The Bible and Music

Before we discussed G.F. Handel in class today, we separated into groups to depict a scene from any gospel to consider how movie composers think. My group chose to analyze the David and Goliath gospel. The first piece of this little project that I noticed was there is a lot of thinking that goes into just one movie scene. As a movie writer or composer, you have to step back and put yourselves in your future audience’s shoes to find the most ideal pieces. Some of the pieces that are discussed include location, music, what do you leave out, what characters best portray the scene, and the duration of the entire scene. The music is one part that my group did not finalize because it there is so many options and it makes it difficult to narrow it down to one or a few songs.

Another factor that forced our group to keep thinking and brainstorm on a deeper level was the different manuscripts and stories of David and Goliath. Although we thought there was only one version of this gospel that was straightforward, there is a few minor differences in the story. As a movie composer, you have to bring all these versions into mind. One of the groups discussed the frame angles and who they would zoom in on to create emotion. One crucial feature is catching the audience’s emotions to intensify the scene and to form a connection.

In class on the 12th, we listened to a bit of the St. Matthew Passion. A major question we asked was “What does crucifixion sound like?” This is something that has to invoke emotion in the listener. It isn’t meant to be relaxing or comforting. It is supposed to grab the attention of anyone hearing it, as the event was tragic and not something meant to be calming to people. We saw that music has a huge influence, especially in movies. A lot of the examples we looked at proved this to be true. The scene would not be as emotional without the addition of music. Multiple movies about the same topic can portray that scene very differently. Music evokes emotion on the audience in the movies. This was something I never really thought much about before because I always focused on the story itself, rather than the music that adds to the overall feel. But without music, the story would be a lot less emotional, especially in a film.

In class today, we spent the majority of it comparing and contrasting different movie scenes that portrayed the crucifixion of Christ. One of the takeaways that I had after viewing several different pieces from the movies was that they nearly all had different beats/melody when Jesus was on the cross. In the first video, it seemed that the crowd was quiet and was almost just watching without displaying emotion. One of the later videos showed the crowd and followers of Jesus being more emotional and the music became slower to intensify this sadness. A part that I found interesting was how the music could change so rapidly to reveal the emotion at that time. I never saw the importance of the music before this class when watching the Passion of Christ with Mel Gibson. After viewing it with the emphasis of hearing how the music impacted the scene, it gave me a perspective on how the composers and directors can alter the music to give the audience a chance to feel what everyone was feeling at that moment.

At first I was confused as to how we were going to spend an entire class period discussing the crucifixion but, to my surprise, I enjoyed myself. I really enjoyed when we discussed how the music presented in films about the crucifixion affect our view on the event as a whole.

In high school, I was involved in a club that created a feature length film. Among many of the other artistic elements of the film, music was discussed. We talked about how the music would affect the film itself. Finding this commonality between films with a religious context and others made the discussion riveting.

Today we focused on the Crucifixion of Jesus and how various composers translated it into music. The overall theme that was shared among the artists was a somber and dark theme. When Jesus died, some artists either stopped the music completely or let it clash out on a dramatic chord leading into silence. The most interesting part of class was when we discussed how filmmakers portrayed Jesus. The Bible doesn’t describe the physical characteristics of Jesus so these filmmakers could only go off of art that they’d seen. However, it may not necessarily be completely accurate. In high school, I took a class on Biblical literature and we talked about this topic as well. We also don’t know what Jesus’ voice sounded like. In one of the Passion pieces, we heard a German singer portray Jesus, but his voice was very low. In my personal opinion, I don’t believe that Jesus’ voice was that low. I could be wrong but it definitely shows me how different people viewed Jesus in both his looks and his sound.

Today for class we had to find film scores that related to the story of the crucifixion of Jesus, I immediately went to the movie the Passion of the Christ directed by Mel Gibson. The piece that stood out most to me from this soundtrack was entitled crucifixion because the instrumentation is so beautiful. The horns bring a sense of power and pride while the strings boast a more sorrowful vibe and the drums build tension. It sounds like the fall of an empire. The choral voices added in bring a sense of what I would consider to be more of your church sounding music at the peak of the tension and then fade away into the wave of string symphony. This musical representation of the story of Jesus’ crucifixion brings to life the tension and somber mood of waiting for the death of Jesus.

Class today, was focused around the Passion and scenes from movies about the Passion. We watched different clips and listened to different pieces that all depicted the Passion in different ways. I never knew there were so many different movies about the Passion and that they all are slightly different. That was cool to see and learn about.

Class was a bit frustrating today, though. I felt that we were refuting the meaning of the Bible. There were times when I felt there were criticisms towards what and how the Bible tells stories. It made me upset that there was a negative attitude toward how the authors of the Bible wrote the stories. It felt as if we were denying what they wrote and stating it as untrue. As a Catholic my whole life, it was annoying to listen to. I hope that future classes try to respect the Bible and try not to deny it too much.

Today in class we discussed the crucifixion of Jesus and listened to a few pieces that were meant to represent or tell the story of Jesus’ death.  This was very interesting to me to learn that people have created scores and composed music to perfectly capture the effects of Jesus’ death.  It was also interesting watching a movie clip of his crucifixion and examining the importance of the music that played during that particular scene.  Today’s class really brought to my focus just how importance music is when trying to tell a story.

The St. Matthew Passion was a very long piece of musical work. It sounded really melancholy and eye opening. It invokes a sense of sadness and high emotional charge. It contained words like “crucify,” “kill,” and “mourn” with chromatic melodies. Bach often uses madrigalisms, when the flutes play a raindrop sounding staccato. I thought this piece was really interesting to listen to and I can tell it took Bach a long time to put this together in this way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=916&v=fT1y0_9qpeY

I watched various parts of St. John Passion. I was surprised it was so long and intricate. It is a story told through music, with a director and singers assigned various roles and everything. The incredibly strong voices of the singers worked with the orchestra and the extensive choir to create a very emotional telling of the story. While the individual singers sing for the different roles and play specific parts, the choir as a unit drives the story forward and adds emotion to it. The choir is massive and I think it is the size of it, all of the voices working together, that allow the story to have such emotional depth.