Settle the Score - Ghostbusters by Elmer Bernstein

Hello, and welcome to my new recurring series! In “Settle the Score,” I’ll be listening to and reviewing movie scores of the past and present. But first, a little primer.

Unlike a Motion Picture Soundtrack, which are compilations of existing or newly produced songs “from or inspired by” a movie, Original Movie Scores are composed and performed by an orchestra to play along with a movie, adding dramatic, suspenseful, romantic, dangerous, scary, and much more effect for the viewer. In my opinion, without scores movies would be quite flat – just a bunch of people talking and maybe a random explosion or car chase out of nowhere. As a classically trained musician through primary and secondary schooling, music is a huge part of my appreciation of the numerous movies I was raised on – and that’s something I’ve taken into my professional life, as well as my art. This recurring series will not be for the laymen. Period. So we need to get on the same page before I can move on to the topic. That said, I have a bone to pick before we get started on our selection…

Let me set one thing straight. Basically, the general term “theme” is tossed around mindlessly and interchangeably for multiple individual parts of musical composition by people who either can’t or choose not to do a little digging to actually say exactly what they mean; they say “theme” when they actually mean “motif” or “title song.” (I’ll get to these EXTREME differences in just a second…) “Theme music” is actually defined as a piece written specifically for a radio or television program, game, or movie, played during the title sequence or intro and/or end credits. Now, with a definition like that you can see why the term is used as a general category, because it can be relatively easy to confuse this term by simply forgetting it’s primary aspect. When you hear the same notes from the theme at the beginning of your movie later on in the movie itself, that’s not the theme! Further, a “theme song” is theme music with lyrics; a “title song” is a theme song named for the title of the work (think James Bond); and a “signature song” is one or a few songs that a popular/well-established singer or band is most closely identified with or best-known for – which really isn’t related to movie scores at all! Got all of that so far? Then let’s get to my point so we can move on.

What the laymen music reviewer actually means when they say “theme” is often one of two different somewhat-related terms; motif and leitmotif. But what are they, and if they’re different, how? Well, a motif is a short musical idea, recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes; to give the best example, think the four-note figure from Beethoven’s 5^th Symphony, or the ten-note “Curse” phrase often used in early horror and cartoons where the character is tiptoeing around in a haunted house. Now, a leitmotif is a short, constantly recurring music phrase associated with a particular person, place or idea (also related to musical terms idée fixe and motto-theme). Literally translated from German, this term means “leading motif,” but can be more accurately translated as “guiding motif” as its recurrence brings the listener as well as the music in the direction of intended flow by its repeated presence. Your best examples are as numerous as there are stars in the night sky! There are hundreds of leitmotifs throughout Howard Shore’s scores for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies - the easiest to identify here is the eight-note figure for The One Ring, or the “Empire March” every time Darth Vader appears on screen in the original Star Wars trilogy. Hopefully you’re with me on this now, so this concludes your music theory lesson for this week. My apologies for the mini-rant there, now on to what we are really here for!

Even after 30 years, "Bustin' makes me feel good!" 

Celebrating the 30^th anniversary of the release of arguably one of THE greatest movies of all time, cinemas nationwide have re-released Ghostbusters in an updated high definition format for one week only, starting August 29, 2014! This movie is near and dear to many of us at NGP, so this is a perfect opportunity to showcase its brilliance, and focus on one of its lesser-celebrated aspects – Elmer Bernstein’s ethereal score.

Who you gonna call?

Bernstein’s score has a few motifs that run throughout that almost serialize what’s happening on screen. From the lighthearted first track of the score, “Ghostbusters Theme” that it's bits can be heard often throughout the score in various iterations, the triumphant yet 80’s-cheesy infomercial-esque “We Got One!” (which also features the three-bar phrase from “Ghostbusters Theme”), to 5-note medium fanfare used to showcase Gozer in the track “Cross Rip,” and the eerie warbles used for any ghosts or paranormal elements. Flowing into tracks like "Venkman" and "Dana's Theme" we hear strings and woodwinds playing light, airy phrases the likes of suites we've come to expect to be penned by Vivaldi, Stravinsky, and Holst. But there's something more to be heard in these tracks, something that gives the listener the feeling for something…spooky, but what is it?

I was interested to find out how Bernstein was able to create most of the droning and warbling, oscillating sounds in this score, and was surprised to find that it wasn’t created the way I anticipated! Sounding similar to a Theremin, (think original series Star Trek theme music) in which the player (a thereminist) controls oscillations by varying the position of their hands over vertical (frequency) and horizontal (amplitude) antennae simultaneously, Bernstein actually used a far-lesser known instrument, the Ondes Martenot. The original electronic musical instrument, the Ondes is sort of like a pre-electric keyboard-type mini-organ in which the musician can vary tones, sustains, and create eerie effects by pressing on pedals, moving sliders and pressing the large button on an on-board modulator, while sliding a strange metal ring over oscillation tubes; all of which alter not only tonal pitches but pitch frequencies and oscillations as well. It’s pretty cool, and a shame that "Ondests" don't see much use today’s modern computer controlled and mixed sound effects engines in music production.

Leon Theremin's instrument

Playing the Ondes Martenot

The score for Ghostbusters ranges from light-hearted and whimsical to eerie and foreboding in an instant and back again, much the same way as the movie does, and is just as entertaining by itself as the movie is on the silver screen. Elmer Bernstein truly knocked this one out and made a score just as memorable as the movie it was written for! I highly recommend adding this score to your immediate download queue as soon as you can.

I'll wrap this article up right there! Let me know how you like the score (whether it's your first listen or hundredth), or if you have a suggestion for a movie score I should review in the future  down in the comments below. Thanks for reading!

=Opaque=