GORBMAN-Narrative Film Music

Narrative Film Music Author(s): Claudia Gorbman Source: Yale French Studies, No. 60, Cinema/Sound (1980), pp. 183-203 Published by: Yale University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2930011 . Accessed: 06/10/2011 20:03 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

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Claudia Gorbman NarrativeFilm Music

Underlyingtheparticularrelationships betweenmusicand thefeature storyfilmare theoreticaland aestheticproblemsthathave intrigueda wide spectrumof scholarsand criticsforfortyyears.The momentwe recognize to what degree filmmusic shapes our perceptionof a narrative,we can no longerconsideritincidentalor "innocent".Like lighting,freeof verbalexplicitness,musicsetsmoods and tonalitiesin a filmnarrative.Having come to experiencea story,the spectator receivesmuchmore thanthat,situatedby theconnotativesystemsof camera placement,editing,lighting. .. and music. But music differsfromlightingand other elementsof filmin several importantways. First,we hear it, we don't see it. Hearingis less directthan visual perception;to see somethingis to instantaneously identifythe lightrayswiththeobject thatreflectsthem;while in hearingwe do not as automaticallyidentify a soundwithitssource. Moreover, hearingrequiresa greaterdurationof the sound stimulus than vision requires of an image in order to be recognized.Thus hearingis at once more selectiveand lazierthanvision;it "focusses" consciouslyon one or at best two auditoryeventsat a time.Now, in watchinga conventionalfilmwhose dialogue and visualsare tellinga story,we devote our concentrationto its successiveeventsand the meanings that are constantlyaccruingto them. Most featurefilms relegate musicto the viewer'ssensorybackground,thatgrayarea of secondary perceptionleast susceptibleto rigorousjudgementand most susceptibleto affectivemanipulation. Consider thissituation.You are listeningto a Bach fugueon the radio, pleased thatyourattentiveness enablesyou to pickout someof the many complexitiesof the fugualstructure.You note the subject (the melodic theme) as each voice successivelyannounces it in a differentregister; you can also perceive and marvel at certain 183

Yale FrenchStudies permutationsof the subject as, forexample,it is played at different rhythms and tempiwhileembeddedin theongoingfugue,or is played in melodic inversionwhile yet other voices play the subject in its more recognizableform;witheach new phrase,themovementofstill it. At the heartof the more musical materialconstantlytransforms performance,a friendwalks into your livingroom and asks your opinion on a timelypoliticalissue. You are suddenlyfaced withan either/orproposition:lose completelythethreadsof thatmagnificent In a film,wherenarrative fugue,or ignorethewould-beinterlocutor. is the excuse for,the cementof, and the raison d'etreof the film's existence we opt to focus attentionon the narrativeand visual realitieson the screenbeforeus, just as we probablywill choose to concentrateon the politicalconversationand therebycease following the fugue's rhetoricalstructures.We forsakeany consideration of that abstract arrangementand rearrangementof sound which and does and non-narrative, is musicbecause it is nonrepresentational film. not inhabitthe perceptualforegroundof the narrative is attractiveand you Let us furthersuppose thatthe interlocutor decide to put aside the Bach on the radio. While you discuss,the music continues.Absent-mindedly you allow yourhand to playwith the radio dial; the stationchangesand yourconversationis suddenly accompanied by some drunkenly,brazenlyimprovisedSixtiesblues. This strikesyou as inappropriate,"cheapening"theambienceofyour tte-a-tete. You returnquickly to the Baroque music station,redeemed by centuriesof cultureand dignity. This example raisesa pointupon whichsome of filmmusic'smost respectedcriticshave not insisted.' To judge filmmusicas we judge "pure" musicis to ignoreitsstatusas a partof the collaborationthat is the film.Ultimatelyit is the narrativecontext,the interrelations between music and the restof the film'ssystem,thatdeterminethe effectivenessof filmmusic. We maysee musicas "meaning",or organizaing discourse,on three 'Sir ArthurBliss, for example, in Grove's Dictionaryof Music and Musicians, wrote: "In the last resortfilmmusicshouldbe judged solelyas music-that is to say, by the ear alone, and the questionof its value depends on whetherit can standup to thistest."

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Claudia Gorbman differentlevels in any film.If we listento a Bach fugue,indepenwe are listeningto thefunctioning ofpure dentlyof anyotheractivity, musicalcodes, generatingmusicaldiscourse;musicon thislevel refers to music itself.2The Bach fugue playingpleasantlyon the sound systemof a coffeehouse wherepeople discusspoliticsor play chess functionsmore in its culturalcontext;it refersto culturalmusical codes (and elicits enculturatedreactions). For example, the music thatplays while a film'screditsunroll-jazz, pseudo-classical,Wagnerian, folk-activates these culturalcodes, and can reveal beforehand a greatdeal about thestyleand subjectof thenarrativeto come. Third, music in a filmrefersto thefilm-that is, it bears specific formalrelationshipsto coexistentelementsin the film.The various ways in whichit does so shall be called cinematicmusicalcodes, and these latterwill formour primarycenterof interest. The Presenceof Music There mightbe somethinginherently paradoxicalabout thepresence of musicin films,even as our experienceas spectatorsseems to affirmthatmusicquite "naturally"belongsinmovies.Withouttaking the timeto referto criticalliteratureas old as Lessingon comparative arts, we may put the problem thus: is not the rhetoricof filmic discourse (representational,"naturalistic",rhythmically irregular) incommensuratewiththerhetoricof musicaldiscourse(nonrepresentational,"lyrical",rhythmically regular)?What explainsmusicbeing there at all? We may identifyseveral reasons for the existenceof music in accompanimentto the silent film.The firstis historical:music for silentfilmsdeveloped as an outgrowth centurydramatic of nineteenth traditions.3 Further,in thesilentfilm,musiccommunicated narrative informationthathas since been restoredto the provinceof dialogue and sound effects.It also had thedecidedlypracticaltaskof drowning et non dans son origine 2"Le sens d'une musique est a chercherdans sa structure ou ses effetspsychologiques. . . " Nicolas Ruwet,in Langage,musique,poisie (Paris: Seuil, 1972), p. 43. 3Cf. Roger Manvell and JohnHuntly,The Techniqueof Film Music (rev. ed., New York: CommunicationArtsBooks, 1975), pp. 15-21.

