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    Kathryn Kalinak: Azz S

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    José Luis Caballero Martínez
    The document discusses how film scores used musical conventions to portray female characters, particularly in regards to their sexuality. Scores depicted "fallen women" like prostitutes with instrumentation associated with jazz, such as saxophones and muted brass, featuring dissonant harmonies and syncopated rhythms. In contrast, virtuous women were depicted with orchestral strings and lyrical melodies. The film The Informer is analyzed, noting how the score portrays the character Katie, a prostitute, with these fallen woman conventions despite her admirable traits, showing how music influenced audience perception of female characters.

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    Kathryn Kalinak: Azz S

    Uploaded by

    José Luis Caballero Martínez
    39 views1 page
    The document discusses how film scores used musical conventions to portray female characters, particularly in regards to their sexuality. Scores depicted "fallen women" like prostitutes with instrumentation associated with jazz, such as saxophones and muted brass, featuring dissonant harmonies and syncopated rhythms. In contrast, virtuous women were depicted with orchestral strings and lyrical melodies. The film The Informer is analyzed, noting how the score portrays the character Katie, a prostitute, with these fallen woman conventions despite her admirable traits, showing how music influenced audience perception of female characters.

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    The Fallen Woman and the virtuos wife. Kalinak. página 1

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    2019_01_18_11_22_09_001

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    The document discusses how film scores used musical conventions to portray female characters, particularly in regards to their sexuality. Scores depicted "fallen women" like prostitutes with instrumentation associated with jazz, such as saxophones and muted brass, featuring dissonant harmonies and syncopated rhythms. In contrast, virtuous women were depicted with orchestral strings and lyrical melodies. The film The Informer is analyzed, noting how the score portrays the character Katie, a prostitute, with these fallen woman conventions despite her admirable traits, showing how music influenced audience perception of female characters.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    39 views1 page

    Kathryn Kalinak: Azz S

    Uploaded by

    José Luis Caballero Martínez
    The document discusses how film scores used musical conventions to portray female characters, particularly in regards to their sexuality. Scores depicted "fallen women" like prostitutes with instrumentation associated with jazz, such as saxophones and muted brass, featuring dissonant harmonies and syncopated rhythms. In contrast, virtuous women were depicted with orchestral strings and lyrical melodies. The film The Informer is analyzed, noting how the score portrays the character Katie, a prostitute, with these fallen woman conventions despite her admirable traits, showing how music influenced audience perception of female characters.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 1

    characterized by a predominance of orcheslral colors associated wi t-h popular jazz such as

    saxophones and muted horns; harmonically, by ¡he inclusion of unusual harmonies,


    chromaticism, and dissonance; rhythmically, by the use of dotted .rhythms and syncopa-
    tion; and structurally, by the use of portamento and blues notes ~ \
    The vinuous wife and mother, on the other hand, was characterized by musical prac-
    tices with strong positive associations. Her instrument ation was orchestral, with lhe
    violins usually carrying the melody; th e harmonies were lush, based on late nineteenth -
    century models; the rhythms were even and lyrical; and the melodies oflen had an upward
    move ment, or incJuded upward leaps in the melodic paltern.
    One of the clearest examples of musical stereotyping on the basis of sexualilY can be
    found in John Ford's THE INFORMER (RKO, 1935), scored by Max Steiner. The story con-
    cerns the dim-witted but well-meaning Gypo Nolan (Vicror McLaglen), who betrays his
    friend, Irish rebelleader Frankie McPhillips, for th e sum of twenty pounds. The two ma-
    jor female roles are Katie Madden (M argot Grahame), Gypo 's girl frie nd, and Mary
    McPhillips (Heather Angel), Frankie's sister.
    Katie is a prostitute . Her first appearance in the film suggests the nature of her pro fes-
    sion. She is posed under a streetlight with a shaw l covering her head. As a dapper
    gentleman passes by and gives her the eye, she dutifully lowers the shawl LO uncover her
    shoulders and show her wares. The musical score provides information to dispel any
    possible ambiguity. Katie's theme exemplifies almost all of the musical practices
    associated with the fallen woman. Rhythmically, Katie's lheme is built around a dotted
    Kathryn Kalinak rhythm combined with syncopation. Melodically, its opening phrase emph asizes a minor
    third, which becomes the highpoint of the melody. Instrumentally, her theme IS
    characterized by low strings, woodwinds, and brasses.
    Katie's Theme

