With his score for The Book Thief, John Williams earned his 49th Oscar nomination, adding to his impressive achievement as the second most Oscar-nominated individual in history behind only Walt Disney, who earned 59 nominations. As with so many of his other scores, Williams constructs a large portion of his score for The Book Thief by stating and varying a handful of musical themes. The following film music analysis will provide a brief overview of the score’s style, then examine how Williams adapts several of his themes to various dramatic situations through the process of thematic transformation.

The Style of the Score

The Book Thief being a tale of the struggle for survival under Nazi rule during the Second World War, one might expect to hear echoes of Williams’ score for Schindler’s List throughout the film. But his music for The Book Thief actually bears the strongest resemblances to his score for the 1999 film, Angela’s Ashes, likely because both films present stories of life’s hardships largely from the innocence of a child’s perspective. Hence, there is a bittersweet quality to both scores that is reflected in Williams’ prominent use of lyrical themes in minor keys. The similarity between the two scores is most evident in their main themes. Here is that of Angela’s Ashes:

Now compare this to the main theme of The Book Thief:

The instrumentation for the two films is also quite similar, as both rely heavily on solos provided by the piano, oboe, and harp, and commonly draw on a full-bodied string sound for contrast. (Compare, for instance, the solo piano opening of each clip above.) In addition, both scores make use of playful, scherzo-like cues written mainly for strings for more lighthearted scenes. The two scores, however, differ in their details and the way in which Williams varies the themes to suit the unfolding drama. I explore three of the most prominent themes in the film below.

Liesel’s Theme (The Main Theme)

The above main theme of The Book Thief is associated with the main character, Liesel, a young  adolescent girl whose mother, fearing for her life as a Communist in Nazi Germany, takes Liesel to live with foster parents Hans and Rosa at the start of the film. En route, Liesel witnesses the death and burial of her younger brother. Thus, Liesel’s circumstances are not only emotionally difficult, but constantly dangerous as well. In addition to the bittersweet sound of the theme’s minor-mode lyricism, Williams infuses Liesel’s Theme with a sense of struggle through its musical intervals. Here is the full version of theme:

The theme divides into two eight-bar halves: the first half is the one we hear most often in the score, the second half acting as a kind of varied repetition of the first half. My analysis shows the contours of the melody with arrows above the staff.

Of note here is the way Williams shapes each two-bar phrase of the melody. In the analysis, notice that the first phrase is the only one that has an overall rising contour after an upward leap. After that, every phrase takes a downward turn following its initial rise. More than that, each descent is stepwise, suggesting a gradual fall from an initial burst of energy. In human terms, this technique suggests a negative force that is weighing down on the hopes of the protagonist, which is a fitting expression of Liesel’s constant emotional struggle of having those she most cares about whisked away by both the Nazis and the war.

The second half of the theme is even more pessimistic in a number of ways. First, it is jolted into a distantly-related minor key (much as Liesel must constantly adjust to jarring new situations). Second, now every phrase of the melody including the first is dragged down in steps at its end. And third, the chord in bar 13 that prepares for the final phrase is what is called the “Neapolitan” (or flat II) chord, which lowers the second degree of the scale and creates a more melancholic sound (as flattened notes tend to do). All of these musical features serve to reinforce, indeed enhance, the emotional content of the theme’s first half.

Variations of Liesel’s Theme

Williams subjects Liesel’s Theme to several variations according to the narrative situation. When Liesel first goes to the house of the Bürgermesiter (the mayor), she is apprehensive about entering his property, no doubt due to the Bürgermeister’s strong affiliation with “the Führer” and Liesel’s Communist background (about which there are rumours). The statement we hear of Liesel’s Theme here is accordingly hesitant, with the piano sounding its first three notes and pausing before playing the next three notes of the phrase. After a short orchestral comment from the strings, the same phrase is then restated in varied form but with the same hesitant qualities. Hear these in the track below:

At other times, Williams uses only the four-note “tail” of the theme’s second and fourth phrases. When Liesel and Rosa say goodbye to Hans at a train station, as he has been conscripted into the German army, we hear the four-note tail clearly twice at the beginning, at 0:29, 1:03, 1:13, 1:28 (extended to eight notes), and repeatedly from 1:44:

The use of this tail as the basic material for the cue could be understood as a reflection of the Nazi’s overwhelmingly negative effect on Liesel during this scene. And yet the cue’s lyricism still manages to express much of the love she and Hans feel for one another.

