Film Music
I think the title says it all; in film the “music” does not come first. This is why film music was held in such low esteem by my, and past generations. When I talk about film music I mean the melodrama or what is also called “under scoring” in the theater. This is the art of heightening a scene with music. Though theatrical, the melodrama is primarily an instrumental form. When film music makes its way into concert music its usually for composed sections that have no dialog (are silent). Here the music can at least hold half the interest or more for example; Elmer Bernstein’s “The Magnificent Seven”. For the techniques of film composing I would direct you to David Amram’s autobiography “Vibrations”. www.davidamram.com
Opera and Film
Operatic gate keepers have of late have turned to pop musicians and movie composer to create works. Film composers have financial success and glamor if not the high profile household name of the pop composers. The challenge for the film folks is that Opera, unlike the melodrama, is not an instrumental form. Opera is not just about the theatrical voice and its expressive abilities its also about the characters. The history of opera is filled with composers who specialized in this form as they knew how to do this. Brahms, who composed lovely songs did not compose opera. Wagner’s symphonic works are a question and his songs are few and very operatic. Composing for the theatrical voice takes experience and practice. On the other hand each successful opera composer also created their own distinct vocal sound and type. Of all the recent opera and concert work I have heard this fact seems to be the most neglected. The history of music is not standing still. Many recent and older “advanced” composers take the Puccini voice as the operatic voice of choice even though their accompaniments never have the same kind of line-only the voice has it. The voice then sounds as a fish out of water never quite integrating into the texture. This perhaps has more to do with the composers access to important singers then to the composition of opera. Also, I would not consider the transfer of popular, miked, singing into opera as the same kind of originality unless the microphone did something other than amplify or use the voice as a purely instrumental object.
Formally speaking Opera, unlike Film or Broadway requires some musical integration, which film does not, and not just reprises at that.
Another difference between instrumental composition and film music is that in instrumental music the form organically flows from the mind of the composer. Film music must be designed contextually to illustrate the visuals, so its form must outline the action.
For example; an angry man walks 10 paces then turns to look in a window.
The music also depends on how fast he is walking and what he might see.
Whether the changes in the action are musically motivated or not does not matter-the action must be highlighted. In fact an organic approach would not work in film as it would distract from the images. So film music is based on musical gestures rather than on organic materials. There can also be wide time separations of these gestural fragments. This is why most of the film music you hear is re-arranged for concert performance.
Actually, there are many melodramas from the 30’s and 40’s that could be turned into operas simply by turning the dialog into melody or patter that would fit into the underscored music. Some work would have to be done to expand the composed score.