Abstract
Conventional music learning in schools could benefit from the study of the music from films, television, and video games. This article offers practical applications for including film music as an outlet for analysis, an interdisciplinary compositional art form, a viable teaching tool, and an authentic performance/production experience. Music educators in both performance-based and non–performance-based settings will learn ways film music can serve as a tool for fostering rigorous critical thinking skills via analysis, broadening creativity through composition and production experiences, and offering a platform for artistic reflection. A list of print and online resources devoted to film music is included.
Music soundtracks from films, television shows, Internet videos, and video games offer music educators a teaching tool that students can easily connect with.
Film music has often been referred to as the “invisible art form.” 1 As spectators of film, television, computer interfaces, and video games in today’s society, we do not see the musicians generating the music unless the visual is portraying live performers. Instead, the music becomes secondary as we attend to the narrative content projected on a screen. These forms of multimedia surround us on a daily basis, allowing us the opportunity to hear music through a visual medium just as often as we listen to audio alone. In addition to mediating a “visual music-making” curriculum, conventional music studies could benefit from inclusion of this widely enjoyed invisible art form.
For this article, film music will be the prominent art form referenced, but many of the applications discussed can be used with any of the aforementioned multimedia art forms. Furthermore, only music that does not emanate from within the narrative world of the film, also referred to as non-diegetic music, will be considered “film music” in this discussion. 2 For example, John Powell’s adrenaline-pumping music from The Bourne Supremacy (2004) accompanying a car chase scene with the purpose of emotionally influencing spectators who are watching the film can be considered a non-diegetic treatment of the music. 3 This treatment of music is dependent on the notion that the car chase music isn’t established from within the film’s narrative world and thus cannot be heard by the Kirill character in pursuit of Jason Bourne during the chase throughout the streets of Moscow. However, diegetic music, the music that can be seen and heard within the film’s narrative world, could also be explored as effective treatments of music within the study of film music. A popular example of diegetic music can be found in Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope (1977). 4 As Luke Skywalker and Ben Kenobi search for a pilot in the cantina, several alien-looking band members can be seen and heard performing the “Cantina Band” song for the crowd. Since the narrative characters in this scene can see, hear, and respond to this band performing, all objects and sounds are said to occur within the diegesis world. Therefore, the music’s relationship to the narrative world can be deemed diegetic.
This article presents perspectives and practical applications for infusing film music into the music education curriculum. The information provided can be used to enhance the learning experience rather than add to the already burdening load of content expectations. Implementing this medium in the learning process could offer students more substantial and diverse learning opportunities while enhancing focus on specific music concepts and skills. Although specific applications are suggested, the following learning experiences can be adapted for all age and ability levels in elementary (intermediate level), secondary, and postsecondary schooling.
Evidence suggests that music radically affects the interpretation of a film’s narrative on a cognitive, physiological, and psychological scale. 5 Music has been commonly known as a signifier of emotion. 6 However, music can also function within a film by creating a sense of unity and coherence to a story; establishing time, geographic, and cultural atmospheres; communicating unspoken thoughts; focusing attention toward a specific point or perspective; acting as another visual canvas; narrating specific events; relaxing or intensifying a scene; foreshadowing events; or perceptually manipulating the pacing of a given scene. For example, the iconic “Raider’s March” theme from Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) encompasses the elements of a dramatic brass fanfare, often associated with a heroic character. 7 Even more, there are nuanced elements in this theme that can trigger our subconscious thoughts, helping us realize that the Indiana Jones character has flaws but that he has escaped yet another unimaginable predicament.
Regardless of music’s function, filmmakers’ artistic decisions in crafting the presentation of film anticipate the audience’s perception and interpretation of the film experience. The audiences’ role is a critical aspect in formulating what is seen, heard, and felt. It is this interaction between audience and film that probably fascinates so many musicians and nonmusicians when creating or thinking about film music.
