MMus1: Special – Cinematic Language & The Composer

29 September 29, 2022

Form / Structure is placing musical material at a specific moment in time. It is an

amalgamation of three elements:
- Ideas or themes
- Tonal material
- Stylistic principles

Stylistic principles are split in two categories:

- General aesthetic: balance, contrast, variety
- Specifically musical: repetition or variation

These principles are different for film music, mostly due to the need of silence in film. The
parameters are used in a different manner. The principles are (almost) always true for
autonomous composition, in film music a question arises: are these principles true?

Micro level:
Musical structure and musical content per cue. At micro level, the form and content of a cue
is determined by the scene.

Macro level:
The musical structure of the entire film. The music follows the structure of the film and the
composer creates the connections. This level connects the entire film into a coherent score.

Micro level: what determines the structure and musical content of a given scene?

Looking at a given scene, a composer can ask himself a series of questions:

- What options do you have as a composer to create music for this scene?
o No music or dietetic music
o Music to initiate an atmosphere (tension or no tension)
- What considerations play a main role in this?
o No music/dietetic music: based on what is happening for the characters or
what is happening on screen.
o Atmosphere: set the tone for the audience or exaggerating contrast.
- How do you find out which is the best choice?
o What do you want the viewers to experience?
o What should the viewers feel?

The question ‘what do you want the viewers to experience?’ determines the emotional
impact of the scene. It also determines the structure of the music.

It is important to structure the emotions shown in a scene. Note every emotion in the scene
to help make a choice which emotion to follow. Not every emotion has to be reflected in the
music composed for a scene. A composer might make a choice to follow the emotion of the
main character. An important question to ask yourself is ‘With whom does the viewer
sympathize the most?’, which is based on the question ‘What does the viewer know?’.