Welcome back to Scoring for Films and welcome back to "What lies Beneath." I am always Vito Lo Re and here I always have Fabrizio Campanelli. So Fabri, what movie are we talking about today? What if I show you this photo?.. Look, if you show me this photo even if I didn't know what movie we're talking about today it would immediately come to me... A costume film?... No, no, no.
A film about design? Antiques?.. No, no, no, no, no. A film that also talks about anatomy, in a certain sense. A film that has become famous for many reasons, among which the fact that it was a great film, which had a great soundtrack and also for the skill of the actors. of the actors.
And so we are talking about... 1992, the movie is "Basic Instinct," a truly epochal film that set a precedent for many reasons, but, as almost always happens, behind a great film, there is a great soundtrack. And this case is no exception. Indeed we find Goldsmith in one of his finest scores, not only of his career but also of the entire film industry. Here is a Goldsmith who was over 60 years old, thus at the peak of his career and despite the composer's skills, his vast experience and having already worked with Paul Verhoeven, the genesis was not exactly easy. The genesis was difficult because the journey was very troubled especially in the relation with director Verhoeven, because the theme did not come out instinctively and easily.
It took some time, he presented the first draft of a hypothetical theme and Verhoeven doesn't like it. And Goldsmith, as we always do in these situations, said... "Don't worry. Give me... two weeks..." Actually two weeks turned into two months. Two months in which he confidently presents the new theme and Verhoeven said...
No. Especially for young composers: this is a common dynamic at all levels: the director may not be satisfied and makes you produce a huge number of musical proposals. This curious aspect of the relationship between composer and director, between creativity and the direction that one's artistic creativity must take, is incredibly common at any level. Whether you are an amateur, or a pro whether you're an Oscar winner, the relationship that exists between director and composer who must present their creation is always a challenging moment for everyone. Thomas Newman says it, Goldsmith as well. Desplat says it.
So after these two months he's back to square one, with even some doubts about his own ability to express the right things. Or at least to understand what the director wants. Or even to always be at a high level. Because each of us also tries to think of doing something that is, not necessarily better than the last attempt, but at least as good as the last. At some point again Goldsmith proposes a theme. And still, it's not quite right.
But Verhoeven finds among other things that were prepared, in other demos, something to edit and so tries to edit it. And it doesn't look bad, he said: "This could be the right mood." That will be the basis on which Goldsmith will build the famous theme. I had read an interview to Goldsmith and he he said that the problem, at least in his view of a thriller film - perhaps also due to a simple generational issue - was that in this film there was action, there were many sex scenes, there was obviously the thriller aspect, but not absolutely anything sentimental. This thing - in his view - was an issue for he said he couldn't find the sentimental key in this film, simply because there wasn't a sentimental key. And this had somewhat destabilized him. Because he hadn't yet landed on the key element in tjhso film, that is seduction which the director was asking for.
He would say later: "I was looking for music that expressed the ambiguous, the ambivalent, the seductive, which did not reveal nothing and that gave an idea of the hypothetical killer. Hypothetically there are three women they were not supposed to have any diabolical aspect. Since music set the character's profile, he was looking for seduction and danger. A few episodes ago, we discussed the function of the semitone, which is widely used in thrillers, and you added also in seduction. So in this film, it completes the circle because the semitone is one of the key elements in our perception of sinuosity, because the interval is small, of danger, because it is an interval that does not take a clear position and therefore takes a mediated position and that allows us to draw in our minds almost circular arcs, or at least semi-circular arcs, and this symbolically leads us towards curves. This is something we will also see at a phonetic level, at a linguistic level, transmitted even through the simple sound of one word rather than another.
The instruments - as we have seen in previous episodes - are no exception, their timbre communicates and so what better than the woods to communicate. We saw this in Mission Impossible, the danger, the semitone, the woods and here again the woods are protagonists of a theme that identifies the danger and the dualism of love-death. Moreover, eroticism was also one of the dangerous elements for the production in San Francisco; the film was shot in San Francisco where Hitchcock's Vertigo was filmed. Verhoeven was in love with Hitchcock and Vertigo, but San Francisco historically has always had a significant gay community, very strong, which protested; they tried to boycott the movie in all ways, after having had some revelations of the script, they tried to boycott the film because they were tired of seeing the homosexual figure associated with the killer in Hollywood movies at the time. This led to teh project of including lesbian scenes to balance things out. Then, after various adventures, they returned to reasonableness, the screeplay writer came back on board and the film was made.
