Lecture 7 – Music 2

Question 1

Traditional Music of the American West and its Transformations — Musical Representation of Native Americans in Film Scores

Answer 1

–music is an integral part of the representation of Native Americans in cinematic engagements with the American West
–musical representation of Native Americans was rarely based on Native American music as such that had been transcribed and recorded by ethnographers since the first decade of the twentieth century
– rather, “Indian music [in films] exploits powerful musical codes that reinforce cultural stereotypes of Otherness: Indians are positioned outside American-ness” (Kalinak 2012)
–music is accordingly used to define ethnic and racial boundaries in the Western

Question 2

Traditional Music of the American West and its Transformations — Musical Representation of Native Americans in Film Scores, Stereotypes

Answer 2

–as shown by Michael Pisani (1998), Native American music in cinematic engagements with the American West was derived from musical stereotypes for the representation of western Europe’s exotic others: Turks, Chinese, and Arabs
– these developed in correspondence with European imperialism and included:
* unusual repetitive rhythms
* modal melodies
* short descending motifs
* a tendency towards chromaticism
* unusual instrumentation, frequently involving percussion

–again, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West is an early example of this practice which is documented in the extant compositions of “On the Warpath” and “The Passing of the Red Man”
–composers of Hollywood film music emulated these forms of articulation and developed a musical vocabulary for the representation of Native Indians which connoted the primitive and the savage
–it was only rarely that Westerns incorporated Native American music, mostly since the 1960s as, for instance, in Alex North’s score for Cheyenne Autumn (1964) or Leonard Rosenman’s score for A Man Called Horse (1970)

Question 3

Traditional Music of the American West and its Transformations — Musical Representation of Native Americans in Film Scores, “Dances with Wolves”

Answer 3

–for Costner’s Dances with Wolves, John Barry created a score that included authentic Sioux chanting and rhythms which were embedded in romantic orchestrations in “the same lush musical language as the good white protagonist” (Gorbman 2000)
–however, the first meeting with Kicking Bird still includes elements of the established musical code for Indians, mirroring Dunbar’s perspective, whose perception is still informed by the stereotypes of the white Americans
– the musical coding then shifts to an amalgamation of the exotic and the familiar when the Lakota try to steal Dunbar’s horse, the music articulates an ever closer understanding of and association with the Native Indians
– later Dunbar himself is associated with Sioux chanting and rhythms when, feeling the loneliness after the buffalo hunt, he dances around his fire
– however, the Pawnee, whom we already identified as the “bad” Indians in the film were also musically distinguished from their noble counterparts
–though not replicating the earlier musical vocabulary for Native Americans, Barry’s score nevertheless exoticizes the Pawnee and uses a chromatic descending pattern to suggest menace when they are on screen

Question 4

Traditional Music of the American West and its Transformations — The Use of Folksongs in John Ford’s “Stagecoach”, basics

Answer 4

–”Stagecoach” was Ford’s first sound Western
–the credits announced the score to be “based on American Folk Songs”
–as acknowledged in the credits, the score for Stagecoach was collaborative
– is was recognized with an Academy Award
–John Ford (born John Martin Feeney; 1894–1973): American film director

Question 5

Traditional Music of the American West and its Transformations — The Use of Folksongs in John Ford’s “Stagecoach”, Folksongs

Answer 5

–folksong crossed the class divide
–but, importantly, many alleged folksongs lack historical provenance and are not “authentic”
–rather, they were composed “by writers on the East Coast who had little or no experience of the frontier” (Kalinak 2007)
–frequently, they are minstrel songs

Question 6

Traditional Music of the American West and its Transformations — The Use of Folksongs in John Ford’s “Stagecoach”, examples of usage

Answer 6

In “Stagecoach”, folksongs were used to:
– explore thematic concerns
– aid in characterization
– support the film’s ideological framework

Question 7

Traditional Music of the American West and its Transformations — The Use of Folksongs in John Ford’s “Stagecoach”, Song examples

Answer 7

Among the easily recognized songs in Stagecoach are the following:
– “The Trail to Mexico”
– “Oh, Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie”
–“Al pensar en ti”
– “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair”
– “Shall We Gather at the River?”

