Essay Example on Monster Soundtracks: Music in Film Since 1800s

Over the years, music and films have formed their alliances even before scream queens, and Cinema demons had their voices. The contemporary Monster soundtracks can be dated back to the silent film era in the onset of the 19th century. In the early 1920s, a film known as A Symphony of Horror premiered accompanied by a musical soundtrack by Hans Erdmann. Even though none of his original recordings still exist, the film's music still lingers even in modern times. The use of music in movies is what moves the viewer at the same time, enhancing the emotional experience of the film. When the music or soundtrack I paired with the right visuals, it can enhance the meaning on the screen and how the listener feels about it. These soundtracks generally target basic human fears, whether they are rooted in fight response, primal flight, or the current cultural anxieties. Anyone who is a fan of Monsters knows that they soundtracks can be one of the terrifying aspects of the film. As such, Monster movies would be nothing without blood-curdling screams and screeching violins. No other film genres manipulate its viewers with sound and music like Monsters and Horror films. Thus, the research evaluates the effectiveness of music in characterizing monster characters compared to the visual design and other aspects of the movie.

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To begin with, even though in most scenarios, Monsters are often musical and noisy, music is also employed in these films to communicate the monstrosity of the characters in the minds of the audience. Other than accompanying the narrative of the movie, soundtracks also communicate extra interpretive tools that complement the information presented by the visual narrative. Thus, before serving as a monster film soundtrack, they must have certain qualities ranging from providing otherness, contrast, and dorsally. Looking into the contrast that differentiates Monsters, music, and sound employed in these films often offer a clear contrast with their surroundings. For instance, a soundtrack might suddenly become loud or silent when the monster appears. This can also apply in the form of a sudden blast of dissonance commonly when the killer appears in close up or uncanny silence when the hero of the movie approaches a danger zone.

Monsters need to be musically and visually depicted, an effect that can only be achieved through soundtracks depending on the composing style. According to Barthes (1977), timbre, which is defined as the gain of musical sound, often reflects on the music light, color, or temperature (Barthes). This aspect is important for the viewer's interpretation of the film as most timbres have monstrous connotations-the grunt and growl as important in movies as they are in rock and metal bands. For instance, the mechanic connotations employed Frankensteinian videogames and movies were used to show his monstrosity. Blumstein Et al. (2010) also suggest that there is an art and a science to a monster soundtrack. A study done by Daniel Blumstein, a professor at the University of California, evaluated nonlinear sound in films (Blumstein Et al. 573). The results of the study implied that monster soundtracks are tapped in our primal fears. The study posits that monster movies subconsciously remind us of primordial times. For instance, nonlinear sounds such as stingers of the Psycho violin often trigger fear among humans. This is mainly because every individual has the same fear response; the only distinction comes out on how you can trigger it in different scenarios. Stranger things and the Halloween have strong emotions in them as the author suggests that it taps in the adrenaline and our fight instincts.

One of the most well-known music characterizations of the Monster character is John Carpenter's soundtrack in the movie The Fog. The monster in this film is a ghost that manifests itself in a radiant mist. The filmmaker presents a gothic return of the repressed which is accompanied by emphasis on machine sound and a ticking clock. The machine sound depict a disembodied presence while the ticking clock represents a collapse of different timelines. According to Faith, Simon and Lawrence (2005), the leitmotif in the film resembles a broken foghorn used by synthesizers (Faith, Simon and Lawrence). John Carpenter also credits Suspiria as a very influential person in his unforgettable Halloween performance.

Similarly, Gore Verbinski's The Ring (2002) is also characterized the same way as in The Fog. In the movie, the monster is depicted as a human ghost who appears through recordings and videotapes. Just like in The Fog, the return of the ghost is by Hans Zimmer's mechanic soundtrack. The music plays following the visuals of the film. Different from other tonal scores and conventional symphonic that Zimmer provided, the music stands out, reminding the viewer of an impending danger originating from the mysterious recordings. This is mainly attributed to the fact that atonal sounds are generally a sign of a large presence in a movie.

One of the most popular music characteristic music in monster movies is excess. It is apparent that in most horror movies, the music is too dissonant, too harsh, or too loud. They also involve too many percussion instruments and brass, which shows why it is commonly unpleasant. The pioneers of this technique of musical monstrosity are the London Hammer Studios. In a timeframe of 30 years between the 1950s and 1980s, the studio created more than 40 horror movies of all varieties ranging from aliens, zombies, werewolves to mummies, Frankensteinian monsters, and vampires. Most of these films were characterized by the hyperbolic depiction of screaming women.

