1. Narratological Perspectives on Film Music
To what degree does film music shape our perception of a narrative?

2. Consider . . . Music is heard, not seen
Film largely is seen, not heard
The film medium requires us to focus on the narrative and visual realities on screen
Film music cannot be judged as one would judge “pure” music
The narrative context—the interrelations between music and the rest of the film’s systems—determines the effectiveness of a movie’s score

3. Music as Meaning organizes discourse on 3 levels:
As pure musical code
As cultural musical code
As cinematic musical code

4. “Pure” music v. Film Narrative
Inherent tension
Film discourse is representational, naturalistic, and rhythmically irregular
Music discourse is nonrepresentational, lyrical, and rhythmically regular

5. Music/Scene relationship
Parallelism/counterpoint: music either resembles or contradicts the scene. This view assumes that the image is autonomous
Mutual implication: whatever music is chosen will have some effect on the scene

6. Silence Types Diegetic musical silence Nondiegetic musical silence
Structural silence