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3. The Form of Film Music
- Baylor University Press
- Chapter
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63 The Form oF Film muSic 3 With a bit of playful abandon, we opened our discussion with a demonstration of the ways in which film music presents us with possibilities for theological dialogue that would otherwise remain inaccessible. In the midst of this extended illustration, we intentionally set aside a detailed examination of the interpretive methodology that allows us to unpack the power and meaning of music in film. However, in the current chapter we address this methodology more directly by considering not only how we might attend to music as an essential part of our theological engagement with film, but also why we should do so. As I suggested in our consideration of Pixar’s films, music contributes something integral to both the form and the experience of narrative film. Yet I also intimated that music possesses a unique capacity for raising theologically pertinent questions and presenting us with theologically informed conceptions of life and the world. Therefore, in an effort to expound upon and even bolster these claims, I want to outline a few basic approaches to film music analysis that will provide us with the necessary means for arriving at a more robust understanding of how music functions meaningfully and, thus, theologically in our encounter with film. However, given the current dearth of theological reflection on film music, it seems that we are in need of more than simply a musically aware 64 Scoring TranScendence methodology. We first need a cogent argument for why we should pay any attention to film music at all. Why film music? Because Film Is Audiovisual: A Historical/ Ontological Rationale Often, those who discuss the importance of music in film begin with an almost perfunctory reference to the now clich éd adage that “silent film was never silent.”1 Presumably, they focus on the silent era not only because it is here that the affinity between music and the moving image is apparently made most evident, but also because it explains in part why music has perdured in contemporary film. If film was birthed in music, so the argument goes, then we can safely assume that music is, and always has been, an indispensable element of film, “silent” or otherwise. Thus, any historically informed approach to film would likewise assume not only the centrality but also the ubiquity of music in the cinematic experience throughout time. Interestingly, certain notable film historians have recently contested the notion that silent cinema was “never silent,” suggesting that actual film exhibition practices were quite diverse.2 However, even if we take these historical critiques into consideration, the simple fact remains that many of the earliest films were indeed accompanied by music—and intentionally so. Despite arguments to the contrary, music was not incorporated into film exhibitions simply to drown out the distracting noise of early projection equipment or to quell the fears of a primitive audience.3 Rather, music played a fundamental role in the exhibitions themselves. For example, “[o]n 28 December 1895 the Lumière brothers presented, for the first time ever, a series of short films to an audience at the Grande Café in Paris. At this screening a pianist also provided the first musical accompaniment for a film, and [3.230.128.106] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 02:05 GMT) The Form oF Film muSic 65 from that moment on films have had a not-so-silent partner of musical accompaniment.”4 While it is important to recognize that not every exhibition contained musical accompaniment of this kind, music was at the very least involved in the screening of films from the advent of the cinema.5 What is more, these exhibition practices were in fact relatively stable, especially within individual institutions such as vaudeville, musical theater, and traveling lectures. Indeed, immediately following the Lumière brothers’ first screening in 1895, music was routinely featured during public film exhibitions of various kinds and in diverse contexts .6 It therefore seems that we are justified in speaking of a relatively constant and equally pervasive impulse within the emerging industry to include music in film exhibition—an impulse that was not only present at the birth of film but was quickly recognized as standard practice. In other words, even in spite of radical changes in technology, aesthetic sensibilities , and economic concerns, the one thing that has remained consistent is that, from the time of the first film exhibition in 1895, “music and movies have been all but inseparable.”7 Although space precludes...