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How important is the role of music in the film industry?

Music is a very important part of the film industry as well as the television industry
and also the manufacturing of video games. You can ask anyone if they know any
film music and they would probably say either John Williams Star Wars theme or
perhaps the famous two-note motif that from Jaws that these days is synonymous
with approaching danger. It is sometimes the case that the music from many films
are more popular and recognisable than the films themselves. This is of course
thanks to the geniuses behind the scores and soundtracks, people like Hans
Zimmer, Michael Giacchino and James Horner.
The film scoring industry nowadays is one of the most difficult to become successful
in; although there are many fantastic music schools that specialise in the subject
around the world, The Royal College of Music (London) and The USC Thornton
Music School to name a couple, graduates immediately find themselves in a long
battle to find work and finding big projects like the greats have been fortunate
enough to come across. Jerry Goldsmith, one of the great film composers of the
20th century, tutored many great musicians but he himself started out as clerk typist
at CBS. His path was a rather fortunate one as a typing test was faked by the
broadcasting company so that he was allowed to write for them. This was in the
1950s, this day and age it would be a lot more difficult to get a job writing music for
film and TV because you would need to have prior experience. The problem that a
lot of aspiring composers face is they are very young and having experience is rare,
this is why the industry is a lot about who you know rather than what you know.
It is often said that film composers do not receive enough credit for what they do.
When you're watching the Oscars or the Golden Globes you rarely see a film win
best picture and in the speech they thank the scorer. A vital part of any feature film
is hardly ever recognised among actors as a main factor. This is the same in the
pop industry a lot of the time as well. A lot of modern artists do not write their music
themselves, and instead it is written for them by either an individual or a group of
songwriters. The writers receive no credit when the artists go on talk shows or
concerts and the artists also gain a majority of the money made by the song.
One of the first people to include music in their films was Charlie Chaplin in the
1930s. However, few other film makers would imitate him. He composed his own
music and it is said that he did this because he wasn't clear at all on whos job it

was to soundtrack films. Many other film makers used music in the 1930s such
Ernest Schoedsack in King Kong, scored by Max Steiner. However this was a lot
different to Chaplins City Lights as it relied heavily on sound effects.

The Founding Fathers of Feature Film Music

The first films to use music in them were made to release in the 1930s. Film makers
such as Charlie Chaplin, Josef von Sternberg and Erich-Wolfgang Korngold were
among the fathers of the industry. At the time having music in film was a very new
concept and therefore these composers didn't quite know what sort of approach to
take when completing their work. A lot of them were quite frankly experimenting with
different styles of sounds and music to see what the limits were for this art.
After a few years though scoring film soundtracks became an art, all thanks to a
group of foreign-born musicians. In particular, two Austrian-born and classicallytrained composers. Korngolds approach to the job was an overwhelming, dramatic,
operatic style in films such as The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and The Sea
Hawk (1940).
The other Austrian-born composer was Max Steiner. His breakthrough came when
he was called upon by Ernest Schoedsack to score his upcoming film, King Kong.
This project made him a household name and many critics at the time attributed a
quarter of the films success to his music which by todays standards is a lot. Oscar
Levant (actor and musician who appeared in film and TV during the 40s and 50s)
later called the film a symphony accompanied by a movie, heaping praise on
Steiners ability to illuminate action with sound. Two years after the films roaring
success, its director John Ford requested of Steiner that he score his next film, The
Informer (1935). Ford had witnessed the importance of music in film and kept his
faith. He also asked Max Steiner to meet with the films screenwriter during the
writing phase so that he could get as good of an idea as possible of the storyline.
His preparation paid off as the film was nominated for six Academy Awards and won
four of them, including Steiners first as a composer.
Roy Webb, born in 1888 in New York City, brought a new dimension to film scoring.
During the 1920s he conducted and orchestrated on Broadway before moving to
Hollywood to become a music producer for Radio Pictures, later known as RKO
pictures. He remained employed to that company until 1955 when he became a