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Yale FrenchStudies out the unromanticnoise of themovie-houseprojectors.Fourth,"the very livelinessof the action in the primitivesilentfilmsappeared to unnaturaland ghostlywithoutsome formof sound corresponding such visual vitality"4:musicseemed to help fleshout theshadowson the screen. Composer Hanns Eisler refinesthispoint in citingthe "magic function"of filmmusic: Music was introudcedas a kindof antidoteagainstthepicture.The need was feltto spare the spectatorthe unpleasantnessinvolvedin seeingeffigiesof living,acting, and even speakingpersons,who wereat thesame timesilent.The factthattheyare livingand nonlivingat thesame timeis whatconstitutes theirghostlycharacter,and musicwas introudcednotto supplythemwiththe lifetheylacked-but to exorcise fear or help the spectatorabsorb the shock.5

All of these functionsmay be qualifiedas instancesof musicas betweenspecmediation:betweenfilmand olderdramatictraditions, tator and circumstancesof projection,between spectatoras living being and thecinemaas "ghostly." In addition,JeanMitrymaintains of musicmediatedbetweenreal timeas experienced thatthe rhythm by the audience and the diegeticor psychologicaltimeadheredto by the film: Owing to its unrealisticnature,the silentfilmwas incapable of makingthe spectatorexperiencea real feelingof duration.The timelivedby the charactersof the drama, the temporalrelationsof the shotsand sequences-all thiswas perfectly well understood-ratherthanfelt.What was missingin the filmwas a sortof beat whichcould internallymarkthe psychologicaltimeof the dramain relationto the primarysensationof real time.In otherwords,whatwas missingwas a beat capable of justifyingcinematicrhythmand cadence. This beat, this "temporalcontent," was providedby music.6

Noel Burch also writesabout the functionof rhythmic medition,but a formal consideration. stressing more Fritz Lang's Mabuse made a much greaterimpressionon all of us whenwe were finallyable to see itwitha musicalaccompanimentlike thatprovidedin thedaysof silentfilm.Admittedlythemusicin thiscase is littlemorethansoundbackground; ofthedicoupage nevertheless,itprovidesa timescale againstwhichthe "rhythms" 4Ibid., pp. 20-21. 'Hanns Eisler, Composingfor theFilms (London: Denis Dobson, 1947), p. 75. 6Jean Mitry,Esthetiqueet psychologiedu cinema (Paris: Klincksieck,1965), II, pp. 118-119. Translationmine.

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Claudia Gorbman become farmore concrete.'

Finally, Eisler recalls the basic social functionsof music-that is, to create a feelingof collectivity or communality (anotherformof "mediation")-to elaborate upon music's social functionin films, whereinit acts as a cement,whichholds togetherelementsthatotherwisewould oppose each other unrelated-the mechanical product and the spectators,and also the spectators witha similarneed, as soon themselves.The old stagetheater,too, was confronted as the curtainwentdown. Music betweenthe acts metthatneed. Cinema musicis universalizedbetween-the-acts music, but used also and preciselywhen thereis somethingto be seen. It is the systematicfabricationof the atmosphereforthe eventsof whichit is itselfpartand parcel. It seeks to breatheintothepicturessome of the lifethatphotographyhas taken away fromthem.8

Clearly the majorityof these factorscontinue to prevail, to one degree or another,in thesound film.Filmmusicis an establishedfact in conventionalnarrativecinema. Neverthelessit is constantlyengagedin an existentialand aesthetic strugglewith narrativerepresentation.Proof of this film-music dialecticlies in examiningfilmswherethepure musicalcodes apparentlydominate.Take forexamplea scene in Rohmer'sMa Nuitchez Maud whereinprotagonistPaul accompaniesa friendto a concert. During the concert,the camera restsexclusivelyon the cellistforan entiremovementof the cello sonata he plays. But narrativecontext wins out nonetheless.Even thoughthe musicclaimstheforeground, the spectator pays attentionto it only incidentally,for two other factors pre-emptour interest.Since previous shots have strongly suggestedthatthe concertis seen fromPaul's pointof view,we tend to concentrateas muchon the factof Paul's spectatorialpresenceas on the explicitcontentof the scene (musiciansand music). Second, we watch the cellistperform.In the act of placing its object in a frame,photography/cinematography encouragesa special "aesthetic" mode of contemplatingits content. 7Noel Burch, Theoryof Film Practice(New York: Praeger, 1973), note, p. 100. KurtLondon's commentson thewaymusicalrhythm gives"auditoryaccentuationand profundity"to the overall filmicrhythm fallintothe same categoryas Burch'spoints. 8Eisler, p. 59.

