MUSIC AS A SOURCE OF EMOTION IN FILM

MUZIKA KAO IZVOR EMOCIJA NA FILMU

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 CONTENT

ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………….………………. 3
INTRODUCTION...………………………………………………………………………… . 4
HOW IT BEGAN.………………………………………………………………….……….. . 5
CREATORS OF OUR EMOTIONS………………………………………….…………….. . 7
Ennio Morricone……………………………………………………………………………….………. 7
Vangelis…………………………………………………………………………………………….….... 8

MAGNIFICENT MOMENTS…………………………………………………………….…. 9
Theme, from Schindler's List……………………………………………………………………..….... 9
My heart will go on, from Titanic………………………………………………………………….… 9
See you again, from Fast and Furious 7……………….…………………………………………. 10
Theme, from Chariots of Fire…………………………………….………………………………… 10
When She Loved Me, from Toy Story 2…………………………………….……………………… 11
Adagio for Strings, from Platoon………………………………………………….………………. 11
CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………...…………………. 12
LITERATURE…………………………………………………...……………………………13

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 ABSTRACT

Music is one of the strongest sources of emotion in film. While we experience film with our
eyes, we do it with our ears too. Music plays a very important role in film. It helps the film
convey emotions and makes us more connected to it. The person responsible for our movie
experience is a composer. Composers use their stylistic palette to illustrate the time period and
location in which the film is set. When used properly, music in a film can set the mood,
highlight certain events in a story, act as a cue or theme for a recurring character or remind the
audience of a certain era. Even in the early 1900s, films contained music and today there’s
quite an amount of songs made especially for the use in the film industry. The combination of
audio and video makes a real explosion of emotions. Without any doubt, it can be said that
without music, the memorable and touching scenes, that either break our hearts or make us
feel happy, wouldn’t exist.

Keywords: music, emotion, film, composer

ABSTRAKT

Muzika je jedan od najvećih izvora emocije u filmovima. Dok film proživljavamo našim
očima, to radimo i našim ušima. Muzika igra veoma važnu ulogu u filmu. To pomaže filmu
da prenese emocije i poveže nas sa istim. Krivac za naš način doživljavanja filma je
kompozitor. Kompozitori koriste svoje stilske palete da ilustruju vremenski period i lokaciju u
kojoj se film nalazi. Kada se koristi pravilno, muzika u filmu može da nam promeni
raspoloženje, da istakne pojedine događaje u priči, da bude kao tema lika ili podseti publiku
na određeno vreme. Čak i u ranim 1900-tim filmovi su sadržali muziku i danas postoji mnogo
pesama napravljenih za filmsku industriju. Film i muzika zajedno čine pravu eksploziju
emocija. Bez sumnje, može se reći da bez muzike ne bi postojale nezaboravne i dirljive scene,
koje ili slome naša srca ili nas učine srećnijim nego ikada.

Ključne reči: muzika, emocija, film, kompozitor

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 INTRODUCTION

Could you imagine your favorite, epic movie without an enthusiastic musical score? I doubt
it would be nearly as exciting and inspiring without the music. Have you ever turned down
the volume on your television while watching a scary movie? If you have, then you notice
that the fear factor is almost completely excluded. 

Merging music and film can not only make the final scene more interesting, but it can also
give the audience the ability to connect emotionally to their favorite characters and the
situtaion at hand, as well as assist the director to convey his massage.

For example, a scene of a happy couple exiting the church after having just been married
would probably include a love song to match what the characters were feeling at that moment.
Meanwhile, our favorite horror movies would not be as scary without the music track in the
background. In order to create the same effect, they would have to invest more into their
special effects and story, because the „jump scare“ effect would not be as scary as it is with
the music playing.

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 HOW IT BEGAN

Music in films began back in the silent film era. Early on, the music featured in these films
was not recorded with the film. These films were usually projected on to a big screen in front
of a large audience, where the music was used to quiet down out the noise of the projector and
the talkative audience.

Even long after the projector and the audience were silenced, music remained. Interestingly
enough, many scholars believe that there is psychological background to the reason why the
improvised music has been added to silent films. They believe that watching actors in black
and white speak without any sound, would make us feel, on some basic level, insensible or
even dead.

Martin Marks, a musicologist and silent film musician, finds that original scores existed as
early as the 1890s. In silent films such as “City Lights” that brought audience closer to the
reality of the film. Chaplin was keen to add sound effects such as bells, horns and other noises
into the final soundtrack, that added a comedic and realistic aspect to the film. One of the best
and funniest scenes in the movie is when Chaplin accidentally swallows a whistle during a
party and every time he breathes, he whistles. Although, no other sound could be heard in the
scene, it was obvious that the whistle was a key element for the movie plot, because the
whistling sound was used to interrupt the gentleman trying to sing. The gentleman’s
frustration and crowd’s delight was visible, even without any other sounds being implemented
into the movie.

