The Sting

Martin Hamlisch utilized pre-existing music by Scott Joplin for the 1973 film The Sting. While the movie takes place in the 1930s, the ragtime piano music dates back to the 1890s era. Today I think that almost anyone will recognize the music as it has been exploited as a popular cell phone ringtone. The film doesn’t have a lot of music in it and when it is played it is mainly during transitions. At times the music will fade out when transitioning to another scene, but during others the transitions are cut off. Hamlisch also sped up or slow down the tempo of the music to fit during title scenes and to match the drama of a scene. I only found 2 instances of diagetic music: a barely audible tune played while the men were playing poker, and a suggestive tune during the burlesque scene. The music didn’t seem to fit dramatically with the film though it did help to lighten its mood.

To Kill a Mockingbird

Elmer Bernstein’s music for To Kill a Mockingbird both reflects the 1960s time period in film music and yet has the modern sound of the films we have watched thus far. The movie doesn’t contain wall to wall underscoring, in fact a great portion of the movie occurs in a courtroom with no music. The times when there is music it is used to emphasize a certain emotion such as fear or childhood mischief.

During the children's portion of the story there is a distinct theme, the text labels it the innocence theme, that is reffered to. This theme sounds very lighthearted and Bernstein was really able to capture "childhood" in it using strings, a flute, and a piano. Berenstein assigns a theme to the character of Boo Radley that is more of a waltzy sounding tune. When the children approach Boo's house at the beginning of the film, this theme mixes with an clarinet adding a mysterious air to the film.

During violent scenes, the music reflects the heightened tension with a quickening of pace and added dramatic effects like a repeating sound. This is reminiscent of both classic Hollywood's underscoring of fight scenes and Herrmann's repetition in Psycho.

Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho marked a turn from the “Golden Age” of Hollywood as part of the “New Wave” movement in film making. Bernard Herrmann’s music in the film reflects this turn. Herrmann utilizes only a string orchestra to produce harsh sounds that aren’t necessarily pleasing to the ear. He also does not underscore the entire film. His musical pieces serve the purpose of establishing the mood and do not function as filler. In contrast, The Adventures of Robin Hood, considered a “classical Hollywood” film, utilizes a full orchestra to achieve a rich musical color to emphasize its heroic tale. It contains an abundance of underscoring and utilizes such techniques as having the music mimic the action and Mickey Mousing.

While the scoring in Psycho may be different from the “classic Hollywood” sound, it does show similarities to Film Noir. A dominating characteristic of Psycho is that the music reflects a prevailing foreboding and eerie mood through music that is disturbing, perverse, and anxious-sounding. The way that Herrmann creates this mood through the music is by the use of disjunct and dissonant melodies. The clashing sounds and disorder in the music creates a feeling of anxiety and the general sense that something bad is about to happen.

The music in Psycho is often homophonic. There are 2 melodies that play at the same time however one seems to be the more dominant and in the forefront while the other sounds as if it’s almost playing behind the dominant one. While this was probably done to add more depth to the music, I think it reflects Norman’s and the clash between his two personalities.

Double Indemnity

Double Indemnity, considered a member of the "film noir" movement of filmmaking, was composed by Miklos Rozsa. Though not a detective story, as many of the film noir movies are, it tells the story of an insurance man who gets involved with a gold-digging wife (the "dame") and helps her carry out her plot to kill her husband.

Typical of a film noir movie, Double Indemnity has one dark and pessimistic mood. The music reflects this mood with its one major prevailing theme throughout the movie. Though the melody was basically the same throughout, the timbre of the music changed to enhance the drama on screen. For instance, when Phyllis was supposed to meet Walter in his apartment and Keyes unexpectedly shows up before she arrives, the music intensifies reflecting the trouble that could occur if Keyes knows that Walter and Phyllis are secretly meeting.

The movie contains hardly any diegetic music. I only identified 2 instances when there was: the Hollywood Bowl symphony playing in the background, and the music from the window that Phyllis says is from a neighbor's house down the street.