THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA

DOI number 10.2478/tco-2020-0027

A Brief Analysis of the Functionality and Dramaturgy

of the Soundtrack in Film and Theater (Part I.)

Peter VENCZEL

Abstract: In this article I would like to point out the importance of the
functionality of the soundtrack in film and theatre. First of all, I can mention
that the chosen thematic has an almost unexistent bibliography due to the
decreased number of theoretical works in this domain, and the few existent
studies handle the same thematic from different angles, causing a lack of
balance in the processing of musical and technical context. In most cases the
cultural audience doesn’t watch a movie or a theatrical play for its music, but
is yet 50% influenced by it, noticing it only when the background music
changes into an objectively or subjectively disturbing one. On the other hand,
if a movie has an impecable soundtrack, the audience won’t be bothered by it.
These informations lead to the conclusion that the soundtrack has a big
influence on our subconscience, dominantly on the auditive and less on the
visual one.
Key words: soundtrack, sound design, music, film, theatre.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack is like the perpetual “ikebana” of a number of closely
linked components we could hardly separate, given that the soundtrack result
is created by their shared effect; the functionality of the soundtrack stems
precisely from this motion and this relationship. These soundtrack components


Lecturer PhD, Cinematography Film and Media, Theatre Faculty, Babes Bolyai University,
Cluj Napoca

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are: the music, the dialogues, the noises, the ambiences, the atmospheres, the
special effects, foley, ADR, SFX, and the silence.

The spectator does not go to the movies to listen to music, but the
subconsciously acting soundtrack has a 50% effect in the overall impact of the
film; this means that the soundtrack has a 50% say in the success, interactivity,
palatability of the film. Film sound experts and professionals say, “The best
soundtrack is the soundtrack you cannot hear”, meaning that, if the soundtrack
is observable or distracting, the film will become unpleasant for the spectator.
The symbiosis of the soundtrack with the image should be perfect; thus, the
components will emphasize the idea of the film or of the play.

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Composers are not allowed to inject their personality into film scores,
because film scores are not about their personality; the film score must serve
fully and impeccably the film or the stage, the actions, the events, the
characters, the circumstances and the dynamics of the film or of the play.
Although film score acts in the subconscious, the next day after the spectator
watches a film, he/she may hum the film score theme; this could mean the
composer attained his or her purpose; such examples are the music theme of
Michael Mann’s The Last of the Mohicans, composers Randy Edelman and
Trevor Jones, or the theme of Spielberg’s Jurassic Park I, as composed by
John Williams.
The soundtrack helps us to manipulate the characters’ nature and even
the ideas regarding the spectator’s acceptance or rejection of heroes and
villains, for example the acceptance of the negative character Mackie Messer
in Bertolt Brecht’s Threepenny Opera, with music by Kurt Weill. But the
soundtrack also allows us to manipulate time and space and even to defuse
uncomfortable or indigestible situations, such as the ear-cutting scene in
Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, where a policeman tied to a chair is visibly
tortured and eventually has his ear cut; however, the spectator may not find it
disgusting, but rather amusing, because of the way in which the soundtrack of
this scene is handled.
If we listened to the soundtrack of a film or of a play, without taking
into account the image or the stage and the audience or spectators, an actual
answer about the things we can hear would be challenging. In the collage of
the sounds for the score of a play or film we can distinguish sounds in a number
of categories, for example by their origin, the place where they are captured,
the relationship of the sounds with the image or situation in the play or their
function in the play or in the film. These categories may be hardly
distinguishable from one another, because music can also be obtained from
noises, and the human voice may be dialogue, music or may become noise; but
ever since we have been able to create sounds, voices, noises artificially, the
unfailing distinction of these categories has become almost impossible.
According to their function, we can distinguish five main groups of
theater and film sounds: dialogue sounds, environment-ambient sounds,
noises, music, and special effects. As mentioned before, there cannot be an
actual delineation of these groups, because the classification of some sounds
depends on a subjective approach.

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Dialogue sounds may be dialogues, monologues, subjective voices
having the nature of presence or narration, regardless of the fact that the sound
source is a human being, an animal, another creature, a robot, a machine, or
even Deus ex Machina. It has become normal that artificially created beings
obtain voices or sounds acting or functioning as dialogue. In theater, the
character’s inner voice is usually the non-synchronous voice of the said
character, and its nature should be distinguished and separable from dialogues;
we use it for the externalization of the character’s inner, psychological state or
for verbal information; for example in the project and show Ali Baba and/or
40 Thieves, a musical by Venczel Peter and Moravetz Levente, the Djinn, who
would always have some precautionary advice or offer and communicate other
information to Yusuf, would never appear on the stages instead, his lips and
eyes were filmed beforehand and projected onto the stage, and the actor’s voice
was played live and processed (which made it more transcendental) from
backstage or from the sound engineer room during the show.
Usually, in film and theater, the narrator’s voice is the voice of an
exterior character who comment like an outsider on the events or who can offer
guiding information which is indispensable for the understanding of the play
or film or which is necessary for the creation of a particular effect.
Presence sounds are the characters’ sounds lacking the nature of
dialogue. It is very important that these sounds are palpable, because yawns,
burps, sobs, loud grimaces, and even farts have their functions and effects in
theater and film.
Noises may be noises as such or atmosphere sounds. They are
generated by the movements of objects, of creatures or of natural phenomena.
Music can be applied, adapted music, film score, music composed for
theater or for puppetry, and atmosphere music. In film or theater, applied or
adapted music has a physical source, for example a radio device in a car, or on
the corresponding stage. We may say that, in the application of music planes,
we have very diversified possibilities of variabilities, depending on the
circumstances. In theater, where we tend always to disguise whatever is or has
been prepared, the prepared sound needs to be emanated from a source visible
from the stage, as if in the real time and space of the situation. For example,
when we talk about a radio device, the sound should come from the radio on

