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Soundtracks/ Themes

A film soundtrack is the music that is from or inspired by a feature film. Soundtracks themselves are not limited to film. One may find soundtracks to television shows, ranging from ER to the anime Cowboy Bebop, and video games such as the Final Fantasy series. more...

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Soundtracks can be divided by purpose and placement. As a general rule, soundtracks can be divided into the score and the songs from (or inspired by) the movie/TV show/video game.

Origin

It is likely the film soundtrack came into existence about the same time as the films themselves. Early films were silent, but were released with cue sheets or scores so that individual theater houses could play music, recorded or live, at appropriate places in the film. The first reels of 1961's West Side Story and 2001's Moulin Rouge! follow the practice of the era of silent film by beginning with an orchestra playing the opening theme. With the advent of talkies in 1927, music was optically integrated into the actual film itself, and the wide world of film soundtracks was born.

Score (background music)

The score to a film is also known as its background music. This is arguably the most common type of music heard on a film soundtrack, is music composed and placed to enhance the desired emotion of a scene, be it positive or negative. The actors on screen are talking and moving normally, that is, they are neither singing nor dancing nor interacting with the music in any way (except in cases of a spoof). A person watching the movie may not be aware that anything is playing, but might comment on the poorness or flatness of a scene should the music be removed. The background music is usually orchestrated without meaningful vocals (with the exception of some chanting), and somewhat formless, based heavily on musical peaks and troughs that highlight the scene but which otherwise may be nonsensical or even boring when played alone.

Most background music follows a general pattern of instrumentation and technique to achieve whatever ends the composer desires. Common examples of such devices used in background music include trilling violins to indicate suspense, legato flutes to convey peaceful or pastoral setting, trumpet fanfares for military or martial scenes, and drumming for tribal events.

Movies with notable soundtracks consisting mainly of background music include the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy (Howard Shore, composer), Star Wars (John Williams, composer), The Mission (Ennio Morricone, composer) and The Piano (Michael Nyman, composer).

Themes

Closely related to a movie’s background music is the theme(s) of the movie. A theme is a particular melodic or rhythmic motif that appears in the music whenever a certain event, usually the presence or entrance of a major character, occurs (see leitmotif). Themes differ from background music in that they are usually tuneful and will stand alone if removed from the context of the movie. Also unlike background music, the song may often have purposeful lyrics.