With the arrival of talking pictures, music once again came up to the top of elements in the
music industry. Music, with its melody, and harmony fleshes out those images, giving them
credibility. Original scores were soon created, starting with Max Steiner writing the first
original score for “King Kong” in 1933. This encouraged the composers and filmmakers to
begin, experimenting more and developing music that would go along with the plot and
characters. They composed the right music, which concluded with the audience feeling the
emotions that the director wanted them to feel. To do that job, the composer needs to
understand the audience, as well as to ensure not to compromise the plot and quality of the

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film. It is important for a director to think about the possible music sounds that can attribute to
the scene, when filming the same.

Describing the crucial effect of music in film, composer Bernard Herrmann once said, “I
feel that music on the screen can seek out and intensify the inner thoughts of the characters. It
can invest a scene with terror, grandeur, gaiety or misery. It can propel narrative swiftly
forward or slow it down. It often lifts mere dialogue into the realm of poetry. Finally, it is the
communicating link between the screen and the audience, reaching out and enveloping all
into one single experience.”1

The important characteristics of film music are providing a narrative of the scenes,
communicating elements of the film setting and emphasizing the psychological states of the
characters, as well as delivering a collective emotional tone or mood to the viewer. Music that
sounds like what is not expected in a particular scene will create a feeling that something is
not right and will alert the senses of the audience. The emotion of the music clearly affects
how viewers see the character. When happy, sad, or fearful music plays before the actor even
appears on screen, viewers are significantly more likely to say the actor is intending to portray
an emotion related to happiness, sadness, or fear. Music can particularly be useful in creating
suspense, for instance if a character is running towards a corner, not knowing what to expect
on the other side, the music can speed up, helping create a tense mood amongst the audience.
Also, the right music can help attach the right scenes together. If the film is changing from a
rather hard scene to a softer one, playing the perfect music can help smooth this transition.

Music has an evolving relationship with the film industry. Because of that, the importance
of music in the film industry is one that should never, ever be underestimated. The use of
music in film has created a great sense of emotional belonging between viewers and films as
it manipulates the audience’s emotions. A piece of music composed especially for a film plays
a major role in having a deeper effect in manipulating emotions.

1
https://theheartoffilms.wordpress.com/the-heart-of-film/
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 CREATORS OF OUR EMOTIONS

A film composer, Joel Douek once said: “In a film, the dialogue and action tell us what the
characters are thinking and doing, but the music can tell us what they are feeling.”2 If the
composer puts action music in a thrilling scene, it would be wrong. The audience would not
“feel” the scene. That is why there must be an emotion linked to the melody, so that the music
can reach audience’s hearts. Great film composers do not just provide simple musical escort
for the scenes and characters on screen, but also provoke emotions in the audience.

Ennio Morricone

One of the most famous film composers of the 20th century was Ennio Morricone. He
received an honorary Oscar for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of
film music. His music for the film creates a mood and a real, impressive and unforgettable
story.

According to him, the role of music is to convey what the picture can not; if done right the
music then takes on the film’s meaning. His choice of music and sounds were carefully
arranged. Studying the film itself supplied him to create music that gave an emphasize on the
emotion displayed in the scene. “I have to see a definitive cut of the film before I even start
thinking about the music, let alone writing it. After seeing the movie, I tell the director what
my feelings are and what I would like to do. He accepts what I say or discusses it or destroys
it. Eventually we have to find a compromise.”3

As a film composer, Morricone has built his reputation with Sergio Leone’s film trilogy: “A
Fistful of Dollars” (1964), “For a Few Dollars More” (1965) and “The Good, the Bad and
the Ugly” (1966). With the sound muted in the film “A Fistful of Dollars” then you’d be
missing out the glorious soundtrack, which conveys everything the scarce dialogue couldn’t.
In “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” the sound of the coyote became the main theme of the
2
https://www.robin-hoffmann.com/tutorials/what-is-the-function-of-film-music/
3
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2001/feb/23/culture.features1
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movie. With his music in spaghetti westerns, he managed to conveying the spirit of a wild
west to the audience and to presented the main characters of the movie.
“Cinema Paradiso” (1988) is a film that puts together sentimentality with comedy and
nostalgia, while exploring issues of youth and coming of age combined with reflections about
the past. This has been shown by the main character that reaches adulthood but always recalls
memories about his childhood. Within the main theme, Morricone developed a simple
nostalgic melody played on a solo piano, which is then connected by the strings, creating a
cinematic nostalgia that makes any audience cry. This melody shows the romantic, thoughtful
side of Morricone’s film music, which found its expression in this theme.  

Vangelis

Vangelis is a music composer and Academy Award winner for the best original score in the
film “Chariots of fire”. He says: "…. but if music is used, it's better for it to touch the soul
and create emotions that the rest of the film cannot do. Music should continue emotions
where words finish."4

The soundtrack to the touching film “Antarctica”, helps us to experience this cold part of
planet Earth and Antarctica’s wildlife. The theme from “Antarctica” portrays desolation, but
also a bright landscape not lacking in beauty. “Antarctica Echoes” has minimal melody which
shows the vastness of the landscape. “Song of White” is colder, while” The Other Side of
Antarctica” has a sinister sound.

In the “Blade Runner”, a science fiction film, the ambient sounds of the city and the rising
aero car melt into the underscore, distant voices and swooshing traffic noises become part of
the music and Vangelis created the mood of a futuristic setting.

