John Williams can go big, no doubt about it. It’s always his big score moments in correspondingly big scenes that people talk about, but from my vantage point as a film composer, I am just as fascinated by his skill at going big on what may seem like smaller scenes.
From the point of view of craftsmanship, it is those less obvious moments that can be much more educational.
Here’s an example of such a score moment; the funeral scene in Superman, where they bury Clark Kent’s father.
Look at these stills taken from the film; how would you have scored it? (Or go to 34:12 in the film and watch it without music.)
Would you have scored it in a sad tone? Dramatic? Dark? What we see is this:
- They are dressed in black
- Distraught
- Sad
- It’s a funeral!
These are the obvious surface elements of this scene, so it seems to make sense to write sad music. I bet many composers would have done just that.
But Donner and Williams were much better storytellers than that. They understood what this scene was…
This is the film’s inciting event. The death of his father is the event that makes Clark Kent become Superman.
What’s an inciting event? It’s that one thing that happens to your hero that makes him or her take action.
Just before he dies from a heart attack at 33:30 in the film, Pa Kent has a talk with Clark, saying “I do know one thing is that you are for a reason [..] .and it’s not for scoring touchdowns.” It is these words which will give Clark Kent’s life purpose, and his father’s death a few seconds later that will make him take action.
So what does the music do? Does it play the sadness? No! Williams knew this was a turning point in the story and he wrote a beautiful theme that is softly heroic, uplifting and grandiose. It soars over the shot of Clark and his mother leaving the cemetery as the camera cranes up over a wide landscape, hinting at the adventure that is about to begin.
This is music for story-telling.
And another thing, this is a Superman film. It’s bigger than life. Williams knew this and the music is crucial in giving the film the right tone and scope.
So the points to remember are these:
- Always consider the story
- The overall tone of the film?
- Where you are in the structure of the story
- What is the subtext? What can the music add to the scene that you can’t already see?
Now go watch that scene!
Great notes for one of his most beautiful themes, along with Flying Sequence from later in the film.
I loved this blog post. Partly because my gut feeling was that the music for this scene needed to be deep and heroic with maybe hints of the Superman theme, perhaps in a not yet fully developed form. So the further I read your post the more excited I got. Perhaps there’s hope yet! But definitely… in movies all is not always as it seems and maybe any other composer who would have been ‘sleepwalking’ on the job might have gone for the pathos and lessened the entire film in the process. But by looking beyond the initial surface level John Williams saw this as the important turning point that it is, and where the mythic journey really begins. Where Williams truly shines is that he also doesn’t hit you over the head with it, and he doesn’t lose sight of the fact that it IS also a funeral and a very sad moment for our hero. So the music works on both levels and in doing so becomes a contributing factor to the collection of elements that add up to this being not just a great movie but a GREAT movie. Reading your post made me wonder if it might not be a bad idea for budding composers to also become familiar with storytelling in general and how scripts work… maybe by reading something like Save the Cat! or even Syd Field or John Truby (though those might be overkill). So, thank you very much for these ongoing posts!
You are right, the music works on multiple levels, as does the scene. Being a storyteller is part of the work of a film composer, and it’s therefore crucial to understand story and screenwriting. I have certainly spent much time studying this subject and it has made all the difference in my writing and relationship with directors. It is also why I still admire John Williams greatly!
Thank you. Yes, this score is filled with gems and one of my all-time favourites! Perhaps I should write more about it…
Excellent points to consider! Congratulations!!!
Thanks Bruno!
Thank you Alain!
It is definitively the kind of post I look forward to read and I will keep those points in mind.
Alain, thanks for sharing your awesome tips. John Williams is an absolute favourite of mine and a master of scoring a moment in a movie scene. I don’t have much experience in that field but for me, apart the creative side, this is maybe the most hard aspect of the whole process. Thanks again and keep this blog up!
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