The%20Use%20of%20Music%20as%20Emotion%20in%20Film

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The Use of Music as Emotion in Film

• Cheryl Bates, D.M.A.
• Lone Star College-Tomball,
• Professor of Music
• Music Program Director

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The Use of Music as Emotion in Film

• How music contributes to emotional effect
• How general mood is supported by music
• How music affects emotional experience

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Music best enhances a film when it evokes and
modulates a specific emotional response in the
audience. - Roger Corman

• When Your Ear Sets the Stage Musical Context
  Effects in Film Perception by Oliver Vitouch in
  Psychology of Music, vol. 29, no. 1, 2001 pg.
  71-81.

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Brief Historical Facts

• Hearing is the sense that most deeply stirs our
  emotions. - Aristotle
• Earliest known writing about emotional influences
  of film music by Hugo Munsterberg circa 1915.
• Original use of music in film was to mask sound
  of the projector and keep the audience from
  talking but also found purpose in illustration of
  action.

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Important Early Films

• Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon)
  1902
• Entracte by Rene Clair with film score by Erik
  Satie 1924
• The Jazz Singer 1927

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Eight Functions of Music in Film

• Masks extraneous noises of projector and audience
  - original purpose
• Provides continuity between shots in a film

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Eight Functions of Music in Film

• Directs attention to important features of the
  screen through structural or associationist
  congruence (realism).

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Eight Functions of Music in Film

• Induces mood and emotional response
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vldLPFF6tuVM

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Eight Functions of Music in Film

• Communicates meaning and furthers the narrative
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vTgCejsyS0t8

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Eight Functions of Music in Film

• Music becomes integrated with film.
  http//www.youtube.com/watch?v-bzWSJG93P8

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Eight Functions of Music in Film

• Music can heighten the sense of reality in film
  and direct attention and concern.

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Eight Functions of Music in Film

• Music adds to the aesthetic effect of film.

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Concepts of Music as Emotion in Film

• Fast, loud music arouses while slow, soft music
  calms.

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Concepts of Music as Emotion in Film

• Music establishes expectations and implications
  of which some are realized and some are
  violated.

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Concepts of Music as Emotion in Film

• Music responds to changes in the action.

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Music as Emotion in Film

• Musical emotion can aid in delineation of visual
  meaning.
• Music can control emotional response.
• Emotional meaning of music can transfer to
  visuals.
• Music aids sense of reality in the narrative.
• Emotion of music can change as quickly as visuals.

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