freelance composer. He is credited to have scored or arranged music for over 200
films. He invented a new musical language for light-hearted comedies such as
Sylvia Scarlett (1935), Bringing Up Baby (1938) and I Married A Witch (1942).
After writing for comedy films he turned to Jacques Tourneurs Cat People (1942)
and I Walked With A Zombie (1943). Unfortunately in 1961 a house fire destroyed
all of his manuscripts and concert music that had not been published and it was
after this that he decided to stopped composing altogether. In 1982 he died of a
heart attack.
In a way, one of Webbs competitors was Hans Salter. He was an Austrian organist
dubbed as the Master of Horror by fellow musicians worldwide. Like Webb, Salter
developed a new language for suspense, shock, horror and science-fiction based
films. He was musical director at the state opera in Berlin before being hired by
Universal Studios in 1937. He emigrated to America and worked there for 30 years
serving as an arranger, composer, conductor and a musical director. Salter was
nominated for two Academy Awards for Christmas Holiday and This Love of Ours.
The unfortunate case for him is that much of his output for Universal Studios was
uncredited as it was used as stock music, used time and time again on various
other minor pictures. His best work can be seen in The Son of Frankenstein (1939)
and The Wolf Man (1941).
One other main composer who set the bar for future aspiring musicians was Alfred
Newman. His career spanned over four decades and he composed the scores for
over 200 motion pictures. Although he worked alongside composers previously
mentioned such as Max Steiner, Newman was separated from his colleagues in
now way. He only wrote music for film. This has earned him the respect of being
one of the greatest musicians that has ever worked in film.
He was the oldest of a whopping ten children in his family and started learning
piano at the age of 5. His family did not have a lot of income when he was growing
up but he was able to supplement that by playing in theatres and restaurants to
bring in some money. He travelled the Vaudeville circuit and was dubbed The
Marvellous Boy Pianist by performer Grace LaRue whom he was performing with.
By the age of 20 he was in New York starting a 10 year career on Broadway,
conducting musicals by composers such as George Gershwin. In 1930 he moved to
Hollywood and studied under fellow composer Arnold Schoenberg. Newman was a
master in the grand, illustrious, orchestral style of composing. His colourful and
exuberant compositions taught a new generation how to compose for film and still

remains an inspiration to any musician aspiring to work for film or indeed TV and
video games.
In 1939 alone he wrote the music for Wuthering Heights, The Hunchback of Notre
Dame, Gunga Din and Beau Geste. The following year he started a 20 year
career with 20th Century Fox. One of the first projects that he was asked to do was
compose the fanfare theme tune that accompanies the studio logo before all of their
films. This same fanfare is still used today. In 1953 he wrote an extension of this for
CinemaScope which was recorded in 1997 by his son David (also an accomplished
film scorer) and it is this rendition that is used today. At Fox, Newman also
developed what came to be known as the Newman System, a means of
synchronising the performance and recording of a musical score with the film. The
system is still in use today. His legacy is clear to see with other peoples words:
"The legacy of Alfred Newman and his influence on the language of music for the cinema is
practically unmatched by anyone in Hollywood history. As an executive, he was hard but fair. As
a mentor to his staff he was revered. The orchestras under his baton delighted in his abilities as
a conductor. The music he himself composed, often under extreme emotional duress, is among
the most gorgeous ever written. [] Not big in physical stature, he was a giant in character, a
titan in of the world he loved and dominated. He was a true musical force, and one that cannot
in any sense be replaced. "
Nick Redman

Alfred Newman won nine Academy Awards, which remains the record for a
composer. However, a total of forty-five nominations can only take him to third on
the record list for an individual. John Williams squeezes into second place with 49
nominations, while the number one spot goes to Walt Disney who is well ahead with
59.

How does music affect a film and what purpose does it have?

The role of music in film is extremely underestimated. Although it hasn't been

around for as long as film has it is hard now to imagine what it would be like if it
wasn't there.
Music serves a greater purpose than filling in the gaps of silence in films or playing
a sad trombone sound when something unfortunate happens. Music is there, acting
as though its a running commentary. It tells a story that sometimes the picture
cannot tell on its own. For example, the picture shows a small child standing alone

