Glass and Film

There was some mention in class this week about Phillip Glass' work on film music, which reminded me that the score to one of my favorite films, The Illusionist, was written by him. In this movie, I feel that his music functions in much the same way that Leitmotifs function in a Wagner opera. That is, they help the audience track a certain character or idea through the work. Coincidentally, I find the film to be fairly operatic in some of its conventions. For example, the opening credits are set to what could easily be a prologue or an overture for an opera, setting up the mood (and troubled undercurrents) as well as the time period (19th-century Vienna: this is accomplished by operatic or symphonic-sounding passages interwoven into the music - like the beginning of this clip). Throughout the film, the music is used to highlight emotional or (literally) magical moments (For example, 1:10 in this clip). In this way, it ties the film together, binding the past and the present, hinting at what might have been or what might be, and reminding us of scenes we have already seen. The film is a mystery tale at heart and Glass' music is particularly good at maintaining the forward motion and tension inherent in the plot through the use of his repeated patterns.

However, the difference between the use of music in The Illusionist and Glass' stage works, is that in the film his soundtrack in interrupted by moments of silence and dialogue that give the listener a break from the constant stream of music one finds in a piece like Satyagraha. Additionally, perhaps it is the plot, character development and imagery that allow us to stay engaged in the film more easily. After all, film music is designed to affect the listener, but perhaps on more of a subconscious level than a conscious one (we don't necessarily listen actively to a film score - well, some people might...). Is that one possible reason why Glass' music works so well for film? But then, is it simply the lack of plot, as we know it, in Satyagraha that causes the listener to "zone out", or is there a quality that is inherent to his music that simply affects the audience on another level altogether?