Music Function Essays

Frida

The opening scene of Frida primarily establishes the point to focus on all
the events that lead up to where the opening shot takes place (where Frida is
carried away on her bed to the truck). The audience begins to understand the
context of the opening scene at the point where the camera zooms in on her face and
transitions to a scene where she is running in what seems to be a college campus,
thus indicating that the new scene has already happened in Fridas life, which
ultimately means that the audience starts to make sense of the setting and the actual
beginning of a potential plot to lead up to where she currently was lying on the bed
in the truck. From 00:00 to 00:30, the music that is present focuses on a physical
function in the opening scene as it introduces the audience into the setting of the
movie. The Spanish vocals in the first thirty seconds of the film creates a sense of
location as to where the movie will take place based on the Spanish introduction. If
the first thirty seconds had a simple orchestral track, the ambiguity of the origin of
the music would cause the audience to feel confused about the overall setting of the
movie. The Spanish music helps the audience to identify the setting before even
seeing an actual image of the movie.
Starting from 00:43, there seems to be an ominous drone that occurs as soon
as the workers are seen in the image. The audience still does not know the context
of the scene at this point, however, one can assume that the drone creates a sense of
tension about what will be happening later in the scene. The audience still does not
know that Frida is on the bed at this point of the scene, so the drone serves as a
technical function by transitioning from the Spanish vocal intro into an ominous
drone that creates a sense of instability and tension prior to seeing Frida. From
01:00-01:33, there seems to be an out of time Spanish interlude that serves as a
technical function, thus allowing the process of the workers carrying the bed to be
assisted by this Spanish music. It is also interesting to note that the music at this
portion of the scene is entirely out of time and it is difficult to get an understanding
sense of constant rhythmic time during this moment. The fact that the music seems
to be out of time also serves as a psychological function in the movie to allow the
audience to continue feeling unsure about the entirely of the opening scene up until
around 01:34 where we finally hear the first words of dialogue Frida speaks. At this
moment, around 01:35, the mysterious drone reappears as Frida speaks, Careful,
this corpse is still breathing in order to justify the ominous mood the audience
should feel earlier in the opening scene of the movie, which serves as a physical
function in the film for intensifying a perception of physical words being spoken and
connecting that to the mysterious drone present during this cue. Starting from
02:00, the percussion picks up to create a rhythmic and constant groove to assist the
technical function of the continuity of the scene. Now that the protagonist and the
current issue has been brought to the audience, the music (from 02:00 to the 03:00)
serves as a technical purpose to allow continuity within the scene. There is a sync
point at 02:04 that indicates the truck running over the stone and causing Frida to
feel pain, which serves as a physical function as a form of mickeymousing to
correlate the bump and Fridas pain to the forte guitar strum that initiates a solid
Spanish-orientated groove for the rest of the scene. Between 02:14-02:22, the
camera zooms in on Frida and the music turns slightly intense and ominous for a
few seconds just until we see Frida turn her face and transition into a separate
location and time period, which serves as a technical function for allowing the
audience to foreshadow some kind of transition and allowing the audience to see a
visual and auditory cue of a transition being present at 02:22. From this point on,
the audience will know that the current setting has occurred well before the state of
Frida that shes in as she is being carried away in a bed. Overall, the music serves
primarily as physical and technical functions with slight psychological functions as
well.

Harry Potter

The ending scene in the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets has a
powerful set of cues and sync points that highlight the importance of the end of the
movie. The beginning, specifically 00:00-00:17 has an underscore that sets the
physical location of the setting and allowing the music to use the famous Harry
Potter theme to indicate a new setting. The flute introduction at 00:18 creates a
sense of sweetness as Hermione enters the scene and the sweetness symbolizes her
personality throughout the movie as well, which can serve as a psychological
function. The music then builds up to 00:28 where Ron and Harry finally notice
Hermione, and in excitement, the three run to each other, and the music creates
happiness and a sense of relief as the three are reunited. There is an interesting sync
point at 00:45 where Hermione gestures for a hug with Ron but stops herself as they
both attempt to deal with a slightly awkward situation. This scene can also be a
foreshadow if the audience knows about the outcome of Ron and Hermione later in
the series, however, at this specific moment, the change of music serves as a
physical function to allow the audience to notice a disturbance within the two
protagonists chemistry and the ambience of the music creates an awkward
situation between both Hermione and Ron. From 00:45-02:10 serves as a pure
technical function in aiding the transition of the scene where Dumbledore
enlightens the students with optimistic news. At 02:11, the music intensifies until
Hagrids face is shown clearly to the audience. This sync serves as a physical
function since it allows the audience to see a change of scene that follows
Dumbledores speech to the students. The change of focus goes from Dumbledores
speech to Hagrids grand entrance into the scene. There is also an interesting sync
point as Dumbledore and Ron exchange glances after Hagrid talks about Rons owl,
which serves as a physical function as well since it highlights a connection between
Hagrids issue with the owl and the fact that Ron owns that specific owl that always
causes problems for him and other people. The music at 02:39 changes into a sweet
and delicate underscore as Hagrid thanks the three protagonists for saving him.
Harry mentions at 03:12 that There is no Hogwarts without you, Hagrid as a
sincere form of gratification and appreciation for Hagrid. From this moment on, the
music slowly builds up to a spectacular and grand French horn repetition of the
motif present during this specific cue. The music cue starts with an oboe playing the
ultimate Harry Potter motif that slowly builds up to a loud and concluding finish to
the movie. The point of the music in this cue seems to be a transitional, physical, and
psychological since the music allows the audience to feel a sense of happiness and
resolution to the sudden appearance of Hagrid in the scene. Also, in this scene, the
physical function of the music allows the audience to feel a sense of satisfaction and
resolution to Hagrids appearance and the music starts to intensify as soon as
Dumbledore begins clapping and sets off a chain reaction of applause for Hagrids
return. It is at this point where the music begins to intensify and the purposes of
that are to heighten the mood of gratitude from the psychological function of the
music and also to support the physical function of Hagrid crying from joy and
celebrating his return to Hogwarts. The climatic hit at 04:25 occurs where Harry
nods his head in approval to Hagrids upmost happiness to return in Hogwarts and
this intentional sync point dramatizes the importance of how the physical function
of the music creates a sense of gratuity and sincerity for Hagrids return, especially
at that specific moment of the entire scene.