Death’s Theme

As both a concept and a character, death plays an important role in The Book Thief. Most prominently, Death narrates the film as a disembodied voice. Williams therefore writes a theme for the character that returns several times:

The theme is scored for solo piano, which emphasizes the loneliness one feels in having lost a loved one. Harmonically, the theme is built largely on the sorrowful sound of minor chords, but always with an extra semitone added to the chord, which adds a sense of pain through its biting dissonance. The theme also drifts from C minor through Bb minor to E minor, giving it a wandering and unpredictable character, much like Death itself. Notice as well the melody’s stepwise descents, which, like Liesel’s Theme, suggest a heavy emotional weight, now of grieving the death of a close relation.

This theme is heard at the opening of the film, as Death begins the narration, and returns shortly afterward at the funeral for Liesel’s brother. But a couple of other cues introduce some appropriate variations. When the German town in which Liesel and her family live is bombed, for example, Death’s narration enters again, but the theme is now unharmonized and scored entirely for solo oboe, adding a sharp poignancy to the scene of destruction that is about to play out. Hear this in the track below:

In the film’s final scene, we see the inside of the New York apartment of the adult Liesel, presumably after her death. As Death narrates how she lived out the rest of her life, we glean that Liesel became a successful writer as the camera pans across a few small stacks of her novels while Death comments that “her stories had touched many souls.” As this scene begins, we hear Death’s Theme, still played softly on the piano, but now transformed into a major key. This subtle change allows the theme to take on a positive connotation, in the same way that Liesel took her wartime experiences with death and turned them into stories that “had touched many souls,” ending the film on a more optimistic note. Hear this below:

Max and Liesel’s Theme

After the war breaks out, a young Jewish man named Max comes to Hans and Rosa in flight from the Nazis. As Max’s father saved Hans’ life in World War I, Hans and Rosa agree to keep Max in hiding at their home. Liesel, who has been learning how to read from Hans, forms a friendship with Max (as a sort of brother she no longer had) through her skills of reading and writing. Max, for instance, gives Liesel a journal at Christmas, and Liesel reads books aloud for Max when he is seriously ill.

We hear the theme when Max decides it too dangerous to continue to stay with Hans and Rosa after a neighbourhood shopkeeper’s Jewish roots are discovered and he is taken away. As Max is explaining to Liesel why he must leave, we hear the following form of the theme:

Once again, this theme is set in a minor key, now to express the heartbreak Liesel feels at Max’s departure. Notice how the bass line takes up the four-note tail from Liesel’s theme, not only suggesting the same negative effect of the war on Liesel, but also subtly expressing how close-knit the two characters have become.

We also hear the theme when Liesel learns that Max has recovered from his illness and will live on. As she rushes home to see Max again, the theme is clearly in a major key to reflect Liesel’s joy in hearing the good news. But notice that the four-note tail is absent from this version, aptly reflecting the small victory in overcoming the Nazi’s oppressive force:

After the war, when Liesel sees Max again after fearing him dead, we hear the theme once more, now more similar to its form when Max departs, but with an important alteration. This time, Williams changes the opening bar to start on a major chord (this is clear on the second chord we hear, when a dissonance in the bass resolves) while the rest of the theme remains largely as it was. This harmonic change reorients the theme so that we now hear the theme as emerging from a major rather than a minor key. In technical terms, Williams converts the theme so we hear it as beginning in the relative major of the original minor key. The four-note tail is gone as well, all of which suggests the positive new beginning to the old relationship Liesel and Max began under more negative circumstances. Listen to this version below:

Conclusion

With his score for The Book Thief, John Williams continues to demonstrate his talent for thematic invention and transformation. And as with his other scores, he manages to write music that is highly tailored to the emotional nuances in a given scene. With consistency like this, it is no wonder he has earned so many Oscar nominations over his career.

Coming soon… Thomas Newman’s Saving Mr. Banks.