Question 8

Traditional Music of the American West and its Transformations — The Use of Folksongs in John Ford’s “Stagecoach”, Song examples

Question 9

Traditional Music of the American West and its Transformations — The Use of Folksongs in John Ford’s “Stagecoach”: “The Trail to Mexico” and “Oh, Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie”

Answer 9

–used for the theme song
– “Oh, Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie” is a frequently reproduced cowboy ballad
– it includes many cues of Westernness, such as:
* loping rhythms
* simple harmonies

–already with the credits at the beginning of the film, it is interpolated with the musical code for the Native Americans
– it is, in fact, preceded by this code
–the musical juxtaposition suggests the impending confrontation
–progress of the stagecoach through the grandeur of the landscape of Monument Valley is associated with the theme song
– it builds “a powerful connection between Americanness, white civilization, and the frontier” (Kalinak 2007)
–it is also used immediately prior to the appearance of the Native Americans
– the Apache are then characterized in contrast as savages by the established musical code and they are suggested by the otherness of the music associated with them as not belonging in Monument Valley
– the use of musical coding is also apparent in the scene when Ringo tries to escape but — unaccountably — stops
–the reason for his stopping, first indicated by the music, emerges fully when he shows to Curley the smoke signs of the Apache, once again musically coded

Question 10

Traditional Music of the American West and its Transformations — The Use of Folksongs in John Ford’s “Stagecoach”: “Al pensar en ti”

Answer 10

– love song from Mexico, sung by Yakima, the Apache wife of the Mexican station master Chris
– Yakima’s performance of this song has been interpreted as offering “a counterbalance to the stereotypical aspects of the Indians in the film” (Kalinak 2007)
–when Yakima then leaves her husband to re-join the Apache, the sentiments articulated in the film gain retrospective significance
– they establish a Native American love of the country and reinsert the Indians musically into the landscape from which the use of the theme song had erased them
–the film score in this way supports the ambivalence of representations of the Native American other in Stagecoach that we observed in the previous lecture

Question 11

Traditional Music of the American West and its Transformations — The Use of Folksongs in John Ford’s “Stagecoach”: “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair”

Answer 11

– a parlor ballad by Stephen Foster
– used in Stagecoach as a leitmotif for the Southerners Mrs. Mallory and Hatfield
– it reinforces Mrs. Mallory’s social status and confirms Hatfield as a gentleman
– at the same time, if less consciously, it evokes nostalgia for the antebellum South and softens the arrogance and rigidity of these characters

Question 12

Traditional Music of the American West and its Transformations — The Use of Folksongs in John Ford’s “Stagecoach”: “Shall We Gather at the River?”

Answer 12

– this is a Methodist hymn which immediately connotes religion
– in Stagecoach, played on an organ, it is associated with the ladies of the Law and Order League as they run Doc Boone and Dallas out of town
– it is then recast in a different, humorous instrumentation as a parody when Doc Boone and Dallas proudly march off to the waiting stagecoach (via the saloon)
–as such, it ridicules the ladies of the Law and Order League

– an aside: “Shall We Gather at the River” is also played at the meeting of the temperance association at the beginning of The Wild Bunch, presumably in what is a nod to Stagecoach; and here, too, it is also parodied

Question 13

Traditional Music of the American West and its Transformations — The Use of Folksongs in John Ford’s “The Searchers”: Basics

Answer 13

–“The Searchers” –> title song, written by Stan Jones and performed by The Sons of the Pioneers
–> The Sons of the Pioneers “areAmerican icons known around the world for their trademark harmonies and haunting lyrics that tell the story of the American West”. Founded in 1933 and still active, after many changes in membership, they are one of the earliest Western singing groups of the US
– the choice of the second and seventh stanzas in the film of the eight stanzas originally written and composed by Jones has been said to “dynamically [alter] the film from a generic western to a metaphysical quest” (Kalinak 2007)

Question 14

Traditional Music of the American West and its Transformations — The Use of Folksongs in John Ford’s “The Searchers”: Max Steiner

Answer 14

–the score for The Searchers was composed by Max Steiner
–it reflects the shift to the monothematic score, “often based on the styles and idioms of popular music” (Kalinak 2007)
– Jones’s title song was recast by Steiner as leitmotif and transformed by the full resources of a symphony orchestra
–Max Steiner(1888–1971): Austrian-born American composer of theatre and film music

Question 15

Traditional Music of the American West and its Transformations — The Use of Folksongs in John Ford’s “The Searchers”: “Lorena” song

Answer 15

– the song was written by Joseph Philbrick Webster (1819–1875), American composer, to words by the Rev. Henry D. L. Webster in 1857