in a field. Without music there to assist our primitive brains we cannot tell if that
child is an innocent human being that cant do anything bad, or whether the only
purpose of it being there is to haunt us. This is where music comes in. It tells us
more than the movie itself can and gives us a sense of knowledge and assurance.
Legendary director of the 20th century Alfred Hitchcock once said, In film, music
represents the words that cannot be spoken.
Many people believe that the music that is played underneath dialogue in a film is
just there as an under-current and isn't all that important. They seem to forget that
when silent films were all the rage nearly 100 years ago, music was the only sound
that people heard. It accompanies the characters emotions, tells the audience what
to think, what to believe, what to feel themselves. Also it is a character within itself,
people don't think that for obvious reasons (you cant see it on the screen with the
others) but it acts as a middle man between you and the story. It tells you whats
happening when you may not even know yourself.
There are many occasions within films of over the past 50 years or so when there is
no picture or real story happening in front of your eyes but there is music playing.
The role that this plays is setting the feeling and context of a scene before this is
done with visual aid. The style, tonality and rhythm of a piece of music can tell you
what mood the story is taking on and also where its headed later on in the picture.
For example, if the main theme of a film is a large, orchestrated, major-keyed piece
of music then chances are it will be a happy story. This may be a story with a sense
of adventure, love, reward or victory. Other pieces may have an opening with a
minor-keyed or often very dischorded sound to them. This would stereotypically
mean that the theme of the film is a very unhappy and negative one, but can also
be associated with a sense of uncertainty, mystery, or a story of something from
fantasy or myth. An example of this comparison is that the main theme from one of
the greatest sci-fi and adventure films Star Trek (composed by Jerry Goldsmith)
has a very bold beginning to it and the theme is in a major key, with a strong rhythm
. On the other hand the opening to Alfred Hitchcocks Vertigo, a psychological
thriller about a man who's fear of heights causes a death, is very atonal and without
any sense of rhythm or destination.
An ability that some, but not many, film composers have is perfect pitch. This ability,
sometimes known as absolute pitch, means that a person has the capability of
producing sound at a certain requested pitch without help from instruments.
Similarly, they can identify correctly the pitch at which an instrument is being played.
This ability tends to help composers a lot because to the lucky few (estimated to be
1 in every 10,000 people) that have it can associate different moods or emotions in
music with different keys. I am fortunate enough to have this ability and have done

since a very young age. It helps when writing music because some major and minor
keys have different connotations to different situations.
Famous musicians such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven
were believed to have had perfect pitch. The ability can give any composer an edge
from others, due to them already having melodies and keys in mind.
In a film, the soundtrack can tell you all you need to know about the characters and
the journey that they may take throughout it. Not just the characters themselves but
the entire film. The many themes and sections that the soundtrack may have
represent the different stages of the film and tell you at the beginning where the film
is headed. It is quite common that the composer of the music meets with the film
writers to discuss the entire synopsis of movie as a whole in order to gain a greater
knowledge of the plot. They do this so that it can be included musically within the
score. This is one of the main things that people generally don't understand about
the effect and purpose of music within the film.

Looking at a specific example

When choosing a specific example to look at it is important that the film is well
known and well scored. I have decided to look at the soundtrack to the 1999 Disney
classic Tarzan.
The Oscar-Winning soundtrack to this was written and performed (vocals and
percussion) by former member of Genesis Phil Collins. One of the reasons that this
selection of music is good to analyse is because the vast diversity of the songs truly
captivates the different stories that occur within the movie.
The films first song Two Worlds is a prime example of how the mood can change
suddenly in the film. The piece starts off with a percussive introduction that is
reminiscent of South American or African music. This immediately sets the tone of
the movie as an action-packed film with a sense of adventure and a journey that a
character/characters may take. It also has a feeling of suspense due to the
increasing volume of the drums and quick tempo in which they are played. An
orchestra comes in with a dramatic slow moving melody and harmony which
contrasts the percussion. This already is a way of showing the title Two Worlds has
a meaning throughout both the film and the music. The string section of the
orchestra plays a trill throughout the entire section before the singing comes in
which brings a negative mood to the song that originally starts with a positive beat.
This is shortly balanced out as Phil Collins comes in with his first lyric. The tone of
the piece remains in major for the most part apart from an occasional change to a
minor key. But this is usual from a movie theme as it captures the changes in
sentiment that occur during the movie. The lyric that Collins sings is Put your faith
in what you most believe. Two worlds, one family.. This is significant as it is only the
first twelve words of the entire film and he has essentially summed up the end of the
story. In only four words he wraps up the idea that there are two species that come
from completely different lifestyles living in the film as one family. The majority of
this song sums up the happy and positive side of the film, however there is a twenty
second bridge between the two lighter sections that sums up the negative side of it
too. It shortly follows the lyric Dangers no stranger here. This short but effective
bit includes percussive solos, as well as very loud and chromatic melodies by the

horns and string section. These parts illustrate how the film is not always a jolly
family film and sometimes can get bad and nasty for the protagonists. The lyrics
that Phil Collins sings throughout the piece describe the feelings and stories in the
film; lyrics like A simple life, they live in peace. and No words can heal a broken
heart. This is only first song on the whole soundtrack and it sums up what the
whole film is about which is what a theme should do