The acknowledgment of the importance of music’s role in today’s society was one of the factors that prompted the writing of Vision 2020: The Housewright Declaration. 8 In this document, music educators were asked to join together in providing opportunities for meaningful music instruction for all individuals through performance, composing, improvising, listening, and interpreting music. During the formulation of these music-learning opportunities, relevancy can be established in the content and pedagogical approaches offered to students. Central to the Rigor/Relevance Framework model, Willard Daggett, chief executive officer of the International Center for Leadership in Education, asserts that “relevance makes rigor possible.” 9,10 By establishing the relevancy of film, television, and video game music in the music curriculum, meaningful learning opportunities can present themselves, instilling more rigor, depth, and impact for many students in today’s society.
Film Analysis, Music Theory, and History
Resources for the analysis, theoretical functions, and history of film music have just begun to surface in the past few decades. A recent resource titled The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films presents a detailed analysis of the music themes from all three films in sequential order. 11 With musical notation included for every major theme, this resource can help reveal how music functions in the Lord of the Rings films. While other resources do not have the same depth of analysis for one particular film, many incorporate analytical findings on portions of various films, offering an informative starting point for exploration (see the sidebar for a list of film music resources).
For students enrolled in either performance-based or non-performance-based music classes, learning experiences incorporating the analysis of music accompanying a film can generate great interest. A deep understanding of music’s function in film is often nonexistent partly due to a lack of formal instruction in the field of film music. 12 Adapting the process from an analysis project for college students, a music educator could have the students analyze film music for a portion or the entirety of a film. For example, the music by John Williams in E.T.—The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) consists of several motifs dedicated to specific characters and situations throughout the film.13,14 Exploration of each theme could be established by describing musical, functional, and emotional effects of each music theme. In groups, students could analyze their assigned themes while simultaneously viewing the film. Factors to consider could include (1) when the theme occurs, (2) how many times the theme occurs, (3) the theme’s development over the course of the film, and (4) the theme’s relationship with the narrative content.
Depending on their ages and abilities, students could report information by documenting their analysis on a timeline grid, establishing their findings by using graphic representation (e.g., shapes, symbols, self-drawn pictures, text), or structurally reporting each musical event along a student-made pictorial storyboard continuum of the film. Collectively, the class could share their findings by discussing the effects of music on the film as related to various aspects of the theme, its development over time, and its psychological effects on the interpretation of the story.
Some Film Music Resources
Film Music History and Composer Interviews
Buhler, James, David Neumeyer, and Rob Deemer. Hearing the Movies: Music and Sound in Film History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Cooke, Mervyn. A History of Film Music. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Hickman, Roger. Reel Music: Exploring 100 Years of Film Music. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006.
Hoover, Tom. Keeping Score: Interviews with Today’s Top Film, Television, and Game Music Composers. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning PTR, 2009.
Kalinak, Kathryn Marie. Film Music: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Morgan, David. Knowing the Score: Film Composers Talk about the Art, Craft, Blood, Sweat, and Tears of Writing Music for Cinema. New York: Harper Entertainment, 2000.
Prendergast, Roy M. Film Music: A Neglected Art. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Thomas, Tony. Music for the Movies. 2nd ed. Beverly Hills, CA: Silman-James Press, 1997.
Timm, Larry M. The Soul of Cinema: An Appreciation of Film Music. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003.*
Wierzbicki, James E. Film Music: A History. New York: Routledge, 2009.
Wierzbicki, James E., Nathan Platte, and Colin Roust. The Routledge Film Music Sourcebook. New York: Routledge, 2011.
Film Music Theory, Psychology, and Analysis
Adams, Doug, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Howard Shore. The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films: A Comprehensive Account of Howard Shore’s Scores. Van Nuys, CA: Alfred Music, 2010.
Blair, Cathy. Music Makes the Scene. Dayton, OH: The Lorenz Corporation Heritage Music Press, 2008.*
Burlingame, Jon. The Music of James Bond. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Bond, Jeff. The Music of Star Trek. Los Angeles: Lone Eagle Publishing Co., 1998.
Gorbman, Claudia. Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music. London: BFI Publishing, 1987.