– the period song functions as a theme for Aaron’s family and, more particularly, Martha
– “Lorena” was a favorite with Confederate soldiers in the Civil War
–its use in the opening moments of The Searchers “underscores the unspoken love between Ethan and Martha and telegraphs its forbidden nature and tragic outcome” (Kalinak 2007)

Question 16

Traditional Music of the American West and its Transformations — The Use of Folksongs in John Ford’s “The Searchers”: “Lorena” key moments

Answer 16

– it returns at key moments in the film in order to indicate unspoken motivation and to enhance emotional content:
– when Ethan discovers Martha’s body after the Comanche attack (in minor)
– when the posse is disbanded, but Ethan, Martin, and Brad continue their search
– when Ethan and Martin first meet Debbie
– when Martin rescues Debbie from Scar’s tepee
– When Debbie is returned to the farm of the Jorgenson’s (when it is eventually displaced by the final reiteration of “The Searchers”)
– arguably, its most significant reiteration occurs when Ethan decides to rescue Debbie instead of killing her
–as Kathryn Kalinak argues, “[i]t is ‘Lorena’ that accompanies Ethan’s lifting of a tense and terrified Debbie into the air. ‘Lorena’ functions as a specific aural marker for Martha. Thus, I would argue that hearing ‘Lorena’ at this moment brings us back to the figure of Martha, who returns to the scene and supplies Ethan’s motivation.” (Kalinak 2007)

Question 17

Traditional Music of the American West and its Transformations — The Use of Folksongs in John Ford’s “The Searchers”: “Shall We Gather at the River?”

Answer 17

– the hymn appears once again, first at the funeral of Aaron, Martha, and Ben Edwards and later at the interrupted wedding of Laurie
–as the hymn is sung during the funeral, it is interrupted by Ethan
– in relation to The Searchers, ritual has been described as “a bulwark against the chaos and malevolence of the surroundings, not just ceremonial glue binding the community together” (Kalinak 2007)
– the community’s fragility is accordingly demonstrated with the interruption of its rituals
– Ethan’s interruption of the hymn at the funeral has therefore been interpreted as one of the “most profoundly antisocial gestures in all of Ford” (Kalinak 2007)
– the notion of predestination suggested by the hymn reflects on the configuration and the impact of Ethan’s return to his brother’s family

Question 18

Traditional Music of the American West and its Transformations — The Use of Folksongs in John Ford’s “The Searchers”: The Representation of Native Americans I

Answer 18

–in The Searchers, depictions of Native Americans in the score also follow the established musical code for savagery:
–tom-tom rhythms
–exotic intervals of the fourth and fifth
–descending contours

– nevertheless, the film is opened by “Indian” music, much more unambiguously than Stagecoach
– this has been interpreted as a reminder that the land belongs to the Native Americans and that the white settlers are the intruders (see Kalinak 2007)
– Kathryn Kalinak argues that whereas “in Stagecoach, Indian music seems out of place in Monument Valley, in The Searchers, it seems literally to emanate from it” (2007)
–in this way, in striking contrast to the earlier Stagecoach, the musical score dramatically emphasizes the encroachment of white settlers on the Native Americans

Question 19

Traditional Music of the American West and its Transformations — The Use of Folksongs in John Ford’s “The Searchers”: The Representation of Native Americans II

Answer 19

– another indicator for the revaluation of the Indian characters in the film is that Scar and Look are given leitmotifs
–the conferment of a recognizable identity serves to humanize them, even though Scar’s leitmotif is still musically coded as savage (a series of descending chromatic
– Look, a female character who is briefly married to Martin by mistake due to his ignorance of Native American customs, is given even more individuality
– this is expressed through the orchestration of her leitmotif, including flutes and other woodwinds as well as violins, instruments not usually associated in Western scores with Native Americans
– Look’s leitmotif is moreover an identifiable melody
– she is an ambivalent character in that she is laughable: broadly smiling all the time, not understanding, and following Martin though he rejects her
–yet at the same time, when Ethan and Martin later find her body among the massacred Indians in the camp raided by the cavalry, her death provokes an emotional response (even from Ethan)

– it has been suggested that The Searchers must be understood as a response to the civil rights movement of the 1950s (Henderson 1980)
– in this context, it has been argued that the film displaces “white-black relations onto the classic western standoff between cowboys and Indians” (Kalinak 2007)
– Kalinak suggests that this argument is supported by the film score’s use of two songs, “The Yellow Rose of Texas” and “Jubilo”

