Filmmusikens dieges

Abstract

The centenary of film was celebrated 1995, and the centenary of film in Sweden is celebrated in 1996. But these jubilees do not actually apply to the birth of film as such (which is much older), but to the first social and commercial use of film, public viewing with music. 1895 was the year of the birth of film music. For a number of reasons, this has not been a matter of great concern neither for musicologists (although film music has been one of the most important musical forms in our century), nor film researchers (although the very concept being the object of the celebrations has always contained music as well as moving pictures). The academic feasibility of clear cut autonomous disciplines has helped promoting a tradition of concentration on film as primarily moving pictures, and on music as primarily an autonomous art form. This has resulted in less than optimal conditions both for the study of film as consisting of both pictures and sound, and for the study of film music as part of the development of musical life. This, in turn, has had several regrettable effects. One is that film music often is valued and judged in relation to criteria specifically intended to be applicable to autonomous music, something film music by definition is not. Another is that the border zone between film music and other film sounds has been unsatisfactorily analysed. A third is that film theory often has the unconscious bias of seeking the construction of the narrative diegesis primarily or only in the visual (and possibly verbal) material, a priori regarding sounds without visual counterpart as ”non-diegetic”. This article primarily deals with the contributions of music to the construction of the film diegesis. The discussion contains a critique of the practice of judging nonautonomous film music by criteria actually constructed to be relevant for autonomous non-film, even non-narrative, music, which has resulted in an unfortunate and unproductive mix of criteria in analysing the functions, stylistic means and artistic qualities of film music. This discussion touches on the lack of sufficient musicological tools for the analysis of the demands on musical form rising from the treatment of music as a rhetoric or narrative discourse (i.e. program music), and from the role of music as an integral part of a narrative Gesamtkunstwerk (i.e. music drama and film). The discussion focuses around the different uses of stereotypical forms and means in the different contexts, the differences between subjective artistic expression and the creation of the diegesis, and the different needs for artistic originality and communicative efficiency. The introduction in film of synchronised recorded sound, ”the talkies”, is discussed as a process of creation of conventionalised means of auditive narrative expression, and some examples are given of parallels between the composing of ”environmental” sounds and simultaneous or later developments in the fields of ”autonomous” music. Some of the concepts applied to the analysis of film music functions by other researchers (especially P.D.Tagg), are discussed. The central argument concerns the need of a better differentiation between symbols, leitmotifs and stereotypes, and between references and synecdochés. This argument leads to a discussion of the gradual development of film music as a specific set of genres, with its own traditions, with specific conditions furthering the use of both historical stereotypical forms and completely new music forms, sound sources and syntheses of musical genres, and with both conservative and progressive effects on other parts of music life. The article concludes with a discussion of the needs for musicological analysis of the use of (musical) sounds and moving pictures in different forms of media (film, TV, Internet etc.) today. Since the major roots of these practices can be found in the development of film music and the film sound track, these are areas for research that need to be fully integrated in the musicological curriculum. Musicology needs to reassess the importance of the study of film music, both to explain the historical development of musical life in our century, and in order to analyse the uses and forms of music in the development in the audio-visual media context of today.