2023-10-31 11:37:30
Think about the scariest movie you’ve ever seen. Beyond the blood-curdling screams or heartbeats, there is surely another sound that remains etched in your memory: his music.
Maybe it’s the screeching strings of Psychosis (1960), or the franchise’s pulsing piano melody and ominous bass Halloween (1971-2022). Maybe be the eclectic score of Sighs (1997), which combined synthesizers, the bouzouki griegothe indian table and whispers.
Or perhaps the unsettling quotes of avant-garde composers such as Grove y Penderecki of The glow (1980) still haunt your nightmares?
Horror movies incorporate varied musical influences. But there are some devices they share with fear- or tension-inducing scores in other genres, such as thriller and contemporary action films. These resources contribute to creating an ambiguous musical atmosphere.
This sense of uncertainty is often achieved through a lack of conventional melody and dissonant (clashing) harmonies that are not easily resolved. Repeated short melodies convey tension, as do tremolo techniques (sounds that they literally tremble or shudder), which involve rapid repetition of a tone or alternation between two tones.
These characteristics shape the public expectations through repetition, creating unrest when the planned development does not occur. The entry of additional instruments, increasing the volume and regularity of repetitions, or sequentially raising the pitch with each iteration can increase tension, in part because they do not promote substantial melodic evolution.
The science of a scary score
The composer’s music Bernard Herrmann for the shower sequence Psychosis is the example par excellence. It eschews melody in favor of the violin’s repeated high tones and builds by gradually adding strings to amplify the underlying dissonant chord.
Similar techniques are also common in the scores of thrillers most recent composers such as Hans Zimmer. Let’s take as an example Origen (2010), with its recurring guitar motif and dissonant string chords.
Looking for scary sheet music
Drones (sustained notes or repeated figures) also help create tense atmospheres. They usually appear in the bass, sometimes along with low-frequency rumbles. This can be heard in the recent film Oppenheimer (2023), during the scenes around the Prueba Trinity. These drones convey space and ambiguity, given the void between them and any high-pitched melodic fragments.
The musical researcher K.J. Donnelly sees a connection between these extreme tones of horror movie soundtracks and body sounds. The high string lines of movie soundtracks like Psychosis acoustically imitate the “harshness” or the harsh qualities of screams. Whispered or screamed voices often appear in horror scores, as do that emulate the beats of the human heart.
However, although these sounds emphasize the physical and vulnerable, the frequent use of electronic instruments and the blurring of the music and sound design also create an ambiguity that evokes the technological and the inhuman. This can be seen in the use of Oppenheimer of the ticking of the Geiger counter, a device used to detect radiation.
In contrast to these ambiguous sound atmospheres, sudden loud bursts of sound or music often also appear (stingers) that function as scares. Donnelly describes these sounds as “primary,” reflecting the psychological work which lists brainstem reflex (instinctive responses to sudden sonic events) as a musical means of inducing emotions.
Has been shown that the loud musical explosions that accompany and precede visual shocks in horror films increase viewers’ stress responses. Sudden silence can function in a similar way, as in Oppenheimer during the detonation test of a bomba nuclear. Likewise, the violin’s penetrating entry into the shower scene Psychosis is accentuated by the absence of music.
The use of musical elements in unknown settings It also subverts expectations and, in horror films, juxtaposes the innocent and familiar with dark content.
References to religion and childhood are invoked through instruments such as the organ and music box, and allusions to hymns and lullabies. Likewise, pre-existing happy or nostalgic music that is incongruous can be used to attract or distance the public. An example is when “Over the Rainbow” by Olivia Newton-John accompanies a shooting in the thriller of action Face/Off (1997).
These strategies affect us physically and psychologically. Although film music scholars have been observing it for many years, it has only been in recent decades that psychology researchers have begun to empirically explore how.
While these elements don’t appear in every tense scene, it’s likely that at least some of them contributed to viewers’ increased heart rate, goosebumps, or jump scares. These reactions are one of the main reasons we return to watching scary movies and clearly demonstrate the emotional impact of film music.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. You can read the original here: Here
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