Sometimes a director might choose to use an existing piece of classical music, instead of having music specially composed for the film.
What? Classical music that a director has chosen to use in their film. Where? All over the world When? Since film first had sound (1927) Who? George Gershwin, Stravinsky, Elgar, Rachmaninov etc |
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Diegetic and Non-Diegetic Film Music
DIEGETIC FILM MUSIC – music within the film for both the characters and audience to hear e.g. a car radio, a band in a nightclub or sound effects such as guns in the distance or screeching car breaks. Also known as SOURCE MUSIC or IN-VISION MUSIC. NON-DIEGETIC FILM MUSIC – music which is “put over the top” of the action to increase the effect of the film and for the audience’s benefit and which the characters within the film can’t hear e.g. music to accompany a car chase. Also known as UNDERSCORE or INCIDENTAL MUSIC. |
To link one scene to another and smooth over visual cuts, providing continuity
Repeated sections of music can be used to link different parts of the film together – it can remind you of something that happened earlier in the film. The style of music can also change within a film with different sections of the film having different moods – love, humour, battle/war. Film scores may be MONOTHEMATIC where the entire film score is based upon a single melody e.g. David Raksin’s “Laura” (1944) which is heard so often and in many different circumstances, that it comes to “haunt the listener”. |