Film Music

Film Music refers to any music that is featured in a film, either as a background accompaniment and/or in-world, such as music a character listens to. Film music can be separated into two main categories: soundtrack and film score.

A film soundtrack is the selection of music that is used in a given film, typically pre-existing music that is licensed. Generally, music for a film's soundtrack is selected by a music supervisor in consultation with a film's director and producer. Often these songs are also released as an album. Sometimes a film’s soundtrack will feature original songs - songs produced specifically for the film. An example of this is Celine Dion’s "My Heart Will Go On", produced for and featured in Titanic (1997).

The choice of music featured in a film’s soundtrack has wide implications for the aesthetics of a film. For example, period pieces typically utilize music from the period being portrayed. This creates a greater sense of historical immersion for the audience and can conjure feelings of nostalgia. Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox (2012) does this, matching its 1960’s/70’s setting with a soundtrack full of music from that time period. However, another technique is purposely using music anachronistic to a film’s setting. Baz Luhrmann chose to feature modern pop music in his remake of The Great Gatsby (2013), a film set during the 1920’s. In an interview with Rolling Stone, he explained that:

“The question for me in approaching Gatsby was how to elicit from our audience the same level of excitement and pop cultural immediacy toward the world that Fitzgerald did for his audience? And in our age, the energy of jazz is caught in the energy of hip-hop.”^[1]

Some filmmakers have become known for their preference for using soundtracks rather than film scores, a good example being Sofia Coppola. Filmmakers who work in this mold will often plan scenes around the use of a particular song. These moments are referred to as "needle-drops."

Another common technique is the use of pre-existing classical/opera pieces in a film’s soundtrack. These pieces function similarly to how a film’s score does. Stanley Kubrick chose to use a selection of classical pieces rather than a film score for much of the run-time of The Shining (1980).

A film score is the collection of music composed and produced specifically for a film, typically by a composer in consultation with a film’s director and producers.

Film scores vary by genre, but most commonly are recorded live by a symphony orchestra, such as James Horner’s original score for Titanic (1997). Some film scores heavily feature electronic music, synths, or other forms of non-traditional orchestration. The score for Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow (2019), composed by William Tyler, features electric guitar, toy piano, banjos, and mandolins^[2]. Film scores, similarly to film soundtracks, are often released as albums. It’s common for film score albums to feature altered versions of film score cues to improve their listenability^[3].

In the traditional film scoring process, a composer would write all the music for a film. John Williams is known for this approach. However, a new model is becoming the dominant one in Hollywood film scoring. In this one, the film’s composer is more of a team leader, dictating the “tonal palette” for a film, Hans Zimmer refers to this as “sketching”, and assigning cues to additional composers or studio assistants to compose for specific scenes^[4]. Under this model, the actual moment to moment scoring of a film is done by these additional composers, who are often uncredited.

One of the most common techniques in film scoring is known as leitmotif - the use of a recurrent theme. Repeated use of a theme can create an association between it and a person, object, place, or idea. A composer can then develop or change the theme to reflect the changes occurring within the story to that person, object, place, or idea. An example of this is Howard Shore’s score for The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which makes use of dozens of leitmotifs, all associated with various people (ex. Aragorn), objects (ex. the Ring), places (ex. the Shire), and ideas (ex. nature)^[5].

Another common technique is the use of texture. Composers can make use of non-traditional instrumentation to add a unique texture to a film’s score. This can create/add to a film’s atmosphere. It can also be used in a similar fashion to leitmotif, communicating change to people, objects, places, and ideas through the texture of the music. An example of this is Hans Zimmer’s score for Interstellar (2014), which heavily features organ music. Zimmer used the organ’s association with religion to musically express the idea of the vastness of space and time^[6].

Film music can be diegetic or non-diegetic. Diegetic means existing within the film’s world, i.e. the characters in the film can hear the music. Non-diegetic film music is music only the audience can hear. Film music can cross over these boundaries, starting off as either diegetic or non-diegetic and transitioning into the other within a scene. This is commonly done at the beginning/end of montage sequences or to transition from one scene to the next.

• Cue - an individual piece of music in a film score.
• Leitmotif - a recurring theme that represents a person, object, place, and/or idea.
• Needle drop - when a piece of pre-existing music is used in a scene.
• Theme - a musical phrase.

1. ↑ RJ Cubarrubia, “Jay-Z Producing Music for ‘Great Gatsby’”, Rolling Stone, 2013. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/jay-z-producing-music-for-great-gatsby-181443/
2. ↑ Nadine Smith, “Music from First Cow”, Pitchfork, 2020. https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/william-tyler-music-from-first-cow/
3. ↑ Michael W. Harris, “Hollywood Film Scores.” Notes, vol. 74, no. 3, Mar. 2018, pp. 497–502. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=edsjsr&AN=edsjsr.26397539&site=eds-live&scope=site.
4. ↑ Mark Rozzo, ““The Minions Do the Actual Writing”: The Ugly Truth of How Movie Scores Are Made”, Vanity Fair, 2022. https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/02/the-ugly-truth-of-how-movie-scores-are-made
5. ↑ Doug Adams, "The Music of The Lord of the Rings Films", Alfred Music, 2010.
6. ↑ J. Bryan Lowder, "How Interstellar’s Stunning Score Was Made", Slate, 2014. https://slate.com/culture/2014/11/making-interstellars-score-hans-zimmer-s-soundtrack-explored-in-exclusive-featurette-video.html