4
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2012/jul/01/vangelis-chariots-olympic-interview
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 MAGNIFISENT MOMENTS

Music and film go together like violin and its bow. Emotion in a drama film is inspired by a
touching musical background, so when a disturbing situation fills the real musical
accompaniment, it will cause a bunch of tears. Songs and soundtrack moments can transform
sad situations into tragedies or happy events with significance, until they become
overwhelming. This can be because a perfectly and familiar tune has arrived at precisely the
right moment.

Theme, from Schindler's List

Sometimes you don't need the context of a story to get the full picture from a film
soundtrack. John Williams' theme from “Schindler's List” is all about the big tragedy and its
matter - the Holocaust - in its melody. It's a tune that, with its sensitive violin, sound invokes
the grand melancholy of Eastern European folk music and Jewish traditional music too, as if
this is the only conceivable way of expressing a crushing hurt. Listening to this theme, an
audience has a chance to inhale and breathe slowly.

My Heart Will Go On, from Titanic

“Titanic” is the story of two people from “different worlds” who meet and fall in love even
when they know it’s not right, but then get separated by a historical event. Their story has
everything to do with boats and icebergs, and their theme song is about love as a ghostly
presence that endures when all else withers.

Céline Dion sings the song first as a lament, and then more robustly, as a reassurance that
those feelings of loss and hurt are somehow reciprocated. As such, all the emotions stirred up
by the story in the movie, which has been heightened by the dramatic events around it, are put
into a perfect song, ready to be relived at a moment's notice.

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See You Again, from Furious 7

“See You Again” is a song with consequences that exist as strongly inside and outside of the
reality of the film. “See You Again” was commissioned specifically as a tribute song to the
late Paul Walker, star of the “Fast and Furious” series, who died in a car accident in 2013,
while “Fast and Furious 7” was in production. The song captures grief of his loss,
with Charlie Puth’s chorus channeling his feelings about a friend who had also been killed in
a motoring accident. The emotions of his, together with Wiz Khalifa's philosophical verses on
family and loss, not only fit the themes in the film – they’re crucial characters Brian O'Conner
and Dominic Toretto drive off in different directions, having said their last goodbyes. You
wouldn't need to know any of this to understand that this is a song trying to make sense of a
sudden and devastating loss.

Theme, from Chariots of Fire

“Chariots of Fire” is the true story of two British runners who brought glory to their
country in the Olympic Games of 1924, in Paris. It’s a film that goes into the human spirit. It
not only presents us the story of two men and their passion running. It reaches to the need to
ask these questions: why we exist and what is the point of our lives?

Vangelis created the grandiose theme from the Chariots of fire. He wanted to portray a
strong message: “Life is a race”.

When She Loved Me, from Toy Story 2

Randy Newman composer of the following movies “Toy Story”, “Monsters Inc.” and “A
Bug's Life”, has managed to tell the most heartbreaking story in the world with just a couple
of short verses in his song “When She Loved Me”: girl meets toy, girl loves toy, girl grows up,
toy is left out for recycling. He gets Sarah McLachlan in to sing the eternal ache of being
abandoned.

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 It is keen to represent the pain of the “accidental” loss that reached to the very heart of a
non-living toy. Randy wanted to simulate the existence of feelings even in the things that
would never be able to feel such.

Adagio for Strings, from Platoon

Some music has a vivid effect on the imagination it can be used to add the devastating effect
in films. Samuel Barber's 1936 “Adagio for Strings” has that effect, being a stark moment of
frozen time - pitched somewhere between an elegy and a lengthy musical gasp of horror - that
has been used at climactic moments in both, “The Elephant Man“ and “Platoon”.

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 CONCLUSION

In a film, the dialogue and action tell us what the characters are thinking and doing, but the
music can tell us what they are feeling. Without music it would be much more difficult to
follow the emotional ups and downs of a film.

The importance of music in film is highly regarded for manipulating the viewer’s emotions
and helping them immerse into the story. Music is one of the prime elements in film. Without it
a film would feel dull and unexciting. There are three elements in a film: one is acting, the
second one is the picture and the third one is music. It is a holy trinity; if incomplete, there
would be a lack of sensation and excitement. Both acting and picture, can stand independently
from one another, but music is the one that makes the film memorable.

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 LITERATURE

[1.] James Wierzbicki, FILM MUSIC A HISTORY, Routledge, New York, 2008

[2.] William H. Rosar, FILM MUSIC -WHAT’S IN A NAME? THE JOURNAL OF FILM
MUSIC, The International Film Music Society, Inc, Los Angeles, 2002

https://theheartoffilms.wordpress.com/the-heart-of-film/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ennio_Morricone

https://www.robin-hoffmann.com/tutorials/what-is-the-function-of-film-music/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vangelis

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2001/feb/23/culture.features1

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2012/jul/01/vangelis-chariots-olympic-interview

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Evolution-of-Music-in-Film-and-its-Impact-on-
By-Fischoff/9d5797155a188a7380d62b951646a6b6979523fb

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