Karlin, Fred. Listening to Movies: The Film Lover’s Guide to Film Music. New York: Schirmer Books, 1994.
Neumeyer, David. The Oxford Handbook of Film Music Studies. Oxford, UK: University Press, 2013.
Tan, Siu-Lan, Annabel J. Cohen, Scott D. Lipscomb, and Roger A. Kendall. The Psychology of Music in Multimedia. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Film Music Production
Angell, Dale. Pro Tools for Film and Video. Amsterdam: Focal Press/Elsevier, 2009.
Davis, Richard. Complete Guide to Film Scoring: The Art and Business of Writing Music for Movies and TV. Boston: Berklee Press, 1999.
Frankel, James. The Teacher’s Guide to Music, Media, and Copyright Law. New York: Hal Leonard, 2009.
Hagen, Earle. Advanced Techniques for Film Scoring. Van Nuys, CA: Alfred Publishing, 1990.
Karlin, Fred and Rayburn Wright. On the Track: A Guide to Contemporary Film Scoring. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2004.
Kompanek, Sonny. From Score to Screen: Sequencers, Scores, & Second Thoughts: The New Film Scoring Process. New York: Schirmer Trade Books, 2004.
Rona, Jeff. The Reel World: Scoring for Picture. 2nd ed. New York: Hal Leonard, 2009.
Composition in Music Education
Freedman, Barbara. Teaching Music through Composition: A Curriculum Using Technology. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Kaschub, Michele and Janice Smith. Composing Our Future: Preparing Music Educators to Teach Composition. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Kaschub, Michele and Janice Smith. Minds on Music: Composition for Creative and Critical Thinking. Lanham, MD: RLE / NAfME, 2009.
Online Resources
Film Music Magazine: www.filmmusicmag.com
Film Music Society: www.filmmusicsociety.org
Film Score Click Track: http://filmscoreclicktrack.com
Film Score Monthly: www.filmscoremonthly.com
Screen Archives Entertainment: http://www.screenarchives.com
Note. Most of these items are suggested as advanced resources. *Student classroom resource.
Music teachers and students will quickly notice that film music is another mode of storytelling and has more functions than just promoting expression. For example, your students could explore how the music in E.T. functions in foreshadowing E.T.’s illness and capture by authorities though varied entrances of the brooding “Government Force” theme placed throughout the film or how the music simultaneously narrates the action of Elliot and his friends being chased on their bicycles. Through careful dissection, students could study how the lush Golden Age style of film music coherently unites the scene when Elliot kisses a girl he likes as a reenactment to what E.T. is watching on the television. A question could be proposed to the students as to why the composer chose to construct the “Flying Theme” on ascending leaps of a perfect fifth, minor seventh, and perfect octave to accompany the boys’ bikes flying over the forest. Furthermore, experimentation with embedding other musical cues in synchronization with the flying scene in place of the original music could contribute to an understanding of the psychological effects of film music.
Some classrooms may find the history of film music informative when making transfers to American and world history. Whether influenced by individual pioneers such as Thomas Edison or the Lumière brothers, World War II, the advent of television, advancements in technology, or the aftermath of 9/11, the field of film and film music has often had influential connections to historical events. There is also a rich history among the various film music composers and film scoring trends throughout several eras of film music. This art form offers much for enthusiasts of a wide variety of music, as it encompasses numerous styles and genres.
Creating Film Music with Young Composers
The initial idea of teachers as composers, let alone teaching others how to compose in synchronization to a film, probably unleashes a large dose of anxiety. You may ask yourself, “What technology do I use?” or “Who will play or conduct this music once it is composed?” or “Where can I find films to compose music?” Recent advances in computer technology have allowed many the affordability and accessibility to construct their own film-composing workstations. While programs such as Pro Tools, Logic Pro, and Cubase could expose students to tools of a professional scale, GarageBand, a MIDI and audio software program, free to Apple users, offers a separate video track and many of the basic functions similarly available in professional audio recording and editing programs. It pays to spend some time researching the various available workstation products, as purchase decisions will depend on budgetary and functional needs of the school and the project.