And now we will immediately start with the "Main title" of the film to see what lies beneath this masterpiece. Here is our fantastic masterpiece based on Violas and Harp and here are the woods working in semitones. The theme has peculiarities that we will now analyze in detail. In this score that is scrolling, we have grouped the first and second violins on a single staff. But we didn't do it to save space, actually because it's typical of the writing of this soundtrack that first and second violins often play almost the same part. Look at here: F sharp and A; usually the A is played by the first violins and the F sharp by the second violins.
Instead, in this score the first violins have F and A, and the seconds had F and A. So the same identical part. And this obviously allows, from a sound perspective, to have a much more homogeneous sound, right? A sound that covers a more significant part of the sound front. Now, some orchestration elements. Violins used with mutes, something that Hermann did a lot in Vertigo, The mute is applied to the string instruments.
It serves not only to give a less loud sound, but to change the timbre entirely. The timbre becomes much more silky, a bit hollow, more mysterious. But what do we see? We already see an element that will represent the dualism and the relationship between two in this dangerous game tied to seduction and therefore to the sinuosity of the woods. We see the figure presenting itself already here in bar 3. The clarinet plays the theme to which the strings respond.
Yes, because in the end the phrase is unique. However, the first part is played by the woods. The second part, as if it were an answer, but within the same phrase, is played by the violins. So it already gives you the idea of duality, of the two souls, of the meeting and the clash. We have a meeting dictated by both participating in the same design, the same theme. A clash arising from the fact that it is a question and an answer; a chase and a welcome.
It's also a breath. We have an arc that is circular, which also leads us to instinctively represent what a breath is. Another thing we can notice, typical of thriller film writing, particularly of Hermann, is composing by thirds. Quite often, the harmony starts from a key - in this case we are in D minor but notice there is nothing in the key. Then it moves a third up, to F-sharp minor. Then back to D minor, F-sharp, A minor, another third up.
And this is typical thriller language, this working by thirds with distant keys. There is also another very important thing that Goldsmith does, that all composers do instinctively: playing with themselves and therefore playing with the listener. How? By playing with their own expectations. The expectations that our brain generates at every point in the progression of what is being heard. Moreover, our Goldsmith was born a few years after the foundation of that branch of psychology that studied perception and the perceptive ways of our mind called "Gestalt Psychology" or "Psychology of form", which Köhler, with Koffka and Wertheimer, founded to discover how our mind organizes and structures perception.
What do they discover? Something that we will also explore further, because it is closely related not only to the visual field, but also to the auditory. There are principles on which our perception is based, that are common to everyone. In this case, principles related with form, in the way, for example, we are used to recognizing human figures or at least known and familiar shapes in certain forms, we are used to grouping elements in one way rather than another, we are used to closing the form. For example, a circle that is broken in half, we perceive it as a whole circle, but in the end, who tells us that it is a whole circle? We perceive it that way, just as our brain generates expectations when it listens to a succession of sounds.
The clarinet theme draws a melodic path that structures our expectations in our brain, with the path starting to move. So from F-A, the chromatic descent, the ascent leads us to expect F-sharp-A. Now we have two options: the first is to meet our brain's expectations or to betray it. And what does Goldsmith do here? He does something halfway, that is, he satisfies you and says: "I give you what you want." The theme has started, we hear it, and now what does our brain expect? What will come; but it doesn't come - as you said before - from the clarinet itself; it comes from the strings' response.
And it arrives on a chord that is not close to the starting harmony, it is quite different. But it is anchored to the starting one, because there is a common note, in this case the A. The A acts as a pivot so we do not leave the world from which we started, but shift the perspective. Yes, this is another thing often used in thrillers: using distant keys - in this case D minor and F-sharp minor - but with a common note that doesn't make them too distant. Another thing I wanted to point out is the use of synthesizers here, all those that were popular in the '90s, Korgs, Yamahas but Goldsmith uses synthesizers always and exclusively for timbre, never thematically: there will never be something done only by synths in this score; it is always something that doubles, as in this case the clarinets are doubled by the synth, to achieve a more captivating sound. And let's also remember that, like Williams, he also plays everything together, so along with the orchestra the synths play as well, which we see in the score.
