Writing music for films

"The absence of music can also be very powerful when a scene contains a particularly frightening or beautiful soundscape. A fantastic example of this can be found amongst James Horner's Oscar winning score for Titanic. As the film builds to its climax, the soundtrack brims with orchestral music and a complex sound design. Audiences follow the ship's captain inside the water-filled bridge, where he stands awaiting his death. For a few precious moments, the music disappears, leaving only the sparse sounds of the creaking ship, dripping water and the character's heavy breathing. By hearing the sounds exactly as the doomed captain would have heard them, the scene becomes much more personal and emotive. When the music returns a few seconds later, accompanying the crashing of the sea through the bridge windows, it is all the more powerful for its absence." Source: [1].

 Music that is used in films highlight onscreen action and emotions and gives scenes a sense of time and place. Sound effects can then be used to simulate reality or even add something that is not really there as to add a surreal affect to the visual. Both can be used to create expectations and moods, such moods can match the moving image or it can contrast it. 

Sound designers sometimes select pre-existing music to accompany the moving image or they will compose, or hire someone to compose, new music. If we wanted to compose music for film a few useful tips are listed below to take lead from:

• To help give the film identity construct memorable melodies, themes and motifs.
• To intensify emotion and heighten tension consider using music more subtly, as to not draw any attention to the music.
• Change the tempo to change the viewer's heart rate and feelings of anxiety; to create a spark of apprehension or fear create a sudden change of tempo; to make the audience feel a sense of security slow down the tempo.
• To heighten tension/ conflict during a scene use complex and unresolved harmonies, such as clashing or dissonant harmonies or unsettling chords.
• Rumbling timpani, double basses and high, screeching violins can be used to create that horror movie atmosphere.
• To keep your audience on edge after heightening their tension use a progression of chords that do not resolve or has an imperfect ending. Do not finish on the tonic! In contrast, if you want the music to resolve use the tonic.
• The absence of music in parts of the film can sometimes be as effective as having it present! Having a quiet passage in a scene can create tension that forces the audience to concentrate and wait in anticipation for a sound to emerge.
• The music should always have a purpose for being present.
• For happy moments consider upbeat music.
• For sad moments consider very dim and dark music.
• You can confuse or mislead the audience with music and sound. You can do this intentionally to surprise the audience.
• To make you music sound authentic, realistic and appealing use ambient sounds or music.
• The volume, pitch and timbre define the overall sonic texture of a film.
• A melody or musical effect and musical properties such as pitch, volume and timbre can all be used to associate music to a character, setting, situation or idea.

Note: you can use the same music to create contrasting effects for different films. For example, the terrifying screechy violin used in Psycho (1960) have a more comic effect when used as background music when Mel Brooks is stabbed in the shower in High Anxiety (1977).

 

Music helping the sick

Music is used by many to benefit health. It is used in meditation, during workouts and as a form of treatment for illnesses. Residents from a veteran home called Stony Brook diagnosed with dementia were given personalized iPods and MP3 players by an organisation called 'Music & Memory.' Studies previously conducted had shown that music reduces agitation in Alzheimer's patients in addition to improving cognitive skills. Those who had conducted this research had recommended that individualized music be used. The results of this form of treatment of the home were of revivals of happy feelings from memories from back in their day. The faces of the residents faces would light up and some would even become more talkative and animated such as Henry seen in this video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyZQf0p73QM, as they listen and remember.

In advance to this, the organisation started using the iPods with the residents as a way of calming them, helping manage their pain and helping them socialize. The music brings them a sense of home, something that, as you can imagine, a lot of the patients look for, which consequently results in bringing calmness to the patients. Similar to this, there have been studies that have shown how intense excitement and uncontrollable movement caused by schizophrenia can be treated by music. The personalized playlists included songs that were favourites during their day. The personalized playlists were made by either asking family members what they liked or used to listen to, nurses building playlists themselves and using the process of trial and error analysing their reactions or family members themselves putting them together.

Similarly Sherri Robb a music therapist who took part of a study on a group of teenage cancer patients where they took part in making a music video, expressed how "songs that are familiar to them [the patients] are meaningful and make them feel connected." Additionally, a spokesman for cancer research UK said that music therapy helped reduce patients' anxiety and some of their physical suffering.

So no, maybe music isn't powerful enough to cure cancer but is powerful enough to help reduce the mental and physical pain caused by cancer and cancer treatments.

 
Sources:
http://amazingdiscoveries.org/S-deception-music_emotion_power

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25878958

http://www.newsday.com/lifestyle/retirement/personalized-music-helps-dementia-patients-1.7120200

Additional recommended reads:
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/apr/15/power-song-helping-people-dementia

 

How our perception of sound affects our response.

No brain is the same. Therefore, not everyone reacts the same to certain sounds. The majority of people find comfort in the sound of rain and tend to feel discomfort to the sound of chalk being scraped against a blackboard [1]. In the context of music, it is well known that we all have our own preference to what we like listening to. Some of us like listening to classical Beethoven music and others prefer rock music. These responses might be due to past experiences or we may also have natural responses to the sounds [1].

The effect a sound can be altered by shifting the modulation rate. This can change the entire emotional response that the listener has. This theory was proven by a neuroscientist called Seth Horowitz, who used different sound samples and altered them to change them from pleasant to unpleasant and vice versa. An example of one of his alterations is of a sound of a cat purring which was speed up to sound like a bee sound. His other example was one of meal worms eating a bat carcass. Initially he doesn't tell the listener what the sound is and instead speaks about what it sounds like...the sound of rain falling on a roof. Then, when he announces what it is, the relaxation feeling that you had from what you thought was rain is changed to disgusted. This, I feel, conveys the impact of sound and the perception of sound on our emotions. To put this into practice we could have a scene in a film where it is raining. If we put that meal worms eating a bat carcass sound sample into that scene to represent the rain the listeners would believe that the sound is rain [2].

 

Music Psychology: An introduction

Shown is a diagram of the Nuclear Accumbens and Ventral Tegmental Area.

Studies have proven that when we listen to music we release the pleasure chemical dopamine (situated in the Ventral Tegmental area of the brain). The release of dopamine in our brain is triggered when a part of our brain called the nucleus accumbens activates. The release of dopamine is the exact same chemical that is released when something we find pleasurable happens to us.


Before going off and trying to write songs to reflect and influence certain emotions or actions. I first need to understand how music actually affects the brain and how the brain responds to music. An even more detailed description of how music affects the brain is explained in the following picture:

 
Sources:
https://medium.com/what-i-learned-today/be3172896a0f
http://visual.ly/psychology-music?utm_source=visually_embed

An Introduction.

For my Special Subject Investigation assignment I will be looking at how we can use Music Psychology and song-writing techniques to provoke specific feelings, thoughts and actions in listeners. I expect to find new techniques and musical devices that I can later use in my song-writing in order to impact and influence people in different ways. In addition to this I expect to get a broader understand of music psychology and how these song-writing techniques scientically impact and work with our brains. 

I will predominately use secondary research via books and the internet, watching videos and reading interviews with psychologists and maybe songwriters (if I can find some!), reading case studies and finding any news articles on research. In addition, I will also conduct a bit of primary research to see if the things I find out through my secondary research impacts me in the way that my research suggests that it will.

Why am I wanting to look into this topic? I am thinking about studying a Psychology degree and I want to write influential and impactful songs. I feel that by looking into this area I will expand my knowledge on song-writing techniques and I will have some evidence to show when applying to University as well as a better understanding of Psychology before I take a degree in it. I don't know, but maybe my research will help other song-writers out there write more impactful songs too.