Harmony and tonality in film music
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Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can explain how harmony and tonality help shape films and have reharmonised a melody.
Key learning points
- Harmony and tonality have a significant impact on the mood of film music.
- Composers use atonal, diatonic (major or minor) or modal tonality to create different moods.
- The choice of chords and use of chromatic harmony are also important for creating the correct emotions for the scene.
- Reharmonising a melody, by changing the harmony, is an effective way to develop a melodic idea in a film.
Keywords
Tonality - the set of notes that a piece is based on (e.g. major, minor, atonal)
Diatonic - music that uses only notes from within a key
Chromatic - music that uses some notes from outside of the key
Modal - music based on a mode, a type of scale different from major and minor scales
Reharmonisation - when a composer keeps a melody the same but changes the harmony
Common misconception
Chromatic and atonal are the same thing.
Atonal music sounds chromatic, because there is no clear tonal centre. However, chromatic music isn't necessarily atonal - a piece can be in a key, but use chromatic notes from outside of it.
Teacher tip
Encourage confident pupils to explore their reharmonisation of the melody using extended chords. They should experiment creating their own 4- or 5-note chords to reharmonise the melody with more complexity.
Equipment
DAW, notation software, keyboard or other suitable instrument as a composition tool
Licence
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