of Kane's room as he says his final, famous word: "Rosebud." This theme gives Kane's estate a funereal air and also surrounds Kane's death with a certain mystery because the visuals show that he is very alone at the end. This relatively quiet music sets up a great contrast with the boisterous trumpets and drums that briefly introduce "News on the March" which uses a histrionic narrator to quickly highlight the highlights of Kane's public life. During "News on the March" this narrator is accompanied by a full orchestra and brief videos of Kane meeting important leaders, acquiring wealth, etc.
Later, 5 separate short scenes compose a montage of Kane and his first wife. Their relationship in the first is one of love and gentle nagging toward Kane to spend more time at home, and he's jocund and somewhat willing. At this point, the music involves mainly strings and is soft, nearly romantic. The next is mostly woodwind and strings, somewhat gentle yet as Mrs. Kane is still gently prodding Kane to spend less time at the office. The music is sinking woodwind and some brass as she sadly tells Kane he shouldn't directly attack the president so brazenly. The penultimate is somewhat lower brass and Kane directly orders Mrs. Kane to continue to allow the coarse Mr. Bernstein in the nursery with their son. In the final scene, the strings reappear much sadder as Mrs. Kane dejectedly scolds Kane for his dishonest paper, and Kane vehemently tells her "People will think what I tell them to think!"
Some less noticeable music, usually underscoring, is used in the flashback scenes, and in general the film uses its score as a means of highlighting and characterizing segues.
It is also worth noting that imdb.com refers to six composers, including Max Steiner, as sources for stock music used throughout Citizen Kane.

Double Indemnity (Rózsa)

In Double Indemnity, Rózsa begins with music only when the narrator is talking and the scene is changing, improving the transition between the flashback scenes and the present narrator recording the whole story. After Walter Neff, who is also the man recording the story in the present, agrees to help Phyllis kill her husband, a turning point in the movie, Rózsa begins to employ music in the increasing emotional scenes inbetween narrative explanations.

The music associated with the narration enhances the continuity of the film, employing a similar sequence of notes throughout the film. In general, this is background underscoring, mostly strings that are practically a much slower version of those used in Psycho. Combined with the sober tone of Neff's narrations, this theme evokes mystery and suspense without becoming obnoxious. As Neff narrates that his hands shook uncontrollably at work after killing Mr. Diedrickson, the music seems to fade out before the narrator is completely finished perhaps to highlight Neff's anxiety in the flashback that something is out of place.

After the first time Phyllis comes to Neff's apartment, Rózsa begins coupling music with some of the flashback dialogue to illustrate emotions or tension. For example, a mildly romantic violin piece overshadows the other, more subdued instruments as Phyllis and Neff kiss in his apartment shortly after tacitly agreeing to murder Mr. Diedrickson. As Neff is preparing for the killing, a brass sequence similar to the string sequence becomes the main sound. This continues, intermittenly joined by strings, until Neff, Phyllis, and Mr. Diedrickson turn down a dark side street. The camera then focuses on Phyllis in the driver's seat as a brass crescendo and subsequent pause clearly illustrate that Neff has strangled or otherwise killed Mr. Diedrickson. When Neff goes to Phyllis' house to privately interrogate her, he enters her house and hears the diagetic radio of a neighbor. It is some sort of unobtrusive trumpet instrumental. After they talk heatedly, he closes the window, shutting out the diagetic music and increasing the tension between the two characters, both armed, in a dark room with no music. Phyllis then shoots him and then stringed underscoring returns.

The Sea Hawks (1940)

Throughout The Sea Hawk, bold, underscored trumpets accompany the Sea Hawks while they are at battle on the sea, concurring with and foreshadowing their apparent invincibility while at sea. These trumpets first break out happily as an unlikely cannonball fired from the Albatross shatters the flagpole of the antagonistic Spaniard ship. They are not always constant during battles, but are especially noticeable during strategic successes such as the freeing of the enslaved rowers (the first time), boarding of the ship, and the transport of their new loot. The biased trumpets help the viewer join the Sea Hawks in their atmosphere of triumph and exhilaration. In contrast, the trumpet used with the Sea Hawks' capture of the Spanish gold is not as bold, signalling that the previous battles were more difficult and thus more glorious and also warning us that this victory may be short lived.
The trumpet is also foregone in some instances to fit a more subdued emotional atmosphere. For instance, while Captain Thorpe and his crew make their incredibly brave escape from chains as enslaved oarmen, they do so quietly enough not to wake up the guard. Korngold substitutes quieter strings in the escape scene to accentuate the whispering of Thorpe and his comrades. There is a brief crescendo of strings and low brass used to support the silent strangling of the timekeeper and killing of various guards, which is also silent. This is far more suspenseful and natural than loud trumpets that signify sure victory but are too loud for the stealthy scene. The trumpet makes its logical return when the Sea Hawks have sure control of the ship and lower the sails.