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MUSIC 246 > Week 10 > Flashcards

Week 10 Flashcards

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1
Q

What do we start to see in 1980s?

A

Composers are getting into film music w/o formal training/classical upbringing

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2
Q

What makes this change in the 80s possible?

A
  • changes in technology
  • in 50s we see synthesizers for the first time
  • the 50s look much diff compared to the 80s
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3
Q

What year was Forbidden Planet made?

A

1956

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4
Q

What was the significance of Forbidden Planet?

A
  • heavy synthesizer
  • something that sounded like sound effects was really music
  • to most of the audience, it was a novelty but confused others
  • was impossible to interpret what this sound/music was
  • couldn’t tell what this emotion was
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5
Q

What were the benefits of the end of 60s synthesizers?

A
  • smaller “modular” synthesizers were replacing earlier, larger ones
  • could create, shakes, modulate sounds, create envelope
  • “patches” describes sound set on synthesizer of some kind (e.g. brass patch or string patch)
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6
Q

Switched on Bach

A
  • 1968 Wendy Carlos
  • created an album based on Back but was performed using synthesizers
  • popularized synthesizers in pop culture
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7
Q

Walter/Wendy Carlos:

A
  • a pioneer in the field of synthesized version of concert hall music
  • “Switched on Bach” popularized her as a film composer
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8
Q

What are other notable works of Walter/Wendy Carlos?

A
  • A Clockwork Orange 1971
  • The Shining 1980
  • Tron 1982
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9
Q

What are some notable works of Vangelis?

A
  • Chariots of Fire 1981

- Blade Runner 1982

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10
Q

What are the two directions synthesizers go in?

A

A. Abstract sounds

B. Layer synthesizers that’s similar to concert hall/classic composers in a way

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11
Q

Was synthesizer scoring possible in the early 1980s?

A
  • yes but not common
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12
Q

How did MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) change the scene?

A
  • advents of MIDI were pop musicians in 1983
  • powerful synthes and computers allowed musicians w/o formal training to compose and produce film scores
  • anyone could build midi into their synths
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13
Q

Benefits of MIDI:

A
  • allowed you to connect diff synthesizers together– even when they’re made by diff companies
  • could create monstrous sounds by layering synth and playing them all together using “master” keyboard
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14
Q

How does having a computer benefit with owning a MIDI?

A
  • you can play your keyboard and the computer will record it
  • the cpu can play the MIDI in diff cpus: so you can record a part on strings and have the cpu play it in brass
  • can add notes one at a time and build complex and massive layers of music and have them all play back by multiple synths
  • if you don’t have formal training but can play music, the cpu creates the notes for you so you don’t have to write it down
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15
Q

Who are the two most influential of this new generation?

A

Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer

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16
Q

Danny Elfman

A
  • 1953

- American born, self-taught

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17
Q

Where did Elfman start his career?

A
  • in art-rock band “Oingo Boingo”
  • not that popular but had a cult following
  • wrote all sorts of genres
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18
Q

Who was his big fan who was starting as a film director?

A
  • Tim Burton
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19
Q

What was Elfman’s breakthrough score?

A
  • Pee Wee’s Big Adventure 1985

- directed by Tim Burton

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20
Q

How would Wood describe Elfman’s Pee Wee score?

A

carnival-esque, frantic, child-like but NOT childish, child-like in a nightmare way (like this class amirite)

21
Q

What were the influences for the Pee Wee score?

A
  • Bernard Herrmann and The Day the Earth Stood Still

- strived for unusual sound that Herrmann created

22
Q

Why did Elfman not think he could be a film composer despite having a huge knowledge of film scores?

A
  • he wasn’t formally trained

- but this also meant he didn’t feel bound by the “rules” of formal training

23
Q

What are general characteristics of Elfman’s music?

A
  • dance rhythms
  • frantic/carnivalesque (child-like in a nightmareish way)
  • frequent use of 3/4 time (waltz) and 2/4 (polka)
  • e.g. Simpsons theme
  • frequent use of celeste (bell-like instrument, has a Christmas-y sound like in Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy) and wordless choir to evoke sense of childlike wonder
  • hitting the action– the point of “Mickey Mousing”
  • child-like by dark
  • Tim Burton’s work is absurd– deliberately absurd and extreme and exaggerated which is why Mickey Mousing approach works
24
Q

Beetlejuice

A
  • dark, comedic
  • music rapidly changes from one set of sounds to another
  • little references the music is catching
  • main instrument is violin
25
Q

How is the violin used in Beetlejuice?

A
  • plays in aggressive arpeggio
  • virtuosic violin refers to devil and evil
  • violin flips to country twang
26
Q

Edward Scissorhands 1992– what’s it abt?

A
  • abt conformity
  • “diff” person wants to conform and belong but his uniqueness spreads throughout the neighbourhood so the neighbourhood lashes out and persecutes them for being unique
27
Q

What was the source music?

