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Film scores with just a few themes/motifs?

composerguy78

composerguy78

Active Member
I am finding that when I am composing for a film I too often do not make use of themes enough. As a result I end up composing way more themes than necessary when just a few would have worked fine and probably made the film more cohesive.

I am thinking I need to brush up my skills of working on developing themes and that it would help to study some movie scores that are good examples of this.

Can anyone make some good recommendations of this? I am really looking for examples of where a single or a few themes are developed and used in different ways.

Regards,

Felix
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This may help. Musicologist frank Lehman has cataloged all of the Star Wars Motifs by John Williams.
https://www.academia.edu/33487589/Complete_Catalog_of_Star_Wars_Leitmotifs_Compiled_by_Frank_Lehman

Since most of the John Williams Star Wars music is published by Hal Lenard you can look at the variations in Score form.

You may have to register but it is free to download.

If you don't know all the techniques of motif variation, I would strongly suggest Norman Ludwin's book. It is the definitive guide on varying your music.

https://www.musicnewapproach.com/dev-variation
 
Much appreciated Eric G.

I have no idea about this ! Good to know about the free download also!
 
In this playlist you can watch a lot of videos about how film music (themes included) is used.

Many of these videos talk about how a theme develops narratively and also about its relationship with other themes. You can watch them in English too (or English subtitles, I think). Highly recommended. It's from the world's largest web of film music reviews (www.mundobso.com)

Ah, and his book is really recommended (and cheap!!). The best one I've read in a while. Or ever. I've found it very interesant about how to use the themes. In English or Spanish:
https://tinyurl.com/y94jm2vc

(I have no benefit, this is not advertising. Only advice ;))
 
Star Wars. I mean, a lot of John Williams' scores are well developed.

If you want something more recent/modern: I recently saw Tintin. The "Unicorn" theme is always present in the movie after cue #5, and continues to evolve throughout the film. Very fun score.

 
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composerguy78 said:
I am finding that when I am composing for a film I too often do not make use of themes enough. As a result I end up composing way more themes than necessary when just a few would have worked fine and probably made the film more cohesive.
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Just to give an other aspect:
Personally, i often analysed e.g. operas from the "Pre-Leitmotiv-era" - for example some operas from Mozart.
Also song cycles (e.g. "Die Schöne Müllerin" from Schubert).
The interesting thing is, they are totally cohesive, but for different reasons.
Relying on recurring thematic elements is a great thing; but sometimes it's also cool if the music follows other parameters that create a coherent form.
Personally i think that the conscious use of tonal regions can be extremely useful; it's not perceived consiously (at least by 99.998% of the audience), but it can be felt.
So, if you have a tendency to work outside of the Leitmotiv-/recurring theme scheme, you can also try to develop alternative, personal tools to get a coherent dramatury.
My experience is that in the area of arts, personal, instinctive tendencies are there for a reason. If the inner voice suggests something - sometimes by refusing to adapt premade structures - it's a good thing to follow the trace...
 
Thank you everyone! This is really helpful - just what I was hoping for.

Living Fossil - can you clarify what you mean about using tonal regions?

Thank you!

Felix
 
composerguy78 said:
Living Fossil - can you clarify what you mean about using tonal regions?
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Adding keys to specific constellations/persons/situations etc.
The confrontation of different keys in different situations can be extremely useful to create contrasts, affinity, consequences.

Just some examples:

Tritone relations can highlight opposites. E.g. one person's music uses C-major, his opponent f#-minor.
(in bitter moon, Vangelis uses the love theme in the tritone key at the moment the love falls apart).

Ascending keys can highlight intensification. E.g. first part is in C-major, second in D-major, third in E-major etc.
(or C - Db - D; or: C- Eb - F# - A [which is a very traditional progression, also called "Teufelsmühle"]).
(descending keys have the opposite effect - loss of energy)

Mediant relations can highlight small contrasts, or bring a "fresh energy".
E.g. the music goes from C-major to Ab-major.

Ascending/Falling fifths can express that destiny lets things happen.
(have a look at the consecution of keys in which Laura's theme appears in the film "Laura" (dir.: Preminger, composer: David Raksin)

The classical literature is full of similar things. It's one of the most powerful tools of tonality, but also one that gets constantly overlooked, when people think that e.g. modulations are just the application of rules and random decisions... in fact, it's one of the strongest constructive tools.
 
MichaelM said:
I might be wrong how I'm remembering this, but I feel like Ennio Morricone's score to The Mission, only used about 2 or 3 themes. The main one being Gabriel's oboe, and the other was like a very low basoon or contrabassoon theme for the Robert De Nero character. I remember these themes also being mostly fully developed when you heard them.
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Listening to the Mission is educational from many perspectives...including strikingly melodic invention and applying variations thereof.
 
Eric G said:
The Motif resource I mentioned covers all the Star Wars films up to The Last Jedi so I don't know how you can get more recent. They also have links to the location in the score via YouTube.
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Sorry for confusing you with my poorly phrased opening. I meant it as a suggestion, not wonderment or skepticism towards the Star Wars recommendations, even though it can be interpreted that way. I've edited the question mark.

You've provided great resources. I didn't provide mine as an alternative but rather an addition since I've seen the film recently and liked what the score did with the few themes it had.
 
aaronventure said:
Sorry for confusing you with my poorly phrased opening. I meant it as a suggestion, not wonderment or skepticism towards the Star Wars recommendations, even though it can be interpreted that way. I've edited the question mark.

You've provided great resources. I didn't provide mine as an alternative but rather an addition since I've seen the film recently and liked what the score did with the few themes it had.
Click to expand...

All good. Apologies if I took it the wrong way. I just wanted good suggestions as you did.
 
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