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Yale FrenchStudies Jean-MarieStraub's Chronicleof Anna Magdalena Bach further illustratesthemusic-film dialectic.The filmconsistsprimarily ofmusical performances;anynonmusicalelementsare thereto add authenticityand meaningto the Bach worksperformed.The actorsdeliver their lines in a flat monotone, constantlydenyingthe viewer the pleasure of immersionin a fictionalcontinuity.For this reason, so thattheviewermaylearnto Chroniclerequiresat leasttwoviewings, experiencethe music withoutinsistingon cinematic(narrative)discourse. The camera is motivatedby littlebutmusicalcodes: it frames a medium close-up of "Bach" playinga harpsichordcadenza in the FifthBrandenburgConcerto, and then pulls back suddenlyinto a general shot because the orchestrahas enteredforthe movement's closing tutti. Straub has said thathis cinema is "freeof language,"9thatcinematic rhetoricwould obscurethe filmedreality.In Chronicle,he has at least thinnedthe textureof cinematiclanguage to a pointwhere musical rhetoriccan once morebe recognizedand enjoyedas suchby necesthe spectator.The drasticdegree of cinematicminimalization sary in this enterpriseattests eloquentlyto the enormityof the spectator'swill to impose narrativemotivationsin viewinga film.As an exception to the rule, Chroniclereconfirms the factof subordination of musical messages to narrativemessages in the standard featurefilm. The Music/SceneRelationship(Nondiegeticmusic) Straub's filmis an extremeexample,well outsidetheconventions of classical narrative,to show that althoughfilmmusic undeniably possesses its own internallogic, it alwaysbears a relationshipto the film in which it appears. Thus, our next task is to consider the possible interactionsbetween music and the filmictextsin whichit "participates". 9lnterviewin Cahiersdu cinemaNo. 223 (August 1970): "I'm trying to make films thathave no language,and whenI sense thatthereis a cinematographic languageI try to destroyit before it is born. I'm tryingto eliminateall the obstacles betweenthe spectatorand what I'm showingof reality."Trans., Maureen Turim.

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Claudia Gorbman relationshipsas The restrictednumber of possible film/music discussed by most scholarsseems curiouslyprimitive,limitedlargely to the concepts of parallelismand counterpoint.Either the music "resembles" or it "contradicts"the actionor mood of whathappens on the screen. SiegfriedKracauer, forexample,writesthatcountermeanings" point occurs when music and pictureconvey "different that meet in a montageeffect:"Imagine the close-up of a sleeping of nightmarish music:it is all but face whichappears to the rhythms inevitablethatthe intriguing discrepancybetweenthese sounds and so peaceful a pictureshould puzzle us."'0 Is there no other way to qualifyfilmmusic whichdoes not lie between these opposites but outside them? If we must summarize in twowordsor less,thenotionofmutual music/diegesis relationships implicationmighthelp us at least to considertheproblembetter,and For itis debatablethat withtherespectdue to filmsof anycomplexity. be called the informationconveyedby disparatemedia can justifiably same or different. Further,the notionsof parallel and counterpoint erroneouslyassume theimageas autonomous.Kracauer'sveryexamples show how music helps the viewerto definethe images, themselves polysemic.Eisler commentson theinadequacyof thenotionof parallelism: but,as a rule, From the aestheticpointofview,thisrelationis notone ofsimilarity, one of question and answer,affirmation and negation,appearance and essence. This is dictatedby thedivergenceof themedia in questionand thespecificnatureof each. l

We may thenraise the issue: isn'tany musicusuallysufficient to accompany a segmentof film?In fact,the answeris yes. Whatever music is applied to a filmsegmentwill do something,will have an effect-just as whatevertwowordsa poet putstogetherwillproduce a meaning different fromthat of each word separately.Kracauer's reactions to a drunken movie-house pianist from his childhood, whose inattentionto the screen resultedin pleasinglyunorthodox audio-visualcombinations,recall the Surrealists'delightin discovery on everyplane of life where thereissued a "fortuitousencounter" '0SiegriedKracauer, Theoryof Film (New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 1965), p. 141. I IEisler, p. 70.

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Yale FrenchStudies between two unlikelyentities.Jean Cocteau wrotethathe actually scored some of his filmson theprincipleofwhathe called "accidental synchronization":he would take George Auric's music, carefully writtenfor particularscenes in his film,and deliberatelyapply the "wrong" musicto thewrongscenes. Eisensteinhad pointedto music as one of the elementsin the montagethatcomprisesa film.And whethera certainmontageof elementsis intendedor not (surrealist word-gamesvs. traditionalpoetic activity,the drunkenpianistvs. a willgeneratemeanings. score by JohnWilliams),theircorroboration are The point is thatimage, sound effects,dialogue,and music-track absolutelyinseparableduringthe viewingexperience,and theyform a combinatoireof expression. Any music will do (something),but the coincidencein time of effectsaccordingto the dynamics music and scene creates different folk and structureof the music. Obviously,ifinsteadof orchestrated music a sudden tense dissonanceor Indian drumbeatwere to "hit" the charactersin Stagecoach as theywend theirway across Monument Valley, we would drasticallyrevise our mental inventoryof interpretationsof the drama of the moment.To demonstratethe interdependenceof musicand filmdiegesis,we mightuse the tool of commutationby takinganysmallsegmentoffilmand applyingdifferent typesof musicto it. The Stagecoachexamplealreadysuggeststhe harmoniesand pauses, as dramaticimportanceof tension-producing well as general style.Let us furtherinvestigatemusic's capacityto create rhythm,atmosphere,cinematicspace, spectatorialdistance, Jules and point of view, by selectinga shortsegmentfromTruffaut's and Jim. In a sequence fairlyearlyin the film,Catherine,Jules,and Jim image of their bicycledown a countryroad in a sortof metonymical own lives' trajectories.A long high-angleshotshowsthe bicyclersas littlemore thana trioof speckson theirwindingroad, pedalingvery regularly,embodyingthatdialecticof fate and freewill thatcharacteristicallypervades Truffaut'sfilms.The musical themethatplays consists of two neighboringnotes alternatingwith each other for