There are generally two approaches to scoring when composing, performing, and recording film music. This first process involves a composer writing the music before joining a staff of musicians and engineers to record the music in synchronization with the film, a technique commonly used in Hollywood since the 1930s. This process often includes an audible click track and/or punch and streamer method to attain synchronicity at various accent points between film and music. 15 The punch method involves the process of punching a hole in the film stock that provides a bright flash of light at the point of the punch to inform the conductor of an important sync point within the action of the film. In addition, conductors may also choose to have the film stock prepared to include a long vertical line moving left to right on the film stock. The streamer will then move left to right when played back in order to visually provide the anticipating conductor accurate timing prior to an important music and film sync point. Today, the punches and streamers can be digitally imprinted using special computer technology programs. Furthermore, SMPTE time code has been and continues to be used to mechanically synchronize the audio recording hardware with the video playback hardware. The second process involves the composer/performer composing and performing the music through MIDI sequencers, digital audio recording hardware/software, SMPTE time code, and various synthesizers, sound modules, and virtual instruments. Through multitrack recording and overdubbing, the composer has the ability to record electronic or acoustic sounds, or a combination of the two, locked to an imported QuickTime video of the film, all in the confines of a composer’s digital workstation suite. Similar to the traditional process of recording a symphony orchestra, film images can be programed with click tracks to assist in performance synchronization. Wild tracking—recording a performance without a synchronization method—is another approach to scoring a film. Mixing the various tracks completes the postproduction process.
While the latter process of performing/recording a film score would be feasible for all involved in a film-scoring project within a school, recording live musicians is not out of the question. A general rule is to start small and then work toward using a film composing workstation as you and the students become familiar with what can be accomplished with the equipment. Exposure to composing using pencil and paper, music notation software, or graphic notation within a MIDI sequencing program is essential to understanding the best mode(s) when guiding students through the compositional process.
There are multiple resources for offering compositional training to your students. First, you may be more competent to guide a young composer through this process than you realize. There may be local/online composers who can work and collaborate with your students on a project. In addition, Music Educators Journal has some informative articles on composition and improvising approaches with young musicians and creative music strategies to guide students through the music creation process.16,17 Consider the following techniques when composing specifically for film.
Singing the Score
When people think of film music, they often imagine a big, epic theme. However, not all films need the “big theme.” Your students will determine the type of music to compose and its overall structure based on the film’s requirements. Many times, tempo is key to the basic structure and foundation of a musical cue. Just by adjusting the tempo of the audible click track, the student composer will be able to match the music’s intended pacing to the tempo of the visual. Once a tempo has been established, the composer may choose a particular instrument and musical idea to build on. If students struggle in recording an intended musical line due to insufficient keyboard/instrumental skills, they may want to record themselves singing the part in synchronization with the click track and video. Students may find more success if they use vernacular speech to record chanting, singing, or whistling during the composing process. Once a single musical line has been realized through the recording, students can transcribe it through playback and notate it in writing or even work toward replicating it back on a musical instrument. Vocalizing musical ideas allows student composers to hit all musical accent points in the picture in real time. Accent points are points of emphasis between the music and action in the film. 18 If a certain accent point doesn’t line up to the narrative event in the film, composers can simply adjust various parameters of the notation with a MIDI sequencer.
Using Temp Tracking
Temp tracking involves matching a preexisting track of recorded music to a film. In filmmaking, this temp track is used to communicate how the music should function within a scene as directed from filmmaker to the composer. It is the job of the composer to then structure the new music in accordance to various elements of the temp music. Without using preexisting music, a similar approach could be used by young film composers with the use of prerecorded loop tracks.
GarageBand includes several prerecorded loop tracks. If a composer finds a loop track that fits the vision of the film in terms of tempo, rhythm, or timbre, he or she may choose to overdub improvised musical ideas with varied instruments over a loop track. Eventually, the loop track can be muted, and the result is an interesting mix of musical figures that can then be processed and mixed further. An entire class or a small group of students could arrange different versions of a previously performed piece of music by altering various musical characteristics, such as mode, instrumentation, timbre, tempo, harmonic structure, and/or dynamics, to match a specific mood or tone.
