The Teachers' Animation Toolkit

2.3 MUSIC AND ANIMATION

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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

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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 

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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.