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Use of Scores and Music in Films, Ben-hur’s Classical Film Scores

Ben Ben-Hur was a best-selling writing of the novelist Lew Wallace. The MGM produced in 1925, the screen version of this novel as a biblical epic titled Ben-Hur: the Christ’s tale. In 1959, the movie was remade by William Lawyer, and it went ahead to be accredited with eleven academy awards. The score achieved by this production and the music by Miklós Rózsa in the film music in Hollywood is one of the greatest (Cooke 29).

Characteristics of Ben-Hur’s film score in thematic presentations

The Theme of Love

Strings scores, rhythmic motions that are slow sounds of major cords that are positive, confirm in Judah and Esther a deep-seated love. A scene that has Judah, having returned home, waiting for Esther in the room where they had their first meeting takes on a more lonesome and apprehensive quality (Cooke 38-40). The flute melody is sounded so delicately in alto over a tremelo that is light and accompanied in the strings. It makes it like Judah in his heart, still wonders if Esther still bears the same love for him. Then it changes to warm and sure- footed as the tremelo is replaced with romantic strings, indicating Esther’s feelings are just like before. It also serves to reassure Judah.

The Theme of Hatred and Friendship

As the film starts, the major chords are sounded to announce friendship between Judah and Messala when they are excited about restarting their childhood friendship. The strings are sustained in the middle register that is pleasing. This friendship ends when Messala asks Judah to give on Jews. Here, the melody becomes low and registers in basses and cellos. The accompaniment has muted trumpets, and the theme of hatred has been depicted through dissonant harmony.

The Theme of Death

The tempo registers low with the violas and violins to achieve funeral chords that are minor, and the basses and cellos double this with unrelenting horn chords. It is after the race that left Messala gravely injured and is visited by Judah on his death bed.

Film scores during the Hollywood Classical era, had leitmotif’s transformation of themes as a key feature. It helped follow the development of a character and the shifts in their emotional states.

Changes to Film Music in the 1960s

Alfred Hitchcock embedded himself as a brilliant suspense master through his productions. However, his production, Psycho, was outstanding and like nothing witnessed before in the cinema halls (Cooke 69-71). Here, he tested the mettle of his audiences and the censorship boundaries that were strict at that time. The movie has a structure that is eccentric and forms the basis for many music arguments. Without music, psycho would probably not be what it became.

Psycho tried very much to achieve cohesion between the actions and the sound. Having made them into one, legitimacy and depth were added in the film. The choice of the hierarchy of sounds and synchronized sounds helps to create a fundamental tension. Films have adopted this practice to swing the moods of their viewers. The incision between sound and body creates tension though the film attempting to conceal this dualism. Voices in the soundtrack and the score helped the movie achieve a near perfect psychological effect.

Films have since used music in this way to activate the audiences’ subconscious examination of the music world. It has been used to make the audience connect to the characters and scenes.

Growth of Popular Music in Films

Music established itself as a key element in the industry of film with the talking pictures advent. One of the most essential and influential composers of the 1940s was Bernard Herrmann. He severed several traditions and barriers in his aspirations to deliver magnificent compositions that could improve the films for which he wrote. Such works were improvements of the 1930s. The compositions of original scores were refined, and the primary use of music as just reinforcement ceased (Cooke 83). Composers unobtrusively supported the film’s characters and scenes.

In the 1950s, however, the film industry adopted the use of jazz and a wider array of musical art to replace the previous style that was almost symphonic. Insert Title Here became the first movie to use rock music as a soundtrack in this decade and was scored.

The 1970s, however, had very little innovation with most of it spent on improvement on the lessons of the previous decade. Presentations by composers like John Williams, whose work is still memorable to date, had but improved versions and techniques of the sixties.

As conclusion, this paper provides an insight into the use of music in the filming industry to achieve different purposes, both aesthetic and sentimental. Without music, the talking pictures would be plain and superficial, always failing to connect to the audience. Music serves to make the audience forget their very self and live the moments of the film, their emotions and reactions adopting that of the very characters. In short, it helps create a character of the audience.

Work Cited

Cooke, Mervyn. The Hollywood Film Music Reader. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Print.