Lecture 12: Electronic Music

Question 1

Electronic scores

Answer 1

• electronic instruments nothing new
• Rozsa and the theremin = first important time
• electronic instruments have been around for much longer
• by the 1950s, electronic music had become an important part of musical modernism

Question 2

RCA synthesizer

Answer 2

• Columbia University
• computer built specifically to make music
• cannot play them in real time
• you could create unusual sounds
  during the 1950s, there were only 4 synthesizers

Question 3

Forbidden Planet

Answer 3

• 1956
• all-electronic score
• Louis and Bebe Barron
• increasing interest in the avant-garde
• no clear conventions for the audience to read

Question 4

Late 1960s

Answer 4

• by the end of the 1960s = smaller, modular synthesizers
• start having musical keyboards attached to them
• have boxes that filter, distort, etc.
• when you create a sound, you have to patch the boxes together and adjust the knobs
• now, sounds that are created on a synthesizers are called patches

Question 5

Switched on Bach

Answer 5

• 1968
• Wendy Carlos
• music of Bach recorded on a synthesizer
• album popularized the synthesizer in popular culture
• became one of the biggest selling albums of the 1960s
• won various Grammys
• synthesizers very quickly becomes a part of contemporary music culture

Question 6

Wendy Carlos

Answer 6

• 1939 →
• A Clockwork Orange (1971)
• The Shining (1980)
• Tron (1982)

Question 7

Vangelis

Answer 7

• 1943 →
• Chariots of Fire (1981)
• keyboardist/artist that uses synthesizers
• brings electronic scoring to a new level

Question 8

Blade Runner

Answer 8

• 1982
• director = Ridley Scott
• atmospheric textures, fused with film-noir references
• score almost entirely composed by Vangelis
• synthesizers becoming more and more common

Question 9

Pop musicians

Answer 9

• MIDI and increasingly powerful synthesizers and computers have allowed musicians without formal training to compose and produce film scores
• if you are using synthesizers, you can create almost any sound you can imagine
• you can create an almost orchestral sounding score, except you are playing all the parts

Question 10

MIDI

Answer 10

• 1983
• musical instrument digital interface
• system of hardware and software that allows any synthesizer to communicate with any other synthesizer
• can create massive sounds using multiple synthesizers and only one keyboard
• each of the keyboards can play different parts

Question 11

Danny Elfman - Facts

Answer 11

• 1953 →
• American Born
• Oingo Boingo
• influences included Bernard Herrmann
• breakthrough score = Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (1985)
• directed by Tim Burton
• criticized for not being able to read music
• uses synthesizer studio to do a mockup of what the orchestra will do

Question 12

Danny Elfman - Characteristics

Answer 12

• frantic/carnivalesque
• frequent use of ¾ time (waltz rhythm) and 2/4 (polka rhythm)
• frequent use of celeste and wordless choir
• hitting the action to the point of Mickey Mousing
• first recognizable one since Steiner to use this style

Question 13

Beetlejuice

Answer 13

• 1988
• instrument for Beetlejuice is a violin (associated with the devil)
• then, there is a country/western reference on the violin (lack of taste)
• fast, frantic polka

Question 14

Edward Scissorhands - Scene 1 (Peg goes to the Mansion)

Answer 14

• distinct musical sections
• music starts as she turns the mirror to see the house
• extreme ranges in melody = bass clarinet and harp
  bass clarinet, choir
• music is unfocused until she passes through the gate
• waltz structure, has some franctic elements
• as we get to the gate, it takes a darker turn = chimes, harp
• then, another change after passing the second gate
• risk of danger is gone, more a sense of supernatural wonder

Question 15

Edward Scissorhands - Scene 2 (Hair cutting)

Answer 15

• polka structure
• then, as he starts cutting Joyce’s hair, it switches to a tango
• the music changes to a Gypsy violin (virtuosity)
• returns to the tango theme
• then, Peg comes in to get her haircut, and a love theme starts

Question 16

Hans Zimmer - Early Life

Answer 16

• 1957 →
• German born
• largely self-taught keyboardist
• late 1970s / early 1980s = pop music keyboardist
• best known for working with The Buggles (Video Killed The Radio Star - 1979) = first video ever played on MTV
• 1980s = working on jingles brought him to the attention of British film composer, Stanley Myles

Question 17

Hans Zimmer - Early Work

Answer 17

• with Stanley Myles = Moonlighting (1982), My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
• plays everything himself through synthesizers
• breakthrough film = Rain Man (1988)
• early films, such as Rain Man and Driving Miss Daisy (1989), made extensive use of synthesizers
• early Hans Zimmer work = very pop-influenced, a lot of work with synthesizers

Question 18

Hans Zimmer - Later Work

Answer 18

• begins using orchestras
• Zimmer tends to collaborate
• most recent works are spacious and powerful, fusing of electronics and orchestra
• often has an emphasis on timbre and rhythm, rather than melody
• most notable collaborations are with director Christopher Nolan

Question 19

Minimalism

Answer 19

• start with a simple idea, then repetition
• complexity of layers, slow changes over time
• he knows that he has a good theme/melody because he can play it with one finger
• simple idea that grows to a massive, powerful sound

Question 20

Interstellar

Answer 20

• 2014
• main theme played on the organ
• music and film are edited simultaneously
• cues sometimes assembled from multiple pieces of music
• music was entirely based on the story between the father and daughter

Question 21

Inception

Answer 21

• music contains layers of music moving at different but related tempos depending on the dream level
• main theme = 8 patterns of 2 notes
• one change in the second set of 4
• layers and layers are added onto it
• the Kick = cue involves 4 separate pieces of music that Hans Zimmer had already written
• second main theme
  = brass sounds
• Je Ne Regrette Rien (Edith Piaf)
• massive brass sound has become so clichéd, it has been given a name = Braaaaam!

Question 22

Other composers

Answer 22

• Junkie XL
• Two Steps From Hell
• Jóhann Jóhannsson
• John Powell

Question 23

Lord of the Rings

Answer 23

• composer = Howard Shore
• transition between older and new approach to scoring
• melody dominated, memorable leitmotifs
• however, there is also the use of minimalism

Question 24

Avatar

Answer 24

• 2009
• director = James Cameron
• composer = James Horner
• music provides an aural link between the Na’vi civilization and the non-Western populations
• wooden flute, vocal melodies, choral chanting, drumming = indigenous people link
• bells, percussion, harp, voice, woodwinds, synthesizers = beauty of the forests
• minimalism is prevalent