Hi folks,
I’m taking another look this week at the advice offered by Erik Barnouw in his Handbook of Radio Writing (1947). This time the attention is focused on music. While I’m married to a gifted musician, I haven’t a musical bone in my body and tend to reserve music for use as the “virtual curtain” in my own plays. Here are my notes… Enjoy…
Introduction to Music
Music is an optional inclusion in radio drama but its ability to enhance a radio play should not be underestimated – drenching a scene almost instantly in its proper atmosphere or switching from one atmosphere to another.
It is useful to audio drama in the following specific tasks;
(1) As part of an opening effect, music can give a program the proper tonal send-off.
(2) As a bridge between scenes, music can hold or intensify a mood already built up, or effect a rapid change of mood.
(3) As a final curtain or series of curtains (often called bumpers), music can give a program the exactly right emotional resolution.
(4) As a background to narrations or scenes, music can heighten emotion, add descriptive touches, and sometimes provide a kind of commentary on what is said.
(5) Music can also be used to add punctuation (such as the dramatic chord when the body is discovered etc – often referred to as a sting).
In the first three tasks above, music occupies the spotlight alone.
As a background, music is usually restricted to use behind narration (setting the narration off from the dialog).
Behind dialog, music should be used sparingly (generally confined to love scenes, death scenes, and other passages in which the emotion is very definite, and calls for music of a slow and sustained type). It can also be used behind a series of short scenes to provide unity to the series.
Wording musical directions
Musical directions include their mechanical function, volume, mood, and content. The music itself can be used to describe, punctuate, reinforce the action in, or comment on, a scene.
Directions on the mechanical function of music
The type of music (in terms of its function within the play) should generally be made clear. Eg. OPENING THEME, BRIDGE, TRANSITION, CLOSING THEME, STING, BUMPER, etc.
Directions regarding the placement of the music should also be included. Eg. ESTABLISH AND FADE UNDER, BACKGROUND UNTIL, SWELLING INTO THE FOREGROUND etc.
Directions on relative volume of music
If the background music needs to be used over two scenes, swelling briefly between them, this needs to be noted. Eg. AND DOWN, UP BRIEFLY AND DOWN, FADE IN, FADE OUT, OUT.
Background music is always assumed to continue until a further directions (such as OUT) appears.
Directions on mood and content of music
Identification of the music is also important, whether by naming the piece of music required or by describing it in terms of mood and content. Directions vary from one-word descriptions to precise analyses. A conventionalised vocabulary of “mood music” does exist and can be utilised to assist the writer (but its adoption is not mandatory). Eg. OMINOUS, CONTENTED, AGITATED, etc.
A famous and easy to adopt descriptive vocabulary for musical mood is “Hevner’s adjective cycle” (below).
Hevner’s Adjective Cycle for describing musical mood.
Changes in mood or theme
When a bridge makes a change of theme or mood, the word SEGUE is often used to indicate this.
Music as description
When paired with narration music can contribute value to atmospheric descriptive passages.
Music as punctuation
In a narrative passage, music (in the form of a single pounding chord for example) can punctuate a series of statements or underline a dramatic moment.
Music as action
The picture suggesting power of music can be used to make action vivid. The chimes accompanying the wave of a fairy’s wand are an example of this, giving a normally silent action an auditory signature.
Music as commentary
Music can also become a sort of Greek Chorus, commenting on and interpreting the action. Music can at times say, even more effectively than a narrator could, “something dangerous approaches”, or “wasn’t that brilliant!” or “don’t take it too seriously”.
A Music Experiment
Play over, to yourself or to a group, a favourite piece of classical music. Play it several times, cataloguing it, as you listen, into mood segments of 10-45 seconds. For each segment, jot down in a few words the type of scene you can imagine the passage introducing or curtaining. Example: “Good for leading out of a scene in which something very sad has happened, but the people are very brave, almost with a feeling of serenity.” Then compare notes. This experiment should develop a feeling for the subtle mood-expressiveness of music.
At a personal level, the broader use of music in audio drama is something I haven’t experimented with much. What do you think about its uses? What insights and advice do you have to share? We’d love to hear from you.
If you’d like to see some examples of musical cues in the scripts we publish be sure to visit http://www.weirdworldstudios.com/products.html . We have some free samples you can download.
See you next time.
– Philip Craig Robotham