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Claudia Gorbman measureson end beforeresolvingto a cadence.12 Thoughitcan hardly be called an interesting melody,Delerue's delicate woodwind-andstringorchestration counteractsitsinherentdullness.Also, ofcourse, thereis its relationshipto a particularset of images. The regularity of themusicalrepetitionemphasizesthe regularity of the characters'pedaling motions.The allegrettotempo and the total lack of harmonicor rhythmic surprisesonly reinforcethe dieIt are not to notethattherhythms geticpedalingrhythm. is important one and the same: if each musicaldownbeatcoincidedexactlywith each turnof the pedal shaftby each character,we would be affected strangelyindeed, made consciousof a perverselymanipulativenarrator.Nevertheless,the musicturnsregularly,and althoughthereis there no question of identitybetweenmusicaland diegeticrhythm, in not a of the music a does result sensation mechanicalness; is, the detachmentconveyedin the highunpleasant way, reinforcing angle shot. Let us now performa commutationon the bicyclingsegmentby changingthe musicon the soundtrack.First,ifwe put the musicinto a minormode, a sadder,darker,moreremotefeelingcomesupon the scene. Indeed, later in the filmthe melody does appear in minor; and, especiallyby contrastto itspreviousstatementin major,it gives all the more poignancyto themood of itsscene. Or we mightchange the tempo of the music. If played muchfaster,allegrostaccato,this musicwilladd an energy,an allkgresseto thethreecharacters' bicycling, and perhaps even an optimismnot previouslysuggestedin Delerue's score. Further changes could be broughton the theme in termsof instrumentation: imaginethe difference in effectif the melodywere performedon a solo violin(more pathos), a solo tuba (morehumor), a large orchestra(overblown,Romanticexcess). Changesin rhythm, as well as articulation(accents, phrasing),each would have corresponding effectson the way we receivethe diegeticinformation. I2Allegretto

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Yale FrenchStudies We could replace the entireunitof musicby anothertheme.In a later scene Catherine sings a song, "Le Tourbillon," that subsequentlyfindsitselfon thesoundtrackas backgroundmusic.The lyrics in the sungversion-words thatemphasizethecharacterof love as a circular,repetitiveseries of meetings,affairs,and separations-are reinforcedby a pleasantlyrepetitivetune. Wouldn'tthistune work well as nondiegeticmusicforour bicyclingtheme?Yes. But a theme is by definitiona musicalelementthatis repeatedduringthe course of a work; as such it picks up diegeticassociations,which,in turn, infusethemselvesinto each new thematicstatement.If textualelementX is repeatedlaterin a text,it is not stillmerelyX, but X plus an escort of accumulated meanings. "Le Tourbillon" is firstperformedin the filmby Catherine(and by Albert,a secondarysuitor). If this melody were to accompanythe bicyclingshots of the three protagonists,it would functionin such a way as to put theweighton Catherine-to imply some manner of narrativefocus on her or complicitywithher. The melodywhichin factaccompaniesthescene carriesno such thematicbaggage, forthisis its firstoccurrence. On the otherhand, we may compose a piano boogie-woogiefor the afternooncyclists.This injectshumornot inherentin the image, it creates, partlyby virtueof the ungainlyjuxtapositionof rhythms and partlyalso because of the culturalassociationsof this musical style(historicalperiod,class) thatenterto colorour perceptionofthe threesome. Speaking of associations,we need only to commutea well-knownpiece of classicalmusic-say, theopeningof Beethoven's FifthSymphony- to imagineitseffecton thescene. Such a theme,in all its force,would lend uncalled-forepic grandeurto thepoor trioof unsuspectingbicyclers.Moreover,sincethefilmgoerknowsthismusical warhorse, his/herpleasure in recognizingit in a new context threatensto interferewith"readingthe story"of the film.

Silence Since commutationfocuses our attentionon the existingmusic versus the music that mighthave been, it bringsout stylisticand culturalinformation thatgoes unrecognizedin theusual processesof 192

