Abstract
Incongruent music that lacks shared properties with the images and narrative can influence audience response and construction of filmic meaning in various ways. This chapter discusses: the levels on which (in)congruence may be judged; the conflation of these judgements with ideas of fit and appropriateness; the relevance of these concepts to film audiences, producers, and composers; and the inadequacy of broad binary labels when describing film–music relationships. A (re)definition and an inter- and multidisciplinary psycho-semiotic approach—the incongruent perspective—for identifying and interpreting film-music (in)congruence are outlined. The inclusion of various disciplinary influences in the incongruent perspective, including semiotic and poststructuralist ideas that might be considered incongruent with the book’s broader cognitive stance, is justified. An overview of the book’s contents and central aims are provided.
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Notes
- 1.
Given the psychological focus of this book, following Kassabian (2001), I use the term ‘perceiver’ to refer to members of the audience engaging with a film. The term negates over-emphasising processes of ‘viewing’ a film and any associated connotations of visual bias, which are misleading given my focus on film sound and music.
- 2.
In this book the label ‘accompaniment’ is used to describe music that is presented concurrently with filmic images and narrative content. My use of this label does not imply any allegiance with the idea that film music is in some way subservient to a film’s images or narrative content either perceptually or aesthetically. Conversely, the active role that music can play in the construction of filmic meaning and in influencing audience response is a central tenet of this book.
- 3.
This model and empirical study will be discussed in greater detail in Chapter 2.
- 4.
The brackets around the ‘in’ of (in)congruence and (in)appropriateness or the ‘mis’ of (mis)fit are used to indicate when either side of these dichotomies could be being referred to—so (in)congruence here essentially equates to the phrase ‘congruence and/or incongruence’. These brackets emphasise that such judgements are subjective , multidimensional , and that the boundaries between the two sides of these dichotomies are not always clear. The brackets are not employed when either of the two states is being explicitly referenced (such as in previous literature or when describing one specific side of the binary).
- 5.
Timing references from DVDs are presented in the format [hh:mm:ss]. Timings from soundtrack albums or special features on a film’s DVD release are presented in the format [mm:ss] to distinguish them and to reflect their shorter duration.
- 6.
See, for example, Annette Davison’s (2014) work on the show’s use of pre-existing song in the end credits sequences.
- 7.
This interpretation of incongruence can be conceptualised as both a definition given my intention of further exploring and deconstructing the congruence/incongruence binary, and given the absence of consistent explicit previous definitions across the relevant literature. However, it can also be considered a redefinition given its grounding in existing treatments of the label. This dual status is reflected by the bracketing of the term (re)definition throughout the text.
- 8.
Drawing on Cook (1998), film-music difference here refers to the separate sensory information provided by the audio and visual components of a film–music pairing.
- 9.
See, for example, the discussion of textual analysis and participants’ responses to the opening of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Gilliam, 1998, USA) included in Ireland (2015).
- 10.
The incongruent perspective was initially summarised in Ireland (2015) and is expanded throughout this book. The use of the label ‘psycho-semiotic’ here reflects that the present inter- and multidisciplinary approach incorporates ideas and approaches from both psychological and semiotic theory. It is not, as will be come readily apparent in the following paragraphs, intended to imply any allegiance to work within film studies that was heavily influenced by psychoanalytic or Marxist ideas, approaches that fuelled later cognitivist film theorists ’ critique of Grand Theory .
- 11.
- 12.
The rationale for this focus is similar to that outlined by Heldt (2013), who contends that ‘live-action fiction sound film is at the heart of most people’s understanding of cinema in western countries’ (p. 10). My examples are not exclusively restricted to Hollywood film, although the influence of the Hollywood model of film scoring will recur throughout the subsequent discussion. Whilst notions of incongruence and deviance might be more stereotypically aligned with counter-cinema , film critics, audiences, or producers have described each of the case studies in this book in terms similar to the present conceptualisation of incongruence. Whilst these examples might evoke different expectations in perceivers and involve a slightly different attitude towards the audiovisual relationship, the perceptual principles that belie engagement with their music are similar to those of the counter-cinema . As such, they provide a helpful set of examples by which to gain a broader and more holistic perspective of incongruent film music and its perceptual impact.
- 13.
Similar explanations recur in several studies investigating various aspects of film perception and cognition, which encompass a range of methodological and conceptual approaches including: Grodal’s (2009) neuropsychological and evolutionary theory of how we experience film; and Kiss and Willemsen’s (2017) cognitive account of the strategies perceivers might adopt in response to a range of types of textual and narrative dissonance in film.
- 14.
See Carroll and Seeley (2013, pp. 55–57) for an overview of some of these concerns.
- 15.
Bordwell use the example of the colours of traffic lights to demonstrate the way in which learned codes are essentially systems of fixed alternatives: that is that ‘red’ denotes ‘stop’ whilst alternatively ‘green’ denotes ‘go’.
- 16.
Elsewhere, Bordwell (2008) uses the shot-reverse-shot technique to describe this point (pp. 57–82).
- 17.
For a lucid account of account of these issues and the relationship of music to various levels of narration in film see Heldt (2013).
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Ireland, D. (2018). Introduction. In: Identifying and Interpreting Incongruent Film Music. Palgrave Studies in Audio-Visual Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00506-1_1
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