Music in Film – Casablanca
For the Music in Film project, I watched Casablanca. This 1942 film has always been one of my favourite films.
The title music sets the theme of the film with a high tempo opening few bars, depicting the excitement of the film followed by North African casbah style and finishing off with a few bars of Le Marseilles. Thus, Steiner has set the tone of the film as thrilling and set the location of French Morocco.
The prologue continues with suitable incidental music, over the voice describing the flight of refugees from France, through Casablanca to Lisbon and on to America. Incidental music is then used to describe the opening scene of the film as the police chase and eventually shoot a man who’s papers had expired.
Steiner uses the full textures of the orchestra during this incidental music and throughout the film to depict the action in front of the camera.
As the scene shifts to Rick’s Bar, diegetic music comes to the fore as the band in rick’s bar plays music. Led by the character Sam on piano, this band is a mix of jazz and French folk traditions. As well as tradition jazz instruments, such as the trombone, trumpet and rhythm section, an accordion is also a prominent instrument in the scenes in Rick’s bar.
From when Sam play’s and sings As Time Goes By, Steiner then uses this melody as his main theme, especially in the scenes involving Rick and Elsa. When the action shifts to The Blue Parrot Club, the music changes to a traditional North African theme, with flute and percussion to the fore.
The gloomier scenes of the film, such as the German advance on Paris in the flashback section, are themed by the tone changing to the lower end of the scale, with the use of cello and horns.
The tempo and dynamics rise towards the exciting climax to the film as Rick (Humphrey Bogart) devises a plan whereby Elsa and Victor use the letter of transit that ends up in his possession (hidden in Sam’s piano) to escape. A bass drum is used to signal the starting of the aircraft’s engines and again as it takes off, too late for the German major to stop Victor Lazlo from escaping. The film ends with Rick and Louis (the prefect of the police) walking off talking of joining the French Foreign legion to the theme of Le Marseilles.
The soundtrack to Casablanca enhances the film both with the use of diegetic music in Rick’s bar, with familiar american songs, as well as the orchestral incidental music helping paint the scene during the film. It adds to the drama of the action. Although I have watched Casablanca many times, I had not paid that much attention to the score until I did this project. I now realize that I had missed, until now, a great soundtrack.
Technology, Me & Music
The main advancements have been the digital download and now streaming of music on the internet.
This has completely changed the access to all kinds of music. You can now listen via streaming to virtually any music and this service is usually free. Before the evolution of downloads, you had to buy CDs, costing quite a lot of money, which limited what you could listen to, and legal downloads aren’t much cheaper. But now, you can listen to almost any music you like, through streaming, with very little outlay of cash.
Technological advances have also meant that I can now listen to music almost anywhere, via phone, I-Pod/MP3 or computer. Radio stations and specialist channels are also available through digital television.
Other developments via technology is the ease of access to information about music, artists and composers available on the internet and the purchase of books, CD’s and other items connected with music. As an example, in trying to learn music theory, I purchased an electric keyboard cheaply through the internet, as well as text books on theory.
The disadvantages are for people working in the music industry, who now have greater exposure to their music, but a much weaker hand in collecting royalties. The greater access dilutes their income from CD sales.
Now Completed Project Two
I listened to the recommendation for Music & Technology, Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphony and Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint. The Messiaen piece featured, from the electronic age the ondes martinot. Turangalîla is a composition for large orchestra, and is very long, 10 movements in all. It consists of different forms throughout, but although long, I enjoyed this piece and would like to see it performed live.
Steve Reich’s piece was scored for electric guitar and tapes and consists of a live guitar, with taped guitar intersecting at different times (canonically). The recording I listened too featured the excellent jazz guitarist Pat Metheny, with a multitracked tape featuring 10 guitars and two electric basses (according to Stephen Cook, on a review featured on Spotify).
This completes my work on Part One, Project Two. My notes for this project are attached: OCA Notes Part One Project Two – Music in Modern Contexts.
In preparation for project Three, I watched a recording of The Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle give a performance from the Esplanade Theatre, Singapore. They played Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances and Mahler’s Symphony No. 1. This was a BBC4 programme broadcast on September 30th 2011. I printed the first 20 pages of the score for Mahler’s Symphony No 1, to see how I got on with following the score. I did ok for the first few pages, but then lost my way. This broadcast though did give a good view of where the different sections of the orchestra sit, and was an excellent performance. I will keep it in my Sky+ box and see how I get on following the score in a few months time.