Tuesday, June 15, 2010

JAWS underscore cues and source music

Jaws  Music Cues

Students, you can't study an underscore unless you familiarize yourselves with the themes and cues ahead of time. Go here (suite), or here (main title by itself). Or play consoles, below.
    Especially important, of course, is the main shark theme, a two-note motif played in accelerated tempo, usually in counterpoint with a three-note French horn motif.
    As a deliberate choice by composer John Williams this theme is heard only when the real (not a fake) shark appears or is present, though not always heard when the real shark is present. In one instance, for example, when Brody, on the boat, sees the shark unexpectedly, a stinger is used instead of the shark theme, which follows only after the stinger.
    Source music is also important in the fim, namely the two sea shanties ("Show Me the Way to Go Home" and "Farewell and Adieu Ye Fair Spanish Ladies") that develop the film's themes.
    In terms of editing, note the intercutting on the first song and the use of POV sound and camera, that is, from the point of view of the shark. Thematically the song develops the theme of regressive comfort: the childish comfort of home, safety, domesticity, which the  three male characters fight against in an attempt to heal their (sexual) wounds.
    The second song is associated with Quint and suggests a disturbed sexual subtext (flight from women).


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