Claudia Gorbman filmviewing,and again suggeststhe breadthof the subliminalpower that music exerts duringthe filmexperience.But thereis another commutationwe have not yet considered:silence. The effectof theabsenceofmusicalsoundmustneverbe underestimated;filmmakers have indeedtendedto ignoremusitraditionally, cal silencesin mixingtheirsoundtracks."Pas de trou,surtoutpas de trou, c'est un des cris de terreurdes cineastes. Et si trou il y a, bouchons-le.Avec de la musique." Henri Colpi voiced thiscriticism, picking up on Maurice Jaubert'scomplaintas early as 1936 that filmmakerscall on composersonly to underscore(constantly) the moods and actionsof scenes and "boucher les troussonores."'13 What would a musical silence do to the bicyclers'promenade? Interestingly,this depends on what kind of silence is imposed. A diegeticmusical silencemightconsistof the characterswendingtheir way along the road to the sole sound of pedals and gearscreaking.In this sort of scene whichconventionallydemandsbackgroundmusic, to make the diegetic sound with no music can functioneffectively more diegeticspace more immediate, palpable, in theabsence ofthat Muzak-like overlayso oftenthruston the spectator'sconsciousness. (It also emphasizesthatthe charactersare not speaking,wherethere is no music to mitigatethisverbalsilence.) Conventionalpracticehas made an anchorof backgroundmusic,such thatit dictateswhatour response to the images oughtto be. Remove it froma scene whose emotionalcontentis notexplicit,and youriskconfronting theaudience withan image thattheymightfailto "interpret". For nondiegeticsilence, the soundtrackis completelywithout sound. Dream sequences or otherfilmicdepictionsof intensemental activitysometimesrunto a silentsoundtrack.A completenondiegetic silencewould be extremelyunlikelyanywherein Julesand Jim,let alone the bicyclingsegment.For if this silence seems oneiric,we mightask ourseles whose dream or memorywe are watching,and whyit is so dreamlike.(WithResnais or Herzog, thesequestionsare more appropriate.) The spiritof easy collectivityamong Truffaut's characterswould be alteredif themusic,takenfromthe soundtrack, lefta void. I3Henri Colpi, Difense et illustration de la musiquede film(Lyon: Socidtdd'ddition, de rechercheset documentationcindmatographiques, 1963), p. 51.

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Yale FrenchStudies A structuralsilence occurs where sound previouslypresentin a filmis laterabsentat structurally corresponding points.The filmthus encourages us to expect the (musical) sound as before,so thatwhen in factthereis no music,we are aware of its absence. For example, Public Enemy (Wellman, 1931) begins with a title shot, "1909", accompaniedbybusy,cheerymusicin a majorkey.The firstsequence follows, introducingthe two protagonistsas young boys, playing boys' games-depicted as harmless-which involvevariousdegrees of trickeryand pettytheft.The nextsequence takes place six years later,when theyhave graduatedinto"real" crime.Its corresponding introductory titleshot, "1915", thistimeis not accompaniedby any music. The silence suggestsa loss of frivolity, a fall fromthe childhood games of innocencethathad initiatedthetwointotheirlivesas criminals. A similarlysomberuse of absentmusicoccursin Fellini'sNights of Cabiria. In the openingscene, no musicplays on the soundtrack, suitorshoves Cabiria into the while on the screen an untrustworthy riverand runsoffwithher purse. An abundantlymusic-filled movie follows,untilthe finalsequence is reached. Cabiria and her beloved husband-to-bewalk atop a steep cliffoverlookinga river;she has with her all her life's savings.Again, music leaves the soundtrack, and again, the man provesto have deceived her. No musiccould be as eloquent as the lack of it here; and this silence points out a structuralrelation showing,in a way, that the filmhas virtually created Cabiria as a woman to be deceived,robbed,and pushedinto riversby men. Narrative/Diegesis Although by the 1920s the Russian Formalistshad exploredthe basic distinction between"fable" (the narratedstory,therepresented, the diegesis) and the "subject" (the cinematictreatment of the story, thatis, its narrativerepresentation), it was theFrenchfilmologuesof the 1950s, headed by GilbertCohen-Seat, who refinedcertainconcepts and terminologythatpaved the way fora systematicstudyof

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Claudia Gorbman filmnarrative.Gerard Genette definesthe diegesisas "the spatiotemporal universereferredto by the primarynarration."114Etienne in termsof Souriau, a Frenchfilmologue,amplifieson thisdefinition cinema specifically: Diegesis, diegetic:all thatbelongs,"by inference,"'5to the narratedstory,to the world supposed or proposedby the film'sfiction.Ex: (a) Two sequencesprojected consecutivelycan representtwo scenes separatedin the diegesisby a long interval (several hoursor yearsof diegetictime). (b) Two adjoiningstudiosetscan represent locations supposedlyhundredsof feetapartin diegeticspace. (c) Sometimesthere are two actors (e.g. a child and an adult, or a star and a stuntmanor double) to successivelydepict the same diegeticcharacter.'6

Genette's and Souriau's definitions agree thatthe diegesismeans the space-timeuniverseand its inhabitantsreferredto by the principal filmicnarration.Souriau's wordingshows a more exactingconcern forsome importantdetails.First,he takescare to furnish examples of both spatial and temporaldiegetizationof filmicelements. Second, he includesthephrase"by inference"("dans l'intelligibilit6"), whose importancewill presentlybecome clear. At thispoint,then, we may summarizeand define "diegesis" as being the narratively impliedspatiotemporalworldof theactionsand characters. However, a problem arises in filmstudy:how to pinpointthis narrativeimplication.What in a filmmakes it possibleforus to infer that charactersand space exist even when theydo not appear on screen,to infera logicallycontinuousuniverse,whenthefilmpresents only a series of two-dimensional compositions-discreteand discontinuous shots? In other words, how do the perceived sounds and images, all edited and spliced together,give us the impressionof some "real" world theyare supposedlyextractedfrom?We seem to 14Gerard Genette, "D'un recitbaroque": Figures,v. II (Paris: Editionsdu Seuil, 1969), p. 211. The primarynarrationdesignatesthe principallevel of narration,as opposed to stories-within-the-story whichGenettetermsmetadiegetic narration,and as opposed to narrativeinstrusions fromwithout(e.g. metalepsis, or extradieparticipatio) geticelements. 15Orig: "dans l'intelligibilite (comme ditM. Cohen-Seat)." 16Etienne Souriau,ed., L'Universfilmique (Paris,1953),p. 7. Translationmine.Cf. also Ch. 4, pp. 97ff,of ChristianMetz, Film Language (New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 1974).

