Waxman's Dependence On Music

Audio-Visual is co-dependent on ‘music’ hence it’s insertion into the very name. If a scene in a movie is not scribed to a melodic track, then the scene collapses in its believability. Without underscored music in a scene, its deliverance is met with confusion as the audience fails to reciprocate the emotions evoked. Music subtlety pinches our heart’s chords as we watch, ignorant of the music’s coercion. An emptiness parades on screen if music is omitted. The ‘natural’ setting is frequented by upset if no music thunders below. Much is owed to music, the multi-linguist who translates scenario after scenario without fail. Music ensnares our minds and assents to the underlying emotions that bypass it. Music is ubiquitous in the field of film and
The grandeur of the organ wails across the screen. Franz Waxman collaborated with Clifford Vaughan. Vaughan’s virtuosity as an organist and his suave orchestral skills “was tapped by Waxman for this score” . These advances in horror were unprecedented and are marked by “breathtaking use of crescendos and ostinato timps, brilliantly evocative of electrical experimentation” . The themes Waxmann presents are very much distinguishable and coherent. There’s a “five-note motif for the monster” and the implementation of the brass playing “with a flutter tongue” creates a growl effect. A motif is assigned to the female monster and an eerie, menacing theme is employed for Dr.Pretorius. A stern staccato theme forges the atrocities on screen. The leitmotifs progress into an array of complexities, Waxmann even introduces “a contrapuntal interplay of the gestures in the motifs” . Waxman makes use of “timpani to represent an obsessive heartbeat and ghostly string and wind tones” . Waxman’s score was completely unheard of at that time. Waxman didn’t drift too far from Romanticism, but, Waxman was partial to musical expressionism. He uses “Romantic-era harmonies” to portray the
When explicitly citing Horror, it’s inconceivable not to mention it! Hitchcock contends that “33% of the effect of ‘Psycho’ was due to music” . Hermann was tied to limitations, with budget regulations so this led to a smaller instrument ensemble. Steven Smith, Hermann’s biographer, stated that “everything in the budget got cut back, including apparently the music. So Hermann was working with a little less” . The score is reserved for budding strings. Hermann chose the exclusive motion of strings because he felt that it worked well with this colourless world. Fred Steiner, a famous Hollywood composer, commended Hermann on his family selection. He stated that the “use of strings provided Hermann with a wider palette in terms of tone, dynamics and instrumental special effects than any other single instrument group would have.” The strings produce a sound fraught with dissonance, which breaks into an interminable, compelling episode of anxiety. An unsettling array of shrieks accompany the images on screen as the violins cry a series of harmonics. Psycho is solely reliant on non-diegetic music. This form re-iterates that,” something out of the ordinary is happening or about to happen.” The non-diegetic music widens the gap, from reality and “gets an even stronger weighting on the side of the irrational” . The score exists as a narrative cue and voice “tasked with the portrayal of physical characteristics