day two, early sound films to 1933

Rebecca, 1940, Dir. Alfred Hitchcock

     Upon analyzing the soundtrack for the 1940s film Rebecca, a viewer should recognize the films’ use of foreshadowing and character development by its adaptation to chromatic, impressionistic melodies. Scored by Franz Waxman, one of the more prominent leitmotifs of the film belongs to the menacing housekeeper of Manderlay, Mrs. Danvers. A parallelism is present between the audio and visual representation of Mrs. Danvers as a result to, “The film version of the Danvers theme [a chromatic segment of a tetrachordal frame] … features the same pitches, respelled to D-sharp, E, E-sharp, and G-sharp … Waxman’s sketches emphasize the textural qualities of Mrs. Danvers theme over the melodic. (Neumeyer, pg. 61) What this signifies is that there is a greater emphasis on the way Mrs. Danvers’ leitmotif is performed, as opposed to the categorical features of the melody itself. Early on, a viewer experiences the eeriness behind Mrs. Danvers not only by her stoic and short interactions with the recent Mrs. de Winters, but with the accompaniment of her leitmotif seeping into a majority of the scenes she is present. Her leitmotif reappears throughout the film, primarily in the presence of the recent Mrs. de Winters, as it will inevitably reveal the madness and obsession developed within Mrs. Danvers from the discovery of the late Mrs. de Winters death a year previous. This lick of music suggests to the audience that not only is there a reason for the characters hostility towards the recent Mrs. de Winters, as her intent for ridiculing and despising her is exposed on the balcony of the west corridor during a party, but it subtlety indicates the trope of a housekeeper that is seen throughout cinema—bitter towards the lead woman of the film and remaining silent to prevent exploitation of their future schemes.

one, Every Character Should Have a Theme by Kathryn Kalinak

• "Every character would have a theme. In the Informer we used a theme to identify Victor McLaglen. A blind man could have sat in a theater and known when Gypo was on the screen." (Steiner, pg. 113)

• "'I never write from a script. I run a mile everytime I see one.'" (Steiner, pg. 114)

• "Steiner's involvement in the film before and as it was being shot provided him the opportunity to reverse the usual practice of postsynchronizing the score to edited footage. Steiner composed music for several scenes before they were filmed, and Ford actually shot them in synchronization to it." (Kalinak, pg. 115)

• "Mickey Mousing is a structural device which authorizes nondiegetic music. Its perfect synchronicity with narrative action masks its presence so that the music can create certain effects on a semiconscious level without disrupting narrative credibility on a conscious level. Mickey Mousing can also function thematically ... for instance, the direct synchronization between Gypo's footsetps and the distinctive rhythm in his leitmotif dictates his singular walk ... Finally, Mickey Mousing can idnicate extradiegetic meaning. In a film as heavily laden with purpose as The Informer, Mickey Mousing is put in service to the symbolic level of the narrative ... one particularly pointed example occurs in the scene where Gypo tears down Frankie's wanted poster. Its crumpled remains dog him (it stops when he does), finally attaching to his leg before he realizes its presence and discards it. Music's mimetic capacity is here employed to simulate the wind which propels the paper along the streen in defiance of the laws of nature." (Kalinak, pg. 116)

• Pedal point, a sustained note (Kalinak, pg. 117)

• "The film depends upon these standard ballads [with lyrics] to evoke a mythic representation of Ireland which it has neither the budget nor the time to create visually." (Kalinak, pg. 118)"

• "Throughout these first few scenes, Gypo's centrality has been reinforced by his position in teh narrative, the mise-en-scene, and the editing, and by the dominance of his leitmotif in the musical score. The classical film score was typically structured by the leitmotif which organized accompaniment around the repetition of recognizable musical themes, developed or varied in response to the image track. The leitmotif could also function as a characterization. Gypo's leitmotif, as an example, reporoduces his bulky clumsiness in its rhythmic structure His theme also incorporates a familiar rhythmic trope known as the Scotch snap ... a dotted note which follows its complement, usually an eighth note, instead of preceding it," (Kalinak, pg. 117)

• "Steiner's predilection for a seamless sound is demonstrated in his careful bridging between musical selections ... any potential disruption is covered by an aural match between the harp, which accompanies [instruments in the transition.]" (Kalinak, pg. 123)

• "Now music becomes a crucial part of the process which simulates thought." (Kalinak, pg. 124)

• "Tri-tone, the interval between a fourth and a fifth on the scale ... has powerful musical connotations. It is the most dissonant interval and historically has been associated with evil," (Kalinak, pg. 125)

• "There was a sequence toward the end of the picture in which McLaglen is in a cell and water is dripping on him. This is just before he escapes and is killed. I had a certain musical effect I wanted to use for this. I wanted to catch each of these drops musically. The property man and I worked for days trying to regulate the water tank so it dripped in tempo and so I could accompany it. This took a great deal of time and thought because a dripping faucet doesn't always drip in the same rhythm. We finally mastered it, and I believe it was one of the things that own me the [Academy] award. People were fascinated trying to figure out how we managed to catch every drop." (Steiner, pg. 129)

• "These repetitions function in several ways: as a chronometer, ticking away the final moments of Gypo's life; as a device to produce tension through the motif's unstable harmonic base; and as a referent to the offscreen drama of a frantic Gypo in the next room." (Kalinak, pg. 130)

