This
month, Clef Notes explores various topics related to music and cinema. This
past season, we had composer Sebastian Currier stop by the WGUC studio for an
interview before the premiere of his Concerto for Orchestra with the Cincinnati
Symphony Orchestra. While here, we got on the topic of film music.
Mr.
Currier brought up his affinity for the film score used in Carol Reed’s 1949
classic The Third Man, starring Orson
Welles and Joseph Cotton. He mentioned that he finds the use of a single
instrument—the zither—during the entire score especially effective. What I find
particularly interesting about this score is that it was composed by Anton
Karas, who had no background whatsoever in writing music for film. In fact, he
struggled to support his family working as an entertaining musician at a
Viennese Wine Bar. It was at this very bar that Reed heard Karas perform.
Amazed at the sounds of the zither, he asked Karas to come on board to work for
The Third Man, writing the score for
the entire film.
Karas
agreed to write the music for Reed’s film, thus putting his name on the map as
the “Third Man Theme” gained international recognition. The film’s main theme
was actually something Karas wrote 20 years earlier, yet never actually
performed. Have you seen The Third Man?
Do you agree with Currier in his statement that a single zither is especially
effective in this film?
Many
of you may have seen the new Terrence Malick film, Knight of Cups, starring Christian Bale. Since I’ve written about
several of Malick’s other films in years past, I figured I’d continue the trend
this year, as he is known to use excellent music as part of his compilation
scores.
Knight of Cups draws from
many pillars in classical music history, from Vaughan Williams, to Grieg, Pärt,
and Debussy. But the one theme that struck me most comes from a lesser-known
composer, Wojciech Kilar, whose Exodus captures
the essence of what the film is all about.
Knight of Cups gets its
title from the tarot card by the same name. When upright, it represents change,
new and exciting life experiences, opportunity, and a person who is bored with
life and searching for something more. If the card is seen upside down, it
represents false promises and a person who doesn’t know the truth. The image
used for the film shows Rick (Bale) upside down. Perhaps this has deeper
meaning?
As
is typical for a Malick film, Knight of
Cups was improvised, for the most part, the actors not actually knowing the
film’s synopsis. Throughout the film, there are references to the character
Christian in John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s
Progress, who travels through the ups and downs of life, journeying from
his home to the Celestial City (symbolic of heaven). In the film, Rick travels
his own journey, forgetting his true origins, and searching for his identity.
The false hopes and materialistic pleasures of the world have distracted him
and the entire film uses symbolism to point Rick back to the path he needs to
follow. Harkening back to The Pilgrim’s
Progress, Rick is stuck in the City of Vanity Fair, wandering through life,
recalling fragmented memories from his past.
Knight of Cups is divided
into chapters, each with the title of a tarot card (except for the last). This
last chapter is entitled “Freedom” and shows the innocent Isabel helping Rick
find a way to move forward on his journey to the “Celestial City.” While
earlier in the film, Malick shows Rick driving through tunnels to nowhere, the
final scene shows him driving with purpose toward the horizon. Perhaps he’s
found his identity?
Now
before I get too carried away with my interpretations of the film’s plot, let’s
turn back to Wojciech Kilar’s Exodus.
The title alone relates to the overall theme of the film, as Rick is on his own
“exodus” from the emptiness of
Hollywood, a modern Egypt, if you will. Kilar wrote this beautiful piece
for choir and orchestra and based it on the Biblical book of Exodus. The text,
found near the end of the piece, refers to Miriam’s song of praise after God
delivered the Israelites from the hands of the Egyptians. Just as Rick travels
from his world of sin and bondage toward finding freedom, the Israelites traveled
from their own world of bondage in Egypt to the freedom found in the Promised
Land.
Have
you seen Knight of Cups? If so, do
you find Kilar’s Exodus an effective
addition to Malick’s compilation score?
Are
you familiar with the 1948 Preston Sturges film Unfaithfully Yours starring Rex Harrison? This film provides the
perfect example of diegetic ambiguity. Before looking at whether the music can
be considered diegetic or non-diegetic, it’s first important to understand the
overall plot.
Sir
Alfred De Carter is an orchestral conductor who suspects his wife has been
unfaithful. While conducting his orchestra, Carter imagines multiple scenarios
on how he could handle the situation. The film transitions between showing
Carter conduct famous music by Rossini and Wagner to scenes of him carrying out
the “plan” in his mind. What’s ambiguous is whether or not the music can be
considered diegetic or not. We see a music source (the orchestra) so it is
diegetic for Carter as he conducts, the musicians, and those watching. The
scenes in Carter’s mind, however, display the music as non-diegetic, as the
people in his mind cannot hear the music that occurs in real time.
How
would you classify this music in Unfaithfully
Yours? Can the Carter in Carter’s mind hear the music?
Next
time, join me as I take a look at the latest from Terrence Malick, Knight of Cups.