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the stage rather than from the theater P.A.1; or another example, the case of an
actor who needs to play the guitar in a play, but the sound is prepared by a
guitar-player, which means that the prepared sound of the instrument will come
from a source very close to the actor on stage, let’s say from the camouflaged
space under the chair on which the actor sits, to create the illusion that the actor
plays the said instrument.
A specific case of music application is atmospheric or ambient music.
Although we are talking about music or music sounds, it will merge with the
ambience and atmosphere of the scene, which will lead to a unique sonority;
the essence of ambient or atmosphere music application is that, while the
spectator views the theater show or the film, he or she will perceive the overall
situation as atmosphere rather than as music.
The most discussed2 category of soundtrack is given by special effects
(SFX). The international layout of soundtrack mentions three basic levels of
sound: dialogue, music and sound effect. The sound effects category includes
all the ambient and atmosphere noises and sound effects. But which is the
category corresponding, for example, to the ambient sounds of a cave on
another planet, which does not have any connection at all with reality? In fact,
the spectator does not even perceive what it is that he or she hears, the effect
alone is the palpable one. This category also includes special effect sounds
such as the sound of the Jedi laser sword or the sounds and roars of the
dinosaurs in the film Jurassic Park. As a definition, we may say that the sounds
not included in the categories of dialogue, music or sound effects are special
effects.
In the relation between soundtrack and stage or film, the sounds can be
internal or external; as regards the narrative structure, a sound can be diegetic
or non-diegetic. A sound is diegetic if it belongs to the sound structure of the
action; a sound is non-diegetic is it does not have any connection with the
created situation, i.e. the sound does not belong to the narrative structure.
With respect to the training, insight or taste of the human resources in
the audio sector, we may obtain different results about the capture, recording

1
P.A.: Public Address: Special speakers directed to the audience, low-placed speakers and
standard satellites used in theaters, cinema, and oratorical concerts, live amplified or rock
shows.
2
We are borrowing the idea of Balázs Gábor, A reprodukciós technikáktól az
alkotóművészetig, doctoral thesis, Színház és Filmművészeti Egyetem Doktori Iskola, 2013, p.
88.

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and storage of the same acoustic event. This means that, apart from the
technical orientations, the recording of acoustic events is an art, because artistic
feeling is its outcome.
In Romanian, there are three names for the human resources specialized
in the art and technique of creating soundtrack: sound engineer, sound man
(sound mixer), and sound designer. In the Anglo-Saxon practice, the sound
engineer is a technical contributor tasked with matching the sonority of the
soundtrack with the requirements of the film industry standards, for example,
the dialogue level should match the overall level, dynamics, tone,
intelligibility, and quality, proportional to the other sounds of the soundtrack.
Apart from the dialogues, the sound engineer also has numerous tasks in the
adjustment of the dynamics, intensity and quality of the soundtrack
components and sounds in the film in progress, taking into account the written
and unwritten rules of the profession.
The difference between the sound man and the sound engineer is the
fact that, while fulfilling the purely technical and technological tasks, the sound
man also has professional responsibilities regarding the occurring issues by
solving the artistic application.
In the American trend, some experts are foley artists all their life, which
means that they record only noises, while others deal exclusively with the final
mixing. Creative work is covered only by sound editors and sound designers
headed by a supervisor who oversees the entire postproduction from the point
of view of soundtrack, who is called supervising sound editor. As seen in the
American trend, each part of a task or technology is covered by specialists
focusing on specific tasks, who perform their work with maximum
responsibility, under a severe hierarchical structure. No wonder their number
may amount to as many as 70 people.
The European trend, too, includes specializations, but it is much
simpler than the one in the American film industry. In the European trend, we
distinguish the direct sound (capturing and recording on location, on site),
music recording, sound editing, and sound design, post-synchronization
(ADR), final mixing and professional mastering; thus, there are no essential
specializations in specific sectors, so, “traditionally”, we call them sound
engineers; no wonder that the staff list in the end credits includes only several
names for soundtrack creation.

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In the art of film, the number of experts creating the soundtrack
depends on the American or European trend and it may range between 10 and
50-70 people. For example, in Ridley Scott’s Prometheus (composer Marc
Streitenfeld), there were 69 people included in the list of those who worked
in the creation of the film soundtrack, excluding the members of the
orchestra.

We must also consider that the film may be an auteur-oriented3 or

producer-oriented4 film, which has a say on the number of people involved in
the soundtrack development. In 80- 90% of the American film, producers have
the last say; in Europe, directors are in this position, but, unfortunately, lately,
mercantilism has also stepped in Europe with respect to film production, which
means the gradual disappearance of auteur movies.
In film, soundtrack and image need to be perfectly synchronized,
because the lack of synchronization is immediately perceived by the average
spectator; otherwise, the whole film would become bothersome, frustrating. If
they are perfectly symbiotic, the image and the sound merge, the spectator is
both a viewer and a listener; the perception of music acts in the subconscious
mind and, together with image, it delivers a unique feeling. Thus, often, film
experts also find that the separation, observation and analysis of the soundtrack
are difficult. Usually, the separation and analysis of the image and soundtrack
elements are performed only after multiple careful views of the film in
question, because memories relate to the visual, but the music, noises, sounds,
and sound effects have an intensive impact on the spectator; the difference is
that the spectator is not aware of them.
The transformation of the soundtrack energy at the time of the
perception may act in four ways on the human brain: psychological,
intellectual, emotional, and moral. For this reason, when the score is created in
theater and film art, a dramaturgy of the soundtrack should be applied, aided
by actual guidelines under which the design and creation of the soundtrack
layers will facilitate the composers’ and sound designers’ work.

