How movie music makes you cry

John Williams is probably the most acclaimed Hollywood composer of all time, having written the scores for some of the biggest movies EVER, including ‘Star Wars’, ‘Jaws’, ‘E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial’, ‘Indiana Jones’, ‘Schindler’s List’ and (some of) the ‘Harry Potter’ films.

Picking up five Oscars, four Golden Globes, 20 Grammys - not to mention countless nominations - Williams sure knows his semibreves from his minims.

[Related link: John Williams soundtracks on iTunes]

To celebrate the Academy Award winning composer’s 80th birthday, we spoke to David Machin, a sound and communication professor at Cardiff University, to find out how movie music actually works and the tricks involved that make you feel emotions – even during the most mundane of scenes.

Here’s how movie music…

…makes you cry

We’ve all been there, uncontrollably blubbing in our local cinema and turning our popcorn into a Heston Blumenthal style soup, but it’s not just the images making us cry.  Machin explains that the use of minor keys is a universally acknowledged trick that will make us sad, combined with “descending melodies that suggest drooping despair”. Make the minor notes gentle, lightly played and lingering and you have a sure fire weepy on your hands.

Machin also notes that “high pitched melodies in minor keys suggest peaks of emotion - especially where they have intense vibrato which suggest quivering emotion”.

[Related feature: Movies that make grown men cry]

Think the John Coffee execution scene in ‘The Green Mile’ as a good example of all the above. Get your tissues ready.

…makes you laugh
 
If you’re trying to make a post-1998 Adam Sandler film seem funny, pick up a tuba or a bassoon. Research suggests that sounds from these instruments suggest clumsiness and lack of agility. Who hasn’t laughed at a man with a tuba?

According to Machin, the best way to make a giggle-fest is “to use notes that are at the extreme ranges of what is possible on an instrument”. This suggests comedy as it sounds “strained”.  Therefore, comedy motifs might jump from low to high and back again to suggest unevenness.

“The notes should also be played with a bouncing effect which also emphasizes a lack of precision and lack of calmness”.

The melody used for Mr. Collins in the 1995 BBC adaptation of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ puts all these theories into practice. I’m laughing already.

…builds tension

 When people are tense, you can hear the stress in the tightness of their voice. The same applies to musical instruments. Therefore, in order to install tension and unease, composers will avoid legato (smooth) lingering notes and opt for the restricted, staccato ones instead.

Machin goes on to explain that “a restricted pitch range suggests even more tension” which should leave audiences wide-eyed and anxious.  Another typical movie trick involves “higher pitched high hat cymbals played with tension in fast rhythms to suggest motion or possibility”. 

The ‘Halloween’ films provide the best example of this. No wonder there are ten of them.
 
…makes you scared

Fact: Watching scary movies through your fingers is useless. The sounds you hear are just as frightening as what you see. Machin suggests simple methods such as using “heavy, deep sounds” are instrumental (ahem) in spooking you. 

A more complicated trick is playing “minor notes close together with little melodic expansion”, so they can sound “restricted and trapped”. Similarly “notes played in low pitches can suggest darker danger whereas higher pitches can suggest hysteria”.

Composers turn the fear factor up to 11 by playing notes with friction or grating sounds (to suggest difficulty) in jerky staccato rhythms. Listen to John Williams’ famous ‘Jaws’ riff for proof.

We’re gonna need a bigger note…

…makes you excited 

Composers use melodies that increase in pitch to “sound like positive bursts of energy” (as opposed to ones that descend) to build excitement.  There are also a number of notes in the musical scale that research suggests gives a sense that ‘something is going to happen' - such as the 4th. 

Abrupt changes of rhythm and percussion also works a treat. Check out the glorious ‘Indiana Jones’ movies to see what we mean.

David Machin’s book ‘Analysing Popular Music’ is out now.