    The creation and persistence of female stereotypes in Hollywood film has been an issue
    of particular interest to feminist film critics. One frequently overlooked component in the
    process of stereotyping is th e function of the musical score. Usually regarded as merely in- The set of conventions composers used for the depiction of female sexuality \Vas never
    cidental or atmospheric, a film' s musical score can have a substanti act on the wa formaUy articulated, nor was it promulgated as an unalterable set of guidelines. However,
    the audience perceives ano responds to narrative n Wlt in a 11m. Because music these conventions were so much a part of Hollywood's musical apparatus that an or-
    functlOnS su ¡mma y for most of the audience, it has been dismlssed as an important chestrator would know implicitly what type of instrumentat ion wo uld be appropriate fo r
    structural element . In fact it is precisely because music works on a level that the audience particular characters and situations. Thus, in the conducLOr's copy of the score fo r THE
    may ba rely be aware 0[, that affords it so much power to influence information perceived INFORMER, there is a handwritten note next to Katie's theme (presumably from or-
    on a more conscious plane. chestraror Bernard Cauen) to composer/ conductor Max Steiner reading: "Dear Max: Try
    An examination of scoring practices in Hollywood films reveals an intricate musical it with solo sax[;] I think it will make more sense[.]'" Katie's theme, scored in thal se-
    language used ro characterize time and place, to fl esh out th ematic implicat ions, and ro quence for the flute, an instrument with a clear, bright tone, usually associated with vir-
    portray character. In particular, there dev~loped a body of musical conventions used ro tuous women, was changed to the Eb alto saxophone, the archetypal instrument of sexual
    depict female sex uahty on th e screen. ~HI-t~ of instrumentation, melody, harmony, promiscuity.
    and rhythm carne ro denote_certain tYPJ:.5-<lf.women. These musical stereotypes helped to Although Katie is a fallen woman, she is also a kind-hearted and dependable character
    áet ermine thé- arrdi-eñce's res on evaluation of female cnaracters, a who is loyal, forgiving, reliable, and self-sacrificing. In fact, the film even offers an ex-
    signposts, ~lrected _ e audi ence t~wa ". rrect" estimation of a woman s character. planation / apology for her position: she has turned LO prostitution in arder to survive (she
    T he most obvlouSOf11'ieSemuslcal conventlons evo enote unacceptab le anaaE: has no money to pay the rent or buy food). Despite the many admirable traits in her per-
    cepta ble modes of female sexual behavior. At one extreme was th e fallen woman (often a sonality and her destitute situation, she is placed solidly in the tradition of the fallen
    prostitute) ; on the oth~r extreme was the virtu~us wife an.d mo.t her (or variation thereof, woman by certain visual codes for her profession and by the music which accompanies
    such as sIster, or glrlfnend). M USICal codes WhlCh transffiltted mformation about femal e her. Ultimately, Katie is judged on the basis of her sexuality alone: the subliminal message
    characters' sexuality became familiar (either consciously ar subconsciously) to most au- reflected in the music is that she is promiscuous (and as a consequence, cheap and vulgar).
    diences, and wielded a great deal of power in forming the audience's attitudes towards Certain changes in instrumentation during the course of the film suggest the extent to
    them. which her sexuality is a determining factor in her musical accompaniment. Katie's theme is
    T he :a1len woman was characterized by a nucleus of musical practices which carried in- played throughout the film in the typical instrumentation of the fallen woman-wood-
    decent ImplicatlOns through an association with so-called decadent musical forms such as winds, brasses, low strings-but when she begs for Gypo' s Jife (and suggests that she
    jazz, th e blues, honky-tonk , and ragtime. Instrumentally, the fallen woman was would sacrifice herself for him), her theme is played in ¡he ennobling instrumentation

    76 I 77

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