Come stop your crying

It will be alright
Just take my hand
Hold it tight
I will protect you
From all around you
I will be here

The next song is a lullaby entitled Youll Be In My Heart that is repeated at many
stages throughout the film but the first use is when Kala (Tarzans adoptive Ape
mother) is trying to sooth Tarzan when she finds him in a cabin as a baby shortly
after his parents were mauled to death by a leopard. The lyrics that Kala sings are a
big indication of the love that she shows towards Tarzan.
This shows that she is a very affectionate person and that even though she knows
that this baby is clearly of a different species, she will show him family and love. In
terms of instruments, this song contains no percussion besides tuned percussion
(xylophone and vibraphone) and other than that it only has woodwind and stringed
instruments such as violins and clarinets.
Son of Man is a very different song to all the others on this films soundtrack. This
song takes on a more pop-like style. It contains more modern instruments such as a
common drum kit and guitars. It plays over a piece of the film in which it races
through Tarzans childhood and overlooks his journey towards becoming an adult.
The pop-like style gives it certainly a happy and positive feeling and this is
appropriate in the context. Musically, the song is fitting to the part of the film as it
shows happy moments and more significantly important moments of early
adulthood and teenage years. A very noticeable key change in the middle

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represents his change from being a boy to being a man. As you watch the film you
think nothing of this but in actual fact this is a very clever feature used by Phil
Collins and Mark Mancina because it captures a change that happens over several
years within a few seconds.
The lyrics within it almost make it seem like Phil Collins is singing to Tarzan as if he
was his father, or a significant male figure to him. Each of the verses represent a
different stage of life. The first talks about how things will come to you in time
which gives the impression of a dad talking to his son when he is in his early teens.
And a journey that you're making could be the road to manhood and being an
adult, where at this age the road begins.
The next verse talks about how it is a journey that he must take alone. The lyrics
talk about how although there is no one there to guide you, you will have faith and
understanding and this will help on that all important road. Again it feels like Tarzan
is getting a life lesson.
The final verse seems like it takes place during early adulthood/late childhood as
the lyrics talk about how the journey is nearly ending and that a life being a grown
up will soon be Tarzans. In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.
is a very significant sentence as it shows that although he has learned a lot over the
last few years, he needs to use the knowledge that he has gained and use it to
teach other younger members of his society to live properly. Furthermore, the
experience he would gain from teaching younger people (or apes in this case) will
improve his ability as a man and his basic attributes like respect and care will
improve and increase once he understands what being an older member of society
entails. It also talks about how he would have thought about many things that would
happen once he became an adult. The lyrics show that the the visions that he has
seen will soon be his to claim.
The next big number in the film is quite a different song to the others as it has no
message for the film itself as a whole, and it doesn't describe or pre-describe what
a character goes through or will have to go through. It is called Trashin the Camp
and it takes place when a group of curious apes, along with their elephant friend,
come across the British explorers base camp. It is filled with all their notes,
sleeping facilities and precious items. The animals discover that they get a kick out
of destroying human items and also start to make basic rhythms before breaking out
into a full song. A speaker from a gramophone gets stuck up the elephant trunk and
shortly after he realises that he can make a trumpet sound by blowing into it. All the
percussion, and there is an awful lot of it, was recorded by Phil Collins. This song
doesn't focus on any of the main characters in the film and instead includes the two