Miklós Rózsa won his third Academy Award for Best Music with the 1959 epic Ben-Hur. The music is often touted as Rózsa’s best film score and one of the finest in Hollywood’s history, in part due to “Rózsa’s ability to write in a contemporary musical idiom while maintaining a direct emotional appeal to general audiences,” as Roger Hickman observes in his book on the score for Ben-Hur. At the same time, Hickman points out that “in many respects, Rózsa’s music for Ben-Hur also represents the end of the Golden Age of Hollywood film music.”

Considering that Rózsa was a major figure in Hollywood’s Golden Age (and thereafter), it is no surprise that his score for Ben-Hur­ retains several practices from that era such as scoring for a large orchestra, the use of leitmotifs, and thematic transformation. The film music analysis below will examine thematic transformation in three prominent leitmotifs from the film: those for Esther (or the love theme), friendship, and hatred.

Esther / Love Theme

This theme is a leitmotif for both Esther and the love between her and Judah Ben-Hur. It is first heard when Esther is introduced as she elegantly descends a staircase while Judah looks admiringly upon her. In this form, the theme has a warmly romantic feel with its scoring for strings, slow rhythmic motion, and emphasis on the positive sound of major chords, all of which confirm the deep-seated love Esther and Judah have for one another (hear up to 0:47):

Later in the film, when Judah finally returns home after four years, he awaits Esther’s arrival in the very room where they proclaimed their love for one another. Here, the love theme’s character takes on a more apprehensive and lonesome quality with the melody sounded delicately in the alto flute overtop of a light tremolo accompaniment in the strings, as though to suggest Judah’s fluttering heart as he wonders whether Esther still loves him. Although this scoring remains as Esther enters the room, upon her reminiscence to her and Judah’s loving goodbye with the line “but now it seems as if only yesterday…”, the theme becomes warmer and more sure-footed. The tremolo disappears and the scoring returns to the romantic strings, indicating not only that Esther’s feelings for Judah are as they were before he left, but also Judah’s comfort in hearing this reassuring news. Here are these versions of the theme:

Only minutes later, the conversation between Esther and Judah turns to Judah’s former friend Messala, now a commanding officer of the Roman legion who sent Judah to be a galley slave and apprehended his mother and sister. At this point, another altered form of the love theme enters, this time to suggest how Judah and Esther’s love will be negatively affected by Judah’s hatred of Messala. Just as Esther looks concernedly at Judah and is about to utter Messala’s name, we hear growling, dissonant chords in the brass, which suggest the hatred Esther knows Judah feels. Then a distinctive figure (musically speaking, a “turn” figure) from the love theme appears repeatedly overtop, even obsessively, as though Judah’s fixation on revenge will destroy his relationship with Esther. Also, these figures are accompanied by a slowly descending chromatic line, again implying the negative effects this emotion will have, and perhaps even Esther’s own “sinking feeling” about Judah’s hatred. This version of the theme occurs below:

The Friendship and Hatred Themes

Introduction of the Themes

These two themes and their transformations, particularly that of the friendship theme, musically describe the relationship between Judah and Messala and are given clear statements in their normal form before being transformed. At the start of the film, the two are delighted to revitalize their close friendship from childhood. The music here participates by announcing the friendship leitmotif, which is based almost entirely on the positive sound of major chords warmly scored in the sustained strings in a pleasing middle register:

Before long, however, Messala asks Judah to inform on any Jews who are opposed to the Roman Empire. When Judah refuses, Messala gives him an ultimatum: either he is for Messala or he is against him. After Judah is forced to admit, “if that is the choice, then I am against you,” we hear the hatred leitmotif, a theme that depicts this emotion through its dissonant harmony, dark colouring of the Phrygian mode, the melody’s low, sinister register in the cellos and basses, and the aggressive sound of muted trumpets in the accompaniment:

After the hatred theme is immediately repeated with the melody in the violins, Judah returns home to his mother and sister, and relays Messala’s attempt to extract the names of dissenters from him. At this point, the music wavers between the friendship and hatred themes. On the heels of the hatred theme, for example, the friendship theme reappears for two statements but now lacks its major-chord support, instead beginning with the dissonant interval of the tritone against the bass. Two statements of the hatred theme then return essentially in its original guise before yielding once more to the friendship theme, which is now harmonized with melancholic minor chords. Such quick alternations between the two themes, along with the transformation of the friendship theme, suggest an erratic emotional state in Judah, one in which his strong sense of friendship for Messala is being poisoned by his new-found hatred. Hear these versions of the themes below:

The Death of Messala

After the famous chariot race in which Messala is fatally injured while trying to sabotage Judah’s chariot, Judah comes to visit Messala on his death bed. While we might expect the hatred theme to accompany this scene, it is actually the friendship theme that makes an appearance. Indeed, when Messala says to Judah, “triumph complete, Judah. The race won. The enemy destroyed,” Judah replies “I see no enemy.” The use of the friendship theme accords with this magnanimous statement better than the hatred theme would have. Even so, the friendship theme is transformed by its slower tempo, its harmonization with funereal minor chords, and its scoring, which is now in the low register of the violins and violas, doubled by the cellos and basses, with sustained chords in the horns. Thus, in its scoring, the theme has taken on aspects of the hatred theme, suggesting the devastating toll the hatred between the two men has had on their friendship. Listen below:

The Crucifixion Scene

This scene presents the final transformations of the friendship and hatred themes in the film. As Christ is being nailed to and raised up on the cross, we hear the hatred theme. But when Judah enters the scene and beholds the crucifixion, we hear the same transformation of the friendship theme we heard with Messala’s death, but with one important change. This time, the tail end of the hatred theme is inserted as a repeating motif in the low trombones between the notes of the friendship theme. The use of these themes at all in this scene is surprising since Messala is no longer in the film at this point. It is possible, however, to hear the two themes as “broadening” in their associations, from the personal relationship of Judah and Messala to the relationship of Christ to the Romans and even humanity in general. The hatred theme, for example, can easily be understood as applying to the Romans and their hatred of Christ. Similarly, the transformed friendship theme could well represent the consequences Christ faces due to hatred of his teachings of a sort of friendship among all people, or more specifically, of a love and tolerance of others. At the same time, since Christ seeks to absolve the world of its sins through his own suffering and death, the simultaneous use of both themes in this scene suggests the toxic effect of hatred on the world’s friendships generally. This highly negative expression allows the “heavenly” Christ theme that ends the scene (and returns to end the film) to enter as though from the darkest of depths, the musical equivalent of a salvation. Hear the hatred theme, then its combination with the friendship theme below from 1:03:18:

Conclusion

Thematic transformation of leitmotifs was one of the central features of film scores in the Classical Hollywood style. Miklós Rózsa, who began scoring films in the Classical Hollywood era, continued to draw on many of these features into the post-Classical era (after 1950), thematic transformation being one example. Perhaps the greatest advantage of this technique is its ability to follow characters’ developments and clarify their changing emotional states throughout the course of a film. In Ben-Hur, the technique was particularly effective since it allowed for an enhanced understanding of Judah’s relationships to the two other characters with whom he interacts with the most—Esther and Messala.

Coming soon… Themes in Ennio Morricone’s Once Upon a Time in the West (Part 1 of 3)

Erich Korngold’s music for the The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) remains one of his most admired and enduring film scores. Indeed, the score was awarded the Oscar for Best Original Score and is one of the best examples of music written in the style of the studio era of the 1930s and 40s, or what is known as the Classical Hollywood era.

In large part, the filmmaking style of Classical Hollywood revolved around coordinating the filmic elements to present the narrative with as much clarity as possible. Film scores of the era aided in this goal through such techniques as leitmotifs (themes, especially for the principal characters), sudden loud chords at intense moments (known as “stingers”), and musical imitations of physical gestures onscreen (called “Mickey Mousing” for obvious reasons).

The leitmotif technique, however, does not consist merely of sounding the same form of a theme each time a character appears onscreen. On the contrary, over the course of a film, most leitmotifs undergo some kind of variation in order to reflect physical, psychological, or emotional changes of a character at various points in the narrative. When applied to places and objects, the variations might suggest a character’s reaction to the place or object, or may simply be a guide as to how the viewer ought to interpret a scene. This process, called thematic transformation, is an important part of how film music is used and certainly applies to Korngold’s Robin Hood, as shown in the following film music analysis of two of its most prominent leitmotifs, those for the Merry Men and Robin himself.

The Merry Men’s Leitmotif

Initial Form

This is the leitmotif we hear at the very start of the film over the main titles. Its setting as a march aptly depicts the military prowess of the merry men, and yet its jaunty major key simultaneously reflects the men’s cheerful spirit and depiction as the “good guys”.