However, unlike Williams - we will see this better when we see the scene with the dialogue - the dialogues are treated differently, that is, while we have seen in Williams' episodes that he does not simply keep dynamincs low. In this case, Goldsmith does, and so - not so much in this piece, which is the opening titles - but particularly we will see later in the dialogue, he always keeps dynamics that at most reach mezzo forte. We have reached the first exposition of the theme, it has installed in our mind a setup, a very strong theme. Our minds have perceived it, Gestalt psychology tells us that it has framed it perfectly. Here we have another response. Again, we have a middle ground between satisfaction and frustration, okay?
What Meyer specifically calls "affective reactions". Here Goldsmith gives us back what we want to hear; we liked it, we liked it a lot and we want to hear it again! He gives it back to us but his solution - the one entrusted to the violins as a response - is not the same as before: it is a third higher. So we have an affirmation and a response; then we have the same affirmation as before that should lead us to the same response as before, but the response is different but not too much. We are still in the same key area and we see below the harp conducting a motion that keeps everything pulsing alive along with the movement of the violas: the emgine of the piece on which the theme's designs move; and so the characters move; it is as if the scene were created by harp and violas and in this scene our characters act and we note that the double bass marks us with the strength of the tonic D but above the cello with that A and F places the chord with the third on top. Yes, generally the broad placement of the chord is used in a higher range than this; doing it at this octave has a very full sound and it reminds me of what we were saying before - while preparing the episode - how well this score is written!
Every note is in the right place. Moving forward, we notice what we mentioned earlier that the harmonic path moves a lot by thirds, even here we move from E minor to G minor. Here there is an augmented fifth. I would like to point out the spectacularity even of just the harp arpeggio in this bar. We can consider it a B-flat with the augmented fifth also in the bass or we can see it individually because it has a particularity. Let's stop on this chord and see it on the sequencer.
I'm loading the sample of the harp, which is our "Glissando Harp" by Chocolate Audio. Let's hear it alone. Even if I played this arpeggio with nothing before and nothing after, I would already have the idea of mystery, danger, and fascination. This harp arpeggio we can also see it built on the famous whole-tone scale used by many composers: Scriabin, Debussy, Bartok, Stravinsky. Goldsmith knew this music well, it was part of his musical background. Let's return to our theme: we are back momentarily in F-sharp minor and the woods - with chromaticisms - make us descend again to C-sharp major but in the first inversion with the response from the violins resolving the tension from A to G-sharp.
And I point out that we moved from F-sharp minor by semitone with the bass F-sharp minor, E-sharp, E natural, D-sharp, D natural, C-sharp; we moved with the bass through the whole semitone scale and finally returned to our D minor; here resumes the initial theme, almost identical but with the addition of the piano, also here in an exclusively timbral and not thematic role. We are in the re-presentation of the initial question and answer theme that gives us the certainty that we will face a game for two: the game of danger and seduction that ends here this long held E. This is one of Goldsmith's best compositions; it took some time, but it was worth the wait! He thought it would be two weeks... of complete rest, but we are happy. And we are also happy that Verhoeven was not satisfied.
Now let's look at another famous scene, the one where poor Nick asks Catherine Tramell to come to the station and spies on her while she dresses. Then they go by car in a famous scene where Catherine's provocations increase. The name of the track is "I don't smoke". She asks to put on something more appropriate. Here returns the dualism you mentioned earlier: cellos on one side - the masculine side - with violins instead providing the response and representing the feminine side. The whole theme of the film is distributed in this way, in this dialogue between the tenor part and the feminine part and the cellos in this case are the tenor voice par excellence, they are Nick in this case, Nick's anxieties increasing with this beautiful cello arpeggio.
Let's also show where these scores come from. We took and recommend to anyone interested in having the original score, this edition by Omni Music Publishing. Let's clarify that we are not affiliated and they are not paying us for advertising, but it is an excellent edition of this and many other films that we recommend. After this beautiful entrance of the cellos and the responses of the violins at a moment... Sorry to interrupt, but you see: the 5/4 bars with the extra 1/4 to give him one voice and her another voice, so this extra quarter note is only for sync issues. We arrive at a point that drives me crazy.