• "There is one final characteristic of Steiner's work that is exhibited in this score: his appropriation of the classical repertoire as thematic referents, a practice which allows him to draw extracinematic meaning into the score by incorporating established musical associations." (Kalinak, pg. 131)

two, Franz Waxman's Rebecca: A Film Score Guide by David Neumeyer and Nathan Platte

• "Waxman was not Selznick's first choice for Rebecca ... Steiner's music would certainly have shaded the film's visuals and narrative arc differently ... "It is fascinating to contemplate how [Steinder's] broad, sweeping style, so different from Waxman's veiled impressionism, would have changed the tone of the picture.'" (Neumeyer, pg. 49)  

• “The film version of the Danvers theme [a chromatic segment of a tetrachordal frame] … features the same pitches, respelled to D-sharp, E, E-sharp, and G-sharp … Waxman’s sketches emphasize the textural qualities of Mrs. Danvers theme over the melodic. (Neumeyer, pg. 61)

three, Max Steiner biography by Tony Thomas

• "My first score for the new job was The Garden of Allah, and it is worth mentioning musically because it wast he first time that the "push-pull track" was used. This was far superior to the old system, producing about the same difference in sound as between mono and stereo. It allowed for a wider range, with lots of bass and lots of highs." (Steiner, pg. 78)

• "A few years ago I went with my wife to Grauman's Chinese Theatre, and in scoring this particular picture the composer had used "Tales from the Vienna Woods." At this point, two people in front of us started to argue about the identity of the music ... this went on during the high-point of the action of the picture, and my wife and I became exasperated because it was spoiling the film for us. It taught me a lesson: Never use music people have heard before because it may detract from concentrating on the film." (Steiner, pg. 81)

• "A lot of composers make the mistake of thinking that the film is a platform for showing how clever they are. This is not the place for it." (Steiner, pg. 81)

four, Leitmotifs and Musical Reference in the classical Film Score by Justin London

•  Leitmotifs: "...particular melodic and/or harmonic figures serve as sonic tokens for persons, objects, and/or ideas that have a significant role in the film's narrative." (London, pg. 85)

• Proper Names in Language and Leitmotifs in Music

• Frege-Russell model: "...names both denote and connote. That is, names function as abbreivate descriptions of their referents, for (as the argument goes) without such knowledge how can one make the connection between a name and the unique object to which refers? ... The key to their "rigidity" is that the denotation of a name may remain fixed even when its "target" may change." (London, pg. 86)

• "In filmic contexts the introduction of musical leitmotifs is highly conventionalized. Usually this introduction involves the simultaneous presentation of the character and his or her leitmotif, especially [early on.] ... Main title cues were often cast in a two-part form. The opening "A: theme was associated with the title of the film. It may or may not refer to a specific character (that is, a male lead) or setting; it may simply signify the genre and tone of the picture. However, the "B" theme, typically with reduced orchestration, dynamics, and more lyrical in character, is often associated with the female lead. The binary design of opening title music was well enough established so that audiences would be able to pick out these leitmotifs from the opening credits." (London, pg. 87)

• "Another constraint on the sound-shapes of names and leitmotifs is that they must be reasonably stable so that every time they are uttered or performed they remain recognizable tokens of their name/leitmotif type(s)." (London, pg. 88)

• "Thus, the primary parameters of music (melody, harmony, and rhythm) are like the categorical features of linguistic phonemes, and the secondary parameters of music (timbre, texture, orchestration, and dynamics) are akin to the paralinguistic features of language (intonation, dynamics, and pitch). (London, pg. 89)

• Leitmotifs and Musical Expression

• "The designative properties of musical leitmotifs explains how they can fulfill the narrative cueing functions such as giving point of view, indicating formal demarcations, and establishing setting and characters in the manner that Gorbman describes under her "'Principles of Composition, Mixing, and Editing' for Classical Film Music." In fulfilling these cueing functions a musical leitmotif refers to putatively heralding the presence of a character, object, or locale; musical leitmotifs are always in the present indicative (that is, as if saying, "X is here"). Although the present indicative is the only tense/mood that a leitmotif can take, it is a very useful and powerful one in narrative-dramatic contexts. As such, a leitmotif can (1) underscore the obvious presence of a character, place, and so forth that is clearly visible on screen; (2) indicate the presence of some/something that is otherwise obscure (out of the frame, hidden in the scene, in disguise, and so forth); and (3) indicate the "psychological presence" of a character or idea, as when character A is contemplating the absent character B--we see A while hearing B's leitmotif." (London, pg. 89)

• "As a result, a leitmotif is both a reference to, as well as a statement about X: "X is happy" or "X is melancholy.'" (London, pg. 90)

• Leitmotifs in Mildred Pierce

• "Thus, we may establish a rule of thumb for distinguishing referential from nonreferential themes in a score: a referential theme must have a short, distinctive opening that can readily and efficiently serve as a leitmotif, and it is the leitmotif that functions as the musical analog of the proper name." (London, pg. 92)

five, 'Not Exactly Classical, but Sweet' Laura: New Directions by Kathryn Kalinak

• "Laura" has become an archetypal example of the ways in which female sexuality threatens classical narrative and of the processes by which classical stratagems both contain and fail to contain that threat." (Kalinak, pg. 161)

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