Film Music, Musicology and Semiotics: Analysing The Draughtsman's Contract

Abstract

This article is part of a developing argument towards a methodology of sound analysis centred upon creating a textual analysis framework that combines extant film theory and musicological techniques. This is an area into which more film theorists and musicologists are entering, as evidenced by the 2008 Screen Studies Conference with its focus on film sound and music, but is also one which many musical laypeople find difficult to navigate. The route towards analysing sound using these methods is paved, therefore, by the need to demonstrate how music theory can be made accessible and further the analysis of film music for film specialists, providing techniques and terminology which enable more precise ways to discuss the function of any given piece of music in a film. In this article I shall analyse a specific case study: Michael Nyman’s music for Peter Greenaway’s 1982 feature The Draughtsman’s Contract. The logic for analysing this film and its score is that it provides an example of a musical world fully integrated into the narrative of the film – something that characterises Nyman’s other earlier scores for Greenaway up to the 1988 film Drowning by Numbers. Before analysing the film, however, I shall discuss various approaches to film music, briefly examining the importance of understanding musical contexts and concepts, and considering the use of contemporary classical idioms in film music, specifically minimalism – of which Nyman is an exponent.