3
Auteur film means that the defining decisions are made by the director, i.e. the author of the
film.
4
A producer-oriented film means that the defining decisions are made by the film producer
rather than the film auteur.

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Dialogue
“While, in theater, speech fluency is the primary elements on which
the progress of dramatic action relies, the stage performance of a libretto is
possible through the art of voice songs. Sound film inherits the theatrical habit
of using the various types of verbal communication”5.
Dialogue-like sounds can be dialogues, monologues, subjective voices
that are present or are narrating, regardless of the fact that the sound source is
a human being, an animal, a creature, a robot, a machine, or even Deus ex
Machina. Nowadays, it has become normal for artificially created being to
obtain voices or sounds that have the nature or the functions of dialogue. The
inner voice of a theater play character is usually the character’s non-
synchronous voice, which should be distinguishable and separable from
dialogues; we use it for the externalization of the character’s inner,
psychological condition or for verbal information. The narrator’s voice is the
voice of an exterior character in film and theater, a character who comments
on the events as if he/she were an external viewer or who can offer guiding
information indispensable for the understanding of the play or film in question;
alternatively, such information may be necessary for the creation of an effect.
The screening of a film is a special kind of human communication.
When a film is watched, communication is one-directional. The fluctuation of
information starts already from the production stages, from the scenes in
question, via the characters, actors, and it reaches the receivers, i.e. the
audience. The voice circulates the verbal information, the contents of the
spoken word and the non-verbal information, feelings, hate, joy, surprise, fear,
inexactitudes, confession, etc. Voice and dialogue allow us to receive
information about language and phrasing, because every language has its
specific traits; we may find out the characters’ linguistic affiliation. For
example, the accent, dialect, speech, speaking rate, musicality of phrasing can
guide us to the characters’ states of mind, to their affiliation; they may also
point to the antagonists’ and protagonists’ character.

5
Fazakas, I. Áron:Imagine și sunet în muzica de film [Image and Sound in Film Music],
“Gheorghe Dima” Academy of Music of Cluj-Napoca, 2010, p.53.

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Verbal information in its purest form can be seen in narration.
Narration merely informs, explains, and its presence is neutral and lacks
personality.
The narrator may have an opinion or may transmit a feeling, for
example in a monologue. A specific case of monologue is the interior
monologue, when the message is conveyed highly emotionally, starting from
an individual’s point of view. A monologue may reinforce the stage action, or
it may contradict it; it may transmit an opinion on the film or scene events, it
may comment on it, it may evoke it, or it may premeditate the future or may
simply express reluctance regarding the contents of the stage or film
information. A monologue may enhance regular semantics in terms of time and
space, while, ideally, it may materialize or generalize.
The general filmmaking tendency is to compress the share of the verbal
element as much as possible, while preferably opting for visual elements.

Music
The use of music in a film should have a functional role. Without a
clearly defined function, music becomes useless, futile – in other words, even
damaging.
It is exclusively with the help and via its function that film music can
transform in a way that it can act on and augment the suggestive power of an
image.
Film music may become functional if it is not used only as a sound
background; it should also have an important role regarding the film’s dramatic
structure. The soundtrack should be constructive.
The role of the soundtrack and music is to intensify the film’s
expressive power; therefore, it should be used either to this end or not at all.
If music and the different sound effects are played simultaneously, this
could weaken the importance of the individual elements, which means it loses
power. Thus, in this case, the creators’ decision should focus on the element
they should abandon, while favoring the other one.

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Music is tasked with the preparation of a scene or with the contribution
to the scene’s culmination. At the same time, music may also be used for the
expression of contrasting contents.
Indirectly or even divergently, image and music should refer to each
other. In a masterpiece, image and sound material are perfectly symbiotic.
Film soundtrack lends itself to different uses, regardless of the fact that
it may involve a pop song, an improvised experiment or a song composed by
a composer. It may facilitate the creation of a specific factor that could define
the characteristic atmosphere of an age or of a situation; it may draw the
attention to the elements on the screen; it may help to clarify the action; it may
emphasize or predict the events, thus helping to shape the audience’s response;
it may shed light on the reasons driving some characters, so that the audience
should understand more easily who and what they think in the film; it may also
prompt emotions not necessarily triggered directly by the film image. The
soundtrack may expedite the concatenation of vaguely linked visual
arrangements and it may bestow a specific rhythm to their occurrence. All this
while, it may prompt us to get heavily immersed in the world proposed by the
film, to the extent to which it distracts us from the applied filmmaking
methods, making us forget that, in fact, we see larger than life, two-
dimensional and frequently black-and white images.
Moreover, the soundtrack helps to manipulate the character’s
personality. According to Laura Lăzărescu, “In film, the selected music is
meant often to inform the spectator about the characters. The selected music
offers us information about: the character’s size, weight, intelligence, origins,
his/her beneficial or evil personality, his/her attitude to a specific thing, as well
as many other aspects. The things expressed, in the end, by images, have a
sound support, and the sounds offers frequently subtle details where the images
would simply augment the idea. The characterization by sound is a modality
frequently speculated in film…”6
Of course, soundtrack does not fulfil continuously all of the above-
mentioned functions; nevertheless, it can be extremely useful for a film, since,
if necessary, it can fulfil more functions at the same time.

6
Laura Lăzărescu, Sound Design în filmul american de animație [Sound Design in the
American Animation Film], Bucharest, ed. Niculescu, 2013, p. 250.

