cluster chords/found sounds

To compose for suspense and horror scenes, you need to think carefully about what kind of feeling you want the audience to have.  And how might you achieve that?

When Bernard Hermann first started writing the music for Psycho, Hitchcock requested a jazz score, with no music in the (now famous) shower scene.  Hermann thought that an orchestral, dissonant score would be far more effective. Do you agree?

Another useful technique is cluster chords, or 'tone clusters'. This is the term for a collection of at least 3 neighbouring semitones being played at the same time i.e, D, C sharp and C or A, Bflat and B. Giorgy Ligeti pioneered this technique in his score for Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odessey.

In the film, it accompanies scenes of open space, suggesting fear, being lost and perhaps claustrophobia.

However, sometimes less is more in film music. The use of 'found sounds' and minimalist techniques have been widely used by composers such as John Cage, Basil Kerchin and Alfred Schnittke. Found Sounds, such as clanking, scraping, dragging, can be very abrasive and un-nerving. John cage does this especially well in his piece, 'The Root of an Unfocus' which was used in the sound track to Scorcese's 'Shutter Island'. It appears at the start of a nightmare scene.





Found sounds are non-musical sounds such as breaking glass, environmental sounds or running water that can be used in music. They can be used either as they are or you can process them by adding effects, cutting, looping or reversing.

here are some examples

TASK: 

LISTEN: Look around you and listen. What does your environment sound like? If you have access to the outside, go out and listen (or open a window). 

PLAY: Do you have any interesting objects that you can make sounds out of?

CAPTURE: Record these sounds (as you did for Tom & Jerry) and create a sample kit of your sounds

CREATE: try using these sounds (environmental and found) to write a track

It can be frustrating if you don't have access to instruments at home but music is sound so you can create your own! The music that you create will be completely original - no one else will be using these sounds. The limitations can also actually become opportunities and help you creatively.




KEY TERMINOLOGY: 'Consonance', 'dissonance', cluster chord', 'minimalism', 'found sound'.