Accenting Temperament

Andrew Vaccarezza

Dr. Keith Bohm

Music 129, section 2

28 June 2007

Accenting Temperament

During a dark rainy night, a young man is driving down a busy street trying to stay focused and alert. As he approaches an intersection, a car darts out in front of him. Trying to avoid his imminent death, he rips the steering wheel to the right to avoid the car. This is a very tense situation which could use some musical accents. Imagine the same situation starting with a soft upbeat melody of a piano, the light strings of a violin, and the soft beat of a drum. When the car darts out in front the young man, the pitch and amplitude of all three instruments increase dramatically. As one can see, musical lines of narration are more effective than words. If one were watching the situation unfold during a film without music, they would most likely not be startled by the young man almost dieing, but rather slightly surprised.

Over time music has been incorporated into films at an increasing rate. Most main stream productions only have between fifteen and twenty five percent of their entire film missing musical narration. Musical narration adds emotions such as: excitement, sadness, tension, stress, and happiness. Without musical narration, most films would be dry and boring, especially thrillers. Watching scary movies without musical narration is similar to telling a story without raising and lowering the pitch and amplitude of your voice; it is simply boring.

One thriller uses musical narration to its entire extent. This movie is The Amityville Horror staring Ryan Reynolds. During the one hour and twenty nine minutes of film there was only approximately seventeen minutes without musical narration. That is only nineteen percent of the film where some kind of musical narration is not taking place. Everything from driving in the car, to having a ghost trying to drown a character had perfect musical narration. As George Lutz, the character played by Ryan Reynolds, is getting into the bathtub, a light sound of a base drum is at a constant pace accompanied by the light sound of a woodwind playing in the background with a spooky rhythm. Suddenly, the drum rises in amplitude and pace accompanied by the woodwinds screeching in pitch with other brass instruments being added as needed at an even higher amplitude. During the scene George is violently pulled beneath the water by two deathly looking arms on each side of him. This event would not have been as exciting and frightening if the perfect placement of the classical tunes was not carefully placed in the scene.

Exciting and drastic moments in films are not the only areas which need musical narration. Simple scenes need musical narration as well. A scene such as woman walking down the street could use an upbeat tempo of a drum and electric guitar, or even a man reading a book could use light classical music. In the film Just Friends, also staring Ryan Reynolds, almost every regular scene has a light alternative genre. In one particular scene, Chris, the character played by Ryan Reynolds, is in his childhood bedroom at his mother’s house looking at pictures of his old best friend Jamie. During the scene, sounds of a light electric acoustic guitar fade in with a man singing lightly in a tenor voice. However, the man is not singing words but only sweet nothings which work as an instrument to accompany the acoustic guitar at a medium paced melody. Without this accent of temperament by the musical narration the scene would be boring due to Chris just looking at pictures with a blank look on his face.

Musical narrations do more then make scenes more enjoyable. Musical narration also adds temperament to characters. In The Amityville Horror George is characterized differently in the beginning of the film than towards the end. During the beginning of the film, Chris is in many scenes with the typical musical theme of the movie. This typical music theme was a soft and steady pace played mostly by the beat of a soft drum, light brass instruments accompanied by one or two woodwinds. However, towards the end of the film, as George becomes more possessed and evil, his character is emphasized by the third theme of the movie which is ridged, rough, and unpredictable melodies played by loud drums keeping the beat with brass instruments and woodwinds at high pitches and high amplitudes. As characters change so can their musical complement to better highlight their temperament.

Much of musical narration is accenting temperament by using symbolism. Now one might become confused when trying to connect musical narration in a film to symbolism due the symbolism becoming shrouded by the actions in the scenes. In the film