Cineliteracy
57
About the music:
What can you tell about the characters from the
music which accompanies them? How does the melody, tempo and
style of the music contribute to your impressions of the character?
About silence:
Why do you think the sequence is silent at this
point? How can silence create drama, atmosphere or tension?
About sound and image together:
What difference does the
sound make to the sequence? What difference
would it make if
either the music or sound effects were missing? How do sound and
image combine to create specifi c effects? What contribution is made
by the individual elements? Does the sound/music change? What do
the changes mean? (e.g. changes in volume or tempo).
Extension work
: ask the students to write a synopsis for the fi lm.
Materials:
Sketchbooks or exercise books, pens, pencils
Resources:
DVD video:
Peter and the Wolf
directed by Suzie Templeton
Available on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sergei-
Prokofi evs-Peter-Wolf-DVD/dp/B001RNXZ06/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8
&qid=1289826303&sr=8–2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_and_the_Wolf
http://www.philtulga.com/Peter.html
58
The Teachers’ Animation Toolkit
WORKSHEET: UNDERSTANDING LEITMOTIV IN
PETER AND THE WOLF
Teachers’ note:
There are three strands of aural support for any fi lm − dialogue,
music and sound effects − with the latter dividing into foley (specifi c
sounds, such as footsteps) and atmosphere (setting the aural
landscape, for example, wind in the trees).
Sound effects deal
with realistic aural landscapes whereas music makes a powerful
contribution to a fi lm by implication and association. It supports and
develops the narrative, adding to the emotional temperature and
sometimes creating links with specifi c characters or circumstances
(leitmotiv).
Generally, music is added to fi lm at a later stage in production.
However in the case of the production of
Peter and the Wolf
, the
music and the narrative came fi rst. Consequently
the director Suzie
Templeton had to reverse the process of fi lm production by creating
visuals to fi t the music.
The music was recorded earlier in pre-production with the
Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Mark Stephenson. The
24-track recording aimed for a highly characterful, spirited
interpretation. After recording, the music was analysed note-by-note
and transcribed onto a frame-by-frame bar chart. The fi lm
is made at
25 frames per second; therefore the fi lm is made up of a total of about
45,000 frames. The bar chart enabled the director and animator to
synchronize animation with the music.
Peter and the Wolf
is scored for fl ute, oboe, clarinet in A, bassoon,
three horns, trumpet,
trombone, timpani, triangle, tambourine,
cymbals, castanets, snare drum, bass drum and strings. Prokofi ev
uses the rising 2nd inversion major triad in the themes for Peter, the
bird and the cat. Also, all character parts apart from the grandfather
start on the fi fth of the scale.
Prokofi ev’s own thoughts were that:
‘The role of each animal or bird
will be played by a single instrument, but the many-sided human
character will be, say, a string quartet . . . Yes, we should begin
with specifi c striking contrasts: the wolf and the bird, the evil and
the good, the big and the small. The characters will be expressed
Cineliteracy
59
in the timbres of different instruments and each of them will have a
leitmotiv.’
Show the fi lm to the class. Ask the students
to identify the use of
leitmotiv. Which instruments are used for each character?
Peter
Grandfather
Duck
Crow
Wolf
Hunter
Does each musical passage suit the character it accompanies?
What links can you fi nd between each character and its music?
The exercise should help students to understand the process of
composing musical material for a fi lm. The commercial process of
adding music to fi lm is highly sophisticated, however the principles
are relatively simple.
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