A journey through film score history sets students on the path to understanding鈥攁nd crafting鈥攖heir own compositions.
A wicked witch releases a horde of flying monkeys. A police detective develops a debilitating fear of heights. A young boy takes an alien for a celestial bike ride. Odds are at least one of these descriptions conjures up not only an iconic visual but also a musical reference. Maybe it鈥檚 the swelling of strings or the insistent pulse of a bass line. Such is the power and lasting impression of a film score.
But how do you get from a filmed scene to musical intent to cinematic vibe to actual composition? And why is it important to understand what makes a great film score actually great?
In TH 425: Film Music Analysis, taught by , director of the Beal Institute for Film Music and Contemporary Media and an associate professor of contemporary media and film composition at the 人妻少妇专区鈥檚 , students are guided through past and current film scores to understand why choices were made during the scoring process and how to implement that information and vocabulary into their own compositions.
鈥淚鈥檓 very proud of this class,鈥� shares Watters, who petitioned to have the course added three years ago. 鈥淚t focuses on harmonic analysis and, most importantly, how these harmonies鈥攁nd the orchestration鈥攁ffect the dramatic impact of the cue.鈥�
For Watters, the course curriculum and progression through the history of cinema draws out important questions: 鈥淲hat makes a piece of music sound scary? Or funny? What makes it sound like the scene is set in outer space or a French ballet rehearsal? How are themes created and manipulated to tell a character鈥檚 story?鈥�
The scope of the films taught鈥攆rom King Kong (1933) to Pollock (2000) to Alien (1979) to Lincoln (2012)鈥攑rovides students with a broad knowledge of film score history, which leads to better informing the compositions that Watters has them create throughout the semester. Adding to the unique nature of the course, students aren鈥檛 directed toward a textbook but rather are asked to subscribe to the David McCaulley Film Scoring Analyses .
And one session is taught by the Emmy Award鈥搘inning composer Jeff Beal 鈥�85E, cofounder with his wife, Joan Beal 鈥�84E, of the Beal Institute for Film Music and Contemporary Media and Distinguished Visiting Artist.
鈥淪tudents must have at least a comfortable knowledge of music theory to take this class,鈥� notes Watters. 鈥淎ll this leads to evaluating the success of whatever the intent was of the composer: What was the filmmaker wanting the audience to feel?鈥�
Film Music Analysis
Instructor: Mark Watters, associate professor of contemporary media and film composition
On the Syllabus
Unit: The Early Years鈥�1930s and 19th-century Romantic era influences
Featured score: The Wizard of Oz (1939) by Herbert Strothart
Assignment: Compose a short motif appropriate for a villain. It should have a pulse!
Unit: Bernard Herrmann: The most distinctive and influential composer of his generation
Featured score: Vertigo (1958): two cues; Psycho (1960): three cues
Assignment: Compose a 30-second piece that incorporates the same signature progression as the 鈥淟ove Scene鈥� in Vertigo: Major chord with an augmented 11th to a Minor 9 chord but without the 7th.
Unit: John Williams, Part 1
Featured scores: Jaws (1976), Star Wars (1977), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Assignment: Complete an analysis of an assigned excerpt from a cue from one of the Star Wars films.
Unit: Danny Elfman
Featured scores: Beetlejuice (1988) and Batman (1988)
Assignment: Compose a 12-bar piece that matches the quirkiness of Elfman鈥檚 earlier scores, such as Pee-Wee鈥檚 Big Adventure and Beetlejuice, or dark and brooding, like his score for Batman.
Unit: Romance and Christmas
Featured scores: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) by Alexandre Desplat and Belles On Ice (2008) by Mark Watters.
This story appears in the fall 2024 issue of聽Rochester Review, the magazine of the 人妻少妇专区.
