Leitmotif in Film Music

Our Ability to Recognize

Theme Songs

-Motifs are repeated throughout the whole movie

-Presented in different styles (key, major/minor, tempo etc.)

-Catchy tune

John Williams

Answers

-Sample 1: Star Wars

-Sample 2: Indiana Jones

-Sample 3: Home Alone

-Sample 4: Schindler's List

Career

-Jaws

-War Horse

-Superman

Other Famous Works

-Jurassic Park

-Harry Potter

-Fiddler on the Roof

-Saving Private Ryan

-Memoirs of A Geisha

-E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

-The Adventures of Tintin

-Jane Eyre

-Made himself an established film score composer

-Composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures

-Brought back the use of leitmotif by incorporating it in his film scores

-John Williams has won 5 Academy Awards, 4 Golden Globe Awards, and 59 Grammy Awards

-He has been nominated for 22 Golden Globes, 59 Grammy's, and 47 Oscar's nominations

-Williams currently holds the record for the most Oscar nominations for a living person and is the second most nominated person in the history of the Academy Awards behind only Walt Disney's 59.

What to listen for:

Raiders March, from Raiders of the Lost Ark (Pgs. 650-651)

Guess the film to each sample film score!

Sample 2

Sample 1

• Instrumentation (brass, percussion)
• Beat of traditional march
• Principal melodies from leitmotifs in film
• A-B-A’ form (March-Trio-March) with sectional divisions and repeats
• Disjunct opening theme set against stuttering ostinato accompaniment
• Lyrical trio section featuring strings
• Occasional dissonant harmony

Sample 4

Sample 3

o Indiana Jones

• Coplan’s American style w/ a disjunctive theme and stuttering accompaniment

• Brass and percussion projects the courageous, confident protagonist character of Indiana Jones

o Marion Ravenwood

• Lush setting represents the love relationship she has with Indiana

•Date of Work: 1981

•Genre: Film score

•Form: Ternary (A-B-A’ coda)

•A section: Indiana Jones theme is presented

•Marion’s theme is heard in the strings, projecting a passionate songlike character that functions as a trio section

Famous Works and Leitmotif

-1830: Berlioz's Program Symphony, Symphonie Fantastique

-1902: Debussy's Opera, Pelléas et Mélisande

-1911: Schoenberg's Choral Work, Gurre-Lieder

-1922: Berg's Opera, Wozzeck

Later Uses of Leitmotif

Main Theme

-Most commonly found in movie scores

-Certain motifs connected to certain ideas

(i.e. characters, moods and situations)

-Home Alone has many main themes

-Focus: "Somewhere In My Memory"

-Appears 10 times throughout the main title

Appearances

Leitmotif - a musical term referring to a short, constantly recurring musical phrase, associated with a particular person, place, or idea.

0:00 - Opening theme is presented

1:32 - Opening theme repeated by synthetic chimes, celeste, xylophone and glockenspiel

1:44 - Theme played by woodwinds

1:56 - Theme transferred to horns with strings

2:20 - Theme played broadly by strings

2:37 - Children's choir upper voices sings theme

2:50 - Lower voices joins the upper voices

3:16 - Children's choir joined by percussion instruments, most notably by sleigh bells

3:53 - Modulated with french horns and strings playing the motif

4:33 - Closes again with synthetic chimes, celeste, xylophone and glockenspiel

Home Alone

Early Stages

The End

-Closely related to the musical concepts of idée fixe or 'motto-theme'.

-Wagner was one of the first composers to use this concept.

Use of Leitmotif

in

Film Music