The Power of Sound

 

Has sound affected your viewing experience of a film or show? Why do we feel unsettled when a dissonant violin fades in during a horror movie? Why does the tuba from the Jaws (1975) soundtrack create so much suspense? Dramatic films share one thing in common: they use sound to manipulate the audience’s emotions. All moviegoers, in some way shape or form, have had their perception impacted by sound, either through musical scores or added sound effects.

Sound & Cinema

The first film to feature an original score was a French film produced in 1908 entitled La mort du duc de Guise, which translates to The Assassination of the Duke of Guise. ⁱ An orchestra containing horns, violins, woodwinds, and a piano can be heard playing throughout the 15-minute-long movie. Though La mort du duc de Guise was created over a century ago, it set a precedent for modern cinema where composers layer music on top of film to correspond to the dramatic arc of the movie’s plot structure.ⁱⁱ

The legendary composer, Max Steiner, responsible for writing the iconic scores behind King Kong (1933), Gone with the Wind (1939), and Casablanca (1942), was a pioneer in using sound to conjure emotion. Considered the “father of film music,” Steiner composed over 300 scores and won 3 Academy Awards for Best Original Score for The Informer (1935), Now, Voyager (1942), and Since You Went Away (1944). Steiner’s score for King Kong is celebrated as the first classic, full-length Hollywood movie score. Steiner was also famous for developing the “click-track” which allowed for composers to synchronize sound with on screen action. He used sound to develop character perception and guide the audience’s emotion. Steiner firmly “believed that music…could work with the film to enhance and amplify the emotions, the characters, [and] the drama of the moment.”

Max Steiner’s techniques heavily influenced composer John Williams; widely considered the most accomplished composer of all time. Nominated for 54 Academy Awards, Williams won 5 Oscars (1 for Best Scoring and 4 for Best Original Score) for movie classics Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Jaws (1975), Star Wars (1977), E.T. the Extra Terrestrial (1982), and Schindler’s List (1993). In the original score for Jaws, “the sound design and musical score work in tandem to confront the audience with a mysterious killer animal.”^iv Even if you have never seen the movie, most people can recognize the iconic two-note shark motif that repeats ominously throughout the film. Using a tuba that alternates between notes E and F, the ostinato creates a sinister feeling that signals the presence of the shark. ^v Some suggest that the motif mimics the sensation of an increasing breath rate, while others say it “evokes the heartbeat of a shark.” ^vi The use of bass instruments, such as the tuba and the cello, accentuate the low “end of the musical frequency spectrum,” inducing a dark and depth-filled sentiment of both “power and intensity.”^vii As evidence of Williams mastery, the Jaws theme has become synonymous with fear and approaching danger.

The Anatomy of Sound

The power of sound to influence human emotions is fundamentally a result of how sound journeys through space. All “sound travels in waves that are essentially disturbances that move through a medium by causing particles to vibrate back and forth” ^viii Aspects like frequency “determines the pitch of the sound: higher frequencies mean higher pitches and lower frequencies mean lower pitches.” ^ix The space between each “successive compression or refraction” is a wavelength. ^x The higher the pitch, the shorter the wavelength, and, inversely, the lower the pitch, the longer the wavelengths are. These sound waves travel to our ears, which allows us to hear the exact frequency being exhibited by these wavelengths.

In a psychological study, researchers found that “the presence of background music had a positive effect on the audience’s attentional process.” ^xi Background music layered upon a visual medium encourages enhanced attention by viewers and helps moviegoers to become more immersed in visual entertainment. The low auditory notes associated with Jaws, create an intense feeling of present danger and fast-approaching tragedy. Our visceral reaction to the shark is heightened by the iconic theme and our brain’s response to the audio.

Conclusion

The medium of sound is a critical component in evoking an emotional response from movie viewers. Sound helps an audience understand the tone of a visual medium. On a scientific level, lower notes stir deeper emotions, while higher notes can place audience members in a state of exaltation. Movies like Jaws and Gone with the Wind symbolize the importance of sound in creating cinematic masterpieces. Visual elements synchronized with acoustic accompaniment synergize to create a more visceral movie experience than either can produce alone. Iconic movies are iconic because of the emotions they generate among audiences. No matter how visually appealing, the visual medium is always accentuated by sound.