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The soundtrack of a film or of a stage play is an original creation,
traditionally composed especially for the film or stage play; otherwise, the
selection of some songs and the acquisition of the right to use them are the
responsibility of the music editor or sound desire who is tasked with fulfilling
the director’s vision. However, some directors choose themselves the songs
they deem crucial for the film or stage play. The selection of music is one of
the first and most important decisions regarding the making of a film or the
mise-en-scene of a stage play and, often, it precedes the shooting of the film or
the said mise-en-scene.
Film and theater music is multifunctional, and one of the most
important functions of music is to create a specific mindset in a scene; this is
the essential component of the scene’s impact on the film or stage play
audience. Theoretically, if we have to watch a scene of torture, this should lead
to significant stress for us. We may remind here the name of the director
Quentin Tarantino who is neither the first nor the last to associate ethereal,
light music with brutal scenes, for the sake of irony. Our reference here is
especially the film Reservoir Dogs, where, in a violent scene, a pop song by
Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan, “Stuck in the Middle With You”, is used. The
joyous music attached to the brutal scene has a strong effect on the spectator.
The capacity of the songs to create a specific atmosphere is efficient in
particular when the songs can be recognized by the spectators. And if we use
a well-known song, it may lead to a specific chain of associations; thus, the
imaginary associations will assign an even more common aspect to the music,
and the mix between the common and the frightening will lead to more
heightened irony. If the well-known song also has lyrics that can be heard not
only by the audience, but also by the film characters, this will add another
dimension to the whole scene. Once a state of mind is created, music guides
our reactions to a clearly defined direction. A film’s soundtrack also helps to
paint the film’s characters, to reveal the characters’ psychological portraits.
For example, I could say that, in Federico Fellini’s Il Casanova, the score
composed by Nino Rota has an important role in the even more intuitive and
efficient illustration of Casanova’s sexual psychotic game, as compared with
the obvious elements of the film action; music is the item that makes us
understand, in fact, the psychopathological dimension of his behavior.
Furthermore, film score can shift our simple perception. Most often,
visual representation is not clear, it is not concrete. When we question the film
characters’ ambiguity of expression, for example: a look may mirror the
expression of cruelty, empty eyes may speak of madness, music can guide us

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exactly inside the dramaturgical and psychological situation of the scene in
question. Filmmaking has developed an extremely rich arsenal in order to be
able to transmit the narrative associations or the secondary meanings; this
arsenal includes both the acting and the dialogue, and the director’s solutions
and the editing techniques.
Film soundtrack has an influence on film meaning at several levels.
The spectators are aware of its effects to different extents, but we may say that,
in general, its effects are not grasped consciously. Therefore, music acts on the
subconscious. If film soundtrack acts below the radar of conscience, this could
have a more intense impact on us, it could emphasize some elements and
prompt unexpected reactions, for example, as specified above, make us feel
better during a scene of torture.
Film soundtrack may trigger and amplify the emotions resulting from
the relationship between the screen and the audience. We live more intensely
a specific situation, if we can recognize the specific emotion relating to some
character or event. To some extent, this process intensifies the direct, realistic
aspect of film. Most likely, music is the most efficient emotion-triggering tool,
an instrument aiding the creation of empathy with the film characters.
Despite the numerous essential characteristics proven by film
soundtrack, it cannot be defined as a universal language. Music has a
completely special role in Hollywood movies, as compared with the Indian
ones; Bengali films use music completely differently from Brazil films.
Different national and cultural traditions have developed, to a large extent,
distinct practices around the world, with respect to the use of music in film,
and each of them has its own history. Nevertheless, an expressive power is
embedded in music and, thus, it is able to transcend many frontiers;
filmmaking traditions use this part of music to shape the way in which film is
received and accepted, but also the way in which emotions are conveyed from
the screen to the audience.
Film music, meaning soundtrack music, is at the intersection of film
and music. It can create meaning because it can operate practically at the same
time both in the filmmaking plane and in the music one. Despite the fact that
some film music is often recorded, played, distributed and listened to strictly
as sound material, its essence is determined by its function in filmmaking.
Thus, we deal with some kind of hybrid able to create different meanings, on
the one hand owing to its melodic dimension and, on the other hand, owing to
its role as an element of the on-screen action.

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Certainly, film score is also a music and, like any other system of
significations, it also has its own shapes and structures, its own contents
whereby music acquires meaning or, in other words, we have the possibility to
recognize and assign meaning to the basic music elements used by the
composer: tonality, melody, harmony, rhythm, tempo, dynamics, tone color,
instruments, and form. Even if music is universal, there is no doubt that,
depending on their time and place, people have used different melodic
languages over time.
The music of the Western world, as developed in the early modern age,
is only one of the many types of music, but it can be a starting point for the
understanding of film score, for a number of reasons. At the end of the 19th
century-beginning of the 20th – i.e. exactly when film music started to develop
– Western music had a major impact around the world and, thus, it also had a
significant role in the development of the musical backup of film images.
Moreover, we speak here of the same musical system most familiar to the
common spectator, but we also need to note the fact the occidental music is not
the only music in the world.
The cornerstone of Western music – to which most of the elements
relate – is tonality, i.e. the way in which music sounds are organized and which
leads to music. One of the possible definition of tonality could be: a musical
system built around a center of gravity, tonic. Tonic ensures the focus point
around which the other notes are organized, and the musical material starts and
ends with this note. However, tonality is also characteristic to other musical
systems. Classic Indian music and a large part of Middle Eat music rely are
based on a single note, which, by offering tonal stability to a melody, occurs
often in its melodic phrase. A crucial role is played by built-up tension,
respectively by its resolution, while the melodic phrase draws way from,
respectively draws closer to its tonal core. Tonality may be classified in a
number of way, and one of the most important categories is the distinction of
the major and minor tonalities, since the two types of musical structure can
create specific associations and lead to very different effects. Despite the fact
that the concepts of happiness or sadness cannot be linked directly with major
or minor tonalities, the major tonalities is associated frequently with the feeling
of freedom and cheerfulness, while the minor tonality expresses instead
sadness and melancholy.
One of the distinct traits of tonal music – starting from the second half
of the 18th century – is the increasing role played by the melody; the melody is