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Yale FrenchStudies have psychologicalcapacityto impose continuity on filmedimages and sounds beforeus-a capacityto take Kuleshov's littlesequence composed of a shot of a man's face followedby a shotof a bowl of soup followedby a shot of the man again, and to say thatthe man standsnear the table and is lookingat thefood (even beforejumping to the connotativelevel on whichwe perceivehimexpressing hunger). From three fragmentsof a supposed reality,we infer,re-construct, the diegesis; all narrativerepresentation presentsus thesubjectfrom whichwe derive the fable. Filmmakershave departed fromstrictlydiegeticrepresentation almost since the beginningof filmitself.In the silents,visual metaphors commonlyappeared. In the sound film,theuse of visualmetaphor strikesus as artificial,sincetherealisticintegrity of thediegesis, seeminglyenhanced by the lifelikepresenceof soundsand dialogue, is all the more violentlyperturbedby nondiegeticimages. Such was the reaction as early as 1936, to a shot in Fritz Lang's Fury: a nondiegeticinsertof cacklinghens,whichcommentedon a montage depicting townsfolkspreading gossip, was considered forced and dated. On theotherhand, "metadiegetic"images-those supposedly naratedor "imagined"by a characterin thefilm-persist.In addition to dreams, visions,fantasies,and the like, a whole flashbackintroduced by a character(who thusbecomes a secondarynarrator)is a common elementof filmdiscourse. It is not difficult to realize thatthe soundtracktakes manymore liberties with the diegesis than does the image track. Voice-over commentariesand verballynarratedflashbacks,both nondiegetic, punctuate many filmnarratives.Natural sounds or sound effects, however, tend to remaindiegetic(unless theyaccompanyalso nondiegetic images). The reason forthislies in the ambiguityof many sounds when presented out of the contextof theirsound source. the onlyelementof filmicdiscoursethatappears extenSignificantly, sively in nondiegeticas well as diegeticcontexts,and oftenfreely crosses the boundaryline in between,is music.Once we understand thatmusicenjoys withrespectto the filmdiegesis,we the flexibility kindsof functions it can have: begin to recognizehow manydifferent temporal, spatial, dramatic, structural,denotative,connotative196

Claudia Gorbman levels both in the diachronicflowof a filmand at variousinterpretive simultaneously.

Diegeticmusic a. Definitions Diegetic music: music that (apparently)issues from a source withinthe narrative.While most viewerswill agree on whethera particularinstanceof filmmusicissuesfroma diegeticsourceor not, a caveat-itself withrichconsequences-is in orderhere. Fellini,for example, deliberatelyblursthe linebetweendiegeticand nondiegetic loves to use componentsof his filmicdiscourse,and he particularly music to serve thispurpose. Beginningas earlyas La Strada,Fellini elevated this distinctionto the statusof a dialectic,a fundamental structuring principleofhisfilms.17 As one ofitsmostdeeplyentrenched conventions,the Hollywood musicalalso plays on the tensionsthat creates.And Vigo, Clair, the musicallydiegetic/nondiegetic ambiguity Duvivier, Gremillon,Resnais, Carne, Renoir, and a host of others since 1930 participatein a strongGallic traditionof exploitingthe diegeticambiguityinherentin filmmusic. If Genette has distinguished at leastthreelevelsofnarration-the diegetic(arisingfromthe primarynarration),the extradiegetic(narrativeintrusionupon the diegesis), and the metadiegetic(pertaining to narrationby a secondarynarrator)-may we speak also of metadiegeticfilmmusic?A hypotheticl instance:earlyin a filmwe witness the greatromanceof protagonistX, whichends tragicallyduringthe War. Years later, while X and his best friendY sit in a bleak cafe discussingtheirirretrievablejoys, Y bringsup the name of Xs lost love. This strikesa chord: a change comes over Xs face, and music swells onto the soundtrack,the melodythathad played earlyin the filmon the nightX had mether. On whichnarrativelevel do we read this music? It is certainlynot diegetic,forthe forty-piece orchestra in thefilmicspace ofthe thatplays is nowhereto be seen, or inferred, cafe. In a certainsense, we mayhear it as bothextradiegetic-forits 17See my articleon Nightsof Cabiria: "Music as Salvation:Notes on Felliniand Rota," Film Quarterly28, 2 (Winter1974-75):17-25.

