Week 3: History II

This Week

Today:
1. catch up from last week
2. Quiz
3. History II: 1950-present
1935-1950

The Golden Age

of Cinema
Golden Age (1935-1950)

● escapism?
● hope /
reassurance
● morale /
national
pride
● newsreels
Richard Wagner
Bayreuth Festhaus
● acoustics
● comfort
● large stage & workshop
● lowered orchestra pit
Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
 Richard Wagner
How to identify Wagner...
● Swelling, heaving, stormy emotional
dynamics
● Chromaticism (melodies and
harmonies move in tiny steps
● Leitmotif (short themes attached to
characters in the story)
● Cinematic to our ears
● sometimes floats along with no real
pulse (new)
● Tempos (speeds), moods, tonalities
shifting constantly
 Richard Wagner
How to identify Wagner...
● Swelling, heaving, stormy emotional
dynamics
● Chromaticism (melodies and
harmonies move in tiny steps
● Leitmotif (short themes attached to
characters in the story)
● Cinematic to our ears
● sometimes floats along with no real
pulse (new)
● Tempos (speeds), moods, tonalities
shifting constantly
Leitmotif vs. Themes

“leading motif”, smallest possible bit of a

Theme that can be used to refer to something
in the story
classical to film...

Wagner
was admired and conducted
by
Gustav Mahler,
who was a teacher of
Korngold
 Erich Wolfgang Korngold

The Sea Hawk

(1940)

something amazing happens at :40!

King Kong (1933)
dir. Cooper & Schoedsack
(SHOW-de-shack)

score by Max Steiner

King Kong (1933)
dir. Cooper & Schoedsack
(SHOW-de-shack)

score by Max Steiner

Listen to the
first few notes:
Chromaticism
King Kong (1933)
dir. Cooper & Schoedsack
score by Max Steiner

Listen to the
first few notes..
listen for them
in other scenes.
The Informer Steiner:
(1935) "...every character should have a theme. ... a blind
dir. John Ford man could have sat in a theater and known when
score by Max Steiner [the main character] was on the screen. Music aids
audiences in keeping characters straight in their
score conferred between director
●
and composer before shooting
minds."
began
● not the first to compose themes for characters but
● Psychological effects in camera significant because of the deliberate use of themes and
work and the score leitmotifs.
● set the bar for having music help the audience identify
characters and ideas by simply listening.
● cliché
● studios learned how important a score can be when
used this way
● “Mickey mousing”
● sounds a little old fashioned to us but it was pretty
powerful and new at the time
The Informer ● cliché -
(1935)
a technique or idea that used to be clever
dir. John Ford
or interesting, but has been overused.
score by Max Steiner

● score conferred between director Like “Mickey mousing” -

and composer before shooting
began
● Psychological effects in camera using a musical gesture for every action
work and the score seen on-screen

● cliché

● “Mickey mousing”
The Informer ● cliché -
(1935)
a technique or idea that used to be clever
dir. John Ford
or interesting, but has been overused.
score by Max Steiner

● score conferred between director Like “Mickey mousing” -

and composer before shooting
began
● Psychological effects in camera using a musical gesture for every action
work and the score seen on-screen

● cliché

● “Mickey mousing”
Max Steiner
● Gone with the Wind (1939)
Max Steiner
● Gone with the Wind (1939)
Max Steiner
● Gone with the Wind (1939)
● Casablanca (1942)
Max Steiner
● Gone with the Wind (1939)
● Casablanca (1942)
Functionalism in
the 1940s
● American film became a
narrative medium
● what the characters said
and did was shown
on-screen
● what happened
psychologically, internally,
was for music alone to
communicate
Functionalism

● Watch these clips

● How much of the emotion
of the scene is being
communicated with camera
movement?
● rhythm of cuts?
● movement of actors in
frame?
● music?
Functionalism

● Watch these clips

● camera is not helping much
● music is providing
emotional clues
● contrast with how camera
movement and cuts share in
the emotional storytelling
with the music
Bernard
Herrmann
director
Orson Welles
● in 1938, he produced and
narrated a radio drama of
H.G. Wells’ sci-fi novel “War
of the Worlds”
● people actually thought the
Earth was under attack
Citizen Kane (1941)
dir. by Orson Welles
score by Bernard Herrmann

● might be the “greatest film

of all time”
after this class, you can
take Quiz #1
Bernard Herrmann
and
Alfred Hitchcock

● Vertigo (1958)
Bernard Herrmann
and
Alfred Hitchcock

● Vertigo (1958)
● North by Northwest (1959)
● Psycho (1960)
Pop songs in films
● The Public Enemy (1931)
○ included 7 popular songs in the
soundtrack
○ tunes played against violence
● The Blackboard Jungle (1955)
○ made Bill Haley’s “Rock Around the
Clock” instantly famous
○ moviegoers danced in theatres
Ennio Morricone
trumpeter, composer (1928-2020)

his strengths:

● enormous depth of expression

● effective use of repetition and
rhythm
● unusual sounds and instruments
● interesting and unorthodox
orchestrations
● one of the greatest composers
of MELODY of our time
Sergio Leone
film director (1929-1989)

re-imagined Westerns as
more dirty, lonesome, and
dangerous

the “spaghetti western”

Ennio Morricone
Other notable examples
● Saturday Night Fever (1977)
○ lots of disco songs (mostly the Bee Gees)
60s and 70s

a lot of scores
were influenced by
rock & jazz
 John Williams

● scored 8 of the top 25

highest grossing films
of all time
● 25 Grammys, 52
nominations
● 91 years old now (2023)
 John Williams

● scored 8 of the top 25

highest grossing films
of all time
● 25 Grammys, 52
nominations
● 91 years old now (2023)
 John Williams

● Spielberg’s Jaws (shark

theme),
● Close Encounters
● E.T.
● Jurassic Park
● Schindler’s List
● Lincoln

Spielberg recommended
Williams to George Lucas
the modern era

Hans Zimmer

made electronic music sound like

acoustic orchestral music

Driving Miss Daisy (1989)

100% electronic music!
the modern era

Hans Zimmer

made electronic music sound like

acoustic orchestral music

How would this be useful in movies?

● cheaper
● quicker
● more easily
adaptable/changeable
● fewer people to pay
the modern era

Hans Zimmer

● now one of the most prolific

composers in the industry
○ Zimmer’s Awards
the modern era

Hans Zimmer

discovered that the sounds that work

best made by a computer are:

● percussion (BIG percussion)

● synthesized pads
● screechy up-sweeps
● short, sharp strings

notice how much these 4 things

DOMINATE modern scores
that screechy sweep

James Horner (Avatar, Titanic,

Amazing Spider-Man)

Aliens (1986)
Thank you!
Sound Production & Editing
Music