Sexeteria

Have you ever watched a rough cut of a daily from a film, before they've done any editing? Now that DVDs allow movie companies to package tons of special features along with the film, most people have gotten a glimpse of these preliminary versions of a film being shot. And as you watch them, as the camera focuses in on whatever main character or characters are on the screen, it feels...odd. Strangely quiet, even IF people are talking. And then suddenly you notice...there's no ambient sound. No score.

Ever see a rough cut of a movie scene set at a nightclub or wild party, pre-scoring? It's weird. The main characters are talking, and everyone behind them is dancing...in complete silence. It's spooky and uncomfortable. You don't feel the vibe of the party that's supposedly going on. If anything, it seems fake and even creepy.

Ever see a clip of two people kissing without scoring underneath? It's uncomfortable. The actors are highly mic-ed. You hear strange sounds that aren't always altogether pleasant. It forces your focus away from the crackle of feeling being transmitted between the two people to analyzing the very unemotional technicalities of the act...saliva sounds, teeth clicking, unexpected snorts. It can make an intensely romantic, passionate, or angry and violent kiss just seem laughable.

--The shrieking violins in the shower scene in Psycho.

--The sound of the tolling bell and then the crescendo of increasingly, incongruously joyous marching band horns and cymbals as Rocky takes his final beating and then screams for Adrian until she is in his arms

--Leonard Bernstein's heart-pulsing hormonal "Mambo" in the gym scene in West Side Story

--The soft, slow, mournful orchestrated version of "As Time Goes By" as Rick and Ilsa look at each other for what they know will be the last time ever

What would these scenes be without the score that accompanies them?

And of course, the swell of joyous music under a thousand joyous film kisses, longed for and finally won.

Film scores are what move us to experience, rather than just see, what is in front of us. They make us an emotional participant, not just an impassive observer. They make the movie real to us. We feel it. We understand, we know. Our hearts beat with the hero's or heroine's heart. Our pulses race with theirs. Our tears well up when theirs do. We live, in that moment, in that story, because the score is there, connecting us.

And yet despite all this, for the most part, scores are completely ignored. If they are good, they become such an integral part of the film that we don't notice they're even there. There they are, changing us, making us feel and experience and know things we never dreamed we knew. And yet, even as this is happening, we don't see them, or think about them at all. We take it for granted that they're there, that they're part of the film. We focus on the dialogue or the action or the cinematography. Or the catchy pop single that plays once in the film and comes to "represent" it. We notice the shiny, dazzling things that jump in front of us and shake us and insist on attention. The scores, we just assume will be there, and we absorb them as we go, an integral part of our senses, so much so that they're entirely unnoticeable. Like touch, and sight, and hearing, and even breath, we just don't notice how important it is to the whole of us, until it's suddenly not there, and things just don't feel right.

Scores are wonderful. Magic, even, in what they are able to do so apparently effortlessly. But they do deserve notice. It ISN'T effortless. And it isn't easy. Writing an effective score, one that is so powerful that no one even realizes how much it is so, is a HERCULEAN task to accomplish.

I encourage you to notice and recognize the "scores" that are playing in your own life and how much they add to your everyday experience and well being. Of the care that went into them, and how well they accompany you. And I hope, once you see them, you'll give a little admiration and acknowledgment and magic of your own back in exchange. So that life will be always one of perfect musical synchrony.

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photo credit: Musical Score by yorkers & hirosophy