Prospero's Books
Analysis
Pam Harrison (Music and the Moving Image 1, Jan. 2000)
The music created for the film by Michael Nyman can be divided into two types:vocal settings of written text and atmospheric, mood-setting underscore. All the music is typical of the composer's style of minimalism. Nyman's original concept for the score was completely vocal in order to reflect his mis-remembered quote:
`The island is full of voices' (noises)
When he discovered his mistake, the score was changed to include instruments, but voices still play an important part. The songs of Ariel are performed by Sarah Leonard in a high soprano and mimed on film. The staging of the Masque becomes the opera of `The Tempest' that was never written, using three female singers to represent the gods Iris, Ceres and Juno. each singer also represents a different musical tradition; opera, cabaret and musical theatre. Overall, the music is written in Nyman's minimalist style using spare harmonies, doubling of parts and very high and low registers but with little middle filling.
Of the non-vocal pieces, in many cases he uses the string section as ostinati where repeated patterns: sometimes using two or three notes, sometimes using octaves, create the background over which melodies and/or chords are played. Typical of this style is the piece called `Miranda' in which the strings begin a repeated pattern in octaves and then a syncopated melody using four - five notes is layered on top.
Of the vocal pieces, the songs performed by Ariel form the majority, discounting the Masque. These are settings of text which appears in the play and are always performed by high soprano and mimed by one of the Ariel characters. The use of this vocal timbre matches the character's age (boy soprano) but also has an ethereal quality which matches the magical characteristics of Ariel. Often the songs are accompanied by spoken and/or written text which reinforces the message in the words. Sometimes the songs begin as unaccompanied solos but are usually eventually accompanied by simple string parts, for example, `Come unto these yellow sands' first entry at 0:30.20 when the voice bursts in after a crashing sound-effect followed by string accompaniment which begins quietly and becomes progressively more insistent.
Occasionally, the accompaniment alone is used to create the mood for certain scenes, for example, at 1:09.25 when the accompaniment to `While you here do snoring lie' is used to underscore the bringing of food for the survivors and to refer back to their previous state of sleep when the song was heard first.
In the Masque, three different styles of female singing are explored through the characters of Iris, Ceres and Juno. Iris (Marie Angel - soprano) begins in operatic style. Ceres (Ute Lemper - mezzo/alto) performs in cabaret style usually in slow tempo contrasting with that of Iris and Juno (Deborah Conway - soprano). Juno represents musical theatre style and is often accompanied by fast-moving string patterns or chords. The end of the Masque culminates in the trio singing together in harmony representing the harmonious nature of the sentiments being expressed in the scene i.e. the betrothal of Ferdinand and Miranda. Both the songs and the Masque have similarities in so far as they all are setting of pre-existing text and are used to enhance the description of the scene, to reinforce certain concepts eg. magical powers or, in the case of the Masque particularly, to advance the narrative.
The use of music in the particular scene chosen for detailed analysis - the penultimate scene of the film in which Prospero drowns his books - is atypical of that in the film as a whole since in this scene the music and sound-effects have a direct relationship with the action and dialogue taking place. In other scenes, the music serves mostly as underscore to create the mood and atmosphere of the situation but is rarely directly related to the action (except for the Masque which stands as a separate section in the film requiring different analytical treatment).
The instrumentation of the music in this scene is in some ways typical of that used throughout: `sawing' strings, particularly high violins, and stabbing brass section chords. The uniqueness of this music compared with that in the rest of the film is in the use of a synthesised sound on which the melody is performed. All the other pieces use conventional instruments or voices to interpret the melody line. The sound created to perform the task in this scene could be described as a cross between a high soprano voice and a musical saw. This choice could have been motivated by a wish to mark out this scene as different from the others since it marks the point at which the main character (Prospero) renounces his use of magic and reliance on his books which have helped him to create his present world. This changed is marked musically by a completely different sound timbre from any other used in the film.
The `sawing' strings provide a continuous ribbon of shimmering sound using simple chordal harmonies which provide interest to repeated melodic phrases. The stabbing brass section chords provide complete contrast to the shimmering strings and also refer the listener back to their use in earlier pieces (eg.History of Sycorax) where they denote particular evil doings.
In this scene, the brass chords seem to be used at random initially but become more insistent and frequent as the scene reaches its climax. They are also used closely with the sound-effects punctuating the actions of destruction taking place and may even be seen to become sonic anaphones when the dialogue is spoken and the sound-effects are lost.
The shape of the repeated melodic phrase may be seen as a kinetic anaphone as the rising and then falling of the tune to a held note could reflect the arcing and falling/floating of the books as they are thrown into the pool.
Eg.
The sound-effects are directly related to the activities on screen eg. splashing, burning, firework crackles etc. Of particular note is the `scream' at 1.05 as a picture of a child burns and the harmonious vocalisation at 1.23 when a book showing early musical notation is seen to burn.
The fact that the music and sound-effects fade out at the end is also significant as it denoted the fading away of Prospero's magical powers now that all his books (except those which he created) are destroyed.
The direct relationship between the music, action and sound-effects as detailed in the graphic score make this scene stand out from the rest of the film as one of the most realistic in an `unreal' film. The lavishness of the images in other scenes make the music less significant than it is in this narrative-based rather than concept-based scene. All these factors reinforce the overwhelming significance of the destruction of the books around which the whole film is based and which its title `Prospero's Books' celebrates.
Overall, the music created and used in this lush and sensuous interpretation of the text serves with its simple minimalist style to act as counterpoint to the images on screen and therefore throw both into contrasting relief.
Prospero's Books
`The Complete Works of William Shakespeare' ed.W.J.Craig, OUP 1964
`Prospero's Books a film of Shakespeare's The Tempest' by Peter Greenaway. Chatto and Windus London 1991
www.Prospero's Books.The far side of the mirror. 20.11.99