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Yale FrenchStudies lack of a narrativesource-and metadiegetic-sincethescene's conversationseems to triggerX's memoryof the romanceand the song that went with it; wordlessly,he "takes over" part of the film's narrationand we are privilegedto read his musicalthoughts. Note where this speculationleads us: to the veryfrontiersthat in readinga film.If it is alwaysa separate thegivenfromtheinferred bit presumptuousto assume as truththata diegeticuniverseexists somewhere beyond the bounds of screen and soundtrack,and to make statementsbased on those assumptions-about a character's psychologicalmotivations,or theorderof narrativeeventsin diegetic time-it is one step morepresumptuousto suggestthatcertainmusic heard in a filmis being thoughtby a diegeticcharacter. In reading music as metadiegeticor not, the issue is not its and as such, truth/falsity value-for music is not representational, cannot lie-but ratherits connectionto a secondarynarratorat all. music" demands rigorous Although the question of "point-of-view that a analysis,we may agree metadiegeticreadingdependson justificationby narrativecontextand on otherspecificcinematicconventions. b. Affectiveroles of diegeticmusic The mood of any music on the soundtrack,be it diegetic or nondiegeticmusic, will be feltin associationwith diegeticevents. filmmusic as Curiously, criticsoftenmake the errorof classifying eithernondiegeticand therefore,theycontend,capable of expression, or diegetic,"realistic",divorcedfromthe tasksof articulating moods and dramatictensions.18 We need only thinkof countless nightclubscenes where countlesscouples declare theirlove to soft music: sometimesa (diegetic) orchestraor jukebox plays it, sometimes it plays nondiegeticallyon the soundtrack-with about the same expressivevalue. What we mayindeed remarkabout thespecialexpressiveeffectof diegeticmusicis its capacityto createirony,in a more "natural"way 18See, forexampleMark Evans, Soundtrack:The Musicof theMovies (New York: Hopkinson and Blake, 1975). Even Manvell and Huntleyperpetuatethisthoughtless distinction:cf. The Techniqueof Film Music, p. 45.

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Claudia Gorbman than nondiegeticmusic. Imagine for instance that the heroine is enjoying herself at a party; people dance and shout to a lively jitterbug.Suddenlya message arrivesforher,sayingthather fiance has just been killed. As a close-upshowsus the note, the gay music continuesto revel on the soundtrack,"unaware" of its ironiccommentaryon her lover's death. Now imagine the scene conceived differently. Instead of being at a party,the heroine sits at home chattingwith a neighbor.The unfortunatetelegramarrives,and a nondiegeticrenditionof thejitterbugaccompaniestheclose-up.Now this seems a shocking exercise in sheer style and narrativeselfconsciousness. Even thoughwe know that the narratorhas been equally responsible for the music/imageironyin the partyscene, "his" creativeeffrontery strikesus withgreaterforcein the second case-even puzzlement. By takingmusic meant as extranarrative commentand renderingit diegeticin the firstexample,thenarration motivates,naturalizesthe music,makes its disparitywiththe filmed events acceptable. In the dominantfilmmaking tradition,the rhythmand mood of diegeticmusicthat"coincidentally"playswitha scene has been made to match the scene's mood and pace withan uncannyconsistency. This practice in fact impliesa departureof diegeticmusic fromits naturalistic independenceand a movementtowardtheaction-imitating music.Thereare, of roleswe mightmorereadilyexpectof nondiegetic course, degrees of this improbable fusion of diegetic music with action. The most closely synchronizedmusic-scenecoordinationis what we shall call "orchestration".In Nightsof Cabiria,a richactor, Lazzari, has broughtprotagonistCabiria, a prostitute,to his home forthe night.While theywaitfortheservantto bringdinner,Lazzari puts the second movementof Beethoven's FifthSymphonyon the record player. For the rest of the durationof the piece, or until Lazzari removes it fromthe turntable,Fellini paces the action to matchexactlythemovementof thesymphony. At thepointof a great crescendoand modulation,a servantwheelsin a majestictrayloaded withfood in silverservingdishes.The spectacularinterplay continues: duringa quiet, pensive momentin the Beethoven,Lazzari, having inspected the champagne and its vintage, repeats the year 1949 199

Yale FrenchStudies nostalgically,as ifdirectedby themusicto do so at thattimeand no other. thecharacters' A degreeof stylization is achievedbymanipulating action so that they submitto musical divisionof time ratherthan dramaticor realistictime.The charactersin thenarrativefilm,whom we conventionallyaccept as subjects,unquestionablybecome objects withthe music: when theirmovementsand speech coincide strictly for we can consider musical rhythm-an abstract,mathematical, highlyorganizeddispositionof time-to be the oppositeof spontaneous, "real" time. We sense thatthe charactershave been created, and theydo not inspireus to identifywiththem. Contributing to a definitedeparturefrompsychologicalrealism,the music employed acts ironicallyas a much strongernarrativeintrusion,even though diegetic,than extradiegeticmusic.19 c. Diegeticmusic,sound space, temporalcontinuity It is all to easy to overlook the fact that in the contextof a narrativefilm,diegeticmusic functionsfirstand foremostas sound. Here we are in a realmfarfromthe concernsof pure musicalcodes, but which bears greatlyon notions of cinematicspace. Offscreen sound, for example, typicallymotivatescamera movementand/or cuttingto new quadrantsof space. As the camera eye searchesout the sound source,cinematicspace "naturally"unfolds.Diegeticmusic fleshesout filmspace, and variablesin recording,mixing,and volume space levels further determinethequality,the "feel", of framed/lived in a givenfilm.In filmswithstereosound,diegeticmusic-as well as dialogue and sound effects,of course-can articulatespace withall the more directionalprecision. Music can also createdepthin space. In Wellman'sPublicEnemy, Tom Powers and Matt Doyle stand outside the Red Oaks Club. A saloon piano plays "HesitationBlues" faintlyon thesoundtrack.The boys open thesaloon door and themusicbecomeslouder.Aftera cut to the inside the camera tracksby theRed Oaks' adolescentclientele and comes to rest on Putty-Nosewho is playingthis song at the '9This example is taken frommy articleon Nightsof Cabiria.