A
  • organ lady playing
  • Elfman didn’t write for an orchestra– played score on a keyboard and hired ppl to transcribe it to a page an orchestra to play it
  • akin to David Raksin (wrote music for Charlie Chaplin)
28
Q

When does the actual score of Edward Scissorhands start?

A
  • only when she sees the “scary house” for the first time
29
Q

Clip 1A: When Peg thinks of the house

A
  • car squeaks bc it’s rusty and needs help
  • ominous music
  • low woodwinds: bassoons and bass clarinets to sound menacing
  • wordless choir coming in
30
Q

Clip 1B: When Peg drives through the gate

A
  • music for transition area
  • waltz
  • celeste
  • church bells
  • harps
  • evocation of death and funerals
  • almost scary
31
Q

Clip 1C: When Peg walks through the gate

A
  • wonderment
  • wordless choir
  • music changes from fearful and threatening to wonder and spectacle
  • gentle and soft still, but playing reaction of Peg
32
Q

Clip 2A:

A
  • Edward has come to live w/ Peg and is trying to adapt to suburban life
  • clipping neighbourhood’s hedges to be pretty things and then the dog’s fur
  • cutting dog’s fur music:
  • frantic
  • lots of E
  • excitement
  • polka rhythm (2/4 beat)
    intense
33
Q

Scene 2B: Cutting Joyce’s hair

A
  • tango
  • sex
  • sensual
  • violin: demonic virtuoso
34
Q

Scene 2C: Cutting Peg’s hair

A
  • love of family

- piano

35
Q

Hans Zimmer Musical History

A
  • German born/self-taught keyboardist
  • does not read musical notation
  • late 1970s/early 1980s: pop music keyboardist
  • worked w/ The Buggles (video killed the radio star- 1979)
36
Q

What did Zimmer do w/ Stantley Myles?

A
  • 1980: Working on TV/radio jingles brought him attention of British film composer- Stantley Myles who was looking for someone to help him w/ electronic stuff
  • Moonlighting 1982
  • My Beautiful Laundertte 1985
37
Q

Why is Zimmer the raddest composer?

A
  • he could listen to diff composers and easily catch their style
  • wrote incidental music for Lion King, Russian spy film
  • composes music during or even before film is in production
38
Q

“BRAM”

A
  • a technique invented by Zimmer

- make a bunch of brass instruments scream

39
Q

Zimmer and Nolan bromance

A
  • would compose music during or even before a film is in production
  • Nolan made the film listening to a bit of music Zimmer wrote abt the basic concept
  • Zimmer would write the music not to the film but during production
  • Zimmer and Nolan would lowkey edit the film and music together
  • cues would sometimes be assembled from multiple pieces
40
Q

Rain Man

A
  • 1988
  • Zimmer’s breakthrough
  • first solo effort as a film composer
  • some acoustic elements and some band elements
    majority is performed by Zimmer alone using synthesizers
  • early films such Rain Man and Driving Miss Daisy 1989 made extensive use of synthesizers
41
Q

Driving Miss Daisy

A
  • 1989
  • black driver for old white lady
  • from diff worlds but face mortality together as #bffls
  • Zimmer uses jazz for DMD
  • uses synthesizer patch that resembles clarinet
42
Q

DMD Scene: Daisy doesn’t want to be driven around

A
  • suck it up bitch
  • Jazzy
  • p much just keyboard and synthesizers
43
Q

What are most recent works by Zimmer described as?

A
  • spacious and powerful: a fusing of electronics and orchestra
  • often an emphasis on timbre and rhythm, rather than melody
  • notable collabs w/ Nolan
  • minimalistic: Simple ideas- repetition - complex layers - slow changes
44
Q

Batman

A
  • high strung
  • harsh distorted note and huge explosion of sound
  • notes not important
  • abt instrument and how it’s being played and production and arrangement
45
Q

Who wrote music for Interstellar?

A

Zimmer lmao

46
Q

Inception: Conclusion scene

A
  • Zimmer 2010
  • basic theme + layers
  • simple idea that builds and builds
  • “wall” of sound
  • his approach to layering has become a technical thing ppl talk abt
47
Q

Inception: Truck falling scene

A
  • this cue is assembled out of 3 diff pieces of music
  • hella BRAMs
  • second of brass BRAMs coming in a diff key
  • hear music cross-fading
  • cross-fade + pre-written music is not the usual way of doing things
48
Q

Mad Max

A
  • 2015
  • music designed to be as big as possible
  • common in contemporary films
49
Q

Star Trek:

A
  • trailer music not from film
  • company was hired out to make trailer music
  • “2 Steps from Hell” company makes movie credits for big name movies; e.g. crimes of gringelwald, avengers infinity, etc.
  • copy Hans Zimmer’s style
  • writes Big Music

MUSIC 246 (5 decks)

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