What's new

Teaching a High School class about motifs/themes in Film music. Help me with examples!

DivingInSpace

Senior Member
Hello everyone!

I will be teaching a High School class about the use of Liet Motifs and Themes in film music (+ a bit of perspective back to the opera of cause) friday next week, and i am starting to figure out some good examples. I wanna show them how music can be used to tell us things that are not necessarily clear from picture alone, how it conveys feelings, thoughts and helps us understand that danger and/or help is near. There are lots of great examples on this like the use of the shire theme in the hobbit to portray the longing for home, the theme from Jaws to warn us about the shark lurking underneath, the love theme from Star Wars (and Super Man) etc.

These are all good, but as usually when talking about film music and themes, it ends up mainly as a huge "John Williams-jerking session", which is why i am asking you for your favorite examples of the use of themes and liet motifs in film! Of cause something that High School students have a chance of having heard before, but something that goes outside the usual Williams and Howard Shore ones. I am considering some examples from game of thrones, but am afraid it is too early to incorporate major GoT spoilers in High School classes haha.

Thanks a lot!
 
The pirates of the Caribbean scores are full of themes. All based around Dm :)

James Newton Howard's King Kong score has some nice motifs as does his Fantastic Beasts score.


Alexandre Desplat's Isle of Dogs score is quite special, it has a lot of themes that are basically drum rhythms but they are repeated throughout on different instruments.


How to train your Dragon by John Powell has some great themes.

Homeward bound by Bruce Broughton.
 
The pirates of the Caribbean scores are full of themes. All based around Dm :)

James Newton Howard's King Kong score has some nice motifs as does his Fantastic Beasts score.


Alexandre Desplat's Isle of Dogs score is quite special, it has a lot of themes that are basically drum rhythms but they are repeated throughout on different instruments.


How to train your Dragon by John Powell has some great themes.

Homeward bound by Bruce Broughton.

Thanks a lot, i would love to put in the time myself and analyse all those movies, but sadly i won't have time to go that much in depth with them. Do you remember any specific places in those movies where the use of well established themes and/or motifs helps telling us more than the we can see on screen? I will definitely take the time to go through How to train your dragon though, that soundtrack is just amazing, and i haven't seen it in a long time! (+ it is great to have an animated movie too)
 
I would take the Track
" Brooks Was Here " Shawshank Redemption movie.
It's a real good song. And the scene heartbreaking.

The Track is only Piano. And it's a simple tune.
But it's just lures you in, and you're in a trance.
Do give it a go.
Regards Norman.
 
I wanna show them how music can be used to tell us things that are not necessarily clear from picture alone, how it conveys feelings, thoughts and helps us understand that danger and/or help is near.

A great condensed example of this is the track "Hand of Fate part 1" from the Signs score by James Newton Howard. It's 5 minutes of themes indicating threat, remembrance, danger, revelation, bravery...

The entire track is gold but have a listen to it from 3:40 to 4:40, it's crazy the amount of different emotions conveyed in that single minute...

Here is the track :



Linked to one of the final scene :
 
A great condensed example of this is the track "Hand of Fate part 1" from the Signs score by James Newton Howard. It's 5 minutes of themes indicating threat, remembrance, danger, revelation, bravery...

The entire track is gold but have a listen to it from 3:40 to 4:40, it's crazy the amount of different emotions conveyed in that single minute...

Here is the track :



Linked to one of the final scene :

Holy shit, that's so good! I never actually watched the movie, but that's a huge amount of great themes. Has some of them already been established earlier in the movie? Because in that case i'll have to give it a watch and take some serious notes, that scene is just plain amazingly scored!
 
I would take the Track
" Brooks Was Here " Shawshank Redemption movie.
It's a real good song. And the scene heartbreaking.

The Track is only Piano. And it's a simple tune.
But it's just lures you in, and you're in a trance.
Do give it a go.
Regards Norman.
Love that movie, so i will definitely check it out, thanks!
 
Signs is a great score :)

Do you mean motifs? Rather than motives? Motive is a character thing, motif is a small recurring idea, as per 'leitmotif' in operas. That's the stuff JW is well known for. Jurassic Park has some brilliant examples of that - there's a theme for the park (the idealised fanfare-like idea of what JP is) as well as a theme for the animals (the more regal, slow hymn-like theme) plus themes for various situations, dinos etc.
The 2005 -current series of Doctor Who is quite theme & motif heavy too, LOST is a great example of leitmotif. James Bond has the classic well-known themes, used in different ways by different composers.

Daniel Pemberton's Spider-Verse has recognisable themes for the Prowler (sound designy synth burst - very short) and Spiderman himself, which is set to the rhythm of the words 'Spider Man' - plus an octave-jump theme which is more of a 'Miles destiny' motif.
 
Signs is a great score :)

Do you mean motifs? Rather than motives?
I do indeed mean motifs/leitmotifs, as mentioned in the post itself. I will edit the title, it is hard dribling between three different languages and what is translations and what is not haha. Thanks for the recommendations!
 
Holy shit, that's so good! I never actually watched the movie, but that's a huge amount of great themes. Has some of them already been established earlier in the movie?

Yes, all throughout the movie...

The movie is what it is, but the score is pure gold. I was lucky enough to see James Newton Howard conducting Hand of Fate part 1 and 2 live, it was amazing !
 
I do indeed mean motifs/leitmotifs, as mentioned in the post itself. I will edit the title, it is hard dribling between three different languages and what is translations and what is not haha. Thanks for the recommendations!

Big respect for anyone who can speak multiple languages fluently - no disrespect intended from me, just to be clear. :)

Just thought - no-one's mentioned it yet, but the obvious non-JW film would be Lord Of The Rings. Very operatic and chock-full of themes and motifs.
 
Top Bottom