T ECNOLOGÍAS , PATRONES Y LENGUAJES UTILIZADOS

In addition to cultural shifts, in both audience demographics and industry business practices, from the 1960s through today, technological advancements have significantly impacted film music and created a foundation for Filminimal music. The history of

developing film and sound technologies has been discussed many times over in much more depth than can be explored in this thesis,33 _{however, it is worth briefly looking at certain}

developments that have directly influenced Filminimal music and its forebears.

Perhaps the largest and most influential change to the film music landscape to come from this time period is the use of electronic instruments and digital recording practices. Like Minimalism, film music in the 1960s and 1970s embraced unusual ways of producing music, but while Minimalism looked first at acoustic sound recording and reproduction,34

film music turned to the synthesiser.35 _{Synthesisers were not invented in the 1970s, nor}

were they first added into film scores at that time – the Novachord from Hammond was first released in the late ’30s, and heard in film music not long after – however, their prime came in the ’70s and ’80s due to the ‘widespread embrace of digital audio devices’ (Spring, 2016, 273), which produced a surge in synth scores for both film and television. Wendy Carlos (A Clockwork Orange in 1971 and TRON in 1982), Giorgio Moroder (Midnight

Express in 1978, American Gigolo in 1980, Cat People in 1982), and Vangelis (Chariots of Fire in 1981, Blade Runner in 1982, The Bounty in 1984) all provided some of the earliest

and most influential scores that use predominantly synthesised music, and Moroder’s

Midnight Express was the first synthesised score to win the ‘Best Original Score’ Academy

Award in 1979. However, in those scores by Carlos, Moroder, and Vangelis, the synthesised

33 _{See Lack, Cooke, Smith, Buhler & Neumeyer, Chion, and others for more detailed looks.} 34 _{Notably Le Monte Young (Trio for Strings, 1958) and Terry Riley were famous for this.} 35 _{Lack (2002) has a good section on electronic film music, see pps. 310-321.}

sounds were often used as orchestral music would have been: an ‘unadventurous melodic use of synthesisers, eschewing the more radical timbral possibilities of the developing technology in favour of quasi-orchestral textures that offered the promise of both low budgets and mass-market appeal’ (Cooke, 2008, 467). This is often the style of music used when setting a film or television series in the 1980s to create a semblance of nostalgia or anachronism, as with Stranger Things (created by the Duffer Brothers, 2016) and Cliff Martinez’s collaborations with director Nicholas Winding Refn (Drive, 2011 and The Neon

Demon, 2016).

With Blade Runner in 1982 and The Bounty in 1984, the first roots of Filminimalism start to take hold, as both Vangelis scores were praised for their lack of stereotypical

soundtrack cues. Blade Runner was considered ‘an evocative experience, less a soundtrack [and] more an ambient journey through one of the richest of Vangelis’ sound worlds’.36

Cooke (2008, 467) writes that the synthesised music style was ‘most effective when

simplest, as in the characteristic sustained tones and threatening percussion of the Bounty music – the kind of simple rhetorical gestures that can be used in many different dramatic contexts’. This terminology – ‘ambient journey’, ‘simplest’, ‘sustained tones’, ‘rhetorical gestures’, ‘different dramatic contexts’ – is indicative of Filminimalism, and signposts these films as prototypes of contemporary Filminimal Music. As this thesis will show, the work of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross has continued this tradition of using synthesisers to create ambient journeys through rich sound worlds and mutable rhetorical gestures.37

Synthesiser music and ‘understatement, subliminal suggestion, and emotional detachment’ seemed from the very beginning to go hand in hand.38 _{While string orchestras}

36 _{M. Walker, 1998, 207, quoted in Cooke, 2008, 467.}

37 _{Reznor and Ross have even quoted Moroder and Carlos as influences on their work.} 38 _{Maclean, 1993, 36, quoted in Cooke, 2008, 470.}

were often used to convey human emotion due to their proximity to and imitation of the human voice (Kalinak (1992, 13) notes how the violin is ‘characterised by its ability to “sing”’), synthesisers sounded electronic and unnatural, and were therefore linked with unemotive and inhuman characters and settings. Tangerine Dream embraced this link in their music for Thief (dir. Michael Mann, 1981), Risky Business (dir. Paul Brickman, 1983), and Legend (dir. Ridley Scott, 1984). Their use of synthesisers ‘created mood music rather than following the dynamics of a sequence of visual images, their output ranging from quiet contemplation to aggressively percussive rock style, and often reliant on direct and

prolonged repetition of basic ideas’ (Cooke, 2008, 469). These assessments are all ones used to describe minimalist music as well,39 _{again signposting these film scores as precursors to}

the ones representing Filminimalism in this thesis.

