Music in Film –A New Study Group

The past few weeks I have been in the process of preparing a new study group for Spring.  Music in Film will look at the many roles that music plays during the course of a film; the people who compose and the directors who make use of it.  We will look at how music at a particular time in a film and of a particular tone aids in the telling of the story.  Can you imagine Casablanca without its musical numbers; Schindler’s List without its leitmotif, Do The Right Thing without the rap?

As part of my preparation I have been screening many old films trying to find the right examples to use as demonstrations.  It has been a truly pleasurable experience but also a very surprising one.  Many of the films I chose to watch turned out to have either no music or very little.  I was reminded that although music can indeed enhance many films, it is not only not necessary in others but would be a real distraction and even ruin pace and intensity. On the other side I was reminded of three sensuous musical scenes that went to the core of the film’s story–Michelle Pfeiffer singing Makin Whoopee in The Fabulous Baker Boys, Cate Blanchett dance to the jazz number in the gazebo in  The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and the classic pairing of Miles Davis and Jeanne Moreau as she walked the street looking for her man in Lift to the Scaffold.

This is but one more element of which most film watchers are not cognizant of its effect upon them, as the viewer, as they experience the film.  A positive result requires absolute teamwork between the composer, director and film editor.  Each must trust that the others will do their job.  But first must come the acting and the dialogue which is the instrument upon which the music acts.  I always urge members of my film discussions to make a conscious effort to notice the music and its effect.