Home Movies (1954)

MUSIC • Continued from Page 75 tal Over You" as an adequate alternate for the intensely emotional duet in the second act of Tristan and Isolde. The extreme contrast of this example should serve to point out the deficiencies in emotional character of popular music in relation to the title or lyric content. Furthermore, the use of popular music can 'date' a musical score and lessen its effectiveness within the period of a few years. Of course there are exceptions to the foregoing wherein the emotional character of the music conforms to the emotional character of the 'story' as told in the lyric. Music of this type can be used to advantage if it fits into the pictorial material in such a way as to become an emotional part of the picture. Another disadvantage in the use of popular music lies in the fact that it is more difficult to cut or edit. One reason is that popular music is written in regular 'measured" phrases of 2, 4 and 8 bars and it is difficult to cut anywhere except in conformance to the dictates of those 'measured' phrases. Another reason is that the hearer is usually so familiar with the melody that any extreme alteration in the melodic continuity is immediately discernable and has a disconcerting effect on the hearer which, in turn, diverts tattention from the picture. However, there are cuts that can be made in popular music that are considered standard practice. The chorus (or refrain) of most popular music is 32 bars in length. In most cases this 32 bar strain is built up out of two 8 bar strains in the following manner. The first 8 bars of the chorus establishes a melodic (and harmonic) pattern. Let us call this 8 bars. A. The next 8 bars of the chorus are a repetition of the first 8 bars with the exception of slight harmonic and melodic changes in the last 2 bars. Let us call this 8 bars, Aa. The next 8 bars are entirely different than A or Aa and are called the 'release', which we shall call B. The last 8 bars are a repitition of the first 8 bars (A) with a slight harmonic and melodic change in the last 2 or 4 bars in order to bring the chorus to a harmonic and melodic ending. Let us call this 8 bars, Az. So we have the first 8 bars in three versions and the 'release' B) ) grouped as follows, A, Aa, B and Az. Let us further divide each of these four, 8 bar strains into four 2 bar phrases which we will number 1, 2, 3, and 4 as illustrated in Figure 1. Figure 2 is a chorus of Stephen Foster's familiar and universally loved melody, 'Jeannie With the Light Brown Hair". I have chosen this number to illustrate the following discussion on cutting because almost everyone is familiar with the melody and the accompanying lyric should enable you to follow the melody through the cuts whether you can read the music or not. Deletion of material to shorten the timing can be made by the 'legitimate" cuts previously referred to in this manner ... To get 8 bars (y^ of the chorus), use Az. To get 16 bars (% of the chorus), use A and Az. To get 24 bars (% of the chorus), use Aa, B and Az. If these cuts conform to your timing requirements you will have no objectionable breaks in either harmonic or melodic continuity. If the timing requires more material, additions should be made in 2, 4 or 6 bar phrases wherever possible. Let us say that your timing requires the equivalent of 20 bars I y2 chorus plus 4 bars ) . The examples shown in Figure 3 will serve to illustrate how this might be done. (You can refer to Figure 1 to see how these combinations go together.) \v hile all of these examples would supply the needed 4 extra bars, your choice should be determined by the example that provides the best melodic continuity. Extremely large melodic intervals either up or down) at the points of cutting should be avoided. And, of course, it might be found that some other combination would provide better continuity than any of the examples show. With the possible exception of the No. 4 1 2 bar ) phrases, it will usually be found that any of the 2 bar phrases (Nos. 1, 2 and 3) can be used as the beginning of a musical strain. If, for thematic purposes, the beginning of the melody is needed to start the strain, it is obvious that the strain should start with either the A, Aa or Az strains. Lsing Figure 1 for reference. Figure 4 illustrates additional examples of intermediate cuts to obtain a variety of timings. Extension of a full chorus (32 bars ) can be made by combining any of the examples in Figure 4 with a full chorus. As I have pointed out before, extreme changes in the melodic pattern of familiar music is often disconcerting to the hearer and is to be avoided if possible. I have used "Jeannie With the Light Brown Hair" for reasons previously stated. 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