Mychael Danna: Music as Metaphor

Abstract

The essay uses Danna’s claim that a good film score asks more questions than it answers as a point of departure and argues that Danna’s approach functions like the literary metaphor, ‘a device which complicates the text in order to facilitate a reader’s understanding; each juxtaposition between music and image serves to complete a film’s tonal context and deepen the viewer’s awareness.’ Thus, in contrast to traditional film music, where the audience associates certain musical conventions with an exact genre, emotion or atmosphere (as a Pavlovian response), Danna creates meaning by suggestive juxtapositions which activate the audience by offering the unexpected. The essay demonstrates how instruments and ensembles from non-Western cultures are interwoven with orchestral elements in The Ice Storm (1997) and Life of Pi (2012), enlivening the interplay between music and image in ways that encourage the audience to reflect on the significance of the ‘dissonances’ between music and picture. But it also discusses Moneyball (2011) to show an approach where Danna uses a more traditional ensemble, the orchestra, in a reimagined way.