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the defined order of sounds succeeding one another in an easily memorable
and recognizable manner. The melody is some kind of access point, the node
that could draw the audience’s attention. However, Western music is not alone
in the use of melody. For example, Indian classical music7 is made of melodies
that could be recognized by the raga elements8, easily identified and well-
known for centuries – every such element being characterized by distinct,
continuously associated melodic structures, for example: peace, heroism,
power or pathos. Therefore, the composers of Indian soundtracks were free to
choose from among extremely efficient musical structures, regardless of

7
www.india.hu: According to Szabolcs Tóth, “Indian classical music is the oldest continuous
musical tradition. The first surviving work was Bharata’s Natyashastra that, according to the
assessments made, was written in the 2nd century AD. It has a separate section discussing the
musical instruments, the tala system, but also the emotions and feelings stirred by the melodies
(rasa) and scales (bhava).
The emotional impact of some scales had been recognized since Ancient Greece. In Sparta,
boys were taught only masculine and dignified tonalities, such as ion, or major (bilawal), since
it was also believed that the Lydian tonality (kalyan) was too dissolute, and the soul of a man
needed to be protected from it. The musical representation of emotions was refined gradually
across the millennia in India. The important musicians of each generation tried to maintain
the preceding musical evolution, and the most significant musicians were tasked with adding
each a drop to this ocean of musical knowledge tradition.
Indian classical music is a musical language in itself. It has vowels, words, phrases, it has
poems and, most importantly – it has its own grammar. The action on the stage is not
improvisation, it is living musical communication. Such a shared musical language had existed
in the Baroque age; jazz is a similar musical language. Even if jazz is almost one hundred
years old, it has already suffered many changes over time. The same can be said about Indian
classical music, although its bases, for example the sound and interpretation system
underlying the representation of pure emotions, had become a constant one at least after
Bharata’s work, if not even earlier.
In India, two independent but compatible musical systems were created at the same time. The
first one is raga – the melody system, and the other one is tala – the rhythm system. These are
very complex musical systems, offering, practically, full freedom to the performer, allowing
him/her to express his/her individuality, vision of life via music, without compromising the
musical system. Both systems are so specific that I could state that, if each human being wanted
to play the tabla, none would need to imitate the other’s style.”
8
www.india.hu: According to Szabolcs Tóth, “Raga is not the interpretative genre of Indian
classical music. Raga is not a musical creation; it is a system of interpretation. This system
cannot be described fully, but, despite that, it can be understood and learnt. The aspect that
can be described is a specific trait of raga, respectively its characteristic. These descriptions
may facilitate the understanding of Indian classical music that is fundamentally different from
the European musical mindset. One of the most important elements of raga is the interlocked
scale. It ensures the correct synchronization and the continuous presence of the emotional
range of the raga. In India, the absolute scale is used in solfege, i.e. the altered notes do not
have different names, but they are noted differently.”

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whether they wanted materials for background music or for other purposes,
since the state of mind in a scene was easy to define by the use of raga that has
the purpose to expose the expression of emotions and actual feelings. These
feelings occur always in their specific style, for example sadness associates
often with tears. According to the Indian thought, there are nine basic human
emotions. Hence the name of navarasa (Sanskrit) or navras (Hindi) – of the
“nine emotions”: shringara - erotic, hasya - comic, karuna - pathetic,
bhayanaka – frightening, rudra - furious, vira - heroic, bibhatsa – mischievous,
adbhuta - surprised, shanta - peaceful.
In the last years, these have also been completed by bhakti, meaning
religious.9

Rhythm in the time structure of soundtrack

Rhythm concerns the temporal organization of music; its basic unit is
time or the beat, i.e. a perceived frequency (pulse) signaling the lapse of time.
Western music is characterized by the high degree of rhythm exactness, and
the deviation from the stiff meters (measure typologies) can be an extremely
efficient solution. Rhythm is the basic element of a number of musical systems
around the world, but, occasionally, it can operate completely differently than
Western music. In the Indian culture, rhythms are organized in much more
complex specific configurations contrasting with the Western tradition. In
general, an Western meter has 3 or 4 beats, while in Indian music some
repetitive rhythmic structures may include up to 108 separate beats. However,
in the Middle East song practice, we do not find regular rhythms, since the
temporal arrangement of the musical material follows the rhythmicity
determined by the text articulation. In Western tonal music, rhythm plays a
much more predictable role, making up some sort of sound netting acting as a
backdrop for the composer’s creative imagination.10

Melody and leitmotif

9
Kárpáti János, Kelet zenéje, Budapest, Gemini Kiadó, 1998
10
Kathryn Kalinak, Film Music - A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2010,
p. 21.

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 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA
The melody is a specifically important element for the composer,
wherever in the world he/she is. Often, a melody acts as a leitmotif, i.e. it can
be identified with ease as the main recurrent motif. Any kind of musical
material may become a leitmotif – even an easily recognizable rhythm -, but
usually composers assign this role to melodies: sometimes, such melodies may
only have a few notes; some other times, they can be wider self-standing
themes. Then, they can be developed, varied or repeated countlessly in their
initial form, so that the associations with them should become increasingly
more intense, thus creating increasingly stronger effects. The last insertion of
a main motif – especially if it coincides with the end of the film -, may explode
like a genuine emotional bomb. Certainly, not all composers believe that the
melody is the most important element – for example, try to hum the music of
the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Pyscho, music composed by Bernard
Herrmann; it is, however, one of the most efficient instruments for the
modelling of film music. 11

