Let the video play while you read the post!
What is there to say about "Hush" that has not already been said? There are creepy guys that float around and make other guys quiet. It's brilliant or something. Emmy? Didn't win, but it was nominated. That's something. The humor was strong and people laughed and/or giggled.
So I shall talk about something new ... Music!
It's easy to forget about composers of normal TV shows because the music is not what is made to stand out during normal episodes. Sure, there are "tunes" during the opening and ending of most shows, but they are constant and expected. The opening theme for Buffy, for example, is entirely appropriate and entirely dull.
The music during "Hush," however, is something a bit different. Since the speakers are silent, the music and sound during the episode become a character unto themselves. This is particularly noticeable during the part of the episode where the individuals on campus are just beginning to learn of their loss of speech. The room is filled with silently sobbing students when a bowl is shattered on the ground. The sound of the breaking is magnified purposefully in order to present a contrast from what is expected.
The music of the episode turns into a character because of the destruction of the other characters as vessels of sound. The music from the video tells the story of the final battle of the episode without having to even watch it.
Another song used in the episode is the "Danse Macabre," a famous tune that illuminates the story that Giles is telling during the projector scene. Here is another video with that song:
As you can see from the video, the music is able to tell a story without words. It's a little amateurish, sure, but it is still an excellent example of how music can create and supplement a narrative.
This definitely supports the idea that "Hush" is paying homage to the silent film era where music was used as an overlay for the still silent films of the time.
Insert clever ending sentence or phrase here.
2 comments:
The Danse Macabre made me think of Fantasia and what animation can do to music. How on a reverse note how a story can be told by music.
Then I read a pretty interesting review of Fantasia 2000 talking about the history of Fantasia which was considered a Folly on Disney's part. It was an attempt to associate Mickey Mouse with high art. Some considered Micky mouse to dowdy to be in line with the likes of the composers in the movie.
From the article/review
"Okay, yes, the notion that Beethoven, Bach, or Stravinsky could ever be "improved upon" by serving as background music to paradiddling nymphs, pastel ice cream cumulonimbi, and a time-lapse depiction of the Earth's creation may seem just a touch megalomaniacal. One naturally reasons that it's one thing to turn stories intended for children into movies primarily aimed at, well, children (and maybe more than just a few regressive adults); it's something else to infantilize the complexities of sophisticated symphonic music. But I would call that characterization of Fantasia unfair. Disney pretty clearly stepped outside of his comfort zone at this early point in his career, and if the film's rewards are uneven compared to the mastery of the form represented in his concurrent production Pinocchio, his ambition can not, in this case, be faulted. (Talk about ambition. Disney's original intention was to revise Fantasia on a semi-annual basis, to develop dozens of other segments and send the pieces out in reconfigured form, until poor box office returns scuttled those plans. It could've been the only Disney film with a repertoire.)"
From: http://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/review/fantasia-fantasia-2000/1883
After careful consideration, I must concur with your assertion that the music in Hush becomes an important 'character" - I had not thought of it quite that way!
I am curious, however, why you feel that the sounds were "magnified purposefully" in the scene revealing the loss of voice? Personally, I have noticed that sound are not so much amplified as ... well, it is because of the surrounding silence that they seem amplified. Therefore, I feel that the sound of the bowl shattering is not so much purposefully amplified (though, technically and technologically speaking, I'm sure there was some toying with the sound recording) as purposefully emphasized to draw unwavering attention to the lack of all other meaningful sounds of communication.
I see the appearance of sound amplification as a clever trick to conjure up how our own minds will magnify sounds when in a heightened emotional state, such as fear.
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