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Claudia Gorbman barroom piano. The musichas of course played continuouslyacross the cut and has grownlouderuntilthemediumcloseupofPutty-Nose at the piano. The diegeticmusicin thisscene has a double function. to twospatiallydisconFirst,it providesabsolutetemporalcontinuity tinuous shots, acting as a seamless "auditorymatch." Second, it provides depth cues: since loud means "near" and softmeans "far" (with correspondinglevels of reverberation),a continuousprogression from soft to loud means a continuousmovementforwardin cinematicspace, towardthe sound source. The Blue Angel bases a whole scene on the power of the soundtrackto describephysicalvolumes.ProfessorRath, somewhatembarrassed, is meetingLola Lola backstage forthe firsttime. Often at momentsthatadd ironicpunctuationto Rath's haltingwords,minor characters"happen" to enterby eitherof two doors throughwhich escape sounds of laughterand/orsleazilyplayedmusicfromthegirlie show. The expressivefunctionsof diegeticmusichere are motivated by its spatial functions. whichmay Since a piece of musichas itsown temporalstructure, or may not coincide withthe temporalstructureof a narrativefilm in thenarration. sequence, it mayhave a varietyoftemporalfunctions The example fromPublic Enemy shows how diegeticmusicplaying continuouslystrongly reinforcesour sense of thetemporaland spatial contiguityof the discreteshots in a sequence. (This verypointwas analysisof Adieu Philiplost at the beginningof Metz's syntagmatic pine, for what he described as a "bracket syntagma"of musicians recordingin a televisionstudioduringthe openingcreditsequence is actuallya "scene," held togetheras one temporalunityby the single continuoustune the musiciansare playing.20 musicto bridgegaps of Montage sequences oftenuse extradiegetic sequence in CitizenKane, diegetic time. The famedbreakfast-table forexample, showingKane and his firstwifesittingat progressively 20ChristianMetz, "Outline of the AutonomousSegmentsin JacquesRozier's film Adieu Philippine,"in Film Language (New York: OxfordUniversityPress, 1974), p. 150. Actually,the last fewmomentsof the creditsequence may be seen as a new and differentrecordingsession-since, precisely,a new piece of music is heard on the soundtrack.Under no circumstances,however,can we read the film'sbeginningas a discontinuous"bracketsyntagma."

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Yale FrenchStudies greaterdistancesfromeach otheras theyearspass, visuallysignaling the emotional distancethatgrowsbetweenthem,has a theme-andshotcompositionsvariationsmusic-as well as equallysymmetrical to simultaneouslybridgeand demarcatethe temporaldiscontinuities in the diegesis. We mightofcoursepersistinenumerating othertypesofcontinuity structural, that music can promote: thematic,dramatic,rhythmic, and so on. In each case music funtionsas connectingtissue,a nonrepresentationalproviderof relations,among all levels of the narration. One area thatinvitesextensiveexplorationis the functionof music withrespectto pointof view: forit can markshiftsin pointof view, or it can assure a continuous,often narratively"illogical", progressionfromone viewpointto another. In a key segmentof Hitchcock's Blackmail (1929), for example, a continuouslyplaying musical theme leads the spectatorfrom"objective" narration(as a male suitor plays the piano to the woman protagonist)to a guiltridden,subjectiveinstance(as the woman walks the London streets havingstabbed the man to death, and on the soundtrackan increasalteredversionofthe inglyorchestratedand harmonicaly/acoustically originaldiegeticpiano themeis heard).

Conclusion In privilegingspecificallycinematicmusicalcodes and emphasizing some functionsof musicin the contextof a filmicnarration,this essay attemptsto shiftthe balance of filmmusiccriticism.It is simply to judge filmmusicby criteriasimilarto thoseused for not sufficient judging autonomous music. Clearly, filmmusic acts on and is perceived on different levels, accordingto a film'sscreeningconditions, and so on. But forthe filmgoer the natureof its auditors/spectators, whose attentionis fixedon a storyrepresentedon the screen,the cinematicmusical codes are deployedin ways cruciallydeservingof the analyst'sattention. What oughtto be clear is the synergetic qualityof musicin films. Change the score on the soundtrack,and the image-trackseems transformed.Tynyanov,speaking of literaryworks, wrote: "The 202

Claudia Gorbman work representsa systemof correlatedfactors.The correlationof each factorwiththeothersis itsfunction withrelationto thesystem." A study of the functionsof music in narrativecinema necessarily entails a study of its relationswith other elementsin the textual system. We have suggestedthe importanceof the notionof mediationin understanding thepresenceand functions of filmmusic.The statusof music as non-verbaland non-denotative allowsit to crossall varieties of "borders": betweenlevels of narration(diegetic/nondiegetic), between narratingagencies (objective/subjective narrators),between viewingtimeand psychologicaltime,betweenpointsin diegeticspace and time (transitionalfunctions). Finally,the connotativevalues whichmusiccarries,via extratextual culturaldeterminationsand also throughtextualrepetitionand variation,in conjunctionwiththe rest of the film'ssoundtrackand visuals, largelydetermineatmosphere,shading,expression,mood. What is mood? Certainly,a difficultpoint to interrogatewithout recourse to much more exhaustivephenomenologicaldescription. The questionremainshow to presentcogenttheoreticalargumentsin thisfield:formood-the mostobviousand oft-mentioned function of filmmusic-originates in the complexof all connotativeelementsin the filmicsystem.Neverthelessit will be throughclose analysisof individualfilmsthatwe mayarriveat understanding howmusicworks in creating connotativemeanings at the most global level of the fiction.

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