Throughout the semester we have been reading, observing and listening to music and music analysis’s. Articles gave examples and broke down how to really look over music and multimedia to get the answers we were looking for. Then in class we would attempt to do the same things the author of the articles did. Those things consisted of leitmotif or themes, when there is music or lack of music, what type of music, the instruments, and what emotions it evoked. In class we started off shaky but with practice we have come a long way.
With this article I am going to display what I have learned in the form the authors I read about used. The first time I read about breaking down an article was in the (Cohen 2013) article. She used a scene from Avatar as an example. With her working narrative diagram it was possible to keep the analysis organized and complete. I will use this model and apply it to the scene from E. T. that I chose. To set it up, E. T. the Extra Terrestrial was the movie shown to be analyzed. The music done by John Williams whom I will be referencing within the article.
E. T. was produced by Steven Spielberg and I will be describing what he portrayed along with the music. The scene I chose was the ‘Floating Bike Ride’ that was toward the end of the movie with very climatic features. The scene started approximately at 1:40:00 into the movie maybe a little before (Netflix provided time stamps and was very inaccurate), and the scene ended at around 1:45:00 when the flight was over. To express the themes, I also described another scene earlier on in the picture at 00:39:00, ‘Floating Playdoh Balls’
The scene ‘Floating Bike Ride’ begins around 1:40:00 with loud orchestra at beginning, where Elliot, his brother and friends help E. T. escape from the police by bike in a high speed chase. Almost sleigh bell like sounds in the background paired with a high pitch to introduce tension to the scene. Alarming, and representing the intensity of the situation The high pitch continues with its fast blood pumping tempo. With the chase underway, diegetic sounds emerge like, E. T. ’s noises, tires screeching, police sirens, and kids yelling.
The music becomes more brassy, and less high pitched relieving the audience slightly but still keeping the prospect of trouble. The tempo stays fast and frantic. John Williams makes this part hopeful and enjoyable for the viewer by keeping the strings like the violin and cello going for the familiar melodic theme as the kids continue to pedal away from the police. The music dies for a second because of the almost relief of danger, they had escape the vehicles on their tail, it works to flow the next sequence of music into the movie.
The next scene shows a sudden burst of people, reporters, and police men coming at the group of kids escaping with their extra-terrestrial friend. The music does get high pitched again to bring back the tension. It increasingly gets higher and faster as they get closer to being caught. Without an escape route, the road blocked by enemy vehicles, Elliot closes his eyes the music changes to be elated and triumphant when E. T. makes all the kids helping him on bikes take off into the sky with his foreign powers, safe from everyone else. The bells return with the high pitched victory music for the climax.
The music continues until they return to the ground at 1:43:22. The theme that was played for most of this scene was scored the most intensely and obviously which its why I chose to describe it. The theme also takes place in other key moments as build up to the climax and to correspond with similar situations, this tool John Williams used is called leitmotif. According to (Cohen 2013) a scene reaches ‘long-term memory’ through a flow chart of criteria. If all needs are met it can create a lasting impression with exactly what the artist meant to present.
The criteria consist of text, speech, visual, music, and sound effects. With the visual and music standing out, and my main focus, the model shows the relation between the two. They influence the effects of the motion picture separately and together. An example of text in the ‘Floating Bike Ride’ would be the word “POLICE” on the side of a vehicle so you know that it is the authorities adding to the intenseness of the chase. For speech an example is the kids yelling “insert quote”, understanding the communication going on during the scene and knowing what all the characters know.
Visual examples, would be what you see, people places things, an colors i. e. the people running onto the street after the boys on bikes. Music examples would be the scoring that interacts with what you see, which is what I described in the paragraph above i. e. high pitched intense music. Lastly, sound effects would be the other sounds that are naturally made by the people, places, or things in the film, like in the scene it would be the tires screeching on pavement. With each of these put together you create a working narrative with complete control of what is being portrayed with minimal interpretation.
The second scene ‘Floating Playdoh Balls’ begins before the first scene at around 00:39:82- 00:40:00 of the movie. The music was the same music played during the ‘Floating Bike Ride’ scene. However, John Williams scored it slightly differently. He made the tune fainter, tempo a tad slower the buildup shorter and the pitches a little softer to refrain from the intensity he later on wanted to show at 1:42:69 as I described already. This theme shows itself once more at 1:04:88 before the climax at 1:42:69. This theme or leitmotif was used to relate both the scenes and foreshadow.