Exploring Disciplines outside Music
Gaining access and permission to use films as a derivative work can be challenging. One must become familiar with copyright laws and fair use privileges in education before proceeding with such a project. The music teacher will most likely want to find other ways of acquiring films for students to work on. One option of legally acquiring the rights to a film is to create your own. You could also request permission from the copyright holder of a film. Acquiring these rights may be more difficult when requesting from a major film production company compared with asking a local filmmaker. You may also choose to use films that are in the public domain or created through collaborative film production platforms for amateur filmmakers such as those found at www.wreckamovie.com. The Internet Archive (http://archive.org/index.php) is an online digital library offering free universal access to books, music, and videos. Public domain films can be downloaded from this site and imported into your digital audio workstation. Public Domain Flicks (www.publicdomainflicks.com) is another resource for legally acquiring full-length feature films in the public domain. Be aware that acquiring videos from websites such as YouTube and Vimeo could likely violate copyright and should not be attempted without acquiring a license.
Studying the art of music specific to silent films could offer many rewards to students. Since many silent films were produced before 1923, there is ease in legally accessing and altering these public domain works for student creation. 19 Even more, many films produced in or after 1923 could also be in the public domain due to improper copyright registration or copyright expiration. Although almost all creative contributions to a film’s production (e.g., composing, cinematography, editing, and screenwriting) fall under a single copyright, an alteration to these films, such as a newly composed score or visual editing, can establish it as a new copyrighted work. Therefore, it is essential to inquire about copyright law and fair use privileges in education for copyrighted and public domain film works before proceeding with the creation of derivative works. 20
Once the music teacher and students are comfortable crafting music compositions in the ways described, they may choose to collaborate with other school departments to produce an original film. In collaboration with the school’s drama/communication arts department (scriptwriting, acting, and directing), video department (filming and editing), business department (accounting and marketing/promotion), art department (production and postproduction visual design), and the music department (music and overall sound design), students could create a film in a cross-curricular format. This integrated process could strengthen the breadth and depth of the music experience for a student and also be an assessment opportunity under National Association for Music Education National Music Standard 8, “Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.” 21 By guiding students through the experiences of storytelling and filmmaking in association with music, teachers could help forge new pathways for students to explore, synthesize, and assimilate these experiences and further their development as learners, filmmakers, and musicians.
Teaching through Film Music
Even if you don’t have the means of setting up a film music composing suite or have access to a general music class where you can focus on the analysis of music in film, film music can still be incorporated in the music classroom. Choral and instrumental conducting teachers will often use extramusical approaches, such as the use of metaphors, guided imagery, or kinesthetic, to instigate a musical response from student musicians during ensemble rehearsals. 22 In a recent study, choral singers perceived themselves as singing with more expression when performing while simultaneously viewing a well-matched projected film visual compared to those who sang with an unmatched film visual or without a visual component for some film visual sequences. 23 The majority of the singers indicated that they preferred the process of performing with a well-matched film visual compared to an unmatched visual or no visual stimulus at all. Therefore, these results seem to suggest that the inclusion of film visuals as a pedagogical tool during the rehearsal process could be an effective and viable option for student musicians to gain a deeper understanding of expressivity as another mode of an extramusical approach. Further investigation is needed on how to facilitate learning through the incorporation of a film visual as an extramusical pedagogical tool.
The medium of film could also function as a tool for developing students’ understanding of music concepts. A music educator interested in introducing the concept of leitmotif could have the students collaborate in groups to compose and improvise a theme for a given character to be performed in synchronization with a live-action or an animated film. With the task of continuing to develop the theme through the manipulation of tempo, mode, voicing, ornamentation, and other musical characteristics in conjunction with the film’s narrative events, students could take a contextual approach to developing an understanding of the leitmotif concept by approaching it from a standpoint of a musician, a storyteller, a filmmaker, or a character actor in a relevant and influential manner.
