Existential soundtracks: Analysing semiotic meanings in minimalist and post-minimal music

Abstract

This chapter examines existential meanings in film, theatre and televisual advertising contexts, in which the music employed is predominantly based on minimalist and post-minimal characteristics. A range of case studies will be presented, and the chapter initially applies Eero Tarasti’s existential semiotic model to a car commercial that employs musical extracts from Michael Andrews’s soundtrack to Donnie Darko (2001), before analysing the recontextualised use of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians (1974-76) in a telecommunication commercial. The chapter subsequently proceeds to examine the music of Philip Glass as employed in film and theatrical contexts, principally the soundtrack to Godfrey Reggio’s Naqoyqasi (2002) and Glass’s collaboration with Leonard Cohen on the theatrical song-cycle Book of Longing (2007). In the former case study, references to the work of Karl Jaspers among others will be made, while the study of Book of Longing posits the work in the context of negation and affirmation, both in relation to the text and music. Finally, the soundtrack to the fantasy comic-book film Watchmen (2009) is discussed, which employs extracts from Glass’s Koyaanisqatsi (1982); the chapter examines how the original meaning of the music is preserved, albeit partly, within its new context. In conclusion, a summary of some of the main features of the music is discussed in relation to the notion of existentialism and the cinematic, televisual and theatrical contexts in which the music is heard.