The "Ancrage" Effect of Film on Music in Film-Music Concert Pieces

• Claudia Gorbman, after Barthes, calls 'ancrage' the ability of music to anchor an ambiguous image to a defined meaning (Unheard Melodies, p. 32). Similarly, Noel Carroll says that film music mainly operates in films as 'modifying music' (Theorizing the Moving Image, p. 141). In both proposals, music is seen as something that adds a stable meaning to the film's images. We can posit a similar function of the film's image when it comes to film music played in concert programmes. In these cases, it is the film that adds a stable meaning to the music being listened. This can happen either because of the listener's recollections of a set of visuals and moods triggered by the music previously heard in a given film, or, more directly, through the multimedia combination of the live musical performance with projected clips from the related film. Film music as concert music has a peculiar aesthetic, one which is richer and more clear-cut in terms of extramusical associations than any other type of programme/applied music. To fully appreciate this interdependent nature of film music as something semantically and referentially rich – instead of automatically dismissing it as something merely functional and unable to stand on its own in the concert hall – it is necessary to adopt a cinematical way of listening. Film music in concert programmes should be enjoyed bearing the film in mind, and judged as to its ability to translate into music the moods and visuals of the film.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Konst -- Filmvetenskap (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Arts -- Studies on Film (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Konst -- Musikvetenskap (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Arts -- Musicology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Film Studies

Filmvetenskap

Musikvetenskap

Musicology

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)