Music for Film
Starting this task the other week has made me think so much more about links between harmony and mood, and the way in which people attribute emotion or even events to chord sequences. The main reason this came to mind was also one of the reasons I choose to do a sequence from a Terminator film. Aside from the fact that I knew the scene I chose to be very busy and exciting with alot of unusual sounds, I really wanted to work the main Terminator theme into my work. However, I think in my eagerness to do so, I overused it, particularly during the opening 30 seconds of the clip, which requires a far more tense, disjointed accompaniment. However when coming back to this, rather than starting from scratch I instead went about reharmonising the main melody. I had never fully realised before exactly how open to interpretation a melody is based on the harmony underneath. After at least 20 odd different versions I was able to settle on a version that doesn’t seem to give the game away through its heroic major chords. To do this I used alot of suspended 9ths (after discovering 4ths to still be too heroic and a bit of a cliche) and diminished chords.
I feel this works well as the fact it is still harmonious means that the more percussion driven section just after provides a contrast. It also adds more impact to the return of the theme, in which the original “heroic” harmonisation is used.
I should be able to get a video up of the vaguely finished product by the end of the weekend.
