Leitmotif and Lightsabers

Pop your favorite movie into the DVD player, turn off the lights, and turn off the sound. What's the first thing you notice? You can't hear the actors talking, right? Come on, by now you've got all Han Solo's lines memorized (you could also turn on the subtitles). Dialog is no longer a problem, so what's your next insight? The neighbor's dog is barking, the ice maker in the refrigerator makes a lot of noise. Ok, you've had your moment of zen, now back to the movie. Depending on the film and your personality, you've noticed that your movie experience is missing the cool lightsaber sound effects and- wait for it- the soundtrack.

A good soundtrack can tell the story almost without the dialog, sound effects, (and dare we say without the video?). Depending on the successful realization of the director's vision, the soundtrack can take on a variety of roles during the course of a movie. It can tell the story, or it can act as a foil to what is happening on screen. Today I'm going to talk about what happens when the soundtrack tells the story. It accomplishes this by describing a character, a setting (place), or an event.

Let's take John Williams' Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope as an example. Who can forget the endearing "Princess Leia's Theme?" Think Princess Leia, you see the two buns on the sides of her head, maybe get a flash of her bending toward R2-D2 to send her call for help to Ben Kenobi, and you hear the lilting flute melody that is associated with Leia throughout Episodes IV, V, and VI. Other tracks on the Episode IV soundtrack paint pictures of places (the quirky "Moisture Farm" theme or the gorgeous French horn solo, "Binary Sunset"). Some melodies depict events (like "The Battle of Yavin.")

Associating a particular musical theme with a character, place, or event is called leitmotif.

Leitmotif was loved by opera composers, and it is still a mainstay of our dramatic soundtrack composers, today. Most of my favorite soundtracks use leitmotif, and you can learn a lot about what's important to the theme of the film by examining the leitmotifs or, to sound less like my music history prof, by examining the track names on the CD. A look at the Star Wars soundtracks shows that events make up a lot of the themes, but characters and places are also very important. Another of my favorites, Howard Shore's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, has a lot to do with places: "The Bridge Of Khazad Dum," "Lothlorien," "The Great River," as well as titles from events in the film. What a great way for the the filmmakers to translate Tolkein's love of names of places into leitmotifs that use music to paint a picture of the landscape.

Ok, now you can turn the sound back on your DVD. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the music.