Harmony
Harmony refers to the coordination of the sounds released at the same
time. In Western tonal film music, the rules of harmony favor some mixtures
of sounds and tunes contrasting with others, for the creation of tension by
dissonance, respectively for the dissolution of dissonances. The farther away a
harmony from the tonal core of a scale, the greater the listener’s feeling of
confusion and uncertainty; the closer to it, the greater the connection of the
sound effect with a feeling of order and stability. As opposed to melodies, we
are less aware of harmonies, but their effect is particularly strong, and it may
also be detected by those who cannot express in words the functioning of
harmony. An interesting aspect is that harmony is not a mandatory element of
music, nor is it characteristic to each creative age, respectively to each
geographic region (at least not in the form in which it is found in Western
musical tradition). In improvisational musical systems, like the Indian or
Middle East ones, harmony does not play an important role; worldwide,
harmonic thinking is not characteristic to the Middle Ages (including here the
West). Moreover, heptatonic tonality, which is the base of Western harmony,
is only one of the manner of organization of the musical sounds. For example,

11
Kathryn Kalinak, Film Music - A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2010,
p. 19.

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 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA
the pentatonic tonality used in various folk melodies of Asia, America and
Europe is made of five sounds. However, at the same time, western music uses
extremely cleverly the tonal harmonies, in order to stir and dissolve tension
efficiently and predictably.12

Tone color
Timbre (tone color) refers to the quality of sound, to the element
making the difference between two instruments or voices of the same type. To
emphasize the role timbre may play in musical culture, a comparative approach
of classical music and western pop music may be useful. In the context of
classical music, the goal is to create a more or less standardized sonority in an
instrumental partita, or a vocal type (this is the partial reason why it is
extremely difficult to distinguish a specific opera soprano voice from another
one). As to pop music, we can see the opposite, because the purpose is that
each voice and instrument are heard individually. One of the instrument aiding
this effect is the development of a typical timbre; thus, most listeners will come
to distinguish among the voices of Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Bonnie Tyler,
Cher, Suzy Quattro, Enya, Kate Bush or Pink, but we may also list the
masculine timbre in pop rock, for example Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker, Freddie
Mercury, Robert Plant, Ian Gillan, Jon Anderson, David Coverdale, Michael
Bolton, Michael Jackson or George Michael.
Timbre has an important role in all the musical cultures of the world.
For example, in Japanese music, instrumentalists and singers are taught how
to create different instrumental, respectively vocal timbers. In some African
musical traditions, timbre is influenced and individualized by some
phenomena not pertaining strictly to music, such as the breath sounds – an
element that other cultures try to eliminate. The orchestration can be seen as
the art of selection of the timbre (we will approach this topic in more detail in
the chapter New Horizons): to obtain a specific effect, we choose an instrument

12
Kathryn Kalinak, Film Music - A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2010,
p. 20.

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 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA
or a type of voice to the detriment of another ones, a violin instead of a horn or
a bass instead of a tenor.13

Ambience, atmosphere
We begin this chapter with a special case of the ambient music of the
soundtrack. Although this is music or musical sounds, it will merge with the
ambience and the atmosphere of the scene, creating a unique sonority; the
dramaturgic essence of ambient or atmosphere music use is that, during the
viewing of the stage play or of the film, the spectator will perceive the resulting
unit as an atmosphere or as an ambience rather than as music.
Visual elements acquire personality, space, site, situation, owing to the
sound, to the accompanying ambiences. The ambience and the atmosphere on
the soundtrack can suggest whether, for example, a room is mysterious, its
position in time and space, and its geographic localization, or they may even
suggest the axis of time along which the action occurs at that site, etc.
In Laura Lăzărescu’s words, we may say that, “Ambiences ensure in
some way the spectator’s enveloping in the succession of events, a description
of the environment by sound. A distinction between ambiences and effects is
that the former cover a longer time interval, for example a whole sequence.
Effects may be component of ambience, enhancing its sounds by particular
details. The sound designer’s skills is the selection of ambiences beyond their
strictly illustrative role, complementing the image. Ambience may be simply a
recorded sound added to the image, like a repetitive sound paste, or it may be
executed carefully and masterfully, an ambience containing sound elements
inserted specifically by the sound designer, e.g. drops, horn, croak, etc.,
opening new options of interpretation. The spectator perceives consciously or
unconsciously the particular elements that become an integral part of the
ambience; thus, the scene acquires additional significance, another dimension,
and sometimes the empathy factor intervenes.”14

13
Kathryn Kalinak, Film Music - A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2010,
p. 21.
14
Laura Lăzărescu, Sound Design în filmul american de animație [Sound Design in the
American Animation Film], Bucharest, ed. Niculescu, 2013, p. 152-153.

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 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA

Noises
Noises may be the noises as such or the atmospheric sounds. These
sounds are generated by the movements of objectives, beings or natural
phenomena.
In the frequency range of these sounds there is not only one sound
wave; there is a collage of a number of complex sound waves with different
frequencies; these are composite or complex sounds. Composite or complex
sounds are divided in two large categories: periodic sounds and aperiodic
sounds.
Periodic sounds are defined as the musical sounds, and aperiodic ones
are defined as noises. This definition is offered merely in principle, because
there are periodic sounds lacking a musical nature, for example spoken
consonants, while music also uses aperiodic sounds, such as the cymbals, the
triangle, the drums, etc. But the essential distinction between the two
categories of sounds is that the frequency of the periodic sound components is
always given by multiples, doubles, triples, etc. of the fundamental frequency,
multiples called harmonics; in aperiodic sounds, sound components may have
variable frequencies, of any kind, without any rule.
Noises are a mixture of vibrations, i.e. they are made of many sounds
with different vibrations. These sounds are not the reciprocal harmonics, thus
in noises, we cannot find the fundamental, nor can we find harmonics.
Nevertheless, there are noises also including periodic components, for example
the noise of a throttled-down engine.
From a communicative point of view, there are two types of noises:
non-communicative noises and communicative noises.
The non-communicative noise stands out by the objective or subjective
lack of an information baggage; it bothers because of the unpleasant feeling it
generates or because of the negative effect on the transmission of information.
The communicative noise is the noise to which an essence is added, to
which information value is assigned; these noises may be perceived as useful
sounds; thus, the noise will transform and will include a margin of
communication.