Besides the technological advances in the music and instruments used in film scoring,40 _{the way that music is made for films has changed as well, with: digital editing of}

both image and sound; the decrease in composers writing music ‘to picture’, spotting

sessions, and click tracks; and the ever-expanding use of ‘temp tracks’. The imagetrack has been captured digitally in different ways since the 1970s, with motion-control systems, and since the 1980s, with Sony’s first digital video camera, but only became widespread after George Lucas used digital cameras to shoot Star Wars Episodes I-III, beginning in 1999 (Thompson & Bordwell, 2010, 714-5). Since the production of the RED One (2007) and the Arri Alexa (2010), digital video recording has skyrocketed to the point that many

filmmakers now prefer shooting in digital (Hexel, 2014, 92). Audio has also been recorded digitally since the 1970s, with the first Compact Disc prototype and the first digitally-

39 _{See Eaton, 2008, 23-26.}

40 _{For a more detailed analysis of sequencers, DAWs, MIDI, and other composition practices, see Hexel, 2014, 172-} 177, and Spring, 2016, 273-288.

recorded albums occurring in 1979. Digital recording for film gained mainstream appeal in the early nineties with Dolby Labs using digital sound on Batman Returns in 1992, DTS (Digital Theatre System) using digital CD technology on Jurassic Park in 1993, and Sony using SDDS (Sony Dynamic Digital Sound) on Last Action Hero, also in 1993.41

Before digital sound and image technology, a composer would often be brought in to what is called a ‘spotting session’ in order to make decisions, alongside the director, as to ‘precisely where extradiegetic music should enter and exit the soundtrack’ (Wierzbicki, 2009, 138). Sometimes this would be after the film had been completely edited – what is called a ‘locked picture’ – but the cues would almost always be precisely synched and time stamped to the image through the use of click tracks, stop watches, or visual cueing aides (Cooke, 2008, 74-5). However, since digital editing has become the norm, the studio often tries to keep the film ‘open’ for as long as possible, to allow for more freedom on the part of the director and film editor (Hexel, 2014, 95).

Because of this, composers in the 21st _{century, including the composers whose work}

is explored in this thesis, often write music before they see the film, and therefore cannot write music that reacts precisely to the images. They even sometimes create music and send it in to the director or music editor before or during filming. This is not a new practice; there are reports from the 1980s that Vangelis liked to work ‘without reference to specific timings for scenes and merely delivers finished tracks to the music editor, who is then expected to edit them to the appropriate length for a given scene’.42 _{However, that was the}

exception at the time, and it has now become the norm. This has had an effect on the style of music being created as well, as a ‘modular approach (whereby elements can be freely

41 _{See Buhler & Neumeyer, 2010, 393.}

layered and re-combined)’ (Hexel, 2014, 96) can be considered the most effective strategy to deal with constantly changing timing cues and re-edited scenes, an approach that ‘certainly precludes expressive and developmental possibilities inherent in traditional scores’ (ibid.).

Lastly, ‘temp tracks’ – shortened from ‘temporary tracks’ – are cues temporarily added to scenes as a placeholder until the composer has time to write an original cue, or to help the director clarify his or her vision for the score to a composer. Temp tracks have been around since at least the 1940s – the Billy Wilder film The Lost Weekend (1945) had

audiences believing it was a comedy rather than a drama due to a jazzy temp track used in test screenings (Cooke, 2008, 113) – but they have become more popular in recent years due to the ubiquity of digital audio recording and the ability to find any existing piece of music and use it as a placeholder for the editing of a film until the composer can then write

something to replace it. However, many composers take issue with them, as they can limit a composer’s creativity and can also cause a director to become attached to the temp track and demand the composed music sound more like it.43 _{Mychael Danna believes them to be}

‘destructive’ and limiting to the choices he as a composer can make (Hexel, 2014, 126), and Bernard Herrmann became irate when watching a new film that used a previous score of his as a temp track: “How can I think about anything new with that playing?” (Cooke, 2008, 210). However, as temp tracks were not used in any of the films discussed in this thesis, it is not necessary to cover them in more detail.44

43 _{For a great look at temp tracks and why contemporary film music often sounds the same, see the videos “The} Marvel Symphonic Universe” and “Hollywood Scores and Soundtracks” by the YouTube channel Every Frame a

Painting.

2.3: Conclusion

In conclusion, while this thesis will primarily look at Filminimal music and how it is used in specific films from 2010-2016, it is important to remember that no film or music is ever created in a vacuum. The historical milieu from which Filminimal music was born is an eclectic mix made up of both cultural and technological aspects. The purpose of this section has been to explore some of the cultural and technological history that has preceded this musical genre, as well as the contemporary culture in which, and technology with which, this music is written.

Filminimal music, while fairly recent, has roots in movements, ideas, and technology that date back to the 1960s and earlier. Minimalism of the 1960s started a movement that continues today – one which focuses less on the extended melodies and harmonies that flourished in Romantic music of the late 19th _{century and more on simple rhythmic and}

harmonic textures. This transition has also occurred in film music, from the sweeping Romantic-style classical score that accompanied Gone with the Wind (dir. Victor Fleming, 1939) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (dir. Michael Curtiz and William Keighley, 1938), through to the percussive, modal music of today, as perfected by Hans Zimmer and his associates at RCP. This new style, as well as notable forebears to Filminimalism – Jean Cocteau’s accidental synchronisation method, Herrmann’s cellular technique, Vangelis’ soundscapes, among others – will be explored in the next chapter.

On the business side, however, little has changed. Hollywood producers and studios in the Golden Era used music that was strictly regulated and focus-tested, and this

‘catalogue and pigeonhole treatment of musical material automatically result[ed] in the tendency to confine it to the existing supply, and, whenever anything new emerge[d], in the attempt to mould it to fit administrative classifications’ (Adorno and Eisler, 1947, 33).

While music and film technology have advanced, particularly in the field of digital editing and recording, allowing for a higher-quality sound and an easier post-production process, this mentality is still at the forefront of many film scoring decisions. Film music is still often written to be familiar and unobtrusive and to help sell the most tickets to the target demographics of teenagers and young adults. Technology and culture have advanced over the past 100 years; for the most part, the Hollywood business relationship to film music has not.