Last, these hands-on, contextual approaches to interacting with film music could elevate students’ understanding of their own creativity and individuality. In a recently designed music activity attainable for all levels of learning called “White Sheets,” groups of students are asked to draw a representation of sound on a white sheet of paper (e.g., a day of the week or a mood). 24 Students can work together or individually to interpret and improvise the musical sound as represented on the white sheet of paper; this is followed by additional discussions and listening activities. In a similar way, music teachers could use fragments of films in place of the white sheets to stimulate students’ exploration of communicating musical sounds through improvisation. These activities are just a few examples of how music teachers can use film as a vehicle to guide students toward a deeper understanding of musical concepts, creativity, refinement, expression, and individual independence in the classroom.
Authentic Performance Production Experience
Using projected film visuals in the rehearsal process could also inspire a new approach to how composers compose and distribute music for performing ensembles. In an effort to offer diverse concertgoing experiences for patrons of concert halls, ensembles such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra have branched out to diverse populations by including “Friday Night at the Movies,” a concert series where the symphony performs live in synchronization with the projection of a film on an overhead screen. While school ensembles have been known to occasionally project moving and still images in concerts, few opportunities seem to be available for musicians to perform film music in synchronization with a projected film, as intended by the filmmakers. This could in part be due to limited access to notated film scores.
In an effort to meet the artistic needs and desires of performers, audiences, and communities, more concerts performing live to projected film visuals should be considered when programming concerts. Similar to the collaboration between composers and lyricists during the compositional process in choral music, composers, publishers, and educators of choral and instrumental music should consider collaboration with filmmakers to create artistic opportunities and authentic production experiences. This would likely make it feasible for students and the community to appreciate the art form live in concert.
Resources
Several textbooks on the subject of film music and notated sheet music in piano reduction form have been offered in recent years. However, many more resources can be found online. Film Score Monthly (www.filmscoremonthly.com) is one of the most prominent websites related to film music appreciation on the Internet, offering the general public insight into the art of music in film, television, and videos games through their online magazine (FSM Online) while connecting individual film music enthusiasts through its online discussion board. Other website resources include Film Music Society, Film Music Magazine, Film Score Click Track, and multiple film-music critique and composer society websites. DVD bonus features and online video interviews are also fine resources to help readers gather information about the musical and artistic choices shared by filmmakers. Contacting local filmmakers and music composers in your area could be the most productive in terms of accessing available resources.
Music educators have recently been offered a resource by Cathy Blair, in association with Lorenz Publishing, titled “Music Makes the Scene.” This fifty-minute DVD includes ten short movie clips, with each one shown three times with multiple music underscores. Through reproducible worksheets and listening guides, fifth- through eighth-grade students are able to explore the effects of music in conjunction with the movie clips, thus broadening the students’ critical listening skills.
“Visible” Conclusion
Many of us are at a disadvantage because we most likely did not take a course in film music and perhaps believe we do not have the training to teach this art form. Therefore, equipped with your bullwhip, brown hat, and leather jacket (cue the “Raiders March”), begin exploring the art form yourself. Try analyzing the film music underscore in relation to a specific film, composing a piece of music for a short film, or simply researching film music resources. During this process, you can begin to develop knowledge in the field with the ability to offer your students a unique, individualized, and diverse perspective. Whether studying music in film, television, online video content, or video games, you are presenting an art form that is extremely relevant and applicable to your students and their culture. 25 In fact, many students today are developing skills in programing their own video games. With the advancement in computer graphics and full orchestral scores dedicated to video games, the genre offers an intriguing and possibly entrepreneurial opportunity for students who would otherwise not enroll in a formal music class. One could, therefore, maintain that inclusion of multimedia music can have immediate and perhaps lifelong influences on how students understand and interact with this medium.
I hope that this article lends itself to future inquiry, practical applications, perspectives, and adventures on how to infuse film, television, and video game music into the music education curriculum in an attempt to take this invisible art form and make it “visible” in our classrooms, schools, and communities.