Here it is in the main titles (up to 0:56):

Waltz

While this form of the leitmotif returns in the film when the men ambush Sir Guy and his party in Sherwood Forest, it is also subjected to some transformations. For example, when the men are preparing a grand feast on the spoils of the ambush, we now hear the Merry Men’s leitmotif in triple time as the introduction to a graceful waltz that suggests the celebratory atmosphere of the event:
 

Disguise

Later, the men approach Nottingham Castle disguised as the entourage of the Bishop of the Black Canons, who has been coerced into following Robin’s plan. Here, the Merry Men leitmotif appears in a threatening minor key to suggest the situation’s potential danger to the men. The leitmotif is also supported by the fifth note of the scale (the dominant) instead of the first note (the tonic) as it was at the film’s opening. This subtle change adds a sense of anticipation to the scene as dominants usually suggest that a resolution to the tonic is nearing with every passing beat. Hear these changes below:

Once the men are about to enter the castle’s interior, we hear the leitmotif once more in a minor key, but with yet another change: the melody is now pared down to a mere outline of the Merry Men tune. While it remains recognizable, its relationship to the original tune is somewhat hidden, just as the Merry Men themselves are in disguise in the scene. Hear this in the above clip from 1:53.

Robin’s Leitmotif

Initial Form

This theme undergoes several transformations throughout the film. The first time we hear it, it accompanies a close-up of Robin’s face, clearly associating that character with the music, as is typical of Classical Hollywood scores. Here is that version of the theme:
 

Heroic/Danger

When Robin first enters the castle, he is carrying on his shoulders a dead deer he took the blame for killing in order to save Much from being arrested by Sir Guy. Robin enters the room brazenly, knocking down two guards with the deer and leisurely sauntering in. At the same time, the situation is full of danger as he is completely surrounded by his enemies. This mixture of confidence and peril is indicated musically through the leitmotif’s militaristic opening figure (a rising fourth, suggesting something powerful) and through the unusual string of three chords that follows the figure (chromatic chords, suggesting the danger and precariousness of the situation), which are also given a confident, sure-footed rhythm. Here is that version of the theme:
 

Romantic Longing

Later in the film, as Robin and Marian develop their love for each other, Robin secretly scales the wall of the castle to Marian’s chamber to meet her and declare his love. As this scene begins, we hear Robin’s theme, but this time it is divested of its heroic quality. Instead we hear it played softly and lyrically in the strings, which lends it a romantic sound. Even more prominently, the harmony of the theme has now been transformed into a single chord, one that is much more dissonant than the heroic chords we heard before. This dissonant chord is called a half-diminished seventh chord and it’s one that became famous with the opening of the prelude to Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde. Because the chord has a mysterious quality and yet still requires some kind of resolution to its dissonance, it is a fitting musical symbol of Tristan and Isolde’s infinite yearning in their ill-fated romantic love. Here is the opening of the Tristan prelude, the half-diminished seventh chord entering at 0:10:

Now hear the same chord (though transposed) in Robin’s theme at the start of the love scene:

With the Tristan prelude as a conceptual backdrop, it becomes clear that the transformation of Robin’s theme indicates his romantic longing to be with Marian even in the face of great danger.

Triumph

A final transformation of Robin’s leitmotif occurs at the very end of the film, when Robin and the Merry Men have returned King Richard to the throne, been granted pardons from their accused crimes, and when Richard permits Robin and Marian to marry. For these triumphant events, Korngold scores Robin’s theme in the strings as in the love scene, emphasizing the romance of Robin and Marian in its new-found freedom. Korngold also uses mainly major and minor chords within a single key rather than the dissonant half-diminished seventh, suggesting the stability of the situation with Richard once again as king. As the film winds down to its close, and the crowd cheers Robin and Marian as they leave the room, we hear this same version of Robin’s theme but with the brass instruments added as a final gesture of triumph.

Thus, far from merely signalling the Merry Men’s and Robin’s presence onscreen, these two leitmotifs follow the characters through their adventures, mirroring their physical and emotional states through the process of thematic transformation.

Coming soon… Thematic Transformation in ­Ben-Hur