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 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA

Foley, SFX, ADR, FX

Foley

Fig. 1. Jack Foley (www.mixonline.com)

“The name “foley” comes from the name of Jack Foley (1891-1967),
an important professional of early film. Foley was a director, actor, stuntman,
animator and he was preoccupied with sound. Jack Foley helped to record the
sounds of steps, palms, clothing rustling and other noises in real time. Foley
recorded the sounds for Universal in a studio that would be soundproofed
later. Soon, the studio would be called “Foley' s stage” or “Foley 's room”.
Now, the noise post-sync studio is called “Foley stage”. The most frequent
noises recorded in a Foley stage are the steps. In the early age of sound, the
steps would be performed many times by dancers, usually women dancers in
movies, who, with the appearance of sound, had oriented toward the profession
of sound man. Gene Kelly is one of the artists who wanted to record his steps
on his own - “Dance Foley”.
Apart from the steps, the swishing of clothes has a special importance.
The Foley studio records many other noises: tableware, glasses, rattling guns,
handling and pressing of electronic devices, etc. The funny thing is that, most
of the times, the noises do not have any connection with the object on the
screen: thus, steps in snow are not made in real snow, first and fighting do not
involve actual fights between the sound engineers in front of the microphone,

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 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA
the fluttering of wings or the fire does not mean that these objects are brought
in the studio. The regular spectator will never wonder how these sound effects
were recorded. Behind the recording of the noises there is a team of sound
engineers and sound men accompanies by bags of props.

Fig.2 The “workshop” of John Roesch- Foley

artist(www.hollywoodreporter.com)

Fig. 3 Caricature about the work of Foley artists (www.starightdope.com)

In fact, the foley artist is a musician who, however, does not use
musical instruments, but everyday objects. These are the materials used in the
creative process. The Foley artist needs to show he/she is inventive, has
experience, rhythm and, perhaps most importantly, he/she needs to be a good
listener of everything around him/her.”15

15
Laura Lăzărescu, Sound Design în filmul american de animație, Bucharest, ed. Niculescu,
2013, pp. 145-146.

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 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA
ADR
ADR (Additional Dialog Recording) or Automated Dialog
Replacement is a terms used in the description of the rerecording of voices, i.e.
the actors’ lines and dialogs that, dramaturgically, para-verbally or extra-
linguistically, do not match the director’s concept or were not recorded in
optimum technical conditions. ADR is conducted in an acoustically controlled
space, for example in an acoustically treated professional studio. This
procedure is conducted always in the film post-production phase. During this
process, actors (or different actors than those cast in the film) are asked again
to act for a new capture and for the perfect synchronization of the dialogs with
the image, for an improved quality as compared with the direct takes on site
and for better handling in the post-processing, mixing of their voices. ADR
allows the considerably easier adjustment of the actors’ voices for the complete
illustration of the situation in the image. ADR entered international practice
also by the synchronization of original film, in the desired language and
transmitted in various countries around the world.

SFX, FX, meaning special sound effects and sound effects

The most discussed category of the soundtrack is given by the special
effects (SFX). The international organization of the soundtrack mentions three
basic layers of the sounds: dialog, music and sound effects. The category of
sound effects includes all the noises, ambiences and atmospheres. But which
is the category to which the ambience of a cave on another planet belongs? It
does not have any connection with the reality and, in the spectator’s perception,
the things he/she hears are not material, the effect alone is palpable. This
category also includes the sounds of special effects such as the Jedi lightsaber
or the sounds, yells and howls of the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. We may say
that the sounds not included in the categories of dialog, music or sound effects
are special effects.
Sound effects (FX), their roles and classification will be defined by
paraphrasing Laura Lăzărescu’s ideas: “The definition of the “sound effects”
is the following one: any sound, other than music or dialog, generated
artificially for the creation of a specific effect, having the following roles:
1. Stimulation of reality, hence corresponding to an actual reality visible
on the screen.

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 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA
2. Offering, creating something for the related scene, which may illustrate
something that cannot be seen on the screen, but which belongs to that
space
3. Effects that may help to create a specific condition.
Sound effects may be classified in the following groups:
1. Hard SFX : horns, weapon sounds, fists.
2. Foley SFX: steps, clothes, tableware, sounds synchronized with the image,
created in the studio in the noise post-sync phase.
3. Background FX: “room tone” (background characteristic to each room),
traffic, wind, ambience sounds.
4. Electronic FX/Production Elements: sounds in the science-fiction films of
the 1960s-1970s, “wooshes”, “electric statics”, sounds for credit titles,
trailers.
5. Sound Design FX: recording is impossible, they are generated by a DAW
(Digital Audio Workstation) controller, by the manipulation of sound
waves.”16

Silence

When French director Robert Bresson stated that “The soundtrack

invented silence most of all”17, certainly he spoke about the situations in which
general silence may be used for dramaturgic purposes, like music, ambience
or film noise, thus becoming their counterpart.

The importance of silence and its occurrences:

After a big and musically grand scene, sudden silence may bear high
significance and the reverse. Nothing is more efficient and has a stronger effect
than a suitably placed calm.
“When, in a film, we encounter silence instead of sounds that would fit
naturally the moment in question, the impact is very strong. Silence acts like a
call, the spectator pays more attention to the scene on the screen and perceives

16
Laura Lăzărescu, Sound Design în filmul american de animație, Bucharest, ed. Niculescu,
2013, pp. 149, 150.
17
Robert Bresson, Feljegyzések a filmművészetről. Osiris Kiadó: Budapest, 1998, p. 33.