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main side characters in the animal kingdom - Terk and Tantor, a tomboy gorilla and
an elephant respectively. Without the music this scene would simply look like a
group of wild animals trashing a group of scientists base. However this is far from
the case, there is a lot more to it than that. To a pitch perfect ear the key of F major
that the piece uses is a very good one as it has connotations of happy music. It
later shifts up a semitone to F sharp major which gives it an even more happy
feeling and almost an exotic sense. This memorable number is showing how much
fun the animals are having while making an absolute mess of things. There are no
actual words that they are singing, instead they are using what are called nonsense
lyrics. One of lines is Shooby doop dobby dop dobby doop dobby dah dah doo
dap which doesn't exactly make your heart melt from romance. One way of thinking
of it is that they are so happy that they don't even speak real words. After a short
while in the song, pre-recorded percussion, choir and brass are added for effect.
The song really highlights the pure joy that the animals have and expresses their
happiness on a level that cant be done via the film on its own.
The last song that is significant in the film is Strangers Like Me. This song takes
place when the film is showing a montage of clips of Tarzan and the
explorers/scientists. They finally show him that he is not an ape and that he is in
fact a human after all. Jane starts to teach him how to speak English and also how
to read the language, while the others teach him other aspects of human life. In
return he helps Jane explore the land in which he lives in, like taking her up a tree
and showing her where all the exotic birds are so that she can draw them. The
rhythm in this song is fairly similar to other songs. The drumming and the drums
that they use are both similar to the rest of the film. Although this may seem
repetitive, it means that the film has an underlying theme and pattern to it that
makes it distinct. It means that when you think of Tarzan and particularly the music
from the film, chances are you will remember the classic syncopated drum ostinato
that most of the film uses. The chords and the melody of the piece show the
mystery of this part of the adventure as some of the chord progressions are unusual
but also fit quite nicely with the mood of the piece and that part of the film. There is
a break in the singing while there is dialogue in which the scientists ask Tarzan if he
can take them to the Gorillas. When he refuses the song continues and it shows
Clayton trying to convince him.
There is a key change after this part which highlights the change of mood after the
dialogue; the piece had gone from happiness and a great sense of a new life
beginning to start for Tarzan, to him being almost upset at the fact that he cant
show them his family. The piece ends when Tarzan is looking at a slideshow of

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photos from the humans all around the world, including sumo wrestling, the Eiffel
Tower, zoos, William Shakespeare. The very end is him looking at a picture of a
man going down on one knee and giving a bouquet of flowers to a lady, which is
then followed by a shot of Tarzan looking at a sleeping Jane. The suspended chord,
along with the expression on his face, suggested that there was a story beginning
from this shot, a possible love story in the making between these two?
The lyrics are poignant in this song as they act as Tarzans inner feelings,
something that a lot of movie songs do, even without lyrics. They show his
excitement of learning a new culture and that there is something much bigger out
there waiting for him to see it. Also the line somethings familiar about these
strangers like me highlights the fact that even though he knows that the people are
strangers, he recognises that they are familiar to him. This is because he realises
that physically they are the same. The repetition of the phrase I wanna know and
show me shows that he is extremely curious to learn about human life after
knowing nothing different than a jungle for the past couple of decades. The
repetition of the same lyrics and also the same melodies reiterates his longing for
the knowledge of his own species.

What would we do without music in films?

Nowadays it would be hard to imagine a world in which movies were produced

without a soundtrack to them. But the truth is that in the early-mid twentieth century
a lot of films were made only with occasional songs in them, if that. I believe that
without a near constant, either underlying or not, supply of music to a film then the

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film has about half as much of an impact on me. The music isn't just a gap filler or
something to keep its audience happy, it is the character that no one notices.
There are a lot of films, particularly around the 1950s and the 1960s that don't rely
on music as much as they rely on sound effects. Although sometimes these can be
sufficient, it is nothing in comparison to what a full score would do. Take King Kong
for an example. In the 1933 version scored by Max Steiner, it relied heavily on
sound effects although a fantastic score was used underneath it. This might have
been the case since back in 1933 they didn't have the technology nor the know how
to motion capture on someone. On the other hand, the 2005 production was leaps
and bounds ahead of the previous not only because of the visual quality (although
credit has to be given to the wonderful Andy Serkis AKA The Master of Motion
Capture) but because the score was more illustrious and effective in the story of the
film. James Newton Howard did have a lot more resources to use when scoring the
film and in some respects that may make it easier for him but all credit has to be
given for his knowledge of composition and dramatic music to begin with.
I believe that the music-in-film business was at its strongest from the 1970s to the
end of the twentieth century but even in this day and age there are fantastic
composers who keep coming up with the goods. However most of the well known
scores are from films that came out last century. I asked the question What is your
favourite movie theme? to 58 people and the answers didn't surprise me much.
16
12
8
4
0
Star Wars

Pirates of the Caribbean

Harry Potter

Star Trek

Lord of The Rings

Indiana Jones

Jaws

As you can see from the table, three out of the four most popular film scores
according to the general public, who were all over the age of 16, were made
between 1977 and 1981. This goes to show that even if film music becomes less
common, people will still remember it fondly. There is no doubt that it will still be
around in 50 years because it is now a vital part of a films success and it is
possible that by that time these results may not be too different. The industry itself
is becoming extremely difficult to break through into but if you do, you are
guaranteed to become very famous and also very successful.

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