Blog Post 5/1

Danny Elfman, one of the most well know music composers in the world. With amazing scores from: Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, Edward Scissorhands, etc. 

But, what exactly do film music composers do? Film composers create the musical score that accompanies a film,(film core). It can fall into 3 different categories. 

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000384/

Diegetic Music: Music that can be heard by the characters in the depicted scene. You might see a character attending a parade with marching bands or concert/dance. For example: Schmigadoon or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. 

Non-Diegetic Music: This is the most common form of film music, which is typically referred to as the underscore. This music, the characters can not hear. (Think of the tense vibrato strings when the protagonist of a horror film is entering the haunted basement- or the swelling harp arpeggios when two lovers kiss in an old-fashioned romance.)

Songs: Some films are scored with songs, which can be of both the diegetic and non-diegetic variety. Movie musicals feature diegetic songs- from 1970s onward, it became popular to replace traditional underscore with a soundtrack of non-diegetic music.