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 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA
the events differently. The spectator deals with an approach that he/she cannot
find in his/her reality, and this sharpens his/her senses.
Silence may have more implications that the regular sound approach.
- waiting for silence to be interrupted
- it may express discomfort, awkwardness
- it foreshadows an event, hence the phrase “the calm before the storm”.
- it may emphasize an idyllic aspect, a peaceful setting, e.g. the image of an
infant.
- it may suggest mystery.
- it may contribute to suspense, restlessness, uncertainty, fear.
- it may emphasize the dynamics of an event.
Following a considerable presence of sound, a suddenly occurring
silence carries great significance, and the reverse, following considerable
silence, sudden sounds carry great significance.
Silence takes a number of shapes:
- absolute silence: no sound on the soundtrack, technically speaking there is
no signal
- relative silence
- realistic, natural silence: the place is silent (e.g., a desert, nighttime, forest).
Even if silence is meant to describe the place seen on the screen, it is not used
accidentally. Even if realistic, it delivers some state of mind to the spectators.
- artistic silence: to obtain a specific effect.
- dramatic silence; when a character takes a break in the dialog or when he/she
is silent, this may have multiple meanings: uneasiness, chagrin, lack of
communication, discomfort, thinking, etc. The character’s thoughts and
reactions are presented: awkwardness, despair, sadness, wonder, indecision,
fear, fright, burden, etc. Joy, peace, calm, silent satisfaction are emphasized
more rarely. When the characters stop talking or they take short breaks, their
facial expressions, body language, looks continue to offer meanings, perhaps
sometimes more significant and more subtle than words.

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- the character’s silence and the spectator’s silence: the character’s silence
means that the spectator is faced with the subjective sound of the character on
the screen. The spectator hears what the character hears, he/she can
understand what the character hears. On the other hand, the spectator’s
silence is only perceived by the spectator. Characters do not hear what the
spectator hears.”18

Dramaturgy of the soundtrack

As mentioned in the subchapter Soundtrack of this paper, the
transformation of the soundtrack’s sound energy at the time of the perception
may have an impact on the human brain, in four ways: psychological,
intellectual, emotional, and moral. For this reason, a dramaturgy of the
soundtrack should be applied to the creation of the soundtrack in the theatrical
and film art, which should include actual guidelines whereby the design and
creation of the sound layers should facilitate the efforts of the composers,
sound designers and stage and film directors.
After he took part in the International symposium on dramaturgy,
Central School of Speech and Drama, in 1999, Mr. Balázs Gábor drafted 11
aspects of functional criteria for the practice of the dramaturgy of the
soundtrack in film and theater, based on the information received during the
said conference.
“1.- Relation between the narrative function and the content of denotations
and sound meanings.
2. – Accuracy, authenticity.
3. – Relations between the genre conventions and sound design.
4. – Correlation between sound conventions and the dramaturgy of the
soundtrack..
5. – Relation between sound design and the “real, natural” sounds of the stage
play or film.

18
Laura Lăzărescu, Sound Design în filmul american de animație, Bucharest, ed. Niculescu,
2013, pp. 215, 216, 217.

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 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA
6. – Structure and rhythm of creation from the point of view of the dramaturgy
of sound.
7. – Role of the dramaturgy of sound in film and theater.
8. – The dramaturgic function of music and the dramaturgic relation among
the other sound solutions.
9. – Illustration of the atmosphere of an age, the summoning of sound
memories, the intentional stirring of sound resonance in the spectator’s
perception.
10. – Technical quality
11. – Characteristics of the film and performing arts receiving environment,
with respect to its general and particular aspects.”19
By continuing to analyze the implications of the eleven points, we will
paraphrase below the ideas of the same Mr. Balázs Gábor:
1. Which are the instruments allowing us to support the narrative
elements of the images and of the story? There are specific moments in the
script, in the libretto, where the parallel relation of the narrative image-sound
or of the narrative image-stage can be broken (interrupted). Is it necessary, in
any scene of the script or libretto, for the sound to amplify or the image to
minimalize the significance of the scene or narrative content?
2. What kind of sound instruments should we use for the development
of authenticity, respectively for the illusion of authenticity?
3. What kind of filmmaking sound instruments should we use for the
soundtrack to comply with the conventions of the category in the selected
genre? Could the occasional breach of the conventions be necessary? Is the
contraposition of the more conventional layers of the work with the soundtrack
necessary?
4. In which scenes should we use conventional solutions? We should
know when to depart from conventions and the significance of such a
departure.

19
Balázs Gábor, A reprodukciós technikáktól az alkotóművészetig, PhD thesis, Színház és
Filmművészeti Egyetem Doktori Iskola, 2013, p. 125.

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 THEATRICAL COLLOQUIA
5. Which are the created sounds embedded in the natural canvas of the
soundtrack? Is there cohesion between the sound design and the illustration of
the “visible” sounds of the visual world? Is there a special need to use sound
effects?
6. How does the soundtrack allow, respectively modify the film’s
internal rhythm? How does a several-minute fragment of the soundtrack stand
for the whole soundtrack?
7. Do we start work with an already shaped sound concept or not? How
flexible is our anticipated convention? How much space do we assign to
spontaneous, intuitive ideas? How great a share of dramaturgic role do we
assign to sound? What kind of content can we solve by the dramaturgy of
sound?
8. In the relation between music and the other sound layers, does music
have a marked role?
9. To what extent is the potential of cultural references used?
10. To what extent do we comply with the requirements issued from
objective and subjective parameters, respectively from the viewpoint of the
film or stage play, with respect to the technical quality? To what extent should
we make use of the available technical possibilities?
11. To what extent is our film or our stage play optimized, considering
the specific characteristics of the applied environment? To what extent is the
mechanism of the effects different depending on the used environment?

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