Citizen Cane

I found this movie to be the hardest one to blog about yet. The music seemed to play an interesting role. In the movie Citizen Cane, there seemed to be a lot more diagetic music then we've heard in most of the movies. For example, Susan, the singer, contributed greatly to the diagetic music with her opera singing which appeared several times throughout the movie. The movie also had a few instances where diagetic music mixed with the underscoring background music like when Susan's opera signing mixes with the orchestrial underscoring from the previous scene. The begining also causes a problem. In the first couple of scenes, their is a newsreel that has much underscoring in it. However, after the newreel ends, it pans to a group of people who were watching the newreel, so the underscoring in the newreel is really diagetic music since the people watching the newreel also heard it. The music from the newreel is clique since it sounds like most of the music one would hear when viewing a newreel of the time period.

The underscoring in the movie acts in a certain way. In the movie there is little underscoring. However, underscoring is most typically present during transitions between scences and is typically just a short score. The underscoring does not seem represent a full orchestra, but a smaller orchestra. The underscoring also has a waltz theme in many of the scenes. For example, during the montage scene with Kane and his wife at breakfast, the music represents a waltz. However, as the montage changes, the waltz also changes. As the scenes show the couples deteriorating relationship, the music represents this by becoming less romantic, and more darker and angrier. And while the underscoring is typically in between scenes, it also appears to help propel the action and mood of the scene forward. For exmaple, their is a romantic feel to the music when Kane meets the "singer." And when she leaves him towards the end, the music has a sad, lonely feel to it. The music also represents Kane's sad, lonely life at the end when we discover that Rosebud is his sled from his childhood. The music has the desperate, hopeless feel to it that I felt as I watched the last scene.

Double Indemnity

The movie Double Indemnity, with scores by Miklos Rozsa, follows many characteristics of Film Noir. One characteristic of Film noir is one prevailing score with typically a dark and pessimistic mood. The opening music in Double Indemnity is the one prevailing score that is repeated throughout the whole movie, and the score was dark and pessimistic like most film noir scores are. The score had harsh and disjunct melodies, contributing to the dark mood of the music. Also, the orchestral music was not typical orchestra melody that was heard in earlier films. It was more wavering and irregular. The main score helped to transition between scenes, which in this case was typically from Walker's narration into the recorder, to the flashbacks of the scenes that already happened. The underscoring was typically not noticeable until scenes of great dramatic importance happened, like during the murder and when Walter and Phyllis are together in the end and we know that Phyllis has a gun. Also, the music ends loud when Walter falls over. In the scene when Phyllis and Walter are together for the last time, it is the first time diagetic music is heard in the film, which is jazz music from the city. This idea is also a characteristic of film noir because they use jazz music which was coming from the city.
The film also contains a "love" theme, however, it is still darker than most "love" themes seen from the classical movie era which was light, soft, and usually played by violins.

The Sea Hawk

The opening music helps create the mood of the movie. The music has an adventurous air to it. It also has elements of romance with the harp sound that is repeated throughout the movie as a leitmotif of Captain Thorpe and his ship. The harp is also prevalent during the romantic scenes between Thorpe and Dona Marie. The horn in the opening music sounded royal and heroic, foreshadowing the presence of royalty in the movie (Queen Elizabeth in this case) and Thorpe heroic actions.

Like in King Kong, underscoring is mixed with diagetic music in the scene where the slave rowers are rowing to the beat of the drum. During this scene, underscoring comes into the scene and fits in rhythm to the drum beats. While the drum beats can be heard to the people on the ship, the background music along with the drum beats can be heard by the viewer, creating a musical score that incorporates the two elements. This idea is also seen later on in the movie when Thorpe's crew is signing after they escape and capture the Spanish ship. The signing is clearly diagetic music, but in the background there are instruments playing that fits in with the saliors song (however the saliors cannot hear the intrusments). The intruments are underscoring, but they still are played in tune with the singing.

Compared to the Spanish ship, the underscoring that takes place when Captain Thorpe's ship is in the scene is exciting, light, heroic, and slightly fantastical. This music really fits the mood of the people on board his ship while the drum beats of the Spanish ship create an air of repetitive, boring, rigorious, and slightly cruel nature. On top of that, Captain Thorpe and his ship have a kind of leitmotif associated with them. While many times, the same victorious, heroic song is played in the underscoring, Thorpe is typically accompanied by a harp cresendo, where the musical notes rise. This creates an almost fantasy atmosphere that portrays Thorpe as heroic, romantic, and well loved.

During the fight scence between the Spanish ship and Thorpe's ship, there is alot of underscoring taking place which helps increase the intensity of the scene. To me, however, the lack of underscoring after the scene was more distant and created a contrast with the loud, hectic music of the battle. Also, as the Spanish ship sank, there was mickey mousing. As the ship slowly sank, the notes in the score slowly decreased, corresponding a 1-1 ratio of the music to what was happening on the screen. Mickey Mousing was also used other times in the movie, such as when Dona Marie was running down the hall way of the castle. The music corresponded to her running. In the scene where one of Thrope's crew falls over and dies when they are abroad the Spanish ship, the music desends as he slowly falls over.

Also, when there are romantic scenes between Thorpe and Dona Marie, the underscoring is soft and light, which intruments that typically portray love, like the violin or harp. Both of these intruments can be heard in the underscoring when Dona and Thrope are in the garden together and other times when they are together.

Gone With the Wind

Theodore Adorno and Hans Eisler would find some musical elements in Gone with the Wind as bad habits. He would have found many songs to be euphonious, with a desire to have beautiful sounding melodies. Many of the songs sounded beautiful and melodious. He would have stated that much of the music was meant to be memorable for the listeners, and not meaninful to the movie. However, Adorno and Eisler would have liked the obtrusivness of the music. They did not believe that music wasn't meant to be heard. In Gone With the Wind, they would have liked that much of the music was very noticeable. For example, in many scenes, the music increased as the drama increased making me very aware of the music. It also increased the intesnsity of the scense because of the increasing volume of the music, such as when Bonnie was jumping with her horse.

Many of Copland's Five Points were also noticeable in the film. Much of the music in Gone with the Wind was background filler such as when Ashley was chopping wood and not much else was going on. It was also a filler when Ashley was just lying in bed after he had been shot in the arm. The music also helped build a sense of continuity in the film during transitions between scenes and during a short montage when the women were gossiping about Scarlet and her business. The music was used to underline psychological refinements. For example, when Scarlet's husband was angry, the music was angry and intesne sounding. And when Scarlet was sad when looking at the picture she had of Ashley, the music changed to slower and sadder music. This helped increase the emotions of the viewers and helped them understand what emotions the characters were feeling. Also, the music provided underpinning for the theatrical build up of a scene. For example, when Scarlet's daughter was riding the horse, the music got louder as the scene intensitifed and forshadowed her daughter falling off. This idea was also used when her father rode the horse. The music in Gone With the Wind helped build a more convincing atmosphere as well. For example, in Bonnie' room, the music sounded like caroseul music, representing childhood.

Gone with the Wind had both diagetic and underscoring. Underscoring took place through most of the movie, but when there was a lack of underscoring, it was noticeable. For example, when Scarlet's sister was upset because of Scarlet marrying her love, the scene seemed less dramatic without underscoring playing its role. Diagetic music was used when a man was singing, and also when Scarlet and her husband were on their honeymoon on the steam boat and the band was playing as they ate dinner.