Question 20

Traditional Music of the American West and its Transformations — The Use of Folksongs in John Ford’s “The Searchers”: “The Yellow Rose of Texas”

Answer 20

– this was another song extremely popular among Confederate soldiers
– but its origins are in the minstrel show
– it was attributed to N. W. Gould of the Christy Minstrels and was first published in 1858
– it was performed, among others, by the Christy Minstrels
–> The Christy Minstrels were a group of blackface performers founded by the ballad singer Edwin Pearce Christy in 1843 in Buffalo, NY
–> Minstrel shows, also known as minstrelsy, were a form of racist entertainment developed in early nineteenth-century America. Mostly performed in blackface, they consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music performances

– resurfacing in dime novels, Western fiction, Broadway plays, and films, minstrel music entered into “a psychic and public discourse that helped to circumscribe the boundaries of American identity” (Kalinak 2007)

Question 21

Traditional Music of the American West and its Transformations — The Use of Folksongs in John Ford’s “The Searchers”: “The Yellow Rose of Texas” alterations

Answer 21

–more than 25 years later, the lyrics were changed; “darky” was replaced with “soldier”, and the first line of the chorus was also changed to read: “She’s the sweetest little flower…”
–in 1955, Mitch Miller once again altered the text
–in the original version, the “yellow rose” of the title refers to a mulatta; yellow being in the nineteenth century a common identifier for a person of mixed race
–the “darky” in the song exemplifies black libido while the “yellow rose” is a symbol of miscegenation
–in “The Searchers”, the issue of miscegenation is prominent, if mostly implicit
–through its ridiculing of the African American other, minstrelsy reinforced white supremacy and this song is no exception
–its use in the film therefore complicates its engagement with inside and outside, inclusion and exclusion with implicit reference to discourse on race
its minstrel origin was written out of the song when it became a Confederate patriotic song
–Ford was probably familiar with Mitch Miller’s recent 1955 version, but may have been aware of the earlier permutations of the song
–its inclusion in the score for The Searchers has been suggested to indicate the “most extreme example of buried ideological meaning in Ford’s westerns, its associations of minstrelsy creeping into the film regardless of whether or not Ford or his audience had the slightest idea of what they were hearing” (Kalinak 2007)

Question 22

Traditional Music of the American West and its Transformations — The Use of Folksongs in John Ford’s “The Searchers”: “Jubilo”

Answer 22

– “Jubilo” was composed by Henry Clay Work (1832–1884), American composer, in 1862

–“Jubilo” adopted, and adapted, the conventions of minstrelsy
–but it is an abolitionist song
– it tells the story of a plantation taken over by its slaves and awaiting the soldiers of the Union
–“Jubilo”, too, was very popular in the Civil War era
– the direct juxtaposition of “Jubilo” and “The Yellow Rose of Texas” at Lauries’s eventually abortive wedding complicates the race issue in The Searchers

–it follows on the direct confrontation of Ethan with Martin where the former declares Debbie dead for having lived with a “buck” to which Martin responds that he wished Ethan were dead
– the sequence of the songs at the abortive wedding of Laurie, “The Yellow Rose of Texas” followed by “Jubilo”, anticipates the trajectory of the film and the eventual acceptance of Debbie also by Ethan

Question 23

Traditional Music of the American West and its Transformations — Summary I

Answer 23

–Music is another potent vehicle for the construction of the American West
–the art music of the 1920s through the 1940s consciously sought to define Americanness in a musical code
–this code was informed by the successive interest in African American and Native American music and then folk songs and hymnody
–Western music, in particular cowboy songs, were considered authentic material and were appropriated into art music as well as film scores
–film scores of B-Westerns and A-Westerns followed this trend but developed distinct approaches
–the B-Western followed the popular trend of western and country music as broadcast on the radio

Question 24

Traditional Music of the American West and its Transformations — Summary II

Answer 24

–the A-Western was influenced by art music and its approach to the allegedly Western musical heritage
–in films, music scores operate narratively, thematically, structurally, and ideologically
–individual case studies – focusing on Dances with Wolves, Stagecoach, and The Searchers – have demonstrated the effectiveness of music, in particular of songs, as conceived by the auteur but also as a form of cultural transmission which associates pre-established responses which influence filmic meaning
–as such, the film score has also emerged as an important tool for the musical coding of the Native American other
–its cultural pervasiveness and wide distribution also outside the cinema (with soundtracks and radio broadcasts) has made film scores a highly efficient medium for constructions of the American West