It's when he looks at the newspaper, I bet. Here, tension is created with this spectacular design of violas and clarinets. Let's stop for a second and look at it closely because here we have this F in the double basses and cellos creating the "bed". We have changed harmony compared to the beginning. It's a sort of A minor, then G, D, then F. This F signals the surprise that Nick feels reading what's in the newspaper and the anxiety obviously tied to the held note, which is also synonymous with death.
Death as an absence of life, as an absence of differentiation. It's the flat line. of the electroencephalogram. Above which we have a beautiful movement of muted violas and clarinets. This. This is the peak of the chord's indefiniteness.
Do you remember "Vertigo"? I do. Here it is, vertigo. Yes, this is a chord that we could evaluate as an F minor 79, but in reality, it doesn't make any sense because we have... There would be E-flat, then there is D-sharp that goes to E natural, with G below moving to A-flat. Then there's the vibraphone that plays the whole chord, but together, not arpeggiated.
But we are not interested in that, we are interested in the result. Ah, here, this descending chromaticism brings another harmonic change, a change in Nick who starts spying. And when Nick spies, the synthesizer starts moving in the higher part and a new chapter of the musical story unfolds. This is the first time she throws the bait, so to speak. It is the beginning of the end! I realize that in this scene, no one cares about what is being said.
But look at these beautiful violas with the tenuto that create... that sense of anxiety, that sense of tension that no one listens to because everyone is looking at Sharon Stone. But actually, Goldsmith is communicating to us on an unconscious level the tension of desire, which pushes us, it attracts us, trying to draw us closer. But, behind the glass, the synthesizers which, not by chance, have quite a "glassy" sound. That type of synthesization that is ethereal. Let's see it on the sequencer.
We have transcribed the score with virtual instruments, the strings distributed on the Opus, we entrusted the woodwinds to an instrument that I find beautiful, which are the Swam. Moreover, these instruments - the Swam - I adore because they are not samples, so they are not recordings of instruments played note by note: they are the reproduction of the physical model underlying the sound generation of an instrument, in this case, clarinets. The violins are in fuchsia, the violas are in green, the cellos in red and the double basses in light blue. Here you see the dissonance and that sense of vertigo, also created by the same movement of the violas with that held G of the clarinets. The clarinet has the held G and, on the same octave, the violas play G-A-flat. And then they drop...
here. Here Nick is watching her through the glass. Here the synthesizers appear which we recreated with a virtual instrument called Serum in blue-violet, a synthesizer that I like a lot. We searched for something that wasn't exactly teh same, but created the idea of that "glassiness" which is important to evaluate not so much alone, but always in the general ensemble. Because there can be a sound that maybe isn't so beautiful to hear alone, but in the general ensemble. It's what I said earlier, that all his use of the synths in this soundtrack never has anything thematic, but are always within, they are an important ingredient for the final recipe.
Let's hear just the string movement without the synth, let's see what happens. Here are the famous violas that no one cares about! Now let's try turning on our synthesizer and see the effect. We hear this glow, this brightness on high. This movement is Catherine singing like a mermaid to our poor Nick/Ulysses. Unlike Ulysses, however, he didn't tie himself up, so he falls for it.
The double bass always oscillates between the pizzicato note and the same note an octave lower with the bow, so it is again like the obsessiveness of this question and answer, of this relationship between Nick and Catherine where the pizzicato E follows a held response. This creates even more that dual movement which corresponds to the first true meeting between Nick and Catherine in erotic terms, in seductive terms, in those terms that were perfectly anticipated, set up, and signaled in the film's introduction, in the beautiful "Main title". I would say that for the first part of Basic Instinct, this is interesting, isn't it? Yes, because then we will also see the famous scene that maybe everyone expected in this episode. But we played a little trick on them, and if they want to see it, they'll have to watch the next episode, so... Jokes aside, the scene in the film is further along, we followed a chronological order and also a philological order, because in this case, we remember the "Main title", which really lays the foundation for everything that will come after.
You just have to wait for the next episode, always on Thursday with the second part of "What Lies Beneath". Bye! Don't miss it!