“Music expresses feeling and thought, without language; it was below and before speech, and it is above and beyond all words.” ~Robert G. Ingersoll
Music has been around for many ages. Music from ceremonial drums in primitive worship to the new age of hip hop, music has been around and been apart of every person’s lives. One of the main attributes about music is that it can provoke emotions for a person that sometimes nothing else can. In classical music, a person might become calm or pleased or in rock music a person might become happy or excited or sometimes even angry depending on the music. We can then argue that emotions can be tied to music. The only logical question after that is if music is essential to be horrified or fearful.
In the classic film, Nosferatu, there are no words spoken. Can one say that they were horrified by the movie, Nosferatu? I believe that a person must look at the movie, which does have horrifying images such as Nosferatu or the vampire coming up out of a coffin. Would this scene be as effective with just the image and nothing else to it? I would argue no because the organ that is played in the background as the sailor descends into the belly of the ship to search the coffins. I think the scene is well thought out because it is a horrifying image to think that a monster is aboard your ship, but with the added organ music that adds suspense to the sailors movements and climaxes with the rising of Nosferatu helps to provoke horror and fear in the audience that is watching the film.
Another example of how music is effective in adding to the suspense and ultimately the horror of a film would be the film, Cat People. There are two scenes in the film that with the help of music add horror to the film. The first scene would be that Alice, a woman possibly having an affair, is being followed by Irena, the woman whose husband is having the affair with Alice. When the camera is focused on Alice, the audience hears the click, click sound of Irena’s heels catching up to Alice. Alice, does not know that the heels belong to Irena and the audience can see the fear in Alice’s eyes. Alice turns around, but there is no one behind her. She continues to walk and the heel sound grows louder. The audience is starting to get worried about Alice at this point and then suddenly a bus pulls up and stops to pick up Alice. This staging is called a bus because the audience is lead to believe that something tragic is going to happen, but nothing does. This scene though is still very effective only because of music/sound. If there was no heel sound or the sudden stop of the bus, the scene would be just a woman walking down a street that may or may not be being followed. The element of suspense and horror is lost if the sound is taken away.
The next scene that I want to mention is also from Cat People. Alice has a swimming pool in her apartment and decides one night that she will go for a swim after work. Irena followers her to her apartment and goes downstairs to the pool, where Alice is. Alice is just getting out of the pool and hears some purring noises. She walks towards the steps and sees a shadow of a cat walking down the steps and she yells and jumps back in the pool. The workers upstairs hear the noise and go downstairs, but while the workers are coming downstairs, Alice is in the dark pool and sees shadows and noises all around her. The scene is another bus scene because just as the noises and music are getting more and more suspenseful, Irena turns the lights in the pool on and asks Alice a question then leaves. The music and sound in the scene actually added horror that I believe would not exist without the use of music and sound.
Through the movies, Nosferatu and Cat People, I believe that both have good examples were music is a essential part of the horror in the films. Without the music, the genre would most likely not existed because the music is just as important as the horrifying image that the movie puts on the screen for the audience. Music is tied to emotions and I believe that the emotion of fear and horror can be provoked by using music to add elements of suspense and anticipation, which in turns provokes horror and fear of the unknown and frightens audiences when the unknown is something horrifying
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