From reading Anahid Kassabians book Hearing Film: tracking identifications in contemporary Hollywood film music I became interested in the idea of how we describe film soundtracks. It was not until reading Kassabians’ book that I realised the way most people just accept the rigid terms of diegetic and non-diegetic sound as tools to distinguish different types of music sources within films. I don’t like the way the notion of non-diegetic music is premised on the assumption that there was a film before the sound
However this notion is not always correct… Often music plays such a profound role in movies that it helps shape the narrative more than dialogue or image. On top of this, there are some instances where the music has been written specifically for a film, prior to it being written or shot. This was the case for one of my favourite directors Sergio Leone and a number of his classic spaghetti Westerns. Ennio Morricone composed the soundtrack for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly before the film was made, and scenes were then created by Leone to accompany the dramatic music. The epic Once Upon a Time in the West was another one of Leone’s masterpieces which was edited following the creation of the songs many months prior to creation of the westerns. The music clearly provides the rhythm for Leones films – and on top of this, music is used as a Leimotiv where characters are portrayed and distinguished by a certain theme tune for example the chilling solo harmonica wails which accompany the mysterious cowboy every time he appears on the screen and add to his eerie character as well as literally “speaking” for him.
Following blogs concerning Arnold Bax, I think spaghetti westerns are relevant examples of the way in which film could aspire to become – more privileging of the sound and the elimination of the notion that there existed a film before the sound. In an age where video clips have become prevalent forms of entertainment, shaped around the moulding of image in order to portray the meaning of songs or in some case solely to sell a song I believe we must look in to the distinctions we use to analyse sound within films. I am not suggesting that every films soundtrack should be created before the films production, however I do believe it is important to demystify the so-called hierarchy of films which privileges image over sound.
1 comment:
I agree with you about the assumption that many people make. I seriously challenge the bounds and use of the terms diagetic and non-diagetic. I have seen far to many films with soundtracks that are just as important as the image to realise that these terms are more like guidlines not definitive. The films i have seen where the soundtrack was made before the film have really stuck with me as some of the best films i have ever seen. Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West being one of them. Like Leone and Morricone, a director called Lynne Ramsay created her soundtrack before her movie 'Morvern Callar' (my fav film). The soundtrack has such meaning to the film, infact its imperative to understand it, without it the film could be seen as quite sadistic. Ramsay blurrs the boundaries between diagetic and non-diagetic sound using the music to share a point of view with the main character.Its hard to describe, if you really appreciate a good soundtrack and you havn't seen it before i STRONGLY suggest you do.
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