Transcript Lives of Others: a musician*s perspective 13

Lives of Others: a musician’s
perspective
13 ENG
Thursday 09th August 2012
Learning intention: To explore how music
is a valuable film technique and to discuss its
merits in essay form.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2QF
PnEhF_o
Music is an incredibly important
aspect of film.

You cannot ignore it or underplay its
contribution to the success of the film as
a whole. At Level 3, simply saying that “the
music ‘reinforces’ the emotion of sorrow
the protagonist feels”, is fairly trite. It is
my hope that you will analyse the way in
which music is able to ‘reinforce’ anything
and to speak about it confidently in your
essays at the end of the year.
1) Florian Henckel Von
Donnersmarck’s film-making
philosophy has always been to see
‘big things in the little things’.
•
Every musical note, ambient sound, leitmotiv, piece of
incidental music, and song has been carefully selected
or composed to invite, evoke and create within the
audience an emotional connection and response that
perpetuates our experience of what has been termed the
‘psychological intensity’ of the film.
2.
Music is a universal language and while
we may all bring our varied memories to
a film and certain sounds, a successful film
score composer creates music that
transcends all language barriers, social and
gender divisions.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F7qUl
z1p6o (6 min German documentary,
Thomas Fritz)

3.

Great music speaks directly to the human
soul on an affective (psychological term
for emotional) level with frightening
immediacy. These aspects of the nature of
music are what serve to reinforce or
challenge our understandings of the
world and the people in it.
GABRIEL YARED
Youtube link to audio- 10 min sample of
various film scores he’s composed •
•
•
•
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2Q
FPnEhF_o
the composer who comes on board at the
last minute has to discover a whole film, he
has to get involved in the story, the
characters, the psychology and the
action... to dig, to explore, to find, and
specially to go beyond his habits.
Because one of the most important things
for a composer is to go beyond your habits
in composing, and if you have a month or
less to compose 80 or 90 minutes of music,
the result can only be bad for the quality of
film music and music in general (Speaking in
an informal chat of composers who come in on
a film at the last minute.)
... I believe music is a grace coming from
above
By his own admission he is given to
composing romantic film scores but is always
up for a challenge e.g. science fiction.
MUSICAL GENIUS BEHIND THE FILM
SCORE!
•
anyway I believe that all film composers must be composers first, and
all of us are capable of compose anything we want without having a
picture to give us inspiration...
•
As a composer my way of working implies that I have to be involved in
the picture from the very beginning. When the picture has not been
already shot and all are ideas and sketches. There is where I find
myself more comfortable, because it's there and no other time when I
have the opportunity to search and explore for whatever material I
will come...
•
film I made the decision of not coming on a film once it's completed.
That way it doesn't speak to me, when it really speaks to me is when it
does not exist. My imagination works better when the thing I'm
working on is foggy and not completely incarnated into pictures yet
•
But it makes my work very difficult. What I'm happy to know is many
composers today are coming to the same conclusion as me: that is
important to get involved since the beginning... if not, what we'll
produce is our own habits... who can say that, for a film which
production has lasted three years, he can write a good score that does
ignore all that process and give in three months anything, a true
creation, a work that sounds different than everything he has
composed in the past?... the answer is simple... NO ONE could tell you
that honestly.
Task
Track
6: Sonata for a
Good Man
http://www.youtube
.com/watch?v=Aie_
FOVKgfc&feature=
BFa&list=PLECE9BF
CDFEEB9A4D&lf=B
Fa
Description of the
music & emotion
evoked
Scene
Lima, o, fa,
lima.
7: Stasi
Informant
"Martha"
http://www.youtube
.com/watch?v=BvT2
_js8SZU&feature=B
Fa&list=PLECE9BFC
DFEEB9A4D&lf=BF
a
2: HGW 20/7
http://www.youtube
.com/watch?v=hP0U
_MidWEQ&feature
=BFa&list=PLECE9B
FCDFEEB9A4D&lf=
BFa
Fa, fitu,
tolu, o.
Connection between
music, emotion, ideas and
audience
Leitmotiv : A recurrent theme throughout a musical
or literary composition


A melodic passage or phrase,
especially in Wagnerian
opera, associated with a
specific character, situation,
or element.
is also
used as a form
of
characterisatio
n.

