Year 9 - Music
Tension in early movies
Film Music
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
This unit explores film music and how composers use music to enhance mood, atmosphere and storytelling. Pupils study common film music techniques and themes, and apply this knowledge by composing and performing music to accompany visual scenes, developing their composition and performance skills.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to explain how music in silent movies helps to create tension and suspense.
Key Notes
- Mickey-mousing is a common technique in early movies.
- This is where the music copies the movement of a character.
- Many early movies also involve scenes in which music is key to creating suspense.
- Typical suspenseful music uses dissonant chords (such as diminished sevenths) and sudden changes.
Vocabulary To Learn
- mickey-mousing: a technique in which the film music copies movement on screen (e.g. ascending notes in time with a character ascending stairs)
- diminished seventh: a chord containing four notes that is useful for creating a feeling of sudden drama
- dissonance: a combination of notes which create a harsh or tense sound - opposite of consonance
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- A diminished seventh chord is just like any other extended chord - a triad with added notes.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the lesson in two key points.
Mickey-mousing is a common technique in early movies. This is where the music copies the movement of a character.
2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'mickey-mousing'
a technique in which the film music copies movement on screen (e.g. ascending notes in time with a character ascending stairs).
3. Correct this common mistake.
Mistake: A diminished seventh chord is just like any other extended chord - a triad with added notes. Correction: A diminished seventh chord is quite unique as every interval is the same size (three semitones). It is different from extended chords that add notes to a triad. It has been used for centuries as a tense, dramatic chord, including in silent movies.
More Lessons In This Unit
Browse all guides in the Year 9 Music guide library.