They were related because E. T. used is power to make things levitate. The playdoh balls were obviously a much smaller scale earlier on in the movie so Williams used scoring techniques to make the same theme reflect the much smaller scale. The foreshadowing was used in the scene by once you heard the theme with the levitating balls and then it returned when they were on bikes you could relax because E. T. was going to help with the powers that he had used before. This is actually a type of Classical conditioning like the dogs of Pavlov and the bell.
The third scene ‘Halloween Flight’ at 1:04:88- 1:05:79 was also the same theme as the ‘Floating Playdoh Balls’ and ‘Floating Bike Ride’. Compared to the playdoh balls the theme was scored a lot less scary. It was a confident tune was slightly longer melodic phrases and the strings were hearty as E. T. and Elliot flew over the forest in his bike on Halloween night in hopes to communicate with E. T. ’s home. This flight was obviously planned based on its scoring. Though less intense than the flight at the end of the chase, it was stronger than the playdoh floating balls.
Much like E. T. and his progressively strengthening powers. The return of this theme foreshadowed the return of it again at the climax and posed the question of what would happen when the music did return. With the correlation of the objects in flight with this music and the first two scenes (00:39:82-00:40:00 & 1:40:00-1:43:22), you could expect another object in flight. The leitmotif I have confirmed happened in three scenes, the first scene occurring at 00:39:82 – 00:40:00 ‘Floating Playdoh Balls’ was the first time we were introduced to the melodic strings.
E. T. displayed his powers to the children and made the Playdoh float. This scene the melody was faint and short and a little scary, which reflected in Elliot when he screamed from the absurd sight. The second time the theme played was on Halloween night ‘Halloween Flight’ at 1:04:88-1:05:79 Elliot growing more comfortable with E. T. s powers they used them on taking off from a cliff on a bike. The same melodic strings played with more confidence for a little longer until they crash landed.
Hesitant yet successful the scoring of the same theme reflected in Elliot as he is nervous to take off but smiles as he puts his trust in his alien friend and enjoys the ride. The last scene ‘Floating Bike Ride’ at 1:40:00-1:43:22 the familiar theme was led up to by a chase after freeing E. T. from the authorities. Once they were trapped, E. T. (not so) surprisingly saves them by using his powers he has showed before to lift off all the boys on their bikes the theme returns in overwhelming intense triumph with additional bells for the climax of the movie.
Each scene similar but on different levels with music the visual and vice versa. I included the two perspectives of a music psychologist, and a music theorist as (Bashwiner 2013) suggested. By using emotion words and musical terminology the information is then digestible by a larger audience and can make connections between the two mindsets. In a more in depth description my music psychologist version of the scene from the ‘Floating Bike Ride’ (1:40:00-1:43:22); ‘The scene began with what would sound like high tension during the chase, it was alarming and intense, it got the blood pumping.
With the boys escaping almost danger the music relieved the tension for only a moment, with the possibility of trouble still there. The familiar theme played to keep attention and hopefulness. A short break from music settled all the feelings only for them to be rattled up again when people begin chasing Elliot again and the tense music starts increasing to keep you on the edge of your seat. With no escape route Elliot closes his eyes and the music becomes victorious revealing that they were safe upon take off. The tension theme continues to play but it is mixed with the triumphant music and is loud for the climax.
In a more in depth description of my music theorist version of the scene from the ‘Floating Bike Ride’ (1:40:00-1:43:22); ‘Starting the scene with loud orchestra during the chase, bells begin to play paired with a high pitched melody. The high pitch continues with diegetic sounds like tires screeching and people yelling. As the chase progresses the music becomes a tad brassy, less high pitched, but the tempo fast and frantic. The melodic theme of violin and cello plays in the background. The music dies as they were no longer being chased by vehicle.
This flows into the next sequence of music as group of people are on their tail again. The high pitch returns and steadily gets higher and faster. With no escape route Elliot closes his eyes and as the bikes take flight, the violin and cello envelopes the high pitches and the tempo is transferred to longer phrases. The music loud, the bells and high pitches return for the climax. ’ The two same scenes explained differently, understood separately by two different types of people could be more powerful when combined. It helps make connections between the two ‘languages’.
Being one of the main points of (Bashwiner 2013), I also used his other topic of breaking down the music, major or minor, happy or sad, etc. Then paired with the model from (Cohen 2013), the scene has a substantial effect, which is why these three things are important. First, knowing the difference between music psychology of music and music theorists. Understanding what goes into the breakdown of a film and music separately and together. Lastly actually using these tools to do so and practicing to comprehend a film in more complexity.