 Music

Consider: Both Wiesler is
characterised by the leitmotivs
we hear when he appears on
screen.
Wiesler has a haunting and
somewhat disturbing leitmotiv
early in the film when he carries
out his surveillance of Dreyman.
When that same leitmotiv
continues while the camera
pans his apartment, we are being
told that Wiesler’s persona is no
persona at all – he is his work,
there is no separation. He is an
instrument of the State.
(18.51)
Leitmotiv cont.
Lover’s motif
 (33.49) only ever appears in two other
places.
 Can you guess where? (103.09)


What is the significance of this placement
of Music?
MUSIC AS A WAY OF REPRESENTING
THE STATE OF CHARACTER
RELATIONSHIPS:
•
•
•
http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=z4oEyLTM
of4&feature=BFa&list=
PLECE9BFCDFEEB9A4
D&lf=BFa
(43.24)
(56.13)
•
•
Which characters do
you think are involved
based on the music
you hear?
Listen to the way each
instrument plays a
melodic line. How do
you describe the way
the instruments are
moving or relating to
each other?
SILENCE IS ALSO A TECHNIQUE
You should note the absences of non-diegetic sound in scenes
which are particularly disturbing. Notably, the scenes with Hempf
and CMS in the car (where he takes sexual advantage of her) and
also in the scene with Wiesler and the prostitute.
• In both instances the absence of sound hammers the viewer with
the such discomfort; all our senses are acutely tuned to the
disagreeable and unsavoury nature of these situations.
• There is no music to ease the horror of CMS predicament or to
romanticize Wiesler’s encounter with the prostitute. In both
instances the viewer is pertubed by the loveless interactions. They
are such poor reflections of what sexual intimacy offers in its ideal
form.
• One could make the link that the loveless interactions reflect a
society (GDR State) which is efficient and functions with regulated
precision, but lacks real life and vitality that one expects of a
population of diverse peoples.
•
Songs in Lives of others
Bayon is a musical group that in 1971 the
GDR was founded. Ihre Musik bewegt sich
zwischen Folklore , Klassik , Jazz und Rock .
Their music ranges from folk , classical , jazz
and rock . The meditative character of the
purely instrumental compositions mostly to
the imagination inspire the listener
• Bayon, used the poem is trying by Wolfgang
Borchert use as text for a song used in our
film. (film location : 122.04)
•
Borchert
The poem "Versuch es" by Wolfgang
Borchert.
 Borchert was a playwright whose life
was destroyed by his experience being
drafted into the Wehrmacht in World
War II and fighting on the Eastern
Front.
 (Wehrmacht -the unified armed forces of
Germany from 1935 to 1945).
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2S3h0Su
tgs&feature=related

The text for the song:
‘versuche Es’ Wolfgang Borchert
Try to
Stell Dich mitten in den Regen,
glaube an den Tropfensegen,
spinn Dich in dies Rauschen ein
und versuche, gut zu sein!
Stand in the middle of the rain,
Believe in the blessing of the drops,
Cover yourself in its noise
And try to be good!
Stell Dich mitten in den Wind,
glaub an ihn und sei ein Kind laß den Sturm in Dich hinei
Stand in the middle of the wind
Believe in it and be a child Let the storm enter you
And try to be good!
Stell Dich mitten in das Feuer liebe dieses Ungeheuer
in des Herzens rotem Wein
und versuche, gut zu sein!
Stand in the middle of the fire Love this monster
With the red wine of your heart
And try to be good!
•
(Translation - Bent Sørensen)
CONCLUSIONS

I just recapped for them – will send you
the amended version later