Additionally, the studio accompanied these scary sounds with soundtracks that resembling classic Hollywood movies. These soundtracks were significant in the visuals and different aspects of the movies. Hammer Studios' cinematic and musical format unsubtle is the keyword as the screaming excess of fear replaces the liminal spaces and twilight zones of gothic. Hammer's musicality is lean on leitmotiv and foreboding that become a musical language of horror that can is read easily. This artistic language entails excess stingers and a musical equivalent of splatter that are too dissonant and loud, leitmotifs that are repeated too often, the iconography of drum rolls and tremolos, the sudden rising and falling of music. The supply of enormous and repetition of these effects have been so influential that other composers can use them as a musical reference bank by future horror film composers.

There is another type of excessive musical horror occurring in The Vampire Lover, which is aptly characterized by the presence of poster taglines, 'Ghoulish! Gory! Ghastly!' and, 'Blood Nymphs!' in the film. In the first scene of the movie, there's a chromatic double bass movement that is accompanied by the shots at the deserted cemetery. The second scene is relaxed; therefore, the high violin tremolos in the background of the diegetic sound insinuating that something terrifying is about to happen. A dead body is discovered, resulting in the piercing shrieks, which are followed by the sudden boost of brass strings. The camera then focuses on the path of the cemetery, showing the vampire creeping away after the low drumbeats. These effects are followed by last shots of bloody fangs reactivating the brass strings again, making the scene come to an end (Lerner). The sequence of all these scenes and the explicit footage, accompanied by the standard music setting, brings the tone for the remaining part of the film doing so in no uncertain ways. Every bit of music in the introduction has a specific meaning in the horror soundtrack idiom. The musicality used in the scenes is very explicit that it's practically possible to understand it without watching it. Excessive loudness and semiotic over-explicit music and sound support the visual obscenity of horror.

Lastly, another quality of monstrous sound entails to that which David Wills calls the dorsal. The dorsally indicates that which is in the darkness and behind our backs that can't be seen but only felt unless we turn around. The dorsal forces us to reconfigure our configuration of ourselves concerning our surroundings. It is can only felt by other senses and can't be perceived by sight. Sometimes the dorsal can be felt through smell, but mostly through hearing announcing itself through the rattling of leaves, a whisper, a shout, a rumble, or a murmur. Dorsal sounds take us by surprise and reveal itself when we least expect it and increases with the horror of the monster. The effects of dorsally can be achieved by the careful arrangement of the stated elements above. Leitmotifs, as a musical illustration of dorsal, are very suitable for the dorsal characterization of monsters. In the film, The Shining and the monstrosity of white-nose in the Ring, the dorsal is achieved by an imprint of the beast with a sonic quality of horror. There is also chromatic defiance of the semitone that smoothens tonal melodies. There's also a stubborn repetition of the chromatics that exceeds the flow of music. These effects were followed by low string timbres that have dark overtones. The dorsal result announces the danger was looming around before the shark attacks.

Conclusion

In summation, the use of music in Monster movies is something that has been in existence for over a century. In such films, when the music is paired with the right visuals, it can enhance the meaning on the screen and how the listener feels about it. These soundtracks generally target basic human fears, whether they are rooted in fight response, primal flight, or the current cultural anxieties. Research also suggest monster movies subconsciously remind us of primordial times since because every individual has the same fear response; the only distinction comes out on how you can trigger it in different scenarios. Other than accompanying the narrative of the film, music also communicates extra interpretive tools that complement the information presented by the visual narrative.

Works Cited

Barthes, Roland. "From Work to Text" and "The Grain of the Voice." In _Image Music Text_, ed. Roland Barthes." (1977).

Blumstein, Daniel T., Richard Davitian, and Peter D. Kaye. "Do film soundtracks contain nonlinear analogues to influence emotion?." Biology letters 6.6 (2010): 751-754.

Frith, Simon, Andrew Goodwin, and Lawrence Grossberg, eds. Sound and vision: The music video reader. Routledge, 2005.

Lerner, Neil, ed. Music in the horror film: Listening to fear. Routledge, 2009.

Link, Stan. "The monster and the music box: Children and the soundtrack of horror." Music in the Horror Film. Routledge, 2009. 50-66.

Verbinski, Gore. "The ring [Motion picture]." United States of America: DreamWorks SKG (2002).